Tech task #3- Twitter

Twitter is something that I have never really used a whole lot, but can see the benefits to it for an educational purpose. I myself am not someone who usually posts a whole lot on twitter or Facebook. I think that twitter is a great tool to communicate quickly and effectively amongst a group of people and is a great way to share ideas. I think once I become more comfortable with twitter that I may use it more for the purpose of my teaching and retrieving information from others that I find beneficial. Initially my views of twitter was that it was not really something that I would use but in the last few weeks my view has changed for the better and will definitely be something that I use more often!

Tech Task #5 Digital Footprint

The other day in class we were discussing what your personal digital footprint is? For myself when I Google my own name my website about me page is the first thing that appears among other things such as awards from my high school graduation, and my experience at the Girls Baseball Nationals in which we played against Ontario and I was put in as a relief pitcher and somehow managed to pull out a win! My digital footprint is something that I view as very important and want it to be something that others see as a leader or a good influence. In order to protect my personal digital footprint I believe that you have to monitor what you place online as well as what others put online about you. Your actions in any situation, if they are negative, can affect your digital footprint because things such as newspaper articles and such would than be the first thing that pops up about you. I do believe however though that digital dualism should be the same in both worlds. You should not pretend to be someone you are not online and act totally different there than you would in person, and vise versa. I believe that teaching your students that digital footprints are important and the appropriate ways that they should act online is very important. If you as the teacher are not teaching them this, most likely no one else is, so how else are they going to learn what is appropriate to place online. It is up to you if this is a positive digital footprint or negative!
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Tech task #11- new/favorite app

We were recently introduced to an app called interval timer, which is an app that can be used in the gym for physical education teachers. This app allows teachers to play music for a period of time, than have a rest to explain to the students what the next task will be and than the music will play again after this period. I really like this app because you do not always have to run over to the music machine and push stop on your device in order to talk to students. You can adjust the settings to allow for shorter or longer music periods or shorter or longer rest periods. You also can allow it to change songs after that time limit is up, so for example if you are doing a circuit you can have the music set to play for a minute and than once the music changes they move to the next station. This app is great and I haven't found too many flaws with it so far. You are able to choose your playlist off of your device and can organize your music that way.
Here is a link to this cool app: http://www.intervaltimer.com/

Tech Task #12- what the future holds

The Horizon Report discusses the role of teachers and the primary responsibility of teachers and how they may have to change their roles. I believe that teachers have adapted to the new up and coming technology that is present and until it is pushed to the side it will be the focus. Teachers are expected to continuously train themselves on the brand new technology that is created, with no true reward. Although I like the idea of student centered learning and the fact that students are able to explore and discover in the classroom, in my opinion I believe that eventually things will be back to the way they were in the 1950's and technology will eventually plateau. As of right now teachers will be adapting their teaching styles to better suit the needs of the technology demands. I believe that until it does switch back to the way it was we will continue to teach around the fact that we are unsure what jobs will come, in which I also believe that no matter what we as educators still need to teach the way that we always have! We still need people that are teachers, nurses, entrepreneurs, dentists, doctors, etc. I do not believe that we would be able to survive as a culture without these jobs and we still need to be focusing on these in order to have success. I see technology as an addition that will help make these jobs better or maybe create expansions of these jobs, but the point is, is that these are still our basis that we need to teach around because eventually technology will plateau. I found this picture online, do you believe we are close to a plateau in technological advances? I believe it will be 20 years from now. The article also discusses authentic learning, and bringing real life experiences into the classroom. I love the idea of authentic learning as it allows students to be engaged in what they are learning and relate it to real life situations. Vocational education is the best chance for authentic learning but I think that this should be incorporated in the classroom and in university more. The opportunity for hands on learning and relating what you will be doing in the future to what you are learning now will allow our society to have a higher educated society.
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Tech Task #2- Organizing yourself online

I believe that organizing yourself online is important in order to survive in the 21st century of technology. There are so many options available to use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Google, and so on and each of these resources require a password. I like the easiness of just going on your iphone and not needing to remember passwords every time you log onto something because the iphone allows you to click the app in which you are already signed onto. Due to the fact that I only use pinterest, google, and Facebook this makes my organization online a little bit easier than someone who uses all the others too. I have really enjoyed having the google classroom set up for this class as it makes things a lot easier to access and view what is happening. I think that this is definitely something that I would use in my own classroom to help students be organized online. Although some people may view being organized online as not really important, it really does help in the end and is a skill that should be taught!

Week 2- Digital Identity

This week we focused on digital identity, and digital dualism and I believe that as an educator we are constantly filtering our digital identity. I know for myself that I only use Facebook as a source of social media and I often think to myself before posting, would someone else who doesn't know me take this not as it is intended? This therefore makes what I do post on Facebook very minimal and mostly consists of posts to do with my family and friends. I realize that some people have cleaned up their Facebook of stuff that they think shouldn't be on there but a realization that I have is that everyone goes through stages right? So therefore during the teen years you may be exploring and figuring out what is the right path to go down, and during your first few years of university you may have not wanted to be a teacher. This all should not affect how we should be viewed as educators in my opinion because people change and often what they have done when they are younger is not what they are doing now and therefore they should not be judged on that by people who barely know them now and definitely didn't know them then. What are your opinions on this? I just think that your social media consist of people who are your friends and family and the events and activities that you do with them should not be a concern of anyone else's if it happened in the past. However I do think that once we become certified teachers we need to watch what we are putting out there as parents may see it differently than it was intended or may affect their view of us.

Week 1- copyrights and education

This week was an interesting one for me as we had a presenter in the class that talked about copyrights for us as future teachers. I was taken back a bit by the information that was given to us because as a physical education teacher we have always been told to incorporate music, or use videos in our teachings to provide students with a better learning opportunity. This was fine, until Thursday when we were told that we are only allowed to do use these resources if they are for educational purposes.  In my opinion though, physical education and music go hand in hand, and music is necessary to help kids move and explore creativity during movement. So therefore, I view music as being educational and necessary for students to learn and grow.
The idea of not being able to use anything that you need a login code for was also an interesting topic, because of the fact that it is preventing students from learning in a world that is so technologically focussed, and yet students are unable to fully use it properly in the educational setting. I struggle with the idea that anything that may be beneficial to our students, is something that we are unable to use unless it relates to the outcomes or topic that we are teaching.
I believe that as long as you have the reasoning as to why you are doing what you are in your classroom, and it relates to the topic that you are teaching, than there should never be any reason to question the way you are teaching. Therefore, I say teach with the resources you have available to you and you will do fine, as long as they are education based. 


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