Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!

At this point I am well on my way to becoming fully immersed into the Web 2.0 world.  I feel like I eat, sleep and constantly think "Web 2.0."  The newest addition to my tools is my Google Reader account.  A tool that brings the newest of the new Web to my fingertips!  I love it!  I have begun following a number of blogs lately and this morning I found an interesting article by Dave Saltman.

Originally I was attracted by the title Turning Digital Natives into Digital Citizens, because I have recently wrapped by head around Prensky's idea of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants (as cited in Kist, 2010).  Unfortunately, I have not heard a lot about Digital Citizens.

Saltman starts out by saying that "[Digital] natives can run wild, using the Internet to plagiarize others' work or bully peers using social media."  The image of users running wild put this image into my head:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3544/3435323978_360cf32d57.jpg

Basically, "Let the wild rumpus begin!" (Sendak, 1988).  Not exactly what I want to see happening in the classroom.

Once I looked into the idea more I realized that Digital Citizenship is a very important aspect of Web 2.0.  We teach students to respect one another and each others' property in the classroom so why not teach them about "intellectual property rights" (Saltman, 2011)?

Students may already have basic (or advanced) knowledge of the tools that we want them to use but may not be aware of how they should be using materials online to support the tools.

That is where teachers have to step in and provide students with the knowledge that they need to become responsible digital citizens both in and out of the classroom.

Now to figure out ways to incorporate digital citizenship education into a primary classroom...

References:

Kist, W. (2010). The socially networked classroom, teaching in the new media age.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Sendak, M. (1988). Where the wild things are. Harper Collins.

Embarking on Web 2.0

Ever since reading William Kist's The Socially Networked Classroom, I have had to learn a whole new language -- Diigo, Delicious (and I don't mean in terms of food), blogosphere, hashtags, Ning, Jing (or am I just spelling it wrong?) Moodle, Prezi, Voicethread...shall I continue?  It turns out I just may be technologically illiterate!

 Wait now! I use technology all the time! How did I become technologically illiterate??

I didn't even realize that I was technologically illiterate until I first began reading the book.  To be honest I started reading the book (and in turn, writing this blog) because I began studying for my masters. First course on the agenda - Exploration of Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers (web two point what??).

Step 1 - open up Wikipedia and search “Web 2.0.” "The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, collaboration and on the World Wide Web" (Wikipedia, 2011). Well...I get the general idea that it has to do with computers, collaboration and the web, but other than that I am at a loss.

So, here I am, a third year second grade teacher, exploring the world of Web 2.0 tools and how they relate to my personal and professional life. I have a feeling that this is going to be a whirlwind semester with a very steep learning curve! Luckily, I am up for a challenge and I am excited to find new tools to put into my teacher tool belt.

A little bit of background...

I was born and raised in Fort McMurray, Alberta.  I grew up with all kinds of technology around me, from video games (Atari, Nintendo, etc.) to personal music devices to personal computers.  Computer technology, especially, has always intrigued me, and I could never learn enough or fast enough when it came to learning the ins and outs of computer programs.  I started out using computers by entering commands into Dos and have slowly migrated into a full-blown Apple supporter.  On a daily basis I use everything from my iPhone, to my iMac (and every Apple technology in between).  You could say that I have a bit of a technology addiction seeing as one of the first things that I do in the morning is check my e-mail, news, Facebook, course Moodle site, etc.  Then I re-check throughout the day and finally one last time before heading to bed.

Currently, I am in my third year of teaching at a K-6 school in Fort McMurray, Alberta, which coincidently, is the same school that I attended as a student!  I have been integrating some technology into the classroom over the past couple of years including typing skills, curriculum related games and Google Apps (E-mail, documents, sites, etc.).  This past year, our school purchased a mobile Netbook lab, which I have been using with my students (and hope to use for blogging in the near future) and I am fortunate enough this year to have a Promethean Board, which I am just learning the benefits of!

I will share a bit more about myself through my Autobiography of a Tech User (an assignment for my Web 2.0 course) that I created using Prezi. I really enjoyed creating the Prezi and found that it was a very user-friendly tool that I would love to experience more!  I hope you enjoy!

The Journey Through a Tech Users Life on Prezi

Well, that about sums my technological life up in a nutshell.  This is me:

(and my baby girl, Bella!)

and with a very nervous click on that scary orange publish button…

I guess I am now officially a part of the Web 2.0 world!

References:

Kist, W. (2010). The socially networked classroom, teaching in the new media age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.