I found a link at the bottom of my Blog 'Learn how to start mobile blogging' and I decided to give it a go. I got all excited when I read the instructions and saw how simple mobile blogging or moblogging could potentially be that I whipped out my Blackberry and started with Option 1: Sending an e-mail for my claim code. Got an instant reply saying that my device had failed to register and that I would have to send the same e-mail again. ATTEMPT 2...failed me again though I did appreciate the instant replies. Undeterred I decided to go with Option 2: Sending an SMS instead. After 2 more attempts at signing up for the service, here I am a Blogger NOT on the go.
Until my next post...
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Multitasking crash
Am I truly multitasking or am I simply shifting my attention from task to task? From simply driving to where I need to be in rush hour traffic every morning and having breakfast at the same time to simultaneously replying e-mails, checking the daily weather, having a cup of coffee and answering my mobile phone, how effective am I in all I do? Is it better to complete one task before beginning a second one or am I actually using my time better by multi-tasking.
A number of articles I read online this week supports the notion that doing two, three things at once does not actually save us time. While our brains are perfectly capable of keeping us walking, talking and chewing gum all at the same time, it is only because these movements have been practiced so much that they are automatic. When it comes to deeper and more meaningful activities that require a higher level of consciousness, multitasking may simply be a myth.
Take into consideration the digital and technology friendly era we live in and more than often it's information overload for us. Technology has created methods for information to reach us a lot more rapidly than in the past and in most cases we have failed to adapt as rapidly and to learn to filter information efficiently. We are not discrmininating between what is important and what is mundane.
It is not information overload, it is filter failure
Until my next post...
A number of articles I read online this week supports the notion that doing two, three things at once does not actually save us time. While our brains are perfectly capable of keeping us walking, talking and chewing gum all at the same time, it is only because these movements have been practiced so much that they are automatic. When it comes to deeper and more meaningful activities that require a higher level of consciousness, multitasking may simply be a myth.
Take into consideration the digital and technology friendly era we live in and more than often it's information overload for us. Technology has created methods for information to reach us a lot more rapidly than in the past and in most cases we have failed to adapt as rapidly and to learn to filter information efficiently. We are not discrmininating between what is important and what is mundane.
It is not information overload, it is filter failure
Until my next post...
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Social networking sites
I went on Facebook today, trying to find out how long I've been a member of this social networking site and funnily enough, though I can find out the daily going-ons of my friend's life on this site, I failed to locate how long it's been since I've clicked the 'Sign up" button on Facebook. Recent lectures have gotten me thinking about my 'online conduct' and if a potential employer were to click on my page one day, would my page reflect an accurate perception of myself or would it possibly condemn me and my chances of getting the job. My answer: It's accurate if you carefully follow the progression, personally know who I am and have been a live witness to the context of each and everyone of my pictures and videos. Verdict: I'll probably be condemned and lose my potential job.
So then, are we responsible for our each and everyone of our online actions and to what extent? Can we be accountable for everything that is uploaded to the web about me. Referring back to the ACMA seminar, there is a huge need for web users to be safe cybercitizens. Since the seminar and this week's lecture, I've checked and edited my Facebook friends, double checked my privacy settings and actively tried to untag myself from numerous photos and videos.
Would I use social networking sites in the classroom? Given that Facebook and most social networking sites are meant to be for individuals aged 13 and over, I feel relatively comfortable with my position as a future primary school educator who will not have to implement these sites in my classroom due to these restriction. I will however have to prepare myself for the more junior versions of these sites such as Moshi Monsters and ensure that I am aware of how these sites operate, their capabilities and their benefits in Education system. There will also be the issue of preparing my students for future uses of social networking sites.
On a different note, one albeit astray from the topic of social networking sites but what about blogs? Blogs represent an excellent platform for people to share information, photos, videos and at the same time present people the opportunity to comment on their posts. I have to admit, I'm a closet blog follower. I know the names of children, their parents, their favourite activities and numerous other random facts of people I've never met and am likely never to met halfway across the world but whose blogs I have stumbled across in the past and am now addicted to. How safe is it for people to be posting so openly? While I love being invited into their lives, when I do take the time to think about my favourite pasttime, I find it slightly 'creepy'.
