My Digital Footprint

Your Digital Footprint or Digital Identity is who and where you are online. Depending on whether you post online or use online curation, you may have a large or small digital footprint.

The easiest way to take a look at how you are portrayed online is to Google yourself and see what comes up. Unfortunately for me, even though I blog, use Pinterest, have an open Twitter account, and have two websites, when I Google myself, I do not even show up on the first page:

I wish I had control over what people see when they Google my name. I am careful to only post things online that I would be fine with my future employer and future children to see, however I can't control what the other Kelsey Jennings' of the world choose to post in (my?) name. I would hate to be turned down for a job because another Kelsey Jennings posted something inappropriate online, but all I have control over is what I post.

I think it's important that we encourage our students to Google themselves and see what comes up. Sometimes when we post something we think is private, it ends up being seen by far more than we would like.

I also believe that we have the choice to be the same person online as we are offline, or we can be a different person. While I think it is best to be a good person both on- and offline, and I try to do so, I can't trust that everyone is the same on both platforms. It's important that our students recognize this when they are interacting with others online. Digital Dualism exists, and we need to be careful of it.

Following an Edublogger

The wonderful thing about teaching in this day and age is that there are tons of resources, lesson plans, and ideas online, and many of it is free for teachers!

One Edublogger that I've recently started following is Free Technology for Teachers, whose title sums up exactly what I look for in an edublogger. It focus a lot on technology that I already use, such as Google Docs, Google +, and iOS tips.

The creator of Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Byrne, is a former high school Social Studies teacher, Google Certified Teacher, and the recipient of many Edublogger awards. He posts multiple times a day and also does presentations around the world on using technology in the classroom.

I'll be honest - the reason I started following this blog was mainly because of the word "FREE". For a student like myself, free is the magic word. I once took a tour of the cafeteria just to get a free lunch, even though I'd been in that cafeteria multiple times before.

Free Technology for Teachers is a great blog, and I've learned a lot from following Richard. He recently posted about the 100 Word Challenge - a blog that posts a short writing prompt for students, and allows them to submit them and have them read by peers. The grade 5/6 students in my last placement used these writing prompts and read others' work, but did not post theirs online. It was great to hear Richard's thoughts on this platform, as I think it would be a good way to work with students' writing in class.

Along with posting technology blogs and tips on using technology, Richard also posts different resources for teaching our students. Today, Richard also posted some great resources on snow, specifically Scholastic's Interactive Weather Maker, which was actually pretty fun to play around with!

I'll leave you with a video he posted today on the chemistry of snowflakes:

 

Organizing Yourself Online

I like to think of myself as an organized person... for the most part. There are times when my organizing is pushed to the side and I let things pile up, but that doesn't usually last long. During my undergrad, I wasn't able to write a paper until my dorm was completely clean and organized, so that usually meant cleaning and organizing until midnight, and writing my paper until morning; not something I would even encourage students to do, but I got through it.

The online world is so huge that really, you have to be organized if you want to keep anything there. I don't know how many times I've come across a video or article, thought I should keep it or pass it on to someone, and then forgotten where I found it in the first place. Curation is a necessity when dealing with the internet, and it is something I'll need to teach my students.

The main way that I organize myself online is through Pinterest. I have everything from lesson plans to recipes, to tips on how to get stains out of the carpet. I have over one hundred recipes on my "Recipes I've Tried" board, and over one thousand on my other "Food" board that I have yet to try... and sadly I'll never have time to try them all.

Another way I stay organized online is by using Google Drive. I love storing my files online because I can access them from anywhere. It's also really easy to share them with someone, or allow them to edit your files if you want.

A final way I organize myself online is fairly recent; using an RSS reader. This is a great way for me to keep up on all my classmates' blogs and see when they've added a new one.

I hope that my students will use Google Drive in the classroom, provided it is allowed and not blocked. It's a great place to save and share documents with the teacher or other classmates, and I think students would really benefit from using it.

