Oct 29 2018
5 Comments
332thursday10

Let’s Start Digitalizing Classrooms!

My reflection is based on the article Teaching in a Participatory Digital World by Dr. Michele Jacobsen. In the article, they are mentioning that educators who teach using paper and pen should incorporate technology into their classrooms. The students that are now in school are growing up in a digital world and schools should prepare them for this. Students already know how to use technology, but it is the teacher’s job to guide students to use technology in a beneficial way for the 21st century. By incorporating technology, students can analyze information, solve real-world problems and successfully work in a digital world.

It is up to the teachers to provide students with the right tools to learn.  Teachers must constantly engage in professional learning to strengthen their digital competencies. They need to make authentic tasks that allows active learning for the students.  This include coming up with new learning methods and ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Students and teachers must work together to allow student’s knowledge to grow constantly. When they work together, students can improve their ideas and learn actively instead of having them memorize and learn with paper and pen.

However, this is not something that can happen overnight. There needs to be support from principals, school legislations, and other teachers. They all need to work together for the incorporation of technology to be attainable n the classroom. I decided to make my reflection on supporting one another. Throughout the article, they mentioned that there needs to be support from others to help students use technology. I used Piktochart to make my infographic. I decided to make my infographic from scratch, without using a template. They did not have a lot of templates to choose from and I could not find something that would work with the layout I wanted. The layout that I used included an order of steps. Based on the article, there are steps that need to happen to make sure that educators can teach students about the digital world.  The 1st step must begin with the school legislation. If the school is not provided with internet and there are blocks to certain programs that the teachers want to use, it will be hard to incorporate technology into the classroom. The legislation needs to provide teachers and students with powerful tools to use technology. The 2nd step would come from the principals. They are the ones that need to engage in professional learning to provide support to the teachers. They need to make sure that teachers have the resources to teach technology. The 3rd step is teachers. They are the ones that must to make lessons to help students use the technology. They need to come up with authentic tasks that allow for active learning. Teachers can work together to bounce ideas off of one another and find new ways to make learning interactive. Finally, the 4th step is students. Without the first 3 steps, the students will not be prepared for the digital world. Once there is support from every step, that is when students can use technology and learn from their teachers on how to inquire, problem-solve and learn to work in the 21st century. It involves a community to make sure that students get the correct resources to learn.

Reflecting on this article, I found it important to have almost of a “chain reaction” effect with incorporating technology in the classroom. They are only as strong as the weakest link. While making the Piktochart, I found that using numbers to portray the order in which support needs to come from is important. Teachers can try to incorporate all the technology they like, but without the support and guidance from principals, school jurisdictions, and municipal government, it becomes very hard. Like the article mentioned, if the school places blocks on certain programs, that makes it harder for the teacher to incorporate the use of those technologies.

Before reading this article, I did not really pay attention to the issues. I know that the world is becoming more digitalized every day and that technology should be incorporated into the classroom but looking at how you need to have support will make it difficult. A lot of teachers like to stick to their old-fashioned way of teaching with the overhead projector and chalkboard because they are retiring soon and do not see a point in updating their teaching methods. During my placement, my associate said she has tried to incorporate technology into the classroom but the issue is with the wifi connection. She has done Kahoots in the past but the wifi connection is not strong, or cuts off in the middle of it, making it very frustrating for both the teacher and learners. Even something as simple as having them watch the movie, Osmosis Jones, on YouTube Premium would not work for her. She had purchased the movie for the students to relate to their osmosis unit and had them work on a worksheet during the movie. The wifi stopped working midway through the class so she had to start a new lesson. When she tried again the next day, the wifi still was not working and she had to bring in an older TV and DVD of the movie. This shows that without support, teachers that want to incorporate technology in the class will  find it to be very difficult.

Knowing how there are certain support programs for teachers to come together and learn new techniques about using technology gives me hope for the future. I hope by the time I graduate and have a full time position, that technology can be incorporated into every classroom but not just in a way of SAMR learning, specifically substitution, but in active learning and teaching. I hope that students can make the best out of technology and use it to help them excel in the digital world.

