Semester Wrap Up

I have learned more in this class than I had expected to. I really loved doing Google Hangouts with people from all over the country in class, and it is definitely a tool that I am going to carry with me through my teaching career. Before taking this course, I never viewed Twitter as more than a site to post funny things to. I rarely used it because there was too much drama. Now, I see that Twitter, as well as other social media sites, can be used to interact with people all over the world in order to enhance your life. You can literally find anything on Twitter, from DIY projects to discussions about education to who won the Eagles game (...the Eagles won yesterday, by the way ;) ). I now use my professional Twitter at least ten times more than I use my personal account because I am always finding new blogs to follow to become a better teacher and articles that will be useful in the future.

Learning about Evernote was one of my favorite things in this class because it allows me to organize all of the articles and blogs that I find. I still have a ways to go before I become a teacher, and Evernote allows me to categorize everything I find so that I am able to revisit the information when I need it later. I also know that Paper.li is going to be extremely helpful because it will summarize everything that happened during that week. If I am away or too busy to keep up every day, this is a great way for me to be able to check out what I missed.

Although we have learned countless other tools, these are the things that I connected with the most and that I know I will continue to use after the semester is over. I plan on forcing myself to interact more on Twitter so that I can get all that there is to get out of it, and I definitely plan on continuing to use Evernote to organize. I am especially excited to show my class a Mystery Skype when the time comes! I look forward to interacting more with my PLN on Twitter, and was completely shocked at the amount of followers I received because of participating in #edchat. Many of those people direct messaged me to let me know that they were there if I had any questions, and it is so nice to know that I have that support system. Because of this, I will continue using Twitter to interact with these people.

Website Creations and Connected Education

I really like the step-by-step video on Weebly, and plan on referring back to this while creating my final project. The video gave good ideas on different pages on the site and rearranging the page. The video literally gave almost everything that you need to know about Weebly, from creating column layouts, which is a good way to organizing your page, to pictures for entertainment and reinforcement of your points. It was cool to see how to create images as hyperlinks with short descriptions and opening them into a new window for the visitors on your website. There is so much to creating a website on Weebly, and this tutorial is extremely helpful in organizing information when learning how to use the tool. This video, as well as this slide show allows you to see the process and final product, and it makes me excited to create my own website!


I enjoyed this site as it gave ideas in education on using Google apps. It is important to integrate this into my classroom when I become a teacher in order to keep students engaged while keeping my classroom costs low, as Google apps are FREE! They are easy to use, but these sites give teachers more direction as to how to use them in the best way for their classroom.

I liked this slide show because it went along with my other class, Instructional Technology for the K-12 Teacher, really well. We learned how to use Google sites in education in that classroom, and this gave me more insight to the subject. I can use Google sites to allow my students to express themselves through words and pictures in an organized way. For the younger students, it is a great way to organize blogs, and for the older students to make a portfolio.



Wix seems like an easier tool to use for younger students, which are the ones I want to work with. I think that it would be easier to use with my class and that they would have more fun with it. Sometimes it is hard to get kids involved in something new in technology because it is something they have never tried before. With employment options moving more and more to technology-based job availability, it is important to educate our students at a young age as to the importance of technology use.

It is easy to get a website started, but many people have a hard time maintaining it (this goes for my professional Twitter usage--Sorry to all my followers!!!). I think that this list gives people who are new to technology a real chance to make their educational page thrive! The article would be useful for anyone, as it gives tips such as to plan ahead and how to stay organized.

In The Connected Educator (2012), Nussbaum-Beach and Hall made a great point that teachers are not effective unless making a neural schematic connection in the lives of their students. This includes integrating new information into prior knowledge to develop a connection within the brain. Without this, learning does not occur (pg. 140-1). As teachers, we must take the time to learn new things in order to truly educate our students. Anybody can stand in front of a classroom reciting notes and writing information on the blackboard. It takes an effective teacher, a connected educator, to get through to students and teach them new things. If you want to become a teacher for the right reasons, you want to help students reach their full potential. You want to push students to their educational limits and to show them that hard work pays off. You cannot get this through traditional ways of educating. Being a connected educator means communication between you and your personal learning network, taking time to learn new things in your spare time, and sharing your new information with your students in order to enrich their lives.

