The Final Week

Hello everyone!
So this will be my last blog post! It is crazy how fast a semester can fly by! Just 12 weeks ago I was just starting to look into what it means to have a digital footprint, having digital responsibilities and being digitally literate. As per my course instructions, I was told to Google myself again to look at my digital footprint. Well... I got essentially the same results as before. Some girl with the same name as me that was on the X Factor a few years back.. Haha!
While nothing new showed up, I can see through my newly updated PLE how my digital footprit has changed and grown!
Here is my old one:

 

And (drumroll please) my new PLE: 

 

It was very interesting for me to reflect and add new things to my PLE from all of the new tools that I have used over the course of this week. That is what is so great about PLEs they are constantly changing, and you can add anything that works for you! I added some of the new tools I have discovered in this course, but not all, as some of them just don't work for me! 

I have learned so many things over the course of these 12 weeks, but I think the most important is in regards to digital citizenship!  Digital citezenship covers a variety of things including creating a positive digital footprint, and upholding digital responsibilities. I have said it before, and I will say it again, positive online experiences for all start with respect. Respect for the work of others, respect for your self, and respect for others is vital for creating a positive, and productive environment!  

I hope that you have all taken away something new as you have journeyed with me, and that you will continue to learn about this digital world we live in! 

Thanks again for learning with me.. digitally! 

~ Hannah    

 

Post 11

Hey everyone!

So we are getting so close to the end of our semester and the end of this course! Its crazy how fast the semesters fly by! It has been such a great experience learning about new digital programs, and digital literacy and responsibility! Alright, enough with the sentimental stuff.. On to week 11!!
So this week was focused on podcasts and screencasts!
While before this week I had hear of podcasts, and had a general idea of what they were all about, 'screencast' was a new term to me! So lets break it down!

Podcasts: A podcast is considered any audio file that is embedded on a website!
Screencasts: A screencast is a short video that shows what is happening on your computer screen.

After reading the definition of screencast, I realized I have indeed used them before! While I have never made a screen cast (until this week anyways), I have seen some! I have viewed and used many people screencasts via youtube to learn how to do things, or fix things.
This is what is great about screen casts, it is a great teaching tool when you cant have the person right beside you following along with the steps!
Podcasts can also be extremely useful tools! What I love about podcasts, is that the author can portray things, like emotion, or sarcasm that wouldn't be possible (or very challenging) to portray within online text! The idea that you can portray to your audience how you feel, while still being able to reach a large audience is such a great opportunity!
This week I used a tool called SoundCloud, a podcast creation tool! It's great because it allows you not only to upload already recorded items, but also record directly on your computer, right onto SoundCloud! I highly recommend checking it out!
So how can these fit into my PLE?
Well, for me the screencasts will be super helpful for me with future students. The idea that I could create a screencast talking about a lesson a student missed, or for online resources they are learning, will allow me to help students on a larger scale, as well as encourage self directed learning! This is also a great way to tech others how to use programs, or teach them about a specific online tool. I hope that I can use screencasts for group projects when a group member is confused or stuck on a specific task, or step!
In regards to podcasts, I think that the same idea of future use with students applies. Creating a short podcast to go along with a slideshow can greatly improve the understanding of a student, and I look forward to using this strategy! While I don't intend to keep blogging after this course, I think that a podcast can greatly add to a blog, and perhaps this can fit into your PLE if you have a blog!
Is there a space for podcasts and screencasts on your PLE? Let me know in the comments!

That's all for this week!

Thanks for learning with me... digitally!

~ Hannah

Hey guys!

Hope everyone got a chance to look at the Prezi I posted earlier!
This week we learned about many different tools, but I am going to focus mostly on Prezi! This week was not my first time using Prezi, and it certainly will not be my last! I LOVE this online program! In a nutshell, Prezi is an online slideshow creator, on steroids. It uses a 'pathway' navigation system, that zooms in and out of slides as you click through a presentation. Here is a quick video describing the basic concept of Prezi!
 

