We went over John 2 in church yesterday. Specifically, we examined how Jesus transformed water into wine at a wedding. I tried to engage with the sermon in a new way by sketching on my tablet. This was the result:

Scribbly, but still: such a cool way to doodle! Instead of pen, paper, and ink, I fleshed this out with 1′s and 0′s. The blank canvas was digital and tactile. And whenever you can fill a canvas in a new way, well dang. It’s as close to pure creation as we get.

But how much more does my Lord do with just some water in a clay jar?

Well. He gets symbolic, first. The transformation of this particular H2O was significant because it was set aside for ritual washing, which was a big deal to the Jews. Cleaning their arms and hands was equal parts obedience and holiness, as prescribed by the Torah.

But Jesus took the 1st century equivalent of Germ-X (with a spiritual bent) and made something new out of it… Holy spirits, if you will. It’s as if He were saying, “Rituals are fine, but I’m turning this thing on it’s ear.”

In fact, we know this is on purpose. John says as much when He calls Jesus’s actions a “sign.” And coincidentally, what do folks consider themselves washed by in regard to Jesus these days? Here’s a hint: it’s not just water.

But here’s when you KNOW He outstrips you in the creativity department:

Jesus didn’t even have to use the water.

He could have just materialized Pinot Noir outta nothing. His creative power is ultimately superior to any human’s.

Nice to know that when He chooses to work with earthbound materials, He does it to make a point.

Me and my tablet can learn a thing or two from that.

How long has it been since I have posted something here? A while right? However it is not like I haven’t been thinking about bloggable subjects. Even this post has been drafted a while ago…i just have not posted it. Surprisingly, the though of blogging about a subject has been in my mind A LOT, I see/read something and the first thought is: “I should blog about that,” but I end up not doing it. It is not like I don’t have the time. Technically speaking I do have more time since I am done with my classes and now I am “only” working on my dissertation proposal, but still…blogging seems to be such a cumbersome activity…Especially since I have recently adopted twitter for how convenient it is (I tweet from my phone often and I am almost breaking the 1,000 tweet mark). However, I have been thinking a lot about the benefits of blogging. For instance, I now don’t have to write any more papers for class (for grade), I am not required to read any more books so what am I going to do with myself if not force myself to write something that is thoughtful and meaningful? I can’t tweet that! So blogging is the way! From now on (and I know this should have started a while ago) I will reflect about my dissertation readings, fun readings, and other fun mind growing activities that I partake on a regular basis. I will also be fully redoing this blog site, and by that I mean that my online identity will be completely be overhauled. I plan on combining both my portfolio website with my blog, and adding other pages, and all of those will be located at the domain that I already own: addysdesigns.com. This might be a lot of work, and maybe this will only be up by next year, but I am very excited about it.

Depending on what generation you are affects your relationship with technology. If your considered a member of a younger generation, you were born digital, unlike those who came before you. And we have all experienced the difference at some point. I was born after 1980, and therefore am included in the digital generation. My parents are not. And they drive me crazy with their lack of technological understanding. Born Digital discusses this new generation.

1. What is one point from the work that you would like to remember?

There were two chapters in particular that struck a chord with me. I have such a reliance on technology, and it is ingrained in everything I do. But the chapters on Privacy and Safety were good reminders for me. While I tend to be cautious about what I put out there, these chapters served as helpful reminders to remain that way, and also gave more information on the topics.

2. What are the educational implications of the work?

While I am considered a member of the digital generation, I know that I am not on top of all the new technology. Already, I feel that I am falling into the ‘old school’ category. And I know that this will only get worse as time moves on. So being an educator, this could pose problems. I will not always be knowledgable on new technologies that my students are using, and I will have to deal and learn new technologies as they filter though my classroom.

3. What are the personal implications of the work?

The book certainly points out how drastically different the two groups are: those that are in the digital generation, and those who are not. And it helps me understand how to associate with those who do not view technology in the same light as I do. But it also brings interesting points up. I am going to have to be far more careful about safety and privacy than those who were not of the digital generation. My life revolves around technology, and because of that I am more susceptible to security and privacy issues.

4. What questions does this work raise for you in your present situation?

I struggle with keeping up, and I wonder what else I can do to stay on top of all the new technological information that seems to be spewing out. It also raises the question of how will all this affect my classroom, and my relationship with my students. We spoke in class about social networking and the relationship between students and teachers on sites such as Facebook and myspace. Is it okay to ‘friend’ each other? What will students be able to see of their teachers? This is just one example of how technology is going to have a drastically different effect on my life that my parents. They certainly don’t have to worry about someone seeing their Facebook profile!