After taking this course, I have a whole new perspective on education, and becoming a "connected educator" is a new goal of mine. Not only do I want to stand out in the crowd in my career, but I want to help my students reach their full potential and learn new things both in- and outside the classroom. I want to show them how to explore the world in a safe way, and how to handle all of the technology that is being thrown at them. I want to touch the lives of my students and have them graduate from my class as a better learner.

Tag It

I had a fun time with the "Tag It" and "Map It" activities in our textbook. The map activity was interesting because it was so surprising to see how many people from around the world are doing the same thing that you are doing. There were people as close as five minutes from me, to people on the other side of the world. It's amazing to see how many people are becoming connected educators, and it is another indication of the online support system a teacher has to those looking at the map. The Diigo activity was cool because you can go to the archive of the tag used and see all of the websites and resources that others have posted. Having these resources available is important when getting started in connected education. These are lifelong resources available to teachers, and future teachers, that will help guide the journey into being the best teacher that person can be. Coming into class this semester, all of the talk about integrating technology into my classroom in the future seemed far off. It was not something I was used to or ready for, and I truly did not even know where to start. That was really scary for me. But by using resources such as my PLN on Twitter, blogging, and my textbook, I have become more comfortable and confident, and am now looking forward to becoming a connected educator. These resources will stick with me throughout my career, rather than learning subjects in other classes that will soon be outdated.





Pinterest is an exciting tool that is useful to just about anyone! Teachers are using it now as a way to connect with other educators in order to better develop their teaching styles, classroom environments, and lesson plans. It is a neat way to physically see what other teachers are doing. Most teachers pin ideas of their own, which means that other teachers will be able to stick to a cheap budget when taking another's ideas. I also like the idea of using Pinterest here from a student's point of view to organize projects and other assignments.

I enjoyed using paper.li in our class the other day. It is a simple way to organize information from social media websites when you don't have the time to be on all of your sites. You can also follow specific subjects and have that information on your summary, and it is really helpful when you want to learn more about a topic. It is really difficult sometimes to get to a computer, and checking this will allow you to figure out what you've missed in a matter of minutes. Like this site says, sharing your paper.li with other friends is a great idea to get others to be connected like you are.

IFTTT is an easy way to stay connected. You can create a recipe from your favorite bloggers and connect social media websites while really just creating simple recipes. It is important to keep in mind that technology is not flawless, and sometimes there will be issues. Like Cool Cat says, we should probably keep ourselves from the "automatic" features on some sites.

Digital Storytelling

This week's assignment was really difficult because of the limitations we had by not going "premium" with Animoto. I couldn't use Toontastic because I do not have an iPad, and the only other story telling website that I could get to work was Voki. I did not like Voki because it is too boring and plain, and it limits you in the amount of things that you can say. Animoto looked really fun, and I used an app like this in another class that I have. I would have used the other app (iMovie), but, like I said, I do not have an iPad. It is neat that you can upload your own photos and videos and then add effects to them. With Toontastic, I thought that the coolest thing was that you could create emotions throughout the scenes. I wish that I was able to look into it more on the iPad. With Storybird, I liked that the Hangout was saying that students feel like a real author. This seemed to be the one I had most trouble with though, because it would not let me go from one author's artwork to another, and the other artwork on the first artist's page did not go along with the theme of my video. With Voki, all that you are able to do is record your own voice, or make your avatar speak by typing words. I thought this was cool, but other than dressing the avatar the way you like, this was all that you could do on the site. It also stopped me from typing more about Stockton.  
This is my Voki about the education program at Stockton College. Xtranormal from livebinders also looked like it would be fun to use, but it is not free and they have discontinued their service. I like that this blog tells teachers that they can use Voki to explain directions to their class about assignments, and this seems like a more realistic way to use it, rather than to tell a story.