I personally did not enjoy using Piktochart and would prefer to do the Sketchnote like I had done for the first reflection as it was much easier to work with then using technology. With this program, there was always things glitching up, like the font sizes. If I tried to add a word, the font size would become larger and I would have to find the right font size to correct things. There is not a lot of freedom when it comes to changing the pictures that they already have in terms of colour coordination. So, I had to make sure that I found text pictures that were not clashing as well as cartoon like images from google that matched my layout. Once I was able to get past all the glitches and frustration, I found the program easy to navigate. For my next reflection, I will not be using Piktochart. I will try to find something with a bit more freedom in terms of styles and templates. All in all, I feel like through trail and error, I was able to get a result I was happy with.

Tagged
Oct 29 2018
5 Comments
322monday21

Should we shut down Facebook,what a big question ?

Should we shut down Facebook,what a big question ?

Facebook is the world largest social media and the app is used by over 204 million users in USA while India is the world largest user of Facebook with over 294 million users according to data from (c)statista 2018. It shows a global active user from 1 billion in 2012 to 2.23 billion active users in second quarter of 2018. While the number of active users has continue to decline in north america,the opposite is the case in other parts of the world.
Matt Rosoff’s article; should we shut down Facebook entirely due to privacy concern makes an interesting reading,especially when you take into account the global damage the platform has created in the world politics,domestic affairs,social and inter governmental cooperation. The west has been hugely affected where information dissemination has no restrictions unlike other parts of the world where information is guarded,and in some nations it comes with severe punishment.
The Pew survey carried out in the united states gives a graphic detail about the decline in the use of Facebook app in north america. There is no doubt the average age of 18-30 are the ones that spend 1/3 of their daily active hours on social medial,when such a cluster of people account for about 44% abstinence from the platform especially in north america, it calls for concern.
The good news though is the huge number that decided to adjust their security settings on the app to reduce hacking in their personal data.
The debate on the desirability of social platform especially Facebook will continue to generate interesting readings.We have witnessed a tremendous leap in global information dissemination in the last 15 years,the world has become a global village no thanks to all the social network platforms.The world has gained a lot and has equally lost a lot
In the recent report on PCWorld,Facebook has been cited in one out of every five divorce petitions,Divorce- online.Married men and women engaged in flirting,sexual chat and other inappropriate behaviors on social medial despite being married.Cambridge Analytical,a British data mining,data brokerage and data analysis firm has been indicted in several law cases of hacking and obtaining personal information without a permit,and only recently Facebook was confronted in its role in the United States 2010 presidential election where the FBI report that Russian operatives were using the platform to spread false news and information to influence the election result.
On the other side of the argument, Facebook has brought tremendous changes to our social life,it has connected various people who have never met before and in some cases ended up living as husband and wife.The platform has brought huge cultural integration in the globe and the social revolution is unimaginable.It has become a platform to market issues,enterprise,government policies,social and cultural issues and the cheapest platform for advertisement with huge readership.
Some of my high school classmates i have not seen in almost forty years we meet on Facebook group chat we created and share ideas.
In schools, we use the platform for learning when we use other Facebook apps like,Instagram,WhatsApp,and Messenger.
My info graphic visual shows lots of live activities like marriages,entertainment,social networking,leisure and several other platforms that social networking brought with just a tap of a Burton rather than the analogue ways we do things in the past.We are all affected one way or the other.
We all have a story about Facebook either good or bad ,but should we overlook the good and crucify the platform ?My own answer is NO, we must collectively ask for more privacy settings on the app.

Personal Reflection;

I am a strong believer in social networking and appreciate the fact that we are in the digital age.Facebook is a revolution in social networking and ever since the platform was introduced sometimes in 2005,the media has witnessed tremendous shift in global interest and usage as both the old and the young has become active users of the app.like in any good innovation,nothing comes without the ugly side and so is the case with Facebook app. Efforts should be more on a Robust private setting that we protect our information exchange and make it absolutely private.

Oct 29 2018
10 Comments
332wednesday12, Uncategorized

A Fresh Education That’s Totally Fair (Say What!?)

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: I’m coming for your gig.

For my reflection of the Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik article Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy, I attempted to make a rap. I decided to take the key points of the article on access issues of digital redlining and rewrite the lyrics to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air-theme song. To be honest, I regretted this decision when it came down to filming part of the process (I’ll explain more about that later). I have since realized two things: 1) I have no chance at a future career in rap and 2) this process is much more lengthy than I anticipated.

