Digital Nation and Growing Up Online - Q&A

-->

source for photo

source for photo

Questions for Thought:

1.  Compare and Contrast each documentary.  What was similar or different from the first one (Growing Up Online) made in 2008 to the newer one (Digital Nation) filmed in 2010 ? 

Growing Up Online and Digital Nation were both documentaries about technology and the youngest generation but I could see some pretty large differences between the two. Growing Up Online focused a lot on the negative connotation of the internet and technology. It focused a lot on how the kids using these technologies are secluding themselves and are no longer interacting face to face as much. In Digital Nation, however, there was a large focus on how people are connecting through shared interests like gaming. People who would have never met in real life meet at gaming conferences, some even develop relationships and get married!

2.  Your thoughts on multitasking.  Do you agree?  Can you multitask?  Do you disagree with the video on the topic of multitasking? What do you think our students think about multitasking today?

Digital Nation brought up some interesting points about multitasking. I was very interested when the producers visited MIT, one of the top colleges in the country, to see their research and take on the subject. I thought since the students who were tested were some of the brightest students in the country they would be phenomenal multitaskers but was shocked to see they weren’t that good and were missing out on class instruction while multitasking. Before seeing this film, I believed I was a efficient digital multitasker but since watching it I realized I’m more like the student who says when he writes a paper, its more or less in chunks rather than big picture. I believe the idea of multitasking needs to be presented to our students but they need to see the research that your grades may reflect your strong or weak concentration on a project or paper.

3.  Is there an addiction happening in society today with technology or is it just a new way of living?   Should we be concerned?

I feel uneasy about answering this question one way or the other. I do feel like people are addicted to some form of technology nowadays but it is our responsibility as teachers to show our students a healthy balances of screen time and face time. My cooperating teacher now assigns my students a half hour of time outside everyday after school (weather permitting) along with their other assignments. Even if they all don’t do it every day at least they know it is expected and important to their everyday life.

4.  Do video games serve a purpose in education or are they a waste of time?

I found the school in New York, Quest to Learn, based on an interesting principle; students can learn all academics through gaming. I do understand and enjoy the idea that educators have found exactly what students love (technology) but find it difficult to understand how all subjects can be taught through gaming. Also, what about social interaction? Yes, I believe the school talked about the students working together but I for my own classroom I want my students to work on other collaborative projects other than technological games.

5.  Do you believe that digital tools, such as google tools and technology in general  can save schools that are struggling?

I do believe that if struggling schools could get their hands on technology for their students then, yes, it could help save the school. Many times though, the schools that are struggling are less financially fortunate and cannot afford technology and thus the cycle of poverty continues. If struggling schools could have computers, iPads, or netbooks donated then the students could level their own playing field.

6.  How did what you watched in the two videos support your feelings about technology or how did it change your views?

There were many different parts of each video that I found interesting but I’d like to focus on just a few. I do worry about students and how safe they are on the internet. Growing Up Online focused heavily on the downside of technology. It was hard not to become scared of children’s use of the internet. Jessica told her story about her alter ego that she created and her parents had no idea. Ryan ended up taking his own life because of bullying. I do feel, though, as educators it is our responsibility to teach our students how to stay safe online. Also, parents need to help and become digital captains at home too. I really like how Digital Nation really showed both sides of the increase of technology in our children’s lives. I didn’t realize how heavily dependent students are on technology all day long. I use to go to school then go home and play outside. Not the case anymore.

7.  Are kids and adults today ruining their digital footprints by sharing too much information online without realizing that it may be detrimental to their future? Should they care?

Absolutely. I really do not understand why people feel the need to share everything about their life online. One of my best friends is on the interview team at my school and she has been asked point blank about interviewees Facebook pages. Even though the principal cannot access their accounts, my friend happened to have mutual friends with a few of the candidates and could see more than I’m sure they wanted. If our students want to get into college, they better know about privacy settings, or better yet just not share as much online.

8.“Stranger Danger” and predator fears are often overblown by the media on shows such as Datelines “To Catch a Predator”.  What are the real dangers of technology in this day and age?  

One real danger of technology, which was brought up in Digital Nation, is students’ attention span. I feel that kids now cannot withstand sitting and doing work or listening to a story or lecture for very long. Teachers need to be more like entertainers to keep the focus of the class. Another danger to technology is cyberbullying. Many parents before thought their children could get hunted down by a creepy adult. Even though it does happen, the more common assault on children is coming from people they know. Cyberbullying is now a part of child and adolescent life and we as parents and educators need to help our children defend themselves by stopping, not responding, and tell an adult they trust.

Overall Reflection:
Please add anything else you feel would explain your views about the videos and how they relate to educational technology. What was your favorite part of either video? Why? Most interesting?

