Reflection of Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 Tools

     I have enjoyed the opportunity to explore various web 2.0 tools for this course.  I am thankful for the ability of using YouTube in my Pre-K classroom to enhance my instruction.  I know that YouTube is a tool that I will continue to use.  Twitter has proven to be a good tool as far as connecting with others in the field, and possibly parent involvement.  Unfortunately, since my students are so young, they themselves are not able to independently use web 2.0 tools.  I do have an idea of using a tool like Glogster as a whole group project with my students during circle time or a small group project during center time.  I have also use the Web 2.0 tool, http://mystorybook.com to create a Social Story to prepare for a class field trip.  This was done as a whole group during circle time.
     An obvious strength of web 2.0 tools is the ability to communicate instantly with people through the power of the internet.  I also love the ability of web 2.0 tools, like Prezi, to store data of completed projects.  This keeps the user from having to use a USB drive.  I love being able to access information instantly from anywhere with an internet connection.  I am a frequent user of drop box because of this reason.  I can find the files I need just by having an internet connection.
     I think the weakness of web 2.0 tools, especially social media tools, is that pretty much anyone can use these tools to post anything they want.  I believe I have mentioned in the course before how people post a lot of bologna on site like FaceBook, sharing articles that were created simply for satire purpose.  People are so quick to believe any and everything they see on the internet.  Just because it was see on the internet, does not mean it is true.  Also the inappropriate content of some web 2.0 tools is a weakness for using these tools to educate young students.  Luckily there are tools, like safesearch.tv, which enable the user more protection against inappropriate material.
     I feel as if my knowledge of available web 2.0 tools and ways in which to use them to benefit education has certainly increased since the beginning of this course.  Web 2.0 tools are obviously here to say.  It is exciting to think about what kinds of tools will be invented and used in our future.

Vanity Search Part 2

     Our assignment was to do another vanity search.  This time, I realized if I use, "Lucinda Love portfolio" or "Lucinda Love blog" for my post, my blogger account and google ePortfolio will come up.  I am currently in the process of taking back my maidan name, Boss.  Since I will hopefully be graduating with my Master's Degree in August of 2016, I decided to take back my madian name so that it can be printed on my diploma.  I know that this will have some effect of my Vanity Search in the future.  I have used both last name, Love and Boss, on my ePortfolio, since some of my artifacts use the last name, Boss.
     I am thankful for the opportunity to create a ePortfolio through the Educational Technology Leadership Program.  I believe that this powerful Web 2.0 tool is a way to easily display useful information about my competence, knowledge, and skills as a technology leader for any future employer or interested professional to see.  I am confident that this will be beneficial for my future career in the field of Educational Technology.

Personal Professional Development in Web 2.0 and Learning

This week our assignment was to reflect on and create a detailed plan for how we will attempt to stay up with advances and changes related to teaching and learning with Web 2.0 tools across our career.  I most certainly see my career to be one that will always be in the field of education.  I really do enjoy teaching young children, but I would love to one day teach other teachers ways in which they can use technology in their classrooms to enhance their teaching for their students benefit.  I have a goal or dream of one day obtaining a position as some type of technology integrator for elementary and early childhood education. 

I know that it is important to stay current with research about the available Web 2.0 tools that do benefit early education and ways in which they can be implemented into the classroom.  Following some of the groups in the social media sites we have learned about in this course, like Twitter, Pinterest, and my favorite being Facebook, are ways to read shared articles with information about the latest Web 2.0 technologies. 

 

Another way to stay up to date would be to follow discovery education blogs related to Web 2.0 and education.  Just a simple Google search for, "Web 2.0 tools for Early Childhood Education" brought up many informative blog sites.  I also found some pretty useful sites on Discovery Education, which is a site our school district allows us to access. 

As an educator I have been fortunate enough to have to opportunities to attend trainings for professional development at the Region 8 Service Center.  About three year ago, I had to opportunity to attend the TCEA convention in Austin.  I know that having being able to continue to attend these professional development opportunities related to technology is one way to stay up to date with the latest web 2.0 technologies.

I look forward to continuing my professional development with Web 2.0 tools and the overall field of educational technology as I further achieve my goals toward my degree in this field.

Adventure in Social Bookmarking

This week our assignment was to complete the, "Adventure in Social Bookmarking."  I signed up for Diigo, a free social bookmarking tool which is designed as a platform to take notes with the opportunity to share information.  This tools allows the ability to highlight text from websites as you would traditionally highlight information in a book.  There is the availability to bookmark and save the information for later use.  I like the option of adding a type of digital sticky note to information.  There have been many times I have had to read lengthy and challenging scholarly articles for assignments, and I can see how this feature would come in handy for these situations.  The search feature on diigo seems to be useful as well.  I enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate through groups on this site, and I joined the ETEC 527 and Diigo in Education groups.  I like that Diigo sends me e-mail notifications when people post in the groups.  I do not think Diigo in Education will be as useful to me as a Pre K teacher as it would for a higher grade level.  Diigo is a tool I will explore more with throughout my educational technology journey.

Adventure in Aggregating Pages

    

http://www.protopage.com/lucindalove#Home

 This week our assignment was to explore aggregating pages.  This assignment made me laugh, because when I hear the word, "aggregating" I automatically think about aggregating data, which is no fun.  But my adventure with aggregating pages was a little more enjoyable.  I chose to work with protopage.  I learned from their website that protopage is a personal page created by users so that they can have quick access to things on the web. 

