Technological Use: Authenticity

I have been a use of Facebook since 2005. I have been a part of Twitter since 2009. Blogging since 2008. Though it might seem as if I was behind on a few of those, I was generally ahead of most of the general population. Most of my students would also have joined up before the gen. pop. I love using these tools and going on the sites and blabbing about my day, what is on my mind, or just to get out a rant or share a link. I also use these sites to teach with, especially my Twitter.

Twitter has been around since 2006. It has grown in popularity ever since the celebrity buzz has made it popular. I joined the bandwagon a little late but I still find the site great - even better than Facebook in many ways. Being able to convey your message to an audience makes you think, use your creativity and ingenuity. Being able to RT (re-tweet) to someone or direct message them also makes it a practical technology.

I have my students create twitter accounts based on historical individuals. They then have to tweet to each other and about their historical lives. I have had students create fictional presidential twitter accounts that talk about what their presidencies were all about as well as how they would have handled modern day affairs. The kids love to project and many of them actually create their own twitters because of it. It is authentic learning at its best.

But now, the inevitable has happened. Twitter might have jumped the shark. 


My school is now on twitter, as well as people who I regard as digital dinosaurs. They are on twitter, they promote that they are but I don't think they are doing anything real with it. So, what is the point? Just to be a part of something but without really doing anything makes the whole situation ridiculous. I feel as if the whole idea of them being on twitter is disingenuous to the technology and those who actually use it. Just joining up for something and never using it is also wrong.

We need to make these products authentic and actually USE them. If we just had our students write them name of their papers but never fill out the rest, they would all fail. The similarity is there...

Hopefully, we all start using the products authentically otherwise I think we are doomed to stay in the 20th century.

Using Tech w/ students

Are educators "cool" for using technology in the classroom or are we just a step behind everyone else in the world, well  at least our students. 

It is a question I think about when I am about to introduce a new technology to my students. I think to myself:

Have this used this technology before?

Will then find it engaging and interactive?

How long will this technology be useful to them?

Will they really use this or am I just showing them something else to forget?

Shouldn't they be teaching me about some pieces of technology?

While I can't answer most of these questions - I often times just take the plunge anyways and introduce the new tech. with some excitement and some confusion. I realize that my students are not as tech. savvy as the media might portray them. They need guidance through these new technologies just like everyone else, in fact sometimes even more so. The tech (and internet sites, which I am interchanging with technology) that I am showing the students is new to the kids (at least for educational purposes).

Though many have seen a blog, not many had actually known how to make one, how to respond to one, and what the real purpose of one was. When I showed my students how to use it and how we were going to use it in our class, I got a mixed bad of responses. Some immediately gravitated towards using is but others saw no use to it. Still others thought it was just another way to do work but the work was still there (clearly, motivation needs to be instilled in this group!). 

It has been four years since I have introduced blogging to my students and every year I need to re-introduce why its important to a new crop of students. As an educator, we must be sincere with our technology and our students. It's one thing to use technology in the classroom authentically and its another just to use it. By guiding and using technology with our students, we can do the first one much more easily. 

Why tech? Why now? WHY NOT!!!

Over the past few years, I have been integrating more and more technology into my classroom. Technology and the use there within have been growing every since, well I can really remember. When I was in school, the biggest and more "interesting" technology was the use of Laser Discs  into the classroom. Remember those? They were quickly put to the curb by VHS tapes, which itself was kicked to the curb by DVDs. Today, DVD sales are plummeting and the rise of instant, streaming videos and websites have taken the place of "hard" technology materials. 

My point is this, technology changes quickly but we must stay abreast of all of the tech that is out there. Technology is quickly moving towards the Web 2.0 (Richardson and our other authors would argue that we are already there but we haven't embraced it yet as an educational society). These hard techs, overheads, projectors, and the like are quickly being replaced by Skype, Twitter, Second Life, and other interactive techs that require little funds to use and don't take up any space like those pesky Laser Discs did. 

On a sidenote, for those of you who don't know what a Laserdisc is, do a little research - its basically a super big, CD frisbee that plays video. 

http://www.lddb.com/

I had the pleasure of being asked to be a part of a my schools professional development day but this time, as a presenter. 

ME? A presenter? I mean it's one thing to get up in front of a room of 12 year olds who hang on every word you say but this, this is different. These are my peers, many on them are much more experienced than I and should be the ones presenting. But then I realized something, the presentation material that I was going to be teaching about was BLOGGING! 

