Response to "Should Schools Teach Social Media Skills?"

Around Halloween I recall seeing a headline about a women who dressed up as a victim of the Boston Marathon bombings and posted a picture to her Facebook account.  Because of the poor choice of costume and poor choice to post the picture publicly the girl was fired from her job amongst other things. Social media can be an amazing tool when used the right way however many of the younger generation seem to be lacking social media etiquette.

A school in San Francisco has started using a specific curriculum to teach students about using common sense online and with social media. While this seems like a great idea many educators may just sigh as it is just one more thing they are required to teach their students. Similar to Reproductive Education, many teachers and parents believe that Safe Social Media should be taught at home.

As more and more people get rejected from colleges or let go from jobs because of poor choices made online it seems to me we could help this younger generation learn from these unfortunate mistakes.

Shanhai, A. (2013, December 04). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/12/should-schools-teach-social-media-skills/

Response to "3 Keys to Making BYOD Work for Your Classroom"

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is a very popular acronym out there in the educational world today. Basically this allows students to use smart phones or tablets in school to participate in different lessons or assignments using websites or apps. BYOD has some major benefits, its less expensive than buying class sets of devices and also much easier to obtain.  Almost all students have some form of device these days, it is quite easy to come by. Although some districts try and prohibit students using devices at school this is an easy way for everyone to have an equal access to some form of technology. Obviously there are also cons to BYOD, such as distractions caused by devices but the way technology is moving in education BYOD may be the way to go for older students.  What do you think? Would you use BYOD in your classroom?

Paretsky, I. (2013, December 05). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/keys-to-byod/

Response to "Giving PE the Respect It Deserves"

Alright, this issue sounds like a broken record to me...give PE the respect it deserves.  We all have heard that the US is one of the most obese countries in the world and we all want to do something to fix that, yet our students are seeing less and less physical activity time in school because all of the time goes to standardized testing or meeting state standards or something to do with meeting requirements created by leaders who have no education background.  Less recess, activity breaks and PE time are not helping the fight against childhood obesity.  According to Helen Durkin of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, only 6 states require PE in every grade and only 3 states require at least 150 mins of PE/week in elementary schools. In my school my students get one 40 minutes session of PE a week! And with holidays and different school activities that means I only see my students 32 times a year! How crazy is that?!

In the article Helen did point out that one recent movement, in fact one I have joined at my school is the "Let's Move in Schools" act created by Michelle Obama that aims to get students up and moving. WHile acts and programs like Fuel Up to Play are great supplemental programs, nothing compares to regular physical activity and physical education class.


Durkin, H. (2013, March 11). Giving pe the respect it deserves. The Hill. Retrieved from http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/287309-giving-pe-the-respect-it-deserves

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Response to "7 Things You Should Know about Ning"

Before I read this article I had no clue what Ning was. I learned that Ning is a website that helps users create a new type of social media or social networking site. Ning helps you design a website and promote and build it. People use Ning for different reasons, some use it to create webpages similar to Myspace or Facebook.  Others use it for keeping in touch with different sorority or alumni events. Some users may even use it to promote different products. Ning makes it very user friendly for registered users to join. They simply let the user put in the information they want and create a new page. Because ning is so user friendly and personal it would be great for students in middle to high school to create their own pages and learn about the importance of safe social media and acceptable uses. I would love to see this used in technology classes.

Educause Learning Initiave. (n.d.). 7 things you should know about ning. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7036.pdf

Response to "Stop trying to figure out if screentime is good for students"

This article was very interesting. The author made some unique points about people criticizing too much screentime. The author, Lisa Nielsen, is pushing for the use of technology in schools. She talks about how we need to prepare our students for the future and that means technology and screens. While we want students to exercise and get fresh air we can't completely eliminate technology from their lives or it is our failure as teachers to prepare them for the real world, new careers and up and coming jobs. Screentime is not what is causing obesity, it is the elimination of PE, recess and teaching students about healthy lifestyles.  Technology is not 100% to blame. She made some really great points. I would definitely recommend reading this article.


Nielsen, L. (2013, October 30). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2013/10/stop-trying-to-figure-out-if-screentime.html

Response to 7 Things You Should Know About Wikis

Before I started this program through CMU I thought wikis were something that went along with WIKIPEDIA.  Now in almost every class in the program I have participated in an individual or class wiki. Wikis are a huge educational technology tool. Wikis are basically a blog that can be edited and collaborated on with as many people as the author allows. For instance my wiki can only be edited by myself and whomever I invite to view it.  Our group wikis can be changed and edited by anyone in our specific group. While this is great for educational collaboration sometimes because so many people can change or modify the information presented in the wiki information can become skewed. I really enjoy doing our group essays on the WIKI it is a unique way to collaborate and I wish I had known about such a method during my undergrad group project days.  Always learning something new!


Educause Learning Initiave. (n.d.). 7 things you should know about wikis. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf

5 ideas to strengthen the home-school connection in the 1:1 classroom

Administrators at my school are constantly stresses the connection between home, school and the community.  While many teachers have blogs or send home weekly letters the connection just isn't completely there. We all know that students with family involvement succeed more in school than those without.  This article provided a few ways to keep the connection alive.

For me having a blog is very time consuming, and just how many parents actually read it?! I liked that the author mentioned using twitter. How great! It is much faster and more convenient for both parents and teachers to use.  I actually think I might start a twitter account with my students. Along the same lines is Facebook, I did use this in years past,  and parents loved it, however it was pretty time consuming again for me.  One idea I wouldn't have thought of that would be great in a classroom setting was student-led parent workshops.  Basically students invite parents in and "teach" them 1 on 1 about whatever they are currently learning. This could even be doing via youtube!

Great ideas!


Nielsen, L. (2013, November 10). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2013/11/5-ideas-to-strengthen-home-school.html