Is Google the new McDonald's?

There are many implications for technology in the 21st century generally, and in the realm of education specifically. One of the final questions we are addressing in the 518 Technology in the Classroom course looks at sourcing technology to schools as a single educational offering.  Microsoft has already been largely successful at having their software be the most-used in schools nationwide, and certainly Apple has tried to make inroads with their computers and tablets. Now Google is getting in on the game. They are offering schools not just the hardware, laptops and tablets, but a full spectrum of software. They hope to provide all the necessary classroom management tools that teachers will need as well as the applications that students will need. There is something very alluring about this single product opportunity. It promises to streamline everything to maximize communication and efficiency. On the other side of the coin, (the "dark" side, perhaps) there are many concerns that are raised about this "single product for everything and everyone" system. It would be incredibly unwise to push aside what we know to be true about the true purpose for companies in this capitalist society, and that is the bottom line. Sure, Google wants to make people's educational experience better, but what they really want is to sell you stuff. And everyone who studies economics and culture know that it's best to hook people while they're young. Just like McDonald's aims to snag lifetime customers at a very early age with their salty, fatty, sweet, comes-with-a-toy-happy meals, so Google is hoping to get loyal users as young as possible. Google has had numerous issues with their privacy policy, and that concern should be doubled when it comes to our children.

Gamification in Society and in the Classroom

A couple of years ago, my sons made some new friends. After picking them up from a play date, they told me that their new friend, Stephen, had a diamond pickax. I was a little surprised by that and commented that it surely must be pretend. They told me that, no, it was a real diamond pickax. I then asked exactly what that meant, and said that there must be diamonds on the handle. They told me that the pickax wasn't made of diamonds, but was used to mine diamonds. Incredulously, I asked why a 10 year old would have a real ax and why they would need one for mining. Exasperated, my 8 year old said, "Mom, it's for Minecraft."

Oh, Minecraft.

Yes, at this point I had been hearing many strange conversations that did not make sense to me from my boys and their friends. These conversations took place while they were using their tablets, when they were in the back of the car after school, while they were on the basketball court. Many months went by before I finally caught on that Minecraft was the subject of all of their conversations.

As a parent and a teacher, I have had many, many conversations about the impact of current digital technologies, including the many apps and games that children play. However, despite some of my concerns, I have had something of a deterministic point of view. The use of these devices and the gaming that goes along with them seems inevitable.

Several of the articles I read for this week are related to gamification. I think it's an exceptional idea for libraries to include gaming as part of their content. One of the articles from NPR talked with several libraries which claimed to have seen an increase in their circulation since they have incorporated on-site gaming. There are many people who, because of the Digital Divide, do not have consistent or quality access to the internet. That libraries can offer that aspect to them is laudable. Some opponents of using libraries for gaming claim that libraries should not be treated as community centers and that they should be places for intellectual/scholarly pursuits. I find this notion preposterous. My own public library offered a free class on wreath-making this past weekend. Is that an intellectual pursuit? No, but, for some, it's a valuable one. If libraries have to claim an intellectual or scholarly pursuit, then much of the books, fiction and non-fiction alike, along with videos, music and games would have to be removed from the library.

As for gamification in school, I love the sound of figuring out how to use games in a real context in a school environment. I am on the same page, however, as Joey Lee and Jessica Hammer from Teachers College Columbia University who say, "[we] must know what problems we are trying to fix, design systems that fix those specific problems, develop ways of evaluating whether those fixes work, and sustain those fixes over time," in their article, "Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother?" We cannot simply start adding new technologies into classrooms without understanding what we're doing and why. As it is, many studies have found that many educators are being required to add technology components to their classrooms, yet don't have the knowledge or experience to teach using those technologies, or troubleshoot them. 

Additionally, I think that we are making a huge mistake as a culture when we try and frame all aspects of life through a single lens -- that of technology. There are many valuable things that students learn in school, and I don't think we should replace them all with technology-driven curriculum. I do think that educators do need to constantly look at what they  are teaching and why, and revise their practices to meet the goals, standards and needs of the students they teach.

Podcasts, I-movies, and You-tube

There are so many ways to reach a greater audience these days. One of the aspects of current technologies that I love so much is the variety of media with which to express ideas. Using voice and video recordings are two excellent ways to break out of the norm for content.

