It's Just a Story...

Storytelling is something much more than telling a story. This is what I thought storytelling was and that was the end of that. However, I read an article called The Power of Storytelling. At first, I thought this article was just going to talk about the ways stories can impact education for the better by reading and discussing books with students. Am I still right? Yes, but there is so much more to storytelling than it is just a story and then we talk about it. The way that I look at storytelling now has made me realize that all of the memories, all of the photos from posts are more than just memories, just pictures, and just posts.

Image Source: http://pathwaysexperience.blogspot.com/2018/06/connect-with-storytelling-at-global.html

As I started to read more into the article, I realized that storytelling happens every day. When we talk about a favorite memory, we are telling a story. When we post about an event that happened that day, we are still telling a story. The article talked about even though we post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so many other sites, we are still storytelling, but it is shorter and on our time. The picture can share what a person was doing for the day or an event they attended. When someone posts a picture, we can look at our feeds anytime of day to view that story and read the post that goes along with it. 

As educators, we read stories to our students all the time. Now more than ever, technology can be used to create stories with students. For example, students can post a picture of an event or their family on SeeSaw. Students and teachers can then read the post and look at the pictures to view the students’ stories. Students and teachers can comment and like the post, which not only incorporates storytelling from a student perspective, but it also includes technology. I have mentioned this time and time again...technology is not going to go anywhere, anytime soon! 

At one point I thought storytelling was long and had to include a book of somesort. What I realized is that storytelling happens all the time. We share a memory or a photo. We can tell and show someone in person, or we can type and post a photo online. No matter the memory, the story will never end.   

Image Source: http://blog.clickdimensions.com/12-types-content-post-social-media/

Final Thoughts

Over the last eight weeks, I have been learning about new technology tools and how I can use those tools in my classroom. Technology is only going to become more advanced with time and it will never go away. As I was writing my previous blogs, I often thought about how I can use the tools that I learned about in my classroom. Would the tools work? Would the tools be engaging for the students? Would the students learn from the tools? And so on. I would have to say that I have become more invested in technology and I am now researching new items to use technology more in the classroom. I had questioned myself for so long about if the technology was going to work for me or I was going to mess up a lesson because I did not fully know how to use the site. Here’s the thing, I realized that technology is changing and it is changing fast. I may not be able to fully keep up with it, but trying to avoid technology altogether is not going to happen. Even if a lesson goes wrong, it is fine! There is no need to just throw my hands in the air and say “I am never using technology with my students again!” Let’s face it, that statement is NOT true.

https://rockresearch.com/top-10-views-on-technology/

In the last few weeks, I feel more confident using different tools and exploring new options for my students. I have not been able to use all of the tools that I learned about just yet, but there is one tool that stood out to me the most. Screencastify is now one of my favorite tools to use. I use it to make videos for my students and upload them to SeeSaw. Screencastify is easy to use for teachers. I definitely want to use Screencastify with my students to have them explain a project they created using the computer or even just to share something about themselves. 

Image Source: https://www.gettingsmart.com/2020/06/smart-review-harnessing-the-power-of-videos-with-screencastify/ 

I went back to my first blog and I was rereading it. I think that I have become a better blogger over the last eight weeks. I never thought I would like to blog about new information and new technology tools to use in my classroom. My blogs give me an opportunity to reflect on how to use different tools and what the internet really has to offer. When I started this course, I was so excited to start and learn new information. I even used the following GIF to describe how I felt about the course.

Image Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/Ta2eHM043vhVS/giphy.gif

After this course, I realized that I feel like the following GIF (very confident) about technology and how to apply what I learned in my classroom with my students.

Image Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/wvI1UUF9pygFO/giphy.gif

 

Data Mining for Gold and My Digital Tattoo!

 Data Mining for Gold and My Digital Tattoo!

Image Source: https://www.complexsql.com/data-mining-definition/ 

I have spent some time researching my name and what my name is associated with. I have searched my name on multiple sites, which some sites did not have any information on me whatsoever. However, there were seven sites that were able to give some background to my digital mine. The seven sites that had information on me were: Google, BlockShopper, Radaris, YouTube, Classmates, Facebook, and Twitter. 

