Digital Footprint
When faced with the task of visualizing my technology use over time, I had a hard time knowing where to begin. I started making lists, and became frustrated not knowing what to call technology and what to leave out. I started thinking about the things I use everyday, starting in the morning and realized I could count a toaster as technology, and 500 thread count sheets I am sure took technology to create. Then I tried starting with my birth; I could start with the baby monitor, or even the pregnancy test or sonogram. Should I focus on the most important things over a longer time period, or all of the minutia in the last few years? Should I choose the things most obviously technology related, electronics and computer things, or just use any invented objects that I use. Even the dictionary didn’t help me narrow down what I should consider technology, definitions from dictionary.com include, ”the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization,” and “electronic or digital products and systems considered as a group.” So, I decided to use a narrow definition and a narrow time period. I decided to focus on the computer type technology that I use daily and that is most important to my life, and I decided to use the time period since I arrived at MSU.
Part of the power of technology for me, is the ability to create. I have always had an interest in art making, and enjoy creating with multimedia, using digital images, editing videos, playing with web design, etc. I have minimal experience with these things and digital art is something I would like to use more often and be more competent creating. Because of these interests and goals, I decided to use Photoshop (an application I would like to increase my skills in) to create a visual representation of my technology use over time.
When thinking about the ways I use technology and the ways technology aids my life, the word connection kept coming up. Technology helps me connect my thoughts, memories, and ideas. It helps connect me to people with similar interests, to family, to friends. It connects me to knowledge and information. The idea of using a bridge came to me after thinking on the theme of connection. While technology connections are really more like an intertwined web of networks, a bridge seemed to simplify and symbolize the idea well. I thought immediately of the Brooklyn Bridge because I love New York City and the Brooklyn Bridge. I had recently taken pictures of the bridge and of the NYC skyline, and thought about all of the different types of people, ideas, and experiences that cross that bridge each day. It seemed like the right choice to illustrate my technology use. Also, the gradual incline of the bridge resembles an accurate line graph of my technology use, an upward slope over time. So I cut and pasted some things together, put years on the buildings, and made words on the bridge representing the types of technology I have used in the last five years, lined up generally under the appropriate year. It is a symbolic line graph, a metaphor for connection, and a representation of one of my favorite ways to utilize the power of technology.
Part of why I chose to use Photoshop is because I would like to become a better Photoshop user. There are two things I have wanted to work on that I was able to do with this project. First, I wanted to get a better handle on layers and the possibilities that layers allow for. I also wanted to try using a Wacom graphics tablet with Photoshop. First, I put in the background by layering a picture of the sky behind a picture of water and using transparency and the stamp tool to create a more artistic representation. I then added the buildings by first desaturating and then increasing the contrast on a photo I had taken of the skyline. I mirrored and stuck together the images to create a pattern on which to add the years. For the bridge, I created one layer of the bridge and another over it on which I wrote all of the words of the types of technology using the tablet and pen. I then cut out only the bridge and applied some different effects to get it very light, and removed the rest of the bridge layer.
This project has helped me to see several things about myself and my technology use. First, it became clear not just how technology connects me to my environment, but how highly connected the technologies I use are. That is especially true most recently, and technologies that I use seem to have gotten more and more integrated. When I first started college, I used minimal technologies that were necessary. I used angel for class, computer programs that I needed, and a cell phone and ipod for example, all common technologies. Since 2006 I have started seeking out new technologies and tried to find technologies that will make my daily life simpler and more organized, or that make communication easier. Just the last two years, I have begun to see how technology will impact my future classrooms and my experience as a teacher. It will be interesting to see how my technology use will continue to change.
Online Calendars in the Classroom
There are many benefits to using online calendars as a part of classroom management. These calendars will be useful to me as a teacher, my future students, other members of the school community including other teachers, family members, etc.
As a teacher, I can quickly and easily add things to my google calendars. I can set up different calendars for different classes, along with personal, and other calendars. This can also help me communicate with students and parents about what assignments are due, what is happening in class, and what special events or birthdays are coming up. The principal can subscribe to my class calendar and then know what days would be good to visit.
I remember in elementary school getting calendars all of the time. There was a lunch menu calendar, a class calendar, a school calendar, a district calendar, and more. Using online calendars, such as google calendar, can make these all available online, and easy to organize in one customizable place.
Personalizing the Internet
There are many tools on the internet which allow an individual to mold the internet for their own use.
RSS feeds and aggregators allow a person to get the information they want pulled to one place. With these tools I can check new information on blogs, get updates from my favorite magazines and news sources, read event information in Detroit, etc. all in one location. I no longer have to visit each individual website or blog. Similarly, google alerts bring updates on selected search terms. iGoogle is a personal homepage which helps organize all of these things, and allows me to set up separate pages, add gadgets, a calendar, and more.
Typically, these resources are used to help an individual organize the internet in a way that helps him/her. The internet can also be personalized in this way for a class of students. Resources on studied topics could be collected in an aggregator, iGoogle pages could be created for each subject. The class could subscribe to other class blogs around the world. The possibilities, as usual with technology in schools, are endless.