5. If the author were available for dialogue what question would you ask?

What do I need to do regarding safety and privacy that I may not be doing now?

How do I balance my technological life with my educator life?

 1. What is the one major point from this work that you would like to remember?

Technopoly brings a number of issues to the forefront, but the one overarching point that I will remember is that we need to be cautious and always aware of the technology that surrounds us. Postman tends to view technology in a not so favorable light, and I can only imagine what he would think of technology today. I believe his concerns are best illustrated in his chapters over medical technology and invisible technology. They both speak of the many technologies we rely on everyday and yet tend to think nothing about.

2. What are the educational implications of the work?

While Postman writes down some very interesting points, I have a feeling that he wouldn’t like technology to play a very big role in education. And it honestly is such a huge help to teachers, administration and school districts that it wouldn’t be feasible to eliminate technology from education. However, I think it is important to monitor the use of technology and not let it become something that overwhelms the classroom.

3. What are the personal implications of the work?

The book honestly made me sit back and look at all the ways technology is used in my life. I mean, let’s think about it- I am typing this up on a computer right now. So obviously technology plays a big role. But there are even smaller things that we don’t tend to think about. Like the alarm clock that woke me up this morning, or the microwave that warmed up my bagel, even the watch that I glance at periodically. All are little pieces of my day, and have a huge effect.

4. What questions does this work raise for you in your present situation?

The question that I have, is how will I apply this information in my classroom? We rely so heavily on technology, that I need to have some sort of plan in case the technology doesn’t work. How many times have we been in a classroom where the technology decided not to work, and the teacher couldn’t do their lesson because of this? I never want to be in a situation like that. I need to be able to operate with or without these pieces, so that nothing can disrupt my classroom.

5. If the author were available for dialogue what questions would you ask?

I would only have one question for Postman: What do you think of the technological developments that have come about since 1992?

For our big presentation, Ben and I chose to come up with something that we could actually take back to school and use. Especially since we are going to be working at the same awesome high school! I will be teaching history, and Ben English. But the problem was that we taught different age groups. So how can we come up with something that we can use together, that will work for both ages?

We decided that the best thing to do was build around what we learned in our own technology class, and make a presentation to use at school sharing these technologies with the students we would be teaching. And then encourage them to use these new ideas in our classrooms.

After this was decided, we had to pick which pieces of technology would be most useful to us that we could share with them. This is the list we came up with:

Google Docs

Prezi

Story Center

Poll Everywhere

By introducing the students to these at the beginning of the year, we will be opening doors for our classroom management and altering the way our classrooms are run for the entire year.

The presentation itself came together quite quickly. I got to work on the Prezi, building in the basics, while Ben created the awesome videos. Once we were done with that, Ben inserted the videos, we made a few last-minute fixes, and it was done! And if you don’t already know- Prezi is extremely easy to use.

Now we have a great presentation we can use with our students each year, to introduce them to interesting and useful technologies. And once we do that, we can begin implementing these technologies in our classrooms everyday!

The Presentation::

Group Project Experience

Over the past two weeks, my partner and I have been working diligently on a Prezipresentation that I will actually use in my first faculty meeting of the year.  The first thing we did was brainstorm different ideas on what type of projects that we could do that would benefit both of us in our personal situations.  Since my partner is a full-time graduate student she did not have specific lesson plans to develop for the upcoming year, so we decided to focus on Prezi since we will both benefit from having experience with this Open Source software.  After we decided that we wanted to use Prezi, the next thing we did was determine how to meet all three of the cognates of Baylor’s Technology Framework.  We decided that we would integrate all 3 cognates into my presentation that I will give my teachers at the initial faculty meeting of the year.

The next thing we did was create the presentation on Power Point to make sure that I had everything included in the presentation that I needed the teachers to know.  Once all of information was on the Power Point, it was time to try out the Prezi software.  Fortunately, Prezi.com has a great tutorial that helps users figure out how to use their tools.  It only took us about 30 minutes to become comfortable with Prezi. After all of information from the Power Point was transferred to the Prezi, it was time to create the video portion of the presentation.  We used I Movie to create a welcome video to be displayed as visitor enter into the font doors of the school.  The video consists of still frame pictures of our students and our new school and will play on the 55 inch digital display in the entryway.  We uploaded the video to YouTube and placed it in the Prezi.  The movie looks better in ITunes than it does on YouTube.