Google:

Everyone has Googled themselves at least once in their life, right? Well, I was able to narrow down results that just pertained to me. I first typed in “deanna mulay”, which I was able to see 147 results in about .47 seconds. This search stated my Linkedin account, where I went to high school, a blog that I have written last year for a school, all of the 5k races I participated in, and even showed that I donated $20 to a fundraiser. I was not surprised about any of the information I found online, however, I was surprised to find photos of me from my Linkedin account. I thought that I would see more photos from my Facebook page instead. I was also shocked to see photos from my blog posts from last year with the students. 

I was also able to see that my address was given along with my parents’ names on White Pages. Once I kept clicking on relatives’ names, it eventually started with my name again. All of the addresses were correct and the ages of my family were correct as well. 

After I found all of the above information, I decided to take it one step further. I typed in the search bar “deanna k mulay”. I thought I was going to get so many more results, but I only had 3 results. All of which were from Benedictine University for the Dean’s List in 2016. 

BlockShopper:

As a young educator, I still live with my parents. I was able to locate our home address and how much my parents paid for our house back in 1997! I found it interesting that the names on the website had my mother’s name correct, but it had my father’s name as Saml Mulay Jr., instead of Samuel Mulay Jr. I was also able to find the previous owners of our house, which was over 23 years ago. 

Radaris: 

When I typed in my name on Radaris, what I found, was definitely not what I expected. They actually listed that I lived in Elk Grove Village, IL. What really shocked me though was that they listed my uncle’s house address. I have listed this address for a subscription in the mail, but otherwise, why would people think that I live there? Radaris did also share my relatives correctly. I did also find it interesting that my grandmother, who did live at the given address, was on it twice as Geraldine L. Marra and Geri L. Marra and that she was 61 years old. All of my relatives listed on this site had correct ages and names except my grandmother. When my grandmother had passed away, she was 79 and she lived at that address until her passing. 

YouTube:

When I typed in my name on YouTube, I expected my channel to pop up that I made years ago. Well, my channel did pop up, along with videos that I uploaded for a class that I had completely forgotten about. I also recently uploaded videos to my channel, which the videos are in some of my previous blogs (UDL, Kahoot!). I also found a video that was on my friend’s YouTube channel when we were in our first year of college together. We had to create education videos that related to our readings for that class. However, none of the other videos were related to me. 

Classmates:

As I was typing in my information of where I went to high school and the year that I graduated, I thought to myself that no one that I know is going to be on this site. Boy, was I wrong. There were 8 classmates that graduated the same year as I did. I did not remember all of their names, but this site actually jogged my memory a bit. I also viewed the other people who went to Montini Catholic High School from 2010-2014. 82 results popped up and I knew almost everyone that was on this site. 

Facebook:

I was not able to find my profile on Facebook directly. However, I did find my Avon Facebook Group that led me to my profile. After I found my profile, I was able to see that I live in Glen Ellyn, went to Benedictine University, pictures of myself and my dogs, and went to Montini Catholic High School. Other than those few points, I was not able to find additional information. 

Twitter: 

About five weeks ago, I created my Twitter account for my PLN. I also had a private account many years ago, but never really engaged with it. When I went to look for both profiles, I was not able to find any information other than that I was an educator. I am not surprised that this is the only information that popped up because I rarely use Twitter, but I still have a web presence using this site. 

Reflection: 

Image Source: https://www.javatpoint.com/data-mining-cluster-vs-data-warehousing 

I am not one who is always sharing information online or posting information that I would consider private. After completing this data mine, I realized that there is so much information on myself and I had no idea what was really out there. There was a blog I wrote last year, all of the 5k races I participated in, my address, my relatives’ names, where I went to high school and college, and even where I donated money to. I found old videos uploaded to YouTube that I completely forgot about. I even found old classmates from when I went to high school. In the last few weeks, I have been making more of an online presence, but I still did not realize fully what was online before I made myself more public. I guess I should not be surprised what information is really online about me, but at the same time I feel like my private life has been made public by force. 

After finding all of the information on myself, I think that it is important for teachers and parents to talk to students about their digital tattoos and data mines. I found videos of myself from six years ago and believe me, they are not going anywhere. I think students should be aware about what is online about themselves at a young age, but as the students reach junior high and high school, they should be able to create their own data mine to see what kinds of information is really available for anyone to see. A post is not just a post that can be removed with ease, it is permanent, which will follow you no matter where life takes you. 