Overall, I think that more practice with digital storytelling is what would help the most, because it is difficult to get used to. However, it is important because our students are going to be relying on technology by the time that we become teachers, and normal storytelling will be outdated.

Building a Collaborative Culture

"In a culture of collaboration, learning thrives" (Nussbaum-Beach  and Hall, pg. 58). As educators, we need to be sure to work together in order to help our students grow and learn. I liked when it was said how important relationships are, and how closely related in-person interaction is with online interaction. You can say many of the same things in person as you do on Twitter to open up a conversation. The difference between congeniality and collegiality is that congeniality is the day-to-day collaboration and discussions between each other, while collegiality is the partnership between people. Trust that is built through these relationships allows a more welcoming environment for students, which, in turn, makes students thrive more. I really like that the author suggested blogs in our book because it can be hard to find good blogs to follow. We need to remember that it is important to leave a positive digital footprint to keep a positive online reputation. This trust is important to establish within your PLN because they will help you further your career if you reach out and gain trust with them.



So far, with my experience with my PLN, I am enjoying reading other peoples' articles that they are posting and am happy with the type of communication so far. Multiple people have messaged me directly letting me know that I can contact them if I need anything, and it is nice to know that there are people there who are supporting what our class is doing. I know that if I have any questions regarding opinions, school, or education in general, I will have multiple people getting back to me quickly with great advice. I was surprised when I was engaged in the chats because people actually reach out to you as a student individually. My thought was that professionals would see a college student as not being serious, and would disregard any input. Instead, I was tweeted at, retweeted, and welcomed to the group. I really enjoy being on Twitter for this reason because it makes me feel like I have people to rely on and that I am in a safe environment.

iPad apps and #edtechchat

First off, I participated in #edtechchat earlier tonight, which was overwhelming! I constantly had to keep updating my page and had at least 30 new posts every time! On the other hand, I was able to interact with the author of our textbook, @snbeach! I also found a great article on prioritizing when it comes to creating your PLN.

Snapguide looks pretty cool and I am going to download it on my phone. From what I got from the website, it looks like  you can find pretty much any guide on how to do things here. The Nearpod Demo on Youtube was awesome. It allows students to answer questions and work interactively off of iPads, and the teacher receives the results of the students' answers. This is a quicker way to run your classroom, and students will be more excited to use iPads rather than the traditional pen and paper.

I love watching Khan Academy lectures, so I am really excited about this ShowMe app. I think that, as teachers, we will be able to use each other's ideas to better our lessons through this. Sometimes it is hard to teach certain subjects for one person, but is simple for another to teach. This is when you can go on ShowMe and see how other educators taught the lesson. Meanwhile, you can share your lessons with other teachers. This different perspective will implement learning.

Educreations is another neat app that is an interactive whiteboard with audio. You can add sound, text, and pictures to your creation and share it with others. I like that one teacher in the article said that she can use this to see her students' process of solving a problem to see where they did or did not go wrong. Educreations was used in this classroom and was very successful. Sometimes we forget how easily young students catch on to technological ideas, and these kids are proof!

Ask3 was my favorite thing so far! So many students have a hard time asking the teacher for help because they feel stupid, and through this app, students can ask each other questions first. Too often, students give up because they do not want to ask the teacher for help or admit they are struggling. If they see other students using the app for help, people will catch on and it will be a better experience overall. It is especially useful in subjects such as foreign languages and math because it is near impossible to explain through a text message when you have a question.

Augmented Reality seems like a great way to get students excited, engaged, and involved in class activities. It is bringing something to life, and it is a growing sensation. In our classrooms, we will need to be using this type of education pretty often by the time we become teachers. If not, our students are going to be bored, disengaged, and uninterested in what we are teaching.

