The App Generation

So as I have discovered, I am in fact part of this “App Generation” we read about. I do not remember a day without technology and computers. Out of those in my graduate class, I am the one most similar to our students when it comes to being a technology native. So let's take a look at the “Three Is” 

I most definitely feel as though my identity and feelings about myself change through the use of social media. I am constantly comparing myself to others whether I am comparing my life in general, my looks, my happiness, etc. Before you would just compare yourself to people you knew or were in school with, now you are “competing” with everyone else on social media. Everywhere you turn someone is prettier, or smarter, has more friends, is living the “perfect” life. This is leading to a generation of depression and constant competition.

I have over 1,700 friends on Facebook...that is absurd! Are they actually my friends? Do I really care about what they are doing in their life? Do I actually know them? The answer to all of these is no! The few handfuls of people I consider my friends are people I talk to and spend time with on a regular basis, and I don’t need social media to determine our “friendship.” Many of the relationships, referred to as “intimacy,” we have online are superficial, we don’t actually know or truly care about the people we are connecting with. Dating apps...I hate them, but unfortunately, people my age do not know how to socialize in person. They would prefer to hide behind a screen. You go out to a place where in the past you would be able to meet people and not a single person talks to you, it is the strangest thing. I am “old school” I guess when it comes to relationships and wanting to communicate with people face to face. I see my students struggle to communicate or play with one another because they are so used to doing it through a screen.

I like to think of myself as a pretty creative person, but it turns out I am not imaginative. I like to make things or design things that have already been made but with my own spin. I love Pinterest and teacher Instagrams where I get ideas and use them. They might be arts and craftsy, but not imaginative. I am pretty artistic, but again, I look up things and copy them, I do not necessarily come up with original ideas. I see this with my students. You ask them to create something to solve a particular problem, and they can’t! You ask them to write a fictional story, they can’t! They end up using bits and pieces from things that they have already read or heard of or seen in order to get the job done. It is all about getting the job done quickly, not about putting in the effort to get imaginative. If we continue to lose our imagination, what new inventions or ideas or discoveries are going to be uncovered...maybe none.

Being part of the “App Generation” is a double edged sword. We are technologically advanced, but everything else is beginning to slide.

Net Smart

As teachers, we see first hand how technology is influencing and impacting today’s youth. One of the quotes that really stuck out to me from this book is to, “beware of the media equivalent of secondhand smoke; the impact of how you use media in your children’s presence.” (p. 48). You go out to a restaurant and you see a family out to dinner, both parents are on their phones and kids are either sitting there or also on devices. This is what our world has come to...tech addicts! Parents are obsessed with their devices, and now their children are too...apple->tree.

I enjoyed that this book broke down the idea of being Net Smart into different literacies. At first I was confused with the term literacy because I automatically thought, reading. But literacies in this sense are areas for knowledge. Rhenigold discusses crap detection, participatory culture, collaboration and cooperation, and network smarts. However, my favorite literacy is definitely attention. It is so important to pay attention to where our attention is being focused. Over the past few years, thinking about your thinking has become more popular. In schools, teachers are beginning to use mindfulness activities to get students to become more aware of where their attention is being focused. This is the first step in becoming net smart. If we aren’t paying attention to our attention, we can’t give full attention to what we should be paying attention to.

Synthesizing My Diet

After looking back at the comments on my last post, I have decided to look at my diet differently. I need to remember to provide myself with choices and teach myself to choose which information I want to obtain. I want to keep the positives and cut back on the negative information I receive. 

It was interesting thinking about “food labels” for information. Most foods come with food labels, but our information sources do not. The labels tell us how many calories and the specific macros of that particular food, however, our information sources do not come with these warning labels. It got me thinking, how the heck do I cut back my intake if I don’t even know what it is that I am consuming?! Maybe I need to create my own food label, one serving of Facebook is 10 minutes, one serving of Instagram is 15 minutes, etc. Maybe I need to limit myself to 10 servings a day across all information sources. But then how do I account for parent and other work related emails…...I haven’t quite figured that out. I know I need to cut back on my information consumption, however, just like any diet, getting started is a learning curve and then once you understand it, it's hard to form the new habit. 

