My name is Teresa Thorpe and I am a proud mother of eighteen year old twins (boy/girl). I am a resident of southwest Missouri, transplanted from the Washington DC area five years ago. Although Washington DC is an extremely exciting location to live, Missouri is a breath of fresher, less rude air and I enjoy living here. I was divorced and came to Missouri because my mother was gracious enough to open her home to me and my children. It's hard to tell what would have happened had she not been so kind, but we are now acclimated to the mid-west and faring well in our own home.
I am attending Ashford University online in an effort to better my financial situation. I am thrilled to be back in school and part of this group. I have finished my undergraduate studies, and I am now pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology. I have really been impressed by the school curriculum and general student support. When I had 2 more classes remaining to finish my BA in Organizational Management, I decided to take my last two electives at a Master's level on the SmartTrak program to get a good jump on my upcoming classes. I can't believe I have only 3 more classes to go!
I work in a large financial organization which has ongoing training for new hires. I was very pleased with the excellence of the company's training programs during my five week training course, and am currently pursuing experience within that department through my company's career path program. Previously, I obtained an Associates' degree from The American University in DC, but this degree in itself has not been enough to make an appreciable dent in my salary level. I have taken several previous courses in Psychology/Sociology and found that I do very well in these subjects. One of my main strengths is my ability to interact with people well on a very personable level, therefore most of the positions I have held in my career have largely entailed public contact (public relations, professional services, reporting, case management, etc.) I thought a Bachelors degree in Organizational Management (Human Resources/Training) and a Master of Arts degree in Teaching and Learning with Technology would be a logical tie in to my career background and to my personality type. I am looking forward to learning the newest techniques in learning/teaching technologies.
I work in a large financial organization which has ongoing training for new hires. I was very pleased with the excellence of the company's training programs during my five week training course, and am currently pursuing experience within that department through my company's career path program. Previously, I obtained an Associates' degree from The American University in DC, but this degree in itself has not been enough to make an appreciable dent in my salary level. I have taken several previous courses in Psychology/Sociology and found that I do very well in these subjects. One of my main strengths is my ability to interact with people well on a very personable level, therefore most of the positions I have held in my career have largely entailed public contact (public relations, professional services, reporting, case management, etc.) I thought a Bachelors degree in Organizational Management (Human Resources/Training) and a Master of Arts degree in Teaching and Learning with Technology would be a logical tie in to my career background and to my personality type. I am looking forward to learning the newest techniques in learning/teaching technologies.
I am of Native American descent, Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, and would ultimately like to stream the business knowledge I gain from this degree program into a position in Native American Affairs, possibly the Congress Of American Indians or the Bureau of Indian Affairs in DC to assist in the betterment of the First Americans.
What is your story?
This week was focused on the use of Facebook as a collaborative learning tool and privacy issues concerned with teacher and student use. We reviewed a newspaper article, Schaffhauser, D. (2008). Suspended Teacher in Facebook Incident Ignites Debate: Should Online Privacy for Educators Exist? The Journal. http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23611.
ReplyDeleteMY POST: My initial reaction to the issues of privacy on Facebook revolves around freedom of speech and expression. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law....abridging (limiting) the freedom of speech or of the press...” (Lincoln University, Criminal Justice, 2011). Freedom of speech is the liberty to speak openly without fear of government restraint. In the United States, both the freedom of speech and freedom of press are commonly called freedom of expression. If the teacher concerned mentioned (in an unfortunate choice of words) her opinion regarding the school in which she taught and believed the disclosure to be private, then the discipline of suspending her from her teaching position would appear to be a violation of her First Amendment rights. The remark, "I am teaching in the most ghetto school in Charlotte" is neither obscene or pointed at anyone in general, it is just a gross generalized opinion. Furthermore, the article stated that the parties responsible for revealing her regrettable remark did misrepresent themselves, posing as staff members of the teachers school district. This was a deceitful, entrapping way for the television news staff to gain and then reveal this information.
Many of us vent our feelings on social networking sites as that seems to be what they were designed for. It is almost as if the nightmarish character, “Big Brother” (is watching you) of George Orwell's futuristic 1949 novel, 1984, could develop into a reality if this type of reprimand as a result of a private comment becomes acceptable. It may be that regulation regarding appropriate Internet use by educational professional will have to be decided on by state and local governments to ascertain appropriate professional Internet etiquette on the part of educators. Teachers serve an integral role in their influence on young minds, so it would be appropriate there be some division in their personal and professional profiles which may appear on the Internet. The schools should develop a clear policy regarding an instructor’s behavior on the Internet in a professional capacity, but they should not be penalized after the fact if there is no policy in place or when a statement is made on a setting was believed to be private. Educators should be instructed on the issues surrounding remarks made on the Internet and be advised on how to make sure these kinds of sites (Facebook) are secured as private. Students could also be included in the education of appropriate Internet behavior. There are many websites specific to various professions where a person could develop an online profile for business purposes which would separate their private profiles on vehicles like Facebook. The Internet is a relatively brave new world that is in need of some sort of (gentle) regulation to make it a healthy, safe place for people to conduct their social networking and in private if they so choose. It would be wrong to attempt controlling free expression for either teacher or student on private profiles. My question to the class is whether this kind of privacy concern should be extended to all professionals, doctors, lawyers, corporate management, etc.? Finally, where will it end?
