All I want to say is wow, the internet is a scary, scary place….
This week in my tech class we had a guest speaker, Jesse Miller, an internet privacy and safety expert come talk to our class about internet safety, but not in the same context as most internet safety talks. Jesse came to discuss with our class the importance of balancing both personal and professional social media and responsibilities with us. In his speech, Jesse focused on making sure that we understand how the decisions we make on social media could affect our future professional careers and how employers are looking intently at what their job candidates have posted online. He was not only discussing these topics with us as future teacher candidates applying for jobs but also as future educators who should be educating the importance of our digital identities with our students. Social media platforms are growing extremely fast and are targeting the youth of our society, as educators we need to make sure that we are showing our students how to use these digital platforms in an appropriate way. Jesse explained to us that screen time is not necessarily a bad thing it is all about how we are using our time on our screens. Well Jesse’s talk did scare the life outta me and I have never googled myself so much in my entire life, I found the information he gave us to be extremely eye opening and useful to my future career.
Also in our tech class this week we played around with video editing, something I am not very comfortable with at all. I have never been very tech inclined when it comes to video editing or using certain software programs such as IMovie or FinalCutPro but I do believe that video editing can really support students learning. Whether it is videos that you as a teacher are creating to showcase new information or knowledge to your students, or allowing your own students to make/edit videos themselves, digital videos can allow for your students to obtain new skills and knowledge in a fun and interactive way. Allowing your students to produce videos can also be a great way for students to collaborate with their peers and work together to produce a project.
Here is a video that I created while in tech this week that displays some of the features available in IMovie such as splitting a clip, adding in transitions and titles. The video I used was a peer teaching video for our EPHE class that involves my group teaching gymnastics.
