Changing the Gears of my Teaching

How has last semesters’ CoeTail courses changed my teaching? Well it definitely has helped me to get a grade 6 EAL teaching position this year!
I guess … My Age, quite old, My Teaching Experience a lot but all over the place literally in many different locations, holding teaching positions from Pre-K – grade 8, and My Flexibility, yes thanks to the CoeTail courses and the awesome tech people that work here @ ISB, I now feel so much more comfortable using technology in my classes, has qualified me to be part of the ONE-TO-ONE LAPTOP program in grade 6. To have kids in your classroom whom are digital natives equipped with a tool that makes daily school life so much more easier makes me as an educator even more eager to explore its endless possibilities and discover the language powers with in it.

My grade 8 EAL students worked last semester for hours and hours, even after school at the MAC lab on their movie documentary using the iMovie program. This years grade 6 kids have their own MacBook Pro. How neat is that? One of the most important things I learned is to give it a GO when doing something new I’m not sure of technology wise because there’s always a way to figure it out and the kids are of course great at that. Most importantly, my English language learners really feel that they benefit from projects for which educational technology is used, as is evident reading some of their reflective learning blog posts. When I asked how information technology (flip camera, digital camera, internet, I movie) could help your learning I’ll share some of the responses from my students:
“The all of information technology (flip camera, digital camera, internet, I movie) was really helped me as learning because for flip camera and digital camera, we could watch again and again until we completely understand what Ms. Warner said. For using internet we could not make such as effective movie like ours without internet because pictures made the movie more interesting and effective for audiences. For using I movie, it was very convenience and made the videos more interesting by good editing. These information technologies were really helped us!!”
Mizuki Awamura

“I always wanted to learn more about technology and use technology for learning and studying. If we didn’t use any technology for this interview, I think it wouldn’t be an interesting project. I think the listeners will be bored but we used some images and flip cameras so, we can see and listen at the movie and the listeners will be more attracted to it. Using technology can be useful to show what we want to tell to the audience. For an example, if we only used the PowerPoint, we couldn’t put any movies so we couldn’t tell the listeners what we were like during the interview. All of the technologies we used were all very useful to show what we want to tell the listeners.”

Moeka Kawamura

Changing Gears in my Teaching

How has last semester's CoeTail courses changed my teaching? Well it definitely has helped me to get a grade 6 EAL teaching position this year!

I guess … My Age, quite old, My Teaching Experience a lot but all over the place literally in many different locations, holding teaching positions from Pre-K – grade 8, and My Flexibility, yes thanks to the CoeTail courses and the awesome tech people that work here @ ISB, I now feel so much more comfortable using technology in my classes, has qualified me to be part of the ONE-TO-ONE LAPTOP program in grade 6. To have kids in your classroom whom are digital natives equipped with a tool that makes daily school life so much more easier makes me as an educator even more eager to explore its endless possibilities and discover the language powers with in it.

My grade 8 EAL students worked last semester for hours and hours, even after school at the MAC lab on their movie documentary using the iMovie program. This years grade 6 kids have their own MacBook Pro. How neat is that? One of the most important things I learned is to give it a GO when doing something new I’m not sure of technology wise because there’s always a way to figure it out and the kids are of course great at that. Most importantly, my English language learners really feel that they benefit from projects for which educational technology is used, as is evident reading some of their reflective learning blog posts. When I asked how information technology (flip camera, digital camera, internet, I movie) could help your learning I’ll share some of the responses from my students:

The all of information technology (flip camera, digital camera, internet, I movie) was really helped me as learning because for flip camera and digital camera, we could watch again and again until we completely understand what Ms. Warner said. For using internet we could not make such as effective movie like ours without internet because pictures made the movie more interesting and effective for audiences. For using I movie, it was very convenience and made the videos more interesting by good editing. These information technologies were really helped us!!

Mizuki Awamura

"I always wanted to learn more about technology and use technology for learning and studying. If we didn’t use any technology for this interview, I think it wouldn’t be an interesting project. I think the listeners will be bored but we used some images and flip cameras so, we can see and listen at the movie and the listeners will be more attracted to it. Using technology can be useful to show what we want to tell to the audience. For an example, if we only used the PowerPoint, we couldn’t put any movies so we couldn’t tell the listeners what we were like during the interview. All of the technologies we used were all very useful to show what we want to tell the listeners."

Moeka Kuwata

Understanding Web Connection

Where does the power of the Web lie? To me the power lies in using the opportunities that it can give you in your personal and professional life.