The main thing is staying organized, which reminds me... I need to get back to pinning new recipes.

Web-Based Courses

Today we had a presentation in class on web-based courses in Manitoba, and specifically using online courses in high school. There are a great number of web-based courses offered in Manitoba, and they come in handy for students in remote areas who do not have access to specialized teachers, those who want to take two classes scheduled at the same time, or those who need flexible schedules for one reason or another.

One particular online tool we looked at was Blackboard, which can be previewed as a guest by clicking the link. Blackboard is kind of like an online classroom, with all the lessons available for students. There is the ability to use reflective journalling, chat with one another, compose blogs and wikis, participate in teacher-guided discussions, and visit posted web resources.

In taking a look at Blackboard, it was awesome to see how the outcomes were organized and easily accessible for students. If a student taking an online course wanted to sit down and work through a few hours of the course, no problem! If they only have time for a short lesson, that's fine too! Blackboard makes it easy for students taking online courses to work at their own pace.

With the classroom shifting toward blended learning, it is becoming more necessary for myself as a classroom teaching to use an online environment, such as Moodle or Google Docs and integrate it with my face-to-face classes. Giving students the option to work online can keep them more engaged in the learning process, as well as more able to work at their own pace.

While I do not know yet where I will be teaching in the future and what age groups I will be working with, I know that my students will likely be web-savvy and it will be up to me to find ways to integrate web-related material into the classroom.

Who am I online?

We've been talking a bit in (and out of) class about digital identities and digital dualism - basically who are you online, and is it the same as who you are "in real life"? I'd like to say that I am the same on and offline, but I'm not sure that's true, and here's why:

Offline (in real life) I don't always think through what I say. That can often backfire on me, as I can easily say something that is taken the wrong way and then have to backpedal. Thankfully, after three years of marriage I'm learning that it's probably a good idea to think before I speak, so I'm working on it

Online, I've always found it easier to think through what I post, probably because I see it there in text before I press "post" or "publish". Even now I'm stopping to re-read my sentences to make sure I won't be misinterpreted. Online, you have those few seconds to look over what you are saying before everyone hears.

Not everyone takes advantage of this, though. I see unbelievable amounts of comments that are passive aggressive, rude, or offensive, and I bet that if you were to question some of those people in person, some would be ashamed of what they wrote, or regret posting it altogether.

Often if I read a comment or an article that gets me fired up for one reason or another, I can be tempted to reply in a sarcastic or passive aggressive tone, but I'll stop myself before pressing enter. Because of my husband's position as a pastor and mine as a future teacher, I want to make sure that nothing I post online will come back to haunt me. This certainly doesn't mean I'm perfect, only that I have been taught that anything online lasts forever.

Whether you believe the internet counts as "real life" or not, I think it's important to make sure your digital identity is as much your identity as possible. I want to be able to teach my students that bullying online is the same as bullying in person, and that what you say online matters, and could come back to haunt you if you aren't careful. I hope that as our culture becomes more active online, they also become more "real" in their digital identities.

Using Twitter

When I was first introduced to Twitter, I thought of it as nothing more than a shortened Facebook status. Why would I want to use technology to let the world know that I "Just watered my plants #greenthumb #gardeninthemaking" or why would I want to "shoutout @EllenDegeneres put me on your show!!!"? Who really thinks they are so important that the world needs to know everything they do?

But in the last year I have realized that just because some people use Twitter for tweeting celebrities pointless messages or filling everyone in on their boring day, that doesn't mean that how Twitter should be used. Twitter can be used for all kinds of things!

This summer, I worked for the Manitoba Youth Job Centre, setting up odd jobs for youth and helping them with resumes, as well as the job hunt and interview processes. Part of my job included advertising that the centre was open for the summer, and letting people know about the events we had planned for our Odd Job Squad.

We had a pretty limited budget and were asked to be creative with how we used it, so my work partner and I set out to make connections in our city. We met with politicians, radio stations, and other well-known business people in Brandon and let them know about our services. Then we added them all on Twitter and got to work!

