RSS Page Reflection

Tammy Maginity

Due:  April 2, 2012

RSS Page Reflection Asst.

As soon as I learned this would be an assignment for this class, I knew I would be adding feeds that satisfy my desire to find more educators that are concerned with incorporating 21^st century skills into classes, as well as the subject matter.  Some of the feeds I have chosen seem to be better than others in meeting my desire and those that have, really have.  I find that clicking on the links within the articles themselves often yields more interesting information than the original article that appeared on the feed, and I have really had to restrict myself in this respect because I am taking a good deal of time going deeper in the feed and spending more time than I have available just reading good articles.  This is good for my professional development firstly, because it helps me be more confident as an educator.  Oftentimes, I feel quite alone in my quest to build 21^st century skills into my course curriculum.  Often, other faculty members don’t know what I really mean when I speak about 21^st century skills, and that is a bit discouraging at times.  I would like to be involved in some lively discussions about it more often.  The RSS feeds help.  Also, I hear new ideas and up to date information more quickly this way, which also helps to keep me abreast of what my students should know.  If education is trending in a particular direction for a particular reason, then students should be afforded exposure to the trends, as it will help them in the classroom and after graduation.  If they don’t learn a skill, they can’t use it to their benefit when they need it most.

The piece of knowledge that I gained from my feed, via “Wired Campus”, that had the most immediate impact on my world is that Blackboard just bought Moodlerooms.  Holy cow!  They are going to take over the world.  This impacts me because my college has a contract with Moodlerooms that begins in the Fall 2012 semester.  I would have eventually learned this news about Blackboard getting yet another company, but I feel “cool” that I learned it right when it happened.  It certainly made me nervous about our upcoming transition and I put in a call right away to our Instructional Technology Department.  They are nervous too! 

The information that has benefited me most as an educator is that which relates to the art of teaching itself.  In one article from the ISTE feed , I read Katie Stansberry’s ideas about how to help the “digital native” to really understand technology.  She indicates in her article that just because this generation of students has been exposed to technology all their lives, doesn’t mean they know how to use it critically.  She says assuming “digital natives” can do so is like assuming that just because a child can hold a pencil means she is a great writer.  Even though this wasn’t addressed specifically in the article, it taught me that our jobs as teachers have not changed much over the years.  I replied to this post indicating that I agreed with her thoughts on this matter and how it helped me realize that just because we have fancy accoutrements as educational tools, and just because our students aren’t afraid of technology, doesn’t mean our goals as teachers has changed at all.  Teachers need to get students prepared for what lies ahead.  It doesn’t matter what century it is, what our subject matter is, or if we meet students in person or not.  Teachers need to reach students with whatever means does the job.  It is the job of the teacher to know what the student needs and the job of the student to strive to attain the skills.  How is this different from the one room schoolhouse teacher’s job?  Whether she had a chalkboard writing tablet for each student or not, she had to lead them in the right direction.  All of our students may not have electronic tablets, and we also need to lead them in the right direction.

Another interesting article I read, that I am actually still ruminating about, was one related to cell phone use in the classroom.  I just realized this is also an article by Katie Stansberry…perhaps I should follow her on Twitter.  In this article she was speaking as to how she allows, and encourages, cell phone use in the classroom without restriction.  When I teach in the classroom, I do allow electronic devices when they are being used to locate pertinent information related to class.  I have even requested that a student or two look up something during a discussion for the benefit of our particular topic.  And, I have asked students to bring as many electronic, internet-capable devices to class as possible for a type of in-class study session.  But, I have not allowed the devices to be used at other times.  Stacy has no restrictions.  She indicates that distractions actually help students learn and she tends to call on students that are spending a good deal of class time on devices.  I’m not sure how I feel about this yet.  I do want to try it in the classroom, but I admit, I’d be a bit nervous about it.   Stacy doesn’t have me convinced yet, but I am definitely very curious about this technique.  Before I read her perspective on it, I probably wouldn’t have given it one moment of thought.  Sometimes students tend to self-regulate if they are in a class that meshes well and are involved in the subject matter.  This may help with some of the abusers of the allowance of electronic devices.  In my next campus class, I think I’m going to allow it.  But, I’m not that naïve.  I know some may sneak a text or two in during that time.