What I love about Prezi, is that it is very user friendly! The first time I used it, I had not idea how to do anything, but found myself figuring out things with ease, and being able to put together a fantastic presentation for a class! I have a difficult time embedding a video into a power point presentation, but with Prezi, you can easily embed a video of your own, or search a video on youtube to put in your presentation. In addition to it being user friendly, Prezi is a nice way to change up your presentations, and I find will often hold peoples attention for longer than other presentation programs! Prezi also gives you the option to share and embed your presentation so you can share it with whoever you want!
Another great feature of Prezi is the ability to collaborate. You have the option to add or invite others who you want to be able to access and edit your Prezi. I find this very useful when I am doing group presentations, and other forms of collaborative work!
Prezi was in my original PLE diagram, under my educational section, and I am so glad it is! I think that when I update my PLE I will include a collaboration section, as I keep finding, and using more programs that are great for collaborating with others.

That's all for now!
Thanks for learning with me.. Digitally!!

~ Hannah

Week 9!

Hey guys!


So this week we learned about Voicethread, as well as safe and appropriate technology use.
Lets start with a quick overview of Voicethread, and how it might fit into your PLE! 

Taken From: http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2007/03/06/509870/VoicethreadLogo.jpg

Voice thread is essentially an online slideshow creator. You may be thinking "Hannah, enough with the online slideshows, we JUST learned about Google Presentations in post 7". But! This program goes far beyond your typical online slideshow creator. Voicethread allows you to create and share slideshow presentations, but it also allows you to add in voice recordings, and videos to better assist anyone who is learning from the presentation. It is the ultimate tool for teachers, professors, or anyone trying to teach a subject, when they cannot meet face-to-face.  I have a few online classes, and a few hybrid classes (half online and half in 'real life'), and their power point presentations often fall flat as a result of lack of transferable information that one would receive from person talking. Voicethread bridges that gap, and not only allows the person who created the presentation to add audio, text, or video, but it also allows those following it to do so as well.
For me, this will fit wonderfully into my PLE for school. The use of Voicethread can assist in group projects, and presentations as well. I am hoping that I may be able to use it in the future as a teaching tool for my classes!

Alright, now lets switch gears hear. Part of our assignment was to pick a scenario out of our text book and talk about the appropriate and inappropriate use of technology. So here is the scenario I picked!

'Jamie has persuaded her parents to let her talk to her friends in an online chat room. Many of the people in the chat room are Jamie's friends, but there are some people she does not know. For several days, she has noticed one of these individuals talking to some of her friends. Now, this person is starting to ask Jamie about herself, and what she looks like. Jamie becomes uncomfortable and logs off the chat room. Later that evening she talks to her parents and mentions the person in the chat room and how it made her feel.' (Ribble, 2011) 

This scenario is quite realistic, and often students are faced with similar predicaments. I would like to start out by saying that, while Jamie was not outright using technology in an inappropriate manner, there are things that she and her parents could have done to make it safer for her! 
Jamie's Parents
Descy (2006) suggests that is is vital for parents to talk with their children about their online activities, and this means the parents need to be informed. This scenario seems to elude that by being 'convinced' by their daughter, Jamie's parents sis not know too much about the chat room she was a part of. The second point I'm going to talk about, is not actually a bad one. The scenario said that Jamie went to talk to her parents about how she felt in that situation. This is actually a great example of using technology appropriately! When something goes wrong, its important for children and students to know who to talk to! Descy (2006) suggests that it is important to have regular communication between parents and children regarding online activities, and what has been going on in their digital world! This open communication fosters a safe environment if a negative online experience should ever occur! 
Jamie
Now let's talk about Jamie, and what she did well, and what she could have done better! Logging off when she felt uncomfortable, and talking about it with her parents were great choices! Jamie did not give out any personal information, which is very important (Descy, 2006)! While she did these things well, there are some other things she could have done better. First of all, she was in a chat room with people she did not know. This is generally not a great idea for children. There are many places where you can chat only with friends (ie MSN), by adjusting the settings. This eleminates the potential issues that could arise when talking to people you do not know on the internet. Secondly, while Jamie went to her parents when she felt uncomfortable, it would have been more beneficial if she went to them as soon as people she did not know started talking to her friends. Respect is important in the digital world, and Jamie and her friends should respect one another, and keep each other safe! 
What do you guys think!? What else could Jamie and her parents do differently to insure appropriate use of technology, and safe use of technology? Is there something else they did well? Let me know in by commenting below, and lets get the conversation going! These topics are very important in an ever changing digital world!  