I am a verbal/linguistic learner, so the written word has always had a strong influence on me. On the contrary, I find my students leaning much more heavily towards being visual learners.

There is no doubt that the increased availability of voice and video recording has made it so that anyone can post...anything, really.

There are countless ways I have used the available content for my own personal purposes. Just last night, I watched four different you-tube videos about how to fix my hair in a style that's called a "messy bun." I was able to pick the video that came closest to what I was looking for and watch and re-watch it until I had the information I was seeking. I have been using both podcasts and videos to teach myself how to play a ukulele.

As a student, one of the aspects of the Technology 518 course that I have liked more than any other course I have taken so far is the weekly podcast recordings. I am a distance learner, so all my courses are online. While there are many advantages and conveniences to this method of learning, there are also drawbacks. I much prefer the opportunity for class discussions and interaction. Though Dr. Tryon's lectures do not allow for verbal discussions, the recorded lecture does mimic the in-class lecture, an aspect that I find lends personalization to the course.

Facebook, Privacy, and Cyberbullying

I have mentioned in several other blogs some of the personal reasons why I have steered clear of Facebook, but in this blog I'd like to address the issue of privacy. There are several aspects of this to consider, the first of which is the Facebook privacy policy. This is a timely discussion considering the release for review of Facebook's most current privacy policy. Thanks to many complaints, Facebook has rewritten and revised its policy for the purpose of making it much shorter and clearer, though the effect is much the same as it has been. An article published in the Journal and Courier online magazine gives the highlights and its recommendations to users. Despite the uproar, I have found that the area in which users must be vigilant is being educated about how targeted advertising works. While it may seem naive or apathetic of me, I somehow feel a little better knowing that the primary purpose of all that data collection is to sell me stuff. Though I have certainly fallen prey to advertising, I am well-educated and able to recognize the practices. It seems then that education is the best defense. A 2010 study by Danah Boyd and Eszter Harittai looked at the privacy settings for Facebook users and found that their perception that younger users were not concerned about privacy was inaccurate, and that many users are aware of the issues and carefully manage their privacy settings. As has also been stated in an earlier post of mine, young people under the age of 30 are far less likely to use Facebook as their primary form of social networking. Of course, that does not mean that there are not similarly valid concerns about the other forms, including instagram, snapchat, and what's-app. Users can educate themselves using a variety of online sources that have very good information and recommendations that are written in plain English.

This leads, though, to another issue of concern, and that is the question of what happens to the children of the current generation growing up in such a digital, technical world. Just to convey one small aspect of this, I have a brief personal anecdote. When I got married in 1999, pocket sized film cameras were finally affordable for the average person. However, in fewer than five years, digital cameras also became  popular and affordable. When my first son was born in 2004, I had just purchased a somewhat bulky, but high quality digital camera. Gone were the days of carefully planning each shot because of the cost of film and developing. By the time my oldest son was 4 and my youngest was 2, I had taken over 10,000 photographs with that digital camera, the vast majority of them of my two children.  Along came the cell phone and no longer did I have to worry about having the camera with me to snap, snap, snap. They are now 10 and 8, and about three years ago, at their behest, I began taking far fewer pictures of them. In all, I have easily taken close to 20,000 pictures over the decade. Yes, I have a pretty amazing digital record of their childhood, yet, I sometimes wonder what the value is. Will they care that I have taken so many photographs of them? Does being the center of attention that way have an impact? I am not one who has gone on to post these countless images of them on Facebook and other social media, but it does beg the question of what it will mean to so many people whose entire lives have been documented online on services who lay ownership claim to those images just by their being posted. I currently have more than one student who has told me stories of not getting a job or accepted to a college program because of their online footprint. Will today's youth be happy that their baby photos are owned by Mark Zuckerberg?

