Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

Edu 790 Spring 2018 (personal photo) I’ve had the pleasure of designing and teaching a Social Media and Emerging Technologies course for Dominican Universit y the past two years. This course has been offered as an 8 week online graduate level course. This year I was asked to teach it on campus to a group of River Forest District 90 teachers, many of which I’ve taught in a previous course. There are differences between an online 8 week course and a 16 week face-to-face course with teachers you’ve already taught- time being a big one. Students in the face-to-face course received much of the same content as the online group did (discussions on how we use social media and what platforms we visit, digital tattoos, PLN exploration, research and digital spaces mapping). Because we were face-to-face we had many discussions and time to talk about our learning but these educators also kept a “Reflection Journal” via Google Docs where they were able to reflect privately and I was able to ...

Tattoos Do you have a tattoo?   What’s the story behind it?   What does it say about who you are?   Tattoos have been around for over 5,000 years .   For centuries people have been marking their bodies for a variety of purposes; love, status, tribute, and medical just to name a few.   Today the tattoo industry is busier than ever though an Internet search quickly proves that there are clearly some that regret the decision.   Is social media that much different?   Do we not post statuses that declare our love, tribute, medical dilemmas and more, much like people tattoo their skin?   If that is the case, do we not regret some of our social media posts as well?   The term “digital footprint” is well known and represents what trace of us we leave behind when we are visible and active online.   It is a catchy phrase but in my opinion not completely accurate.   Footprints can be washed away.   They can be covered over so the...

This year I changed schools and was lucky enough to join Coonley's staff as a technology coach. Coonley is a great school doing many wonderful things with its students.  Parents can see these but what about everyone else?  Coonley didn't have a Twitter feed when I arrived.  I started an account and have been encouraging teachers, parents and students to join the conversation.  The first week of school had a different Twitter prompt a day.  Now individual classrooms are posting work samples and many people are jumping on board.  I'm hoping to eventually reach the point where we can have "Twitter Takeovers" where classrooms can lead the discussion for the week on our account. For those who are still new to Twitter and need a little guidance I created a Twitter User Guide.  It isn't just for newbies- it contains 4 sections for those ranging from "what-is-Twitter" to "How-can-I-take-it-to-the-next-level".  Please follow us on Twitter! @Coonl...

This week I began rolling out iPads to our students in grades 3-8. Before students use these devices I go into each classroom and conduct an online safety presentation.  We talk about staying safe online and the students have a contract that needs to be signed by them, their parents and the administration of the school; all pledging to be safe online. The presentation for the younger students (found here ) is definitely applicable to the middle school students but they need something more; something that relates a little bit more to social media use online and deals with what students can and cannot do legally.  Recently in my classes at Dominican and National Louis Universities I spoke with my undergraduate students about “digital tattoos”. We completed an exercise on data-mining strangers (which I will post about soon).   Whether at the middle school level or pre-service teacher level all students need to be aware of their digital image!  J...