Posts

Showing posts from May, 2014

COETAIL Course 2, Final Project, Responsible Use Agreements

Image
Photo Credit: ToGa Wanderings via Compfight cc In my Master's Program, COETAIL ,   I was assigned to do collaborative assignment, with another teacher, at another school.  I found a partner on Google+, in the same course.  My partner and I worked on Option 1 of the Assignment, to create a Responsible Use Agreement. "Option 1: In a small group that contains at least one cohort member outside your school, create a Responsible Use Agreement (RUA) for your division level (Elementary, Middle or High School). You may start from scratch or use a framework from some of the resource that are covering in the course or from what your school already has in place. Include a reflective blog post describing choices you made in developing the RUP i.e. choice of language level, topics covered, issues of focus, describe how it would be shared with students etc." I worked with a teacher in Myanmar, Ivory Chang, over a Google Hangout chat.  We looked at each other's schools Resp

It's a Small World

Image
The Universe is expanding, but our world is getting smaller. The above image is an assemblage from the Cassini Space Probe, credited here. With the power of the internet, we can push into details of the world we could never find published in books, magazines, and other places.  We can learn to communicate in new ways.  We can find out about ideas and concerns that others have.  We can learn new skills, right at our fingertips.  We can find lots of things, and remix them into new things. I live in South Korea, and... I don't speak Korean, and cannot read Hangul.  But due to Web Apps like Google Translate,  I can sometimes make sense of what I see around me.  Here, translate my blog into another language. This is a translation example for Google Translate. I have a family, with two small kids, who love to get around.  Thanks to the power of the internet, We can get directions, find parks, and other great things to do.  Like this little blog, Kids Fun in Seoul .  It g

Remove the "Cyber" from Cyberbullying

Image
  Some rights reserved I was reading this posted question on Louise Phinney's Blog , about removing the "Digital" that we associate with things like Digital Citizenship, and Digital Footprints.  I commented on her blog about this idea, and I thought I'd continue that idea here. Remove the Cyber from Cyberbullying.  Why? Because kids disconnect that what they are doing is Bullying. I think that Bullying is Bullying, no matter where it is done.  The problem is that most kids understand what Traditional Bullying is, and think it is wrong. There is a disconnect from actions online being bullying.  Kids think that they are having a joke, but the receiver doesn't think it is funny. Raychelle Cassada Lohmann discusses the proportions of kids that do Cyberbullying vs Traditional Bullying in her article . "Cyberbullying is a big problem, even more common than traditional bullying. About 25 to 30 percent of the young people surveyed admitted experiencing