Personal Learning Network

I have learned a great deal about personal learning networks and how they work from Rheingold.  I think it is fairly obvious to say that we, as people, need supportive people around us to encourage and to be able to bounce ideas off of and to learn from.  My network is currently small as a pre-service teacher, but I do see the importance of adding to this network in a greater way.  Not only in learning to be a better English teacher at the high school level or any other level I may venture into, but in general.  I put an emphasis on my strong network ties rather than weaker ones at first (although this is so small it is hard to tell that is what took place), yet Rheingold made a good valid point that a vast number of weaker ties are important as well.  They in fact are the best way to create more diverse learning and to foster innovation.

Talk about Demotivating!  There are few things that demotivate me more than knowing there is no point in saving for the future when so much money is printed my money is worthless the longer I hold on to it!  =(   

Truthful Movie Poster

I loved this assignment, I really loved seeing what everyone else put up.  It was fun and thought provoking.

This is a project I want to do with my students in the future, sans the foul language.  I think this teaches students that they have to truly think of why a movie is made, the audience is is searching for, and the purpose of the movie itself.  I would also like to link this together with a "book poster" idea.  Having students create a poster or cover with the truthful spin allows students to voice their own opinion on the book.  I know a lot of kids loved the Twilight series, while an entire other group hated the books (I would be in the later of the two groups).  Having these visual projects allows for creativity in a multitude of ways both from the visual and in the usage of words in the project.

Collaboration

Collaboration is something we all do, daily, whether it is in a learning environment, in the work place, or simply being a member of society.  What I found to be the most profound ideas in Rheingold was not the idea of how much we collaborate on a daily basis, I think that is fairly well understood, but rather collaboration in terms of human evolution.  I will honestly say I was taken aback by this notion that human evolution should be looked at through the eyes of collaboration rather than the survival of the fittest manner in which I have always viewed evolution.  The idea that the human brain correlates directly with how we are social seems as though it could be questionable, then it is followed up by the fact that as humans we can work in groups of up to around 148 people, which is roughly the size of a military unit.  It may be that is it simply chance or it could be that the US Military finds credibility in this idea or that they in fact found the same to be true independent or new studies and theories.  I also enjoyed the fact that gossiping was the first form of language... I think it justifies my long conversations with my girlfriends since it has always been that way.  =)

Odyssey on Maps

I created a Google Map based on the Odyssey intended to use in future classes in school.  I would like to use this activity again for other books as well.  I am thinking along the lines of Mark Twain, or Jane Austen.  I am a visual person so something like this could be very useful in class and something fun for students to create themselves.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=217151320616601773639.0004c9ac824d32c546ba5&msa=0

This I Believe Essay & Composer Notes

Essay:

I believe that everything happens for a reason.  Ours lives are shaped by our decisions and it is my belief, not in a grand already made plan, but that the choices I have made have brought me down a path where I find myself right now and in some divine way it happened all as it should.  Simply looking at the way I met my husband shows me how everything is shaped together to form what makes our lives today.  Had I not switched jobs, had I moved to a different apartment, had I stayed out that night, had I not been bored, had I done anything differently our chance meeting would we have never met?  Had anything been different, the slightest timing change we never would have met and this would no longer be my story.  It has happened many times over in my life that I think of these things.  When my Dad was too sick to work it just so happened that I lost my job a month before I had to take on his.  Had I gotten the job I was sure I was going to be offered I would have never moved.  Had the job field I had previously been in not taken such a hit I never would have gone back to school for teaching.  Had I had the courage to stand alone I never would have found myself again.  Had I not taken the chance I never would have had what I have now.  So while I know my choices are never perfect and regret can seep into my mind from time to time it doesn’t take much for me to remember that I have what I have due to choices and possibly chance but either way I believe everything happens for a reason and that consoles me.

Composition Notes:
I began this project writing first.  Once we came to class and I saw where I would have to find images to go along with it it became much more difficult.  I think the visual aspect is going to be much harder for me.  Maybe because of the topic... I’m not sure...

