After completing the mapping
information activity, what are your reactions to your findings? What will you do differently while searching
on the Internet for information now? How
confident are you with the information you’ve used in the past (as part of your
college career and/or your profession)?
I was a student when advanced computers and the internet were just
taking off. When I was in elementary,
middle, and high school my personal computer was loaded with games (some
educational), a word processing tool, and a printshop-type program that could
print banners, greeting cards, and signs.
When I was a senior in high school, chat rooms and the internet were
just getting started. My freshman year
in college was where I truly got introduced to the internet and all of its possibilities. No one really taught me how to use the
internet or what the “rules” were to using it, I just figured it out on my own,
and I spent hours on it. Being in
Corporate IT for eleven plus years has allowed me to mingle and talk with
computer “geeks”. These are the people “in the know”. So basically all my knowledge comes from my
own self and others like me. I had
already had the mindset that you have to be skeptical when reading the internet
and only trust sites that are well documented and reputable. With that said, I would consider myself
somewhere between a Digital Native and a Digital Immigrant. Having a teenager at home and a fearless
attitude towards technology, allows me to not only be open about new
technological ideas, but also to seek them out.
What are some implications for
the future of our students if we fail to teach them these skills in school?
Our students have access to technology during all hours of the day and even
of the night. Because technology is rapidly
pushing into our schools, it is our job as teachers to educate our students in
their understanding of how to use this technology appropriately even though we
are the Digital Immigrants. We need to
arm our students with appropriate ways to utilize the technology they have
access to. If we do not arm them with this
knowledge then our students will only use the technology in the ways they
understand it. This will result in not
using the technology to its full potential and possibly in not using the
technology correctly. Or, even worse, if
teachers do not educate our students in the correct usages of technology, than
our students will grow up with misconceptions and wrong ideas about technology
and pass along their misconceptions and ideas to the next generation.
Do you see any advantages for
organizing your information via a concept mapping tool? Which one did you choose to use and why? What are some ways you think you could use
these tools in the future?
I most definitely see advantages for organizing information via a concept
mapping tool. Coming from the world of
Corporate IT, flowcharts were almost always included in the requirements documentation
to help convey the functional requirements to the developers and QA analysts. These flowcharts were always helpful and
seemed to clarify what the business analyst expected the new functionality to
do. The flowcharts, much like these
concept maps, take text and place it into a graphical view. I am a very visual learner, so flowcharts,
concept maps, diagrams, graphs, and pictures have always helped me further understand
what the text was conveying. I chose to
use the www.bubbl.us concept map design because I could group and tie the educational
technology concepts together more easily and in a way that made sense to me. And once complete, at a glance, I can tell
what the high points are and the ideas that surround each one. When teaching mathematics, I could see possibly
using the concept maps depicted on the IHMC website. This type of concept map would allow me to
outline the steps needed to solve similar problems. I can see how the Mind concept maps would be
useful in an English class to help capture primary themes, characters, and
events in a novel. Because of my
organizational style, I am not comfortable using the Wordle concept map other
than in an artistic setting. Creating
concept maps to teach from, or even having students create their own concept
maps, would be beneficial because it would open another avenue for
understanding and grasping the ideas being taught.
Create a digital concept map which pieces together the following concepts:
- Your definition of educational technology
- Today's learner
- The reality of education/training today
- The potential impact technology can have on education/training
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