Finally, I have done quite a bit of reading this past week about the issue of cyberbullying. Sometimes it seems that there is no end to the lengths we flawed human beings will go to be hateful and cruel to one another. The internet has provided an arena in which such cruelty can be perpetrated exponentially. And in eras past when bullies really had to be on the down low so as not to be found out by the adults in the vicinity, it seems that modern technology allows for a much more public humiliation - even though it is not in person. The research on this topic is abundant, and most of it reaches the same conclusions. The most important aspect in preventing and dealing with bullying that happens online (and, frankly, with most aspects of child-rearing in general and with digital aspects specifically) is parental involvement. Parents must not be apathetic about their children's use of digital media. They need to know what video games they are playing, what websites they are visiting, and parents should be monitoring the text messages, Facebook, email, and any other social media, sites/messages their children are sending and receiving. There are certainly those out there who want to use heavily loaded language such as "spying," "surveilling," and "tracking" to stimagatize parent's involvement in this aspect of their children's lives, but I contend that that is totally misjudging parents' rights and duty to their children's safety and well being. To use a parallel, I do not think that most parents would deny the extreme importance of watching children - even those who can swim - when they are in or around water. It is widely accepted that parents should not take for granted that their children will be safe. Likewise, we should adopt this same attitude with social media. I do not agree with parents who monitor their children's online activity surreptitiously; open and honest communication is at the heart of this matter. If every parent whose child uses digital media sat down on a regular basis (at least weekly) and went through their emails, text messages, instagrams, Facebook pages, and video games with them, much of the nonsense and damage that they produce could be avoided or stopped.
It is a parental responsibility to teach children how to navigate such situations. My children are still young, and I heavily regulate how much time they spend using their tablets; however, we sit down regularly and talk about the games they have on them. They show me what they are, how they are played, and we talk about what they like about each game. There are times when we talk about aspects that I find offensive or not appropriate and why. This helps them learn to make appropriate decisions. I read an article many years ago in which a mother discussed doing this with her teenaged son and daughter. They read Facebook pages together, discussed text messages/emails, and viewed photographs. It's not to say that children do not have "private" moments, but they can be taught that if they are embarrassed or ashamed of the comments or photos they or their friends are posting, then they might want to rethink who their friends are or what actions they are taking. If all parents did this, bullies would be stopped, and victims would be protected. It may seem or feel extreme, but it seems to me that safety concerns should be of extreme importance.
For a really great look at many of these issues, I urge you to check out the PBS program "Growing Up Digital."

Powerpoint vs. Prezi

And the winner is... Prezi.

I saw my first prezi presentation last spring during a talk that two of my dear friends were giving at our church. They were discussing their individual and joint spiritual journeys, and their talk was delightfully supported with a prezi. It reminds me of another friend of mine who was asked to speak at a Hickory Ted talk about two years ago. My friend was honored to have been asked to speak about the design and construction of her environmentally green house. This particular woman never does anything halfway, so before she even began to work on what she would say during her presentation, she did some research about how she should give her presentation. She told me she'd learned that when using powerpoint during a presentation, the point of the powerpoint wasn't to convey the main ideas of the speaker's topic but merely to serve as visual support during the talk. Of course, as anyone who's ever sat in a warm auditorium while a speaker read word for word from powerpoint slides would say, "No duh!" And yet, her comment intrigued me and mirrored what most of the criticisms from this week's reading have suggested. Too often, presenters rarely interact with the audience during a presentation, opting instead to read a presentation from the power point slides they have created. Coming back to the talk I heard at my church, not only did my friends really present a fresh and visually interesting presentation in their prezi, but they also know that people in the audience want to connect to a speaker, not sit while a speaker reads to them from a screen.

My own experience this past week with prezi mirrors that of my colleague, Dena Fulton, who wrote in a recent blog about how much fun it was to learn a new technology like prezi. While there were a few aspects of prezi that were not as user friendly as I would have liked, generally it was easy to pick up and fun to create. Unlike my friends from church, I found myself treating prezi much like I would a powerpoint, in that I was creating a presentation to be read by someone online rather than one I would present live to an audience. That being said, I did choose a topic for my prezi that reflects the information my college students are currently reading about, namely the various aspects of health and wellness. I used the opportunity to condense much of the information into a unique and visually interesting presentation, which I'll share with them on Monday morning. *Here it is:

*It is much better viewed at full screen, so be sure to maximize it.