The 21st Century learner has been bombarded with new technology that gives access to global communication and information. This new world of learning  needs us to be aware of how we and our students are interacting with the world. The awareness of how to deal with issues inherent in our technological world helps to see the power of it as well.

Making a digital video is a powerful, transformational, educational tool. When students participate in video projects they practice all their academic skills in a productive, real world context. I experienced this when my students created a documentary interviewing a native South African. Not only their peers and teachers have acces to it,  basically the whole world can view their project now since it is posted on the web. http://vimeo.com/11219915

Another amazing powerful tool is skype.  The video posted on our course page, watching  how a student who is unable to attend school due to sickness can still be part of a classroom was very touching and again showed the importance of being connected with the real world. I recently brought an author into my class, we read her book and the students discussed a variety of topics with her giving great insides of the author’s craft and the content of the story. The reason why I came up with a f2f meeting came from the connection this group of students had made after reading another book and visiting the author’s website. The author, Majorie Cowel encouraged the readers to ask her questions, which we did and she responded to. My kids were truly amazed to be connected with a real author. The next step will be to make a skype connection with her and have a live interview.

Michael Smith wrote this week in his Pricipals Page blog that this schoolyear is finally over, which makes me realize again that I am going to miss my son who is graduating this week and will be  leaving the nest. After reading that the communication tools that exist today are powerful mediums to help spread positive change and global awareness, I don’t have to worry too much about how he is going to survive……. If the web has the power to flatten classrooms it will do the same for my livingroom.

If virtual connections via global projects can promote enhanced understanding and a world view, I also realize what a face-to-face opportunity it can bring exchanging ideas and giving suggestions of how to use a washing machine, in exchange of helping me using information technologies. For me learning new technologies is often a messy business.   "Messy" learning is part trial and error, part waiting and waiting for something to happen, part excitement in discovery, part terrible frustration and part the most fun you'll ever have. Time can seem to stand still - or seem to go by in a flash. The best part of my messy learning is that besides fixing and solving the problems, it is also difficult to get out of your memory! So, Olaf, my son, your mom is going to use the power of the web; she will use skype, facebook, email, msn and practice learning all the other communication tools that are out there so it feels that you’re still connected with….the nest.

Teaching Students Online Safety

Who's responsibility is it to teach students to be safe online?

To teach students to be safe online we need to make them aware of the importance of principles of community at our school.  Administrators and teachers at ISB recognize that they have a responsibility for the safety of their students and that safe guidelines when using the Internet are followed. To make sure that at home parents know how to share this responsible role and keep track of their kids’ online behavior we all need to be educated in this.  For our final CoeTail project I worked in a small group to create an AUP for our Middle School division level. One of our responsibilities definitely includes netiquette and cyber-bullying.

What is cyberbullying, exactly?  Cyberbullying is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is NEVER called cyberbullying

Many students do not realize that some of their activities, done without thought, can be considered cyber-bullying. Defining online bullying as part of the AUP and having a published procedure for students to follow whenever they feel that they are being bullied will send the message that such activities are not acceptable and will be addressed by those in authority. Knowing what their rights are and how to respond can keep some students from becoming easy targets. Electronic bullying is more problematic since the source can be difficult or impossible to find. Rules in the AUP make it possible for schools to take action whenever it is needed?

We encourage students to use technology that connects them to people electronically and when parents make computers or text messaging available to their children, they have the same responsibility. If they send their child to a school that makes use these media, they have the same responsibility. Parents also have a responsibility to attempt to monitor their children's online behavior, just as they would with their real-world actions.

Most importantly, education about media behavior needs to be an ongoing aspect of students' lives. At school it cannot be confined to a single class or meeting. At home, parents cannot expect that one conversation will be sufficient. We would not expect a one-off conversation to be enough to teach students about sharing or listening to others. Once our school’s AUP becomes clear to us educators we will have an important tool to teach online behavior more effectively.

Your Face on Facebook

Your face on facebook, Watch our for Netizens (or not!)

 Here’s what I’ve read last week.

In China, the Internet is equivalent to streets in democratic countries where people gather to create a voice and spill frustration……

Apparently a homeless man who was living an anonymous life on the streets of China was suddenly in the spotlights when an amateur photographer had taken his picture and posted it on the Internet. This photographer could have been you or me. (Although I haven’t been in China yet). It could be my fiend K, who’s leaving soon for Australia, and posts many pictures of Thailand on Facebook from unknown Thai faces. In the case of the unknown man in China, many more people started taking his picture while he was roaming the streets. People were attracted by the way he dressed and his good looks. As more and more of his pictures started to appear online he became famous and the new celebrity was named ‘Brother Sharp’. It turns out that this man had been roaming the streets for three years. Because he had lost his wife and father in a car accident he suffered from a mental illness. His family was very happy to have found him with the “help” of Internet.

