These Are a Few of My Favorite Things....

1)  Making it down a (relatively) long, steep hill at Sundance Ski Resort without falling!

2)  My new UGG boots!  (they are knock-off, but still!)

3)  John Mayer "Perfectly Lonely."  I know the message is a bit skewed, but its such a happy song!

4)  My 2 month old niece, Annie!

5)  The fact that I'm going to BALTIMORE for Christmas!

6)  This clip from 500 days of Summer.  I don't recommend watching this movie without ClearPlay, but the following clip is totally clean and SO cute!

Ratings

I did the 2 ratings.  That is all.  Thanks for a great class!

Content-Specific Technology Integration Project

This is my video slideshow that I made.  I would give my 10th graders the assignment- "Who is someone who has changed your life."  I would then have then write a 5-p essay answering that question.  Additionally, I would have them create a technological representation as well.  This video is an example of someone who has changed my life.  This fulfills the following UEN core for 10th grade:

Standard 2:  Students will write informational and literary text to reflect on and recreate experiences.  

Internet Safety

   Yah for internet safety!  

        READINGS

1)  I read an article entitled "Its 'Only' Vioelnce" by Brad Bushman.

2) Violence in media may not affect me, but it may affect others around me, my children or my students, so its something I need to be concerned about.  Also, LDS people often downplay violence in media, but the shedding of innocent blood is even worse of a sin than sexual transgression.

3)  I need to be careful to not glorify violence in literature.  If a violence is part of literature that we study, I need to show how it is destructive.

4)  One way of looking at all of this positively is to know that there are groups out there dedicated to providing clean, uplifting, and quality media.  Hopefully, these groups will only increase.  I need to support them with my money and my time, and encourage others to do the same.  

WATCHING

I watched the BYU animation about internet safety.  It seemed very basic and also very approachable, so I think it would be an excellent resource for young kids (elementary school).

I also watched a group of videos recommended on the class website.  This included sections on cyberbullying, parents involvement/lack of involvement in the world of the internet and teenagers, exploring different identities through the internet, etc.  Honestly, many of them made the future seem quite dim.  One of the positive aspects of it was teaching students from an early age internet courtesy.  I think through all of this, we have to realize that kids are turning to bad things on the Internet because they aren't having some need met, whether it is social, emotional, or intellectual.  I want to try to encourage kids to live in the real world, maybe show them some aspects of these videos, and see what their thoughts are.  I also would want to show them horror stories so as to illustrate consequences of living through the internet or the television.

DOING

I talked with my Mom (age 61) on Internet Safety.  We watched the video on cyber-bullying and talked about it.  It went well, although it was a sad topic and discussion.  We talked about how we are so glad the prophets counseled us to have computers in public places, and also how we need to know our children, know what is troubling them, and do all we can to meet their needs so that they don't go elsewhere, like the Internet, for comfort and answers.  

Jing/Skype Extra Credit!

TPK vs. TPACK

TPK is technological pedagogical knowledge, where TPACK is technological pedagogical and content knowledge. I feel like this class is more geared to TPK- it is general enough that hopefully the people in our class from all different majors could find something useful. However, our group projects were probably more of TPACK because we were gearing them specifically to a certain content. I am an English teaching major, and therefore am interested in technology specifically geared toward that. One of these is a program called "My Access," which unfortunately grades student papers and supposedly teaches them how to write. I think "My Access" is a great example of technology being used for a bad purpose! One of my professors talked about how an English teacher took her students to a computer lab, set then up on "My Access," gave a sigh of relief that she didn't have to teach writing, and started reading a People Magazine.
Another example of TPACK might be Turnitin.com, which is a valuable, but imperfect program in which student papers are submitted, and supposedly saved so that teachers can assure they are not plagiarized, as well as documented so that other students cannot plagiarize them. Turnitin.com is somewhere between TPACK and TPK. It wouldn't be used by a teacher of any subject- Calculus or Chemistry teachers probably would not find it valuable to their classroom. However, it could be used my more than just English teachers- history and psychology teachers might use it.

VIDEO COMMUNICATION!

So cool, so cool. I really love this stuff. I think I would send a video message to a student who had a prolonged absence. Here are my screen shots.