still mad at the little punk.

Lets start with a story for this weeks post:

My grandparents basement is one of those old basements that feels so cozy and comfortable that you almost can't leave before eating milk and cookies. The light psudo-shag carpet, the old broken in couches (in which have hosted more grandchildren naps per square foot than any bed, in any house), and the old wood-paneled walls that seem to be held together by the old family photos from all twenty-one of my mother's cousins.
Here I sit, on the three-cushioned couch against the wall adjacent to the TV with my nine year old little cousin getting my tail kicked in some new Xbox360 game that he brought over. As my frustration grows because I am literally getting murdered over and over by a nine year old, I begin trying to formulate a plan to put the little cocky pretween in his place.
Finally it hits me. My old fat, original PlayStation 2 is in the closet from when I was his age. I hoped it still worked as I challenged him to a match in TimeSplitters. A game I was master of years before. To my enjoyment I proceed to win the first round. Just as I started to get excited my screen turns red. The little punk got me. Then he got me again. and again.
I'm not going to continue with the details of my embarrassment of getting beating at my own game not only once- but ten times in a row. When I was nine, it took me hours of frustration to achieve what he did in minutes. 

 I'm getting frustrated talking about it, so here my friends, is where the story ends and the point begins.

Times are a-changin. Children are so insanely intuitive to technology that it is almost becoming instinct on how to work them. How to manipulate machines to work exactly the way they want them too, and problem solve faster than we ever thought possible. In fact, many children have cell phones ten years before any of us did. Not only cell phones- but iPhones and Galaxies, and devices that are inconceivably more powerful computers than my family desktop when I was that age.
Harnessing this technology is essential to teaching children. As educators we need to understand this technology and make ourselves keep up on what is going on in their world. If we don't we will be deemed obsolete by our students. Because it will be instinctive to them, we must force ourselves to learn as fast as they do and become so familiar with the technology that we can show them a thing or two without them laughing and dancing circles around us. We are facing a challenge that has been faced by educators since technology itself was born, but never has the gap between teachers and students grown at such an alarming rate, and unfortunately for us- if we don't close that gap- we will be obsolete.

Technology is power.

Powerpoint in the classroom

Powerpoint - the most overused and overrated piece of technology in our classroom.

There are plenty of good and correct uses to Powerpoint in the classroom, but unfortunately there are more bad examples than good. Powerpoint users have a tendency to use PP as a presentation crutch, they create the powerpoint and read directly off of it during their presentation, barely noticing that the audience is even present. In doing so, they alienate the listener and forget to include them in the discussion.
Powerpoint needs to be an addition to a presentation- not the entire thing. Each slide needs to be straight to the point using a small amount of information, mainly topics pictures and examples. The presenter needs to present the topics in their entirety, engaging the audience and showing them that they are important.
Another major misuse of powerpoint is using the animations, colors, and features to distract the audience from the fact that the presenter doesn't know enough about their own topic. Cluttering PP with colors and animations can confuse and actually make the information LESS presentable.
Presentations should be easy on the eyes and the use of animations limited to emphasizing important details.

These tips are important not only to students presenting in the classroom- but to teachers as well. Don't distract your students with the presentation- include them, talk with them, and present in an effective manner.

9/10/13 Word

When I was a sophomore in HS a really beautiful senior asked me if I would help with the school newspaper. My answer was obvious.

This began a journey through Microsoft Word that I will never forget. Since my high school refused to buy us a program for our school newspaper, I began to work with word. Dividing columns and pictures, creating and destroying, editing and scrubbing. I worked every lunch period and every study hall whenever we had enough articles to put a paper out (I went to a very small high school, if everyone didn't write, we didn't have a paper). I got so proficient in that version of Word that I was teaching my teachers how to make the documents that exceeded the limits they has assumed upon Word.

This teaches us a few things.

1) Almost any basic document can be created in any of the Microsoft programs- but picking the right one is crucial for efficiency.
2) All of these programs are about sheer experience. There are lots of tricks and shortcuts and the way to learn them is to run into the situation where you need to be able to create a document with speed (ie: to get to lunch)
and of course
3) A beautiful senior can get a sophomore to do damn near anything. 

9/9/13 Social media

Social media has had a huge impact on my generation. It began for me with AIM in middle school. It allowed me to connect with all of my classmates and family on a whole new level, being a very social person- I connected to this immediately. I began to develop a network of people that I could contact at nearly a moments notice for all sorts of purposes.  
The next phase was Myspace. This changed the way I looked at the internet. Not only was it a place to communicate, it became a place to show people what happened in my life and to express my teenage emotions. This was good and bad for my generation. It was like the internet 2.0 for social media. Suddenly it wasn't just communication anymore, everything was two way and public. Good in the fact that we could now connect to peers on a whole new level. Bad for our futures.
Facebook came next and is still the current winner in my book. I connect to old friends, chat, and procrastinate with this tool.  I have had entire classes held using almost only Facebook. It is a big part of my life and will continue to be.

But what I really want to talk about is the implications of these tools. Myspace in particular. My generation was told as youngsters "be careful what you put on the internet". This didn't even begin to describe the gravity of the situation. For me- it meant "be careful your parents might catch you cursing or holding a beer can."  NOT "Be careful because anything you post on the internet could follow you forever and possibly ruin many choices and possibilities later in life." Not that I necessarily would have cared at the ripe age of 13- because god knows I was invincible.
Sure there are some embarrassing posts in my past- probably nothing anyone would ever truly care about. But my point is anonymity is dead and the internet is forever. No matter how hard I try to delete this blog post- someone somewhere has the time and resources to recover it. Especially the monster companies like Myspace and Facebook- they store EVERYTHING. Even Siri on my phone stores everything I ask her. Internet searches aren't even anonymous.
I think politics will take the blunt of this. Anyone from the Myspace generation will suddenly have old posts, pictures, and comments popping up all over- possibly ruining their credibility.


Like I said. Remember, and grind it deep into your children's minds-  Anonymity is dead, and the internet is forever.