Give us some background about yourself as a digital literacy advocate (or not!). Even though you all are still digital immigrants (students ~15 and under are listed as digital natives), you have still lived a life mostly plugged in. Share your name, year at WC, and your major.
First, tell us what you love to do in the digital realm/age of devices: play online games? Post/troll on Facebook, post pics on Instagram or Snapchat, text, check scores on ESPN, stay connected with friends, check the weather, use it as an alarm/calculator/flashlight, etc.
Then, share what you DON'T like about the digital age: people obsessed with their devices, health issues related to being on them [neck ailments are up ~700%!], communication changes [eye contact is not the norm], keeping up with all the innovations, information overload, deep web/dark web perils, privacy/security problems, bullying, immediacy of information, etc.
Lastly, what do you feel you can/should do in this digital era? More specifically, how do you want to and plan to use digital tools to benefit you in your future career?
Blog by Tuesday, June 6th at midnight and respond to all classmates by Friday, June 9th at midnight. Say something meaningful...don't just say "I agree."
Hello!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Sydney and I am a graduated Senior at Westminster. I graduated this May with my Elementary Education Degree and I will be student teaching in August in Holts Summit with a fifth-grade class (my old fifth grade class, actually).
I think the only thing I really do on my digital device is text, call, and use Facebook/ Snapchat. I am not much of a game person but I do like to look at apps like Pinterest and such. Now that I think about it, I do use my phone for the alarm, calculator, flashlight, and I am sure a few other things so maybe I use it more than I think! I just wish I was a little more app savvy and knew how to use the educational ones but this class with definitely help with that!
Something I don’t like about the digital age is the lack of real communication between people. When I go out to dinner and all I see is kids on their phones instead of enjoying dinner with their families, it is a little disappointing. Or when couples go out to eat and they do the same thing to each other. Dates aren’t as intimate as they should be and family dinners aren’t like they used to be. I am even guilty of this and I would love to change that. Deleting Facebook is a sure way to help with it but it seems like getting on your phone is such a habit that deleting Facebook would just make the person get on their phone and use it for another reason. But you also can just get rid of your phone in today’s times so what are some other suggestions? I often leave my phone in the car or at home if I don’t think I need it but sometimes that can end up being dangerous. Should people just do it anyway? I mean back in the day people didn’t take phones with them and they survived, right?
I also don’t care for the exaggeration that social media gives out. For example, stories on Facebook get twisted so fast and seem to be a lot worse than they may be. It is scary how fast the news travels and sometimes it may not even be the truth.
In my future career as a teacher, using digital tools is going to be very important because my students will be relying heavily on technology in their future as well. Teaching them the right ways to use something or how to pick out correct and reliable information will help them greatly. Keeping them up to date on the latest technology will also help them so they can become experts on it while still in school. There are a lot of adults in today’s society learning about technology and devices when kids in school already know what the adult is just now learning. It will be important to keep my students up to date.
I like how you emphasize the importance of teaching students the skills to utilize different useful apps and how to find reliable information. I also think teaching in 21st century doesn’t only involve providing students with content, facts, and information, but also training students on how to acquire knowledge from the right resources. There are so many resources out there in the internet, so if students have the skills to look for it, they will have plenty of useful resources to learn from.
DeleteI completely agree with you about the exaggeration that social media gives out. Not just Facebook but infact all the information that's up there on the internet is always somehow twisted. It is surely a good thing that this digital era has made our living easier but this has also increased internet crimes such as identity theft.
DeleteMy name is Guleid Ali, and I am one of the students who just graduated this last May. I graduated with a chemistry major and a mathematical science minor.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I love to do in the digital real of devices is to stay connected with people. I use facebook and gmail to text and send messages to friends and families since I live far away from my home country. I also use You-tube and google as teaching devices, so I use them to watch videos explaining difficult concepts from lectures. I also use them for entertainment. Digital real of devices are big part of my daily life.
Something I don’t like about the digital age is that they can be very tempting and destructive. Digital age can be very useful if used the right way, but they can be a waste of time too. For instance, You-tube might contain some useful videos, but it also provides tons of other tempting useless videos.
Since I am planning to teach chemistry for two years before going to graduate schools, I will use the digital age devices to teach difficult concepts. Sometimes helping students visualize abstract concepts can help them understand the materials, and this can be done using digital devices. Students also don’t learn at the same pace, so making lecturing videos could help them learn the materials on their pace.
I loved your comment on you making lecture videos so students could watch them if they needed to. This will be very helpful for those students and I wish my teachers in high school would have done the same thing. I found myself sitting at home lots of times really confused on what exactly we did in class and wishing I had a way to go over it. What you plan to do will be perfect!
DeleteSince I am a visual learner, I sometimes had difficulty understanding new concepts and theories in both my science and math classes if they were not demontrated through videos and diagrams. Like you mentioned in your comment, I think making lecture videos will really help students understand and study at their own desired pace.
DeleteMy name is Tenzin Dolker. I am a recently graduated senior with a bachelor of arts in Chemistry. Even though my nationality is Tibetan, I have lived most of life as a refugee in India in a small Tibetan community.
ReplyDeleteThe digital era has definitely affected our modern society in both positive and negative ways. It has been 6 years since I first left home to study aboard and until now the only way to stay connected with my parents and other loved ones back home is through social media such as facebook, whatsapp and viber because they are free once you have access to Internet. Other than Chemistry itself, I have a big passion for Fashion. Back then I used to read a lot of vogue magazines in order to keep updated with fashion trends and such but now I can just follow models and learn more about fashion through Instagram and Youtube. Apart from these, I frequently use my phone to set alarm, to check weather and set reminders instead of jotting down in my journal every day.
One of the things that I don’t like about this digital age of devices is how it has brought social isolation. People now tend to spend more time playing video games and using social networks thereby neglecting their real life. The digital era has definitely helped our society learn more, easier and faster but it has made us too dependent on modern tools like calculators. I believe that becoming too dependent on modern technology not only causes health problems but it also reduces our level of creativity.
My career goal is to become a research analyst and with the lot of writing I would be doing, I plan on taking advantage of the technology we are blessed with. I definitely learn more from watching videos than reading books. Not everyone is a visual learner but as of today’s generation, students and even elderly people prefer videos, diagrams and pictures to really understand the ideas and concepts than reading a 5 page long article.
Wow! This was really interesting to read. You are very brave, I don't think I could ever leave home. That is so awesome you get to experience it. Also, I found your input about students preferring videos to learn and diagrams, to be so true! I think reading a huge article is a lot harder for people than using other visual ways.
Delete