I really enjoyed they the producer, Rachel Dretzin, related her own life to what is going on in technology now. She isn’t just writing and talking about the world but also how it is effecting her and her family.

source for photo

A Prezi Presentation on Digital Citizenship

I was really happy to create this presentation on digital citizenship. As time passes, the more we (should) use technology in the classroom. But with using technology at school comes risks if we don’t talk to our students about how to be responsible online. I think it’s really important to go over safety online before students really even get a hold of a computer. It is our jobs as teachers, if we expect them to use online resources, to know how to safely navigate the internet. Commonsense Media has an unbelievable site to help guide teachers of what age appropriate information students should know. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence

I found through a website called Technology with Intention that students should really value what they put online. But not just students… adults too! I sometimes forget I am leaving a digital footprint and should be rereading my work before sending it for all to view. I didn’t realize until watching the video in EDU 533 that our digital footprint starts long before we think.

http://www.techwithintent.com/2011/05/why-teach-digital-citizenship/

My Voki on Digital Citizenship

Sites used: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence

A FRONTLINE Webinar Review

                                                                   source for image

Tonight, I watched and listened to the recorded webinar from PBS called Education in the Digital Age: A Tour of FRONTLINE’s Digital Nation. I have participated in one webinar before this but it was about how graduate school online works so needless to say it was fairly boring. Thankfully, the content of this webinar was much more interesting. I enjoyed the banter between the administrator, interviewer, and guest.

The webinar started with just the administrator greeting all the participants. She guided them through the functionality of the physical webinar and how to use the different tools. I really liked one tool in particular; polling. During the course of the webinar, the administrator could ask questions and poll the participants’ answers. This seemed like a great way to have all the participants feel involved and could communicate to the guest speaker easily. There were other tools that were used during the discussion. A magic wand aided in showing where people were located when the administrator pulled up a map. Unfortunately, I could not see people posting where they were. Lastly before the interview took place, the administrator polled the participants on who was familiar with the FRONTLINE film Digital Nation. Most people were not so I felt a little less lost.

Rachel Dretzin

The interview was on the Rachel Dretzin, the producer of FRONTLINE’s film, Digital Nation. She quickly gave a background on her own life and how she became involved with the film. She stated that it was hard to separate her personal life from making the film because she has young children who are very much a part of the digital age. She went on to talk about connections from her previous films to Digital Nation; the current film she is working on. (This is when I realized the film hadn’t been completed yet and no one had seen it.)

Rachel Dretzin explained that Digital Nation was in the works but the producers created a website a year in advance of the film’s release date to have educators, administrators, and parents share stories so they could view pieces of the film. I believe they launched the site early to mostly build interest in the film.

Quest to Learn

The basis of the movie, Dretzin said, was traveling around to schools all over the country; elementary through college; to see how involved technology is in education and students’ everyday life. She visited Quest To Learn, a school in New York City, that was based on the video game paradigm. She was interested and pleased to see that a school based on the video game concept didn’t have students staring at screens all day. The school had students building games in physical spaces as well has digital space to develop social, physical, and analytical planning skills.

At this point of the webinar, the interview was over and the administrator started to guide the participants through the FRONTLINE website about Digital Nation. She pulled up a few video clips that the participants could navigate on their own which I thought was pretty cool. Even though I watched the webinar as a recording, I still could navigate the clips and the chat bar on my own. The first video clip was about Multitasking in a college lecture. The second clip was about a teacher using a social media site for her students to create pages for their assigned characters of the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. The last video clip shown was about the digital divide between middle class students and impoverished students.

At the end of the webinar was an extensive question and answer section where participants could ask questions to Rachel Dretzin via the chat bar or they could “raise their hand” (another tool) and could use their personal microphone and speak with her directly so everyone could hear. After the Q&A, the administrator took over again and posted upcoming webinars for PBS and a survey the participants could take to give feedback and receive a confirmation of completion letter.

Currently, I am working as a special education one-on-one aide and I have absolutely NO IDEA how my students and I would function without the technology we use. One of my students uses adaptive technology such as word prediction and text to speech. If he did not have this programs at his disposal he would not be fluently reading or writing. Another one of my students uses an iPad for a reward after he earns his seven tokens. It is so much faster to reward with a two minute iPad game versus a board game.

I found that it would be fairly difficult to administer a webinar for elementary school students since they are all in the classroom together anyways. However, if I was going to be out for a few days and was going to have a substitute, I would love to construct a webinar for my students to contribute in. Either one I could administer from afar or sign the class up for one that would reflect what they were currently learning. If I had my own classroom I would be having my students blog their homework assignments and give feedback to each other throughout the term. I would want them to be productively engaged with each other at home as well as when they are in school.