This RSS feed assignment will certainly impact the way I manage my classroom in the future.  I will incorporate some of the teaching theories, practical tips and methods for delivering material outright.  And, I may start an RSS feed for our classroom.  I’m thinking that I will have a day, near the very beginning of the semester, when we set up the RSS feed in class giving the students the ability to choose some of the feeds.  In my Comparative Religions course, we study 7 different groups of religions within 7 different units.  I will assign a reaction paper to students for each unit in which they will write on a topic they read about in the class RSS feed.  And, I think I will require them to find their own feeds to add to the class RSS page.  This will help build 21^st century skills in learning how to use technology, critically thinking about ancient religions in the modern world, as well as how to locate quality resources…no Wikipedia.  I am really excited about this! 

One element of the assignment that really didn’t appear in my use of the RSS page was the ability to track changes.  Of course I saw new articles if they appeared in my particular feeds…and some, like the American Academy of Religion that never even got a new feed the entire time, which really is not that surprising…but I was so involved in following particular feeds and the links within them that I didn’t really note any greater changes on the page.  I do know that I found many feeds very intriguing and was disappointed that I couldn’t just spend all day perusing.  Maybe as I use the RSS page over time, I’d be able to track broad changes, but I can’t say I really have yet.

In summary, I have grown to like the RSS page and I may even come to depend on it as time goes on.  It is certainly a rich source of educational trends, up to date news on technological developments and a valuable source of inspiration…teachers often need that.  It creates an added layer of community and can lead to additional branches on my Personal Learning Network tree.  I think the RSS page is certainly a teaching tool that I will access often.

Here are two screen shots on different days of my RSS page.

This is a screen shot of a reply to a blog from my RSS feed.

This is a screen shot of another blog reply from my RSS feed.

Social Networking

Well, up until now, social networking has not been a part of my life...at all.  But, I feel the wave of change flowing over me and I can definitely see the value in it.  So, I will give it a shot and begin to explore the wonderful world of networking via technology.  I have joined MACUL Space and LinkedIn and will build a Personal Learning Network using these wonderful spaces where people are openly sharing information in a quest to better themselves and the lives of their students. 

And, I do plan on incorporating social networking into my classes, both on campus and online.  Some social networking is available in our current LMS, but students are only required to participate in the discussion boards.  This is a good space, but I would like to develop this area of the online classes.  I am considering requiring participation on blogs, using Google Docs for assignments and requiring group presentations through some type of open source.  I think this is REALLY important, not for learning my topic, religion, specifically, but because it helps train our students in 21st century skills.  They will be expected to have basic technology skills as well as collaboration skills when they graduate and seek employment.  I think I do a disservice to them if I don't get them introduced to 21st century skills and at least dabbling in them.

I want to create blogs to record reactions to events relating to religion in our world.  There may be several categories, such as holy sites, holiday celebrations, religion in the news, getting to the bottom of religious conflict, and such.  Within these blogs, I'd like to run tweets that record the reaction as they happen.  Later, a more formal post can be placed on the blog itself.  Through an activity of this sort, I hope to encourage students to think critically about religion, while it is happening in real life.  I'm interested in blending learning with life as opposed to separating learning from regular life, which seems to be a natural consequence of our education system in the U.S.  If students have the ability to tweet while "experiencing" something related to our topic in class, then I want to capture that moment and intensify the learning and bring it to all members of the class.

Course Calendar

I want to make sure that you have access to the course calendar for this class at all times.  We will use a Google Calendar so that you can access the calendar from any mobile device and never have an excuse for missing a deadline.  :)

Traditional Web Pages vs. Blogs

Traditional web pages developed as a manifestation of the wonderful invention we affectionately know as "The Internet". They serve a myriad of purposes for regular people in society. I personally cannot fathom how we survived without them. Traditional web pages offer information at our finger tips that can make errands, shopping, and researching so much more accessible. In the beginning, was the word...I know may have plagiarized that from somewhere...and the word was just that...at flat word on a page, which really is wonderful. But then, someone thought that we need to not just receive wordy information, but to actually express our opinions about those words. Why? I think this is actually one of the most fascinating points of technology. Could it be that we would like to actually communicate with other people and form communities because, after all, we are social creatures, and as great as the written word is, it would suit us better if we could exchange words and interact with someone on the other side of the screen. So, in an attempt to recreate what we have worked so hard to avoid...human contact...we now have blogs. Blogs allow us to tell the writer of the words what we think about them, and this makes us feel better...we aren't alone in this room with the computer...there are others out there and communicating with them fulfills a basic human need. In a blog, we can exchange information as it is an interactive format instead of just words. The words on traditional web pages can compel us to react and we react by providing some words for others to read. And so, the words build upon each other and we get human interaction. It is great that we can now blend traditional web pages with blogging so that the information can still be given and those that would like to react with the other word writers can, while those that choose to remain alone in the room with the computer can be happy as well. It is the best of our one single world!