farmer of sorts

reference to the war in Spain

I feel like this is an important distinction to make. Seeing all of the changes that have happened within technology and the Internet in such a short span of time can be daunting, but instead of seeing them as a problem to over come, we can view this changing atmosphere as constant opportunities of growth and expansion.

This is a very interesting workplace development. As companies are moving more towards the horizontal structure of management and away from the vertical model, more emphasis is being places on individuals with high level collaboration skills based in online literacy.

this is not a redefinition of a learning experience. this is only a reorganization of information and presenting the information in a new way

SAMR is missing human connection

Technology is not being used to it's fullest potential in the classroom. This could be because of a generational gap, teachers may not have enough training to feel confident to integrate a technology they don't fully understand in order to redefine a learning experience.

Google should be used as a resource, not the end game. We cannot create assessments on instructions that students can just look up the answers to. We must change with the times. Technologies like search engines are great resources for our students but we should be teaching them how to use them to connect ideas, not just look up answers.

This is "the" question. Educators are pushed so much to integrate technology, many are forced to do so with little training and the result is an unorganized lesson/unit. This model provides structure for teachers to begin small with integration and work their way up if need be so they are not so overwhelmed.

Teachers should understand how their subject area is applies in technology and in digital spaces. For instance, the engineering teacher should understand the implications a 3D printer may have in their classroom, but an English teacher may not need these implications. They would need an understanding of pod cast and eBooks and ways in which authors are sharing literature through digital spaces and other technologies.

to be technologically knowledgeably, one must understand information technology broadly and be able to apply it to their every day lives, recognizing ways it can improve his/her tasks, and when it will hinder these tasks (knowing WHEN and WHERE to apply it efficiently).

Teaching is a fluid movement. There is no path set in stone that says every English teacher must teach these things this way, every teacher must take their subject matter and represent it in a way their students will relate to.

This statement is so important for educators to understand. A person can have an extensive amount of knowledge about their subject, they can be an expert in their field. But if they do not understand how the developing brain acquires and stores and connects information, then they do not know how to teach efficiently. This is seen a lot at higher levels of teaching like professing. Many colleges will hire someone with a doctorate in a field of biology to teach a bio 101 class, and they have no idea how to structure their lessons so that their students actually learn the material. Granted, at this point in their educational career, students should be able to learn in these environments, but it is a good comparison to make.

This is an important fact to understand as an educator so that you do not become overwhelmed. Integrating technology into the classroom is a gradual process and not one that can be taken lightly. Each digital feature serves the purpose it was made for, therefore it will have uses in the classroom, but it could also hinder the educators overall goal if they attempt to integrate a technology or too much technology without understanding its actual function and what it is really meant to do.

As our technologies change, so does the way we define "technology." As stated, at one point in time, a pencil was considered a technology created so assist in writing. We have upgraded since then to digital forms of writing and the pencil has been phased out. Our educational system cannot be left using pencils when almost every job we are preparing our students for uses keyboards.

This is key in emphasizing to students the importance of being a life-long learner. If they are able to understand that the classroom is not the only setting in which learning takes place, they will be able to leave the school with the confidence that their education will continue because they are the ones responsible for it.

The job of an educator is to show students that what they are learning will apply to their life when they leave the school building. The academics that students dread learning, will have implications in the real world and students will care about them if they are shown how to connect them to their own culture and communities.

"on going participation" That is what social media and most all digital spaces is all about. Students interact with there peers all throughout the day online, texting, sending pictures, updating statuses; they are already engaged online. Educators can use this engagement to display the learning possibilities the digital world can also hold for students.

True process of creation displays a true understanding of a topic. If a student is able to take creative liberty and design some sort of product (whatever that product be) they have to have a good understanding of the ideals behind the topic.

Everyone is more invested in something if they have an interest in it. Students will be more willing to put in effort to develop their understanding of a topic if it interests them in some way, they will want to know more about it.