 

It was pretty difficult to find other sources to support findings in the webinar since the webinar was about a film that hadn’t debuted yet. However, I did come across an interesting article from Psychology Today titled, Technology: Myth of Multitasking that brings up the opposite point of the film discussed in the webinar. The article states that there is no such thing as multitasking in the way we think. We think that multitasking is about getting multiple things done at the same time but Psychology Today states that in order to multitask, one of the tasks either needs to be automatic or use different brain processing. What does this mean for students today? I think multitasking is really impossible unless one task is automatic so children really need to be able to cut distractions.

To Kill a Mockingbird

This webinar met a few of the course learning outcomes. The webinar demonstrated the understanding of how technologies can effectively promote student learning in the video clip, “Becoming Boo Radley.” The teacher in this clip had the students want to read the required reading, To Kill a Mockingbird because they want to create social media profiles for the characters. The technologies created a desire in the students to learn and grow from the reading.

The webinar helped me reflect upon and demonstrate effective use of digital tools and resources because I have only been a part of one webinar before and this one really described how to use the functions of the tools. In my first webinar, I was strictly a listener and if I had seen this one live, I know I would have been an active participant using the tools and asking questions.

The webinar can help me demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of safe, legal, and moral practices related to digital information and technology because during the Q&A portion, the producer of Digital Nation spoke to a mother worried about her child creating a blog for class. “Won’t anybody be able to read what she writes?” Dretzin responded that tech savvy teachers know to talk with their students about privacy settings, using first names or pen names, and not to respond to people they don’t know.

I chose this webinar to watch because I thought it would have some valuable insight to not just using technology in the classroom but developing 21^st century learners. I wanted to learn more about different applications of technology that really grab at the students’ heart. If I could have participated in this webinar I would have asked a question in the Q&A. I wondered what age level students she has seen most benefit from technology in the classroom. 

I have included the link to the film, Digital Nation, below:

FRONTLINE'S Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier

Tech Integration in the Classroom, Yay or Nay?

source for image

Kids are craving to be taught through a medium that they use everyday in their personal life. The video, A Vision of K-12 Students Today, perfectly depicts the need and desire of children today to learn through technology. I particularly liked the dedication of the video, “Special Thanks to 16 digital natives,” because its true, these children were born into a time where technology is used throughout their daily lives. They should be using them in school as well as at home and with friends.

source for image

In the blog, Why Do I Bother? [blogging] the author, Steve Wheeler’s first opinion is, "because it keeps him on his toes." Isn’t this how we want our learners to feel? We want them constantly thinking and formulating ideas, coming up with what ifs and why nots. He also states that knowing an audience will see his words builds the desire to try harder and delve deeper into his thinking. If current students had to post to a blog or create a digital story to convey their meaning, wouldn’t they want to put their best work out there for everyone to see?

source for image

In the article, There’sNo Such Thing as a Technology Expert, Angela Watson talks about how many people feel overwhelmed by technology and seem to shut down quickly before really trying to use it. If a teacher, however, becomes proficient with one type of technology and wants to start her learners with that, that’s all they need in the beginning. Shoving many styles of technology will overwhelm students just as much as it does adults. A teacher’s usage of technology can grow with her students use, using different types gradually as she becomes comfortable educating her class.

source for image

Ed Murphy’s, Bridgingthe Gap Between Technology Integration and Common Core Standards in the Classroom, really pounded home the idea that technology isn’t just more prevalent in our schools but needs to be highly utilized and is a disservice to our learners if it is not. He states that traditional textbooks are budgeted to last 6 to 7 years and educators need to bridge the gap with technology to keep current. He concludes his article by stating students are making decisions, executing ideas, and conveying learned information in exciting and unique ways with technology. They are the driving force of their learning.

We, as educators, need to keep our thinking ahead of our students' and know what their next big interest is and since it is 2013 it's most likely going to include technology. It is our role to facilitate their quest through technology and help them use it as a tool as well as a toy.

How Has Technology Played a Role in my Life

How has technology changed your lives - for the better or worse? What types of technology do you currently use, daily, weekly, sometimes & what one technology could you not live without and why?

Technology has set my life on fast forward ||> . Even though I grew up at pretty much at the boom of technology, and I should be fine with the most defining feature of my generation but mostly I feel overwhelmed. I would like to say that I feel this way only in my personal life, not in my professional life. Being constantly connected socially makes me feel unsettled. I feel like I have to keep up all the time with what's going on. However, professionally, I can't get enough of upcoming technology for my classroom. Technology bridges the age (and maturity) gap between my students and I.

Currently, I am using iPads and iPad apps everyday at work. Special education works a lot with reward systems for students and before iPads a reward was a board game or coloring book. Now, I can reward a students with 2 minutes on their favorite app and we can quickly go back to work so they can earn more time with the iPad.

Personally, I use my iPhone all the time. I have to train myself to leave it in my car during my workout so I can concentrate on what's really important! I do enjoy being disconnected for a little while. I probably would freak out if I didn't have it for more than a day though.

Source for Image