Action Research Activity

Let me begin by saying that I am extremely confused as to which direction I am supposed to take at this point. I was taking this class in July when I had family issues that caused me to not be able to complete the month. It seems that they have revamped the EDMDT program and I am caught in the middle. I began in April and have been working on a thesis paper and project. I am unsure at this point if I've got to change my direction or not. Having said this, I am going to explain what I chose as my thesis topic, why I chose it and how I am implementing my project.

The topic I have chosen for my thesis is the following: Problem: the lack of funds and opportunities for my students to take field trips, Solution: Take students on virtual fieldtrips using Second Life. I am very excited about this chance to explore this new trend in education. I am looking into the Teen Second Life site, as well and comparing the two to see which has more sites that meet my personal needs as an educator.

My thesis relates to the EMDTMS program in several ways. First, it’s obviously related to educational technology and media. This program stresses using new technologies in new ways and this is a scary and sometimes inconceivable idea to a lot of people. I am totally sold on using virtual worlds to educate, but I am afraid getting permission to explore such avenues will be met with resistance.

During the short time I have explored Second Life, I have seen so many interesting ways people have used the technology available. I also feel it lends itself to the student’s natural curiosity and game loving mentality. It would almost be as if they were simply playing and not learning, it’s that engaging.

I feel educators and parents, as well, would be interested in reading my thesis paper. It will hopefully open some minds to new ways of approaching education and how we deliver content to our students in this fast paced world. One goal would definitely be towards answering any questions and easing worried minds of their children being exposed to an online virtual world. That would be the biggest hurdle, in my opinion to being able to move forward with my goal of incorporating Second Life into my curriculum.

In regards to the final media project, I plan on filming an example of a virtual field trip and show how a teacher could simply present a filmed adventure on Second Life or extend it to using actual students and send them on a scavenger hunt, quest type of adventure. Either choice can easily be filmed and presented in that format.

Social Networks

Social media is a hot topic with me. I am very interested in reading articles that dissect the audiences of social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. In this article from Penn State, I found it interesting how student populations are leaning towards one or the other, not due to age, but rather their social status. The author compares it to email, saying how it doesn’t really matter which email service you use, but it’s a big deal to be on the social network that your peers are on. I was under the impression that older people were on Facebook and younger people were on MySpace. Hmm…little did I know.

http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PennState2009.html

Ning is a different type of social network than sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Unlike just joining the site, you can join ning groups that you have common interests with. In fact, anyone can easily start their own ning group. Best of all, it’s free.

I am very involved in Second Life and I found several ning sites relating to this online game. I have included two of them here. There is also an article that tells more about the ning site and how fast it is growing.

http://secondlifeliving.ning.com/

http://slbuilders.ning.com/

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/social-media/ninety-new-ning-network-applications-nice-005507.php

Most social network sites allow you to update your status on your cellphone, including sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. I came across this article about a new social networking site that is strictly for cellphone use. I’m not sure if I like the idea of just connecting via cellphone. It takes away from the “social” part, in my opinion.

The last site I included in this blog also discusses the next generation social networking via the cellphone. What drew me to this article is the staggering numbers – both of online users to social networking sites and the money investors spend, in hopes of hitting the mark. “It’s a crap shot” pretty much sums it up.

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/socialtext-lets-you-collaborate-on-your-smartphone-005484.php

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1463

21st Century & Lifelong Learning

The research published by The McArthur Foundation in, “Living and Learning with New Media: Summary and Findings from the Digital Youth Project”, to be very informative.

http://www.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7BB0386CE3-8B29-4162-8098-E466FB856794%7D/DML_ETHNOG_WHITEPAPER.PDFI

I always considered everything my own kids did on the Internet was “messing around” – I liked how they divided activities kids utilize technology for into three distinctive areas.

I have two teenagers and they have both have had MySpace profiles for over two years. I found it ironic that they study found that most teenagers see adults who get involved in using MySpace or FaceBook as intruding, when it was my own kids who started my first profile on MySpace over two years ago. I think a child’s reaction to their parent becoming involved would depend on their relationship with them. As I said, my kids have encouraged me to have profiles on these social networks, but refuse to add their father as a friend on the same networks.

As a parent, it has become the norm at our house for both my kids, as well as myself to have our cell phones with us and to send and receive texts pretty constant throughout the day and night. It is not uncommon for my son to be on his PS3 playing online, talking to his friends as they play war games in one room and for my daughter or myself to be online on a social network at the same time. Multi-tasking has become a way of life, as I find myself to be online, on my home phone and to be receiving a text on my cell phone. If this constant “being in touch” has become “normal” for me, I can only imagine how it is second nature to young people today.

As a teacher, I am very frustrated at the lack of technology I have available to use in my classroom. I have one computer, a scan converter, a 32-inch TV, and a DVD player. In 2000, when I was teaching a technology class, I attended the Technology Convention in Savannah and they were pushing the newest advances in technology at the time, the Smartboards. That was close to a decade ago and we still have none in our schools to utilize. My students have more technology available in their own bedrooms to use than I do in my school. How can we possible teach kids using pencil and paper assignments and expect them to find these activities to be stimulating in the least?

I have witnessed my own children learn how design their social network profiles, learning shortcuts and tricks by learning from their friends or from experimenting on their own. It amazes me at how many teenagers have been rich from developing their own websites where they give copy and paste codes for backgrounds and “extras” for these social networks.

This year I have noticed a very big increase in our students who are posting videos on YouTube – having picked video editing up on their own by trial and error. Just last week, my boyfriend’s 8 year old daughter asked me to look up her friend’s video on YouTube. Of course she had help with this from her parents, but the child gave a great tutorial on fixing an after-school snack. This year, in addition to Power points, I have included YouTube videos as a choice for projects in my classes. The only problem I’ve encountered is that YouTube is blocked by our Firewall, so I have to bypass it to even be able to show the student’s presentation.

I am very excited about all of the programs I am becoming familiar with and I plan on incorporating them into my curriculum, as much as I can with what I have available. I know we have to catch up to our student’s knowledge in technology so that we can help them learn to utilize it in their education. Otherwise, we’re doing them a huge disservice. One student describes it best when they said, “when I go to school, I have to power down”.

http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/learning-20.html

The following video pretty much sums up the future of learning, in a funny, yet thought provoking way. It’s kind of scary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K04o2ic4g-A