Journal #7 My Personal Learning Network NETS-T 5

1. My personal learning network incorporates Twitter, which enables me to discuss, and learn from other educators so that I may bring new ideas into the classroom, along with a social bookmarking tool, known as Delicious, which is useful to find websites that broaden the horizon of learning for myself as well as my students. Both are useful tools for a teachers to keep up to date on new advancements of how to incorperate technology into the classroom, as well as make it fun and exciting for the students. Teachers need to find ways to compete with the distractions of video games, texting, and the internet. So instead of trying to beat it, why not use. Both Twitter and Delicious are tools that encompass the technology that kids are using today and turn it into learning devices.
2. My Twitter network consists of 2 prospective teachers like myself ( Danielle Salim, and Kaytlin Swartz). I follow 2 teachers, one of which is Julia G. Thompson, who is a best-selling author of First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide, as well as a consultant and a teacher, and the other Jefferey Heil, who is a technology resource teacher and a professor in educational technology at CSUSM. I follow ED.gov, which gives up to date news and information from the U.S. Department of Education, along with 2 collaborative sites: teachertube, and Impact Teachers. I chose these people to follow, because they have a lot of insight on becoming a successful new teacher, and how to make the classroom an exciting learning environment by using technology.
The chat that I portook in was on edchat. I followed edchat, because it covers a wide range of issues dealing with education, and since I am still unaware of what grade level that I would prefer to teach, I find a wider range of topics to benefit me. The topic question for this chat was, What are the real versus imaginary dangers in technology? Many people in the chat agreed that the real dangers of technology is that students are not learning how to use it properly. With the problems of cyber predators and cyber bullying, children, as well as parents, need to learn the proper ways to use technology as a tool, and not a replacement for thinking. Children need to learn about their digital footprint, for what they do, or post on the internet can possibly have real consequences. One person said that kids will use technology either way, so teachers have a moral obligation to teach appropriate use. I agree with this statement. Technology is everywhere, and most people do not realize the true potential of what it can do. Another question that was brought up was, should children be allowed to keep passwords private from parents, and/or teachers? I believe that answer has to rest with each child's parent. I think that parents should know their child's password, and even monitor what they are doing, however, when do parents start trusting their child? The topic was very informative, but the question leaves a lot of other questions unanswered. However, students need to learn the world they are living in, and it is the world of technology, and teachers need to guide the way.
3. I research many areas that I found interesting on Delicious, but some common tags that I focused on was “education,” “technology,” “teaching,” and “lesson plans.” I added people into my network that were also interested in some of the same tags. Some of the sites that I tagged as PLN, can be useful for newer teacher to make lesson plans that incorporate a wide range of learning. I use an iPad in school now to help me learn, but I found a site that explains 16 educational Apps for the iPad, which I can use to help with teaching, and even project my work onto a projector screen. I also tagged Freerice.com, which is a fun way for children to quiz themselves and reach a goal in many different subjects. A third site that I tagged was Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators, which is a site that has access to other sites depending on what topic you want to teach, such as a site where students can enter in their birth dates and learn about people in history births, deaths, and events that happened on the date of the students birth. The last site I tagged PLN, was U.S. History Teachers Blog, which has an abundance of youtube videos, and tutorials for a U.S. history teacher.
4. The video that I watched on The Educator’s PLN was Education today and tomorrow. This video focuses on how today’s classrooms are similar to the classrooms of the past, whereas they teach children old ways of boring lectures, and routine memorization. They are preparing kids for the assembly lines. Yet, the world has changed with greater populations and more to learn. Todays student live a world everything is at their fingertips, from music to communication. School’s today are not preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow. I believe that school’s today do not teach tomorrows know-how, but instead teach to the tests. We have access to much information, and resources, but teachers do not use them, or teach them. Instead of memorizing hundreds of facts that a child will not remember, or perhaps need for tomorrows jobs, schools should teach children how to access the information that is in their hands, and gigabytes away.



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Inspiration NETS-T 5

This is my NETS-T Inspiration. This is a visual representation of the five NETS-T standards for teachers. Subtopics represent parts of the standards with images. With each subtopic is an activity that I have done that meets the standard. Ultimately it is visual map of all the assignments and standards met in the Ed422 class.