Discussion Question #1
We will begin a threaded discussion with the topic I have posted. Click on the topic and respond to the post initially. Then, keep referring back to the thread to respond and comment on what your classmates have offered. Each of you needs to respond to at least THREE other responses as well as your initial contribution. Let’s keep the discussion moving forward. This is an extremely critical topic that we as technology leaders must be able to articulate if we are to make technology a norm in our instructional practices.
REMINDER: When responding to someone’s post, please keep in mind expected Threaded Discussion Protocals: Allow and accept diverse perspectives, no put-downs, and no personal attacks. Each class member is a professional educator with his/her own unique experiences. These threads are for sharing what we are thinking in response to the reading. Take time to carefully articulate your thoughts before posting.
Teens Social Media Use on the Rise, But few are blogging.
For this professional conversation and as educators who recognize the importance of infusing technology into the everday instructional experiences of students and teachers:
1. What points in this study “hit your button” in either a positive or negative way?
2. Select one of the virtual metaphors and discuss it in relation to your own practice.
3. Possible solutions
As you form your responses to the above items, how does this directly apply to your own practice? Has your work at APU assisted you in the integration of technology into your professional work?
Jason Seliskar · December 1, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Its amazing to see how the students of today are using and building their learning around technology. Building connections and opening the world around them online creates a world that was not accessible when I was in school. It is good to know students are using these tools to enhance their learning. I see a divide when it comes to education. The teachers that do and the ones that don’t use technology. The bad I see is the traditional ways to study and using the same methods of research and fact finding. I think the Internet as a central research tool can be used more on a superficial level where a person can be a somewhat of an expert on many things, than a solid expert on maybe fewer. The title of the study is true in the fact with budget crunches and the pace where students learn this technology is out pacing the teachers who teach it. Not mentioning the ones who don’t use it.
Janet Williford · December 5, 2009 at 10:00 am
I wholeheartedly agree. Today’s student is definitely evolving. Looking back before the Internet had become a household reference, I would listen to students and even my own son would come up with information on how to “beat” video games. It was like their own network of getting information on “secret” passes or areas of the game to get extra lives. Today, this generation does the same thing in a worldwide way. They communicate (input as well as output) on the Internet finding and distributing various information beyond gaming. Economically, schools are hard-pressed at keeping up with students’ abilities with technology, especially in the leaps and bounds in the way technology is growing in its use. I checked out your blog and it was insightful to see the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009, amazing and astounding to see all that available at our fingertips.
lynese · December 8, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Jason, I agree! It is amazing, most of all, how much the students are using the internet for learning purposes. I always associate computers with gaming and socializing vs. learning and research. It’s a pleasant surprise and correction I need to make (and probably many others my age!) about student internet users. There is a definite divide between generations! I am on the broken off piece of the mainland floating toward the pacific rim of tech savvy teens and students. I just missed the internet in my educational career and am close enough to realize it’s need and benefits to learn and utilize. I think the internet could be used, as you mentioned, to produce a superficial level of learner. However, the reality is, how many things do we really need to be an expert on, especially when the work force and the current economic situation call for most people to know more about a lot of different things and have specialists on had for emergency (independent contracted) purposes only? I am all for knowing some things in detail, but realistically, it may not be necessary anymore. I was surprised to read that 30 – 40% of teens are considered tech savvy! That means that when my second graders get to high school, the percentage will be much higher! The importance of preparing them for those needs seems paramount for educators! Although there will always be the student that uses technology to cheat- one participant admitted to using the internet to find answers to his homework, knowing it was unethical, it shouldn’t stop educators from incorporating it in their assignments. I admit I fall into that category and need to work myself out of it! I also think a downfall to the internet is that it can easily perpetuate our human nature to be self reliant, lazy, and disconnected from our neighbors and between generations. The fact that teens use the internet for guidance counseling, tutoring, and study groups lends to that disconnect and leads to comments and realizations like one participant who said that once she realized in her senior year what she needed to graduate, she was in a scramble to get her credits done. Why didn’t she know what she needed before her senior year? Because she wasn’t seeing her counselor, hadn’t gone to a study group with other live bodies, and hadn’t gotten tutoring from someone with casual conversation. A little overboard on my correlation? Perhaps. Totally accurate? Of course not. The internet vs. old fashioned face to face experiences each produce pros and cons. As with everything, it must be balanced and used with good judgement! Overall, I believe that educators must be proactive in incorporating technology into the learning experience and environment to help our students be prepared for life after school. Isn’t that our chief aim in education?