The experience of reading the article and opening my eyes to such a prevalent issue was pretty incredible. I had no idea that such a policy existed once upon a time and that it would carry such weight in the digital world years later. I have never really taken a moment to question the online resources that I may or may not have had access to in my education. I do recall having certain applications blocked in high school when using the school Wi-Fi such as Snapchat and YouTube, but I never really thought it blocked my limit to learning. In my undergraduate degree, I found that often there was a lack of resources available online. I cannot even recall the number of times I had to go to the library to pull out extremely old books to get the information needed for French literature assignments, but I’m not really sure that it was a question of access issues.

The belief that underprivileged communities are still facing access to a fair and equitable education makes me quite angry honestly. The fact that there is not more awareness being spread about this issue is shocking. Before I read this article, I really had no idea that digital redlining was a thing. The whole article gave me new information on the history of redlining and how it still impacts our society to this day. Even though many do not see post-secondary access issues as viable, it completely is. I am interested to see how this message will be spread in the future.

What I have learned about this issue truly only comes from this assignment. I created each verse to reflect on a main message of the article. I wrote the lyrics from the perspective of someone who is aware of access issues in a participatory world and who comes from a group that is discriminated against. The first large verse focuses on the history of redlining policy in Detroit, and the second half of that large verse focuses on the limits that digital redlining places on this student’s education. The final large verse then moves into what needs to be done in order to have fair education. Essentially, the rap takes us through a story that goes from having a completely unfair education to having great changes made where digital redlining is no longer an issue that exists (which I sincerely hope happens sometime soon).

When filming and editing my rap, I realized that my resources to do so were pretty limited. I ended up having my mom film me on my iPhone which was just embarrassing and awkward even though my mom is my biggest fan. I just knew the quality was not going to be where I wanted it. I’m not thrilled with the outcome of the video itself, but I sincerely tried my hardest with what I had. Unfortunately, it seems that the University of Windsor lacks applications for editing videos and any tools for students needing to film. This is something I probably would not have noticed had I not just thoroughly read and reflected on the Gilliard/Culik article. Although I love our university, I do question the amount of resources we have access to. Which fields have more resources than others? Why does the French department have to put books on course reserve while chemistry students have access to everything online? Are certain departments prioritized over others? My research is just beginning on this topic.

I have come to realization that one common message was brought forth in this article: equality and fairness has not yet been achieved in education. Those with a greater social capital are privileged in ways that we often do not often see.

While watching my video, I hope you focus on the words that I am saying because I believe it summarizes and adds clarity to the issues that the article brought forth. I am most proud of the lyrics I came up with for this reflection. I hope that opening up this conversation will allow us to further understand how we can change to ensure fair access to online resources across schools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzmsMsXwuas

Digital redlining: #UWinDig is here to expose you.

*mic drop*

– Amy

Oct 29 2018
2 Comments
322monday21

Hide Yo Kids, Hide Yo Wives, ClassDojo want to steal your privacy information

I chose to analyze the Privacy Concerns for ClassDojo and Other Tracking Apps for Schoolchildren article by Natasha Singer. Since I am not very good with keeping up to date using social media, I decided I would do a Twitter Rant. One of the things that stuck out the most to me was the fact that you cannot just go back and make edits to your tweets after the fact. I noticed this only when I realized that I did not add the #UWinDig tag after each tweet but with time, I will become more efficient at it. I don’t know about everyone else, but I am really enjoying the idea of exploring a new multimedia artifact and making an attempt to create something.

The article introduces an app called ClassDojo, which is an app that lets us track the behavior of our students by awarding or subtracting points based how we feel the students are conducting themselves. The app allows us to project it onto a smart board which shows the student’s cartoon avatars and the scores that they have achieved for the week. When we take away a point from a student, the app omits a rather disappointing sound whereas rewarding a point omits a positive sound. The app even allows teachers to send out notifications to parents whenever they would like to keep them in the loop.

When I think about this in my classroom experiences growing up, I think that having something like this would have been rather beneficial because it always seemed as if teachers were always trying to find ways to hold students responsible for their action while keeping track of it. As well, as a teacher I can see so many different ways to apply this in the classroom other than just the way it’s meant to be used. The capabilities of keeping parents informed about their children helps to bridge the gap between the crazy busy teacher and all of the parents wanting to know more information about how their child is doing.