I spent quite a bit of time on Twitter this summer promoting events, tweeting the radio stations and asking them to stop by our BBQ's, and generally getting the word out. We found that Twitter was by far our most successful way to contact people in Brandon, and it didn't take long for followers to retweet our events and do some of the work for us! It was amazing to see how well Twitter worked in this way.

I believe that Twitter can also be an asset to Education. Last year I started following John Evans, a retired teacher and Web Tech Consultant who came and spoke to our class about education and technology.  He tweets out some fantastic resources for teachers, and I have retweeted him quite a bit. 

Twitter is a place where people can voice their opinions and link it to articles about education. There are so many great articles out there, and it's possible to have a conversation on Twitter about it. I've watched some great chats go on, but have not yet joined in, so I think this semester I'll be joining in on an EdChat or two.

Another great person I've been following is Joy Kestern, who is a teacher in California, but also an online coding teacher at Treehouse, which is something my husband introduced me to. While I still have no idea how to code and have never even tried, Joy suggests that it is something we can and should begin teaching our students at a young age. Here's a video of her introducing a new course on Treehouse:

and in case you're wanting to sign up for Treehouse and learn how to code... use this link:
referrals.trhou.se/garyjennings 

Anyway! All that to say Twitter is awesome, and I look forward to using it more this semester with this course, as well as in my future teaching career.

Movies and Music in the Classroom

Yesterday in class, we had a presentation by John Finch, the Coordinator for Manitoba Education. We heard from him last year about issues of copyright and other important things about technology use, but it was really good this time to reinforce some of those issues and to delve deeper into what it means for us as future teachers.

One thing I had not realized is the copyright issue with music. Of course I am aware of copyright issues when it comes to downloading music, but what I had not thought of before is the issues surrounding music performance; playing music for my students.

Teachers have the right to use music for educational purposes, that is, if it connects with the curriculum that is being taught. Teachers do not, however, have the right to play music publicly for enjoyment. In other words, I do not have the performance rights to the music on the radio, or even the music on the album I purchased, so I cannot play it for my students while they are working on homework unless I have purchased the rights through SOCAN. That is something I would have never thought of!

The same goes for movies - if the movie directly links to the curriculum or is being used for educational purposes, then I can show it to my students. Otherwise, I do not have the right to publicly show a movie, even if I bought the DVD - it is for private use only. The same goes for Netflix - private use only.

It seems that the more accessible data becomes, the more rules have to be made surrounding use of the data. I totally understand the reasoning - the artists need to be recognized for their work, and they are the ones who own the rights to it, but it just seems crazy that I can buy something and there are rules about who can listen to or watch it. I don't own it, even though I bought it.

This being said, I am so glad that teachers have the right to use media for educational purposes. One of the six Language Arts in the ELA curriculum is viewing, and I've found during or after reading a novel, it is extremely helpful to view the movie and see how someone else interpreted the characters and storyline.

During my last teaching placement, I read Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" with my grade 12's, and we watched the movie after. I had my students write a reflection on what the most important scene was in the movie, as well as what missing scene they felt should have been included. I found it really helpful to see how well they understood the importance of little details in the story, and most of them were able to see how much character development has to be left out when a book is made into a 120 minute movie.

Film and music are so important in education, as they can reinforce something that has been learned, or even help students learn something new and make new connections. I intend to use both in my teaching, and I believe it is important for teachers to understand how to properly use them without infringing on copyright laws.

...And We're Back!

Well, here I am back at it!

This is my final semester at BU and I'll be finally graduating this spring from the Education program. For my final semester, I'm taking a class called Internet for Educators, which means I'll be starting up my blog again!

I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging about what I'm learning, as well as learning new ways to use technology in the classroom. Once again, part of my assignments will be to blog weekly about what I'm learning, so if that interests you, be sure to follow!