Until my next post...
So then, are we responsible for our each and everyone of our online actions and to what extent? Can we be accountable for everything that is uploaded to the web about me. Referring back to the ACMA seminar, there is a huge need for web users to be safe cybercitizens. Since the seminar and this week's lecture, I've checked and edited my Facebook friends, double checked my privacy settings and actively tried to untag myself from numerous photos and videos.
Would I use social networking sites in the classroom? Given that Facebook and most social networking sites are meant to be for individuals aged 13 and over, I feel relatively comfortable with my position as a future primary school educator who will not have to implement these sites in my classroom due to these restriction. I will however have to prepare myself for the more junior versions of these sites such as Moshi Monsters and ensure that I am aware of how these sites operate, their capabilities and their benefits in Education system. There will also be the issue of preparing my students for future uses of social networking sites.
On a different note, one albeit astray from the topic of social networking sites but what about blogs? Blogs represent an excellent platform for people to share information, photos, videos and at the same time present people the opportunity to comment on their posts. I have to admit, I'm a closet blog follower. I know the names of children, their parents, their favourite activities and numerous other random facts of people I've never met and am likely never to met halfway across the world but whose blogs I have stumbled across in the past and am now addicted to. How safe is it for people to be posting so openly? While I love being invited into their lives, when I do take the time to think about my favourite pasttime, I find it slightly 'creepy'.
Until my next post...
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Cybersafety Outreach
Last Thursday, I attended a Cybersafety lecture given by ACMA at my university. It was a real eye-opener as while I had always known that I wasn't the best at technology, I have just found out that in addition to that, I'm not an effective cybercitizen either.
The lecturer kicked off spouting out a number of scenarios where the use of technology has inadvertently placed technology users in a whole lot of trouble. I remember sitting there thinking 'This could easily happen to me!!!!'. Little alarm bells started going off in my head and I started sitting a little taller in my seat and leaning a little closer to the front.
Q:How can we protect ourself from being on the wrong end of the the wonder of technology?
A:Be an effective cybercitizen.
We need to constantly educate ourselves and students on how to be an effective and safe user of the cybercommunity. This includes educating students on appropriate online behaviour to ensure positive online experiences. Cyberbullying has become an issue and adults need to be aware of it and be on the lookout of possible signs that cyberbullying may be occurring. Students should from an early age be taught how to develop positive and appropriate relationships and also how to avoid or deal with cyberbullying..
Students and adults alike need to be critical when analysing and media text or images that are viewing online. In addition to that, we need to be cautious about what we choose to upload to the web and how we choose to do so. Posting items on unsecure profiles or websites can lead to unwanted attention, undesirable self-images and identity theft. An innocent photo of a person having a drink at a party today may easily come back to bite us 10 years down the track as a photo of a 'teacher enjoying one too many drinks at a party'.
This leads us to
As a future teacher, I've learnt that my duty of care can arguably extend to the use of technology outside the school grounds in situations where I may become aware that a child may be harmed. Failure to take reasonable care may amount to negligence. Now, this scares me, A LOT. The use of technology leads me to a land where there are no physical boundaries to limit it and I will need to one day police this land and ensure that all my students are safe. That feels like a responsibility of monumental proportions. This lecture however has awoken me to that responsibility and made me realise while it is physically impossible to limit this responsibility, I can learn to identify the risks associated with the Internet, educate my students about this risk, embed cybersafety practices in my teaching and above all be aware of the school policies in place. Knowledge is POWER.
Until my next post...
The lecturer kicked off spouting out a number of scenarios where the use of technology has inadvertently placed technology users in a whole lot of trouble. I remember sitting there thinking 'This could easily happen to me!!!!'. Little alarm bells started going off in my head and I started sitting a little taller in my seat and leaning a little closer to the front.
Q:How can we protect ourself from being on the wrong end of the the wonder of technology?
