Final Reflection

I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about this class.  It proved to be extremely interesting and I hope to use a lot of what I learned in the near future if I have not already started to do so.  Luckily, a lot of the technology in the assignments were ones that I was somewhat familiar with. 

 

A few that I learned the most about were the QR codes, ScoopIt and Podcasts.  These are ones that I can put into use immediately.  I have already started to use QR codes for vocabulary and AR testing information.  Scoop It is a really neat way to  introduce a topic or even a person to the class.  Podcasts can be used a lot in my school because teachers are encourage to use a flipped classroom.  It is really easy to use podcasts and requires very little time. 

The most difficult technology was Instagram for me.  I couldn't seem to put words on my pictures even with the Overgram application.  I tried and tried but to no avail, could not figure it out. 

One of the only concerns for me about some of the technology is that it would not be accessible through the school district due to the filters in place.  Other than that, I cannot wait to get started in the Spring with what I have learned.  THANKS :)   

Teens and Technology 2013

Madden, M., Lenhart, A., Duggan, M., Cortesi, S., & Gasser, U. (2013). Teens and Technology 2013. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 1, 1-19. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-and-Tech.aspx

Where do teens access the internet?

In a phone survey of 802 parents and 802 teenagers between the ages of 12-17, results show that the internet is accessed with a smart phone.  According to the article, 78% of teens have a cell phones.  As stated, "the teens represent the leading edge of mobile connectivity."  Smart phone ownership is on the rise among teens.  The translates to being able to connect to the internet at any time of the day.  Teens use a phone, tablet or mobile device 3:1 over the computer/laptop.  At least 93% of teens have access to a computer, and of that 71% share it with their family.  The trends demonstrated with this survey also mimic those in the adult category. 

My Response

It is not surprising to see the statistics associated with these topics.  A majority of the teens have phones.   It is great to see that when they have a question, they can get an immediate answer when needed with accessing the internet with their phone.  Hopefully this will lead to greater knowledge and more of an interest to continue to research when questions arise. 

19 pages

Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy

Madden, M., Cortesi, S., Gasser, U., Lenhart, A., & Duggan, M. (2012). Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 1, 1-29. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Teens-and-Privacy.aspx

 

                How do parent protect their children with online privacy?  How is it monitored?

There is a huge concern that too much information is available online about children and teens.  There is little legislation that establishes regulations.  It is simply hard to keep up.  In response the this problem,  a phone survey was conducted of 802 parents and 802 teens.

Some of the concerns for the parents of teenagers include: how much information advertisers are learning about the teens online, how much the teenagers interact with strangers online, how the online activity might affect the future academic and employment opportunities and how the reputation is maintained.  The parents of 59% of those surveyed had a conversation with their child about privacy.   Some parents even help set up privacy settings (39%).  Parents also used parental controls, internet searches.

My response

Unfortunately, the governments cannot keep up with maintaining up to date regulations when dealing with the media and internet use.  The regulations tend to come a little too late.  Teens are often naïve on the amount of information released in the social networks sites, even if there are privacy settings.  I hate the way some tragic needs to happen before major changes are made.  I would be concerned as well if I had a teen age daughter.  Fortunately, I have a couple more years to go.  I was also surprised about the responses by those surveyed did not have higher percentages in each of the question categories.   If parents are so concerned, then why do they not act upon it?

29 pages

Teens, Smartphones, & Texting

Lenhart, A. (2012). Teens, Smarthphones & Texting. Pew Internet & American Life Project, 1. Retrieved December 4, 2013, from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Teens-and-smartphones.aspx

   The use of smartphones is everywhere.  Particularly in the teen age range, texting has increased.  As a whole, it increased to an average of 60 texts per day.  Texting has taken the lead as a form of communication for teens, beating face to face, phone call, social networking, instant messaging, landline phone calls and emailing.  The amount of time spent actually talking of the phone has decreased.  Teens cell phone ownership has increased dramatically to 75%, up 30 percent in 5 years.  An interesting correlation is that the heavy texters are also the heavy talkers, or vice versa, light texters are light talkers. 

My Response

                It is very obvious to anyone watching that teens are losing touch with their personal skills.  This can be attributed to the cell phone.  Since cell phone are no longer just for the wealthy, teens from all social-economic status’ can have access to one.  Most are even able to have access to a smart phone or device.  Teens are using these devices to have access to information instantaneously.  Unfortunately, they have also become impatient, expecting everything to be instantaneous.  I believe this is going to lead to much larger problems in the near future.  Communication is a huge factor, not only in personal relationships, but also in recreation.  It is very important to know how have propper conversations with others, not through the phone. 