The point here is the power of the net in our societies. Certain actions like this without asking Brother Sharp’s permission may be considered invasion of his privacy. It was also the information spread by the netizens that helped support an unnoticed person. Another new tech word: netizens…..mmmm I like it!

In China many information are still censored and people end up in jail for being too open. People (netizens) get arrested for posting information seen as threats by the government and many pieces of information were deleted from the Net.

How can we create good AUP’s? What are we going to do with our Middle School (netizens) kids if they make the wrong choices in posting information that’s inappropriate? What are the consequences? Can we delete their stuff? 

Privacy Online

 

Is there such a thing as privacy online?

 

Can and will the Internet take over my future? “ Use and abuse” are the first words that come in my mind, but isn’t that with everything we undertake? With learning new skills to participate in society we always have to think of the consequences. “No pain no gain”. Challenge yourself, “trial and error”, gain experiences, and make choices! BE AWARE about the pros and cons. The Internet is made for us so that information can be shared, so we all should be concerned about personal stuff we put on it.

 

Here at ISB our grade 6 will be going one-to one computer next year where I will be teaching EAL Humanities!!!! This feels good, I’m thrilled, but can we, teachers, parents, and students handle the good, the bad, and the ugly?  Will I as a teacher be able to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to integrate technology meaningfully into instruction in specific content areas? I am a digital immigrant teacher with an open mind who has passed the behavioral stage, thanks to this course, and although I still feel overwhelmed at times with the speed of learning to use information technology, I am all for it!!!! Strategies to improve my productivity are tested on a daily basis. “Hey I’ve created a Google Doc for our group to work on our EUP Middle School collaborative project.” One of my colleagues says and I feel relieved! Why? Because I know now what a Google Doc is and it will really be an effective tool for our teamwork on this.

 

This second part of the COETAIL course has these very useful topics that will help with the awareness process of the consequences when we give our kids a school computer to increase their learning. To strengthen a community of practice between students, teachers and parents ISB needs AUPs to provide the proper context for learning to take place.

 

So how to take the issue of privacy online into account?

Our students all use blogs and are expected to follow the Middle School blogging guidelines. I particularly like the following questions students, (and teachers as well) should use to decide what is appropriate to post on your blog.

Ask yourself:

            Is this something I want everyone to see?

Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?

            What could be the consequences of this post?

Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?

Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?

What will I cause by writing this post?

Would I want someone to say this to me?

            Would I want this post to be graded for proper grammar and spelling?

Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?

Who is the original creator of this work?

Digital Footprint

Because the web is new, we are the first generation and every time we go online we leave a trail. But, who’s watching you? These days we are encouraged to add lots of information about ourselves onto the Internet, which gives lots of opportunities to be creative and develop good skills. Aside from the fun stuff, we always should remember that the Internet is an open environment. Personal information is routinely collected and kept for years and years by companies wanting to sell you stuff and viewed by individuals looking for information about you. So, keep safe and don’t put too much information about yourself online.

It is important to protect your identity and your own digital footprint and your individual actions. We also particularly need to be aware of the other important part of our footprint best described as digital shadow.  These include things like images of you on a surveillances, your bank records, your retail and airline purchase records, telephone records, your medical database entries, information about your web searches, information about credit cards purchases, etc. This means that we need to protect ourselves from identity theft. In this unstructured information world, discipline is needed. One positive side of all is that there will be traces left of individuals for eternity. Future generations will become acquainted with many of us due to what common people are leaving behind. As educators we should teach our kids digital safety.

While checking my Google Reader at Across my Desk from E-Learning Journeys by Julie Lindsay, I found a list of social media etiquette rules for students. If you know someone watching you let’s start by being respectful in social media.

http://www.sociableblog.com/2010/04/01/50-crucial-rules-social-media-etiquette-for-students/

 

 

 

 

Course 1 Reflection Final Project

Course 1 Reflection on the process of creating my final project

 While doing the course I was immediately infused by the possibilities of using information technology to empower the highly talented English language learning students I work with in my grade 8 EAP humanities class. Knowing that I could get the support I needed, not to be afraid of my limitations technology wise, and realizing that my students are living in this digital nation, I leaped into the tech pond. My goal for my students is to give them an opportunity to use content and practice language needed to  “survive” in their core humanities classes and to present their learning to a wider audience, including their mainstream peers. 

