Sunday 29 January 2012


Current Events 1
            Since we have all started blogging for this course and this course is about Web 2.0 tools I thought that I would combine these two aspects.  I have always been concerned about internet interactions between children and the possibility of wrongful interactions with adults. I decided to investigate a blogging site for children under the age of 13, everloop.  I myself tried to sign up for it and was impressed by their parental controls.  I was not able to sign up.  I put in a false name for a child and then the screen came up stating “To keep kids safe and to comply with COPPA law, we need to confirm your identity. Your information is private and will not be shared”.  The site also has a $1 charge to which 100 tokens would be put into a child’s account.  By giving out your credit card information the site is again able to do a security check on perspective parents or predators.  I found this site interesting and would have investigated more if I had a child and was able to sign up and take a full look at it myself.  Below you will find a link to the site and to more information on everloop.


Inquiry Project Proposal
Rational and Personal Goals
Why learn about Web 2.0 tools?  Why experiment with new ideas?  Why move out of our comfort zone?  These are all questions that we Web 2.0 novices ask ourselves.  The answers to the proceeding questions are that we need to be relevant to our students.  Our students spend at least part of their days on an online virtual world, we need to understand it and be able to navigate in it as well.  I believe that experimentation leads to knowledge, which is my goal for this inquiry project.  I hope to gain enough knowledge through experimentation to help my current students in grade 4 and possibly my future students in the areas of high school social studies and English, and elementary and secondary library.  I feel that I would be classified between a novice and an intermediate in my technology ‘comfort level’.  I have a Facebook account, blogged in previous classes, used Google Docs, but still feel a bit uneasy about trying out new tech tools.  The six Web 2.0 skills that I plan to explore this term are varied in skill level as a choice to push me beyond my comfort zone.  I ask my students to take chances and try things that may be new and different to them; I think that I should have to as well.
I have chosen six different Web 2.0 tools that fall in the realm of novice ,intermediate and advanced skills.  During my exploration of these tools I plan to look at them with hoping to understand how I may be able to use them myself in my educational and personal life and there applications to my students lives.  I hope that I will be able to convey this new knowledge to my students in that they too can use this technology in their own lives.  Finally, I want to be able to demonstrate my new knowledge to my colleges and maybe have them try them out.
·         Glogster :  While I used Glogster in my Autobiography of a Tech User and Creator, I believe that I could do a better job experimenting with this tool  I really want to use this tool with my grade 4 class around the topic of polar bears.
·         Survey Monkey: I want to use a survey program for helping my students study for a quiz.  I plan on making up a multiple choice survey on a subject we are studying and then have they try it out in the computer lab.
·         Jog the Web:  This is a program that I would like to try out and then show it off to my fellow teachers at school as a way to follow and organize the web pages that they follow.
·         Prezi:  I saw some of the other Autobiography of a Tech User and Creator projects that my fellow classmates made and was inspired to experiment with this tool.  This is an application that I would experiment with at a higher grade level and would use it as a presentation tool.. I plan on experimenting with this tool to learn from it and apply it to a possible future classroom.
·         http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ or Comic Life:  My district has a license for Comic Life and I would love to have the opportunity to work with it in my classroom.  If I can’t get all of my students working on comic life I plan on using http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ to create funny fairy tales as part of my fiction unit.
·         Bloggster:  I plan on setting up a fictional library blog for my future library.  I have experimented with a blog once before in a previous course I am by no ways an expert.  I would like to set up a blog that I would update new books, post important links, give research advice, among other important library tools that could be used.  This will be my last tool because I’m hoping to add some of the other Web 2.0 tools that I’ve learned about onto the blog.

Timeline
·         Week of Jan. 30. - Feb. 3. Inquiry Proposal
·         Week of Feb 13-17 Tool 1
·         Week of Feb 20-24 Tool 2, Tool 3
·         Week of March 5-9 Tool 4
·         Week of March 19-23 Tool 5, Tool 6
·         Week of March 26-30 Blog finalized
·         Week of April 2-5 Inquiry Project Final Reflection.

