Post #3

I feel pretty comfortable with most of the standards. My thesis deals with consuming media and analyzing the different ways a variety of forms of media presents one topic. I could, however, feel more comfortable with creating media, specifically those dealing more with quantitative data.

I want to teach at a college level so I would deal mostly with Web 2.0 and 3.0. I myself have worked on projects using Palantir, which integrates Web 3.0 by allowing users to make a visual map/web of concepts, images, ideas, etc. I used the software to help a Ph.D. student make a map of the Porajmos, the Roma-Sinti Holocaust during WWII. The work I did connected her research to other researches, to documents, to monuments dedicated to the Roma-Sinti, and so forth. It can now be used as an educational resource and I'd like to see more students spend time on it. Because I'd want them to be contributing to content that would educate others, I would need to emphasize the importance of using only credible sources, giving complete citations. and clear links to other related topics.

For the newsletter, I'm not used to working with two columns so it took some tinkering to make it look the way I wanted it to. I expected to be able to click over into the second column, instead of having to wait for it to carry over to the other side, which definitely influenced how I formatted things. I wasn't the biggest fan of this assignment, mostly because I couldn't really make it relevant to my preferred teaching grade (aka post-secondary). I made it for 10th but even then I had a hard time believing that a tenth grade class would actually have a newsletter. That said, I could definitely use it for some of the organizations I'm involved with on campus.

Blog #2

The biggest way I've used MS Word was writing papers. So many papers. I'm working on an Honor's Thesis right now so I use word for everything from notes to keeping track of books. I have a document that I use to help me figure out how to organize my paragraphs on the document for my actual thesis. I have a document for a timeline to help me keep things understandable on a larger level (the thesis is on WWII espionage).

In ninth grade we had to do a research project and use three different types of media as sources - books, websites, newspapers, videos, journals, etc. The whole point was to softly figure out how to use MLA formatting. I've since had teachers use library scavenger hunts, fill in the blank worksheets, and games to teach us how to use different formats. They forgot to mention that these standards change, and that different fields require different formats. Until I got to college, I had no idea what Chicago or Turabian were, only that all of my history professors wanted me to use it, which was a problem since I only knew MLA. I basically had to teach myself this new method, and while it wasn't the hardest thing to do, I wish my teachers had taught me earlier on. If I ever worked in a secondary school setting I'd probably use the library scavenger hunts, where students have to find their own sources and then convert them into correctly formatted citation models. This was the most fun way for me, largely because I'm very competitive, even about the smallest things.

The biggest thing I've gotten out of PLN is I've been seeing a lot more articles than I usually do that could help me as both a student and an educator. Additionally I'm getting to see what my peers care about, which in turn could make it easier to work with them in the future. I'm excited to see how they benefit me in the future.

Twitter Handle

Haley_EME_2040

Blog Post #1

By 4pm today, I had read several articles for class, communicated with teachers, and researched for my thesis. All of this was done on a computer. It was a given that these things would be done with a computer, and I never considered another scenario in which I would complete these tasks. Technology is a given in many aspects of life today. Articles and assignments are posted online via class websites, I communicate with my teachers primarily through email, and I have near-endless sources with which to write papers. I'm lucky enough to be technologically literare, but it took learning. My teachers gave me projects to be completed with "online scavenger hunts." As a future professor, I know the importance of technology and how it can help or hinder students. Web 2.0 allows for greater and more accessible peer feedback, but it also opens the doors to less credible resources like Wikipedia. I would have liked more discussion on this in the chapter, but I assume that will be covered in later chapters.

I'm glad they specify critical thinking as a standard for students to learn, because finding can be difficult if you don't know how to think critically, but can be surprisingly easy if one has those skills. For example, while looking at a wikipedia page, it is important to recognize that the article itself isn't scholarly, but the sources at the bottom of the article may offer good bits of information for a person looking for credible sources. I feel a little uncomfortable with the teaching standards, specifically the idea of making one project that brings together multiple ways of learning. As the book said, people learn in a variety of ways, and having something for everyone seems complicated and difficult. 

I don't have a problem with the term "digital native," although I think it's important to note that I live a privileged life wherein technology has been available to me my entire life, and that is certainly not true of all members of my generation. The issue I have with this term comes more from how teachers interpret it. In the eyes of some teachers, my ability to use technology gets read as an assumed owner of technology. For example, one of my teachers (a digital immigrant) is requiring the purchase of ExamSoft, which will allow me to view my test and quiz scores immediately after finishing a test and make grading easier for my professor, who is teaching a 200 person class. The problem is, the program is to be used on laptops in class. I own a laptop, but it is old, crashes a lot, and doesn't connect to wifi reliably. So while she is trying to integrate technology to help all, my ability to take tests is actually being hindered. I hope that when I am in her position, I don't make similar mistakes of assuming technology is available to all of my students without first consulting. I imagine that the technology they use will cover much more of their life than current technology covers mine, so I will need to learn how it affects them, and also how accessible the new tools really are.