Cool for the Summer - Web 2.0

I think that there are some trade-offs to using social medias in a learning context. You see how learners will interact with each other outside of the traditional learning environment and you see how they learn outside of the traditional learning environment. This is huge for upper grade levels, like high school, and for higher education, like undergrad and grad students. Learning doesn't just have to be something that fits nicely into the classroom anymore. There are so many tools out there that allow for learning and it should take some pressure off of the teacher.  However, I think that the other trade-off is, for students who are elementary and middle school age, they don't get these opportunities because those platforms aren't the most appropriate for them to learn. They are still developing into their own types of learners and far be it from us to force another way of learning onto them.  I think that social media has a time and a place to be used in the classroom. Ma...

One of the discussion board questions this week really got me thinking. Should we (meaning teachers/instructors) be seeking produsage in classrooms with social media tools?  I think yes and no.  The example I gave on the discussion board was for online journals/blogs. If these are going to be used in place of physical journals, then teachers should absolutely be looking for produsage here. Students should have to answer entry prompts, while also commenting on other student's work. This allows them to fall into that produsage category. They are producing work and also using the platform in ways that is intended.  However, there are instances where I don't think that teachers should be seeking produsage. Some platforms are not age appropriate for classrooms and should be taken seriously if they are going to be introduced. Instagram and Twitter and even TikTok should be social media platforms that should be reserved for high school/college students. I don't think that teache...

The Weave!! Shoutout to her for the blog post from yesterday! It really resonated with me, combined with Dr. Dennen's manuscript. I think that the ability to be flexible with what you create has its hands everywhere, but ESPECIALLY in teaching and instructional design. Knowing that what you create has the ability to teach others concepts and ideas is something that shouldn't be taken lightly.  However, I think that with that in mind, teachers and instructional designers should never think of what they create as "finished". There is always room for tweaks and improvements. I think that is the beauty of these two fields. Instruction can constantly be improved and changed to fit the needs of the learners.  Taking into account what the learners needs is the biggest factor, to me at least. Of course the content is important but making sure that they have the tools they need to be successful should be top priority. If they don't have the necessary tools, then the conten...

This has been an interesting week for me. Learning about Networked Knowledge Activities (NKAs) has really stretched my thinking about social networks. I know that we've been talking for the past 5 weeks about all of the tools that are out there and the ability to use them for learning, but it wasn't until this week that I really thought about them as learning tools.  The amount of time we spend collecting resources and then either end up sharing them or curating them to what we want is astounding. There is so much potential learning that we can do just by collecting resources. This should make us go through them to see which are actually going to help us learn and which are not.  I think that the readings this week also helped me gather a better understanding of NKAs. Learning that social media can contribute to formal learning and interactions just as much as it does for informal learning is something that was eye opening to me. I think that as I move forward through this cla...

It's for some and by some, I mean a select few.  I, for one, have no desire to use social media in my classroom. I'll just add it to my already never-ending list of things to do during a school day. Half the time, I'm just trying to get all of my subjects taught during the day. However, I do think that there are benefits to using social media to teach.  Students now have access to way more information than that of any other generation. Everything they need to know is right at their fingertips. They know how to use Google, Alexa, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. Teachers could use this to their advantage. I love the projects where teachers assign students to create a social media profile for historical figures or literary characters. When I was in high school it was a Facebook profile, now it's more like Instagram. It gives students a sense of ownership in their own learning.  I've seen TikToks get made by students who are posting for a class. They have certain para...

Wondering here if anyone else is a digital hoarder like me?? I LOVE saving things. Even if I know that I will never look at it again, I will save it. Dr. Dennen's excerpt from Social Media for Active Learning  uses the nicer term of "collector", but it still feels like digital hoarding to me.  Just yesterday, I scrolled all the way to the bottom of my TikTok likes because I wanted to see how my likes had changed or not changed since I started using the app back in 2019. Surprisingly, most of the videos that I liked were still pretty on trend with my current likes. I still found the videos funny and even rediscovered some videos that I loved and had forgotten about.  All of this to say, I know that I love saving and liking things because I am not one to share, construct or broker anything through social media. I am not creating videos on TikTok or YouTube and I rarely, if ever, post on Facebook. I will post on Instagram and Twitter more than anything else, but even then, I...

Alright, here we go! My Sum It Up Sunday will be a little wild, seeing as I missed #MemeMonday, but it's in there at the end!  #ToolboxTuesday I don’t know if this counts as an educational tool, but it’s an awesome one for teachers and one of my current faves! It’s called Classroom Screen! Check it out! https://t.co/NAKlONj4Qx #eme6414 — Sarah Straughn (@sjs13k) June 7, 2022 #WonderingWednesday #wonderingwednesday how do you know if you don’t like a social media site? Like what are the factors you look for? Or vice versa, how do you know if you DO like it? #eme6414 — Sarah Straughn (@sjs13k) June 9, 2022 #TBT Fun fact: I still have mine AND it still works!! #ThrowbackThursday #eme6414 pic.twitter.com/yo4pt6xqXL — Sarah Straughn (@sjs13k) June 9, 2022 #FollowFriday For our #FollowFriday , I would recommend that everyone follow @ChildDefender . They are an amazing organization that helps children all over the US. #EME6414 — Sarah Straughn (@sjs13k) June 10, 2022 #ShoutoutSatur...

