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