Google Docs

As an assignment for my class, I have to publish a copy of my resume.  So if you want to know all about my work history click on this link and read it. AlysonBalzerResume

What did I learn today?

I learned that I am a whole lot more proficient using Microsoft products than I am using Google products. 

Today my adventure in Google Docs started with downloading my resume from SkyDrive and uploading it into Google Drive.  From there everything went bad.  Talk about reformatting.  After spending time trying to reformat the resume so it would publish nicely, I ended up copying and pasting everything into a template.  At least now my resume looks presentable on the web.

This assignment is really applicable to all the ISTE.NETS.T standards, but two of these standards are highlighted with this exercise, Standard 2, "Design and Develop Digital Age Learning
Experiences and Assessments" and Standard 3 "Model Digital Age Work and Learning".  In regards to Standard 2, Google Docs allows a teacher to create and publish documents, spreadsheets, forms, and presentations for in class teaching and assessments.  It allows easy and anytime access for students and others  to see what is being taught in the classroom and what is being assessed.  Standard 3 is highlighted in this assignment by the modeling aspect of the standard.  By presenting ideas and theories to students it is modeling what is expected in real life.
 




 

References:

 

International Society for Technology in Education,  "Advancing Digital Aged Teaching,"  2008,  http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/nets-t-standards.pdf?sfvrsn=2  2013, May 31.

Wii Fit and Millennial Profile

How is it possible that my Wii Fit age and Millennial profile are the same?  I guess I'm physically older and mentally younger.  This number does make sense in my life. I tend to sit on my rear end and watch juvenile TV shows.

My millennial profile is 54.   Try taking the quiz and see where you fit. http://pewresearch.org/millennials/

Quizzed my husband who scored an 86 - techy loser.  I think his score rose above mine because he gets more texts than I do.

There were some questions on the quiz that had me thinking.  One question asked if I read a newspaper.  I assumed the question referred to a physical piece of paper.  Of course I don't read a daily newspaper.  Who would waste there hard earned money on sheets of paper?  I get my news by TV or I read the news on several sites which link to the daily newspapers.  So the question is do I read newspapers?  Yes I do, but I don't purchase a hard copy like my parents.  Currently my favorite site is dailymail.co.uk.  This site has all of the current news and since it is from the UK the site seems to have the most recent breaking news before the sites in the US.

Another question that had me thinking was the question of contacting government officials.  Who contacts these people?  If you contact a government official don't you get put on a watch list or something?  Does that statement make me paranoid?

Finally tattoos and piercings, I get the piercing question.  Personally I don't need another hole on my body,  something important might ooze out.  While the tattoo question had me thinking I'm just a rebel.  I don't have a tattoo and don't really want one.  I am not a fan of pain and I don't need to express myself by drawing on my body.  I'll just speak to you and tell you how I feel.  Am I a rebel in that respect?

Anyway,  the quiz was interesting and I'm kind of proud my score is 54.  I'm not such an old lady.  I think my score helps in my teaching because today's student is not the student of my generation.  They are constantly being bombarded with information from friends, family and others.  Today's students are always on a cell, on a tablet, or on a computer.  I am concerned about 10 years from now.  Will I still be at a 54 on my millennial profile?  Boy, I hope so.

in keeping with the millennial student theme, I read an awesome article on today's students, thanks to Dr. Pierce, entitled "The Information Mindset" by Jason Frand  http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0051.pdf.  It brought home the dichotomy of what I lived through as a student and what students' are living through today.  Frand speaks of 10 characterists of todays' student.  These are completely different than the characteristics of students when I was in high school and undergrad.

Characteristic Number 1:  Computers Aren't Technology:  My first experience with a computer was in a 12th grade computer class.  We used and Apple IIe with a 5 1/2 inch floppy disk.  I created a basic program to print a picture of a fish made with x's.  From there I took a computer class as an undergrad at WVU.  In this class we used an IBM, and I learned DOS.  By the time I graduated from WVU,  Windows was installed on all of the computers at WVU.  Now I'm using an All-in-one with Windows 8.  Yeah, computers are technology, but they are so integrated in life they are almost another appendage, like a 2nd brain.

