LinkedIn and Facebook both offer some similar services but seem to have a slightly different focus. Facebook is a social media site that connects friends with an easy interface of pictures and quick messages. The site is a great tool for keeping up on information with current and past friends. Some also use it for business and education.
The greater focal point of LinkedIn, compared to Facebook, is much more of a positive professional representation of oneself. While Facebook does allow you to describe and represent your education and professional character, LinkedIn's presentation works almost like an online resume. Users can showcase their education, experience and abilities. LinkedIn also allows you to connect with others, much like facebook, but in a less
Both are easily usable, and both have their own niches.
Their are many possible uses for apps in physical education. I bought an Android tablet many months ago. It instantly became my kids favorite new toy. They mostly use it for movies and games. Up until several weeks ago I used it for reading email, studying my bible and referencing commentaries and video.
Recently, I have found several apps I am very excited about. I have created a separate page on my phone and Android so that I can locate them easily. There are apps that can instantly track your heart rate using the camera and light on your phone (Instant Heart Rate). Calorie Counter not only counts your calories, but offers suggestions and helps you or your student set goals. For strength training, an app called Fitness Buddy Free provides sample workouts based on goals. It comes with detailed descriptions and pictures. MapMyRun gives suggestions for local runs with details of distance and what you might see along the way.
The possibilities seem endless for using apps and many of them are free. One app that I wish I could find for Android is a gradebook. Our school uses an online grading system that is easy to use for attendance and grading. It would be great to find an app to use in the field
Looking through the list for the top 100 productivity tools (link http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/) is surprising to me, but not nearly as surprising as it would have been just three weeks ago. Going through the Technology course at Fresno Pacific University has been enlightening. I have become much more aware, although still a beginner, of some of the possibilities online.
What is still highly interesting to me is that Twitter is listed as the number one site for learning. I think that the term learning is stretched a little bit to just mean passing of information. There are definitely solid references on Twitter for learning, but this seems to be mixed with a lot of random opinion.
I am not surprised to see Youtube and Wikipedia. These sites are so easy to use. As long as you keep in mind that the sources of the videos in Youtube, it can be very instrumental in education.
The rest of the list comprises some sites I would not have heard of before 3 weeks ago; places like dropbox, google docs, Khan Academy, or LinkedIn. Now it seems that these might be a part of what I use to support my teaching. I am looking forward to continuing to expand my knowledge online use.
Web 2.0 is radically different from web 1.0, although I feel like only now am I really aware of some of the differences. The main difference is the interactivity of online web use.
Early last fall I bought an Android tablet. I began using the tablet to find useful apps until I felt like I had too many options. All of the apps come with reviews of previous users. Reviews are expressed on the positive and negative side. It often quickly helps me decide whether I want to spend time trying the app. Little did I realize that these reviews are apart of the new generation of web use. This type of interactivity was not possible before.
Comments posted on blogs, tweets, and facebook friends posts are all apart of this technology. In reality, the ability to interact this way, via the web, opens up whole new doors. It puts information on a never ending cycle that just keeps growing. It has already affected the educational sector and it will be interesting to see where it takes us in the not too distant future.
There is so many productivity tools out there on the web it is overwhelming. Looking at some of the tools available a few of them caught my eye. I am hoping that they might be immediately useful to me.
Google Calendar is a simple organizational online calendar service. An administrator once tried to get me started on the program but I did not pay it much attention the first time around. Today I was able to quickly navigate through some of its features and was pleased with the results. I have already put in some important reminders. The program walks you through how to set up reminders and have them emailed to you. Just a few moments ago I received my first reminder. I am hoping to continue with this program as it could be an invaluable tool to help me stay organized.
Another productivity tool that could prove immediately helpful is "mapmyrun". It provides users with endless varieties of local runs for any city that you might live in. The site allows you to type in keywords that help you find runs that suit your interest. I live near the American River and was able to locate several runs that others had recommended.
