We started in light-speed this morning; everyone was ready to work on their "wagon train to the stars". Robin brought in several flip cameras from her school; Cathy wanted help pasting from Word into Weebly; and, Carrie's log disappeared in another example of gone-too-easily tech (Robin's MovieMaker transitions). Carrie showed us how to upload videos to her blog using Firefox, which we've determined to preferrable to Internet Explorer. Matt and Robin shared their personal experiences during the evolution of the computer: "tape" and "card" management provided college jobs for both of them. Vivid demonstrations of returning a type writer arm gave way to laughs about receiving thirty free emails a week from an early service provider called Prodigy. As well, Casey described the progression of music from albums to eight-tracks, to cassettes, to CDs, to today's digital, iTunes-era.
Next, our discussion of Jonathan Ostenson's article "Skeptics on the Internet: Teaching Students to Read Critically," and Kristen Hawley Turner's "Flipping the Switch: Code-Switching from Text Speak to Standard English" further illustrated Casey's analysis of browsers as "lenses to the web". Each article reflected this need to recognize differences in the world whether objective vs. biased Internet resources, or colloquial vs. formal language. Robin highlighted the Wheeler and Swords quote, "we should embrace students' existing knowledge, and teach they to negotiate the technology-driven discourse within the confines of school language" (qtd. in Turner, par. 8). Matt continued, "Think of the challenges of code-switching as opportunities" for us to invite students to reflect on themselves as writers, creators of messages and meaning.
Later in the day, Casey Kirk shared several tools to obtain, organize, and share professional resources: delicious, an "electronic filing cabinet" of book marked e-articles and interesting web pages; Google Reader, a "butterfly net" to catch updates to all your favorite websites; and, Twitter, a 140-character dose of personal (ie: "Got the perfect gift for Tim!") or professional updates (ie: reading recommendations). We all decided that each of these tools is only as good as "who is in your network" / what you choose to do with it.
We were all taken to the "next generation" of digital technology, gaming, and, apparently, consciousness... "Augmented Reality". Casey Kirk mystified the group with a YouTube video on a mobile phone, zombie game that revolves around augmented reality and...Skittles.
After lunch, we each enjoyed time to work on our own "demo" projects that will be shared tomorrow, and learned about Google Analytics, which will allow us to monitor when and where people visit our blog or website. To wrap up the day, we viewed "A Vision of Students Today" and "Did You Know?", two clips that reminded us about our ultimate purpose in the classroom, the responsibility we have to challenge and respect our students in preparation for the expectations they must meet in the future.
If, just if, we were each Star Trek characters...
Alena = B'Elanna Torres (Star Trek: Voyager)
Carrie = Dr. Beverly Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Casey = James T. Kirk (Star Trek)
Cathy = Sub-Commander T'Pol (Star Trek: Enterprise)
Matt = Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Robin = Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Star Trek:Voyager)