New Media

I, for one, am fascinated by the possibilities of technology. I spend way too much time a lot of time surfing the internet for information about the latest trends, as they apply to education. And also, as they apply to making life easier and more interesting. My “Totally Tech” elective is going to be discussing the topic of New Media, so here’s a little cross-post from our class wiki:

“Recently we have begun a discussion of New Media. What is it, and why do we care? Well, our class did some research on what it means, and the consensus was that:

“New Media is any kind of digital, interactive way of getting and producing information.”

Some of the examples that we listed were:

Youtube
Facebook
Twitter
Myspace
Blogs
So, why should we care about this? Well, the way people receive information is rapidly changing from even the way our parents did. For example, when your parents were your age, they may have watched the news or read the newspaper to find out about current events. For today’s students, there are countless options available through the use of technology. Sure, you can still watch the news or (gasp!) read the paper, but you can also have your RSS feed reader send you automatic updates from MSNBC.com, or use your iphone Twitter app to check updates from your “following” list, which may include our new president. If you just said “huh?”, don’t feel bad. Technology changes so rapidly it is hard to keep up! Check out this link to one of my favorite blogs for another way phone and internet users are changing the way we get our news.”

My recent pesonal example of this was the CNN/Facebook live Inauguration “party” (although I doubt that’s what CNN would call it). Basically, if you went to http://www.cnn.com on Inauguration Day, and logged into your Facebook account, you could stream the video of the ceremony and comment about it with other users (hmm… I wonder how many people signed up for an account that day just so they could comment…clever marketing, Facebook!) It was very interesting to watch the Inauguration from this perspective. And one of the most interesting things that happened to me that day was that the news about Ted Kennedy broke on the live chat BEFORE it even appeared on the television news! For a person who is on the verge between being a Digital Native and a Digital Immigrant, this was COOL! You see, in my classroom I had both the TV and the live CNN stream on the computer going at once. There was a bit of a lag in the online stream, but not much. However, I suddenly started seeing user comments wishing Ted Kennedy good luck, and things like “I hope he’s okay,” and so I turned to the TV and started flipping channels so I could figure out what they were talking about. NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, etc. had nothing about this. I did a quick Google News search on Ted Kennedy. Nothing. Comments were flooding in to Facebook. About twenty minutes later, the NBC news reporter mentioned something about it on TV. So, somehow, the online community learned this news before the television news media got a hold of it. That’s pretty interesting, and I think this is only the beginning.

We are the creators of our news. Just watch and see.

Bleh

It’s that time of year again… the doldrum days after Christmas. At least on the 26th you can joke around and say “Merry Day After Christmas!” and it’s mildly funny (okay, maybe not). But when you hit the 27, 28th, 29th… it’s just sad.

I had a fairly good Christmas this year, relatively speaking. There is quite a bit of personal turmoil going on in my life, but at least for a few moments I was able to experience the joy of the season. One of the highlights for me was the candlelight mass at the church where I work. After communion, they turned out all the lights, and we all lit our candles, and sang “O Holy Night” and “Silent Night.” The beautiful setting, the glow of the candles, looking around the church at the sea of lights and hearing one of my favorite songs… it was pure magic. I think that was my Christmas “moment” this year. You know when you think back to Christmases past, the memories that stand out in your mind? Those are your Christmas “moments,” the things that make it really special for you. (Note to self: Start keeping track of these moments; maybe I can gather enough of them and create the ultimate Christmas including every one…)

And then Christmas day is over, and the magic starts to fade. At least it’s not as bad for me this year as in previous years. I don’t know if it’s having two active children keeping me busy that keeps my mind off of it, or if I just wasn’t expecting that much out of this Christmas, so having a good one was enough to sustain me for a few extra days.

Each year, I wonder why this happens. Why do we feel so bad? Do other people feel this way, too? I’m sure they must. I can’t think of any other time of year filled with so much anticipation- and I guess all that buildup has to turn into letdown when the buildup is over. I feel like we are at the bottom of a hill on a great roller coaster. Right now, we are kinda stuck in a valley. We need to do something fun to start pushing us up the hill, or we’ll never get enough momentum to get us through the dull, dreary days of January and February.

Merry day after day after day after Christmas!

Yep, sad.

Finding a niche...

Blogging is becoming so cliche. Like I said, EVERYBODY seems to have a blog. So the conundrum is, what do I blog about that is different from everybody else? How do I stand out from the crowd?

I’ve found blogs about how to start your own blog, (redundancy, anyone?) and, basically the advice is to go with what you know. To pick a topic that you are interested in, or know a lot about; hopefully both!

So, since at this point I am basically talking to myself, seeing as I seem to have no readers, I’m going to use this post as a little stream of conscious recording device to consider all the topics I could potentially discuss with some semblance of authority.

