Teachers Changing Teacher Style

For several years teachers have been using the same teaching techniques. They stand in front of a classroom and lecture about the given topic. Students are supposed to write down and take notes of what the teacher is saying. They give you heavy books and handout worksheets for you to read a fill out. What theses teachers need to understand is that although this an effective method, times have changed and students learn in a different way now. I believe that with the use of technology we can improve education greatly. This a more modern and effective way than just the old lecture and book work. Give the students something they are familiar with, and something that they will want to use. Lets be honest, no kid wants to sit in a classroom for a whole 80 minutes listening to someone talk, half of us zone out and do not pay attention. If they made it more interesting like giving us a power point, or an assignment that involves getting online more students will be willing to learn the information and do the work. If we can get teachers to upgrade their lesson plans and teaching styles we can prepare our students better for the future.

8 Norms of Net Gen

Life today has changed drastically since our parents and grandparents were kids. They didn't have all the things us kids use on a daily basis like lap tops, smarts phones, wifi, etc. We are learning and living a completely different way. One of the biggest things we use today is the internet. Kids allover the world use the internet to do homework, play games, talk to friends, and discover new things! In Don Tapscott's Grown up Digital, he talks about this, and came up with 8 norms of Net Gen. "The eight norms are: 1) freedom; 2) customization; 3) scrutiny; 4) integrity; 5) collaboration; 6) entertainment; 7) speed; and 8) innovation." (Chapter 3) The new technology does allows us more freedom to explore and be ourselves. Its entertaining and fast, and very collaborative. Also in Tapscott's book, he talks about his daughter who is an example of growing up digitally. She used to always talk to her friends on the phone at night, but then he started to hear silence. He checked it out and found that she was chatting with her friends instead. He then also talks about how is seven year old son already playing games on line! These a great examples of how kids are growing up digitally.

Accepting Criticism/Netiquette

It is important to be able to understand and accept criticism when blogging, or publishing a piece of any sort. If someone gives you feedback about a miss-spelled word, or maybe you worded something weird, you can not get mad or defensive. What you need to do is accept it, and be thankful they pointed it out. Then, once you have correct your mistakes, you need to reply to the criticism and thank them for it. It would be rude not to thank them. If someone comments their opinion on your blog, that differs from yours, do not fight it. It would be rude to start and argument. It is really easy to get in a heated conversation when it comes to opinion. Just remember that everyone is entitled to their own and you should respect that! Now for the other end of the spectrum, you also need to be careful when giving criticism. Be careful to not come off as rude, or mean. Do not try to degrade them. A good strategy would be to give a positive with the negative. For example, say you just read a blog about Netiquette, and they accidentally spelled netiquette wrong! You could post: "Hey this is a great piece! I really like your ideas of how to use etiquette online! But, you accidentally spelled Netiquette* wrong! oops! :)" A response like that gets the point across, without being rude or degrading. In conclusion, accepting criticism is a big part of netiquette and should be used properly.

Using a Wiki to communicate information.

Using a Wiki is a great way to share information with people. You can create and account and be shared a document with anybody you would like. You can set up different pages for all sorts of people to look at and edit, if allowed. For example, my speech class is currently using a Wiki to present different types of digital communication to each other. And in the previous week we learned about using digital communication to present it, so now we are putting it to the test. My teacher made us all create Wiki account and he invited our whole class to a certain page where it had all of our topics on. We each can edit our own page and write all our information about our type of digital communication. We can add text, give links, and put videos on our page to educate our class about our certain digital communication. Then, since its all on one website, its easy to share and look at others info, to learn about there type of digital communication! This was just one example of how to use Wiki, but there are many other ways, and reasons you could can use it. Wiki's are good for advertising and awareness, and sharing docs with businesses and organizations. So check Wiki"s out and see how you can use them in your life!

Digtial Communications to present Digital Communication

The type of digital communication that I am to present is Gmail. My first way to present this type of digital communication is my going on to that website itself. This way i can show you exactly how it works and what it looks like. This would probably be the most successful way of present the information. There are several other ways to also though. I could make a video of myself present the information on Gmail and upload it to You Tube, or Blip TV. This way, you can view it at any time and refer back to it when needed. I could also make a blog, and explain in words how to use Gmail. Another way to present Gmail using digital communication is to make a power point. I could explain everything you need to know about Gmail in a power point and also make it fun and creative using different effects, backgrounds, and pictures! I could also use Diigo to present Gmail. I could add it to one of my bookmarks and share it with all my friends. I could highlight key words and put post its for extra notes. This also a good way to get feedback, or if someone asks a question, they could post a sticky note and I can review it and get back to them. If someone needed a live presentation on how to use Gmail, but was far away from me, I could use Skype. They could give me a video call and I could give the presentation live through that. Or, also using Skype, I could have a conference call and walk a person through the steps of exploring and using Gmail! So as you can see there are several ways to present anything using digital communications!

Diigo

Diigo is a useful web tool that can be very help for students, businesses, and more. Diigo is basically a huge bookmarking website. It allows you to tag, and bookmark any website you would like. It comes with awesome features like highlights, post its, and offline usage. You can decided to keep your profile private, or share with all your friends. When using in a class room, student can use the highlight option to highlight key paragraphs, word, etc., to help better and make their research easier. That goes the same in businesses. You can share your page so that all your friends are able to see what you have highlights and make post its. Post its lets anyone post any comment, text, etc., on the page. You are able to see any of these post. You can bookmark all key websites for research which saves you from having to keep finding that website over and over can. Also, one of the cool features is that you can download the page, that way you can view it offline, when you maybe not have internet access. There are many ways Diigo can be used in classrooms and business and it all benefits you and makes your life easier when it comes to research!

Digital Communication

Digital communication is very helpful and modern. There is a small percentage of people who do not use digital communication on a daily basis. Types of digital communication include: text messages, email, Skype, social networks like Facebook or Myspace, and much more. These methods are easy ways to communicate with anybody you need to talk to. You can use these tools for business, organizations, advertising, talking, or just for fun! I myself actually use emails, text message, Skype and Facebook and I am so glad that I have them. I use text messages to talk to my friends and family quickly and while on the go. Text messages are good for use when you are not able to talk on the phone. I use emails to do projects for school and communicate with my teachers. I use Skype to video chat with one of my best friends Megan Price who moved away to Ohio last year. My favorite though is Facebook. It is really entertaining and informative. I can keep up with everything that is going on and express myself and have fun all at the same time! I believe everyone should use digital communication. Its modern, helpful, and very popular.