However, some say that the app is being used without consideration of how the data being collected will be used later on. Some say that this type of classroom management method is out dated and that these apps are too subjective and might harm a student’s reputation by grouping them with the “wrong” kind of people. To me, I think that every type of technology is gathering some type of information and unless we want to go back to killing the environment by printing of more and more paper, then we have no choice but to use apps like these. As well, the company has put a statement in their Terms of Service that says they do not provide outside sources with the data collected. In regards to being out dated, I believe in the saying “work smart not hard” and so far, I have yet to be shown a more efficient way to teach students about being responsible for their action.

The last large concern that I am going to talk about is the thought that some teachers might not be getting permission from their schools or school boards to use these apps and how a parent either needs to have the teacher remove their student or email the company to have them removed. From my experiences thus far, I think that most schools have become aware of these types of apps and have either developed some way of vetting them or are in the process of developing ways. Yes, there are some places that do not track these things, but it seems like these are also the places who are stuck in the 1950s still.

Before reading this article, I would have found an app like this, and used it exactly how it would be suggested. I would probably have made little effort to come up with creative ways it can be used because of how terrible I am with taking something new and thinking outside the box or reading more into it through outside sources (youtube, blogs, reviews, etc.). As well, I never though to consider how the data might be used once collected or the effects that come after the fact. Thanks to this article, I have gathered a lot of ideas and information that I will carry forward.

Although there is a lot that can be done with this app and there are lots of concerns with it like the use of date collected, schools being more on top of tracking who’s using them, and how teachers are using them, I think that apps like these are allowing educators to become better organized and creative with their classroom management skills. I think that as long as we can continue to adjust and modify how we use them so that we can set goals for some students, motivate other to continue to progress, keep them on track or show progress, then I’m all for these apps.

You can either click on the hyperlink near the top, or scroll down to check out my Twitter Rant!

Cheers,

Jon

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 29 2018
3 Comments
322monday20

“Don’t Rock the Boat” – A Rant on China’s Social Credit System

My video is discussing the Matthew Carney article titled “Leave No Dark Corner”. The article discusses the upcoming implementation of a digital “social credit” system in the People’s Republic of China, and the potential impact on the average Chinese citizenry. Two perspectives are actively discussed. “Dandan” is a working professional, who is content with the system, and benefits from having a high “social credit” score, which leads to benefits like better loan rates, or not needing a deposit on a car rental. On the other hand, Liu Hu is an investigative journalist who has a low “social credit” score, and is negatively impacted by being blocked from social media, or being unable to obtain plane or high speed rail tickets to travel to different cities. The system takes information from CCTV cameras, and interactions on social media, as well as a myriad of other data inputs to provide a real-time “social credit” score. Say, you buy too much alcohol in one shopping trip, and your real-time “social credit” score may decrease. On top of personal impact, citizens may also be positively or negatively impacted based on who they interact with, or what their friends or family might say. Due to the seriousness of the topic, I decided to make a video rant, as I feel that my thoughts and feelings on this issue may be limited if I try to depict it with some abstract visual medium.

 

Reflection

The ideas of social credit is a concerning one, as it adds a new layer of control onto a person’s life. It formalizes the social controls into something with legal consequences. It creates a tiered system where those with unpopular views may be further isolated by society, and likely be put into a bubble that will only be formalized even further. Social media has already created bubbles and confirmation bias, but this system would add to an already polarized society. Plus, with more totalitarian governments, they can use this system to further suppress dissent.