Hmm… I have kids…crazy kids…kids who drive me crazy…work full time AND attempt to raise said crazy kids without going completely crazy…volunteer on my homeowner’s board of directors…who keep raising our HOA fees…but I digress…volunteer as a Girl Scout leader…wow, is that a lot harder than i thought it would be…hmm…my job…i’m a computer teacher…and i fix the computers…unless i don’t know how to fix something and then somebody with more money to pay for graduate classes training fixes it…i also write curriculum and wish there were more hours in the day to teach the kids all the cool things there are out there on the internet and plan and grade papers and upkeep the website and teach and fix and search for lesson plan ideas and put up bulletin boards…okay enough about my job…how about hobbies…i’m a wannabe amateur photographer with no time to perfect my photography skills and no willing subjects…my kids run every time they see me with the camera…i also love scrapbooking…and i swear if there is ever a fire in my house i will instruct my husband to get the kids out and i will go get the scrapbooks.

wow, my life in a nutshell. pretty crazy, I know. I will revisit this post and decide on something…

in the meantime, i’m going to have my students help me with an experiment. My hypothesis? That there is a blog about almost any subject they can think of. Oh, do I have any hope of being original? I don’t know. But I’ll see if I can get them to post their results here and test my hypothesis.

Cool Links

First of all, let me just say that I could. not. live. without Delicious.com. I love any thing that makes it easier for me to remember things. Every time I find a webpage that I want to remember, I just pop it in my delicious links and it’s so easy to find, whether I’m at work or at home. I love the tagging feature- it’s kind of like a virtual file cabinet, putting all my links into neat little boxes of related items.

So, here are some of the websites that I have added to my delicious links lately:

1. coverleaf.com - I am a magazine ripper. I confess! I rip pages out of magazines like I am actually going to read them again, and store them in little folders, which are now overflowing with scraps of paper that I never read. In an effort to save trees and clean up some of the clutter in my life, coverleaf.com provides a virtual magazine ripper! you sign up for an online subscription (free if you already get the print version) to any magazines you want, and then choose the pages you want to “rip” and save in your “My Stuff” folder. Genius!

2. PBS Parents (www.pbs.org/parents) - Lots of info about all kinds of kid-related topics, from how to improve your childrens’ manners at the dinner table to games and recipes for every season and holiday.

3. The Week in Rap (www.theweekinrap.com) - The news from the past week… in Rap! (What did you expect?)

4. Blurb.com - Make your own books! About anything you want! A completely custom made book with your own pictures and text starts at about $13! That is so cool!

that’s all for now- more to come as I find more cool stuff…

Meta- Blog

It’s kinda funny, this blogging phenomenon. Everyone and their brother seems to have a blog on the web about some random thing. I’ve been trying out different blog sites for personal and professional use and have been reading other blogs for ideas and inspiration. I have found blogs on everything… and some that seem to be about nothing.

Some funny ones: www.passiveaggressivenotes.com (a collection of, well, notes, that people have photographed and sent in). Also www.benandbirdy.blogspot.com (a heartwarming and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny account of the trials and tribulations of motherhood and family life).

There are so many blogs out there in cyberspace, it makes me wonder… who reads all that? Who really cares? Why am I posting here if there is so much blah blah blah on the web that there is no way it can all ever be read?

I guess the answer is, that we all want to be heard. We all want to feel that our opinions matter to someone. Even if no one ever reads my blog, at least I was brave enough to put my thoughts out there for all (or some) to see. At least I got it off my chest, even if no one is really listening.

Is anyone listening…?

Discovery Education Maryland Leadership Committee...

I’ve had this blog just sitting here in its “Hello World” state for so long! But I just have to blog about last night, and anyone in education would understand my level of excitement. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Laura Pilker, and I am a Tech Coordinator/Computer Teacher at a small private school called Trinity Lutheran, in a small town called Joppa, in Harford County, Maryland.

Now, imagine me, small town girl, squeezed between Hall Davidson and Kathy Schrock in the back of Matt Monjan’s SUV, after having dinner with them, Scott Kinney, and other prospective members of the Maryland DEN Leadership Committee. Oh, and beating Kathy Schrock in Bocce Ball. (sorry, Kathy! lol)

Can you say surreal? I felt like a fangirl at a rock concert! Well, seriously, it was really cool meeting them- I have admired their work and seen them give keynotes and workshops and webinars… and I couldn’t help but be excited. It was a fun evening, and I look forward to working with everyone in the future.

If you have somehow stumbled upon this, I hope for you to hear more from me in the future- we are in the process of setting up a Maryland DEN LC, so when you look at the state pages on the side of the DEN homepage, we will put Maryland on the map soon! If you are from MD, send a comment my way! I love to hear from other educators near me and look forward to many more networking opportunities in the future.

I just might challenge YOU to a game of Bocce!

-Laura

i'm going to cross post from my discovery education blog...

at least this blog will not be sitting here empty!