SOCIAL NETWORKING

Candidly speaking, I've always had and continue to have mixed emotions regarding "Social Networking".
On the one hand, it is a wonderful medium in conveying ideas, building lasting relationships, sharing information, periodically keeping in touch with acquaintances, and so on.
On the other hand, from my perspective anyway, one must always be cautious of cyber predators, friendships that may go sour, cyber bullies, employers accessing information about you, and so on.

I guess it's just the world we live in, with "pros" there are always "cons". Not to sound as though I'm paranoid or overly cautious, but with so many reports of shady Internet practices, I think I've developed a healthy guarded approach towards new technologies in general.

To help those like me [guarded], as you might imagine, there are numerous resources available to protect one's privacy, and address other concerns one may have. Below are just a few useful links I came across:

Social Networking Sites: A Parent’s Guide
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec13.shtm

Social Networking Sites: Safety Tips for Tweens and Teens
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec14.shtm

Prevent Cyber Bullying
http://www.cyberbully411.org/who-is-targeted-by-cyberbullies.php

Social Networking in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc

I've sort of developed my own quasi "set of guidelines" to follow:

1.] Keep personal information to a minimum

2.] Know your audience/"friends"

3.] Avoid religious and political topics

4.] Any memberships or affiliations listed should be professional in nature

Wait a minute, looking back on my quasi "set of guidelines", maybe I am just a little paranoid! As I begin to become more comfortable with "Social Networking", I'm certain my paranoia will cease.

SCHOOL WEB PAGES

Quite frankly, school web pages are indispensable tools/sources to keep abreast of a school's mission statement, policies, dress code if applicable, faculty [and any changes], AM/PM programs and so on...

I have a son that attends Ronald E. McNair High School http://www.njboe.org/ and a son that attends Soaring Heights Charter School http://www.soaringheightscharterschool.com/. I often access the sites to keep track of the schools' upcoming activities/events, PTA meetings, marking periods, any school closing and/or half day schedules, as well as monitoring the annual mandated state tests.

To assure I have as much available information as possible, as I prepare to support my oldest son's decision on his college choice, lately, I have been accessing/exploring McNair's School Web Page. There's some useful information on college planning.

Now that I'm on the topic of college planning, which ties into Dr. Luongo's [March 30th] blog on "Campus Compare", I came across an awesome site http://www.collegeclicktv.com/ The sites provides access to key stats to over 2,000 colleges, videos from over 200 campuses and over 20,000 interviews from students, professors, staff, faculty and local merchants. The site also has a "College Comparison" feature. I urge you to check it out!

Back to the original topic. In essence, school web pages are just wonderful tools you can utilize in taking a more active role in your learner's education.

WEB PAGE BUILDING

Well, as promised, here is my follow up to my previous blog [Web Page Creation].

This was a very refreshing assignment! Now this is what user-friendly, educational technology is all about!

Unlike that very daunting WebQuest assignment, where one had to simultaneously decide on a topic and figure how to navigate through the application. With the ease of use of Scholastic Web Page Builder, I could actually focus more time and energy into my topic itself.

No boasting intended, but I am very pleased with the finished product. I plan on definitely incorporating my web page into my future classroom curriculum.

CREATING A WEB PAGE

Although one has to go through the actual login steps to fully opine on this assignment [which I have not done yet], on the surface, creating a web page utilizing "Scholastic Web Page Builder" appears to be far less daunting than the Web Quest assignment.

I sincerely hope I'm not getting ahead of myself in my initial opinion!

At this stage, I'm more in the process of toying with several ideas/concepts, making it mock or real, time management to complete by deadline, resources to use, targeted audience(s)...

Stay tuned, more to come.

WEB-BASED EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

In order to effectively compete with all of the extra curricular technological advances for today's generation and video "gamers", unequivocally, collectively, and collaboratively, both the designers of the educational technology and the educators in our classrooms need to make certain the software applications/resources are of the highest quality.

I presume we all agree, educational technology is essential in today's classroom settings. Not only in terms of amplifying one's teaching method, but also in assuring the aggregate learning process [utilizing all effective resources] is maximized.

In reviewing the various websites and videos for modules 5 and 6, being tactful, some of the educational resources were better than others. In order to effectively meet the needs of our students, careful analysis and consideration must be used in choosing your resource(s). Although all met the consistent theme of challenging our students at an age appropriate level, some lacked the graphics, hooks, "bells and whistles" to keep our students engaged.

It is not my intention to come across as overly critical, but rather as someone looking to offer some constructive criticism, and in a small way, the hopes developing a consensus for creating the best educational resources for all of our learners.

I would imagine that when educational software is designed, it is targeted to the masses. Based upon my limited solicited feedback in the school district I reside, I hope actionable steps are being instituted in making certain state mandated standards are met. Otherwise, resources that may be effective in fostering learning will "fall by the waist-side"!

As a side bar, because I believe to some degree they are representative of today's learners, I tested some of the sites on my sons [6th and 10th graders].

Firstly, let me make clear, I fully appreciate that "checks and balances" are necessary, and also there are marketing sales/goals designers have to consider. But in my observation, I found that sites that required extensive logins, passwords, personal information, and so, discouraged their otherwise curious nature. I guess my point is, if we expect our students to proactively/independently access and explore educational resources, we need to somehow minimize some of the pain-staking login steps.

KIDSPIRATION

I really enjoyed navigating through this site! I thought the subject matter provided exceptional visual tools for elementary learners. Additionally, the various challenging tasks, which appears to be appropriate for the targeted audience [K-5 learners], both provokes deep thinking and fosters creativity. Kidspiration covers the basic fundamental subjects of elementary education: Reading/Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies.

The "Writing View" exercise is "spot on" in terms of gauging the students' ability to grasp, comprehend and justify their answers to the various tasks. In brief, in this exercise, the students must explain why they made the decisions they did [an excellent metric].

As a future educator, with the aspiration of teaching math, I spent a great deal of time examining the math feature. The concept of consistently utilizing "building blocks" for the various math applications will make the learning process much more effective in garnering a success rate.

This may be a strong statement, but in my assessment, software of this caliber should be mandated/part of the NJCCCS for K-5 learners [as it relates to mastering educational software].

Throughout this course, both out of curiosity, and in an effort to ascertain if "textbook learning" is actually applicable to what is being taught and/or utilized in today's classroom settings, I often make a point of consulting with current educators to solicit feedback.

Not sure if this is indicative of the districts in the aggregate, but in this instance, to my dismay, in speaking with K-5 educators, overwhelmingly, most are not using this software. The reason was consistent - Apparently, Kidspiration does not adequately adhere to/addresses the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards [NJCCCS].

Instead of using Kidspiration, a large majority are utilizing various Scholastic Software packages, which based upon their archived achievement levels, better suits/prepares students in meeting the state mandated standards.

BLOGGING

After some initial strong resistance, mainly due to a lack of understanding of this media, I've come to appreciate that blogging, if done constructively, is an excellent means of expressing one's thoughts, ideals, philosophies and/or concerns on various subjects.

In essence, it allows for a "brain dump" of issues for review and perhaps rebuttal by other bloggers. As a blogger, there is the ability to tailor your message(s) in order to promote productive ongoing dialogues to a desired audience.

To my pleasant surprise, blogging is an open forum which has a global reach, which also allows the ability to engage others in masses. In terms of fostering thought provoking conversations, the opportunities are almost limitless.

Although I now enjoy the concepts of blogging, I particularly relish reading the comments to my blogs. In my opinion, the real art and/or benefit of blogging is the ability to get other bloggers to respond.