34 pages

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA & MOBILE INTERNET USE AMONG TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS

Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., & Zickuhr. (2010). Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults, 1-51. Retrieved December 5, 2013 from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Social-Media-and-Young-Adults.aspx

Who doesn’t have access to the internet via mobile, smart tablet, laptop, or pc?  Not very many people according to the research are without some reach to the internet.  There are definite trends in the arenas of social media usage as well as mobile internet.  The trend indicates various findings which include some of the following:  blogging is on the down for the teen and young adults while on the rise for older adults, an increase in social networking within all surveyed groups, Twitter is the one social media that is on the downtrend among teens, cell phone ownership and internet use has increase currently at 75% and finally, only about 4% of families did not have some form of internet. 

My response to article:

Truth be told, I was a little shocked by the article.  It might have due to my naivety, but I wasn’t aware the scope of social media.  I was awed that the largest upward trend in cell phone ownership was in young teens.  I would have thought that the trends started to show up at much younger age-even 6 to 7 year olds. 

I also thought it was interesting to know race and class had little to do to effect the ownership status of cell phones, but when it came down to ownership of a laptop of pc, race did seem to factor in.  So this obviously trickled down to the outcome of the other questions in the survey.  One of the questions concerned whether or not the teen got onto social media through the website via phone or laptop/pc.       

I hadn’t really thought about the positive side for teens using the internet and social media, until I read about teens, adults and online health information section.  I thought this was interesting because although teens are losing verbal skills due to using the phone as a means of communication, they also turn their phone use into somewhat of a research.  For topics that teens are not comfortable speaking to someone about, the internet gives them a means to find information and often useful, correct information. 

It was an interesting read.  Anyone questioning if the social media or phone usage is normal or not, needs to read this article. 

51 pages

Instagram and Vine

Another two pieces of technology for use in the classroom are Instagram and Vine.  Both are highly popular among the younger crowds.  There are various things you can use them for in the classroom.

Instagram 

These two pictures I took of my children.  As an educator, Instagram can be used in a variety of ways.  One of the obvious ways to use Istagram is to document memories throughout the year.  The yearbook club could make great use of this program.  Almost everyone's smartphone has a pretty good phone.  What better way than to use the tool and be able to tag who ever is in the picture.  It would make the lives of the yearbook committee a lot easier if students could take pictures using instagram and take the yearbook committee/class in the picture to use at a later date. 

I also liked the idea of using Instagram as a way to document what a famous person might say or post.  The students would have to place themselves in the role of the famous person and to do that, the student would have to have some background knowledge of the person. 

Students could also use Instagram to document the stages in experiments.  It would be great to be able to capture the processes. 

Vine

Here are some clips from the Vine. 



This is my daughter, Kenna getting ready for the Aggie football game. 

Students in the classroom can act out the main idea or big picture of different subjects.  I like that since it is looped, formulas can be studied for math and science. 

Since again, this smart tool is easily accessed with a smart phone, creative ideas can take place in the classroom with using technology. 

Information Curation

Scoop it is a web tool that allows its users to create a webpage with personalized topics of interest.  It is great because you create something that is based on your likes and personal touches.  This information curation tool would be great for teachers to use to make a webpage dedicated to various topics.  It is really easy to create a web page and edit to the users specifications.  Simply sign in using your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.  You can simply edit what types of information you would like to include and the tool gives the user suggestions for the topics they selected.  Easy and neat to work with. 

 



Paper.li is a webtool used to create an online newspaper.  Think of the countless ways teachers could use this tool.  Plus it is free.  Can't get any better than that.  Users can sign up through Twitter or Facebook.  You are able to import information from Twitter, Google, You Tube, Facebook or RSS. 
It was really effortless to create the newspaper. 

 

 

Prismatic is a tool that users can use to create a webfeed.  There is an option of logging in via Facebook, Google, Twitter, or use the creation of the users own preference of name and password.  I like that this webtool allows users to sign in with a choice or creating their sign ins.  I found this tool to be a little more difficult to work with.  It is not as user friendly as the other two so far.  It is a little similar to Pinterest. 

 

 

Zite is an application for creating a personal magazine in which the user picks the topics to be addressed in the magazine.  It is obviously personalized to the extent of the topics selected.  However, there are times when the feed does not work or when the types of feeds do not necessarily fit the personal selections.  It is a creative ap that can allows the users to filter information to their personal desires. 

 

 

 

 

Flipboard is similar to Zite but the interface is a very different. It is more creative and is more interactive than that of Zite.  Users can save articles for a later read.  Users flip through the different pages making more like that of a magazine.  I find the information a little hard to read at times, but of course there is an option to have it on an Ipad or larger screen smart devices.  This one seems to be my favorite simply because it is user friendly and acts more like an actual magazine. An added plus is being able to listen to music when browsing.   

 

 

Google Currents is my least favorite application.  It is the least creative visually.  I like that you can save the articles.  I find it difficult to read some of the articles.  It is a great tool to be able to change it to different languages.  On another positive note, it can be linked to users other Google accounts.