Oct 29 2018
1 Comment
322monday20

Privacy Concerns regarding ClassDogo

My reflection is going to focus on the article “Privacy Concerns for Class Dogo and Other Tracking Apps for School Children” by Natasha Singer which can be found here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/technology/privacy-concerns-for-classdojo-and-other-tracking-apps-for-schoolchildren.html?emc=edit_tnt_20141117&nlid&_r=0

The twitter essay that I did speaks on the main points of the article and looks at both the pros and cons of using an app such as ClassDogo in your classroom for tracking your students’ behaviour and using it as a tool for classroom management, which can be found here:

The first time I saw this type of behaviour modification strategy being used was while I was doing a three week placement in Nuneaton, England where students were given points based on specific expectations like attendance, submission of assignments on time, GPA, etc and every week a student was named “student of the year” based on whoever had the highest point that week. From the outcomes and student behaviour, it came across as a positive strategy to me because this caused students to be driven and motivated to be the student of the week. Attendance especially was very good in that school and not a lot of students missed many classes. The reason there was no issue with this strategy was that the points tracking was done on paper and was kept in the classroom and was only accessible to the students and the teacher, so there was no issue of data tracking and being available to the open world. After reading this text, and seeing how useful this type of behaviour strategy can be, I prefer doing this type of class tracking non-digitally so that it completely avoids the issue of privacy concerns and data tracking, though I understand it  is a lot more work for teachers to keep track of all their students manually, and not as easy for parents to have access to their child progress.

In conclusion, according to Singer’s article, parents are greatly divided on their views regarding use of apps like ClassDogo for tracking their child’s behaviour and progress. While some parents love the idea because its an easier and constant report on their child’s progress in school, other parents disapprove as they feel this can bring forth labels on their children and could lead to unforeseeable consequences. As I am not very tech savvy, or digitally aware as much as I should be, it was after reading this article I realized the seriousness of how usage of these apps have furthermore consequences such as data tracking that can be used for other purposes by a third party.

Oct 28 2018
4 Comments
322monday21

Hook Me Up With Some INFO!

My reflection was based on the TED Talk Data-Driven Education and the Podcast Episode 10: Audrey Watters & The Teaching Machine. In the video, it is discussed how data collection is not being used appropriately to collect information about students, and in turn, technology is not being used properly or is being overused in some school settings. The Podcast involves an interview of Audrey Watters and her book the Teaching Machine. During the interview, Audrey explains how technology has been used to make our lives easier since the 40’s and that the history of machines are just represented differently today and are more advanced. Having technology help us gain a personalized education is nothing new.  The artifact I chose to use to display the representation of the TED Talk and Podcast was Twitter Essays. Data collection is very significant when it comes to studying information about the school, students, teachers, academics, etc. If it is to be collected, it must be used or it is a waste of time. The TED Talk and Podcast both dig deeper and ignite the conversation surrounding how data collection can help students become more independent with their learning; the data can pinpoint the student’s strengths and weaknesses.

Looking at my experiences while teaching. Data collection is taken every day to make sure that there is a thriving educational environment occurring. Attendance is one example that is done throughout the day which takes data to see how much a student is missing during the school year. One of the biggest tests that I helped with was the EQAO test which is a data collected test that occurs in grade 3 and 6. This test looks at how each student is progressing and also takes data within the test to see what questions are good and are not. It is a standardized test that sees if each student is at the right grade level. I truly believe that a data-driven education system where information is taken constantly and consistently would definitely help assess students learning and their needs and modifications. I personally believe that technology is key to learning and is very important to the development of young minds and the development of education. My ideas on the issue before were the same. Data collection is very important in schools. Statistics on all information about the school, student, community, teachers, etc. come in the form of data and data allows assessment of the pros and cons of how education is being delivered. There was no new information that I learned. I knew that data was always relevant and significant in education; however, I never realized how much data should be taken on a day-to-day basis in order to make the educational system more accessible and simplistic.

I used Twitter as my artifact to display what I learned from the TED Talk because I have had the chance to use it before, but itself is a platform that uses data collection for many purposes, so I felt like it was a good way to show data collection. Algorithms and data are consistently being shared through Twitter. As I post my tweets information is outputted and inputted, so I thought making a Twitter Essays would be an excellent way to pinpoint some main points that I felt were relevant to the TED Talk and Podcast and were key-points. I enjoyed how simplistic it was to make this artifact and it was straightforward adding relateable pictures and memes to help highlight what I learned. A first I did not fully understand the parameters around how to make a Twitter Essay, but once I got rolling, it ended up being a great way to express what I was able to read and listen to.

 

Oct 28 2018
3 Comments
332wednesday12

Technology is TAKING OVER!!!!

I chose to take into consideration the article by Dr. Michele Jacobsen entitled “Teaching in a Participatory Digital World” and the video by Henry Jenkins called “The Influence of Participatory Culture on Education”.