It hit me pretty hard after that, I have stayed ahead of the curve with the new tech. and now I was expected to teach about it to my peers, many of whom have never heard of blogging. How was I supposed to teach about this? Would I have them create their own? How would I make this relevant to them? How could I convince them that it is a safe, secure way to interacting with their students and a way from their students to be a part of the class OUTSIDE the classroom?

I have some s'plaining to do. 

My outline was laid out and I realized something - to make this relevant, I need to teach about our students first and WHY they need and BEG us to use this tech in our classrooms. By doing this and presenting the readings we use in our online class, my spectators understood why blogs were important. They then blog searched for topics in their fields and created their own blogs. 

Some found this exciting - a new tech that is easy to use and practical. 

Others had a hard time making a blog and were detriment-ed by lack of technological use in their lives and classrooms.

A few found it pointless and a time waster. They found that their old way of doing things were better and one person refused to create a blog because she didn't want her personal information on the web. (???? - I was baffled by that: why did you sign up to take my seminar then??)

Even though I did not break through to everyone, I was still happy with my seminar. I showed everyone that Blogs can be used in every facet of education. From counseling to music education, blogs can be a part of the classroom. 

I believe that this type of tech (ones that are online and free to use) will be around much longer than other pieces of technology has in the past (Hello, I'm looking at you, BetaMax). If we use it, they will learn!

Good night and good tech!

Blogging - Check it out!

Starting a blog video - Check this out to get familiar with how to create your blog. This is a step by step tutorial that will help you out.





So why are we teaching like this? Sir Ken Robinson has some ideas why...


If you are thinking of blogging, here are some reasons why!


Plus, our standards are moving in this direction - Standards 


Also, there are frameworks that can help us incorporate these things into school - LoTi



What's a blog? Watch this to find out.


Want to find more blogs? Check these sites and search engines out - Google Search  and Scholastic



Have you been Paying Attention today?



Blogs are essential for our 21st Century Learners (Natives) - so, get out there and start blogging!

Question to go: How will you use your blog in your classroom?

21st Century: Are we moving too fast?

When I was doing my undergrad work at Seton Hall years ago, the idea of 21st Century learning, skills, and teaching were not even discussed. I'm pretty sure we were still learning about bloom's taxonomy, John Dewey, and how to teach our children the basics of literacy, social studies, and how not to plagiarize.

Since I have been teaching, it seems that nothing I did during my undergrad has truly been worth it. I mean, I literally spent one semester creating a "Web Quest" for a basic computers class. While the web quest idea was interesting and engaging, I didn't see the point for it. Maybe that was their way to moving us towards 21st century skills and teaching. 

Thing is, I have never used, nor probably will ever use, a web quest during my teachings. The Internet, social media, and creativity have surpassed these once educational tools that are on our computers. Web quests are boring, as are watching videos, creating PowerPoint's, and the like. These things that I learned about in school WERE the 21st century skills that we needed. Now, they have been replaced, and rather quickly I might add, with creative blogging, interactive video chat, and more. Things have changed quickly because we are changing quickly. We want, and when I say we I mean our future generations, instantaneous interaction. We want feedback. We want things that will grab our attention and hold it for more than three and a half seconds. 

I am not griping. I was happy, and still happy, about my undergrad education in 21st century skills. These were the skills of the time. I just wish they have the foresight to see that those were educational tools of the 20th century. Now finishing up my graduate work, I realize that items are the wave of the future BUT this wave is already starting to crest. 

Google just turned 13. Facebook is 6 years old. YouTube has already been Time magazines person of the year (or was it people of the year?). Point is... are these items that are hot right now truly 21st century learning? Or are they the start of something larger and more interactive. If you have noticed, all of those websites look nothing like they did when they first started. Facebook is now undergoing its umpteenth change in the last year - this time to make it more user friendly and interactive. Google is always unveiling a new tool to its repertoire, such as Google +, google docs, or google apps. 

My hope is that we as educators can stay ahead of the curve instead of two steps behind it. While the world grabs a hold of blogging and wiki-ing (is that a word??), our younger generations have been there and already done that - they are off to bigger, better, and more secretive things that we will soon learn about. 

How do we stay ahead of the curve? Are we being disingenuous to the things that came before it? Are we smiting the old ways of doing things? 

I don't have answers to those but what I do know is this: 21st century skills and learning does not just happen with the internet, social media, or technology - it is a frame of mind. It is all about collaborating, creativity, and being a part of something bigger than yourself. If we can keep those items in mind, I hope we can be prepared for the 22nd century skills in time.