Stage 1. Identify Desired results.

Students in grade 8 Humanities class study Africa, with a particular focus on South African history and culture. In order to develop a deeper understanding of the Social Studies outcomes students are asked to complete several activities from options prepared for them.  After completing an activity students are asked to complete a “learning reflection” describing what they learned in the process and explaining the connection to the given Social Studies outcomes.

 Stage 2. Assessments

I wanted to add a new option to the activities that would be both authentic and meaningful. In order to help deeper understand that individual development and identity of a person is related to the time period and society in which the person lives, I came up with the idea of interviewing a native South African and make a documentary style of movie placed on youtube.

 Stage 3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction.

Using digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to learning of others. (NETS.S)

Within no time I could envision our interview and see how important language and content skills are embedded and how information technology would play an important role. Meeting my students only six days out of eight for one period only wasn’t going to be enough and I finally found purposeful use of my “ready to be used” inside ISB blog. Our interview would take place live at school and we had to come up with relevant questions and used the class blog to communicate information and ideas effectively.

Once prepared, students collaboratively conducted the interview and used flipcameras and digital cameras for the recordings. To determine what acceptable evidence of competency in the outcomes and results, students needed to decide which information was relevant rather than interesting for a documentary movie. Based on this information, students used Creative Commons to find relevant images to help support the information in the movie. Although quite time consuming, because we can only use the Mac Lab, this project creates many learning and language using opportunities because of using information technology. 

Thanks to this course I am grateful that I’ve discovered and gained more confidence to leap in this tech pool so that I can better support ELL’s in their language learning development.

Learning to Adopt and Adapt Tech for my Classroom

 

Marc Prensky wonders when technology and schools in the 21^st century will get to do it. Knowing that life will be much different by 2100, do I prefer to live life, especially school life, in edutopia? I wouldn’t want to live in an utopia as in the movie “The Beach” or have the life described in the grade 6 novel “The Giver” we have our kids read in class.  

Only until a few months ago I still felt strong and safe teaching the “low tech” style. Working in classes where technology is used more and more, my stage of denial processed gradually into the technology adoption stage of “Dabbling”. Registering for this tech course has done the rest and I’m still amazed how fast I’m adapting and adopting more and more great tech tools for my own teaching. At times I still feel that I am pressing buttons to get through this stage and recognize that writing an essay on a computer (substitution) has nothing to do with “new style” teaching, but using a blog to reflect on this course is and using a blog to allow my students to communicate with me and each other 7/24 is!!! (redefinition). With our students in grade 6 going to one-on –one computers next year, our teaching will be impacted and will force us to adopt more student-centered lessons, especially Problem Based Learning. I agree that simply putting laptops in a classroom isn’t enough, teachers no longer should see themselves in control of the learning process which can be scary for some but by continuing to be willing to learn and I’m happy I stepped on (tech course) board.

Student NETs Standard

How do I think I meet at least one of the Student NETs standards? While in the planning stage for the interview, I have created a blog through which we can communicate which each other. In class assigned groups began brainstorming ideas about possible interview questions. To allow to continuously working on it, I took their ideas and I started sharing in a blog specially created for this project. The real cool thing about this blog is that students can collaboratively give comments and feedback about deciding what some possible relevant questions are. Each time a comment comes in an e-mail message gets sent to me so that I can reply and give immediate feedback. This way I don’t have to wait for the next class period we’ll meet so it saves time and the students are prepared for their next class. This preparatory interview stage meets the Communication and Collaboration NET standard; Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

 

 

Reinventing Project-Based Learning

Before reading this article, and just looking at the title, I’m thinking; “Yes that’s what I’m trying to do now with my own teaching”. What would work in the “olden” days (only a few years back, or even as “young” as last year) has become “old style” teaching. I still haven’t read the article but this reinventing is the process phase that I’m facing right now at this point of my teaching. What a great timing!

After reading, I really like the idea of how to bring inquiry into students’ daily life. Access to mobile devices made it possible in Finland for students to be connected to other network technologies and these tools became an important piece of their project. Access to real people here in Thailand, in my case a colleague from South Africa, the access to educational tech tools here at school, and my luck again to get great help from Kim Cofino, will become important and essential pieces to make my project idea work. My project needs instructional goals and accessible technologies, plus student collaboration and problem solving skills.

