#GEN2243 For Life !

Exploring my digital portfolio has been a very useful and creative experience for me. #Gen2243 has truly opened my eyes to how important the use of different tools and technology is to your education and career. As a young college student and professional I have been able to use everything that I've learned this semester in and outside of the classroom. A major component of this course was building a Personal Learning Network, and in the process of doing so I have been able to interact with professionals and really establish myself on social networks. I was lucky enough to find a great job and summer internship right out of college, so this course couldn't have come at a better time for me. I have been struggling with this transition from a procrastinating college student to a full time professional, and the digital tools that we've used throughout this course have been a great help. Tweeting and blogging have become two of my favorite ways to network and have been the most valuable. I was at first discouraged when I realized how much this course geared toward the education field, but many of the topics we discussed were relevant to my career. One of the most important topics we discussed was proper social media etiquette. This gave me the opportunity to research a professional in my intended career field who was fired over an inappropriate Facebook post.

APP SMACKDOWN!

For our App Smackdown we were each required to get up in front of the class to give a short 2 minute synopsis of an app and how it relates to your major or intended career. I actually found a great one called CamCard, which provides you with the opportunity to scan and store any business cards for free! I have since used this app on several different occasions to store important contact information for work and even created my own business card that I can share via text or email.

GOOGLE HANGOUT!  

#GEN2243 has met with some very inspirational educators and professionals consistently throughout the semester on Google hangout. We recently had the opportunity to hear from educator Robyn Hrivnatz, who is currently employed at Microsoft as a Senior Teacher Engagement Manager for U.S. Education managing, Astronaut Abby, an aspiring scientist and astronaut who dreams of being the first to land on Mars, and Adam Taylor, a high school science teacher who created the website scistuchat.com, where students can make connections between science and their world and interact with real scientists through twitter. They have each been able to provide us with great advice on how to expand our PLN and connect with professionals using Twitter and LinkedIn. I am glad that I was able to actually interact with such amazing professionals while using Google hangout for the first time!

Presentation Tools!

I was so excited to learn the different advanced presentation tools which were each great alternatives to the traditional PowerPoint. Prezi was one of my favorites and I have been using it ever since. Haiku Deck and Google Slides are also two great ways to spice up your presentation.

 

I recommend this #GEN2243 course to all Stockton Seniors who are about to venture off into a world of advanced technology to build a career !

   

Technology, Education, & Energy!

Chapter 9 of The Connected Educator focuses on how learning is affected by advanced technology. Classroom learning strategies change in response to how technology has evolved. From an educators perspective you must change your way of learning, rather than how you teach and lead, in order to effectively model lifelong adaptive learning strategies for your students. To make this change you must consider the four major components of learning 2.0, these include knowledge, pedagogy, connections, and capacity. You must also ask yourself if are preparing students for yesterday, today, or tomorrow? And think what principled changes you should be making in the classroom to ensure that you are developing in students the skill set they will need as they face future challenges. The chapter also addressed the moral purpose of teaching and the need to do something powerful to promote change in your school or classroom. "Be the example you want your students to be".


Last week my colleagues and I had the opportunity to hear from educator Robyn Hrivnatz, who is currently employed at Microsoft as a Senior Teacher Engagement Manager for U.S. Education managing the MIE Expert and MIE Trainer Communities, as well as curriculum lead for professional learning. She has been an educator for 16 years and has a passion for working with educators and learners to integrate technology to help revolutionize today's classroom and empower global citizenship. She was able to discuss some of the key elements of her career and how she incorporates social media. She is such an inspiration and great example of a learner and thinking leader!

Following this great discussion, our class broke into groups to play Frogger. Yes that may sound elementary but it was a great learning experience and way to prepare us for tasks in the professional world! In order for our frog to successfully make it through hazards we had to work as a team and figure out what different objects to use that conduct energy. Energy from an electrical circuit is what allowed us to operate the frog using our keyboard. Each individual from our team was able to point out what they believed to be a barrier and we were able to find the proper energy source. Who knew that the human body could serve as a conductor for energy. It was a matter of trial and error as well as being able to come to an agreement with the members of your team and work together effectively. Aside from constantly rearranging the wires and finding the appropriate conductor, we wouldn’t have been able to overcome issues without communication.

Social Media tools and How to Intergrate Them with Websites

In chapter 4 of Untangling The Web, authors focus on a variety of social networking tools. These tools are explained as great ways to supplement face-to-face interactions and provide more opportunities to extend those relationships. Social networking will also enhance your ability to collaborate online. TodaysMeet.com is a virtual room that educators can use to enhance their students learning process through web-based communication. You can also connect your students to the world by using Skype in the classroom. Creating an account on education.skype.com provides you with the opportunity to video chat with experts, as well as connect with professionals to make a great introduction to your research. If you want to provide learners with a platform for self-expression in their academic life introduce them to a great blogging tool designed for the classroom, Kidblog.org. Blogging may serve as a means for sharing personal interests, documenting classroom experiences, or even as a place for reflecting upon their own efforts, success, and failures. Also, if you have not already, consider using the microblogging social media site and mobile app Twitter. This provides an avenue for people to share and be discovered in a less obtrusive way. Being social online is an important part of providing the best educations for students today.      


       I have just recently learned some great ways to integrate websites with social media using paper.li publisher and IFTTT (If This Than That). The big list of IFTTT Recipes show the different options for powering up your social media marketing. IFTTT connects two services together so that an action on one service triggers an action on another. It works with the major social media services such as Facebook, twitter, instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. All of these sites can connect with noteable channels such as:

Pocket

Jawbone Up

Soundcloud

Gmail

Google Calendar

Evernote

How to become a paper.li publisher shows you step by step how to create an online paper using paper.li. The service lets you aggregate news from several sources using keywords and hashtags to find content matching your theme.


You can find some of the many perks of paper.li on the article Follow 5 People Smart Ways with Paper.li. These include being able to keep up with tweets and articles when away from twitter, learning more about a particular topic, sharing your paper.li summary with individuals who do not have twitter, get information from those you do not wish to follow, and follow a topic or event by hashtag.  See how easy it is to run your very own online newspaper using Paper.li, your Twitter account, and feeds?