Janet Williford · December 28, 2009 at 6:21 pm
The term “Digital Immigrants” fits many of the older teachers in this age we find ourselves. Much of the technology used by today’s students speaks another “language” with its functions and related conversations. The reference speaking about those teachers growing up in the 60’s referring to “dialing a number,” compared to today’s students who have only seen buttons to make a call or have already programmed their cell phones to speak the recipient’s name for the connections to be made is a significant change that we see over the differences of the “Digital Generation.“
The high-school student who complained of having to “power down” when he came to school illustrates the need for teachers of this generation to improve their craft by incorporating technology in lesson presentation. The speed in which information is delivered through today’s Digital Natives makes reading from textbooks in a typical classroom a snail’s pace. Students’ attention will rarely be grabbed through text anymore. It is like today’s students have been rewired and classroom presentation must be given in visual bytes. Personally, I have brought in more presentations with PowerPoint and podcasts for the Study Skills workbooks we are going through for seventh graders. I have surveyed my students and asked their preferences in the way we go through lessons. Anything presented on my laptop and projector is definitely more receptive than reading the work text.
I believe the solution will be for teachers to realize the changing generation and the acceptance that today’s students are changing the way they learn. Many in the teaching profession would prefer to maintain the status quo because change would cause an upheaval of current methods, preparation, and thinking of teachers. If there is not a turn around of these current ways, the new incoming teachers will replace the older “Digital Immigrants” and find technological ways to reach these “Digital Natives.”
Lynese · December 30, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Janet, I think you’re right by what your closing comment was- if “digital immigrants” refuse to make changes, incoming teachers will replace them. It would probably be easier for them to as well since most poeple coming into the profession (as opposed to those who have been in for a longer while and don’t want to change) whether they be younger or second careerers can understand the importance and rlelevancy of technology in the classroom. Corporate America is there and the younger genereation is there. I’m not that “old” and I haven’t been teaching that long and I still find myself questioning how much of this I really need for my 2nd graders. And then, when I incorporate any tech in the classroom, the level of engagement rises (unless I bring out scissors, glue, and glitter!) and that’s what effective teachers are after! It’s becoming a necessity and less of a novelty.
Christian Arteaga · February 12, 2010 at 12:00 pm
After reading the article, what stood out in my mind is the numbers of students blogging declining. Just like everything else that gets introduced to the world, it takes off at the beginning, but plateaus or declines after most people have tried it and get bored with it. This made me think of my classroom of fifth graders. Keeping them motivated is something that can be very difficult at times. Once I introduce something new to them they are very motivated, but after doing it for a while they seem to lose interest. This is exactly why I decided to attain my masters in technology, to spark that interest back up in all of my students. The quote, “People these days don’t find reading that fun,” from the article is so true. Being an elementary school teacher where we are teaching students to read, I get to witness this first hand. Anytime I assign any work that has reading involved, is when I hear all the moans and groans. Students are not motivated by reading, not to mention the students who have plenty of trouble with comprehension. The article also mentions, “It’s a matter of typing quickly,” which ties into less reading.
Blogging is something that takes plenty of dedication, in regards to keeping it updated. I just started a blog last semester, and I’m having trouble keeping it current. There’s not enough time to keep everything current (at least for me) with everything else I have to do in my days of teaching. All the requirements that district and state puts on teachers, standard this standard that, test them here test them there, it never ends! What happened to education over the years? It’s our job to keep our lessons fun, and keep all of our students motivated to continue learning.
Charlie Loya Jr · February 15, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Kids, like many adults, have so many things going on in their lives. While sustaining a Blog is great to see how people will respond to certain topics, texting with your cell phone has become more convenient for those personal moments you need to share with friends and family. Think about why you text instead of call; it is just easier and less time consuming. There is no need to speak or feel that you need to carry on a conversation. Personally I do not have time to look at blogs on websites and talk about certain topics. I use the computer for work and if it means communicating on a Blog site I will. It is great that kids are developing the skills needed to adapt to evolving technology. Sooner than later society is going to adapt to the growing wants of what technology is going to bring us.
Liliana Tolson · February 16, 2010 at 4:51 pm
“You’ve got mail!” was exciting to hear in the early 90s. Nowadays, you get poked, gifted, invited, tagged, and so on via social networking. It does not surprise me that teen’s are not blogging since it’s not as interactive such as Facebook and MySpace. Teens enjoy sharing videos, music, photos via the internet or cell phones. If a blog is not interactive, teens will eventually move on. Technology is evolving and so are teens! Educators need to discover creative and effective ways to capture the attention of their students to help them learn and grow. Through APU, I’ve discovered the value of integrating technology in my professional work. Overall, I’ve realized teens want a fun, creative, and positive learning experience. It’s about finding that balance and meeting their educational needs.
