Journal #4 (NETs 2-5)

Join the flock is a great article to learn more about twitter and how it can be used in education.  In class I am currently learning all this so I was able to connect to it and visualize what the author was talking about.   It was great to learn about Professional Learning Network or PLN.  According to this article, a PLN is a community of individuals around the world who are learning together”.  I think that PLN are great because learning and getting different ideas and viewpoints is important.  It can also be really helpful for educators to have that support system.  In the article it is also mentioned that this helps you “see yourself as a teacher and students as learners”.  Also, on "Enhance your Twitter experience" by Shannon McClintock Miller, I learned more about PLN using twitter.  This article is really helpful and relevant to me because in class we are using twitter to create our PLN.  I could relate to the article because everything the author mentioned, I have been doing.  She states that she has a lot of friends all over the world where she can get resources and share ideas.  I also thought it was interesting that she has the different types of terminology Twitter uses and define each one.  Lastly, I also learned the “twitter engagement formula” as she defines it which McClintock describes as “70% of twitter time should be spent sharing other voices, opinions, and tools; 20% of tweets should be directly responding, connecting, collaborating and co-creating with twitter colleagues; and 10% is chit-chatting trivial details about your life as a human being” (McClintock, 2010).

Q1: How can a PLN help an educator?

A1: By having a support system in which you can rely to ask questions and state opinions.  PLN is community group in which an educator gets ideas and gives back as well to enhance teaching skills. 

Q2: If you get tweets from other parts of the world, are you able to translate it?

A2: By using organizer, you are able to translate a tweet from a foreing language.  

Ferguson, H. (2012). Join the flock. Learning & Leading with Technology,  Retrieved

from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-leading/issues/june-july-2010/join-the-flock!

Miller, S. (2010, June). Enhance Your Twitter Experience. In Iste.

Retrieved April 24, 2013, from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-leading/digitaledition/digital-edition-march-april-2013

Journal 3 (NETS 2)

Now days that technology is used a lot in schools it is important to educate students about Internet safety.  Also because cyber bullying is going on and all those dangers that kids can experience, it is important to educate our students. For instance with a program like the one presented in the article in which students are trained for Internet use. They are given scenarios and they also get to answer questions. I believe that having them tested before they can use any of that technological tools is important because they have be conscious of what they are going into.  Also, hving teachers and administrators involved is great, because that way they can monitor the progress students have done.  I think it is really important to start doing this especially with the little ones.  Starting at a young age can make a great difference because technology is present in Kindergarten classes now. 

Q1: What is the DDL?

A1:  The DDL is a “collaboratively designed and delivered set of self-paced module- dubbed “cases”- that any one can use to gain exposure to some crucial concepts in digital citizenship”.  I think that as well as we teach and implement citizenship in schools, it is important to do that for internet use as well. 

Q2: What are some of the core cases discussed in the article?

A2: Some cases discussed are digital access, health and wellness, digital commerce, digital law, rights and responsibilities, and digital media fluency. 

Swan, G., & Park, M. (2012-13). Students need a digital driver’s license before

they start their engines.Learning and Leading with technology, 40(4), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleadingdigital.com/learning_leading/201212?pg=28&search_term=drivers license

Journal 2: "Learning without Borders" (NETs 2-5)

Summary/ Analysis: Having students interact with kids from another culture is really interesting and a great idea. Students not only enhance their technological skills, but they practice their networking at the same time than promoting cultural awareness. Also, they get to learn how to be problem solvers and critical thinkers within a real life experience. I think it is a great project to have in our schools because it is important that our students get to learn about other cultures in an interesting way. By interacting with kids probably of the same age, will make it more interesting rather than reading or learning from a book, or even from a lesson. The connections and they make with each other will help them better understand each other’s issues. Having this project be part of a common core standard is also very interesting to me because it gives me an example of how its going to look like in the future. Students get to practice or learn about global awareness, global citizenship, diversity, and multicultural understanding, and project based-learning; all these components are essential for effective communication. It will also help them be more comprehensive of people from that culture, and their perception overall will change in a positive way. I feel that this is going to enhance their communication in many ways and it will help them familiarize with technology. Also it will allow them to learn about the proper ways to communicate with people from other countries. This program overall is really beneficial because it will help students develop in many ways and it will just better prepare them for this country’s diversity which is growing rapidly.
Q1:What problems can a project like this encounter?
A1:Some of the problems that this project may encounter is the formats, or computers being compatible. Surprisingly, it was found that Chinese students were not too confident with technology as American students. Also, the fact that the two countries had different times, made it difficult for students to communicate at times. Their communication was most of the times based on email.
  Q2: What are some ways in which teachers can help foreign students better understand the message from American students?
A2: As we know in English writing there are many writing techniques that might be really different in other countries. For instance if a student from U.S. uses figurative language or slang Chinese students are not going to be able to fully understand what they are trying to say. Chinese students usually translate everything in a literal way.

Anderson, S. (2012, 11/30/2012 30). Learning without borders.

Learning & Leading, Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-leading/l-l-december-january-2012-13/feature-