New ideas for facebook!

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=138721&title=Facebook_in_the_Classroom

As I was casually sitting at my desk at work, I was asked to create a facebook event for my restaurant. It was then, as I was using our business facebook page that I had an idea for implementing facebook into the classroom (in a way that is controlled and engaging). I am from an English background, but I feel like facebook may have some practical uses across disciplines. Here were some of my ideas:

English/Science/Social Studies (accomodate to grade level):

• Creating character profiles for novel
• Creating classroom group page for discussion
• Creating events based on specific literary movements
• My cohort for the GSE has a page we are all privately invited to that we discuss different GSE events, assignments, event, etc. So something similar may be useful for a specific group of students on the middle school and high school level. 
• Recreating historical events and inviting students to the "Event" that will partake in class, addressing the cultural and social ettiquete of the party. 
• Creating events for citizenship lessons, based around some sort of community issue. 
• Advocating for breast cancer
• Cleaning up the environment
• Exchanging resources on different community service porjects. 

This list is still in the making, but the more I think about its uses, the more valuable I find sites such as facebook to be. I feel like we should take advantage of students awareness of the websites functionality.

I would love some more suggestions on how facebook can be used through page and group options that are provided in the website.

My concern with the SES disparities

I am reading all of these articles on students having their own laptops or ipads in class and I am growing concerned with the SES gap that is already growing between school districts across the nation. Access to technology is without a doubt a privilege and enhancing the learning experiences of students, but what about low-income school districts that can not indulge in that luxury. It must put a damper on the capabilities of these students.

Hypothetically, let's say that two students attend the same university. One of them grew up having access to all of these technological tools, are familiar with multiple ways to engage in projects, activities, accessing knowledge, etc. Place him against a student who had experience with a run-down computer lab that was visited a couple times a week, mostly engaged in self-directed learning of the resources available to him or her, and honestly there is a severe advantage of one over the other.

I understand that disparities are already in existence and are far from being neutralized, but is this not just another thing to separate the students of this generation.

I guess all I can say is that I was blessed to have access to technology and I should probably be ashamed I have not used it to its full advantage. I was wondering what other people thought of this growing issue...let me know

Explorations-Conversations-Blogging Nations

I read through the texts and various other resources and I can't help but feel like there is an alternate universe that I was not aware could be lived in. All of these resources at our disposal and yet so little time to learn it all before more develops! Yet I understand the ABSOLUTE necessity of technology and the responsibilities we have as teachers to maintain a level of success in the classroom, given its relevance.

Is it as scary to you as it is to me?!


Yes. I am sure it is. Let's grab it by the horns everyone!

It is this very same fear, and the familiar feeling of being a learner in distress that makes me feel like I must conquer the technological realm I have been so light to tread on. 

The McLoughlin article reiterates what we have been struggling to grasp, that learning occurs in a socio-cultural system in which learners use various tools and multiple forms of interaction to create collective activity, supported by technology affordances. After breaking it down further I became intrigued by the standard views we have of cooperative learning. Being that cooperative learning tasks are instrumental to the success of learners and contribute to their social and academic progress, how does online cooperative learning hold a flame? I can't help but reflect on this experience in our Digital Tools class. We are trying to engage in online discussions, help each other perfect existing projects and such, but I feel it to be a lot more demanding and exhausting than a normal classroom setting.

I for one do not enjoy online classes. I feel they are impersonal and less engaging. Speaking of technology in the classroom, my entire 5th grade internship experience was centered around the promethean board; a new piece of technology put into every classroom. Once the power went out and we did not have internet access, the whole school was in a disarray and they were contemplating shutting school down. So while I accept technology as a valuable resource and something that is detrimental to the generations we are teaching and leading, I also think its a dangerous resource to rest on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ySocUyI7I

The new age of digital literacy is changing the face of teaching and learning!