Wealthy families are able to begin educating their children in the ways of technology from a much younger age because they have the means to afford it. Less privileged children are being left behind in this aspect because as classrooms integrate more technology, there becomes a standard of knowledge of digital aspects that teachers assume students will understand when they enter their classroom. Children who have not had the opportunity to use the same amount of technology have a harder learning curve than others and will potentially be left behind.

If the purpose of formal education is to prepare students for a future in which they will be able to participate efficiently in the society around them, then we cannot stick to the 'traditional' forms of education. Our education system should grow and change with our society so that our students leave our schools with the skills they need to succeed.

Connected learning is about interacting through technology. Sometimes we tend to see our digital spaces as means to farther isolate ourselves, as there is so much information and functions at the touch of a finger now. However, connected learning is about using our digital spaces to their greatest potentials of collaboration so that we might learn and grow together.

I think this is very important in the era of today. As educators we need to make sure our students are aware of who there audiences are and what content is appropriate to put out in respect of that. Many students do this already, as what they post to Snapchat (for example) is more casual when compared to what they post to their Instagram. Most likely, their family follows them on Instagram so they save casual friendly content for their snapchat where their audience consists mostly of friends their own age.

Educators in this "information-age" must be able to adapt and evolve with the times. Students need should be prepared to work in team with others to problem solve and create. They need to be able to realize there is an infinite amount of information around them, but understand how to sift through and decipher what sources are reliable. Schools should be graduating students who are knowledgeable about the web and their presence on it, and how to use it to their greatest resource.

The phrase "healthy online community" is interesting to me because I am not entirely sure how to define it, but from experience I know what it is not. A healthy online community should have all of the things mentioned later in the paragraph, but so much of our online space today has turned into spaces of competition instead of collaboration. As I am learning more about online literary, I am understanding that the web, at its beginnings, was meant to be a place meant specifically for collaboration. But as people realized their online identity can be validated through the amount of access people have to it, so arises the state of things today in which competition has pushed collaboration to the side.

I really enjoy this quote and I think it does a good job laying out the goals of Backward Design (especially from the video) . I am more of a "big picture" person, therefore I feel like I have used this method in many aspects of my life already, and this plan will be very helpful when I am setting up my course schedule for my classroom. I think that starting out with the end result in mind is very important. Identifying your goal before you begin and identifying ways in which you can achieve this, ensures that you will get there. If you begin in the middle (creating lessons and units with little continuity) you are setting yourself up for failure. Your students may obtain the content however you distributed it, but did they reach your goal of understanding?

I think, as a teacher, it is important to establish that you are a co-learner. Your job is to facilitate to your students and foster their learning, but there are many ways to get to the same destination. Technology provides so many resources and many different ways to present, engage with, and assess learning. As a teacher, you are there as a resource for your students, but you will not have the answer to everything. When you don't, take the time to learn with your students, show them the importance of trying different approaches, of using what you do know to accumulate more knowledge. Learning is a never ending process and teachers should demonstrate to their students what it means to be a life-long-learner.

There is an interesting parallel displayed in this paragraph that holds a lot of truth. We struggle online with "empathy traps" and feeling confident enough in our anonymity through the internet to be unsympathetic; we may feel like we don't have an identity online and see the Internet as just a resource that is for our use alone, forgetting about everyone behind every media post. However, we are constantly creating an identity for ourselves through everything we put out into the web through social media and other forms of media. And, the identity we create for ourselves may not even be the one that is really us, because when we are given the chance to choose what we want to display of ourselves we, of course, only choose to put on our best.

I like this statement that, while these concepts were created to provide a guide to understanding digital media and what it means to be digitally literate, they are also applicable to non-digital forms. I think this is very important to realize as an educator. Creating a classroom environment that is digitally knowledgeable is important not only to provide relevance for students of a digital age but also to make students aware of the resources it can provide, along with how to use these resources to their success. However, there will be a transition period, and it is important for students and teachers to view technology and the internet as sources of learning just as in the traditional sense. Learning can be measured by the students ability to use, understand, and create whether they are using online resources or using a single hardback textbook.