I’m not very creative but more out of frustration I’m designing a project from scratch and integrating technology in a new way to reach my instructional goals. There’s noting wrong with my students but I feel frustrated that I can get the participation and engagement I’d hoped for so far with some of their work. Undoubtedly I’m privileged working with a small, talented, hardworking, bright group of English learning students in grade 8. Getting closer to the end of our Social Studies unit, I’m in the process of planning a project to share their learning. Again, the timing of enrolling in this tech course couldn’t be better than right now!

When I was looking for learning activities that specifically would meet the needs of English language learners, a new opportunity grew out of a project that started in their core Humanities class. My project will be an extension of, and addition to, the South Africa Learning Center Activities students will take part in related to their study of Africa, with a particular focus on South African history and culture.

In order to develop a deeper understanding of the Social Studies outcomes students are asked to complete activities that include at least two of the outcomes. The activity project I'll offer in my class will allow students to be able to demonstrate an understanding of individual development and identity. After completion of the activity students will complete a “Learning Reflection” describing what they have learned in the process and explain the connection to the give Social Studies outcome. I aim for these students to learn and practice by using the language needed to gather information to help understand that changes in a person are related to the time period and society in which the person lives. Therefore my students are planning  conduct an interview with someone who grew up in South Africa to engage students in experiences that helps gain better understanding, learn and practice target language, gain confidence, and use effective technology. 

Technologies I plan to use  are:

Blog: for instructions, sharing ideas, making choices

     Flip Camera: to record interview,

          Digital Camera: to document interview, create images

          Mac computers: plan and create video

Important things to remember and think about when planning the project are:                            Set up a situation in which they want to ask questions, want to learn more, need to know something they don’t already know, and believe it is really important to them and, especially to the larger community to find out. We are in the process of doing the planning. In three different groups decisions are made for relevant question to be asked to get information from the interviewee to help understand the Social Studies outcome. By documenting the interview students will make their choice of how to make a video of this interview to share what they have learned.

 

 

 

Learning Theories

 

My Brain’s Messing Me Around

 

Although it doesn’t look like I’m doing any work for this course, the truth is I AM!!!! A lot of preparatory work and time is spent prior to the reflecting blogging.

In a number of ways I reflect on what I’m reading and hearing others talk about. I attended the Digital Nation part 1 last Thursday in the Web 2.0 room and learned about Distractions Everywhere, which I already knew because I get distracted similar to this myself.  At school I feel this need to check my phone a number of times a day to see if I have any missed calls or messages, I check my email even more often, and the first thing I do when I come home is switch my computer back on, have my phone beside me, and open up Facebook.  Why do I not want to miss out on anything?  I’m quite similar to my both my sons, but their focus seems to be more than social networking, and they’re much better at multitasking than I am. While doing work for school they’re on Facebook, MSN, Skype, watch YouTube movies, type on Word, check Powerschool, Panthernet, and do a Google search. What’s doing this to their brain? Do I measure this by looking at their grades I can check in Powerschool? Do I have to also check my kids more when they’re so called studying in their rooms? Do they play online games similar to the South Korea Gaming Craze? I’m sure they have done multiple hour sessions playing games with their friends online similar to what we saw watching Frontline. That same Thursday, prior to this session, I had a talk with my students about using technology in our daily lives and showed them the video A Vision of K-12 Students Today, where kids tell how many hours a week they use a variation of technology andsome of them showed the time spent in a week playing online games. I’d ask my students to share one kind of technology they would use a week and for how long. One of my students claimed that he’d play seven hours daily at weekdays and almost the whole weekend adding up to sixty-four hours of gaming a week. He’d spent half an hour to one hour homework a day, and now I know why he has trouble focusing in my class, making slow progress in English, and does minimum homework. Or does his brain make adjustments so that he can handle it all? Who knows!!

 

My difficulties with the readings, we’re assigned to, is reading it of a screen. So, I have been playing with it. I’d read and then started taking notes on paper, which wasn’t working because I couldn’t even read my own scribbles. Next, I’d type the notes on a word document and I even printed out one article out after squeezing it to the smallest possible size to save some trees. Wherever I had to go, knowing there would be some waiting time; I’d bring my paper and a yellow highlighter(another color doesn’t seem to work for my brain as it distracts me big time) and read, re-read, and read some more until it became time to reflect:

 

How are my thoughts changing, or what was I thinking?