But I learned from other posts on our online college website (who are teachers) that this is considered unacceptable behavior for a teacher as it reveals the economic status of the students and all instructors need to take responsibility of all online content they post.
We also explored apps for Facebook and how they could be incorporated into an instructional setting.
This blog was a required assignment for my class "Collaboration & Learning in a Virtual Environment" for by MA in Teaching & Learning with Technology. This is week 2 of the course in which we explored the pitfalls of using wikis as a collaborative learning tool and also to share with our class (via our online discussion posts) three tentative wiki projects we would have a class work on together. These three projects needed to include a knowledge construction, critical thinking and contextual application wiki. We studied the various aspects of these three kinds of wikis in our two texts, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms", & "Using Wikis for Online Collaboration". We also created our own blog site (this site, created a Twitter account, and created a wiki site with PBWorks.com. This wiki is to be one of the three outlined in this weeks post and developed over the next two weeks. I am glad to be studying these applications as I do not have any experiences with using Twitter or wikis as a social networking learning tool.
ReplyDeleteApril 10, 2011 6:03 PM
This week in the class for Collaboration & Learning we focused on working with Facebook and PB Works group list building. This is definitely new territory for me and I can really use the exposure. We compared LMS and social networking apps and considered whether the LMS (or eCollege/Moodle) could be replaced by the utilization of Facebook/PBWorks wiki. I think LMS systems are better designed to handle the security and control issues that arise when using social networking systems, although I think wikis are better for collaborative learning then Facebook. We were also requested to read, "Minds on Fire, Open Source, and Learning 2.0" by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler and write a 2-5 page critical thinking paper. I have not completed the assignment yet and will post comment when I do. Sorry, comment above was posted with my sons ID so I reposted.
ReplyDeleteApril 21, 2011 5:20 PM
Sorry about the mixed order of the posts. I had to repost them to get them all to appear on the front page.
ReplyDeleteLink to recent article for EDU_651 class: Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-12-03-digital-brain_N.htm.
21st Century Learning Styles and Mobile Technologies (Dede, Chris)
ReplyDeletehttp://community.cue.org/forum/topics/904677:Topic:639?page=1&commentId=904677%3AComment%3A8134&x=1#904677Comment8134
Elliot, B. (2009). E-Pedagogy: Does e-learning require a new approach to teaching and learning? Retrieved April 24, 2009 from www.scribd.com/doc/932164/E-Pedagogy.
Prensky, M. (2001). Do they really think differently? Retrieved March 18, 2009
from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf
This week has been a hectic one in my EDU651 class. We have all created social networking accounts for this Blogger, Twitter, Facebook learning groups, Delicious bookmarking and PBWorks wiki. It was tedious to get everyone networked, but in overview the exercises have been beneficial in understanding the potential of social learning on Web 2.0.
ReplyDeleteWe also reviewed the article posted above, "Scientists ask: Is technology rewiring our brains?" I say yes because it seems that our brains have been adapting to our environment since the dawn of mankind and will continue to evolve in reaction to any major changes to our society, which technical advances certainly qualify. We are more visual as a result and interactive in our approach to education. While there are negative aspects to any kind of major change (mainly resistance to change) I believe there are more positive aspects than negative, as it is all in the way that an individual utilizes the new advances.
We also were required to write a mock letter to an administrator or principal, advocating the use a one of these social networking tools. We were also required to write a short analysis on micro-blogging.
This is the last week of EDU651 - it was difficult to coordinate all the networking required for the six social networking accounts required during this course - this blog, PBWorks wiki, Twitter, Facebook educational group and Delicious bookmarking. I have to say that the experience has enabled me to know my fellow classmates at a more personal level than with any of my previous online courses.
ReplyDeleteWe were also required to write a paper on Piaget developmental theory and whether we believed today's educational system is monolithic. I think we are becoming aware of the need for change and have begun to apply this in practice, although schools are bogged down by standardized testing. The real issue is the reluctance to change a long standing institution but this issue will have to be addressed as we cannot teach our children to be prepared for the future without asserting progressive 21st century learning techniques.
We also wrote a paper reflecting on the class experience and areas studies.