A:Be an effective cybercitizen.
We need to constantly educate ourselves and students on how to be an effective and safe user of the cybercommunity. This includes educating students on appropriate online behaviour to ensure positive online experiences. Cyberbullying has become an issue and adults need to be aware of it and be on the lookout of possible signs that cyberbullying may be occurring. Students should from an early age be taught how to develop positive and appropriate relationships and also how to avoid or deal with cyberbullying..
Students and adults alike need to be critical when analysing and media text or images that are viewing online. In addition to that, we need to be cautious about what we choose to upload to the web and how we choose to do so. Posting items on unsecure profiles or websites can lead to unwanted attention, undesirable self-images and identity theft. An innocent photo of a person having a drink at a party today may easily come back to bite us 10 years down the track as a photo of a 'teacher enjoying one too many drinks at a party'.
This leads us to
THINK BEFORE YOU POSTTaking that extra few minutes to think about the item that we are intending to share on the web and the repercussions that may come along with it is an important aspect of being a safe user on the web. Take into consideration who we have on our social networking sites and the relationship we have with each person. Do we want that person to know about this item we're posting? If not, why? Is it because, quite possibly the item is inappropriate or perhaps the person isn't a friend anymore and you may be better off deleting them from your social networking page?
As a future teacher, I've learnt that my duty of care can arguably extend to the use of technology outside the school grounds in situations where I may become aware that a child may be harmed. Failure to take reasonable care may amount to negligence. Now, this scares me, A LOT. The use of technology leads me to a land where there are no physical boundaries to limit it and I will need to one day police this land and ensure that all my students are safe. That feels like a responsibility of monumental proportions. This lecture however has awoken me to that responsibility and made me realise while it is physically impossible to limit this responsibility, I can learn to identify the risks associated with the Internet, educate my students about this risk, embed cybersafety practices in my teaching and above all be aware of the school policies in place. Knowledge is POWER.
Until my next post...
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Multliteracies
If any of you have read Mark Pegrum's reading for week 6, it goes beyond talking about print literacy, texting literacy and hypertext literacy and introduces us to a world where terms such as search literacy, information literacy and participatory literacy not only are used but consequently where the reader finds themself figurng out if they identify with each of these terms.
But first, let's consider print literacy. The simple idea of figuring out how a combination of letters become a word and a set of words in a speific order become a sentence that conveys the meaning of its writer. If we didn't have those skills, would the Web be of any use to us? I don't believe a person without print literacy will gain as much from the Web as an equally skilled person at navigating the Web but who also is print literate will. The idea that there are radicalists who suggest that print literacy is unimportant in this day and age stricks me actually as a very backward frame of mind as it appears to refer back to a time where people communicated using symbols and drawings except it will be done on a more sophisticated platform.
With that though, I do believe that the Web and technology advancements have evolved the use of our print literacy resulting in what people refer to as netspeak. What is it? It's the shrthnd lang of é technologically proficient 2day. This form of literacy goes beyond attempting to fit a single train of thought into a specified number of characters a mobile network gives you to being a language that is well suited to situations that require rapid communication and at the same time serves as a membership to a technologically savvy 'cool' crowd. In the case of children and teenagers, it may even be safe to say that the presence of netspeak has created a situation in which children are happily writing more and more without even realising it.
Can it and should it be used in the classroom? I think the answer to the question lies with the teacher of the classroom and how comfortable they are with having children using it in their classroom. If it exists as a foreign language to the teacher and ends up being more frustrating attempting to accommodate this new language then it's probably a better idea to discourage its use in the classroom. If on the other hand, the teacher views it as a fun challenge to see what new levels this new language can take the class to then the idea of 'codeswitching' and incorporating netspeak in daily tasks may be appropriate.
This leads me to the platform in which I first learnt to speak the language: Chats and Instant messaging. Hurrah for the days where I'd rush home from school to switch on the computer and log on to chat rooms and speak to people that surprise, surprise I had just spent 8 hours of my day at school with. I don't think there's any way to describe the allure of chat rooms and instant messaging except that if they were so captivating to me, why I should doubt the magical hold it has on children today. I say embrace it and be creative in how we can use it to create new and innovative ways for students to discuss their ideas.
