Showing posts with label social networking and education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networking and education. Show all posts

Thursday, March 26, 2009

What about the Prez Virtual 'Town Hall'?

Webcasting interactive press conferences- are our expectations changing? Is this virtual Town Hall the White house as Gatekeeper and simply another staged performance or is it participatory Media and government by 'advocacy'?

Is it the same message or different way its put forward that makes it important?
Is it what President Obama says or are the nature of the questions asked more important because its the public asking the questions instead of the media?
Can they discern the central interests of the public via questions posed on the internet?
Is it a 'sense' of participation or is it true participation?
What does the internet offer that network television doesn't? Is this 'transparency' in government?
Does the president risk overexposure?
Based on the Network television election coverage can you make comparisons to our discussion this week on Web 1.0 vs. 2.0?

What can we learn from this online virtual Town Hall experience? Is learning more interactive this way and how can we convert this experience to our own practice as educators?

Watch it on http://www.whitehouse.gov/ and lets hear from you!

Friday, February 27, 2009

TC Digital Media Blog

Teachers College Digital Media in the Classroom MSTU5814.001

A broadened spectrum of digital learning technologies brings along new possibilities for education across cultural boundaries.

If social networking spaces such as facebook, Second Life, G-Chat, IM, Twitter, and YouTube, alongside handheld devices, cell phones, text messaging, email and voice mail -- have become an integral part of the lives of young people looking for new ways to engage in online digital sociability, how can education tap into that collective? New studies on Internet and social media tools reveal their affinity for mobile, untethered and social opportunities for interaction and cite their current uses to communicate, gather and share information.

Our first week's questions to respond to, from your own experience and the readings provided:

Mark Prensky writing in Digital Natives, Digital Narratives articles comments on students as opposed to those teaching them:
"Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language."

— 1. How can we re-envision the educational potential which exists in the burgeoning number of social networks – the new media of interconnectedness? What role, if any do they play in education?

— 2. What has been the wider social, educational, cultural, and political impact of these new media for inter-connectedness?

We will experiment with social networking tools and learn to locate specific audiences in order to critically experience and discuss the possibilities and limitations for personal use and within an educational setting.

Short post on ‘Why Social Networks are good for the kids:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/24/why-social-networks-are-good-for-the-kids/


Final Assignment:

Students are being asked to

1. Join a blogging network such as blogger, set up a blogsite and post your thoughts and experiences there. Students are required to post a minimum of three posts per week on your personal/professional blog.

2. You will receive an invitation to join this blog. Discussions will be shared on this site and students are required to post responses to questions (provided by the instructors) here.

All one-credit students will complete a project or design a blogsite describing a plan for incorporating digital media and/or social media into school curriculum. The setting for the project might be the school the student actually teaches in, or a hypothetical school situation and you may use your blog site to create and promote this assignment. These descriptions should be informed by readings and class discussions, and should provide a rationale for using media in the classroom, a description of the media to be used, and a discussion of how these media would fit into a school setting. Projects will be due after the workshop date of April 25th, on Sunday May 3rd by midnight.