Skype and Google Hangout

"When students are able to learn from an expert in a field, it takes their learning to a new level". This quote from a 5th grade teacher really struck me because we see it every day in schools, yet rarely find ways to make it happen. Students are most excited about school when they have something that they know is going to be fun ahead. Not only do students love technology, but they love visitors! Anything that is inconsistent to their day will make an impact, and Skyping with authors of the books they read is such an awesome idea! I think it's really great that authors are willing to participate in this, and reading the stories and thank-yous from teachers makes you really happy.

The video about Skyping was really cool because I did not realize how often Skype was actually used in classrooms now. My favorite part was the class that read a book to a class in Spain, and those students read the same book back in their language. The video was really interesting because it gave you step-by-step instructions on how to engage in a Skype call with other people with your classrooms. Sometimes people forget that you have to prepare ahead of time and that you should have a reflection time afterwards, and these are some of the most important parts. Giving students something to do during the video is also a great idea because it is easy for students to become distracted when they are not engaged in something.














Google Hangout is great for collaboration and can be used with sharing Google Docs, having a customer feedback discussion, and virtual whiteboard brainstorming. I like everything that Google has to offer because it is free, simple, and all connected. Rather than attaching a document from Word and sending it in an email, you can share a Google Doc with someone right over the Internet and they will have access to it.

This article explains how to use the tools on Google Hangout, and my favorite one will always be sharing the screen with the other person. It is insane how far technology has come, and to be able to see someone else's screen as they are doing something is so cool. Earlier today, I had a problem signing into my Comcast account to pay my bill for my apartment. I started an online chat with a customer service representative, and then they called me to do it over the phone so that they could control my screen from their server. They fixed my problem and the bill is paid on time!

Google Helpouts seems like an awesome idea, and I'm excited for it to take off. With certain things, I have to see what is actually happening rather than just reading about what to do. With Helpouts, I will be able to ask someone over a Hangout for help, and get advice and information right away.

All of this new information about Skype and Google Hangouts are going to be extremely beneficial when I am finally in the classroom. These are great ways to keep my students engaged and interested in topics, and can also be used as a "treat" if the students are behaving. When I was in school, our "treat" would be 5 minutes to play Oregon Trail...It is so crazy that students are now using iPads in the classroom and speaking to people all over the world in seconds.

Evernote

In this blog, a teacher talks about using Evernote to remind his students when assignments are due and to remind them about the homework for that night. I like this idea, especially because so many students are reliant on technology to remind them to take medicines, keep appointments, and various other things. By integrating Evernote into your students' education before college, it will make college easier for them to be organized. I wish that I knew about Evernote before this class because I work two jobs and am taking five classes. When I try to make plans with friends, I have to look at all of my schedules if I did not have time to write it down in my planner, and sometimes that does not even work.

I also thought that the video on Penultimate was really awesome. It is a great way to organize notes and recipes, directions, and really just about anything that you want to put on there. Rather than carrying around multiple notebooks, address books, recipe binders, etc., you can use Penultimate and sync it with Evernote to create folders and sections to keep yourself organized.

I liked how Nussbaum-Beach and Hall described the connected learning communities as a combination of three things, as a three-pronged cord. Connected learning communities contain your local community (personal learning network), global network (professional learning community), and bounded community (a community of practice or inquiry). Basically, this is three groups of people which has are one face-to-face, another online, and the last people who have the same interests and want to connect together on a deeper level (page 28).

Digital Citizenship

The first article (Five Ways Facebook Owns You) did not give me any information that was too surprising. The story about the teenager who committed suicide was horrible, and I looked into it further and the story is just heart breaking. It is disgusting how people get away with such horrible acts, and Facebook needs to reconsider its privacy policy after such a devastating event. I'm sure Facebook did not think that anything like this would happen, but now that it has, Facebook needs to change the ads that come up. Facebook did ban the advertiser who posted that picture, but they need to go further with it.