More information on Data Mining and Digital Tattoos are available below: 

More information on Digital Tattoo.

What is a digital tattoo?

What is data mining?

More information on data mining.

Just A Tweet Away

Just A Tweet Away

Image Source: twitter.com 

Are you an educator? Do you have Twitter? If not, you need to create a profile for yourself! Years ago I created a private account on Twitter for myself, but I never found what all the fuss was about until I created a public, professional account. Twitter had taken on a whole new light for me when I created my professional account (@ms_mulay). I only created this account four weeks ago and I have come across amazing educators and organizations that have helped my Personal Learning Network (PLN) take off. A few of the educators that I follow are Paul Solarz, Shelly Sanchez, Todd'sGiftedRants, 21st Century Teacher, ColorinColorado, and so many more! 

Twitter Chats:

As an educator, it is important to make a professional mark, even on the internet. Twitter has many opportunities to have chats to communicate with other educators. During the four weeks that I have been on Twitter, I have participated in two Twitter Chats. The first chat that I participated in was very engaging and I had a great time answering the questions that Steven Sokohl was posting. I was writing in the comments and noticed that I was receiving a lot of feedback from other educators, which made me feel as if I was a celebrity because I never had any interactions on Twitter before. I also realized that I struggled to put in the hashtag (#) in for my responses. A goal for me is to remember to put the hashtags in my responses before I post them. I really enjoyed this chat because it helped me realize what I do as a teacher and how my job is making a difference, even in a pandemic. I also learned that it is fine to have some personal time and take a mental break because the end of last school year and the beginning of this one has really been difficult on teachers and students.

Below are my responses during this Twitter Chat.

Image Source: Deanna Mulay, Personal Images (@ms_mulay)

After the chat had ended, I was so excited to hear that there was another chat happening the next Monday. So I decided to join that chat, but participate in another way. I “quote retweeted” the question and wrote my answer to the question. I saw a few other people quote retweets the week before, so I thought I would give it a go. Again, I had a great time answering the questions that the host, Todd'sGiftedRants, was asking, but I found that more people were retweeting my responses and making comments to go along with or disagree with what I stated. I had a hard time accepting the comments because I am the type of person that likes to be hidden and not take risks. However, participating in the chat helped me realize that, as a professional, I need to be seen/heard and take risks by collaborating with other educators. Now I understand the purpose of a PLN and how it can help me grow as an educator. 

Again, below are my responses to my second chat. 

Image Source: Deanna Mulay, Personal Images (@ms_mulay)

Resources That Can Grow My PLN:

As I was looking up different people and organizations to follow, I came across amazing resources for teachers. I would have to say my favorite resource that I found was The Nuts and Bolts of Feedback. As educators, we rely on feedback such as observations from our administers, but we also look for feedback as teachers by giving our students assessments. To be a life-long learner, it is important to receive and give strong, supportive feedback. By asking students and even coworkers where they can see themselves in each of the cups on the worksheet (image below), it will help educators and administrators to support others to strengthen their feedback. This resource also provides students an opportunity to self-assess how they see themselves and what they may want to improve on. Self-reflecting is also a great skill for a life-long learner to have. There are so many resources on Twitter that I was missing out on when I did not create my professional account.

 

Image Source: https://twitter.com/FloopEdu/status/1306262600951279617 

Reflection on Twitter: 

Signing up for my Twitter account, I was reluctant because I thought it was going to be hard to chat with other educators and the tweets would be about random facts or thoughts that people decided to share. However, I found out that Twitter is a great way to find resources, connect with other educators, and build a digital footprint professionally. When I get home, I look forward to scroll through my Twitter feed and see if there are any chats going to happen or if any new books or resources are available. If I did not sign up for Twitter, I would truly be missing out on building and also expanding my PLN. So, if you are an educator who has not signed up for a Twitter account, think about signing yourself up. You never know what resources you will find!   

Kahoot!

 What is Kahoot!?

Kahoot! is an interactive game for students and even adults to use. Kahoot! is easy to create, share and play learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes. It is engaging for all players and it can be played on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Kahoot! allows students to play at home during remote learning. While in the classroom, students are able to play on their Chromebooks or tablets.