I need to allow myself to fail at my diet a few times, and keep trying. In the long run, I will probably be a happier person without carrying all of this (information) weight on my shoulders. What strategies have you tried using to cut back? What strategies have you actually stuck to?

Copyright (un)Clarity

While reading Copyright Clarity, I honestly felt overwhelmed. I most definitely fall into the “close the door” category. I have not been directly taught about copyright and there are so many grey areas. I have my students use pictures in their projects that they get from the internet, and typically do not have them site them...with third graders that is just another step that will take time. 

Transfomitiveness is definitely a good starting point for me to understand what and how it is appropriate to use others’ work. Fair use is also a fairly new concept for me. The four factors allow me to think about the work that I am using. I need to make sure I am thinking about the purpose, nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used, and the market impact when evaluating whether or not copyrighted material should be used. As they mention in Copyright Clarity, these are not the end all be all or checklist of what is considered copyright and what is not. So still we have it...GREY AREAS! Determining fair use requires us to really think about with the material is that is being used and how we want our students or ourselves to use it. To be honest, teachers have so much on their plate that copyright is typically the last thing on our mind. 

Teachers are encouraged to collaborate and share materials. We often make a copy of what we are using for each person on the team for them to then make copies for their students. Is this not acceptable because I am not the one providing it to the students? Should I be making copies for all of the students in the grade rather than the teachers? Lines are still blurred as to what is acceptable and what is not. I guess this is why I have shied away from thinking about it ...it's still so confusing!

The Information Diet

While reading “The Information Diet” I was realizing that I am ‘overweight’ when it comes to accessing information. I constantly and consuming information during all hours of the day (except while sleeping). The Information Diet is like any good diet ...not fad. Everything is okay in moderation. We need to acknowledge where we get our information, where we go shopping. We need to pay attention to what it does to us, does it make us bloated and tired? We need to make sure we are reducing the negative, cut out the fried foods. We also need to know how to enhance the positive, adding in vegetables. I know that it has been said that there is no such thing as “information overload” however, at times I feel like I cannot handle any more information. I have realized that I am not necessary overloaded, I am fatigued, and I am not longer processing at that moment the information that is coming in, it is being stored to process later. I am hoping that over the next few weeks I will become a better information user rather than just and information eater.

Students as Designers

As someone who is very much a Type A personality, it scares me to let go of the reins and let students soar. I need to remember that there is no one way, best way, or optimal solution. I need to scaffold for my students in order for them to design. I do not need to set strict parameters, it is important for students to show their creativity. I want my students to use their imagination and feel as though they are learning through their own design and creation. If we do not allow students to design at a young age, it will be a foreign concept to them as they get older. What have you done in your classroom to allow your students to be designers?

Affordance Analysis

Technology is being used more and more in classrooms. However, most teachers have not been trained on how to appropriately include it, and we have most definitely not done affordance analysis. To be honest, before reading this article, I didn’t really know what affordance analysis was, it is not a term that I have heard or used often. However, I do think it is extremely important when choosing the technology that my students will be using. 

I believe we are all guilty of throwing our kids on the computer from time to time when we’ve had a long day or are just exhausted. We do that without thinking about the goals that can be achieved through technology. Most of the time teachers, myself included, use technology to substitute other tools rather than use them for their full potential. This is definitely something that doing an affordance analysis would help with! Taking the time to sit down with the tool and work through whether or not using this tool would enhance the learning goals is crucial. If the tool is not going to help move towards these goals, then there is not a good reason to use it. Affordance analysis is all about choosing and using tools appropriately. One tool may work for one goal while a different tool is better suited for a different goal, it is okay to try different tools! I feel as though many teachers get stuck using what they already know and don’t know how to find what else is out there!