End of a Journey

WOW! Where has the last four years gone? It is crazy to be done and now having to go out into the world and find a job. Its been a great four years. I have met great people, made new friends and learned lots about myself and my soon to be career. It has also been a rough four years with the stress of homework, financial problems and car problems. All I can say is I have gone through three cars in my four years of University. However, I was able to overcome every obstacle that came my way and it has made me a stronger person today. Looking back at the last four years I have come so far and I am proud to say that I have successfully graduated from University and I am now the first in my family with a University degree! The next stress in my life is now to find a job so I can pay off this nasty debt I am about to encounter. I do not like the waiting game as it gets me so worked up and nervous about if my plans will work or if it will fall through and I need to come up with a new plan. So, here is to the future ahead, may it lead to great things!

Education and Technology

As our class and semester comes to an end, it is now time to think of the future. I found a quote that was sort of inspiring to me.

“Technology can become the “wings” that will allow the educational world to fly farther and faster than ever before– if we will allow it”      –Jenny Arledge–

I thought this quote explains perfectly what students and the class can do when the teacher provides technology in the classroom. We can interact and bring the world to the classroom as students learn about more than their own country, but other countries from other students. Bringing the world to the classroom is easier and faster now with many different tools like Skype and Twitter. This quote could almost be a tagline for this class and what Alec was trying to instill in us as future educators. It is a quote I will keep close by to remind me of the potential I could be bringing to the classroom and the many fun and learning experiences my class could be having.

Social Media and Newspapers

As an educator, we are encouraged to use social media for positive things like connecting with other teachers and students around the world as well as teach our students about social media. What is interesting is journalists and reporters are refrained to use social media for personal use, but can be used for professional use. In an article it goes on about a policy where reporters and journalists cannot talk about articles that are being worked on, comment on certain things, bad mouth co-workers (which is understandable) or anyone who is a potential source for the paper. It is interesting to see two different career jobs that have two totally different views from each other. As teachers, we are free to use social media to connect with others as long as their pages are clean, appropriate and not viewed by present students. Whereas, journalists and reporters are very limited in what they can do with their social media use especially when it comes to personal use. If you want to learn more, you can read the article as it is interesting to see the many boundaries that reporters have when it comes to this subject.

Terror in Brazil

I came across this article on thursday and was overwhelmed with a flutter of emotions. The article is about a shooting that happened in a elementary school in Brazil! An elementary school of all places! I have always heard about shootings in Universities and High schools but never an elementary school. I felt sad and shocked when I first saw the headline and nearly cried when reading the article about the 10 girls and 2 boys who were killed at a young age for no reason. I have no way to comprehend why this twenty five year old would want to kill innocent children. I also came to think about if this ever happened in Canada in the school I am teaching at. It’s just a scary thought that schools are now becoming or seeming to become a dangerous place to work and learn which is scary. Schools are supposed to be a safe environment where everyone can learn and be safe. It just breaks my heart to read stories like this and comprehend the reasons for this violent act.

Here is a youtube video that tells about the shooting:

Tech Task #10- Digital Identity

Image found here

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Identity is how people see you on the internet and the activities you do whether it be twitter, facebook, myspace and so on. Some people take responsibility for their digital identities while others put things on the net that ruin their identities.

Last week, we had Alec’s brother come in and talk to us about what principals and administrators look for when hiring teachers. Like we have been told before, they tend to look for your digital identities on the net which would include Facebook, myspace, and Twitter. If there are inappropriate things on those websites about you then you get passed over for the job. Many teachers have been already fired because of pictures on their Facebook. One teacher, Ashley Payne, was fired for some pictures that she had posted on her facebook profile. The picture below is one of the particular pictures that she was fired for. She claims that she was not intoxicated and was enjoying a drink like every other adult. However, the school saw it differently and she was asked to step down. As a soon to be teacher, I have to be aware of the pictures that are on Facebook of me and make sure they are appropriate. I also have to let my friends and family aware of this so pictures that I do not want up there end up there. I actually just finished deleting some pictures off of my profile on Facebook that I thought were too inappropriate or would not pass by a principal or administrator.