Thanks for learning with me... Digitally! 

~ Hannah



References: 

Descy, D. E. (2006). Keeping Kids Safe Online. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 50(5), 3-4.
Ribble, M. (2011). Digital Citizenship In Schools. Second Edition, International Society for Technology in Education.

Week 8 - Wikis and Digital Responsabilities

Hey Guys!
So this week was all about Wikis and digital responsibilities!
Lets start with Wikis. Up until this week I have had very little experience with Wikis, and wasn't even sure I knew how it could be helpful. Well after this session I have discovered how useful they can be.
Wikis are essentially websites that allow users to add, edit and change the webpage. This can be great for collaborative learning, and in general, learning about the different perspectives of others. While one person may define something a certain way, others may have a slightly different definition of the same thing. That's the beauty of a Wiki! Many different thoughts and ideas can be brought together in a collaborative learning environment! Here is a quick video that may help your understanding! Although it was originally posted for teachers, I think that there is some great little bits of information in the video, and that it gives a good overview of Wikis!

 

While I don't think I will use Wikis too much during my current academic activities, I look forward to using it in the future for teaching purposes! I could prove to be a great tool for using colaborative learning online! 

Moving right along... lets talk about digital responsibilities. This was one of the main focuses this week, and I think it is such an important topic! 

Part of this week's activities, we had to choose our top 3 topics that surround digital responsibilities, and these are the three I chose: 

Right to Not Be Cyber-bullied

No matter what activities we do, we should feel safe. This includes online activities. It is a right for people to feel safe, and not be cyber-bullied when online, or in digital contexts. This requires people to respect each other, and take the responsibility of not cyber-bullying others!

Responsibility to Ask Permission, and Cite
This one is equally as important. People should be able to post their thoughts and ideas etc. in digital contexts without the fear of someone using it as their own work. The responsibility for others to ask permission to use others work, or citing is very important, and should be upheld by all digital learners/participants!
Lastly...
The Right and Responsibility to Give and Receive Respect
This one, I think, kind of over-arches all digital responsibilities. Without respect for one another, we will get nowhere. Respect is needed to be able to have active and effective participation online. It is needed to create safe, and useful digital spaces and contexts. And it is necessary for positive digital learning experiences. 
What are some of your top 3 topics surrounding digital responsibility?
Thats all for now!
Thanks for learning with me... digitally!

~Hannah

Week 7

Hey guys!

So this week was all about Google Docs. Here is a quick video with a little bit of an overview of Google Docs!

 

I would like to start off by saying, that I LOVE Google Docs. I have been using it for about 5 years now, and I find it so helpful within my education! Google Docs allows you to create various kinds of documents online, and share them with other people. It also allows you to invite other people to edit, and add to your documents. What this means for me (and students in general) is that if I have a group project, I can create a document, invite all of my group members, and we can all edit and write within the document at the same time. Not only can we all be on the same document at once, but we are able to see all of the changes in real time, and who is making them. There is also a 'chat' feature, where you can talk to your collaborators, and you have the option of making highlights and adding notes, if other members of the group are not online. I have recently found Google Docs to be very helpful in doing brainstorming activities with groups. Everyone can write down whatever they think of without interrupting others, or having to wait for someone to write ideas down, but you can also bounce ideas of of others, and be inspired by others ideas! 

Taken From: http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/googledocs-tips-379x243.jpg

Google Docs has three main uses; Google Docs (word documents), Google Sheets (Spread Sheets), and Google Slides (Slide Show creator).

While I have never used Google Sheets, it seems relatively simple and user friendly. This week I was able to use Google Slides for the first time, and it was great. It was very user friendly, and very similar to common power-point creators such as Open Office, and Microsoft Powerpoint. It was great to be able to work with a group to create a slide show, completely online! We were able to talk to each other via a chat option, and suggest changes and add to each other sections!

When it comes to Google Docs, I love that I am able to access my documents, and slideshows from just about anywhere, and I can share it with whoever I want. I also like that I can invite people, and control whether or not they have the ability to edit, or make changes.