Until my next post...
But first, let's consider print literacy. The simple idea of figuring out how a combination of letters become a word and a set of words in a speific order become a sentence that conveys the meaning of its writer. If we didn't have those skills, would the Web be of any use to us? I don't believe a person without print literacy will gain as much from the Web as an equally skilled person at navigating the Web but who also is print literate will. The idea that there are radicalists who suggest that print literacy is unimportant in this day and age stricks me actually as a very backward frame of mind as it appears to refer back to a time where people communicated using symbols and drawings except it will be done on a more sophisticated platform.
With that though, I do believe that the Web and technology advancements have evolved the use of our print literacy resulting in what people refer to as netspeak. What is it? It's the shrthnd lang of é technologically proficient 2day. This form of literacy goes beyond attempting to fit a single train of thought into a specified number of characters a mobile network gives you to being a language that is well suited to situations that require rapid communication and at the same time serves as a membership to a technologically savvy 'cool' crowd. In the case of children and teenagers, it may even be safe to say that the presence of netspeak has created a situation in which children are happily writing more and more without even realising it.
Can it and should it be used in the classroom? I think the answer to the question lies with the teacher of the classroom and how comfortable they are with having children using it in their classroom. If it exists as a foreign language to the teacher and ends up being more frustrating attempting to accommodate this new language then it's probably a better idea to discourage its use in the classroom. If on the other hand, the teacher views it as a fun challenge to see what new levels this new language can take the class to then the idea of 'codeswitching' and incorporating netspeak in daily tasks may be appropriate.
This leads me to the platform in which I first learnt to speak the language: Chats and Instant messaging. Hurrah for the days where I'd rush home from school to switch on the computer and log on to chat rooms and speak to people that surprise, surprise I had just spent 8 hours of my day at school with. I don't think there's any way to describe the allure of chat rooms and instant messaging except that if they were so captivating to me, why I should doubt the magical hold it has on children today. I say embrace it and be creative in how we can use it to create new and innovative ways for students to discuss their ideas.
Until my next post...
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Another weekend comes and goes
The Web has frustrated me all weekend. I spent the last 2 days attempting to complete my Capstone presentation and doing research online. While I've not picked a difficult topic of interest, I do realise that I've picked one where assessing and locating information may not be as familiar or simple a process as I'm used to. The Internet is an incredible source of knowledge but when you fail to have the appropriate navigational tools or in my case I like to refer to it as 'driving directions', you end up going in circles and meeting roadblocks. So yes, the incredible source of knowledge then becomes inaccessible and basically useless to me without the appropriate directions. Random keywords whilst helpful in dragging up shopping sites, aimless information and fascinating videos on other occassions are certainly not advantageous this weekend.
My one saving grace this weekend though has been Wikipedia. While information on the page is not peer-reviewed and prime material for referencing university assignments, it has provided me a quick history catch-up on information I have long forgotten. It has also managed to minimise my random keyword searches to more specific terms and whilst I'm still 'driving' aimlessly, it feels a little bit more like my Navman is in the process of getting fixed and soon, very very soon, I will be able to navigate the Web for the information I need efficiently again.
Until my next post...
p.s. New frustration: Why can't I put spaces between my paragraphs????? This is my third and last try...if it doesn't work, then it's meant to be.
My one saving grace this weekend though has been Wikipedia. While information on the page is not peer-reviewed and prime material for referencing university assignments, it has provided me a quick history catch-up on information I have long forgotten. It has also managed to minimise my random keyword searches to more specific terms and whilst I'm still 'driving' aimlessly, it feels a little bit more like my Navman is in the process of getting fixed and soon, very very soon, I will be able to navigate the Web for the information I need efficiently again.
Until my next post...
p.s. New frustration: Why can't I put spaces between my paragraphs????? This is my third and last try...if it doesn't work, then it's meant to be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)