Group items tagged

Jennifer's email to us was a catalyst for this post to inquire about your digital prescence experience. I, like Jennifer, have aliases that I use on social networks. It is a challenge, though, to manage multiple presences and even when I do, often have a feeling of unease about the information. For example, in this course a suggestion was for us to update our profile. Although I don't feel secrative that I am taking a course at Bellevue College, the email/signature I use for this course is also the one I use for some other professional endeavors (such a technology consulting). I is not something that is a "need to know" by everyone. I chose, in this situation, not to update my general profile. When we are conscious of what/how we are posting and putting up, is one thing. Often though, I get on a mailing list, that I have no idea how I was included, as I probably forgot to check a "do not include me" box on something I have bought on line. This article was particularly interesting to me, as it talks about a survey that 23% of children get a digital presence even before they are born - having a lasting imprint.

Good article to bring things into perspective about 'online presence.' I found a similar article that compared statistics relating to age and online presence. 92% of children by age 2 have online presence thanks to parents and grandparents. As Jennifer mentioned in her discussion of facebook -- maybe we don't want the world to see what we did in our high school days...we were 15/16. Can we separate a personal online presence from a business profile...

I do separate my profiles by having different email aliases. There is overhead in having multiple ones, however, so not ideal.

this page shows the advantages and disadvantages of eLearning!

You've got to be cautious about sites like this. When you see a page full of ads and links, it's likely not a very reliable resource. You'll notice they don't provide information about who runs the site. If you click on their blog link, they haven't posted since 2008. This is probably a site making money off pay-per-click ads. There are lots of sites like this, as well as aggregator/collector sites. Those sites actually harvest content from legitimate sites, and put it all together on their site, where they make money off ads.

I started a thread in the student discussion area, but realize that this might be a more appropriate place to post. I agree with Downes that the on-line environment broadens the view of what a learner is, but it also brings up the issue of standardization and safety. Students working with a teacher on polar bears collaboratively is engaging and exciting, but how does this fit into education standards, for example.

I think part of the challenge is in overcoming ego, or our desire to confirm our own beliefs and stay in our comfort zones. Maybe we need to give students assignments to write about something completely off the wall, but find the sources to back it up. Then they can see how easy it is to confirm just about anything. I'll add some more resources on media literacy and see what everyone thinks.

I think confirming beliefs is wrong. If you start with a hypothsis and do not know what the answer will turn out to be, you can set aside your biases and research for an answer. Stats give you a way of looking at data. They are testable at the ratio level and the big T for truth never happens. Only the small t for the strength of the correlation between cause and effect.

This is a nice collection of papers debunking the myth of the Digital Native. My personal belief is that this myth has been extremely harmful. If you have a chance to read Selwyn's article, I highly recommend it.

Hmmm...after reading that Wiki explanation, I feel a bit of frustration and anger. White middle class youth are probably digital natives if one wants to put a label on it. But, after reading articles on the subject, many lower income families with high school and college age students do not have the funds for technological devices & services: computers; IPADs; laptops; Kindles and the list goes on. I am even more certain youth in other countries do not have access nor would they have high speed internet access on as broad a scale as we have in the US. I suspect they could not afford it either. So this label probably only applies to a small percentage of millennials or digital learners.

Or I should have stated, for those labelled as digital learners...they are only a small percentage of the worlds's millennials and even GenX. Ithink sociological studies would support this conclusion. I prefer using statistics to test hypothesis. Then one can thread these into a theory and test it statistically.

Dan Meyer teaches high school math outside of Santa Cruz, CA, and explores the intersection of math instruction, multimedia, and inquiry-based learning. He received his Masters of Arts from the University of California at Davis in 2005 and Cable in the Classroom's Leader in Learning award in 2008. He currently works for Google as a curriculum fellow and lives with his wife in Santa Cruz, CA.

Like K. Robinson, Dan Meyer knows how to deliver his message with a sense of humor. I particularly like his suggestion that "the formula for the design of the problem is often more important than finding the answer." Math teachers need to first redesign the problem itself. As an advocate for integrating the arts, using multi-media and videos to teach math concepts and thinking strategies could certainly help to engage the learner. However, watching elementary teachers work with their students (WASL prep) on breaking down a written math problem is an important learning strategy. Seems to me, this deciphering skill has real-world applications, too! Guess I'm "on the fence" about his message.

The articulation of math education by "economics" - i.e., our students who are the next generation need to learn math process skills (he separates out this reasoning from math computation) are not relating to government-mandated math education. By use of visuals, he illustrates how to better engage the student in that process, using an example of a ski-lift to explain slope or a curve. I was thinking that internet education could easily be adapated to this, where there are math problems that the students could individually be guided through problems like this.

In her important, controversial new book, Sherry Turkle reads our leap into digital technology not as the unfettering of a deep, human urge to connect, but as a dire symptom to be understood within an older framework: psychoanalysis. Whether you find this book's analysis convincing depends on how you read the Rorschach test that is the Internet.

