Social Media in the Classroom

I think incorporating social media sites to the classroom is a great tool. I have to admit, I am a big fan of social media, weather its Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or apps; like instagram, and Google plus. Using technology is such a benefit in the classroom, it keeps things fresh and up to date. Its something that really helps these kids get in tocuh with the real world, and  its problems. I love how people take these social medias sites to a whole other level. " Like if Historical Events had a Facebook Status", I've also seen "Like If Presidents had a Facebook Status", and other creative sites that relate to school topics. I would use this in the classroom to use as a source. Sometimes its a pain to go through the search engine and type in a topic and for them to show multiple sources and not knowing which one is a pain. This is 10 times easier buy using Facebook and showing the time lines of what happened during a historical event. There is a fine line between using social media sites because it could be distracting and sometimes the occasional "Can I add you on Facebook?" happens. Right now that is the situation my sister is going through. The main teacher that she is a assistant to used Facebook as an assignment for her elementary school students, and now her students are trying to add her on Facebook? Really?! When should a fifth grader have a Facebook!

Cell Phone PIctures

I actually had a lot of fun doing this assignment. My cell phone takes some pretty bad pictures, but since my ipod has a better camera I got a lot of use out of it. This is one of the greatest ways to integrate technology in the classroom. I am always taking pictures with my ipod now since I've downloaded all these different apps, that change the photo to black and white, pixel, and many more options.

My group was great. We really worked well together, our ideas flowed. My group had four girls so our team tv name was " The Golden Girls", it made sense since it was the four of us. the assignment to was to use our camera phones, and chose one of our favorite fairy tale stories. So all of us decided to do our project on Cinderella. The last time I watched Cinderella was when I was about 5 so all I really remembered was the ball that Cinderella attended, the glass slipper, and  the ugly evil stepsisters. Luckily Brianne had created an outline so that we new what pictures needed to go up and in what order. I was assigned to take pictures of the evil step sisters. I struggled a little because I really didn't know who or how I was going to take this picture. Lucky for me I got an email from Amanda and she sent me a cute funny picture of herself and her nice and I had to use it for the evil step sister section. We used Google docs to create our power point and got everything done by Saturday night. Our project turned out great, and I would defiantly use it in the classroom.  

shifthappens

After watching " Did You Know 2.0, and 4.0", I was pretty shocked by the some the facts that were shown in the video, and how fast technology grew in a short amount of time, and how technology has changed our lives for the better. While watching 4.0 I did realize that the digital world took up so much of the real world. I do spend a lot of time on internet then I do reading a book, watching T.V or even opening up a magazine, because it's all right in front of me as I am surfing the web. In 2008 during the presidential debate I thought it was smart how  president Barack Obama use social networking instead of attending campaign fundraisers like John McCain and raised more money then he did in a short amount of time. In " Did You Know 2.0 ", the facts that I found to be fascinating is how countries such as India, and China are more developed than the United States, in areas of education. What really grabbed my attention was the last two minutes of the clip when it encourages you to ask the question to your principle, " How are you helping my child become illiterate in the 21st century, and when it encourages you to ask your school board, " Are you providing the resources and training necessary to prepare students to be successful in 21 century society?" To be honest I never really though of those questions, and to me that is important. We can use technology effectively in the classroom and to help education our children with, it can open there eyes to show them whats out there in the world today.