After the movie and all the data were embedded into the Prezi, we decided to spice up the presentation with random trivia questions, comic strips, and a youtube clip.  We also added a interactive component with the addition of the vote anywhere polls.  During my faculty meeting we will use our phones to vote for the new memebers of the campus council.  Finally, after everything was added to the Prezi, we added a path that would tell the presentation where to start, how far to zoom after each move, and what order to display the information.  In order to “publish” our Prezi, we embedded it into our blogs.

In conclusion the bullet points will point out just a few of the ways we covered the 3 different cognates of Baylor University’s Technology Framework.

• The welcome video covers the Communication Technology cognate because provides connectivity and shared meaning.  The communication portion of the technology spectrum extends beyond the physical connections provided by hardware to the abstract connections provided by community-adopted language, meaning, and culture.  We feel this video communicates facts, opinions, and ideas about the culture of China Spring Intermediate.
• The video also cover the Video Technology cognate because provides presence and affect.  The ability to simultaneously capture, modify, store, and transmit visual images is video technology‘s potent contribution to the technology spectrum.  I think this video will add to the visitor’s experience in a positive way when they enter the school.
• The Data (Computer) Technology is represented by the Prezi itself because it provides interactivity and control of a meeting.  The Prezi, just like the data technology, provides interactive (input/output) functionality to previously linear and/or passive processes. Interactivity dramatically alters knowledge construction and acquisition.  More speficially, the graphs that are embedded in the Prezi are more examples of data that draw from the Data (Computer) Technology cognate.

Eventhough the Prezi and the group project were very time consuming, we had a good time working together to get the job done.  We both feel very comfortable and plan to use iMovie and Prezi on a frequent basis moving forward.  The group project was a very positive experience for both of us, but to be honest we are so relieved that it is over.  The first link that will allow you to view our Prezi at http://prezi.com/pe5_dumcisic/copy-of-educational-technology/ & the second link will send you to You Tube and allow you to view our welcome video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4JSH8v1hhk

Brent & Elizabeth

Born Digital by John Palfrey

1. What is the one major point from this work that you would like to remember? Please identify a page reference in the text and write a brief statement about its significance.

• “The most important thing that schools can do is not to use technology in the curriculum more, but to use it more effectively.  We ought to experiment with ways in which technology ought to be part of the everyday curricula in schools, but only where it belongs. The technology should only be supplied in support of pedagogy,  not for its own sake.” (Pg. 251)
• Integration, not conglomeration.
• Overhauling education as a means to appeal to digital natives is not the answer. Teachers need to engage in the Web like it is a research topic. If they can cull the best information and available resources to augment their lessons, then the Web has been successfully integrated in the classroom, opening doors to digital natives and allowing the teacher to facilitate learning on the Web.  However, if the teacher simply uses a piece of technology because it is “new” or “cool”, the point of our pedagogical goals is completely lost–we have failed to meet our objectives in favor of appearing “with it”.  There are teachers who might do best, do their best teaching work, without implementing any technology in the classroom. The teacher has to understand their own approach to teaching before throwing bells and whistles at it. With an unstable foundation, a flashy looking house is still going to crumble when a storm hits. The methods of a teacher must stand the test of time, questioning, justification, and assessment. If technology does not fit these goals, it has no place in the curriculum.

2. What are the educational implications of the work? (How will this information effect teachers/classrooms/curriculum?)

• Interacting with digital natives using technology in the classroom is not always appropriate: developing lesson plans with technology cognates needs to be just as appropriate as age, content, and other standards for lessons
• Digital natives are on the Web all the time; teachers are not always aware of how to use the Web.  An easy way to engage students in learning tasks might be to have them search the Web for information pertaining to a subject.
• The ability to react publically to information obtained on the Web is a tool teachers should harness and use.  Students, prior to this point, only had a few venues they could use to react to stories or news they encountered. The Web has opened doors of communication that enable the student to give timely feedback which can be responded to almost immediately by others who have an opinion on the topic.
• The role of the teacher (which we are always encouraged to think of  as “facilitator”) truly fits the digital age. Teachers, news carriers, blogs, wikis, family&friends, etc. are all modes of information gathering for digital natives.  If teachers understand that they are in a position to help students appropriately harness the power of the Web to socialize and connect, the Web will become a powerful tool at the hands of the people, not the other way around.

3. What are the personal implications of the work? (How will this information effect my personal life/social networking/safety?)

