This Is It! Crystal's Blog.

I have to say, this week was a tough one for me in my course. It had me looking at the health and wellness aspects of being online. Although I was initially excited about it, I found the videos and articles I read very dark . Even the ones that were supposed to be light, or when we were asked to find the light in dark ones, I was overwhelmingly desolate all week. To start off with, we looked at the impacts of screen time on physical health. Although it’s recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics that screen time be limited to less than 2 hours a day, Houghton, et al. (2015) found that American children over the age of 8 are spending, on average, 6.43 hours a day of screen time . Spending this much time on technology has the following impact on children: sleep interruption, brain development and sedentary behaviours which have been linked to Type II diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Ok. Great. How can we change that?   Next, we looked at the mental h...

As week two draws to a close I find myself reflecting back on my own practices once again. This week we delved into netiquette and online presence. While netiquette was nothing new to me, this week had me looking at it purely through a different coloured lens. However, online presence is almost as foreign to me as killer bees! Shea (1994) outlines the core rules of netiquette on her webpage. While there are some that I feel are outdated, her number one rule is to “Remember the Human”. Wow. Remember the human. How much more real can you get than that? When you boil down every other rule anyone can name for netiquette can’t it really just be centered around this one? Respecting privacy, helping to keep online wars under control, be forgiving of mistakes. If you just remember the human before you post, can’t all of these other rules be managed? I would argue yes. If you remember that there is a living, breathing human behind every screen then netiquette really is just remembering the huma...

As I conclude the first week in the course I am reflecting back on my own experiences. My first reflection comes as a teacher, wondering how effective I have been in teaching digital citizenship to my students. Hamilton, Cross, Plested and Rezk (2010) state that “ Digital Citizenship is more than just a teaching tool; it is a way to prepare students/technology users for a society full of technology.” Have I done enough? Now that I think about it, the answer is a resounding 'no'. Although it’s been in the curriculum for grade 5 for many years, there really isn’t an abundance of resources available. Have I taught about digital etiquette and health? Absolutely! Has digital access come into play? More since online learning than ever before. Have I ever thought to teach about digital commerce and digital law? Not once. I didn’t even know these were aspects of digital citizenship. But as the old saying goes: you do better when you know better.    My second reflection comes as a mom...

  Well, I guess this is it! I avoided the general use of social media for as long as I could. Really though who am I kidding? I signed up for a masters degree in Education Technology. Technology. Yep. Technology. Me, who uses Facebook as a buy and sell page, hasn't ever bought a cell phone (yep- hand me downs only!), has no idea how to 'sync' things, cannot figure out a way to get her child signed up in the family plan of Apple and whose laptop is over 10 years old. Yep. Call me crazy. But I think it's time I started keeping up with technology. In the span of 8 hours I had to figure out how to create a Twitter account, Tweet my first Tweet (is this even how you say it?!), start a blog and navigate through other people's social media. This is a big day for me. This is it......ready or not!