How we are communicating and are we really? Quick thought about the impact of the internet.

Too busy to post on social media, yeah right!

Wow, it's been two months since I last posted. I've had many thoughts, experiences and learnings, but time seems to tick away. Time? It's a challenged for me as I always try to strieve a balance between my vocational duties and personal interests and priorities.

I find that as I continue to strive and seek connections in edtech and online communities, I am able to prioritize and manage my time. But, the time on-line seems to have gone up in my priority list! Why is this?

There are so many social media networks which have slightly differing purposes and value, that as I discover and join one, I hesitate and ultimately incorporate the new one into my daily routine (instead of dropping  or replacing it). So much time online. So much time surfing. Sure I'm surfing the internet with a purpose, but still surfing the internet.

One way of looking at the multifaceted ways social media can be used.
Can you see where and how more recent examples of Social Media fit it?

I could list all of the networks, connections and accounts that I have, but by doing a google search my name, all of them come up - here's a quick look of my footprint 11,000 results in 0.23 seconds.

Try a google search on your name or handle yourself!! Astounding isn't it?

(Remember, there is always someway one's profiles are that transparent and public - but I digress and will perhaps make that a topic of a separate blog post.)

Back to cybersurfing, despite being purposeful - connecting and communicating via online professional learning networks.

An illustration of how one person (Damien Basille) became intertwined in the Social Media web.

How the internet is changing our children?

I often think about how technology and social media affects me, my development and relationships with the world. That's why I'm excited to head to the Bloor Hot Docs theatre this afternoon. I'm going to do one of my volunteer shifts and see the documentary is called InRealLife. The doc explores how the internet is affecting youth in Britain.




As the start of the trailer mentions, "The people who invented the internet has no idea that this would become the basis of society."

Scary isn't it? Is it scary?

 I believe my generation sees tech and access to tech as tools to support learning and communicating.
We put the tools into nice charts and graphics - to explain, categorize and make sense of how we are incorporating the 21st century tech into our worlds. In my role as an assistive technology teacher, I also provide support and problem solve ways that Special Education teachers and students can have learning opportunities to access the curriculum by using technology in the model of differentiation.
But what about our students, who for them, all these "tools"are interwoven and just part of their daily lives. How is the exponential growth and daily use of social media apps and ongoing development of other software and hardware (see 3D printing, 4D printing, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality etc.) changing our kids? Or is it?

It will be interesting to see how many questions this doc may answer for me. But again, like most of our experiences, with answers there are always more questions.

September - new school year - new outlook - new approaches

So it's sweet September. Well today is September 2. It's Labour Day which means tomorrow is the first day of a new school year.

My challenge (to myself) is to begin this twelfth year of teaching (hey, it's my second career) with a fresh outlook.
Not to say that I've been stale or not hardworking in the past. It's just that I had a health scare this past spring and summer and it's time to really achieve a work-life balance that I've said I've been striving to achieve in the year's past.

What to do?

An oft-used but helpful reflection assignment that we educators often encounter at the end of the day of a conference or workshop is STOP, START, CONTINUE...A great way to reflect and a simple way to set - that's right, a goal.

START 
I will:
1. Set one goal and achieve it each and every day. I love multitasking and the variety in my work. However, I can become quite the workaholic and take everything  too seriously. I should celebrate the one goal I set to accomplish each day - not tasks to complete but goals. Then everything else is a positive plus. My goal for today - work-wise is to begin writing this blog again in order to help consolidate and share my thoughts about technology in teaching. :) In this blog post I'm providing some digital resources as part of my reflection and sharing my cyberteachnological ideas.

(Speaking about goal setting, here's a great article on how to support reluctant learners to set goals from ASCD - the ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) . They also have an effective poster about 8 great ways teachers can reach students (see below)

STOP
I will:
2.  Criticizing my own learning style and "personality". I am an auditory-kinethetic-global learner. And under the Myers-Brigg's personality type an INFP -Introverted, iNtuitive (strong preferences) - Feeling, Perceiving (slight preferences over Thinking, Judging respectively).
Here's a fun web site which lists "celebrities" according to their Myers-Brigg's personality type. Of course, I'm linking directly to the INFP page. Look around. (I find it helpful to read types that I am not in order to understand where someone else is coming from.) I tend to use self-effacing humour, or bring attention to myself negatively - for some reason - often I think it's to make others around me feel more at ease - though misguided (as I've received feedback that I seem insecure, unconfident and people have felt "sorry for me"). I am confident in my competence, abilities and creativity - so gotta be stopping that nonsense. :)

Hey, not bad to be a "personality" type in the "company" of C.S. Lewis, Johnny Depp, Homer, and Morrissey to name a few. :)

Here's a link to another kind of learning style assessment (VARK) visual, auditory, reading/write, kinesthetic. It's one that younger learners can take online to provide some self-reflection and discussion. And while we recognize that each individual has  a combination of learning strengths and needs, I wonder how many of us are putting Universal Design for Learning principles actively into classroom practices. For me, the overarching  idea of UDL is that what is essential for one is good for all. To read more about UDL and see some student and teacher tools, I highly recommend CAST's web site.

CAST stands for the Center for Applied Special Technology. This link goes directly to the site's Learning tools index.However, I highly recommend navigating around the site to read about UDL itself, research and more. It's a valuable resource!

CONTINUE
I will:
3. Love my work. I am fortunate to be an itinerant teacher which means that although I don't have a classroom of my own, I reap the benefits of working with different educators and students in different Special Education classrooms.
I can only do what I can and do the best job I can to support all kinds of learners. I learn from someone every day - whether online through the various personal learning networks I have joined or face-to-face.
After all, as a key point I gleaned from Sir Ken Robinson in one of his TED talks - our role with learners is really focussed and achievable as long as we keep our focus - distilled to a simple statement that:  teachers facilitate learning. And while the goal is simple, the means to facilitate learning is not a simple path and one that makes me utilize all of my resources in order to be effective.

But, I love to learn and strive to problem solve, persevere, experiment, advocate and refine my skills to be the best resource in the use of assistive technology at the K-12 level as I can.



So that was just some cyberteachnology to share with you as I reflect on the start of another school year.