Journal #7: My Personal Learning Network (NETS-T 5)

[Description: For this assignment I learned about Personal Learning Networks and how they are constructed. The three main tools I used to create my PLN are Delicious, Twitter, and Classroom 2.0. From each of these sources I was able to discover how to connect with other people and find educational technology resources. Afterwords, I reflected on the usefulness of my PLN through a journal post.]

1. My personal learning network is divided into two categories: mircobloggers (Twitter) who focus on incorporating technology into the classroom and websites found through the social bookmaking tool Delicious that focus more on resources specifically for history/social studies teachers. I think these two categories work well together especially for history teachers because History is seen as one of the more traditional classes that functions without the use of up-to-date technology, unlike science or computer classes. But because history classes focuses on subject matter from the past and material that many students see as irrelevant or not interesting, technology with help in presenting the material in new and creative ways.

2. My network of 6 people on Twitter consists of 5 teachers (Scott Mcleod, Kelly Smith, Kimberly from EdTech UNconference, Jeffery Heil, and Shelly Terrell) and one collaborative community—EdTech Talk. I chose these people to follow on Twitter after checking their personal blogs and found that they have a lot of good resources and blogposts about incorporating technology into the classroom, tech tools, tutorials on how use certain tools such as Smartboard and how to motivate students using technology.

The educational chat I participated in Twitter was for social studies/history teachers (#sschat) and I chose it because of my aspiration to become a history teacher. The topic of discussion for the chat was who should we, as history/social studies teachers, consider to be important historical figures to include into our curriculums? This topic question was really interesting because who teachers include to focus on in their classrooms is a good reflection of where the teaching of history is today and the personal interests of teachers. Should teachers focus on major figures? Or stories of people who previously had no voice such as women, minorities, the poor and oppressed? Most of the people who participated in the chat were teachers sharing what they were currently doing in their classrooms. The chat lasted an hour and the three main themes that emerged from everyone’s tweets were on  (1) revealing interesting and sometimes funny aspects of well-known historical figures in order to make them more interesting for the students to learn about, (2) presenting the more controversial aspects of a historical figure in order make the student determine for themselves whether the person was good or bad and  (3) focusing the curriculum on the more unknown segments of a population in history. I had made the comment on the chat that ‘all history is revisionist history and history today is the process of including in the stories of ordinary people and people who did not have control of history and therefore were left out in official record books.' The main revelation in this chat for me was the fact that teachers today have more creativity and autonomy in the historical figures they focus on and they do not necessarily have to focus on teaching only the core historical figures that are taught in traditional history textbooks.

3. The two main tags that I was looking for on Delicious were 'resources' and 'history' and I put people into my network that had a lot of sites that had these tags. Four of the websites I tagged as PLN had content that is relevant for history teachers and courses. Since writing and research is a main component of history courses I found a search engine that automatically determines if a text is plagiarized since plagiarism is a concern in these courses. I also tagged an essay called 'How to create non-readers' since reading is also a large part that makes up history courses. The third history specific site I tagged PLN is a site called Eyewitness to History and if focuses on telling important historical events through the eyes of ordinary people which is good for presenting a different side to the more traditional ways of presenting an event to a class. The last site I tagged for history is a site called Making Sense of Evidence that helps students and teachers how to determine the authenticity of sources such as books, pictures, movies, etc. which is good tool for doing research. The other site I tagged dealt with either finding tech tools for use in the classroom and tutorials on how to use them (such as Atomic Learning).

4.The article I read from Classroom 2.0 was titled "Wikipedia is NOT Wicked!" by Gwyneth Jones. The main argument of the article is to convey the idea teachers have the wrong impression when they look down upon using Wikipedia as a resource/research. Attached to the blogpost is an article which talks about a study done by a Nature journal where they compared the accuracy of Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica. It found that Wikipedia was only slightly less accurate as Britannica (per article) and that certain high profile cases of deliberate misinformation put on the site were the exception to the rule. The blogpost argues that teaches can't ignore Wikipedia because of how pervasive it is as a source of information. However, it is argued that Wikipedia best left for getting background information, looking up key words, and terms rather for heavy or serious research. Wikipedia should provide context and focus to a student's research in order to cut down on reading unnecessary or redundant information. I agreed with the article's argument saying that is should only be used as a starting point for gathering information. What was really surprising to find out was how accurate Wikipedia was compared to other sources that were seen as more credible, although every time I would use it for research I rarely encountered information that was clearly out-of-place. Teachers I think are hesitant to accept Wikipedia as a legitimate source even if there are references provided for the information because of how easy it is to access the information, unlike sifting through scholarly journals or books and the fact that it doesn't go into heavy detail--although the article makes the point that it shouldn't be intended for that purpose, and just like Britannica is only used for general information.