     One thing I liked about my protopage was the availability to put the weather forecast on there.  I can see how this would be useful to me, with using my smart board, during circle time with my class and reviewing the daily calendar.   This could be a way to help my students become aware of temperature and how it associates to numbers.  We already select either cold, cool, warm, or hot as the daily temperature, but I can see how this would be a good tool to go ahead and expose my students to how the number of degrees correspond to the temperature and how it feels outside.

Protopage does seem like it could be a useful tool to kind of keep everything together.  I am pretty much an organized person, but I see that this tool could be a beneficial way to stay organized with my on-line visits and tools.  I plan to explore more with this site to learn ways it can be of personal use for me.

Continuing Twitter and YouTube Adventure

     

This week, our assignment was to continue exploring Twitter and begin the YouTube Adventure.  As far as Twitter goes, I will be honest that I do not feel much of an interest to log on.  As I mentioned in my previous blog, it is convenient to log on through my iPhone.  I have not once last week logged on through my desktop or laptop.  I find the ease of access better through the iPhone app.  I will say that I have been more noticing of the twitter logo.  Twitter was pretty live during the Super Bowl.  As I worked on my group project, I noticed that Prezi has a button to click to tweet the link to a presentation.  To be completely honest, if Twitter was not a requirement for this class, I probably would log on a whole lot less frequently, just because it hasn't drawn me in and captured my attention so much.
   

  As for YouTube, as I mentioned in the class discussion, I use YouTube on a daily basis every morning in my classroom.  One requirement for the Head Start program is to have 30 minutes everyday of structured, "I am Moving, I am Learning" time.  We like to find kids aerobics and other videos on YouTube, where our students can move along to the music and video of the children or participant on the screen.  They love to watch the videos of the game, "Just Dance."  Although this is a console game, and our students are really having absolutely no control of the game, they are able to move along with the avatar on screen.  There favorite video is one posted by an elementary PE teacher who made up a work out to, "Watch me Whip, What me Nae Nae."  Through the use of YouTube, our group was able to include links to demonstration videos on our Google doc.  Just the way that videos have become so readily available has changed so many parts of education and life in general.


     My favorite thing this week was using Google docs with my group members.  This is the first time I have ever used an on-line tool that allows this type of collaboration.  I was actually editing my portion of the document and could see one of my group members was logged on at the same time editing her portion.  I was just a really cool way to be able to collaborate and work on a document with others simultaneously without having to be geographically or physically close.  All we needed to accomplish this task was an internet connect.  It blows my mind to see how far we have come since the original word processor software.

My Twitter Adventure

     This week, our assignment was to explore Twitter.  I have been pretty active on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, but until this course, I had never created a Twitter account. 

     I will begin by saying I love that Twitter is so easy to access from my iPhone.  Many people do not have time to sit down at a computer and log on, but with the availability of the mobile app, Twitter has been very easy to access.  I am learning more about the hashtags and availability to tweet towards particular subjects or groups.  I am also learning about the @ symbol, which allows you to tweet towards certain people.

     As I mentioned in the eCollege discussion, one thing that happened when I gave Twitter my phone number is that my personal contacts combined with my contacts from the course.  I mentioned that I just did an on-line training through my school district.  This training emphasized the importance of keeping personal and professional social media accounts separate.  This is certainly an area that I need to look into more to find a suitable solution.

     One think I have noticed is that Twitter seems to be very popular among celebrities.  I couldn't resist the urge to follow my favorite celebs and see what the post.  Some of the "Twitter Wars" mentioned on sites like TMZ have been rather amusing.

     As a Pre-K teacher, my young students are obviously way to young to use Twitter, but that does not mean that it could not be used.  One important objective stresses by Head Start is to develop bonds with families.  Twitter could be used as a social media tool that would aid towards family partnership.  Tweets could be made with appropriate the # that connect to links on useful parenting and home learning links.  I found The Learning Station on Twitter, which is one of my absolute favorite early learning sites.

     I look forward to using Twitter more towards as a educator.  One thing I do realize that is important is to be aware and cautious of inappropriate material that can be seen and shared on Twitter.  I really did enjoy my Twitter adventure and am thankful for the opportunity to explore this social media tool.

Vanity Search

     So this week we were instructed to search our name is quotation marks on Google.  I searched for, "Lucinda Love."  Through this search I learned from the top result there is an author on Amazon that writes self help books available on Kindle about relationship and romance advice.  Her top seller is, How to Make Any Man Fall in Love with You.  This I found rather amusing, considering that I personally feel as if I would be the worst person to give any kind of relationship or romance advice.

     The next link I see on Google is a Facebook profile that is not me.  I do have a Facebook account, but for this account I use my maiden name, Boss.  It is kind of funny to me that both my maiden name, Boss, and my married name, Love, are both words that mean other things.  This makes a Google search of my name bring up all kinds of stuff unrelated to me.


     The next link is for IMDB.  Apparently there is an actress named Lucinda Love who starred in only two movies in 1968 and 1970, and unfortunately there is no picture.

     The top image for my name is an album cover for a song released in 1980 called, "Oh Lucinda (Love Becomes a Habit)."  This song is also the top video result.  I would love to share the picture of the album cover, but since Lucinda is completely naked, I think I better not post that on this blog.  The band is called The Only Ones, and I have never heard of them until this moment.

     From this activity I have learned that I personally have left no digital footprint.  None of the links that popped up had anything to do with me.  My ePortfolio did not even pop-up from a Google search.  For privacy reasons, I feel as if this might be a good thing, but I hope to learn more from this course as to the type of digital footprint I should be creating as I continue to further my career in the field of Educational Technology and Leadership.