Digital Learning and Networking

     My last post sparked my curiosity to try and find what social networking education looks like in schools today. I came across an article The New Lesson Plan for Elementary School: Surviving the Internet  which highlights a teacher out of Newark, who is teaching conscious internet consuming and participation. Mrs. Bromfiled's class is part of an experimental curriculum being tested out in New York and New Jersey through Seton Hall University Law School. This curriculum is aimed at addressing "privacy, reputation, online advertising, and over use" with fifth and sixth graders. The education does not stop there. This program has a parent component in which parents learn about the dark sides of technology and that they are their child's model for over consumption.      It seems like this approach has really raised the bar in digital citizenship. Even if just one lesson stuck with the students or the parents, I am certain they will approach the in...

      I recently read the article Navigating Social Networks (Hamblin and Bartlett, 2013). The article points out that many blurred lines exist between social networking platforms and schools. As we all know, social networks reach a vast audience and provide a platform for communication and expression. This article covers several cases that deal with student's use of social network at home and consequences at school. Although, the school cannot control what is said or done at home when the lines of bullying, harassment, making threats are crossed the school has rights to deliver consequences. With the exception of these types of cases, students' rights are still protected under freedom of speech and self-expression. However, the article points out that teachers are a different story. Teachers using social networks to unleash frustrations have lost many of these cases and even their jobs.      This article was written in 2013, but five years later I sti...

     Sherry Turkle covers social media, specifically Facebook extensively in her book Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other . Tukle and I share many of the same thoughts and opinions on the topic. In her book, she recalls setting up her account for the first time and I can too. I remember feeling uneasy accepting friend requests from people I did not truly know. By college, Facebook became a time capsule, a place for news, and new component of self-worth. Currently, I check my Facebook news feed multiple times a day. I do not give much care anymore about how many friends I have or how many likes a post has. I use it mostly to read stories that interest me, keep up with people I have not seen in awhile, and watch videos. I hardly post or publicly share anything, but I am very much invested in the technology. For both Turkle and I, Facebook is an online community, a place to connect, but we share the same reservations that come with...

Overview Sherry Turkle starts Part 1 by outlining the thoughts, opinions, and emotions children of all ages have when they encounter and experience different types of robotic technology in Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other . She draws from observations in homes, classrooms, and in laborites at MIT. Her observations and accounts start with interactions with pet-like technologies like Furby or ABIO, a robotic dog. She then tries to capture the emotional experiences humans, children and young adults, have with human-like robots. She ends the first part with some speculations about the impact human-like robots can have in the future.     In Part 2, Turkle then tackles how these feelings present in teenagers and adults surrounded and bombarded by our technology-driven world. She dives into the impact of technology at our fingertips and technology consumption. Turkle tries to define the human drive to need to be conn...

Purpose: This blog will serve as a space for me to review " Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other " by Sherry Turkle through the lenses of social media, networking, and designing for digital learning. It will also provide me with a platform to make connections, reflect, and share resources on these topics. Introduction: Currently, I am an elementary school teacher in a Kindergarten classroom in Northern Virginia. Our school is in our first year of integrating Project Based Learning and Project Lead the Way.  I have been working with Kindergartners for 5 years, pre-Kinders for one, and second graders for two years. I'm very active in my school and I help tutor fourth graders in math through an after-school SOL boot camp. Hopefully, I will embark on a new journey as an Instruction Technology Training Specialist next school year in the same school I have been for the past 5 years. I am excited to support teachers in the integratio...