Sunday, May 24, 2009

Interesting points/responses to 3 tech articles....

In the first article, "Neomillenial user experience design strategies", they hit the nail on the head in stating how the current generation is "hardwired". Everything seems to revolve and take place via technology. It's almost as if we are now completely reliant on computers/technology for EVERYTHING! There seems to be such a reliance now on them, it's almost scary!!! I really like the idea of teachers/administrators using weblogs as a communication tool as stated in this article. It can be a quicker, more efficient way to stay in touch w/ parents/community about what's going on in school/class, etc instead of constantly updating websetie pages. I think this is something I will attempt to get rolling in the future at my school.
In the third article, "Examining Social Software in Teacher Education", they hit a great point on how to educate students to use these websites in an APPROPRIATE way. Many people have no idea who sees their pictures and profiles. Many have lost jobs due to myspace, facebook, or youtube. I think that educators do need to educate students on the correct, safe and responsible way to utilize these sites, and the implications that may occur if not used correctly.
After reading the last article, "Social networking", I can appreciate the privacy features that they acknowledge that facebook has over myspace. I had a myspace account for years (along w/ 217 million other people!), and it's been so long since I checked it that I don't even remember my password for it. I couldn't see spending time on there to look at other peoples pictures as valuable to me. I then started a facebook a couple years back, but never had time or desire to actually utilize it. So it was dormant until last week. I didn't want to become active on facebook, as I see how it can consume people at times, and can at times, lead to drama if you are friends with the right people! But, after having the assignment I had to. I really went through all of the privacy/safety features and realized that it can be kept quite private. I was impressed with those options. A nice surprise....

1 comment:

  1. I too agree that educators can utilize the many features mentioned in our readings (weblogs, podcasts etc.) as valuable tools but also need to educate on what is and what is not appropriate. Good point regarding the privacy features on Facebook as well... crazy who can randomly request friendships but easy to deny and block who see what.

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