Okay, I am no newbie when it comes to Pinterest. I love it and have loved it since it began in 2010. That was my sophomore year of high school and it was ALL the rage to pin your dream house, wedding, family, wardrobe, etc. So creating a vision board for a class challenge was a no brainer. Also, vision boards have come a looonnnngggg way from cutting magazine pictures and making collages 😂. Obviously at first glance, my vision board has a lot to do with classroom decor and themes because I am always looking for fresh ideas for my classroom. It gets boring to look at the same decorations year in and out, so I like to zhuzh it up every now and then (totally had to look up how to spell zhuzh!). As my sister would say, "Give it the 'ol razzle dazzle".  Then I pinned things about technology in the classroom, because I love finding new and exciting tools for my students to use. There are some pins for familiar ones like Legends of Learning and Frax Math from ExploreLearning. ...

How nice would it be to go back to the time where we didn't have to worry about people trying to steal our information or track us through metadata? I, for one, would love that. Other people have too much time on their hands and it feels crazy to think that somewhere out there, someone is actively always trying to get their hands on people's information.  Overtime, I think that we have all just accepted that companies are tracking us and that we are going to get targeted ads thrown at us. However, I think that with that acceptance has come a lackadaisical attitude about it. Most people don't give it second thoughts and I have to say that I am in there too.  I try so hard to make sure that my students understand the importance of privacy. I explain to them that's why they aren't allowed to make TikToks at school (other than ya know, learning too) and it's why they are allowed to use Snapchat, Instagram, etc. They don't understand now, but I hope that at some ...

Before starting this program, I never gave much thought to intellectual property. Sure I credited sources in papers and gave credit where it was due when writing. But, I never REALLY thought about it. I just knew that it was something I had to do, so that I didn't get in trouble for plagiarizing (TurnItIn used to give me BIG anxiety - haha). My thought process was essentially, "well it's on the Internet, so I can use it".  Now, I am so much more aware. It seems to me that others are more aware these days too. You see credit being given everywhere, even if it is in the simplest of ways. A photo credit to someone on Instagram, a dance creation credit to someone on TikTok, an original tweet credit to someone on Twitter. The call for accountability on intellectual property is growing louder and I am finally understanding it.  It's important for people to feel seen and acknowledged by the work they put into the world. And it's important for us as consumers of that ...

I really am trying with the puns here! 😂 So I did some digging of my own regarding folksonomy and discovered that folksonomy can be easily defined as categorizing things on the internet. I found this article  in the NYT Magazine that talks about folksonomy and what it is. The article compares how we tag things today to the Dewey Decimal System.  Folksonomy starts with tags, like on Instagram or Twitter, and then goes from there. It is allowing people to categorize their own content the way that they want. I, for one, don't use tags like most people. In my earlier blog post from this week, I stated that I used to make my hashtags funny when I first started using Twitter and I usually never use them on Instagram.  I feel like folksonomy is giving more power to the user, rather than to the website that they are posting on. It's allowing them to control where they want their content to end up and who they want to see it. What are your thoughts? Do you think folksonomy is nec...

Crowdsourcing seems to be on the rise these days. The easy way to define it would be to ask a question and gather recommendations/advice from others. It seems easy to pose a question and gather information from others, that you may or may not know. Facebook has a specific feature that allows for people to ask for recommendations. This is useful when someone is traveling to Key West and wants to know the best place to get Key Lime Pie or if someone wants to plant native Florida plants in their yard. However, there are two sides to this coin, so to speak. I think that crowdsourcing has a unique quality of allowing people to give suggestions and feel accomplished, but it also can lead people away from what they intended in the first place. Here's what I mean: In my opinion, crowdsourcing allows people a small sense of validation. By giving advice, a recommendation, a suggestion, etc., crowdsourcing gives users this feeling that they've done something helpful. It allows them to fle...

Can I just say, that coming up with the titles for my blogs posts is one of my favorite things about it? I love puns anyway, so it's like an extra little challenge for me each time! Obviously from the title, I want to address tags in this post. I started this thought over on the discussion board and I think that it's something that I never really thought about until actually thinking about it - hope that made sense. From my time on the internet, both as a producer and a consumer, I have realized that tags are enormously helpful but are just as equally harmful as well. When I first joined Twitter, hashtags were parts of your tweets that were funny. I don't think that I ever really used them for what they were intended for, which was to find similar tweets. Then Facebook started allowing clickable hashtags for similar reasons, to find like-minded posts. And Instagram had them as well. Again, I never used them for what they were for. I was never, and still am not, a person who...