Image Source: https://kahootinfo.weebly.com/  

Why did I choose Kahoot!?

Back when I was finishing up my general education courses in college as a sophomore, I was taking a Spanish class and did not follow one thing the teacher was saying. I can still remember the day she told us she was going to try something different...it was Kahoot! At first, I hated the idea of answering questions and everyone is going to see that I was getting the answers wrong. When I found out that the answers in the poll (like in the image below) were anonymous, I fell in love with this game! 

Image Source: https://digiteacher.wordpress.com/category/polling/ 

As time went on, no other teacher used Kahoot! so I just forgot about it, until this year. During remote learning, I was watching other teachers use Kahoot! with their students and I wanted to try it out, but I was so nervous that I would mess it up for the students. Sadly I did not do it with last year’s students, but recently I did try it with my coworkers. It was like I was in college again, having fun and super engaged with the content we were learning. At that moment I realized that I needed to bring Kahoot! into some of my lessons. I did try it out with my students online. They loved the game so much that they want to play every time we hop on Zoom. I could feel the engagement through a computer screen, so I cannot wait to feel the excitement about Kahoot! in person!

How can Kahoot! be accessed and what are the benefits of playing it?

In this brief narrated PowerPoint, you will learn how Kahoot! can be played and what the benefits are for teachers and students! 

How could Kahoot! be used in a lesson?

Kahoot! can be used in so many different ways in the classroom. For me, I generally use it as a review game at the end of a chapter or lesson. I like to use Kahoot! with older students reading a chapter book. At the end of each chapter, I can ask them five to ten questions to see how much the students remembered about that chapter (i.e. characters, plots, etc.). Since Kahoot! can also be played with adults, it is great for a brain break game of trivia or a review of the meeting. Whether you use the Classic mode or the Team Mode, Kahoot! is able to engage its players and make learning fun! 

Extra Resources: 

This video provides information on how to use Kahoot! reports to assess learning outcomes.

This article discusses the pros and cons of Kahoot! 

This is an article about Kahoot! being game-based learning. 

This is the Professional Development that Kahoot! has available.

This video walks you through the steps to create a quiz on Kahoot!  

This link provides more information on team mode of Kahoot!

How is Kahoot! game-based?

How can Kahoot! be used as a communication tool?

Students with Digital Media and Digital Citizenship

This week, I was able to look at different research statistics. I have had technology in my hands since the seventh grade, which was my first (flip) phone, and I have never put technology down since. From the time that I had my first phone to now, times sure have changed, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. All of a sudden we were in classrooms and now we are online. We will go back to the classrooms one day, but the technologies that we have learned to use will carry over into our “toolbox” forever. However, since technology has grown, we need to make sure we are teaching our students about digital citizenship. Common Sense Media has provided a full curriculum for digital citizenship and different research on media. Teaching Digital Citizens in Today’s World talks about digital citizenship and kids with digital media. 

     

Image Source: https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/education/sites/default/files/tlr_component/common_sense_education_digital_citizenship_research_backgrounder.pdf

As I was looking through the report from Common Sense Media, I was really shocked about how many children use devices. According to James, Weinstein, & Mendoza, in 2011 from ages 0-8 years old, 41% of children had a smartphone in their home, 8% of children had a tablet in the home, and less than 1% of children had their own tablet. I was not too shocked about the 95% of homes had smartphones and 78% of homes had a tablet in 2017. The percentage that I find very shocking is that in 2017, 42% of children from ages 0-8 had their own tablet. In 2020, I am sure that this percentage is higher because of remote learning. I find it hard to believe that small children have their own device, but do they really know how to use it? Another aspect of the report was that from 2011 to 2017, the media time for children at the ages of 0-8 years old has gone from only five minutes a day and increased to forty-eight minutes a day. 

