JB3 Class Blog Journal (EME6414 )

Write it down. Take a picture. Cross it off. Post it.  I can see how something like this would be very engaging for a student like me. I am Type A and OCD and a bit competitive so for me any sort of challenge, especially with a list and structure, is going to get my blood pumping.  I've been doing both challenges. The social media tools one, I've gotten almost all of them done at this point and I have come to the conclusion that the few friends and family that previously followed me on Instagram will probably stop after this :)  For the Long Hot weekend challenge, I have been collecting pictures and will be sharing those today in smaller collections. Those have been fun and I have had my children and family help me with those.  While I am still trying to wrap my head around how I can work using Instagram in the classroom (as I believe my high school students would not want me to mix their world with mine), I might be able to use this as a means to have a cheer page or teacher p

I will admit that I am still doing the readings for this week. However, one of the readings I chose from the list was the article    Teens and social media: A case study of high school students’ informal learning practices and trajectories.  One thing I noticed about the case studies about these teenagers was that most adults follow similar patterns with social media.  Case in point.. While I started with email, text and the other smaller tools, I began like most older adults of my generation with exploring MySpace. This didn't last long though. Eventually, I discovered Facebook and I too was concerned with connections and privacy and mostly because of the fact that I am a teacher. Like most I used the internet to search for lessons, ideas, and creative approaches to planning and activities. Eventually I stumbled upon YouTube and Pinterest. While I view YouTube and use videos in the classroom- as a consumer, I am not a producer nor do I usually contribute via comment threads or fol

So I have decided to go Big or Go home so to speak. I am doing all the big assignments as the full versions. So for this first one, I started brain storming and researching right away. Yesterday, like a lot of you, I started in on this week's work and did much of the prep work . I began thinking of ideas and communities and groups that I might want to lurk around in. It's sounds so scandalous to want to lurk in a Facebook group or troll through some YouTube communities or Blog forums, but that's what a lot of us do now anyway isn't it? How many of us belong to like a bazillion groups on Facebook that we aren't ACTIVE participants in? Or subscribe to a YouTube channel that we never leave feedback or interact with? How many of us read each others blogs or social media post and never actually interact, but just scroll on by? I mean isn't this exactly what we have been talking about? Being more than consumers... So all this being said, here are my complicated choic

So this week I read Chapter 7, Networked Work and as I read, I came to a section titled Blurring the Home-Work Boundary. Now I'm sure that the authors did not intend this section to be true for what we are facing right now, but boy are we in the thick of this #truth. Seventeen years ago when I was fresh out of college and a new teacher, I was ready to work and ready to figure out how to manage my home-life balance. That was all new to me and I was a bright eyed 21 year old still living at home. As I progressed through my first year, I met my now husband, we dated, I moved out, (moved into my second year of teaching), we got married, and I started to settle in to a somewhat normal routine of home and work- even if it was unbalanced. I even picked up some coaching- cheerleading and my husband tagged along driving the bus for me occasionally. As the years passed, the workload and stress got harder and we tried to have a family, I realized more and more that work could stay at work and

Key notes from :  Rainie, L. and Wellman, B. (2012).  Networked: The new social operating system.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. * many people work in global economy by fostering networked work as they participate in multiple teams and do so in networked organizations where workers may be physically and organizationally dispersed.  Fostering the turn to Networked work in Networked organizations: * globalization of work, consumerism, and travel has expanded and diversified the reach of companies. workers and companies are in contact with more customer and workers. * shift in developed countries from atom work to bit work            1. atom work- growing, mining, making, transporting (material economy)            2. bit work- selling, describing, analyzing things (information economy) * shift to networked work and organizations happened before internet and mobile revolutions, but they have accelerated the shift * internet allows people to communicate and access information and d

I don't agree with the dividing years so to speak, as I find myself between the two worlds. But in the discussions of generations I am between Gen X and Millennials- an  Xennial   . This makes it hard for me to connect to either term - digital native or digital immigrant- specifically or completely.  I do agree with the fact that this current generation of students learns differently and we can't expect to teach them the same way {we} were taught when we were younger. Their world is different and they experience learning differently. Their text is not just on paper anymore and their writing isn't that way either (ie: multimodal). Their world is instant and visual/graphic and has been that way since they were born. They can't always be faulted for it, but they do and should have to learn how to maneuver it. But the same can be said for the rest of all learners out there too, not just the 'current generation'.  Teachers who don't underst

I'm literally between online Live sessions for my own students as I am freaking out about how I have my own classwork to do also beyond all the things I have to do to close out the year for them. I think to myself Now I know why I stopped blogging in the first place.....I could never keep up. It's a silly thought because blogging isn't about "keeping" up. It's not a chore. I used to have a blog when my children were toddlers. I blogged about raising triplets. It kept me sane and helped me share my love of writing at a time when I didn't have much adult contact. But it was hard to "keep up". And here I am again, feeling it hard to "keep up". So, what's the secret? How do those in the blogging world find the time and motivation to "keep up"?

All of these terms get really confusing and mixed up. I have to admit, I am not done with reading the first part of the book readings this week but I have gotten through the first 2 chapters. The first chapter - heck the first few paragraphs- had my mind spinning with connections to so many people, ties, networks, groups, communities, etc. Whatever you want to call these things that social media, amongst other things, has created for me. You see the story of Peter and Trudy probably resonates with many of us. Whether it was us, a friend, a family member, or someone in a social network we participate, we have all had someone we have reached out or stepped up for. We have all probably either started a Gofundme page for someone, shared one, or donate to one. We have all shared a prayer emoji on some social media platform for someone and either retweeted, re-shared, or liked someone's post who needed support. We have all probably been part of something to help someone in need in some w

I took some time this week to explore this idea of Web 2.0. As most of you, I fell into an never ending binge of research and digressed into offshoots of Youtube videos, memes, and links. I came to discuss some of my thoughts on the class discussion board this week but ultimately found that I grew up watching Web 2.0 happen. I watched Web 1.0 become Web 2.0 and watched it grow and evolve to what it is today. I was part of the experience and that is pretty awesome. When this week began (and when I first signed up for this class), I was nervous and confused - I am still a bit- but knowing that I was part of all of this and I am still part of all of this make it more authentic and real. These tools weren't just created to be used, they are being changed and molded by the users. We are the ones that dictate how they are used and how they need to be changed and developed. That is pretty awesome.

So this week we started summer classes. This is a new journey. Why do I say that? Well, not only are we under 'house arrest' with COVID and I've been thrown into emergency distance learning  for the past 6 weeks as a classroom teacher of high schoolers, but I have had to transition my three third graders too. Thanks to having done online learning with FSU the past 2 years though, I have been able to see things from the student perspective. It's been helpful. But enough about that. Why is this a new journey? Well, because I decided to add this online teaching certificate to my degree months ago (pre-COVID) and that has landed me in these classes. I don't really think I knew what I was signing up for. But here we are. I have to admit, when I first looked at the Canvas page and the material, I was overwhelmed. I still am a little bit. I am hopeful though that I will get through this with the help of all of you. I can write, THAT I know, so I am hoping that I can just r