 

New Bloom’s Taxonomy Digitally

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy By Anderson in 2001, using the verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories of the thinking skills, was so far pretty much what kept us educators going when planning our program towards the expected outcomes. Having now access to a whole range of new digital verbs, and their explanations, is great to help understand the technologies used in education nowadays, and probably even more important, to see the value of it. Good to know that hacking and playing games fall under the category of applying, that tagging is a way of analyzing, and that blogging is indeed one of the higher order thinking skills:  Creating.

 

Connectivism, A Learning Theory for the Digital Age

I read most of this reading while waiting for a doctor’s appointment at the hospital. This article was printed out and I read it holding my yellow highlighter in my hand. Thanks to the usual waiting time, my active and still alert brain part helped me to select the following notes:

Learning theories such as behaviorism, cognitive, and constructivism were developed in my time; where there was barely any technology used in learning.  Learners a little as forty years ago would complete the required schooling and enter a career that would often last a lifetime. Well, that’s my time again, and all I ever wanted to be was a teacher. Information development was slow and measured in decades, where as now the amount of knowledge in the world known today was not known 10 years ago, and is now doubling every 18 months according to ASTD (American Society of Training and Documentation). We must include technology and connection making as learning activities to move learning into a digital age. Experience is no longer the best teacher of knowledge but chaos is a new reality; brake down predictability, the meaning exists, and the learner’s challenge is to recognize the patterns, which appear to be hidden. Network does make these connections and I love now hearing myself talking to a friend while walking during the early morning hours, “it’s push and pull, get yourself in Google reader and have the information come to you.”  Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. I can’t agree more with this but it is still a challenge.

 

Living and Learning with New Media: Messing Around

Knowing that our students using media learn more from their peers than us adults, it is good to realize that we adults can still influence in setting the learning goals. After reading about Hanging Out I now understand that picking up basic social and technological skills are needed to participate in society nowadays. Therefore we, we educators, should be open to forms of experimentation and social exploration in our schools. Young people use specific media as tokens of identity, taste, and style to see themselves in relation to their peers. We as adults are not part of their hanging out but we should and could be very much part of Messing Around with digital media and online communication. For me it’s also very much a matter of getting used to how young people use new media to initiate the first stages of a relationship. A while ago my son and his friends met a girl who was on holiday at the beach. There was a mutual interest but, possibly because of lack of technology present at that moment, no “real” f2f contact was made. When she and her family left the island by speedboat there was just some waving hands and a smile. “Why didn’t you just go talk to her?” I asked my son. “Mom, you don’t understand!” he replied. As soon as she had disappeared from the horizon my son’s friend inquired at the beach resort reception and was able to get hold of her name and nationality. A quick search on Face Book made it possible that they are now “hanging out” because they knew how to do the “messing around”. Indeed new media empower youth to challenge the social norms of their elders in a unique way.

It is recognizable for me to read that some activities that we identify as messing around include looking around, searching for information online, and experimentation and play with gaming and digital media production. The difference between my students and me is that I need to learn how to practice with the tech tools to successfully plan my teaching. My students are so much ahead of me because they are growing up used to be messing around, but I’m catching up, I hope…..

What I hope to get out of this.

Mmmm.... I've already missed the first session, in fact, I missed the whole announcement of this course. In the back of my head I wanted to learn more, get some foundation, and read and discuss why this technology use in learning is going so rapidly. Apparently I haven't paid much attention and didn't hear  colleges talking about this opportunity to enroll in a 5 part full course on educational technology and informational literacy. Anyway...here I am, already struggling to get through the readings and the writing of this blog. 

What I hope to get out of this course got shaped for me during the first (and for me only) f2f full Saturday session. I want to be part of this, understanding when people talk about the technology, and using it in my own classes with the ESL students in Middle School. I want to incorporate some of these newer ideas into my lesson plans to benefit my students. It's a must in this century that we educators have an awareness of how we learn in a digital landscape and to build understanding and deal with new technology. I hope it's not too late for me, because I feel old when I see how fast the kids pick up and learn new things, I also hope that I will find the time to engage my self with readings titled "Engage me or enrage me" and Living and learning with new media". Sounds pretty exciting to me!!

I

My Very First Blog Ever!

What am I so scared of when it comes to writing about me, knowing that others will be able to read my stuff? Well, because I'm not good at technology with so much out there, and so much to still learn, that I've been worrying all this time that I'm not sure if I can pull it off!! Trying to overcome these worries and fear, I signed up for the Tech Train weekend course here at ISB for beginners, like me, a couple of weeks ago. As a result I now have my iGoogle home, and personal page, a blog inside ISB, and since today My Very First Blog Ever!!! Yippie Yahoo.......