In 10 Things Your Students Should Know About Their Digital Footprints, the first point was amazing. Obviously, we all know that employers and colleges look at our social media pages. But the fact that the one daughter's mother called the school trying to get her daughter in by making the other girl look bad was hilarious. Parents are crazy and I feel so bad for the daughter that did not get in because it was her mother that made the mistake. Anyway, the first daughter should not have put up such pictures for the chance of not being accepted. I liked the fifth point to make separate personal accounts because that has worked well for me in this class. I joke around a lot, and some things I say may come off the wrong way. Having a professional Twitter account like we do in this class allows me to keep things completely separate and professional on this account. Not that I post obscene things on my personal Twitter, but many friends seem to tag me in tweets about jokes I make, and I do not want anyone to take it the wrong way. Bottom line, digital footprints are everlasting. There is nothing that you can post that cannot be brought up in some way, somewhere, in the future.

I thought that the videos were cool because it explains how we are still finding the rules of internet etiquette because our parents and grandparents did not have to worry about these things until the same time that their children did. I also thought that it was crazy that there is an actual rubric for digital citizenship. That just shows how important it truly is. If you don't have anything good to say online, don't say it at all. Obviously, this should be the motto we follow all day no matter where we are, but we can at least start with something that will be there forever: the Internet.

In the end, we just need to remember that social media can be extremely beneficial in our lives. We can use it to communicate with people and to keep in touch with old friends, to find family members that you haven't seen in a while, to keep up with news topics, to create a personal learning network, to find jobs, and for countless other reasons. But we need to remember to keep our digital footprint clean, as this can change social media's beneficial attributes into detrimental situations.

We also need to stop being so addicted to Facebook......

Ed Chat for Dummies

In reading chapter 6, I really liked how the author pointed out that "It's tempting and easy to allow online spaces like Twitter, Flickr, and other social networks to become one big link-sharing party. But the real power of the social web is revealed when you have a plan and a purpose for how you'll build your network, reap its benefits, and then apply the knowledge you gain" (Nussbaum-Beach & Hall, page 92). So far, all I have been doing on my Twitter PLN is sharing links. It is easy for me to communicate in person, and I seem to have a hard time doing the same online. It is something that I need to work on and plan on working on during this semester.

The following video explains how to get involved with #edchat, and is a group of people talking through webcams like a Google Hangout.

This was helpful to me because I did not know how to really get involved with the ed chat that we have to participate in for class.

The most important things that I took from the book is to stay organized, have a limited amount of networks so that you do not get them mixed up, and to communicate with as many people possible.You also must remember that it is a give and take relationship, and that you must participate in your personal learning networks in order to get something out of it. This is something that I am still struggling with, but I plan on going on later tonight or tomorrow to find more networks to join and reach out to more educators.

I also decided to practice making forms from what we did in class next week. Click here to fill out my form.

My Start of Exploring my Digital Toolbox

I have enjoyed this class thus far because of the guidance that I am receiving through social media networking. I have already found multiple articles on Twitter that I have incorporated into my other classes, and some that I have found very helpful with the teaching notebook that I am creating. I am going to use this notebook to write down any extra tips that I have learned from class to make me a better teacher when I become one. One article that I found told me about 5 great apps that I can use as a teacher to keep in close contact with parents at all times (I won't go into detail now....I'm saving that for our APP SMACKDOWN!) The only problem that I have run into with Twitter is finding the time to use it, as I work two jobs and am taking five classes.

The most important part that I took from the following video from YouTube is that you must remember that a PLN is a two way process. You need to remember to bring your own questions and ideas to the table in order to create a PLN that will be successful.

I have also found Schoology to be very helpful because it is not as cluttered as Blackboard. It is more organized and easy to navigate, and everything is straightforward. I thought that the chat with Jerry was awesome, and I am excited to explore his many pages when I have a question that I need answered. 

Find me on Twitter so we can explore the process together! :)

@porterm33