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Autobiography of a Tech User and Creator


Autobiography of a Tech User and Creator
            Look around you at this moment and what forms of technology are staring you in the face?  I am looking at a flat screen TV,PVR, Blue Ray player, a Wii, and the laptop that I am currently typing on.  Technology is all around us and we interact with it at almost every minute of every day except when we are sleeping.  Through evaluation of my own tech use I have discovered that I am somewhere between a novice and intermediate tech user and creator as defined by the LIBE 477 Inquiry project for later in this term.  Areas of tech and Web 2.0 discovery will focus around personal technology use, living and working in an online world, and reading and literacy in an online world.  In this autobiography I will evaluate and question my tech and Web 2.0 knowledge and push it by creating a representation of my knowledge by creating a Glog. 
            I am dependent on technology in my personal life.  The first time I used a computer was when I was twelve and in grade 6.  My parents had bought a MAC Classic, one of those little cube computers.  I used computers in my later years in high school but really stated to depend on computers and technology when I started my post-secondary education.  In my first year at Douglas College I bought my first computer an IBM.  The computer was huge; I was tethered to that computer until the end of my Bachelors in History from SFU.  When I was accepted into the UBC Education program I decided it was time to upgrade my computer and bought a Toshiba laptop, two years later I bought a Dell laptop, and now I use my second Dell provided to me by my school district.  Computers have played a significant role in my educational journey.  I have horrible handwriting and without this tool my grades could have suffered.  I believe that everyone should have access to using computers as it provides an even playing field for people who have difficulty with neat handwriting as well as issues with grammar and spelling.
            The first time I used the internet I was in high school and used it during my spare block in the library.  At that time only two computers in the library were set up for internet use, you had to sign up to use them, and they had to be used for research.  The first time I had my own email account was during my time at SFU.  At SFU was the first time that I was completely free to explore the internet for research and communication.  My first experience with blogging came during in a previous UBC Teacher Librarian course LIBE 467 Information Services.  During this course I also had my first experience with Google Docs where my group and I created a group assignment online.  I use the internet almost every day in my personal life.  My family is all very tech and internet savvy except for my mother.  My mom has a laptop on which she plays her online games and needs my assistance to search Google and watch YouTube videos.
            As a teacher I feel that I have to be comfortable working and living in an online world.  This is the world in which my students are growing up in and if I don’t have knowledge of this Web 2.0 world I feel like I would be doing them a disservice. In using Web 2.0 tools in my other UBC courses I can see how important it is to pass these tools onto my students.  I have two bookings a week reserved in the computer lab each week and try to get my students in atleast onec more during the week.  So far this year we have looked at internet safety as a class and done an online scavenger hunt.  I’m hoping to get more ideas from this course to share with my students. 
 I live part of my life online, I bank online and have never had a problem with it.  I also like to shop online and did much of my Christmas shopping this year on the computer.  This is my first year teaching elementary and I bought most of my materials through Scholastic online and Amazon.  I find shopping online is quick and efficient.  I have had a cell phone as my main phone since I started my post-secondary education.  Having a cell phone has meant that I can be in contact with anyone who I may need to talk to or those who may need to talk to me at a moments notice.  My cell phone was especially important during my teacher on call days.  My daily booking came through my cell phone, otherwise I would have had to spend most nights sitting at home waiting for my call to go to work for the next day.
I find that my reading and literacy online is on the rise.  When I get to work in the morning I try tool take a look at Google and find out what the news stories of the day are before class starts.  I like to chat with my students about current events that are happening each day.  My classroom is the only intermediate class without a Smartboard and projector mounted in the room.  I bring in the school’s projector to show current events and other sources for the students to view, even funny YouTube videos.  In my own personal life I look online for research materials as well as for entertainment.  I have a Sony EReader and purchase books online for it.  I have also used the Fraser Valley Regional online library and borrowed books from my reader from that site.  I love having a reader and an ipod as well.   The next device that I plan on buying is either an Ipad or another type of tablet. These devices allow me to take my entertainment with me without having to take a large backpack! 
This is the start of my autobiography of a tech user and creator, it will be never ending.  I decided that I would create a Glog to illustrate my autobiography.  The Glog includes a funny song about computers and tech use and my experiences with technology through pictures.  I tried to record my autobiography and place it on my Glog, the audio was being uncooperative, so unfortunately you had to read this rather than listen to me.  I plan on working on this for my Inquiry project.  I chose to experiment with this technology as it is something that I would like to use with my students; they probably already know how to use it!


Hi All,

This is the second blog that I have created for a UBC Teacher Librarian course.  I have created an introduction on the sidebar to tell you all a little bit about myself.  At this moment I am currently putting together my Inquiry project for UBC LIBE 477B class which I plan on sharing with all of you readers out there.  My next post will be my Autobiography of a Tech User and Creator, enjoy!