Journal 4 (NETS-T 3 ): Computing In The Clouds

Citation: Johnson, Doug. (December 2009). Computing In The Clouds. Learning and Leading. Retrieved October 16, 2010, Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition- december-janruary-2009-2010.aspx

The myriad difficulties associated with implementing computer technology in schools in a comprehensive fashion and in the home are seemingly ameliorated with the growing popularity of ‘cloud computing’ which refers to the use of applications and file storage that exist on a network rather than on a traditional computer storage drive. The article asserts that common problems with computers in education, such as the costs for programs and applications, and the sometimes inefficient manner in which files and stored and transferred—and lost in the process—are easily solved with such as Google Docs which allow for the free use of web space in which students can store and share information, papers, and projects with one another. The author of the article gives evidence of the ease-of-use and efficient manner in which the different daily function such as email, word processing, photo-editing, etc. can easily be accomplished using cloud computing with free programs offered online in the section entitled ‘Living in the Cloud’. All the difficulties, expenses and different the accounts and memberships one uses can all be done for free in one space. However, as with any new applications, cloud computing is not without some concerns. The main issue being privacy; considering that one put information on a network rather than on the personal storage space of a computer hard drive. However, the article champions the effect that cloud computing will have on the greater availability and use of computers in a student’s education. The advent of netbook computers compliments cloud computing it that the latter eliminates the need for bulky and expensive laptops that preference storage space and instead focuses on basic applications that students use in their everyday classes. As a result of this, the relationship between cloud computing and netbooks will make netbooks as ubiquitous in the classroom as calculators.

Question 1
How will netbooks and cloud computing be implemented on a more practical, everyday basis in my classroom?

Answer 1
The use of netbooks will create a more collaborative environment in my classroom by making group projects more fluid and interaction between students, especially outside the classroom, easier. Coupling this with the cloud computing applications that allow student to manipulate and present information according to their own tastes and strengths, student will invest more creativity into their work. Moreover, if every student in my class has a netbook at their desk—which I would make sure would allow them access to class materials that I would post online—it would completely eliminated the need of what I think is the most useless waste of time during class: copying notes from the board. Students with netbooks would have instant access to notes about the subject matter.

Question 2
How can netbooks and cloud computing tackle the issue of inequality in education?

Answer 2
One of the hot button topics in schools today is the availability of computers in every classroom and the disparity of the amount of computers between rich school districts that can afford then and poorer school districts that cannot. If trends with the use of cloud computing and the lower costs of netbooks continue, one can easily envision in 20 years the proliferation of computers in school districts that cannot afford them today. Students in these schools will then be able to utilize all of the benefits of computer technology in their education.

Journal 3 (NETS-T 1): Bring The World Into Your Classroom

Citation: McDermon , Linda. (2010). Bring the world into your classroom . Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(2), Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100910#pg1

The opportunity for students in one classroom environment to interact with educators, scientists, and students potentially from the other side of the world is the premise behind the implementation of video-conferencing technology in the classroom. In a world that is becoming increasingly inter-connected by the internet, social media, and other communication technology, the article would argue for the importance of a means to share and present information, ideas, and activities in a manner that would be both exciting for the students and constructive for their education in sharpening their presentations and getting feedback and interaction with students who would give a different socio-cultural assessment of their projects. Moreover, the article points out that video-conferencing technology could potentially make traditional (and costly) field trips to educational settings such museums obsolete by bringing that environment to the classroom through interaction with educators via video-conferencing. Two programs in particular ‘Read Around the Planet’ where students share what they are reading with students in other schools, and ‘Megaconference Jr.’ where students can present information and leave it in a forum for other students to access are cultivating valuable presentation skills to students in the classroom.

Question 1
How can this technology be beneficial for student’s view of other people around the world and diversity?

Answer 1
With direct interaction with students from a culture and country that might be foreign to domestic students, students will speak directly to foreign students with background different from their own and gain an understanding of different cultures and regions of the world. Moreover, rather than learning about groups of people from the media, who often present an entire population in a stereotypical way, students will hear directly from the mouths of those people and form their own opinions of them. By exposing students to people who act and talk differently from themselves, video-conferencing technology will foster the acceptance of diversity.

Question 2
What other possible applications could video-conferencing technology have in the classroom?

