We, Our Digital Selves, and Us: questions answered

1. Is there a clear demarcation between who you are online and elsewhere?

A: Yes I think there is a big difference on who you are online and elsewhere. Many people feel like they can be more of themselves when they can be anonymous and say what they want with no consequences on the internet. Also, no one can hurt you physically through the internet so people are more confident in what they say. That is why cyber-bullying is becoming such a problem.

2. What parts of people are you missing out on if they do not interact with the online you?

A: They are missing out on your real opinions that you are not afraid to post online. You are holding back on people when face to face because you probably do not want to offend them. So when someone only knows you in the real world, they do not get to see what lies deep inside you until they log on.

3. Why (or why not) should you manage your own personal cyber infrastructure? What does this mean to you?

A: It is so important to manage your own infrastructure-which is basically the basis or framework of the online you- because it shows who you are. People will understand you more if you set up a certain framework to set your online personality. You need to manage it regularly so people will get what you mean in a certain situation like a debate online. A.K.A people know what side you are on before starting up the debate by looking at your infrastructure. To me, it means that people can understand me and know me with never meeting me or talking to me. Basically to me, it is like a digital first impression.

4. Who are we in this space where the online world is not something distinctly separate?

A. We are people reflected by our online profiles by other internet users. Outside of the internet, we are what we appear to be. People may write you off if they see something stupid you posted on Twitter or Facebook. People who are not internet savvy will give you a chance to make a first impression. Hence, we are people who depend on others to determine who we are.

How Collaboration Matters in Learning Analytic's

Continued Collaboration and it's Importance

Continued collaboration will help so much when we start to work more on this project. We will need our wiki to collect work, we will need diigo to share our websites, and we will need our flatclassroom nings to share our thoughts. I don't know at this point what we will be doing on the wiki, but I know that it will be more important then air itself. Well, maybe not, but it will be important for a good grade on this project. We need diigo in this project as well. Diigo is so important as well because we will need to keep track of the websites we use. Diigo is comparable to a group binder, collecting every tid-bit of information we find and keeping our sources in tact. Diigo is defiantly one of the best things I have ever seen in my sixteen years on this planet. Actually, it is okay. Helpful, but I was overselling it. Last but not least is the wonderful online world of flatclassroom.ning.com! I love this website because it is much like a Facebook. It is actually kind of a rip off of Facebook. While it is not original, it is helpful to collaborate. You get a better sense of who you are working with and what kind of person they are.

I love Diigo

Diigo will help our group collaboration so much! First off all, Diigo is so easy to use I think even elementary students could use the easy website and tools. That makes everyone's life easier for sure! I also think that because we can save anything we want with the click of a button, our group can instantly see what the other person is doing. It is so useful, it is unfair! Secondly, I think Diigo is so amazingly awesome that we can use the cloud computing and what we bookmark will never get lost. So even though I have to switch trends on this project, all my useless information on a topic I am not doing will be saved until I delete it- which I probably will since I don't need it anymore. Well, I am starting my project over basically because I have to switch to a new topic. Diigo will be easy to use to start my project over because It is so easy to erase all the work you did and start over. Diigo is obviously the best thing in the world, but there is more! You can comment on other peoples posts and it is the best thing ever. I love Diigo because now my topic is changed to something I do not understand at all, so that makes me so happy. Learning analytics will be so awesome to change to, just because Diigo is so useful. Thanks to the people that created this wonderful website. My life is changed forever at it's greatness.

Horizon Report

After reading the interesting details of the Horizon Report, I discovered many new ways that Mobile apps can be use in education and schooling. Everyone is using apps- there are over 18 million apps being downloaded- so people have taken advantage of them and made them help with education. You can learn new things in minutes or even seconds with the swipe of a smart phone, so why not take advantage? Many universities are using apps to keep students updated on academic news and athletic news. Princeton, Stanford, University of Michigan, and many other schools are using mobile apps to keep students connected. One example that I have experienced at school is in English class. We were working on vocabulary and we did not have the definitions to the words yet, so our teacher brought in an iPad lab. An app on all of the iPad's was the dictionary.com app where you can type any word and get numerous definitions at the touch of a button. That app saved us thirty minutes of looking through a bulky dictionary for words we could simply type into a search bar and get instantly. That also goes with my net gen norm of innovation, but that is not exactly what I am currently writing about, so I am done!

Chapter 5 Blog Post

Chapter Five of Tapscott's book shows how we are learners because we are constantly exposed to different types of technological literature. "Instead of lecturing, teachers should interact with students and help them discover for themselves." I think that this is important because student's should learn to be independent and discover their own paths. Now that we have all these options to learn in a different way, the teachers should be using new methods involving technology to keep up with our way of learning. Since our world is every changing, our subjects need to adjust and change according to the skills we need to learn. This could be because many of our teachers are an older generation and think that the old methods are better, but in our generation we use technology more to learn. "Schools should be places to learn, not to teach." is also a important quote because it shows that we should be learning new things not teaching old things to people who don't know how to do them. A students job is to learn, and because of technology, we know more then ever and still need teachers to keep on teaching new things that cannot be learned behind a computer screen. I think Tapscott made some very good points in chapter five.

Net Gen Analysis: Chapter 1

" People become defensive when threatened by something new and which they don’t

understand". That is the sole reason that our generation is criticized. We are the Net Gen and our critics do not see the bright future that we have. Our values have changed and the older generation does not want to accept it. I believe that Tapscott is correct to try and learn to use technology everyday like most of us teenagers and children do. " To them, technology is like the air." We do not think of technology as a luxury, we think of it as part of our life. Our ever changing technology is like the change in music over the years. We went from the swinger Frank Sinatra, to the peaceful Beatles, to the uncensored rap music that we listen to today. That comparison can represent a small way in how our world adapts. However, technology does not make us lazy and stupid, but instead connects us to people we would had never imagined talking to twenty years ago! We are actually smart and we have access to things older generations never had access too. Overall, I thought that Tapscott summed up our world pretty well.