Reflections

=January 2009= ** If I Were A Car What Would I Be? : January 7, 2009 ** I have been trying to rack my brains as to what type of car I would be as a metaphor for my experiences with technology.  I have decided that I would be one of those little Chevy pick-up trucks.  From my understanding of cars Chevy always comes up with the latest year of the little truck but the styling and body work stay rather stale.  I have tried to become exposed to technology over time but I seem to get stuck at a very basic level.  For example, a co-worker today said that I would be fine in the technology course.  I told her that she really didn’t understand.  She wanted to know whether I was using a flash stick yet and when I replied no, she said it was like using an ipod/mp3player which she knew I had.  So I told her that I used it to play the radio.  Chevy trucks do not go very quickly but they seem to get the job done with lots of effort when they need to.  When someone wants to haul a dusty Christmas tree out of their living room they can throw it in the back of this little truck.  However, if someone wanted to move a heavier load then they have to ask for someone else’s truck.  Overall, the basics are there, the styling has been around for awhile, for which it gets teased but it hasn’t improved much over time. 

Pink Wheeled Roller Skates: January 21, 2009
I grew up during a time when play was something that was done out-doors and your moms were not the ones organizing it. It was definitely a carefree type of existence. I had a pack with another girl, who was also named Alexandra, that we would do everything together. We rode our bikes together, chased boys, and then one day she received a brand new pair of roller skates. I could easily keep up on my bike but, well that just wasn’t the point. There was motivation enough to hassle my own poor mother for my very own pair.

When I laid my eyes in the store on a pink wheeled pair, I knew that was the pair for me. At home I examined the neat bright white leather stitches and how the wheels spun, terrified to actually put them on. I hoped my mother would be content with me playing with the laces. I soon mustered enough courage to put them on and walk across the taupe living room carpet. I knew that once Alexandra no. 2 found out I had skates she would want me to put them on outside; a thought that paralyzed into carpet sliding action.

The next day, Alexandra no. 2 screamed with delight and offered to teach me how to skate which consisted of: get them on, tie the laces and roll. I knew I would have to do the work myself if I wanted to see results. As she had already learned to do some rudimentary spins I began to feel envious of her ability to get move so gracefully on something which caused me so much fear and exhilaration at the same time. I began to skate. The more I tried, the faster I became. Did I fall? Too many times to count but I knew what I wanted, and I was determined to get there on my own. Now as I rollerblade, tuck and fearlessly zip down a hill I sometimes think back to those old skates. They might not be so envious if they could see all the nicks and scars on my knees from my self-directed learning.

= February 2009 = = =

Password Chaos: February 3, 2009
Maybe it's just me...maybe it is my granny ways...I'm not sure which, but I am really struggling with not only my now...what 4? 5? email accounts and countless other accounts ( shutterfly, flicr , the bank...) but now with my various passwords. I thought I would keep it simple and sort of use a similar one for most accounts. No...that would have been too easy. SO some accounts ask you to have at least 6 or 8 letters in your password, others insist on a number, and then there are the ones that just out right judge the strength of your password right in front of you....that's really weak they say, or you're just a bit better than a weakling.

Now that I have spent the last 30 mins trying to hack into my own CBC account to leave a comment on the fact that Obama still has not obtained a puppy for his little girls, I gave up and tried to hack into blogger....this only took me about 5 minutes. Hence this blog post.

I've realized one thing out of all this chaos...and that is that if you use similar passwords, with multiple variations, with multiple email accounts.... breaking into your own accounts can at times feel like picking the winning combinations to next weeks lottery.

Defining Assumptions: February 4, 2009 An assumption I have about teaching and/or learning is: that if I am able to convey my enthusiasm about a topic my students will also get excited about the topic and this in turn will make their learning more self-directed. I tend to then become a bit of a fly on the wall and hold back, letting them (with due direction) get started on their assignments.

Because I assume this to be true, when I create a learning environment I pay attention to: my delivery of the subject, the tone of my voice, my energy level and the attention and focus of the kids in the class.  I also try to have visuals so that I am not the only thing that can draw their interest. As a teacher who has fly on the wall tendencies I group children into groups with others who they will be competent learners with, ie peer buddies, etc.

