Journal Seven

This journal was used to create my personal learning network. I did this through Twitter.com, Diigo.com, and Classroom20.com.

My personal learning network is a network of individuals and tools that will allow me to stay up to date and connected on tools to being a great educator. I used various tools to complete my PLN including Twitter, Diigo, and Classroom20.com. I am able to connect to various educators around the world and learn about new techniques and resources that could help and enhance my classroom experience as well as the children’s experiences. As an educator is it important to be exposed to new ideas, especially when your main goal is to teach children successfully and in a healthy learning environment.
Through Twitter I was able to join in on a TweetChat and through that find members who also follow the same passion. I tuned in on Monday night’s 6 pm ELLChat. This chat was dedicated to English language learners. I was able to ‘follow’ various educators and authors who I met through this chat. They primarily led the chat and discussed various tools that is used for ELL educators. One that stood out was TPE, a form of physical teaching. They provided links to the materials being discussed in that evening’s chat and helped so everyone was well aware of the chat. Although I quickly was overwhelmed by the amount of tweets and the content, I feel that if I were an educator specialized in this area this would be a very helpful chat and give me a great network to work with in the future.
The other tool used to create my PLN was Diigo.com. This tool is a bookmarking website that allows you to bookmark websites, tag them, and follow other users with similar interests in bookmarking. Diigo organizes all my book marks well, and then on my blog I am able to create a ‘Tag Cloud’ that shows all the tags I have used, and increases the size on those that are most often tagged. This is a great tool because I can easily go back, or other members of my PLN could to find information that specific topic, such as maybe cyber bullying.
Lastly I joined the Classroom 2.0 digital discussion forum. This digital discussion forum is focused on the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. I watched a short video about the basics of Twitter. This is a great tool that could easily and quickly train other educators on how to properly use twitter. Videos such as this one can easily be shared, and even reviewed through discussion forums such as this one. Through all three of these tools my own PLN began to grow, and I see how these tools can only and continue to grow my networking as a future educator.

Excel Crossword

NET 3
Using Excel software a crossword puzzle was created testing knowledge of the author's life.

Inspiration

NET 3
A software program that allows you to create a diagram. This one was created to organize the NETs with the tools used to explore them.

CSUSM Public Service Announcement Video

 NET 3

Using iMovie I created a public service announcement for California State University San Marcos with precollected film clips. I did this by editing them together with software, music, and text.

Journal Nine

NETS 1,3, and 4

Johnson, Doug – Taming the Chaos (November 2010) Learning and Leading with Technology. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Taming_the_Chaos.aspx

Here we learn how Earth day started almost 41 years ago, and how we continue to use tools to bring Green teaching to the classroom. Through this article we are given tools as educators to bring green learning to the classroom. The tools talked about in this article are Classroom Earth, Eek!, The ecological footprint quiz, A walk in the woods, The U.S. environmental protection agency teaching center. Through these tools we can promote Earth day, and be able to present the knowledge to our students.

How many tools are given to us in the article?
There are six links to webpages given in the article.

What tools are directed towards high school students?
Classroom Earth is designed specifically with high school students in mind, but some of the other tools could be  used for high school aged students. 

Journal Eight

NETs 1, 2, 3, and 4

Bogacz, Renee & Gomez Gordillo, Miguel – Point/Counterpoint Should Schools Be Held Responsible for Cyberbullying (March/April 2011) Learning and Leading with Technology. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Point_Counterpoint_Should_Schools_Be_Held_Responsible_for_Cyberbullying.aspx

In the article on cyber bullying we see both points on the topic illustrated well. There is support for both getting involved with cyber bullying in the class room and leaving it up to the parents. Students now a days are growing up with constant technology and when not taught appropriateuse this could carry over to teenage years and even past that to adult hood. The argument for schools taking control of cyber bulling, whether it occurs on or off the campus is that regardless it affects the school environment. The article encourages to tell students what cyber bulling is and to address it if it occurs. The opposing argument is that these ideas should be taught and enforced in the home by parents. Parents are the first teachers children have and learning immediately that bullying is not acceptable will help for this to not become an issue that affects the learning environment.

Who needs to be involved if a case of cyber bulling occurs?
It is recommended that every one from Teacher, Administration, Parents and student be involved that everyone is aware of what occurred and that it is learned the problems with cyber bullying. By doing this all aspects enforce no bullying and it is less likely to occur again.

What is something that should be done to students who are victims of cyber bullying?
They should receive counseling and strategies to be able and deal with cyber bullies.

Journal Six

NETs 3, 4 and 5

Warlick, David Grow Your Own Personal Learning Network (March/April 2009) Learning and Leading with Technology. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-march-april-2009.aspx

This article talks about the role of personal learning networks as an educator and how to create your very own PLN. These can be helpful by allowing us to communicate with various people and tools to grow in knowledge about our specific field. Through the use of a PLN we areable to grow not only in our personal lives but also in our professional ones. The use of PLNs are not new, supplemental knowledge through friends and family has long been around but with new technology we are able to develop new and diverse PLNs. There are three types of PLNs these include personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semi synchronous connections and lastly dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Through these three distinct types of PLNs we are able to create a network of knowledge that can help us professionally but also show future generations how they can retrieve their own information.


Are PLNs only related to Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and blogs?
No, PLNs have been around for awhile and can involve traditional tools such as phones and e-mails.

How can PLNs be affected by the world wide component?
Now that the Internet allows us to be connected all parts of the globe we have easy access to information from other cultures and people. The downside to this is that approaches vary by culture and not everything could be applied to our lives, or understood by our own culture.