Things To DO:
Figure out a software to use!!??!  Windows Movie Maker
Find Photos
Find a video.... thinking Jack White building a guitar
Find music for background
REWRITE

I’ve decided after much thought to change my project completely... I went from “I Believe that everything happens for a reason”, to “I believe there is beauty in the ordinary”  At least that is where I am right at this moment.. much better than earlier to today when I wanted to do “I believe I am surrounded by idiots that need to commit mass suicide”... definitely a better place now.  =)


9/4/2012
Finding photos to go along with the idea of what I have in mind for my project.  I’m mostly thinking of finding old photos from the US Archives.  If you haven’t been to the site, do.  Some are just so beautiful and are free to download and use.

9/8/2012
Finding photos and thinking about how I will use the voiceover to the photos.  Created a video with photos, played around with some other software ideas on making the photos not simply just appear and disappear.

9/10/2012
Totally scratched my second idea and reverted back to my original idea and edited the written portion.  My heart just was not in the second idea.  I tried, but it was hard.  Changing a lot of the photos, but able to keep a few.  Making my husband help me get my voice recording done, with an 8 month old and staying in my mother’s house while we renovate mine... NOT easy!  

9/11/2012
Having Issues with audio jack on my computer, put it on my husbands also using his software to combine the voice with music.  Found a great add on for ripping music off youtube.  Hallelujah! Voice and music are together, working on creating the visual, which is by far the hardest part which I had anticipated.  Hoping to do good on my vision.  Also, I suppose I will always despise my own voice on a recording.


9/11/2012
Added the images and voice recording.  I also found some instrumental music to add to my voice recording which went nicely.  At the end I had wanted the music to keep playing longer, however it was not possible as it was a loop and would have started over.  I really liked having the photos go by faster and faster.  That was what I was most excited about.

Attention... or lack thereof...

Is it odd that the first subject matter to come up in a digital media class for prospective English teachers is attention?  I would venture to say no, and I would also like to commend my professor for allowing us o speak so honestly about our own attentiveness.  It seems that most teachers are stuck on teaching the way it has "always been done" and in that kids must keep their attention in class with closed mouths, but the fact of the matter is every one today struggles with a lowered ability to keep focus.  ADD is not something that I have been diagnosed with and when I say I have it I say it playfully.  The reality is the older I have gotten my brain seems to run a million miles in 8 directions.  I can not longer sit and watch TV (although I have never been a big fan), and lord knows you can forget trying to watch a movie with me.  I get antsy, I need to move around, I want to look up things on Google, I think about what I should be doing, what I could be doing, what I will be doing, and what I forgot to do and need to make note to do later.  It seems the whole world has become ADD in the past 10 years.  Maybe our ability to have everything at the touch of a button, and now with cell phones being internet capable there is truly no escaping the mindless internet searching I have become privy to.  Even now as I write about my experience to noticing just how truly unable I am to keep my attention on a single piece of dense text my eyes are fluttering back to my daughter playing in her crib, texts and phone calls coming in, and trying to remember to reserve a U-haul for my husband less I forget again for the 5th time this week.  Trying to write a paper these days is something that my husband finds humorous as I take breaks to - pause to hand my daughter my computer mouse she was reaching for- clear my head and mindlessly open another tab of Facebook.  This is my reality now.  In order for me to best perform I need seclusion, I have to turn off the wireless internet otherwise I will forever sit wandering from page to page, picture to article, video to statistic until hours have passed and I am no further ahead than had I tried to write the paper in the middle of a family gathering.  This is all from a woman who is 28 and remembers a time before technology was everywhere and times I could be MIA and not tracked down via my GPS enabled cellphone.  It causes me to wonder what our kids go through in technological word they were raised in.  Are they better adapted?  As a teacher what can I do to help them?  What can I do to help myself??  Honestly I crave silence.  I miss silence, maybe that happens when you have kids, and maybe I should ask my husband to build me a studio in the backyard... I bet I could find a cute one on Pinterest and a tutorial to go with it.  =)