Christian Arteaga · March 7, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Liliana, I agree with you in the terms of keeping up with the students. All students are learning something new everyday. With technology changing everyday, we need to keep up. I too have been using what I’ve been acquiring through APU and applying it when possible in my classroom. I hope that blogs do not become too boring because I just started creating one. Use what your learning and implement it. After all, that is why we are taking these classes.
Ranger, Bob · February 16, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Students love to communicate to each other. A couple a years ago my daughter introduced me to the code words for Instant Messaging (idk, g2g, bff). Now I see this code being used in writings from the students. This is a concern among many teachers at our school. Many students seem to get lazy or are looking for a quick way to respond to teachers. Most students understand this is not acceptable writing practice, but argue for the benefit of reducing the amount of time-spent writing. These are the same students who have poor hand writing skills. Is this a concern or is it? The old ways of teaching say it is not acceptable but there are ways to get around the old ways as long as you have an understanding of the English Language and how to use it. English writing programs have the ability to put words to text and asset in using the proper grammar. As a past keyboarding teacher, the writing was on the wall, when teaching students the right way to type on a keyboard. We found students typing 40 plus word a minute with two fingers. It was when the student needed to type text from a book for three-minute time writings their times dropped considerably. There is a yearly contest on typing skills on a cell phone; last year contestants were typing over 70 words a minute. In my opinion, students like instant messages to friends and family, and longer lasting messages on posts; like facebook, twitter, and myspace. It has been interesting to observe students send e-mails, they seem to be stuck between sending an instant message and typing a longer message or letter.
Christian Arteaga · March 7, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I agree with you about the students using code messaging in their writing. My fifth grade students are putting the code writing “OMG” in their assignments and not even realizing it. It’s becoming so common amongst all of them. You are so correct about using two fingers while learning to type. I was one of those students, while taking typing classes in high school. My case was not from texting, mine was the comfort of typing with two fingers. We need to keep up with all of our students!
David Dearie · February 17, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Blogging declining! Say it isn’t so. And here I thought I was simply a flake and too lazy to make an additional fifteen minutes a day to craft some brilliant pros for strangers to follow. Well I must admit, when I’m dedicating time and no one is reading it, the incentive declines rapidly. Now after reading that blogging is declining it gives me the excuse I need to eliminate the need to blog!
However, blogging as a means of communication, even if just one-way from teacher to student or parent still has value. As a parent of a middle and high schooler, I wish more teachers maintained (and updated) a blog so I can keep tabs of my kids assignments. And, for those *seldom* times my teens “forgets” their assignment, they wouldn’t need to txt their pals but could check the blog.
In my job as a Naval leader, communication remains our greatest success and failure. Battles are won not with bombs but with communications. If we cannot communicate on the battle field we’d have no way to place “warheads on foreheads.” But we do communicate on the battlefield pretty well. But trying to communicate to groups of Sailors to be at a meeting or event at a particular time during the day is a constant struggle. We still rely on antiquated methods like a paper Plan of the Day that is supposed to be read to our troops during morning muster. Or announcing over a loud speaker system that has dead zones throughout the command. As discussed in this article, the youth of today (which coincides with the average age of our Sailors, Soldiers, Airman and Marines) we need to modify how we direct information flow. They all have cell phones, web phones, iphones, ear phones, etc, and we should capitalize in this. We need to remove the barriers of how we were raised and ask our client, the student or employee, how to best communicate with them.
One area that we are succeeding in is the social media like Facebook. I was pleased to see that over three quarters of the youth and young adults have Facebook. More military commands are forming groups and positing information on Facebook for both Sailors and their families to access. This is proving beneficial. The number of people online continue to increase and so do the numbers accessing this information.
In a nutshell, this article confirmed pretty much what I didn’t know I knew, that blogging has no real return on its investment and social media usage continues to increase. That we need to be more dynamic and less stove-piped in the way we push information from the classroom or the workplace to our target audience.
Christian Arteaga · March 7, 2010 at 11:42 am
David, I agree with you in your statements about blogs. If I’m spending all this time updated my blog and nobody is reading it, it’s almost a waste of time. Being a teacher, time is something we don’t have. Teaching all subjects everyday to elementary students, grading, and preparing assignments, takes up most of your time. David, in your line of work, communication is huge. Soldiers need to know what is going on at all times. Keep doing what your doing.
Katie Minor · February 22, 2010 at 11:06 pm
What really bugged me was when the 18 year old from Holy Cross University says, “People these days don’t find reading that fun.” Really?! That really irks me beyond belief but the point she is trying to make really makes a lot of sense. Why read a whole article about Shaun White winning gold at the Olympics when I can just follow him on Twitter and get his 140 word blurb which comes straight from the source.