Another great thing about Google Docs is that it is free! And let me tell you, when you say free University students come running.. 

But in all seriousness it is a fantastic program, that I am happy to add to my PLE (I can't believe that I forgot to add it originally!). Overall it is great for many academic purposes, but could also prove to be helpful within various aspects of your work life, and any other situations where you need an easy way to share documents. I hope it is just as useful for you as it is for me, and that you add it to your PLE as well!

That's all for now, but I will be back next week! 

Thanks for learning with me... digitally! 

~ Hannah

Post 6: Evernote

Hello Everyone!

So I will start this post off with a lovely video I found on Youtube. As I navigate through this class I continue to learn about this digital world we live in, and the various ways in which it can benefit how we learn! This video highlights a school that has a focus on learning through digital means. It was so interesting to see the motivation that the students had to complete their work, and to achieve their goals, all through digital learning! Here is the video:

 

Hope you all enjoyed that, now, lets move on to this weeks session! 

I am very excited about this week, because the tool that we learned about, I actually think is very user friendly, and is something I will use that will keep me organized, and its free (which is always good for a broke university student!). The tool we learned about this week is called Evernote. This program is, essentially an online digital notebook. You can create different 'notebooks', and then fill them with pages of note, pictures, and various content. So, this week I began to do some research for a project for this class and well as a few others, and I was able to create different notebooks for each class, and assignment, and then fill them with notes, ideas, and information/research that I had come across! 

Taken From: https://evernote.com/media/img/getting_started/evernote/mac/hero_evernote.png

This is such a great organization tool for a few reasons. First; its fast. I can copy and paste links, and quickly type a note here or there about the important info found within that link, or simply use a snipping tool to directly add to my notebook. Secondly its so easy. I have found over the past couple of weeks, that many of the digital tools available are amazing, but only when you get to figuring them out, and that can take some time. This is not the case with Evernote! I had no trouble navigating or signing up for the program, and it was very straightforward! Finally, Evernote is available for a number of technological platforms. I can use it on my laptop, and access my notes on a school computer, my tablet, or even on my smartphone! The idea that I can have a bunch of notes and access them form almost anywhere is so nice, as I don't have to lug my laptop everywhere, or I don't have to worry if I forget my tablet at home, because I can get to them on my phone! 

In addition to personal use, your notebooks and pages can be shared with others. This will be very useful to me when I am doing group projects and want to share notes, ideas, and resources! 

Evernote will most definitely be making its way onto my PLE! This will definitely be going under my educational section as I think that it will prove to be very useful throughout my education. I will be heading off to teachers college next year and I think that Evernote could be a fantastic resource for assisting in the creation of lesson plans.

That is all for this week! I encourage everyone to give Evernote a whirl, and see what it can offer you, and maybe add it to your own PLE! 

Thanks for learning with me... digitally! 

~ Hannah

Hello Everyone!
Before I get into what I was learning about this week, I would like to start this post off with a video clip that can be found here. This is a video that poped up on my Feedly feed, and I just had to share. As a future educator, educational rights are very important to me, and I am always astounded by this young woman's courage, and the wisdom she has at such a young age!

Moving on to this weeks session....
So this week I did what I have vowed to never do. I joined Twitter.

Retrieved from: http://m.c.lnkd.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/p/6/005/073/357/2a1c1d8.jpg

 Here's the thing. I have always viewed twitter as a place where people post about what sandwich they ate for lunch, or how great their hot yoga class went, and I just did not see the value of knowing those things. Needless to say, I gave a good eye roll when I found out that I had to create a twitter account. BUT. As I began to look through the various accounts that I could 'follow', I began to see how there is potential for my digital learning.
This week we learned about creating, and building up a PLN. What is a PLN you may ask? Well, PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. Essentially a PLN is the people or groups that you exchange information with, and it is usually digital in format.
So after joining Twitter, and learning about PLN, the challenge then became filtering the ridiculous amounts of information from Twitter, and finding groups and people to follow that will create a useful PLN.  This was far more challenging than I initially thought, but I have a couple of tips if you are considering using Twitter as a PLN.

