Without a doubt, the Internet, as a powerful tool, plays an important role in our daily lives. Given its wealth of information and ease of access, it has also become an important tool for teachers and students. Thus, its integration in the curricula is inevitable and gradually underway.
Indeed, today’s students “crave for all things digital and their world often revolves around the Web and all the wonderful digital tools and devices that they have at their fingertips” (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010, p. 184). Consequently, to teach and reach this digital generation, teachers should be able to integrate these new digital tools into their curricula (Shelly et al., 2010).
As integral parts of the Internet, Websites provide direct access to the vast amount of information available in the Internet. Luckily, in recent years, many online tools have become available to easily create Web pages. In addition, many specialty Websites— e.g., blog (short for Weblog), wiki (a collaborative Website)—have recently been available in the Internet which have provided variety of options for teachers and students to communicate and collaborate.
Blogs have been particularly popular among the educators and students. Indeed, blogs “can bring today’s students into the world of writing and many other curriculum areas (Shelly et al., 2010, p.191). Moreover, many teachers setup their blogs to access and communicate with their students outside the classroom. As an educator, I have created blogs to maximize communications with my students. Moreover, as a student, I have setup this blog to further share my thoughts and experience related to the courses I take at the University of Central Florida.
To maximize connections with my readers, I was asked to create an “About Page” in my blog. Given that I had created and properly linked pages in my blogs in the past, the technical aspect of this activity was not challenging for me. Moreover, I did not use Google Profile although it seemed fairly easy to use.
However, I must confess that deciding the extent of appropriate personal information to be revealed in my blog was quite challenging. In this regard, I have been pondering about the appropriate boundaries by which providing personal information online would be suitable.
In general, I am much more comfortable sharing my thoughts and experience than my identity and related personal information online. However, Weller (n.d.) declares that an “online identity is becoming default for academics now;” (para. 1) therefore, he predicts that “your online identity will be your academic identity” (para. 2). I must uncomfortably admit that he might prove to be right in his prediction.
As an artist, educator, and student, I have become more and more active online thus providing more personal information as well. In this regard, I have always found it challenging to determine where to draw the line. Indeed, such boundaries are narrowing rapidly in this digital age.
References
Shelly, G. B., Gunter, G. A., Gunter, R. E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom. (6th ed.). Boston: Course Technology.
Weller, W. (n.d.). Blogging and academic identity. The Ed Techie. Retrieved October 7, 2010, from http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2009/06/blogging-and-academic-identity.html
I also believe that the internet plays an important role in our daily lives and that it is way past time for the curricula to be updated for the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteI liked your about page, especially the wide variety of interests you mentioned. My interests are very diverse as well. I'm not very artistic (can't draw to save my life), but I used to write. My main interest is in the social sciences and I studied anthropology as an undergrad because people intrigue me and I want to understand how they think. However, I also have done taxes for Liberty Tax Service and managed a golf course proshop.
I think that the difficulty in separating personal and professional identities may be due to the fact that for educators they are inextricably linked. I personally love to learn new things and like to research a variety of subjects. This fact is important in understanding who I am as a professional educator. You cannot simply divide the two because the experiences that you've had in your personal life significantly influence the educator you have become.