Maybe this whole “not finding reading fun” thing will change. Tweeting and Facebooking are the cool things to do these days and according to the article it’s because they can be accessed through mobile devices. Well, now we have digital readers like the Kindle and iPods, iPhones, iPads, and itty bitty net books with eBook capabilities. You can be reading the book adaptation of Star Wars on your iPhone and everyone would be thinking you’re the coolest cat in town. To be honest, on a recent visit to Portland my boyfriend and I were gawking at a girl reading her Kindle on a light rail car. Yes, everyone that has used public transportation has seen people reading books and newspapers but it was a KINDLE!!! It was way cooler than someone reading one of those “boring” old paper things!
The article talks about teens using their mobile devices to easily access their social-networking sites. The ability to get access mobiley gives the user the freedom to do it whenever they want and wherever they want. They also get INSTANT feedback when friends respond to their “tweets” or “status updates” because, again, they can access the content anywhere and everywhere. People who are using this sites are used to getting instant feedback. Kids in the classroom are expecting that instantaneity throughout the day. If we think about how we can use the “instant feedback” idea in our classroom we will be more successful in getting them to master the things they need to. The first thing that comes to my mind would be the accuracy in students’ work.
As for blogging, I think that it may make a comeback with the rise of net books and the fancy shmancy iPad. It will make it that much easier for people to blog on the go. Unfortunately, blogging on a cell phone just doesn’t seem to pleasing. Just imagine how cramped your fingers would be! That said, bloggers might appreciate an app on their phones where they can get instant notification of comments people leave on their blog. Bloggers could even respond to their readers comments through their phone. It would give blogging the instantaneity factor and ease of access that it currently lacks.
david · February 23, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I consider myself a nerd of all things technology, and I love the new and exciting things that have come to the fore-front over the past 10 years or so, but being a teacher, I see that a lot of students use this technology as a way to be even more lazy than before. I mentioned the other day that they could go to the library and they looked at me like I was crazy. They just google everything. Heck, you don;t even have to spell the word right either, Google will fix that for you too! My point is that we have become so reliant on quick and easy access, that we have forgotten the foundations of most of our learnings. Basic math and reading and writing skills.I love innovation, but I think there should be a better balance between the fundamentals and new technology.
Katie Minor · February 26, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Liliana, I think you’re right on then nose about the interactive element of social-networking sites. I never thought of that! There is a “game” element with all the different apps on social networking sites… well, for Facebook at least. With blogging you have the ability to interact with other people but you have to actually write, which is obviously terribly difficult for teens. It’s just not as fun as sending someone a cheesy gift.
David Dearie · February 26, 2010 at 8:53 pm
David, I concur with your assessment. I’ve told my kids to grab a dictionary to look up spelling or definition of a word. They try to sneak online for the dictionary or Google like you describe. Ah . . . no. Go get the book that reads DICTIONARY on the cover and look it up. It’s as bad as turning the channel the television without the remote control. How many people will just watch whatever channel it’s on if the remote control can’t be found. Or just turn the TV off and do something else. We’ve truly become way to reliant (i.e., lazy) with technology.
Charlie Loya Jr · February 27, 2010 at 9:31 pm
David
I have to explain to my son that he still needs to put his thoughts on paper before he tries to develop them electronically. He will always ask me how to spell certain words and I have to force him to get a dictionary. However, I am guilty of looking up words on Microsoft Word for my students because I have so many things going on in the classroom. I know that it is not right or is it? Technology is going to replace books, look at the Kindle and The Nook. My mother does not read much and I bought her a Nook and now she is reading book after book. As a parent and teacher I want students and my kids to know and understand how use books before they get too comfortable with technology. Like I said before, soon than later society is going to adapt the growing needs/wants of what technology can do for us.
Liliana Tolson · March 2, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Katie,
You made an excellent point that educators need to consider the idea of “instant feedback” in the classroom. It would be interesting to use an App as a way to provide students with instant feedback. The integration of technology for 21st century learners needs to be embraced by educators to capture the attention of their students. Why not make it fun and creative for them, so they can learn the essential information. Excellent points Katie!
Liliana Tolson · March 2, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Charlie,
I agree that visiting a blog website can be time consuming, but if we place a positive spin on it, a blog can be a fun and rewarding learning environment for students. If educators don’t place high expectations on the length of posts/replies, students would most likely be drawn to post valuable comments/resources. For example, students can simply research a website that supports the topic and post the link for classmates to reference. Similar to a Tweet!
Liliana Tolson · March 2, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Bob,
The instant messaging (IM) code words still confuse me! I’m not surprised anymore when I see students spelling their own names in lower case when they type their essays for their English courses. Students nowadays just don’t like using the Shift key and spelling things out correctly for their assignments. It’s unfortunate that students don’t realize the negative impact of IM in their writing skills.