Tip 1: Start Small 
Don't expect to have it all figured out, and to have a perfect PLN after only one attempt. It will take time, so start by finding 3 to 5 people or groups to follow, that will really help with your area of interest, or study.
Tip 2: Don't Get Distracted!
As I previously mentioned, there is so much information, and so much going on within Twitter. Don't get distracted by posts or by following things that are not related to what you are learning.
Tip 3: Be A Copy Cat
One of the great ways I found to discover other people and groups to follow was by looking at who the people I follow are following. If the people you are following are interested in the same things, it is likely that they will follow at least 1 or 2 other people you may want to follow as well!

While I was hesitant at first, I think that I will indeed be adding Twitter to my PLE, as it has the potential to provide important connections, and resources when learning online, and learning in general. While I used to think that it would only go under my 'social' section if I ever got it, I now can see its benefits within my academic section. I encourage everyone to give Twitter a try, even if you are as skeptical is I was, and if you do follow me @hb11xz, and learn with me... digitally!
Have a good week!

~Hannah

Hey Guys!
So this week I learned all about bookmarking tools and curation tools! So, let's begin with bookmarking tools!
A bookmarking tool, at its simplest capacity, allows you to save content found online, for later use. The bookmarking tool I used this week is called diggo.This tool is great if you are researching and you have a lot of information and websites to look over, and read, but need to put them all in one place to use later. The other great thing about this tool is that it allows you to highlight online content, add stickynotes, use screen shots and add annotations as well! For me this is SO helpful, as most of my research and academic readings are done online! Diggo allows me to have all of the information I have collected for a particular research project, or paper, and then have all of my highlights, and notes in one area, instead of all over my computer in various folders!  Last week I told you all about feedly. Well, feedly and diigo work very well together. I like that I can see all of the new updates on blogs, and websites that I am 'following' on my feedly, and then when I see something that I truly like, or find useful, I can then add it to 'My Library' on diigo! In addition to your personal information and research, you can look at the online resources that others are bookmarking!
While I was looking through some of the other things users were bookmarking, I came across this great page. While its not the whole site I'm interested in, the article was very helpful, and informative. The article is about Google Alerts, which is the other tool I learned to use this week!

Retrieved from; http://blog.monitor.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/google-alerts.jpg

Google alerts is considered an online curation tool. This means that it can organize online information, and content based on specific themes, or topics. With Google alerts, I am able to receive alerts when there is new or updated online information, or content related to the specific themes I'm interested in! I am actually so excited about this tool! What this means for me personally, is that I am able to type in key words, or themes and then every time something new is published relating to those key words and themes, I will receive an email! This has huge potential for my research that I do for classes, and for personal knowledge!
It has been a great week learning all about diigo, and Google alerts, and I am so excited to add these to my PLE. Diigo will be a great addition to the educational, and personal sections of my PLE, as I think it will be useful not only for educational purposes, but also for not school related online use. I's VERY happy to be able to add Google alerts to the educational section of my PLE, and think I will get quite a bit of use from it!
Thats all for this week!
Thanks for learning with me... digitally!

~ Hannah

Weekly Report & Reflection Post #3!

Hello again!
So I'm back! I would like to start off by a brief explanation of what an RSS feed is and how that relates to feedly! So, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Basically it a way that websites make their content easily accessible through other websites! By doing this, users are then able to compile the information and websites they are using through programs such as feedly. Think of it like a very organized favorites folder, but much more accessible, and useable!
Feedly is a fabulous resource that, once you figure it out, can change how you follow and keep up with certain websites. It allows direct searched of websites, and uses RSS when your not browsing directly on feedly, to sort the websites, and information you are using into 'folders' with different categories.
Okay. If I am being honest, I was so very frustrated when I first started this session. I couldn't quite figure things out, and I was just about to give up! BUT! It is worth the time to figure out, because it feedly is such a great resource, and 100% worth the time to learn!(Even if I did feel like the cartoon at the beginning! Haha!)