Characteristic Number 2:  Internet Better Than TV:  Absolutely not.  I am an avid TV watcher.  I know that makes people cringe, but I don't care anymore.  I watch TV constantly.  It is on in my house 24/7.  I fall to sleep with the TV on and wake up watching to some stupid cartoon on Comedy Central.  If I were a 20 something without a decent paying job, internet would definitely be better than TV.  TV costs money - a lot of money.  Netflix costs less than $10 per month.  With all the new TV's and game consoles being internet ready, I can easily see where the internet is better than TV.

Characteristic Number 3:  Reality No Longer Real:   I don't believe in the statement "Reality no longer real," at all.  Reality is real.  Dead is dead, you are no longer living.  I can see where millennials might have this perception.  How many times can you die in "Call of Duty"?  How is it possible that Jason Statham can survive without a heart and keep injecting himself with adrenaline?  With all the CGI and photoshoping how is it possible for anyone to believe anything? 

Characteristic Number 4:  Doing Rather than Knowing:  I know a lot of stuff, but I think that is due to my age.  I had to know it, but now I keep asking myself  "Do I really need to know this when I can look it up?"  More often than not, my husband and I find ourselves watching TV.  Someone asks a question and next thing all tablets are in hand and we are searching for an answer to our questions.  That is how we found the site wikipeetia.org - The Misspelled Encyclopedia.

Characteristic Number 5:  Nintendo Over Logic:  This works for me.  Failure is a learning experience.  With all the computer technology and modeling available, why not try something, fail, learn, try again, and win?  You can still use the "scientific method" to figure out all possible outcomes, but at least when you fail in Nintendo you get a do over.

Characteristic Number 6:  Multitasking Way of Life:  This is bad news.  Just like a computer, the human brain and only do one computation at a time.  If you do more, everything comes out half-assed, and you will need to do it over again.  Do one thing at a time.  Do it right the first time, and then move on.

Characteristic Number 7:  Typing Rather than Writing:  I guess I'm an old fuddy duddy.  I think handwriting is important.  What if civilization collapses?  How are we supposed to record if we can't write by hand?  I know that is a what if, but I really do enjoy receiving hand written thank you notes for gifts I have purchased for friends and family.  Handwriting is important.  You can't type everything - at least not yet.

Characteristic Number 8:  Staying Connected:  I am on the fence with this one.  Facebook has helped me reconnect with friends and family that do not live near me, but sometimes I am really glad they are not near me.  They just post way too much information.  I would hate to have to see them daily and tell them that I really don't care what you made for dinner last night.  Students seem to have this need to constantly connect with their peers.  I think this is more of an age thing.  With more responsibility this characteristic might change for our current crop of 20 year olds, but it will always stay with the 20 year olds.

Characteristic Number 9:  Zero Tolerance for Delays:  I have this issue.  I want it now, and I can't wait.  I find I keep repeating my mantra "Patience is a virtue."  This characteristic is so prevalent in todays society.  I have 3 children who cry when they don't understand a topic immediately.  This is a big problem in students today.  They quit, throw temper tantrums, etc.  I don't know how to get around it other than calmness and repeat my mantra.

Characteristic Number 10:  Consumer/Creator Blurring:  This just comes along with technology.  Remember the whole Napster issue is 2000?  Setting out guidelines and an understanding of plagiarism and copy rights puts a perspective on the blurring.  This has always happened, people taking credit for others work, but it is just a lot easier to do with computers.

With all of these characteristics about the millennial student stated, millennials are people who were born in the information age where everything is at their fingertips.  The computer chip is an appendage of their bodies.  A millennial can not function without it.  Is this a good thing?  I don't know.  Like it or not these are the students we will be teaching for a long time.

Let's just hope my millennia profile stays the same or gets better.

She Rocks in the Tree Tops

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet says the little white birdy in the blue background. 

