Journal #7 - Professional Learning Network

I've joined or subscribed several professional learning network such as digg.com, My Big Campus, Edmodo and OTAN.

Edmodo and OTAN (Outreach and Technology Assistance Network) are my favorite ones.

Edmodo https://www.edmodo.com is easy to sign up and use.  Besides a lot of my co-workers are already using Edmodo so I can quickly add them to my group.  We exchanges teaching ideas and resources, it's kind like Facebook for teachers and students.  Here are 20 ways to use Edmodo as a teacher: https://support.edmodo.com/hc/en-us/articles/205007974-20-Ways-to-Use-Edmodo-Teacher-

OTAN (Outreach and Technology Assistance Network) http://www.otan.us/
is a non-profit organization which provides teaching and technology assistance for adult educators. They're offer free online or face-to-face training (http://www.caadultedtraining.org/) on varies technology topics.  I had taken OTAN's online training/classes in the past and had exchanged teaching strategies with other teachers.  Every March, they host a technology symposium to the adult educators to cover the latest technology trends.  I enjoy attending the symposium not only I get to learn new teaching technologies also I get to network with other teachers from other schools.

I started subscribing to digg.com a few months ago.  To be honest, I have never heard of digg.com (http://digg.com/)before and do not know the purpose of this website.  My current subscriptions are web design, typography, Adobe programs and TED.  I am not very impress with digg.com because there are too many posts/feeds that I have to filter in order to find a very useful post.  Maybe it's because I am new to this news feed website but it really doesn't do much for me.

I know the trend for educators today is to be connected with other educators through professional learning networks.  I do see the benefit of connecting with other educators from different part of world or in the U.S. but it is very time consuming.  If I can get answers or lesson plans ideas from my co-workers (teachers), I would preferred to that first.  Our school district is pushing us to use professional learning networks such as My Big Campus and Edmodo.  I will keep on using them and making it a habit of log on to these sites as part of my daily routines...............

Journal # 6-Reflection

I have no knowledge about html and css prior taking this class.  This is a new experience for me. I remembered the first few weeks of school; I spent  a lot of  time reading the textbook and doing the book exercises.  Sometimes, I got stuck at some html coding issues and couldn’t figure it out what went wrong.  When that happened, I just walked away from my computer and recheck the codes later.  

As I learning more about html and css, I realized it is all about logical thinking which is something that I really like. It’s very hard to learn everything about html and css in 10 short weeks but I have learned the foundation of creating a website.

I liked how Dr. McGarvey did different types of html and css coding exercises  with us in the class.  This way, I had a hand on experience and also listening to the explanation at the same time.  I just wish we can have more time in the class to do more exercises.

Journal#5 Twitter

I like Twitter more than Facebook but I hardly ever tweet.  I am following some people or groups that are interested to me on Twitter and I checked them periodically.   

I don't against any social media; I just find it very time consuming.  With Twitter where it limits the users to tweet 140 characters or less, I can read the tweets fairly quickly and check out the links that are helpful to me.  For example, I follow several authors on Twitter, one of them is Sir Kenneth Robinson, the famous English author, speaker and international adviser on education in the arts to government, non-profits, and education and arts bodies.  He tweets about what he thinks about education and what he recommended the follower to read.  Here's an example of his tweet: 

I know my school district sent out tweets to announce district events.  I found it helpful for me to know what's going on with my school district.  I also follow local news stations and they tweet when there's a breaking news happening.  I think in a way, Twitter serves as a notification tool (app) for me.  

Q1. What are the benefits of using Twitter? 

There are many benefits of using Twitter and I have narrowed it to three: 

1.                Twitter gets people informed and connected with what's going on with our world 

2.                It promotes business and products -free internet marketing 

3.                keep people on top of hot topics 

Q2.  Can Twitter to be used in the educational setting? 

Yes.  In fact there are many school district, educational organizations and scholars are using Twitters.  Here are some of very examples of educational hasgtags: 

Journal #4- Project Plan

Site title - Community Based English Tutoring Program-Inland Career Education Center 

Developer - Linda Ju-Ong 

Rational or focus - The content and goals for the site is to inform and educate the community about the Community Based Tutoring Program that is offered by the Inland Career Education Center (SBCUSD).  

Statement of purpose- CBET (Community Based English Tutoring) is s an English language program for adults with the goal of raising the English level of the entire community. Children do better in school when parents read to them, help them with school work, and talk with them about school. 

Main Objectives-To inform and promote the Community Based English Tutoring Program

1.     Main Page

2.     Meet Out Teachers

3.     Sites and Class Schedules

4.     Inland Career Education Center Other Programs

  

Main features outline- The main features of the site is to showcase our teachers, sites and class schedules also the components of the program.

Content –

1.     Main Page: Explain the purpose of the Community Based English Tutoring Program

2.     Meet Out Teachers- A short bio of each teacher in the program

3.     Sites and Class Schedules-Location of 22 school sites and class schedules

4.     Inland Career Education Center Other Programs-showcase other programs that are offering by the ICEC

Target audience – The parents from SBCUSD will be the target audience for this website.

 Design considerations- I wish to design a simple yet very informative website. Since most of my target audience are not native English speakers, I wish to use more pictures and videos to enhance the usage of this site.

Limiting factors – I think to incorporate pictures and videos might slow down the navigation of this site.

Site Map-

           

Wire Frame-

Journal #3 Education and the Social Web: Connective Learning and the Commercial Imperative by Norm Friesen

Social media has become the newest and fastest way to learn and to get "connect" for the mass public. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google rely almost entirely on users posting personal information that is then shared with a network of “friends” through newsfeed stories. The popularity of YouTube is not simply linked to its capacity to act as a repository of mainstream videos, but also for its capacity to offer a venue for people to express themselves through video-making.  

Most of social media sites are user-friendly design through complex technical processes.  In order to be part of these sites, users need to create accounts by disclosing a lot of personal information.  Then the user's information and personal search history/or contents are captured and recirculated by software through data-mining and marketing, about how the presence of commercial forces is facilitated both at the software level and at the economic level of commercial partnerships, and about how users’ participation is re-channeled as marketable data.  

I'm a very private person and do not like to disclose my personal information through social media sites although I do have Facebook and Twitter accounts but I seldom use them.  If I need to get in touch (connect) with my friends, I'll simply call or text them.  I don't see the need to post "everything" I do on social media to "entertain" others.  In this article, Dr. Friesen showed  how Google is collecting user's searching histories as a way to target their commercial strategies.    Furthermore, it stated that, " Google, in the first quarter of 2010 alone, it earned over US$2 billion from its advertising programs [Adsense, 2010]." 

Users need to be aware whenever you turn on your computer or go on to a browser, you are engaging in a commercial transaction in a mediated public space which is being increasingly contested by Apple, Microsoft and Google.  The information stored in the "cloud" are evidences of where and what you have done in the virtual world. 

Q1.  Why social media sites are so popular? 

Because it provides opportunity to meet new people/friends, most of the social media sites are user-friendly, people can join groups that share same interests, and they're free.

Q2.  Can teacher use social media as teaching tool?

Yes, I think teacher should use social media  in the classroom it will make class fun and increase student engagement.