Hello world,
Facebook Now Using Artificial Intelligence to Predict Teen Suicide. How could I possibly ignore that? With depression and suicide rates through the roof in my hometown and community, I am always seeking answers to this modern issue. Suicide is rarely a spur of the moment decision. It is something that ruminates for months or years before such a drastic step is taken. With today's teenagers practically living in the virtual world, there may certainly be patterns visible to the algorithms of google that no single person may be able to detect. This post talks about how this sort of monitoring is still in it's infancy, but in the future may detect nuances in language and how often people check in on a certain person as hints to something brewing in the dark mentality. It is controversial I think, because this creates ethical dilemmas of spying on people. At the same time, according to the article, the suicide rate for young women has tripled since 1990 and I can't imagine the grief of parents at discovering that their teenager has taken her own life.
On a happier note, this random name picker is a great tool to use in classrooms and is far more random than any manually created contraption I would make!
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Comments on Technology and Education Blogs
Hello world,
As I was reading through technology blogs, this post in TeachThought was the first to catch my eye. It's about how students, and young people in general see themselves in the current age. One thing I haven't considered is how differently today's youth see themselves. While in my teenage years I struggled with identity based on which cultures I related to having moved several times in my youth. Todays teen's identities are based on virtual expressions of self. Since teens are very young and without much life experience, a constant expression of self only reaffirms their ego-centrism and denies them of the opportunity to exist in a physical world. This blog post alludes to this loss of physical identity by calling teachers to help students construct an image that is whole. I think this is valuable for us to realize as teachers because we can help students more than ever in a holistic way that is also unprecedented.
In the blog Free Technology 4Teachers, several resources are posted for teachers to create a polling system in their presentations. I think this would be a useful feature to include in my classes. Several of my university lectures used this method to engage students and I thought it was effective. This promotes interaction during the class and can be used to ask opinions, to predict hypotheses, or to test knowledge. No matter what the poll is used for, it increases the participation of each student and reduces the chance that they will get distracted while attention is on a single other person speaking in class.
Although I like all the top posts in Edudemic, the one I want to share is How to Protect Students From Fake News. Most young people get their information from social media these days and will readily believe it. According to the blogs facts from a Stanford study, "82% of surveyed middle-schoolers couldn’t distinguish between ads and real news on a website". This is great cause for alarm as we could have a naive generation blindly believing the most attention grabbing disputes without knowing how to find facts for themselves. More than many subjects taught in schools in the past, differentiating between facts and fake news is one of the most important skills we can teach our young people. I believe as teachers we have a great responsibility to incorporate this skill into our curriculum, no matter what subject we teach. Students must learn to find real sources on any topic and think critically about what they are reading, searching first for the source of information rather than the most dangerous trap of blindly following what they see.
As I was reading through technology blogs, this post in TeachThought was the first to catch my eye. It's about how students, and young people in general see themselves in the current age. One thing I haven't considered is how differently today's youth see themselves. While in my teenage years I struggled with identity based on which cultures I related to having moved several times in my youth. Todays teen's identities are based on virtual expressions of self. Since teens are very young and without much life experience, a constant expression of self only reaffirms their ego-centrism and denies them of the opportunity to exist in a physical world. This blog post alludes to this loss of physical identity by calling teachers to help students construct an image that is whole. I think this is valuable for us to realize as teachers because we can help students more than ever in a holistic way that is also unprecedented.
In the blog Free Technology 4Teachers, several resources are posted for teachers to create a polling system in their presentations. I think this would be a useful feature to include in my classes. Several of my university lectures used this method to engage students and I thought it was effective. This promotes interaction during the class and can be used to ask opinions, to predict hypotheses, or to test knowledge. No matter what the poll is used for, it increases the participation of each student and reduces the chance that they will get distracted while attention is on a single other person speaking in class.
Although I like all the top posts in Edudemic, the one I want to share is How to Protect Students From Fake News. Most young people get their information from social media these days and will readily believe it. According to the blogs facts from a Stanford study, "82% of surveyed middle-schoolers couldn’t distinguish between ads and real news on a website". This is great cause for alarm as we could have a naive generation blindly believing the most attention grabbing disputes without knowing how to find facts for themselves. More than many subjects taught in schools in the past, differentiating between facts and fake news is one of the most important skills we can teach our young people. I believe as teachers we have a great responsibility to incorporate this skill into our curriculum, no matter what subject we teach. Students must learn to find real sources on any topic and think critically about what they are reading, searching first for the source of information rather than the most dangerous trap of blindly following what they see.
Language Skills through ICT - Teaching in Israel
Hello world my name is Natasha,
Acro-yogi, dancer, child whisperer and language enthusiast. I am a lifelong learner and seek self-actualization through peak experience from skill derived over steady and frequent practice of my chosen activities. I flow through my days with awareness of connection, trying to stay in the present but inevitably slipping into future planning and doing what must be done in the busy day to day.
This assignment is forcing me to think of expectations for a class while one of my principle life beliefs is not to have any. I suppose since this class is titled Language Skills through Information and Communications Technology that we will be learning how to teach using online tools as well as acquire resources in order to teach online courses. Just because we are millennials and are the first generation to grow up with a computer in the home, doesn't mean we are experts in the use of technology. Although I somewhat know my way around a PC and have written some simple html code in the past, I have never actually uploaded videos nor know where to look for teaching materials for teachers or students. I hope this course will help me find fluency in technology in case I find myself teaching online courses in the future. Even if I don't, I believe it would be useful and relevant to include technology in the modern classroom.
Acro-yogi, dancer, child whisperer and language enthusiast. I am a lifelong learner and seek self-actualization through peak experience from skill derived over steady and frequent practice of my chosen activities. I flow through my days with awareness of connection, trying to stay in the present but inevitably slipping into future planning and doing what must be done in the busy day to day.
This assignment is forcing me to think of expectations for a class while one of my principle life beliefs is not to have any. I suppose since this class is titled Language Skills through Information and Communications Technology that we will be learning how to teach using online tools as well as acquire resources in order to teach online courses. Just because we are millennials and are the first generation to grow up with a computer in the home, doesn't mean we are experts in the use of technology. Although I somewhat know my way around a PC and have written some simple html code in the past, I have never actually uploaded videos nor know where to look for teaching materials for teachers or students. I hope this course will help me find fluency in technology in case I find myself teaching online courses in the future. Even if I don't, I believe it would be useful and relevant to include technology in the modern classroom.
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