Retrieved From: http://michellewelti.blogspot.ca, September 28th, 2014

 

 
Now, I usually talk about all things educational, and that is indeed a big part of my life. However the resource I found through feedly is a little different. I discovered a blog called Ikea Hackers. This site is too cool! The creators of this blog, take Ikea products, and re-purpose them, and use them in ways that they were not originally created for! Is so Imaginative and I love how they think outside the box! While this site was a 'fun' site I found, feedly opens up endless potential for my work within this class. I hope that as I continue to use feedly, I will be able to find, and follow some blogs and sites about digital citizenship and in particular digital law, so that I can further my knowledge on this topic!
Two blog posts ago, I wrote about my PLE, and I am so excited to as feedly to not only my educational section of my PLE, but also to my social/fun section!
Overall I found this session to be encouraging. While it started out in utter frustration, I ended it in contentment, as I have now discovered a new online program that can assist me in neumerous aspects of my life!
Thanks for learning with me... digitally!
~Hannah

My Experience With RSS Feeds

Hey Guys!
So this week I learned all about RSS feeds, and let me tell you, I was so frustrated at the beginning. I kept trying over and over to follow the steps provided for using a program called feedly, and I just couldn't get it!  BUT. After some re-reading, and a little bit of help, I was able to figure it out, in a way that I understand, and can make work for me.Now if you don't know what feedly is, never fear! I will have another post coming soon to go over what it does and why it can be helpful!
For now, I would like to share a fabulous resource I found while navigating feedly!
As I have mentioned before I am on my way to becoming a teacher, and so I am always on the lookout for resources for future use! Through the use of feedly, I came across a youtube channel called TedEd. If you have never heard of Ted Talks you are missing out! The Ted Talk website is a collection of videos, that range from inspirational, and motivational, to though provoking, and educational. This youtube channel I found has compiled all of the videos surrounding education. This has the potential to be a fabulous resource later on down the road, and now I have it saves in my feedly folder!
That's all for now, but I will be back shortly to tell you all the fabulous benefits of feedly!
Thanks for learning with me, digitally!
Hannah

Hello everyone!
So this week I learned all about PLEs. Let me start by explaining what a PLE is.
A PLE is a Personal Learning Environment. A PLE includes all of the digital tools that we use to assist and support our learning. After learning about PLEs I took a moment to really think about all of the tools I use when I am working on school work, and I was amazed! There are so many online and digital tools that I use to support my learning, and daily activities!

Barrett, H. (CC) 2014

As part of this session I got to use a new online program called www.bubbl.us, and it allows you to create mind maps, so I have created my PLE! Its amazing when you actually sit down and think about all of the tools that support your learning! As you can see I have many digital tools that assist my learning, and it is constantly growing. Some of those I have just started using since I have started this course! I hope that these tools will continue to support my learning throughout my life!
As a part of this session we were asked to reflect on our PLE through reflecting on Personal Life our Learning, out Environment, and our Habits. So, here we go.
Personal: When I think about my future and where I want to be, I have a very clear picture. As I have mentioned before I am in school to become a teacher, and so I obviously can envision myself teaching. But it goes farther than that. I hope to really be using the things that I have learned about myself through this and other classes to have a real impact on the children I am teaching!
Learning: If there is one thing that I have learned during my time in university, it is that you are never to old to learn new things! I am constantly learning new things from my classes, and the students I interact with, and its amazing! I truly hope to continue to learn more about this digital and technology driven world we live in, and how to make this information understandable, and useful for my students.
Environment: Another class that I am currently enrolled in is one that looks at different learning habits and styles. I have found this information very informative and it has begun to shape how I choose to learn. By adapting my learning environment to one that works best for me I can maximize my potential for effective and meaningful learning! For example, I have begun to organize my time with an agenda, setting out specific times for activities, and homework, and have had fabulous results!
Habits: Bad habits can be the difference between success and failure, and I have learned this the hard way! I frequently take on far too much at one time (like 3 jobs, and 6 classes.. woops!), and then don't have enough hours complete everything I need and want to do! I need to begin to critically decide what is reasonable for me to accomplish, and what I simply cannot handle.
In addition to using www.bubbl.us, I also used another program called Wordle, that can make a cool graphic collage of words! Here is what I got when I copied and pasted my last blog post into the program!

Barrett, H. (CC) 2014

Cool Huh? Its such an easy program to use, and the final product in neat! 