Bruce, CaringBridge has been a great support for so many people. I originally discovered the site while I was following the story of Baby Allie http://www.scotthousehold.com/allie.htm whose mom documented her short life battling with AML. A huge community grew around her little life, and I discovered many CaringBridge sites. Jenny went on to start the Heroes for Children foundation, raising more than $3 million for families in TX with children undergoing treatment. My own early blogging experiences were around my own grief and loss http://momrealityblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/it-began-with-tragic-ending.html I had previously been involved in several online parenting communities. They were a huge support to me during that time. We have the potential to do a lot of good online and off. I think we just need to be cognizant of how our messages are amplified, and how we amplify the messages of others.

Joy, I am so sorry for your loss. I think grief is different for everyone, and the internet is a place we can find other people who share similar methods of grieving, so we don't feel so alone. In our own families, it's hard to support each other through periods of loss. I've discovered a lot of online communities, some healthy, and some not, where people feel comfortable expressing their feelings about loss. I think the most important thing I learned online during that time, was "be gentle with yourself."

This is my favorite site to learn about powerful presentation techniques.

I think it is than...

I'm a little slow on the uptake, but the potato salad discussion was great!! I like bacon and sour cream in mine--but on the serious side--life, education, teaching, learning, ad infinitum, are rarely black and white; you are so correct, Jennifer, in the longer comment you addressed to Ann and me about the challenge centering around these things not having to be one way or the other because there are so many other factors involved.

Joy, Your posts are quite sobering, regarding your own experiences working towards completing your university education. I strongly agree with the following quote in your post: "In sum, it is time for educators to make college and higher learning relevant to their students. It is not about us, it is about them. We are the facilitators of their learning. We must prepare them for the world they will find themselves in when they leave the protected walls of our colleges and universities" I found the recent events in Cairo to be fascinating, where large numbers of people suddenly rose up against an authoritarian and out-of-touch government. This largely peaceful uprising was fueled by the same Web2.0 technologies that are underpinning this class. It's possible that many traditional schools will soon find themselves in a similar situation to the Egyptian government, where students pass them by in favor of lower cost and more relevant educational experiences - many of them available online. Bill Gates recently came under fire for making the statement that valid online college degrees may soon be available for $2000. He may have said this to exaggerate a point, but the evidence of a growing number of online low cost educational resources can't be ignored. One of them is the Khan Academy - run by an MIT graduate who has created a large free archive of mathematics courses that are used by students all over the world - many who claim they are better than their university courses. Colleges and universities ignore this development at their own peril. It's not clear yet how we'll make this transition to relevancy for students, but the next decade will be very interesting...

Thanks you for your comments Mary Ann...the bottom line reads, we may be killing off our aged population by sentencing them to give up and give in to old out-moded concepts!

Joy: I've been following your blog postings for some time now and have been meaning to let you know I always learn and find your postings valuable. Keep the information coming our way.

I have posted the FBI can hear when cell phone is turned off; Is Your Cell Bugged?; and Big Brother is Watching as food for thought and because of earlier comments. The question is: In an Open Society how many freedoms are we willing to give up to be protected from Terrorist attacks? A thought worth pondering.

I had an interesting experience last quarter. I have a History of Animation class that is currently on Vista/Blackboard. What happened was that through an oversight, students weren't charged a use fee for the site, so I couldn't access it for the class. I had to transfer all of the content to a Google Sites location. I was amazed to find out that I could just copy and paste from Blackboard Vista pages directly into my Google site - preserving the links and formatting (!!). It was a life-saver for me.

That's great! That's one of the reasons I've created the files for our course in HTML. If it ever needs to be put someplace else, it will be an easy transition.

Just something interesting.

Wow! That is very interesting.

This is the Module #4 post with overarching understandings.

I took a look at it and it seems maybe your post was cut off? I like the understanding I see there. I also like that you mentioned the just-in-time issue. I've found many times I've planned workshops only to discover the learners really needed something different, and I've had to switch gears.

There are conversations going on all over about the video of the bullying victim who fought back. It's also interesting to read the comments on this interview.

My husband went to Curtis High and was bullied all through grade school and finally through high school. He was the poor kid in a school of rich kids. When he went to the US Air Force, the bullying continued. He happened to make friends with a US Army/Delta sargeant. One night when they were out together in a bar, they ( other military men in the bar) started taunting my husband. These men were airmen not children. The sargeant interceded and told them that one day Curt would snap and to back off. He spent most of his school years locked in the the attic of his house, by his own choice, working on tapes and listening to music. This is why today he is a great sound man and band manager. The US AIr Force gave him confidence and the bullying drove him to music. Although he is slender and wiry...He is strong as an ox! While working in two state prisons as a corrections officer I found, the men the hardest to take down when filled with adrenaline, were the small and wiry people. So bullies of the world beware! Loved the video Jen.