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"Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language."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.