The article and the video really informs future teachers about how the digital world can be used beneficially. Social media is often looked at negatively lately because of the posts that are being put up. The article talks about that social media platforms are 24/7. This is very true because it is not open certain hours of the day. Whenever something happens, social media is always the number one thing to go to because it will always be there. News broadcasters air certain hours. That being said, an event happens later at night, people post it to social media right away because the news broadcasters have a chance to give the true story. It is all posted online and people see it pop up on their phone and read it. This has happened numerous times with different occasions.

I must say that schools can have a certain control over what is allowed to be viewed at school. They have banned certain social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat etc. but that only comes into play while they are connected to the school Wi-Fi. If they are using their data, then they can be posting about the day all day long. During the first placement that we had, a parent had come up to my associate teacher and discussed that there should be an app for parents to control what can be accessed during the school day. I thought to myself that it would be very beneficial for students if that could be implemented. They are always so distracted throughout the school day that if they could only access certain apps, they would be more focused because they could not get the games or social media apps they want to.

It is always said to have social media used in a positive way and I believe that it can easily be done. Having the Twitter chats in class really opened my eyes on how it can help a classroom. Though some people may not like social media, it is a great way to interact a classroom. It causes the teaching to have to be flexible for the learners that may not want to participate in these activities. You have to be flexible with all learners to be able for them all to benefit from social media.

The ideas and beliefs that made me react to this issue is that is in fact a 24/7 platform and the ways it could be used for teachers. Having it be used positively only is an aspect that needs to change in today’s society. Before engaging with this text, I always believed that teachers did not like using social media for positive aspects. I learned that it can be beneficial for the class but the teacher has to understand the students in order for it to work effectively. The whole text really had something to offer. The beginning really captivated me because again it is 24/7. I never thought about it but that is how social media is always the first to have post about a certain topic because people can post whenever.

The sketchnote that I have created demonstrates the important aspects I have drawn from the article and from the video. Technology has evolved very quickly and has come a long way since it first started. Facebook was very important to teens at one time and that evolved to snapchat and Instagram in the 21st century. What do you think the future has in store for technology and the digital world? As stated above, teachers can definitely benefit from the digital world but in order to do so, they must stay up to date with the updates. Assuring that they only stay on secure networks is very important while introducing the digital world to the students. The one important thing I can add is to always be aware. When you read something, look it up, listen to the news or even search it up to find a more reliable source.

Data is always collected during the searches. Not only then but when you are speaking to your friends, the phone will hear you and provide you ads that coincide your conversation. The last thing I can leave you with that I put on my sketchnote is to make sure you only put up positive posts. Make social media what it is supposed to be used for such as connecting with distant family, making blogs for school, using it as a class, and informing others of positive news.

The experience of creating this artifact connected me to the text because as I was doing the sketchnote, and throughout it, everything I was putting down made me reflect on my social media and what I want it to be used for. I recently changed my Twitter for it to be used to reflect my teaching practices and experience throughout teachers college. This made me more cautious of how I want my social media to reflect me. How do you use your social media?

Oct 28 2018
1 Comment
322monday21

Is Data Driven Education the Future?

I’m not one to usually engage in the twitter world, recently I have found it to be quite engaging and eye opening to both mine and other’s experiences. I feel when we are limited by time or type count than we have more opportunity to speak quite bluntly about how we feel rather than  beat around the bush. For this reason, I decided to challenge my own tweeting skills and limit myself in word count for each point and create a twitter thread that can be found here. In this thread I summarize the Ted Talk by Khurram Virani on Data Driven Technology.

From my experience in a classroom and as a tech user, I do not entirely agree with the TED talk. I feel that yes data should not just be collected and left unused but rather should be invested into the classroom just as it is used to improve tech. I do not feel that this can be an immediate adaption to the classroom though. In my experience teaching students is not always a cut and paste experience but rather there is a lot of trial and error as Virani did say there is with technology. I feel the difference though is that in education, we do not see the effective or ineffective use of technology until a substantial amount of time has passed to see if this technology is truly something that can be effectively integrated into a classroom. By the time we establish whether an app is suitable for all teachers to implement and can be modified for various student needs, perhaps the data or tech may change by then. This is why in my personal experience I feel things need to be tried and tested long term before establishing whether they are good for both students and the classroom in the long run. Technology is ever changing and rapid irritation is not necessarily the most compelling method of change in a class. Information is considered to create a curriculum that can take years to develop. Constant change of the curriculum or teaching methods may be financially cumbersome and implementing it may be daunting to some teachers who already feel their plate is full.

