Hello all,
Last week I was asked to present information at my school to year 10 about Digital Footprints and PLN’s. The best way to educate them about what I have to say is to direct them here so they can read the dialogue of the presentation and rewatch the clips that I show. As well as that they can click on the links and browse the information. I am hoping that they can use this as valuable resource to start developing their PLN’s for preparation for their global studies. Here is my Prezi and as all of us are aware there isn’t much dialogue so I have outlined it below.
Information and where do we get it?
We are in the Information Age where information is being developed exponentially. Rather than learn every piece of information posted online I am going to teach you have to learn what you need to learn and learn how to learn it.
So how can we learn what we want to learn? We need to become a 21st Century Learner. What is a 21st Century Learner? Watch
Digital Footprints
Nowadays most people have a digital footprint if you dont think you have one, Google yourself and see what you get. What is important is that you realise a few things:
-
What you post is PERMANENT
-
What you say may offend without you meaning it to.
-
What you put online can be seen by EVERYONE including EMPLOYERS, PARENTS and eventually YOUR CHILDREN.
-
Potential employers have the right to scan the web for your digital footprint. Think about what you post on FB or Myspace…..would you want an employer to see this?
-
It is advisable to ensure that your digital footprint is “employable” it is not too late.
However Digital Natives have a wonderful opportunity to use the technology available to them for the benefit of their learning:
PLN’s
A personal learning network or PLN is a network of people that we can gather information from. I have my own and you can read about how I have developed my in my previous blogs but here are the links that I have mentioned in the Prezi.
Over the past two years I have been on Twitter using it to find people who have similar interest as me. I dont care for thos that want to tell me that they have just brushed their teeth. That is, those people around the world who wish to partake in reshaping education through the use of 21st century tools. I have started following those people that to me MATTER. I am constantly building my PLN through this. I also click on the links that they post and subscribe to their feeds (more about this soon).
This is where I write my blog. Not only this but I like to search through the millions of blogs and find interesting things that a relavent to my teaching. If you search you will find others around the world that can assist in your learning on any subject you choose.
Wikis are a site that allows anyone to create a website and people can visit and gain information. I use it to allow students to start creating their own digital footprints. Now, your teachers are starting to create their own Wikis so that you can benefit from what they want you to learn in your own time.
Ning is similar to Wikis and each of them have their own abilities which can be explored. Originally to create a Ning it was free but now you have to pay a monthly fee which NGS pays for. I use it to teach my HSC subject IPT and develop a massive resource for students to use as a study aid. Not only this but I keep regular updates and recently I have developed a virtual classroom using Smallworlds. This is allowing me to run classes out of the normal rhelms of a school timetable.
There are literally thousands of Web 2.0 applications out there and the picture in the Prezi shows this. The problem is…..now that you are starting to develop a PLN how do you keep track or all this.
The solution is simple: Subscribe to the RSS feeds of the sites that matter to you! This can be done using different methods. I subscribe to RSS feeds using my email account. This means that all of my subscriptions are placed in my Inbox of my Outlook 2007 account. They are transportable and I can read them anytime I wish. However, if you dont have Outlook you can use Google Reader:
Or similarly you can use Delicious which does the same as Reader and Outlook.
I would strongly advise that you visit these sites:
National Library of Australia (become a member)
Andrew Douch (find him on iTunes)
Ten Marks (sign up)
Now the rest is up to you to become a 21st Century Learner:
I wish you all the best for your upcomming future senior years and if you listen to the advice that is given to you now a great teacher once said to me “You get what you deserve”. Therefore start now and work hard so you do.
Thanks for reading
Mr. Andrew Blackwell
Andrew,
My name is Melissa Bennett and I am from Vancouver, B.C. Canada. I am a parent to an 11 year old boy who is very interested in technology and particularly, sharing his own productions on YouTube. I have been researching at home lately about the use of technology in the classroom and digital footprints, trying to understand the impacts and pitfalls of his media use as well as the educational benefits. I will have to read much more of the information on your site and search the links you have posted. It will take a lot of reading and questions but I hope to get up to speed with him. I also hope to get him hooked up with equally inspired teachers who are willing to teach outside the box – those who embrace technology and see it as a really important part of education. *As an aside, this may be a long shot but I believe it is possible that I may have met and traveled with you briefly many years ago in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Did you travel with another Aussie friend in Europe in about 1991? That would be very curious if you were the Andrew Blackwell that I had met while traveling with my friend Tamara.
In any case, I hope to keep reading through your blog, learn some more about Twitter and RSS feeds, and learn about new outlets for my son’s creativity. It’s nice to see that there are more and more educators working with kids this way!
Thank you Melissa for your kind words. Yes there are a number of educators out there that do embrace technology in their teaching. A friend of mine teaching on Vancouver Island has made some remarkable progress.
Unfortunately I have never been in Europe. So it wasnt me just my stunt double!
One of the biggest barriers to educating students with technology is parents. The fear of what the Internet brings into the lives of our children is often a cause for concern. I have a 12 year old and as a parent I am often worried about what he is doing online but we have open communication about what he is doing and all he wants to do is communicate and be communicated to.
Next week I am going to post a blog about how teachers can use technology in the classroom… it will be my presentation to the staff at my school. So keep watching and remember that I say to my students your “Status must be Employable”
Thank you for your feedback
Andrew