• Born Digital opens the question of “diminishing attention spans” and the connection to the Web.  Given the amount of ADD/ADHD cases and medicated students in the classroom now, it is safe to postulate that “information overload” from the Web might be causing some students to lose their ability to process information on their terms rather than the Web’s.
• Given all the studies that have occurred about “the brain on the Web”, do we have adequate reason to be concerned about the way our future generations’ brains are being re-wired by the Web?
• Even though information gathering has become quick and  advanced through the onset of blogging and social networking sights, research has shown that people prefer old fashioned dialogue.  This fact tells us that we are not mindless drones controlled by the Web, instead we are the mind of the Web–using the information and processing skills we possess to pass on interesting topics for discussion through a new social medium.

4. What questions does this work raise for you in your present situation? (As a grad student pursuing job opportunities, how do I apply this knowledge to my future?)

• When I search for information on the Web, be it for a project or for personal use, how do I know that I am not shafting my ability to find the most appropriate and deepest research material I can by forgoing the traditional library?
• How can I learn more about technologies without feeling like I am drowning in the bytes of information? How can I apply what I learn when I am trying to develop learning styles and teaching styles in classrooms where technology is not integrated? Do we need to rethink how we teach teachers to teach in order for them to appropriately use technology in the classroom?

5. If the author were available for dialogue, what question(s) would you ask?

Q1: Are digital natives incredibly creative because of the access they have to new media, or are they creative in their own right?

Q2: Has the Web caused a gap between clear data and jumbled media/personal/political etc. opinions, or has it simply highlighted what always existed between people–varying opinions on topics and different personality preferences coming to bare?

Q3: Are we as teachers/digital immigrants/future parents/traditionalists worried about the Web because we feel like we are standing in the middle ground of a revolution where we battle between the “wrong and right” of internet usage?

Q4: How can schools partner with companies–software producers, computer manufacturers, etc–in order to make technology an option for students and schools who cannot otherwise afford it?

Q5: How could we develop professors in every classroom of higher education that teach by example–integrating technology into pedagogical learning so that teacher candidates can see how the Web impacts their own learning?

Our class discussion took place in the most interesting of environments. I woke up at 7:30, got out of bed, put my hair in a ponytail, and set my computer up on my coffee table. After putting a pot of coffee on, I gathered my books, then took a seat on my couch. As 8 am rolled around, my classmates and I began class…from the comforts of our own individual living rooms. Thanks to Dimdim, a web conferencing software, I sipped coffee as I exchanged information with classmates from my Technology course. We participated in a Webquest-type activity online, filling in a Copyright worksheet and staying in conversation with one another via a chat room. As if that wasn’t enough, we then proceeded to engage in a face-to-face discussion on a video conferencing software known as Tokbox. Unlike Skype, a video conferencing software with which I had previously been familiar, Tokbox allows up to 20 people to “be in” on one conversation. There were 7 screenshots pulled up on my computer, and all of us had the opportunity and capability of seeing AND hearing EVERYONE participating at the same time. Skype and Tokbox meet the following criterion of the Technology Cognate Framework‘s Video Technology section.

Expertise, previously limited by physical constraints of time and travel, can be available to wider numbers through an electronically transmitted “presence”.

We were able to meet and exchange information without having to worry about traveling to one another. Imagine the possibilities that this could open up for our classrooms…the ability to engage with people from different place, different cultures, different backgrounds! With video conferencing, students have access to information that may otherwise not have been accessible to them.

To go along with the worksheet that we filled out in regards to copyright, we used Tokbox to discuss Chapter 7 from Web 2.0 New tools, new schools. One of my favorite quotes from this chapter is the following statement:

Teenagers too might come to the conclusion that availability equals permission. They need to learn that just because they can do something doesn’t mean they should.

Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 New tools, new schools. Washington, D.C. International Society for Technology in Education.

While the enormous amount of information and new technology is now so quickly and easily available to students, we, as teachers, need to properly equip the students with the sense and tools needed to use these resources with caution and care. Copyright ensures that people’s property stays their own, an idea that seems to directly contradict our generations growing appreciation for collaboration and sharing.

File sharing evolves not of a sudden criminality among today’s youth but rather in their pervasive belief that information is something meant to be shared.

Downes, S. (2006). E-learning 2.0. National Research Council of Canada Elearn Magazine. Retrieved November 10, 2006, from www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1

I think that the aim of copyright licenses is to create a boundary…give us some type of guideline within which we should operate…give credit where credit is due. Some good news: there are websites available that offer images and files that we can download for free that are safe!! For example, curriki.org and creativecommons.org provide us with lesson plans and images to use at our own discretion. Seriously. Both offer a wealth of information! Use them! You won’t be sorry that you did!!