Answer 2
For teachers, and much like in the business world, video-conferencing will allow for another avenue for the exchange of ideas between teachers. Instead of transporting teachers from around the country to a single place to discuss their profession and its issues, video-conference will eliminate the hassle of distance. Furthermore, it will allow teachers to view how other teachers, especially from different countries, operate in their classrooms and they will see first-hand the methods they use.

Journal 2 (NETS-T 5): Join The Flock and Enhance Your Twitter Experiance

Citations: Ferguson, Hadley. (2010). Join the flock. Learning & Leading with Technology, Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&search_term=join%20the%20flock&search_term=join%20the%20flock#pg14

McClintock Miller, Shannon. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading with Technology, Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&search_term=join%20the%20flock&search_term=join%20the%20flock#pg16


These two articles give a good, brief summary of the benefits of having a Twitter account, the strategies one uses in order to connect with people of similar interests and the reasons why educators and teachers should join twitter as a way of enhancing one’s understanding of the professions and teaching methods and techniques. What the articles highlight are professional learning networks (PLN) which are communities of individuals who share similar interests. As a novice to using twitter, ‘Join the flock’ describes the process of following someone on twitter, re-tweeting, and eventually tweeting one’s own messages. The article uses the analogy of trying to join a conversation at a party as a metaphor for the way twitter eliminates the hesitancy one can in real life of exposing one’s ideas to others and also the difficultly one can have in real life in finding people who have similar interests without a guide. “Enhance Your Twitter Experience” delves more specifically into how one with a twitter account can find specific topics on is interesting by using techniques such as the use of hashmarks (#) that target specific topics of conversation. For educators—and just as with any group of people with similar interests—twitter connects teachers with educators from around the world in order to share their knowledge of the profession.

Question 1
How could twitter be used by my students in conjunction with what they are learning?

Answer 1
Twitter is not only for following celebrities and friends; news organizations, influential people in education, business, etc. and other media outlets also have Twitter accounts. And in an effort to get my class more knowledgeable of the world around them and what important events are happening, having Twitter accounts will provide another avenue, other than television and the internet, to stay updated on events which we will discuss on a daily basis in my classroom.

Question 2
In what ways is Twitter better than face-to-face collaboration with other teachers in my school?

Answer 2
Although it is always a good idea to work with the teachers at one’s school, Twitter provides connection to teachers and educators from different educational backgrounds and environments. Some teaching methods and techniques could have been developed as a result of the particular educational environment at a particular school. And considering that a teacher is limited to one teaching environment, twitter expose teachers to those techniques that would otherwise not been possible in a certain environment had a teacher only looked at their immediate environment. Moreover, because of the ease-of-use of having conversations with other educators, Twitter can motivate teachers to continuously shape and update their teaching styles because of the way it exposes one to resources through the people one meets through Twitter.

Journal 1 (NETS-T 2): Taking Laptops Schoolwide

Citation: Green, Tim, Donovan, and Loretta, & Bass, Kim. (August 2010). Taking laptops school-wide: a professional learning community approach. International Society for Technology in Education, Retrieved from: https://acrobat.com/#d=7rIs4heRCXPhOZp7l-otEg

The presence of laptop technology into early education is an issue that is addressed in the article primarily within the context of integrating its use within the curriculum and the need for teacher-teacher and teacher-student collaboration in order to fully use the hardware and software in an efficient manner. Collaboration is paramount not only because using laptops changes the way students learn and therefore changes the way teachers teach but also because these devices allow for a greater degree of access to resources are available to them online. The concept of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a manifestation of the need for collaboration, where teachers come together to share data on students and to set out lesson planning. Overall, the article focused more on the necessary environment for laptops to flourish in the classroom but did not adequately address two key issues such as (1) do the benefits for laptops in early education outweigh the costs (especially during a time of a budget crisis in education) and (2) in what ways will the use of laptops improve the students’ capacity to learn and absorb information.

Question 1
How will the use of laptops in the classroom encourage teacher collaboration?
Answer 1

Any change in teaching methods will naturally be difficult and a period of trial and error will ensue. In order for laptops to be implemented effectively otherwise, more, teachers provides an easier avenue for teachers to share information not only about resources they find online, but information of how some teachers are more effective than others by looking at how they set up their curriculum.

Question 2
What other pre-conditions are needed, other than the ones mentioned, for laptops to be implemented effectively in classrooms?

Answer 2
The most obvious pre-condition for laptops in classrooms is their affordability, especially in poorer school districts. The article simplifies the solution to the problem of integrating laptops without mentioning more mundane problems such as funding; while some school districts can afford to have one computer for every child in a particular classroom that thus, one could argue, by sheer numbers alone, laptops are already better integrated in the classroom compared to a classroom that can only afford a handful to be used by several dozen students.

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