You can now follow me on Twitter at

@alysonbalzer

and Google + at

alyson.balzer

Yeah me!  Well not really.  I've been on twitter since 2009.  I have 3 tweets and 1 person following me.  Guess I'm not so popular or maybe I don't have anything to tweet.

Google +, same thing.  I've been on this social media site for awhile too, but no one cares about that one either.  This one is definitely not as popular as Facebook.   I have linked my blog to Google +, because every word I type a dialog box appears with links to people I don't know.  How fun!  (I'm about 50/50 on the sarcasm/truth here.)

What did I learn from this exercise of tweeting/Google+ -ing?  Other than Facebook, there are several other social media sites of interest that are applicable to learning, socializing, and networking.  Team Google has created an online environment that is extremely social media driven.  With the one account (i.e. your gmail address) you can access a multitude of applications.  The chats, hangouts, calendars, etc. are all very useful in organizing ones life and connecting with friends, family, and acquaintances.  And it's all free.

This activity, again, shows how social media is applicable in both personal and professional life.  As a teaching tool, "hangout" is a neat way to reach out to other professionals and students on a more personal level to discuss topics otherwise a little to difficult to tweet.  For the student aspect of Hangout - WOW!  I might not even have to go to a school to teach a class.

Again this activity is relevant to the ISTE NETST standard 5 of Professional Growth and Leadership.  Professional growth is establishing a presence on social media sites and networking with others in your field.  Leadership is showing other professionals that you know what you are talking about and presenting ideas to the masses.

Now I leave everyone with this thought.  Bitly and Diigo.  Signed up for a Bitly account.  Need to see how that one works.  Tweeters seem to use it a lot.  I see the same thing with Diigo.  Need to spend my afternoon reading on that one too.  I might just sit in the sun and read about this stuff on my tablet until the kiddies get home from school.

Cheers and enjoy the day.

SoMe Survey

I found the SoMe Survey very profound and thoughtful.  The first two questions  regarding social media were very basic. Of course I use Facebook religiously.  I also have accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn.    I tend to stay off most social media except for Facebook.  All of the social media sites I have listed above are usually the Page Six of the internet.  I can find all of the local and family gossip on these applications.  Although, Facebook is now an app where I can find information for family activities.

What I found thought provoking about the Survey is that these social media sites can also be used for the better.  I always knew the internet was an excellent resource for research and sharing ideas. I just never put the two together.  I just always limited my personal growth to internet searches and blogs. This always seemed time consuming.  This survey brought the idea of social media as a sharing and learning experience to the forefront.

With a quick search, I found the Facebook page in seconds.



One of Many Facebook Mathematics Pages

With all the social media at my fingertips;

• I can easily find new and innovative ways to teach math. 
• I can use what is posted, try to improve on it, or even put my own flavor to it. 
• I can repost my experiences with the subject matter.
• I can ask questions to other people in my field.

This just names a few of the new ways I have to improve personal and professional growth.

The SoMe Survey activity hits the ISTE NETS-T Standards right on the head specifically Standard 5.  This activity and my subsequent social media searches profoundly jump started my professional growth and leadership skills.  By changing my outlook of social media as gossip pages, I can now use social media as a networking and learning tool.

So, off I go to reacquaint  myself with all of my social media accounts.  Hopefully I can remember UserID's and passwords.  Wish me good luck.



Introduction to Me



MADI

DOODLE

MARRON

 

Since this is my initial post in my blog for my education class, I thought it would be important to share some things about myself.

I am a graduate student at Fairmontstate University.  I received my undergraduate degree from WVU in secondary mathematics education.  After graduating from WVU, I moved around quite at bit.  From WVU, I moved back to Pennsylvania, then I hit Tennessee.  After 4 years there I moved to Connecticut and then finally I find myself back in good 'ole West Virginia.

I have 3 daughters ranging in ages from 6 to 13. This year has been quite a challenge with working, taking graduate courses and being a personal chauffer.  Hopefully with summer around the corner things will slow down and I will be able to smell the roses.