Because of some technical difficulties that occurred while initially setting up Dimdim and Tokbox, we were not able to complete our discussion about the following article by Seymour Papert, entitled Why School Reform Is Impossible. Below is a quote that I found most interesting:

Complex systems are not made. They evolve. Where I part company from Tyack and Cuban is when they turn from the book’s historical theme of showing that reform will not work to give advice to reformers about how to do it better. My own view is that education activists can be effective in fostering radical change by rejecting the concept of a planned reform and concentrating on creating the obvious conditions for Darwinian evolution: Allow rich diversity to play itself out. Of course, neither of us can prove the other is wrong. That’s what I mean by diversity.

My take from this excerpt: we all bring something different into the system. It’s complicated. My needs are not going to be the same as your needs. Maybe some of them, but a “one size fits all” mentality in order to come to a certain goal set by leaders, who are oftentimes removed from the system, will just not work. Students in our classroom come from such diverse backgrounds. Reform, therefore, is complicated. How do we access and accommodate everyone? We can’t just accept everything new as helpful information/technology. Everyone brings in something unique, contributes thoughts that may contradict our own, and because of that, offer insights that our necessary to the growth of our culture. Trying to give an equal education to everyone but making it look the same, just won’t do. What do you think? What should reform look like? Do we need something entirely different?

Here is a TokBox Lesson Plan in which I incorporated the use of this video conferencing software in my classroom’s unit about Our Community. Before using this plan, review the steps of how to use this program with the students. You may even want to have a day where you simply go over what it looks like to communicate with someone who is on a screen and not actually physically present in your classroom.

image citations:

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http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1084/1169919575_60c56cc2bb.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/3782576645_4d8b6aea45.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/2516648940_ab432e08e9.jpg

This week I was introduced to ‘Second Life’ a virtual world that anyone can take part in. While I am not an expert on the site, I can tell you a few of the basics.

In Second Life, you create your own person, or Avatar, decide where you want to live, build a house, travel, shop, meet new people, and tons of other things.  The capabilities of Second Life are amazing. Not only can you interact with others, the graphics are excellent, and it includes speaking capabilities.

Little did I know, Second Life has made an interesting impact on society. Many people take part in this virtual world, some you might not expect. Dell is in Second Life, but even schools can be found there. MIT has a virtual classroom that students have to attend. Pretty cool concept.

On top of all this, you can travel anywhere. Always wanted to go to Paris, London or Prague? Well take a trip there in Second Life. In addition to this, you can create your own business, sell your own merchandise and designs. And the kicker, you can actually make real world money doing it.

Yep. You heard right.

But, just like the real world, Second Life is not exempt from downfalls. The real world is dangerous, and so is Second Life. There are places you don’t want to go after dark, and since you can pick whatever avatar you want, things can get confusing when someone who is 14, chooses an avatar that is 24. You can imagine the problems with this.

Ultimately I think there are some issues within Second Life, from the inability to monitor the choice of avatars, to the possibility of pulling people away from real life, and causing social issues. Already there has been a real life murder because of events in Second Life. Something to be concerned about for sure.

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Reading for the Day: Why School Reform Is Impossible

The structure of school has become so deep-rooted that today, variations are heavily frowned upon in many cases. By having this set standard when it comes to education in general, and classrooms specifically we are tying ourselves to boring and worn out strategies. There are new things out there to try, and as educators we need to pick up some of these.

However, at the same time, education being so rooted in these beliefs means that it is impossible to reform the system. Yesterday I posted about virtual classrooms, of which I am heavily against. Short term, they are fine, but it is not something I believe we can completely swap to. Of course, I would be included in the group that Seymour Papert considers to be blind by assimilation. And I would have to agree.

“The structure of School is so deeply rooted that one reacts to deviations from it as one would to a grammatically deviant utterance: Both feel wrong on a level deeper than one’s ability to formulate reasons. This phenomenon is related to “assimilation blindness” insofar as it refers to a mechanism of mental closure to foreign ideas.”

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Technology Cognate: Communication Technology. Second Life is all about communication and sharing. The whole concept of a second world that people can live in and interact in revolves around communication. The virtual world is built around ways for people to communicate and interact with each other.

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Lesson Plan:  Holocaust Lesson Plan