New Class

Yippee!!!! I am in the 3rd week of my 4th class of my Masters in Teaching and Learning Technology. What a difference in teachers! The last teacher actually made me question my abilities as a student and being able to complete this program! My new teacher is encouraging, positive, and full of information! I have learned through this experience what aspects I want to carry forward in my own teaching techniques. It has allowed me to see how a teacher's attitude towards their students can actually hinder that student's learning. I was so frustrated as a student when I started this new class I actually felt sick to my stomach when I went to turn on my computer. I must have stared at the computer screen for at least 30 minutes before I was able to start my first assignment. In my new class I have found success again and I am enjoying all the new knowledge I am receiving!

Completely Overwhelmed This Week!

I am feeling completely overwhelmed with this class and program!!! When I decided to take on this degree I was told this program was great for individuals that are working full-time. As a teacher, you do not have the luxury of working from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and be done. Myself and most other teachers I know arrive an hour or two before students arrive at school and then leave to go home several hours after students leave. In a small district, like the one I work in, you also are working on grants, coaching, attending meetings, and the list goes on and on. Most weekends go by also with the teacher in the classroom preparing for the next week. In my first few classes I seemed to have no problem keeping up with assignments. In this class we are spending a lot of time exploring sites and developing Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, PBWorks and more accounts. The amount of time to complete those requirements would be enough to keep me busy for hours, but then we have our discussion questions and writing assignments on top of that! I do NOT have enough hours in my day! I feel like I am sinking and doing a terrible job in my assignments. I take pride in being a great student. The other bummer is that I do not feel like I am learning everything because there is sooooo much information to get through and not enough time to do a thorough job of learning the information! OK, now on with what I have learned in the last sessions.

We set up Ning, Facebook, and PBWorks and had to give the pros and cons of each. I personally found that PBWorks was a much better environment for a learning event because there were minimal distractions. Ning and Facebook are, to me, primarily social and for a learner too many distractions. PBWorks seems to be geared more toward learning and collaboration.
We also had to decide if we felt Ning, Facebook, or PBWorks could replace Moodle or any other Learning Management System (LMS). I personally do not believe that any of the options could truly replace an LMS. I believe they could play a partial role in learning, but the LMS would still be necessary for posting grades and submitting dropbox assignments due to privacy issues.

We were also assigned to read an article, Minds on Fire: Open Source, and Learning 2.0 by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler. The article describes how learners are able to participate in learning events all over the world through virtual environments like Second Life. This site has information on any subject you can imagine from the law, the arts, music, and even new technologies. This is all available without enrolling in an actual university where you physically attend class on a campus. This article predicts a shortage of universities within the next decade that makes virtual learning (synchronous and asynchronous) necessary to educate everyone who desires a college education to meet our society’s quickly growing demand for more well-educated workers entering the workforce.

The article discusses the outside-the-box learning as Learning 2.0. It states that the internet started out as a unidirectional learning tool. The experts published, and the learners read. This is considered the first phase, or 1.0. Now, the internet is a collaborative tool which allows contributors of all levels of expertise to come together. This second phase of the internet is called Learning 2.0.

Reference:

Brown, J. S. & Adler, R. P. (2008, January/February). Minds on Fire: Open Education,

      the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0. EDUCAUSE Review.
      http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdf

Professional learning communities, Wikipedia retrieved May, 2010 from.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Learning_Community

Suspended Teacher in Facebook Incident Ignites Debate: Should Online Privacy for Educators Exist?

Schaffhauser’s article, "Suspended Teacher in Facebook Incident Ignites Debate: Should Online Privacy for Educators Exist?" Brought up some important interesting facts that all teachers need to think about and consider. This article touches on what some challenges may accompany sharing information on the internet. The teacher in this article made a comment on Facebook about the students in her class that was meant for her friends only, but ended up being seen publicly. The comment was hurtful, judgmental, mean, entirely inappropriate, and unprofessional.

According to Schaffhauser (2008), “The incident has generated a discussion among teachers, parents, administrators, and privacy advocates regarding free speech for teachers…” (Paragraph 5)   Many teachers have not considered that on a public forum like Facebook, what they say may be seen.  

According to Mike Simpson (2009), “…Many teachers believe they have the absolute First Amendment right to post anything they want on social networking sites, including party pix…Sadly, the courts say otherwise” (Paragraph 3 & 4). Many companies have employees sign contracts stating they must represent the company in a positive way even when not at work; maybe this is something school districts need to add to teacher’s contracts. This is a responsibility to the job of teaching just like holding a public office, it should be treated exactly the same.  I do believe that any company or school district should clearly state policies upon hiring an employee about exactly what expectations they hold on internet usage on and off of the job.

I personally did not know how limited teachers actually are in their speech until I read Mike Simpson (2009) which points out that in general, “Without going into the gory details, teacher free speech rights are fairly limited:  their speech is protected only if they speak out as citizens on “matters of public concern” and their speech doesn’t disrupt the school” (paragraph 12) This is a huge message that needs to be emphasized to teachers strongly, especially because we have become such technology users and may not think about the fact that anything placed on the internet is not truly private.

References:

Schaffhauser, D. (2008). Suspended Teacher in Facebook Incident Ignites Debate: Should Online Privacy  

    for Educators Exist? The Journal. http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23611

Simpson, M. (2009). Social networking nightmares, Cyberspeak no evil. In National Education Association.

    Retrieved October 5, 2011, from http://www.nea.org/home/38324.htm

My First Blog Experience

I have several friends who are consistent bloggers, so I had a bit of experience in reading blogs, but never considered creating one. Our reading this week and “Learning Tasks” allowed me the opportunity to see just what a great tool for learning and teaching these sites can be if utilized correctly and safely for students. I quickly began imagining all the different activities I could create for my students; from writing diaries to commentary between my own students or students from other school districts on any subject imaginable.  I like the fact that the blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments. These allows for peer comments along with the teacher. What a great collaborative space for students!