Journal Entry #7: Professional Learning Networks

Using a professional learning network (PLN) was a very useful experience for me in this class. These types of networks allow me to connect with educators on the topics that fit my interests in the field of education and get information instantly from any source. In my case, my interests were in educational technology and social science, including American government, psychology, and history.

I used Twitter, RSS feeds, and this blog to keep track of activities in this class. In Twitter, for example, I use filtered lists to keep track on tweets that are related to the topics covered in class and in the field of education. Filtered lists, allows me to show only the tweets that I want to show, by selecting the followers that I would like to put on the list, such as educational journals in the education topics list. Whenever I open up the education list, only tweets from the selected followers are shown. RSS feeds, like the Digg reader allows me to instantly show thousands of news articles from various sources, including professional journals, whether it is general topics or topics that are specific to my field of interest. When I look for any news article on the web, RSS feeds makes searching the article I want to read much easier because the RSS does much of the work.

In conclusion, professional learning networks are a very helpful and user-friendly way for educators to connect and share interests with others. However, everyone should be careful when using social media because they can be addictive to some people and there are also privacy issues.

Journal Entry #6: The First Five Weeks Reflection

My favorite assignments during the first five weeks of this class were: making my own webpages, learning the basics of HTML, and using Dreamweaver. I discovered that I can make a simple webpage by just using notepad or a simple text editor, like TACO Edit and being able to know basic HTML commands. I managed to create a few webpages by using this method. I also find that the Dreamweaver program to be rather easy to use when making more complex webpages because this program has a feature where I can click on the command, instead of typing, allowing the program to do some of the work for me.

The two assignments that I had the most difficulty so far were the tables and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) assignments. In the tables assignment, I was confused with some of the commands when making a table and as a result, some of the tables that I made looked funny. Eventually, I figured out how to fix the problem by following the proper coding for tables and mastering the more complex table commands. As for the CSS assignment, much of the concepts of making CSS were new to me, so I had to learn how to use the commands of making CSS. Additionally, I had to do a lot of fine adjustments so my CSS pages would look right. On the other hand, I find that making CSS pages to be fun and colorful, once I got the hang of it.

Journal Entry #5: Twitter

Twitter can mean different things to different people. For me, Twitter is an online hangout where I can share tweets with anyone around the world, including my own friends and celebrities. I just created my Twitter account a week ago and it quickly caught on with me. I now use Twitter for many different purposes, including looking for my old high school friends, as well as tweeting celebrities, like Taylor Swift. However, the main reason that I have a Twitter account is for this class. This leads to the question of whether Twitter can work in classroom situations or not.

Twitter, like other social networking sites has its benefits in educational settings if it is done right, as mentioned in the video, "Social Networking Sites has Educational Benefits". Teachers can tweet to the students anytime, anywhere, and students can tweet to the teacher about their work and share blogs. According to the video, using Twitter can help students who have communication problems by improving communication skills between the teacher and students.

However, there still some nagging issues when using social media in the classroom. First, teachers need to set ground rules and monitor student usage constantly, in order to achieve its goals. Second, there are student privacy and content filtering issues, and not allowing students to waste their own time on Twitter, because many teens tend spend a lot of time on Twitter. If I were a teacher using Twitter to communicate to my students, I would only allow tweets from students that are related to the class and only allow approved educational content on my class Twitter page, meaning no offensive or off-topic tweets, like celebrity gossip or the funny stuff that many students look for.

Questions

1. What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of using Twitter in the classroom? Explain your answer.
Answer: The advantages of Twitter in the classroom are: More interaction between teacher and students, both inside and outside of the classroom, Can increase motivation and
encouragement to do their work, and improve student communication skills. The disadvantages of Twitter in the classroom are: Many students may use Twitter to waste their own time, not to study, issues with unsuitable content, seeing too much advertising, and privacy issues, such as meeting strangers that they do not know or trust.

2. How many teenagers (ages 13-17) in the United States have access to social networking sites (including Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google+, etc.)?
A. 75% B. 80% C. 90% D. 99%
Answer: C (90%).