Reflective Post #2 EDU 780

Reflective Post #2

By: Deanna Mulay

Image Source: https://www.globalfocusmagazine.com/tag/technology/ 

1. Now that you have finished the course, what is your stance on your role as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy? Has this changed from the beginning of the course?

    Now that I have completed the course, I have learned what digital and media literacy is and why it is important to have in our classrooms. At first, I thought that digital and media literacy was just having students use tools, such as social media or use different sites to research topics. Now that I have learned more about digital and media literacy, I know that it is a way for students to use critical thinking skills, be more engaged in lessons, and allow all students to participate. Digital and media literacy is also a great way for enhancing lessons. Technology is not suppose to replace lessons, only enhance them. In terms of my role as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy, I take more of a stand on different technology platforms for students to use and for me to advocate to enhance lessons for every classroom by  using technology. Technology may seem like a distraction, but educators need to find ways of using the tools to make more lessons engaging for all students. 

2. How can you continue growing as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy?

    I can continue growing as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy by taking risks with technology tools and continue looking into different tools to add in my technology toolbox. I can also create and attend different professional developments to help discover new tools to use for teachers and students as well. During this course, we were asked to find a new tool and also create a professional development. By repeating those assignments, I will be able to continue to grow and develop my skills as an educator of Digital and Media Literacy.  

3. Overall, what will you take away from this course?

    I will take away many ideas from this course. However, the one point that sticks with me is that technology is NOT meant to replace lessons. I think many educators, including myself, thought adding a technology tool at the end of the lesson was a way to incorporate more technology. In reality, technology should be included in every part of a project that students are working on. This course has given me a different take on technology and how I view it in the classroom. It is NOT a distraction or add-on to a lesson, rather an enhancement to the lessons to support all students. 

4. Any other feedback regarding this course (suggestions, questions, feedback etc.)

    I really enjoyed taking this course because I learned so much. I really enjoyed the Cool Tools Show-and-Tell. I think it was a great activity to learn more about different tools. It was also great to read about other educators' tools that they chose. I would like to do a similar activity in the future. I have really enjoyed this course and have learned so much!

Image Source: https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2021/03/15/reflection-in-action-a-case-for-case-studies-amid-covid-19/

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.