A final, quick note on prezi. My oldest son, who is almost 10 and in the 4th grade, brought home a project on nutrition the other day. He had created a poster which was split into sections and had a variety of layers for including information. For example, one "tab" was labeled Fiber. Under it he asked and answered the question, "What is fiber?" He then had several other tabs that explained what foods it was found in, what systems in the body it aided, and finally, what the effects were of consuming too much or too little of it. My first thought when I looked at it: This would make a great prezi!

Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Oh My!

As I stated in one of my earliest blogs, last spring I deleted my Facebook account. What a relief it was to learn that I would not be required to open it again for this technology course. My primary reason for suspending the account was that I was not frequenting it that often, but when I did, I really got sucked in. Even though I joined a Facebook group long ago at CVCC, I cannot ever remember using it. In fact, I have been among those who felt that there should be a clear line between personal and professional, so I never even entertained the idea of using Facebook as a teaching tool. Having read the Prof Hack Blog about using Facebook and Tumblr to engage students, I admit I am willing to consider the use of a facebook group in the future. As with any technology--really any aspect of a course--it is imperative to have a clear understanding of WHY a particular assignment or activity is used. The article explores the effective use of Facebook, noting specifically that almost everyone already has an account and knows how to use it. Other suggestions that really model best practices for any teaching are to start the project at the beginning of the class, rather than adding it in part way through, and provide clear and specific examples of what students are expected to post. Reading this article got me thinking about a few ways I could engage students. One would be to have them find examples in their online lives of written work that has errors. Grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors abound--especially with so many people composing using virtual keyboards on their smart phones.

This could be a way to get students looking for "careless" mistakes and maybe even getting them to apply those proofreading skills to their own work. The reverse exercise could also be beneficial; students could post well-written examples.




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Tumblr and Pinterest are two different methods of social bookmarking. I had not ever used tumblr before this course, and after spending a little time playing around with it, I probably will not use it in the future. While I felt that it had good content, I can see how easy it would be to spend many mindless hours following tumblr links. Like my comments above about the time suck factor of facebook, tumblr presents the same danger to me.

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As Dr. Tryon stated in his podcast on Pinterest, there is no social website that has caught the attention of women more than Pinterest. It is this very lure that has kept me from it. My female friends and co-workers have talked so much about their enjoyment, use, and overuse of this social networking site. I have maintained a clear and conscious avoidance of it for that very reason. I admit that I have followed links on to other people's Pinterest accounts to look for any number of interesting things such as sewing and crochet patterns, recipes, teacher lesson plans, and advice on children's toys. I have resisted the urge to join so as to save myself (once again) the hours upon hours which I would surely spend on this site.

One of the aspects of all of these social networking/bookmarking sites that comes to mind for me is that they each cater to the varied personality types/styles of different users. I am inherently a disorganized mess as those who know me well can attest. I am also at high risk for succumbing to the addictive nature of these technologies. An example of this occurred earlier this week pre- and post- midterm elections when I spent dozens of hours reading about the why's and wherefore's of the outcome this year. I recognize that there is value in being an informed and concerned citizen, and I consider myself to be one; yet, my information-seeking behavior resulted in very little tangible outcome. I voted, to no avail. As I discovered in the first eight weeks of my DRE courses this fall, the benefits of technology are sometimes underwhelming compared to the host of negative consequences, namely addiction and isolation. Though it may seem as if I've gone off on a tangent, all of this is really to reiterate that I acknowledge the many benefits of sites like facebook, tumblr, and Pinterest, yet I steer mostly clear of them due to the equally negative aspects. As it is, I sometimes feel I've given over my life to my electronic devices. It's telling when your seven-year-old son says, "Mom, sometimes it seems like you love your phone more than us." Ouch.

Storify

So I finally finished my Storify. What an amazing tool! It's user friendly and links to most any social media site you'd want to use. The difficult part is deciding what story you want to tell or what news item you'd like to chronicle and then wading through the millions of news stories, facebook posts, tweets, flickr images, and quotes you want to use. It's a great way to take a story and condense and link to the sources that tell the story.

I was so excited last month when North Carolina was forced to allow gay marriage that I chose that issue to create my storify. Here it is...

Ok, so I have to figure out how to resize my images on blogger, but here's a link to the storify so that it's easier to view the images.