One productivity tool that was a little scary to me was "keepass". At its core it is a password keeper. With all the passwords I have for multiple new accounts it is getting more difficult to remember them. This site keeps your passwords for you. The site says that the passwords are encrypted so they can not be hacked. Yet, I do not think I will be using this service. It is just a little to risky for me.
Several other tools caught my eye as well. Tools like Dropbox (which I recently signed up for) and Google Doc's. It is amazing how many options are out there on the web now. The trick seems to be finding the ones that are most beneficial while being
I can see myself using many of the technologies that we have experimented with so far in the future for use in the class. I enjoy the idea of using facebook for perhaps less educational purposes; more geared toward coaching and or youth group. When I told our youth recently that I was working on a facebook page for our group they were all excited about sending current photos. It seems like it might be a good avenue to connect with them during the week. I envision a similar scenario with coaching soccer.
Perhaps the most useful to me so far would be the use of podcasting and a personal web page (pwp). I am excited about the ablility to develop a pwp specifically designed toward teaching physical education. Students would be able to learn about their teacher, read about specific class goals, keep up with current thoughts through blogs, and listen quick messages or thoughts via podcasting. It seems silly now to not take advantage of something that young people today might be more interested in working with. I believe it would prove a useful tool to communicate to our new generation of thinkers.
Some recent reading I have done into the uses and advantages of podcasting (or audiocasting) in education has been enlightening. The portability of podcasting allows students to learn anytime they want. There are times when it may be advantageous for any learner to listen to recently given instructor lectures because they want to repeat the lesson or because they were unable to attend a class meeting. Students often miss essential points in a lesson and it is a great benefit to be able to review information via podcast at a later time.
Podcasting also allows listeners to access information anywhere. In a generation of multi-tasking it might be essential to find time listening to educational material while in the car or while exercising on a long run. The portability of podcasting and the availability on I-pods and MP3 players makes information accessible in almost any location.
Perhaps the greatest benefit to podcasting is that it offers educational material in a different learning style than simple reading. Some learners might find information much easier to recall if they listen to it, instead of read it. Typically, I much prefer to find a quiet place to read. However, the idea of using different modalities to support learning is a nice advantage. In this way, users can read on a topic and then re-inforce learning by listening to audio content at a later date.
One of the major concerns I have as an educator going forward is the seemingly growing inability of youth to focus on non-technology tasks for extended periods of time. The article (Elon studies the future of "Generation Always-On") describes both a concern and a excitement for the future. Will students greatly benefit from technology and be able to multi-task and produce faster because of their connectivity? Or will they be unable to "unplug," lack the ability to focus for long stints, be inpatient and limited in their critical thinking to 140 characters?
I have been an educator for just over ten years. Though I am young in the field, I believe it is hard not to be both concerned and excited for youth. Teachers will need to take advantage of current and future technology in the classrooms because of its importance in life today. At the same time, teachers must also provide students with real opportunities off of the internet. If teachers are to be successful reaching students we must be able to use technology tools effectively, but also be able to steer students to quality time off-line.
The experiences I have with social networking prior to my involvement in the masters program at FPU are extremely limited. I have always been a little gun shy when it came to community online forums like Facebook or Twitter. Perhaps the foremost reason for this was I never had the personality to be tied down to a computer. Today, it seems impossible to stay outside the social networking sphere without some involvement if I want to reach my students in the most effective way possible.
The article "Social Networking in Undergraduate Education" defined a study that clearly supports the use of social networking. The study was focused on a minority school where students were asked to use Facebook and a Learning Management System (LMS) as a integral part of their course instruction and involvement. At the conclusion of the class, surveys concluded that the students greatly benefited from the format of the class. The article states that students were assisted by social networking in their class engagement, communication, and ability to build learning communities.
Thought my experiences are very limited in what is a new technology to me, I know that my students can benefit by adopting some social networking into my curriculum. This does not mean that the core of the class has to be altered. However, I can reach more students, by using more of what they are so familiar with. Especially when, as stated in the article, "96% of 15-17 year olds with home internet access use some form of social media on a regular basis." (p. 66)
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