Throughout this past session I have learned so much about myself and the digital tools I use, and how those will effect and assist me in my learning, and in life in general! I look forward to what the next session has in store for me... perhaps some new tool for me to add to my PLE? I guess we shall see! 

Thanks for learning with me... digitally! 

~Hannah                                                                                   

Week 1 Report And Reflection

Hello!
This weeks session was all about digital footprints, netiquette. Lets start by addressing what a digital footprint even is!
A digital footprint is the collection of information, pictures, and anything else that has been posted by an individual online. It also include any 'trail' that has been left behind by a user as a result of; visiting sites, signing in to accounts, and sending emails. According to http://www.internetsociety.org/ one can have a positive or a negative digital footprint. A positive digital footprint can look like; creating a positive online reputation, having appropriate online screen/usernames, keeping appropriate privacy settings. Unfortunately one can also have a negative digital footprint, which can be caused by; inappropriate posts, and pictures, rude and destructive behavior, and comments, and posts and pictures that you may later regret sharing and sending. A fabulous resource I found while researching digital footprints was http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/. This website is a resource for kids, teens, parents and teachers that talks about digital footprints, as well as many other topics all surrounding digital media!

http://www.sjscomputerlab.com/digital-footprint.html

So how can we create digital footprints, and encourage others to do the same? One of the most important things to remember when online is that once its posted it's hard to delete it. In the digital age we live in, digital content can go viral in a matter of hours, and often things posted online can't be taken down. For this reason it is important to 'think twice, and post once'. If we take the time to consider what we are posting how it could impact not only ourselves but others, we begin to make a conscious effort to create a positive digital footprint, as well as a positive digital experience for all! This is a large part of netiquette.

Netiquette is basically online etiquette. It includes things such as; acting appropriately online, not posting, or commenting rude and inappropriate things, respect other users, and respecting your own and other privacy. Albion.com has a great outline of netiquette rules, that are understandable and easy to follow! After taking the netiquette quiz, I learned that there are still things that I need to learn about netiquette, and that it never hurts to brush up on your netiquette!

In addition to learning about digital footprints, I also had the opportunity to complete the 'Digital Driver's License Exam' from the text Digital Citizenship In Schools (2011) by Mike Ribble. Through the completion of this short quiz I have discovered some areas that I need to continue to educate myself on in regards to digital citizenship. The two main areas being; digital law, and digital rights and responsibilities. In his text, Mike Ribble notes that digital law is the rules that are used when digital technology is in use and digital rights and responsibilities are the rights and responsibilities that each digital technology user has within the digital context. Over the next few weeks of this course I hope to become more familiarized with these elements of digital citizenship.
Overall this session was very informative and a good review for me. I learned about digital footprints, which made me evaluate my own, and change some online behaviors.
I look forward to the next session, and some more digital learning!


~ Hannah

Hello!
My name is Hannah, and this is my first ever blog post (and first blog for that matter)! I am a avid traveler, and love to sew and paint. I love meeting new people and studying different cultures from my own.  I am currently enrolled in a Child and Youth Studies program, and am looking forward to a future career as a teacher. I love the program that I am in and constantly find myself learning new things about my self that I never knew.
Blogging is something very new to me (although everyone in my family has an ongoing blog, ironically enough), and I hope that this experience will help me gain some much needed confidence in regards to online media.
As a future educator, it is important to me that I am comfortable with learning through digital media, as well as helping my students learn in digital contexts. I have previously taken courses that involve looking at various forms of digital learning for students, and have found them to be very informative, and interesting. There are so many digital resources out there, and so many of them can be used for education purposes! It is very important to me, that I am able to provide the best possible learning environment for my future students, and the reality is, digital media will likely be one of them! As a result of this desire, I have enrolled in a course entitled; Learning in Digital Contexts (pretty handy huh?). The main purpose of this blog, is for assignment posts, but I hope that it will result in more than just another credit towards my education. I hope to gain knowledge and perspective in regards to digital media, and learning through digital contexts through this course. I often find myself lost when it comes to online, and technological resources, and so I hope to gain skills for tackling those areas though this course.
So I invite anyone willing to listen (or read I suppose...), to join me over this semester as I learn more about this crazy digital world that we have access to, and learn with me... digitally!

~ Hannah