Paula White's Parallel Play or Collaboration

The background music on this video was very distracting to me! lol- I had never heard of a 'wiki' except for Wikipedia (which i use weekly!) Paula presents the various uses of wikis (collaboration between teachers or students, discussions between peers, etc.) She calls wiki's "motivating" which makes sense- students are much more motivated to work via a wiki compared to paper and pencil! "Process of shared creation"= Collaboration...great definition Paula defined!

Check out my first Voicethread pertaining to the wonderful breed of dogs, the Dogue De Bordeaux!

Wow! when i went to www.pipl.com and typed in my name along with the city/state my wedding announcement photo/article came up along with an article/photo that was published on a website related to Osceola, Arkansas concerning hunting! this is a great and quick app to see what kind of digital footprint you or someone else is leaving behind. Since i am very careful with my facebook privacy settings, nothing related to my facebook account pulled up ;)

The main thing i took away from the Digiteen video titled "Wizard of Apps" was that there is a solution/answer to every problem/question. For example, there are an endless amount of apps for every thing imaginable! It can definitely be overwhelming! The video is too long to keep the average student's attention though and the Wizard of Oz theme relates more to young students in my opinion; definitely not high school students. The female student that portrays Dorothy is definitely talented in theater! ;) This presentation would be a good way to introduce young elementary students- but definitely not any older. I like when 'Dorothy' sings the line..."My digital footprint needs to be a good print", meaning to think twice before you post something online whether it be a blog, picture, comment, etc.

After watching Rachel Boyd's "A peek for a week in a Kiwi junior classroom" i realized this is by far my favorite video we have watched so far. The teacher does a great job exposing her 6 year olds to so many different things. I loved the acronym she uses "WALT" which stands for "We are Learning To." She also does a great job when she looks at a local news website each day and reads an article to the kids and they look for the 'who, what, when, why'? of the article. I loved that her version of show and tell was to let the kids email a picture of something fun they did over the weekend and it is displayed on the large screen in the classroom for the student to talk about.

After watching the video on Nafiza the first thing that stuck out to me was the quote that was referring to "digital literacy." I have never heard it worded that way before, but it makes sense! The world is growing fast and everything is changing so quickly. The thing i worry about is that since we are exposed/expected to use "technology" for everything nowadays, there will be no paper trail someday. For example, 50 years from now my future great-grandkids won't be able to find "love letters" written by me to my husband and vice-versa because everyone communicates digitally! I cherish the love letters i have that are from my great grandparents that are over 80 years old. I guess it's important to find a balance between being "old school" and "digitally literate."

The Digiteen Video was a little confusing to me because it seemed to cover a variety of topics that didn't transition very well- but overall the main thing that stuck out in my mind were the statistics of "DWT" better known as Driving While Texting...14% of car wrecks are caused by DUI's while 37% are caused by the driver texting! What a horrible statistic that can be easily prevented! Honestly, texting while driving should have been banned years ago and the topic is not brought up enough. I think it all goes back to "it wouldn't happen to me"- the invincibility that too many people feel too often.

After watching Project Learning: An Overview the main thing that stuck out in my mind is how teachers try to fit every student into the same "mold." We expect all students to succeed at "reading, writing, and arithmetic" but our brains are not all wired the same. Yes, i definitely think each student should be exposed to the main subjects taught in school, but the reason why we "lose" so many students throughout the years either due to alternative schools or juvenile detention centers is because they get bored. Nowadays it's sad because too many teachers don't let kids find what interests them. I loved the part of the video where it showed the Hawaii Exploration Academy and the young girl said being out in the real world and learning is so much more effective than reading a textbook sitting in a room listening to a teacher lecture. Too often teachers forget that students' attention spans are miniscule- you've got to keep them interested. I have noticed that nowadays school trips are limited which cuts back on the experiences for the child. My fondest school memories were field trips.