Digital Citizenship

http://www.glogster.com/edit/g-6lina4q6k1b4a8m6pbq35a0

I chose to focus on my personal life because it's a way to relate to others easily while presenting a topic. I can easily present this to my students by showing them where to relate their favorite pictures or videos and how to post them here. They can also use this as a way to organize material for a research project or to display their results from the class. They may even use this program as a way to express themselves in the classroom. I would send the parents a paper including information on the new site and then in an effort to prevent cyber-bullying I would make it clear to the students that all posted information will be monitored by me. I would also include in the paper to the parents that they should instruct and advise their children to post wisely and responsibly.

Social Media

Social media is a way for people all over the world to relate their thoughts, feelings, and personal or public images for all ranges of people to view. I could use social media in the classroom in several different ways. Using Twitter for assignments or reminders, spottify to remind the students to listen to relevant music for the class, or even youtube to display instructional videos or group projects for the class.  I think that social media has its ups and downs in the classroom. It's a very efficient and updated way of looking at classroom learning, but it can very easily become a distraction in any classroom. I still feel like Facebook and other related sources of social media should probably be kept out of the classroom as much as possible for the simple fact that they are too tempting for the students to use for a strictly educational purpose. Other social media websites may be less distracting and more efficient for the projects involved.

Megan Goeden

Social Network	What does it do or what is it for?	Ideas for instructional uses
Facebook	Social Networking	May be helpful with group projects. It also could be a good place to share projects and advertise a classroom cause.
Twitter	Microblogging	This would be a good way to communicate quick, short details of information that would advertise an idea or movement. It also could be easily used to post assignments. All my students following me would see it each day.
Foursquare	It’s an app that efficiently directs you to your interest or need depending on your likes.	Useful for situations when you are out-of-the-classroom. If I were on the road at state speech and I wanted to find a convenient place for everyone to eat I could check foursquare.
Ipadio	Live podcasting. A connection from the internet to the phone.	I could use this for distance-learning. I could leave a podcast available for the kids if I had a substitute teaching.
Spotify	Listening to music and sharing it with others.	I could get my own songs out that are relevant to the material we’re reading and have the kids follow me through spotify.
Youtube	Sharing videos worldwide.	I could have the kids use this to display their group projects or even watch a video I’ve made for a class instruction. We could also use it to record and watch ourselves perform in speech.
Blogger	Sharing blogs with the world.	I could use this for assignments. I could assign blogs for the students to work on or even blog my own instruction.
Linkedln	A public network providing information on available jobs.	I could use this to show my students how available their future choices are going to be.
Reddit	Sharing interesting links with people world-wide.	I could post important links for the class to view through this site. I could also have them post their own sites under their own topic.
Tumblr	Allows you to share and customize anything and everything you choose.	My students could create their own account for class to display the work we’re doing and make sort of an E-portfolio.
Pinterest	A virtual pinboard you can stick your favorite things to online.	I could have my students organize their studies on research papers, using pinterest and sorting through all the information.
GetGlue	A way of sharing social media.	I could have my students find relative media to the classroom topics and share it with eachother or I could even just “like” certain things I want them to view.
StumbleUpon	A website that works off your interests.	I would use this website to find unique ideas to bring to the classroom.
Diigo	A website highlighter.	I could recommend certain sites for the students this way or even have them document their sources through this.
LiveMocha	Language learning center.	I could use this to gain an understanding between my students from foreign countries and myself.
TappedIn	An educational network for teachers and students.	I could use this to interact with teachers on ideas and questions, but I could also use this with students as they can ask me questions through the chatting part of it.

Educational Resources Online

Good online instructional materials has lots of credibility and is easy to access. It it made with well cited references and recent information and statistics. I found an materials on Merlot such as mindgatemedia.com, webengishteacher.com, and teachingenglish.org.uk. These websites had very up-to-date information and it was all very relevant to the topic I was writing on. I can use some of these sources as articles with good information and others are good for a whole website of writing techniques. I can take information and use it in a classroom setting or even use these techniques to better my teaching skills.

Shown above is a graphic organizer of what makes a good or bad online source. Unknown sources are bad because you have no credibility. Without credibility a bit of information could be true or false. The audience you are presenting to may not believe you and you may be fooled yourself. Recent sources are also necessary because outdated information is almost the same as providing false information. If nothing else, using outdated sources is providing useless information. This week was very informative and I feel like I got a better understanding of internet sources. I also gained a knowledge of where to look and how to use good online sources!

Educators Say Australian Government Must Do More to Slow Drop in International Students

http://chronicle.com/article/Educators-Say-Australian/124994/

This article was about the need for more international funding and support from Australian Governments and international students. The article made it clear that specifically the English-teaching department is short on students and if the problem persists it will be crippling to the country. This article is relevant to my career because it concerns the english education department. I have a great interest here because I am taking up english and I plan to travel to Australia next spring. This program is discussing ways to make it easier for students in the english department to study abroad there. This could very much affect the way that my visit goes. I may receive more funding, a better education, and even a better cultural experience than students before me. 

Use of instructional tools for collaborative learning

I feel like these instructional videos were very helpful for my own personal use. Using these types of videos will not only be an easy way to present assignments, but also a way of making learning a little more entertaining. I plan to use this technology in my future educational journey as a creative change in the classroom and maybe even as a group project for a better understanding of working together. I feel like my group and I worked very hard together and we got a little more experience with sharing and understanding each other's viewpoints. These things are important values that I hope I can bring into my classroom!

Instructional Video Project

If I could start over I probably wouldn't change much. My group was very prompt with our filming and we got plenty of footage for the project. The filming itself went very smoothly and I had a lot of fun. I was pretty disappointed with the way that the editing went. If we hadn't thought we lost the footage we wouldn't have wasted so much time re-filming and waiting for our original to get to us. I would've put more time into the editing had we been more prepared in that area.


For future videos I might work more with outside people. Filming people other than group members seems to be a great way to get a bit of culture in the videos. I think for the next film I'll want to use a different resource for editing. Ours was pretty inconvenient because it was only available to us on one computer at specified hours.


Aside from all that it was a fun project!

Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Learning about copyright this week was very helpful for me. I understand that there are laws on protecting original material, but I'll admit that I wasn't exactly sure how those laws applied. Becoming a teacher, these laws are very important not only because I should set an example for the kids I teach, but also because it will be important for me to pass this knowledge on to them.


This topic has already applied to my life in many situations, and I'm sure that it will affect my teaching techniques to come. Following a copyright is now important to me with the understanding that someone ultimately owns the material they have posted or published. They must be credited for their work. With fair use I'll be able to present material that is relevant to class topics without concern of being a bad example or breaking any copyright laws. In other cases I may use my own creative commons or encourage my kids to do so. Regardless of the outcome I am happy to say that I understand the rules regarding this issue and I am confident that I can pass this information on to many generations to come.

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning in my mind is necessary once in a while for the students to break out of their shell and become more self-motivated. I think it’s important to break away from the lecture style of teaching even if it’s just to keep class interesting, but group work will definitely play a part in my future classroom activities. Especially if I can maintain a hardworking group of kids!

I like the idea of collaborative learning, but I know from experience that not all group work is done efficiently. I would possibly have the students form a circle for a group-like atmosphere. I think it also helps the class become more relaxed and interact more, but if I broke the class into groups I would definitely do as the reading from Davis said and make sure the group assigned some type of job or position for each member. This way each student is staying involved and putting forth an equal effort.