Because I assume this to be true, when I create a learning environment I do not pay attention to: their level of exposure to a subject, and therefore, out of context a new topic may be difficult to get their heads around.  Also, they may feel like they do not always have my full support as I hold back to see where they will take an activity. 

= March 2009= __ Digital Kids: Advantage or Disadvantaged? __

I suspect that most people now think that digital kids are all around them, and I suppose to a certain extent this is true. Digital kids being ones who have been raised with technology all around them; they were born at a time when the internet was starting to become popular enough for everyday use, when cell phones were started to get marketed to average people, and primitive computers replaced any sign of typing machines. If you were growing up in the late seventies and eighties like I was, we saw a lot of change in terms of technology. In elementary and junior high school most of us were looking up books through the librarian’s card catalogue system. By the time we reached high school and university everyone was looking up their resources on-line. In high school it was hard to imagine that this intra and inter net system could connect you live to people across the globe. By university it started to become more common place to speak to people on line. Cell phones were the size of bricks when I was in junior high school and by the time I was in university students started to carry them. Some of us whole hearted accepted this new wave of change and others resisted. Unfortunately I resisted this wave of new technology. I kept hoping some of it was a fad and would pass. If you were born in the mid nineties you are likely what most people would classify as a digital kid. The internet was here for you to use, and you were likely using it to play Disney games on, your parents had cell phones and gave you one even though you were driven to school most times, you learned to text at hummingbird speed, and why wouldn’t you get most of your research of off wikipedia? For the kids who had access to technology, they were unabashed about using it for their own convenience as soon as possible, and they expected that this technology was theirs to use, demanded that it improve. However, being the paper sentimentalist, I ask myself, “Has something not been lost amongst this generation who has not patiently thumbed through the card catalogue in the library?” Alan November eludes to this in his book __Empowering Students With Technology__, in his section on the automating of technology. Alan November warns that the “ease of accessing the information via the online catalogue had lowered the quality of student research”. Now what if these students had only learned to research on-line without the skills of inference? Universities are now experiencing some of the pit falls of this digital generation. A common complaint amongst professors is that students do on-line searches and end up either using information from wikipedia, or they quote only the most popular search engines sites trying to sort through the “rubbish heap”. Sort of like looking only through the A’s in the old card catalogue system. Wikipedia and poor on-line research skills, it seems, have become the nemesis of the university. In Jamie McKenzie’s article, “Reading Between the Lines”, it states that “students must know how to read between the lines, put clues together and fathom meanings that are not evident. They must look past the words.” I’m not sure if we are helping them be digitally savvy when many of us are just learning to become digital ourselves.

= = =April 2009=

[|Smartboard Smarts????]
In September, I attended a workshop during the first Professional Development day entitled "Smartboard"...blah, blah. I don't remember the rest of the name because, I was trying to figure out from the description what a Smartboard was. My first guess, inspired by the name, was that it was a typing keyboard without the monitor. ( I now know that this is called a Dana, as two of my students were able to recieve on through the occupation therapist recently.) I figured I would go to this conference because I wanted to see technology in action and how I could use it to help my students with written output challenges. My second guess was that I had no clue. The latter was true. Boy, was I blown away. I couldn't believe that this cool piece of technology was being used in my school district. Now I am no techno whiz, but I really wanted to learn how this technology worked. I became a little discouraged because I knew that my school did not have the resources to spend the thousands of dollars which it would take to buy this piece of AWESOME technology. So I decided that I didn't want to go to any more presentations on Smartboards, as I felt it would be a bit of a waste of time. Why go see something you can't use...right? So when it was presented at one of our LTT nights I decided to go and see something that I would actually be able to use...rss feeds and webquests. These were both really neat ways at looking at technology within the classroom and at home. Who would have guessed that the presentation I avoided would present an opportunity for me to have use of a Smartboard?

So I guess you never know how quickly technology will enter your life!

I have been 'playing' with the technology as of late. I am hoping to learn from the kids about Smartboards as much as I will be able to show them...if not more. They are so willing and unafraid to use technology themselves. In my mind this is why I believe they are all digital kids....I play and then pray I don't mess something up. Some of the kids have never seen a Smartboard and they are in awe when they get at chance to play on it.

I am learning the basics. I have learned how to use most of the side tools and I have located some resources on-line from another teacher in the district. Little things have been challenging...like saving, and finding resources which apply to what I am teaching. Overall, so far it has been a very positive experience.