To Web 2.0 and Beyond

Since our upcoming produsage assignment is centered around using Web 2.0 tools for learning, I wanted to share a resource that I posted to our Pinterest group early on in the course. I have observed and participated in some great interactions and discussions on this week's Canvas discussion board about ideas for the produsage assignment and which tools will best support these ideas. From what I have noticed and from my own experience, we begin with a tool in mind and then as we talk through our idea for the online space, we wonder about the capabilities of the tool...  Can you comment on other's posts? Can the online space be open (for contribution) to the public either by invite or a URL? [view only or edit capabilities] Can you like, react or favourite posts? Does it have the ability to save posts and resources Is it compatible with images, videos, hyperlinks and attachments?  These are some questions I am pondering and you may be too. Certain tools are designed for particul...

Completing ESL courses or an English Language Learners certificate does not always mean you are fully prepared to jump right in and be the best ESL teacher you can be (although that is the wish). Growing your pedagogical practices and learning how to meet the literacy needs of ELLs takes time, resources and collaboration. This blog is a response to someone reaching out to their fellow educators and online ESL teachers community and asking for help.  I have spent 3 years collecting resources and asking for help, because I have been there too: feeling unprepared, confused about the discrepancy between my training and the reality of my classroom and ELLs and discouraged. Don't worry, your feelings are valid and common. It will get better and that starts with reaching out and asking for help. Beginning ELLs (with little language acquisition) participate mainly in listening and viewing activities as they build comfort to explore oral and writ...

One of our challenges this week was to create a vision board on Pinterest.  I am an active user of Pinterest for teaching and other inspiration, it is  an app that I would say I use the most. Pinterest is something I look forward to using and I use it weekly to gather ideas and inspiration as well as learn new things for everything in my life- my job, my outfits, my workouts, vacation planning, career goals and visions, recipes, DIY ideas, literally everything!  While some Pinterest boards function as idea and information boards, where I pin resources that link to important sites and further reading, I also have many boards that are vision boards that are meant to create aesthetic and visions of things.  I created a vision board for my Career Visions and what I want my work life and atmosphere to look like, check out this Career Visions board .  I believe vision boards can effectively help someone establish what they want an aspect of their life to loo...

This week, I participated in a live Twitter chat, where people tune in at the same time to discuss a topic or answer questions with rapid short responses. The topic of the Twitter chat #edchat, was:   "Is the decision made by many states to return to an in-school model of education only, while ignoring the online benefits a sound policy?"  What I enjoyed about the experience was the addition of a little adrenaline I felt. Because the chat moved fast and the chat only lasted for a short time (15 minutes), I was engaged and reading people's ideas and the debates the whole time.  Going into the live twitter chat, I had a goal to tweet once, but as discussions emerged, I wanted to contribute and respond more. My first tweet was the hardest to post, as I had doubts that my ideas would be worth sharing.  #edchat Our district offered a blended model, online in the morning and in person (optional) in the afternoons. One afternoon a week, teachers connect with f...

This week I participated in the Twitter Days of the Week Challenge. Each day had a themed tweet suggestion and of course to accompany it, a hashtag.  This week's challenge has been a special one for me because it helped me reach a person best, this was the most I have ever tweeted in a week before!  Here is my #SumitupSunday #MondayMeme:  Has this ever happened to you while working or learning online? #eme6414 #MondayMeme pic.twitter.com/czU6zvTswc — Melissa (@LissaMay21) May 31, 2021 #Toolbox Tuesday I don’t know what I would do without Pinterest. It keep my life organized! I like to think of it as a visual bookmarking tool or a digital vision board #eme6414 #ToolboxTuesday pic.twitter.com/b4gDBNahbf — Melissa (@LissaMay21) June 1, 2021 #WonderingWednesday  I wonder if we should be teaching students about social media and internet use at earlier ages so they are staying safe and learning how to be good digital citizens? Teaching them positive collabora...

This week will mark my second week of being a part of two online Succulent and Cacti communities.  I thought that joining these two communities would feel like something I needed to remember to do (and at first it was), but after a few days, I was almost...hooked.  Right now, my schedule is very busy: wake up early, work on my courses, go to work, work on my courses, eat dinner, more work on my courses, then my other work like end of the year assessments, planning year end activities for my little learners, and of course report cards, because report card season is upon us. However, remembering to check my communities,  scroll through threads, comment on some pictures and ask some questions has become a lovely part of my day that I look forward to. I am surprised at how quickly I became invested. I wanted to check first thing the next day to see if anyone replied to my post or to enjoy my first few sips of coffee and look at the gorgeous pictures of people's succ...

 After reading Lingel and Naaman's (2012) You Should Have Been There, Man: Live Music DIY Content and Online Communities , I have some thoughts to share!  The Study Lingel and Naaman (2012) wanted to find out motivations for and the practice of taking and sharing videos of live music concerts. DIY (do-it-yourself) videos have become popular and are used to document the Youtuber's experience at the concert and to share it with the world and fan communities. Youtube has become part of a notion called gift economies , meaning users post content and devote their time and energy in order to share without expectations of compensation; they are gifting their content. The study had 10 participants that were considered "DIY video producers" (found through Youtube); half of the participants filmed mainstream, large concert venues and the other half filmed Indie music in smaller venues with less of a following.  This study sought to find out three main questions:...