After I was looking at the children from ages 0-8 years old, I then moved onto tweens (8-12 years old) and teens (13-18 years old). For this data I was not as surprised as I was for the children who were 0-8 years old. Tweens have a daily screen time average of about six hours a day. Teens spend about nine hours a day for their screen time. I found the following statement very interesting: 

“By the time they're teenagers in America, 95 percent of children will have their own mobile device and will, on average, spend almost nine hours a day texting, playing games, posting to social media, watching videos, and more (Rideout & Robb, 2018). As tweens and teens move into the middle and high school years, they have ongoing, 24/7 access to friends and peers via apps and mobile devices, with 45 percent of teens saying they're online "almost constantly"(Anderson & Jiang, 2018).”

Deep down, I knew that teens did not value face to face communication with friends because of texting and social media. I was once that teen, however, when I went to college for my Bachelor’s Degree, I really valued my face-to-face time. The texting and social media was just a bonus. However, I did find it interesting that teens thought they were being manipulated by tech companies. 72% of teens believed that the tech companies manipulated users to spend more time on their devices. (James, Weinstein, & Mendoza, 2019) I think why I am so surprised was because 72% of teens is such a large majority of teenagers. I also thought that not too many teens were paying attention to what tech companies were really doing to their phones. 

On the internet, there can be content that is unsuitable for young children and the overall screen time is increasing. This can be worrisome to parents and educators. For older students, the content and screen time are still an issue, but parents also worry about who their children are speaking to online. There are so many people using the internet that anyone can be talking to someone who they think is “safe”, but really it is NOT safe. 

As educators it is so important to teach our students about digital citizenship. Digital citizenship is the responsible use of technology to learn, create, and participate (James, Weinstein, & Mendoza, 2019) and can be further explained in this video. Students, mostly tweens and teens, want to make their digital footprint and post nonymously. This means that students are more likely to be tied to their real identity on the internet. Especially when posting pictures of themselves daily or on occasion. The Digital Citizenship Curriculum is designed to foster both necessary skills and essential dispositions for digital citizenship. The goal is to support young people in developing skills such as creating a strong password or assessing the credibility of an online source and aim to help young people be reflective, responsible, and ethical decision makers in their connected lives. (James, Weinstein, & Mendoza, 2019) When the teens are more aware of their online privacy, it helps them take steps to protect themselves. The internet can be a scary place, but if we teach the students about digital citizenship, they can take the necessary steps to protect themselves and others online. 

I also found the Teaching Digital Citizens in Today’s World article to be very resourceful when it talked more about The Common Sense Curriculum for digital citizenship. I also really enjoyed the information about the six topics from the curriculum: Media Balance and Well-Being; Privacy and Security; Digital Footprint and Identity; Relationships and Communication; Cyberbullying, Digital Drama, and Hate Speech; and News and Media Literacy. This article also talks more about how to implement digital citizenship for our students as well. 

Image Source: https://www.mps-edu.org/domain/766

With my students, I really try to emphasize the importance of digital citizenship. Since tweens and teens are being more nonymous, it is really important that educators talk to them about online safety and how to be a good digital citizen. For me, the internet is a scary place, but it is also full of great resources. When we use the internet, how it is meant to be used, it is full of wonderful topics and tools for everyone to enjoy. I think that it is so important to even teach our younger students about digital citizenship because it will help them protect themselves online, like telling a parent or teacher about what they saw online. 

After reading these statistics, I reflected more on how this applies to my current students. I thought about how much we go online, but we rarely talk about how to properly use the internet. I also try to incorporate more technology, but am I then increasing all of the students’ screen times? I think that educators need to focus on how students should be using the internet and how they can protect themselves when using it. Technology is fun and it is a great tool to use, but we also need to take into consideration how much we actually use it and what we are really looking at online.  

Resources

Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018). Teens,social media & technology 2018. Retrieved from Pew Research Center website: http://assets.pewresearch.org/wpcontent/uploads/sites/14/2018/05/31102617/PI_2018.05 .31_TeensTech_FINAL.pdf

James, C., Weinstein, E., & Mendoza, K. (2019) Teaching digital citizens in today’s world: research and insights behind the common sense K–12 digital citizenship curriculum. Retrieved from Common Sense Media website: https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/education/sites/default/files/tlr_component/common_sense_education_digital_citizenship_research_backgrounder.pdf

Rideout, V., & Robb, M. (2018). Social media,social life: Teens reveal their experiences. Retrieved from Common Sense Media website: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/2018_cs_socialmediasociallife_fullreport-final-release_2_lowres.pdf