Settle and Reflect

Today is catch up day. First we’ll debrief about the three tools we’ve learned so far. Then we’ll polish our portfolios. Today is the last day I will accept any work done in the first two weeks.  We should be settled in now, so unless you use your late-pass, you can not turn in a late assignment in the future.

Too much digital noise?
Read this article about taking down time from digital noise.  Do you believe this is true in your own life?

If all we have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
We’ve explored several tools so far, including Wallwisher, Google Sites and Delicious.  These are all tools to add to your professional toolbox. How could you apply anything you’ve learned so far into your life? Personally? Professionally? How is this related to what you’ve learned about learners in the digital generation? Be ready to share with the whole group.

Clean-up, clean-up: everybody everywhere!
We’ve been playing around with tools and building our websites, but it’s time to polish our work. You can create another Google site for fun, but the one for EDIT 2000 should be considered your official portfolio. As such, it should be professional. That includes the language choice, your pictures, and your layout. What kind of site would you show to a future employer after graduation? That’s your guiding question for today.

Make sure you have the following pages and revise them to meet the expectations of a professional portfolio:


Home – This is the first page people see when they land on your site. Make sure you:

• Introduce your site: What’s the purpose? What will we find here?
• Include a representative picture
• Optional: Insert a related gadget. Find additional gadgets under the Insert Menu.

About Me – This is your autobiography page. Using complete sentences, answer the following:

• What’s your current major and anticipated graduation date?
• What are your talents and abilities?
• Why should an employer hire you?

Delicious Bookmarks-Place here a link to your delicious account

• Your delicious account should have at least 3 links of technology related to your future profession
• All links should be tagged
• If you were not able to add a bookmarklet to your browser, go to: http://www.delicious.com/help/tools to add one now. This will help you save and tag bookmarks easily.

Digital Generation – This is where we will link to your place-holder page for your Digital Generation Reflection page on Googledocs.  Make sure you’ve followed the directions we discussed previously.

Sidebar Navigation – This is how someone can navigate on your site

• Make sure your pages are organized the way you’d like them.
• (optional) You can add a countdown to an important event. You can tweak yours to make it related to your future job (launch party, first day of school, couples workshop, etc.).

Finish your site this weekend if you need more time. On Monday we will talk more about your learners and the content standards you might teach.

The Digital Natives Are Restless

Settling in
You should have read chapter 1 and finished your Reading Guide by now. Thinking back on the chapter. What was the most interesting or most important thing you read? What surprised or interested you?  Jot your answer on Wallwisher.

Web 2.0?  Isn't web 1.0 good enough for me?
Today’s internet is social. We share and collaborate with people all over the world with just a single click. This is the essence of web 2.0. A phrase you may or may not be familiar with. Let’s watch this 5 minute video to find out what it means.

Updating your website
In class we'll all work together to add our delicious site to our website.  On Friday, we'll get all caught up, and also work to get rid of all the extra "fluff" around the edges of our layout, so it's clean and professional.

Digital Immigrants vs. Digital Natives – Which one are you?
Good teachers know their students. Better teachers understand their students. One path to knowing your students is to understand their generation.

On the front of your index card describe how you learn new things. On the back of your index card, describe how you think your parents and professors learn.

Students you will teach (and any of you born after 1982) are sometimes called “digital natives” a phrase coined by Marc Prensky. Most of the teachers you’ve had are considered “digital immigrants.” Let’s look at this quick presentation to find out what that means.

Homework for Wednesday:
Based on the presentation, class discussion, and your personal opinion – respond to the following questions in a new Google Doc (http://docs.google.com) – use the same login you use for Google Sites.

1. Do you see yourself as a digital native or a digital immigrant? Why? How does that impact your potential to meet the needs of your future students?
2. What are some key points about the digital generation with which you agree? With which you disagree?
3. Read “Digital Nativism” by Jamie McKenzie. Revisit what we talked about in class. Who is right? Who is wrong? What does this mean for teaching and learning in your classroom?

These three questions are considered your Digital Generation Reflection from our Project List. After you are done, you can link this page to your online portfolio.

Saving web resources

The dangers of Facebook addiction
We'll start out with a little news story about the dangers of Facebook addiction.

Finishing up your website
What questions do you have about your website? Please keep in mind that we will be working on these websites all semester – so there is always time to make changes and improvements.
Please fill out this form so I’ll be able to access your website.

That smells delicious...
You’ll use your portfolio almost every day this semester. You’ll also encounter a multitude of teaching and learning resources that you’ll need to keep organized. In order to keep it all together – you’ll want to create a delicious account: http://www.delicious.com (Ahh, the joys of propriatary companies...delicious is now owned by yahoo, so if you have a yahoo email address you can use it to log in, otherwise you will have to create one. I recommend using the same login and password as your Google account so you can remember it).

What can you do with a delicious account? View this video and view our class delicious account: http://www.delicious.com/edit2000.fall2010

As part of your homework, you will add a minimum of 3 resources to your new delicious account. These should be related to tonight’s reading. Make sure the 3 resources have brief descriptions and appropriate tags. You might also want to add links to our course resources (the blog, the syllabus, etc.) but this is not required.

And don't forget...
Another online tool you may be interested in is livebinders.  This is like an online 3-ring binder, where you can collect websites, pdfs, documents, etc. around a common theme.  Explore this tool a bit, and think of how you can use it in your classrooms.

By Wednesday

1. Add 3 resources to your delicious site
2. Read Chapter 1 – complete the Chapter 1 reading guide. (You are required to complete 4 of the 6 reading guides over the course of the semester.) All page numbers in the guide refer to the numbers at the bottom of the page.  If you have not gotten your text yet, you can access a pdf of Chapter 1 here.