Digital citizenship is more than buzz words

Last week I finished a survey from ISTE on my opinion about the role of schools in teaching digital citizenship. I believe it is not only the parents and schools share the responsibility to train their child on the safety and manage their conduct online. By coincidence, last week Edmodo released a poster  (shown below) that lays out the expectations for online behavior.

As students form their online identities, they need to reflect on how are they viewed professionally. Of course, this may be the last thing on their mind when posting updates on Twitter or FB.

Anyway, it is highly recommended for (high school) students to get on LinkedIn and work on repairing their online presence that they created. This blog post illustrates how this can be done.

Hashtag Fail

I went to church today and ran into this flyer.

I was delighted to see my church reaching out to the youth using social media. However, what can be (or go) wrong with this hash tag #LookAtMeNow?  Well, click on the link to see for yourself. You will see tweets that may NOT be Christian focused?

Apparently, very little thought went into the decision to use this tag. My point is when using hash tags, you want to make them unique especially if you are going to use it for a youth revival…

What do I use to keep ahead of the game?

I am sharing three resources that I use daily to stay on top of my game. What game? Keeping on top of the latest tech trends and other info with minimal effort. Two of these resource are great for building your own PLN (personal learning network). I’ll let you figure which one’s I’m referring to.

1. Twitter.com – If you are on Facebook, but not on Twitter, IMHO you are really missing on some really great information. Twitter is really what you make out of it. If you are new to twitter, or never tried it before, I challenge you to try it for a month. But you have to figure out how to get the most out if it. If you need coaching, please follow me and hit me with a DM (direct message) for some guidance!

 2. Delicious.com – People usally bookmark website that are important, right. Having that said, there are many social bookmarking sites, but this one IMHO is the most resourceful (and not blocked at my school) The power of this resource is when you build your NETWORK and see what your friends, colleagues, or anyone is bookmarking. Also, it is very important in how you tag your links. Especially if you need to retrieve a website that you need but don’t remember the specific web address. If you are curious in seeing my bookmarks or even my network, just click here.

3. Popurls.com – I use this aggregator to keep up with the latest and greatest info whether it is national or tech related news.  There are other aggregators just as good as this one, but I guess I’ve used this the longest and it serves my needs.

Please comment and share any of your resources that you use to keep your head above the sea of information…

Twitter, #edchat and U!

As I got in from my extended weekend, I picked up my THE Journal out of the mailbox this evening and briefly read through the Tweets for Teachers article. Decent read, but could not help to notice the advertisement of the hash tag ‘edchat’. I was delighted to see that this place got some noteworthy recognition on Twitter.

Further along the the article, it pointed out that many educators do not see the value of Twitter, but via #edchat allows intelligent dialogue around a designated educational topic which is usually voted on. Cannot forget to mention that in the article also mentioned #teachertuesday.

Twitter is just another vehicle of collaboration via web 2.0. Remember my fellow educators, let’s use it to our benefit, not our demise.

Our Digitally Obsessed Nation

Dependency…

if is not with oil, it seems that our world would not be the same without it being plugged in.

I will watch this show tomorrow to see how obsessed we have become with technology. Don’t get me wrong, I am a hawk when it comes to technology. However as I get older, I am starting to see both side of how we respect and abuse the things in our digitally connected world.

Apr 17th 2009

This date is significant due to the following tweet:

Yes… Oprah is on Twitter and if you are not…. in the tech world, you are considered LAME or just late in the game, son. In the education world, many teachers still have issues in embracing Web2.0 technologies due to the pressures of self-conduct. If we cannot behave online with a unknown audience of hundrends or even thousands, how is it that we are expected to act behind closed doors with 70+ minds to mold on a daily basis? So get on board, act like you have some couth and build your personal learning network.

barcampCLT 2

I was very fortunate to be in the attendance of BarcampCLT2 at Area 15. It was great being around people that are so much more geeky than me. And to think that I was once on the path of coding righteousness. I don’t regret being an educator but I do miss the joy of debugging code and troubleshooting network/server issues.

I learned few off the wall things, such as Blackberry users felt the shameful of their devices. Also, Oprah seems to be the benchmark of your Twitter Coolness. (Anyone joined after her is to be considered unoffically lame.) Oh, almost forgot to mention that men that knit are way cool.

I will share a few takeaways from the sessions that I attended.

1. iPhone App Dev Roundtable

I received some inspiriation to get on board in creating iPhone
apps for education, however an Apple laptizzle is required.  It was mentioned the iPhone for Dummies book was a good read. The process of getting an app approved for the App Store was communicated as being very difficult. Pushing apps via ad hoc for clients was mentioned as a work around.

• Web Resources referenced:
  http://appceletator.com
  http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/index.php
  http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/

2. Making $$$ Online

This session was a little similar to last year. Here’s a sample from YouTube…

3. 45 Questions in 45 Minutes

Some good info popped up here. Some discussions on Google Wave, FireFox, and Android took the show.

4. Managing Your Social Networks

Long story short, use an RSS new reader aggregator to gather all your Web2.0 sites. Outlook was mention as a good RSS reader becuase it allow you assess RSS feeds behind secure logins.  Also it was discussed the importance of adding value to tweets by linking your social networks.

• Web resources mentioned:
  http://ping.fm
  http://igoogle.com
  http://netvibes.com
  http://pipes.yahoo.com
  http://dizzysoft.com/rss/manage-your-social-networks
  http://feedtwit.com
  http://websitebiz.com

5. Simple Content Management

The presenter actually went through the stage of registering a site domain, hosting, and dumping CMsimple in a directory to making it live. Very nice… especially since CMsimple does not require having to deal with databases where CM packages such as WordPress and Drupal require.

• Web resources mentioned:
  http://dreamhost.com
  http://www.aweber.com/
  http://www.e-junkie.com/
  http://www.myemma.com/
  http://www.mailchimp.com/
  http://dotcomwebdesign.com/

Sessions that I wish I could have attended:

How to create webcasts that don’t suck
The Rabbit Hole
Google Page Ranking

Overall, this was another successful unconference. I highly recommend you to check one out that’s near you.

Web 2.0: The New Int’l Teachers’ Lounge

Back in 1994 when I began my journey as a classroom teacher, there was once a time where there was a place called the teachers’ lounge. This was where slightly seasoned and ripened ol’ educators would congregate. In my new teacher training classes long ago, I was warned to stay outta these parts. However when I did pass through, I would always hear statements that started as “these kids…” or “you would not believe what <insert challenging student> did today…”

With the lack of such places in schools and due to the nature and convenience of technology we now have these places once again virtually on social networks; but with a massive audience vesus or two to three collegues.

Things that you could say to your close professional peers behind closed doors should not be said to 200+ followers or friends. So a note caution goes out to my fellow edtech posse that embrace web2.0 technologies. The teachers’ lounge is necessary for camaraderie, collaboration and stress decompression but it has no place in an online environment without reprocussions designated by your local school district. Need any examplars?

Please choose how you use your personal learning network (PLN) wisely…

Tweetin’ via SMS

40404 is the magic number now…. I just had to verify my number with Twitter under DEVICE UPDATES. I just want to tweet. Not necessarily receive tweets on cell because it can be costly if you are not on an unlimited SMS plan. There is a way tho to restrict tweets and Amy has blogged a way to do that via RSS to text message service sites.

Since we are on the topic of Twitter…

My daughter shared this youtube clip with me that explains Twitter in an interesting way…