Another thing to think about is to watch how you act at school because one wrong decision and your identity could be ruined by a video that went viral. An example of what I mean is the teachers from Winnipeg who decided to do a lap dance in front of all the students at a pep rally. This got out by students recording this on their phones and then uploading it to youtube. These teachers received the consequences and will forever have this digital identity of the Winnipeg teachers who did a lap dance at pep rally. Teachers, and it is stressed now in University, to be careful what you post whether it be photos, comments or videos.

When teaching, we have to teach students about digital identity and how to make their digital identity appropriate and responsible. We can teach these students by teaching what is appropriate to put on the net. They need to watch what videos are put up of them as well as photos and the comments they make. They, as well, need to watch what they say on a video. The last thing they need to have is the digital identity that the UCLA racist girl now has. This girl will forever be known as the UCLA racist girl because she made the wrong decisions and decided to voice her opinion on a video that went viral because of the content in it.

Many have had a positive digital identity like Rebecca Black and Justin Bieber . These two people have made a name for themselves in a positive way by what they decided to post on youtube. They made decisions about what they would put on the internet and they are both younger than Alexandra Wallace A.K.A. UCLA racist girl! It just shows that we can teach our students to make the right decisions and hope that they will listen and follow this or make the wrong decisions which they could potentially regret. We need to educate them, but it is still ultimately there decision.

Final Project Wiki

For my final project, I collaborated with Aaron and Megan in our ECMP class and we decided to create a wiki. This wiki toolbox was created to help other teachers create their Personal Learning Network. We created pages that were specific to a certain tool that could be used by the teacher personally or in the classroom. I think wikis will be a great tool to use in the classroom when wanting to share information with parents of what you are doing in the classroom. The wiki can be made when wanting to provide information on a certain subject like in my case a PLN toolbox for teachers.

You can check out our wiki here

First GoAnimate Experience

So for my group’s final project we decided to create a GoAnimate video that we could use as an introduction to our PLN toolbox wiki. We created the video together which was fun and less stressful as everyone had their input if something went wrong. I do not mind this program. It is kind of fun to use and would be great to use in the classroom with the students. Having them create a cartoon for a final project instead of a live presentation. I think it could be a good tool that I might share with my future students. Here is the GoAnimate that me and my group members created for our wiki.

 

My Final Reflection for ECMP 355

I have learned so much in my ECMP class from Alec. I feel so much more prepared to go into the classroom and bring in the technology to the students. Here is more about my final reflection in a screencast I made as my final reflection.

My very first screencast!

So, I was working on my final project in ECMP 355 and one of the things I needed to do was create two screencasts introducing two of the websites that will be on my group’s wikispace. I was a little nervous to do these screencasts as I had never done one before. So I figured the first thing I needed to do was download a program to do these screencasts and decided on camtasia so I could edit it. I decided to just jump right in with both feet and do them. They turned out not bad! I was able to edit them which was good since for the first time I made mistakes and was able to cut them out. The experience was not bad at all. I have even decided that I will do my final reflection using camtasia and screencasting! I actual do not mind screencasting which surprised me and it is not hard to figure out and editing on camtasia is not hard at all either which is real nice!

You can check out the screencasts that I have done at the following:

My very first screencast

My second screencast

Frustration with technology

Nearing the end of the semester, the last thing I need is a virus on my computer especially when all my projects are done on the computer. This is something that happened to me last night! I got a virus on my computer that caused so much havoc and a near breakdown. The virus caused me to not be able to open any of my programs on the computer. This caused me so much panic that I was not going to be able to get rid of it. This frustration is something that can turn some especially the older generations off of technology because of the headaches it can cause. Educating others about technology, how to protect their technology, how to know which sites on the internet are suspicious and not to go on those sites. This education would save some headaches for most, but what would save the headaches is if there were no viruses or that there would be a clear solution that is easy to find! However, things just cannot be that easy.