Algorithms were not a huge concern for me as an educator before or in fact after this video. I do think tests and work of students should be looked at and evaluated in terms of where things are commonly going wrong, or where they are challenging for a majority of students. Once this data or information has been collected then it must be used in the classroom effectively. The only new point that I learned and had a chance to reflect on was the fact that data should be collected more often just as tech is ever improving and growing.

Oct 28 2018
4 Comments
332thursday10

NOW THIS IS A STORY ALL ABOUT… “FRESH” DIGITAL YO!

This multimedia reflection serves to emphasize the article on Teaching in a Participatory Digital World and the online video with Henry Jenkins.  It is important that educators understand that “digital technology” has changed our perception of education.  I believe teachers and students must work harmoniously with one another and create environments that allow for an exchange of learning on many different digital platforms.  Jacobsen suggests the idea that teachers matter too, their practice matters, and the classroom environment they teach in should be used to foster knowledge.  These ideas make me think about how I use digital media in a purposeful manner.  When I begin my practicum experiences, what affordances will I have? What connections will I make with curriculum and with the technology I choose to implement? Most importantly, can I make learning effective through digital media platforms?

Before reading this text, I must admit I was hesitant to choose this topic, as I was unsure about this article would come across.  I assumed it was my duty as a millennial to know and understand the digital realm–after all, I grew up in it!  After reading, I was amazed to see how this can be implemented into my own practice.  After my own practicum experience, I started to get a sense of working in conjunction with students and how important it is to use technology in a representative way to deliver curriculum.  I believe this can connect me to relevant world events, solidify connections with students and augment lessons to be creative and effective.

For this multimedia reflection I decided to create a PowToon along with a music video.  I found this to be the most effective platform to use while reading this article and watching the Jenkins video.  I had a great experience using PowToon and believe this form of media provides me with the confidence to deliver powerful and influential learning objectives and outcomes.  As I have used this before, it was nice to be comfortable in a platform, while still learning new ways to add creative texts, fix tiny timing errors and implement intricate details and subtle allusions to material.  I hope to use this in my own class one day and maybe it will spark a vested interested in classroom material.  I hope you enjoy this video and please leave a comment—(constructive feedback is welcome!).

In addition, as Henry Jenkins explains, we must not “safeguard” any of these digital media sources, but use the technology at our finger tips.  I hope to use media itself, not use alternatives to these sources.  I want to use Twitter, Facebook and PowToon sources to redefine my teaching practices.  I do not want to look for other versions that are “second best,” but instead use the technology that is already given and make good use of it in a classroom setting.  I want to be a good role model to students and demonstrate how to use technology appropriately and represent uses for it within the classroom. I value the importance of learning new skills and do not fear technology, but embrace it.  Will this be easy? No! But I like the uncertainty.  I hope to create a forum for collaboration, create conducive learning spaces and open sources that are accessible to all. I am ready, the world is too!

This is a music video I have created, and it was not an easy task.  I did not fully understand what concepts I wanted to pull and what I needed to do to show from the Jenkins video.  When I first viewed the video, I pictured a go-getter, an individual who was a media agent for social change in a positive way.  I was walking around the house aimlessly with my laptop in my hand and was trying to figure out something relatable to this.  Well… my sister had on the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” I was enlightened and extremely anxious to begin.  I ran to my room and knew I had to create the theme song with my own version of the words. It was a revolutionary experience, because I had found a connection to the material that truly resonated with me. Henry Jenkins is a media agent for social change and I considered Will (the main character) to be an individual who initiates change and pushes boundaries.  In class, we focused on being model learners as educators, looking at our artifacts with a revision lens.  I believe this form of reflective practice helps initiate conversations that inform education and develop new insightful learning techniques.  This was my inspiration behind the video… and I hope you enjoy it!

Enjoy,

Anthony Pisciuneri

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