Anna Barabba

 I took this opportunity to interview 2 GEN Z students one was a 12 year old male and the other a 14 year old female. I am not sure why I waited this long.  I learned quite a bit. GEN Z  Interview with 12 year old Male aka Student A : Me: How do you feel about social media? Student A: Social Media is going to take over the world. Me: Would you be okay in a world with no social media? Student A: I would struggle without social media, but yes I would survive. Me: Does social media affect you at all? Student A: Social media is a distraction at times, because I would rather be on TikTok than doing my homework. Me: What is your favorite Social Media platform? Student A: My favorite social media site is TikTok, because there are a lot of funny videos to watch. Me: Do any of your teachers implement any social media platforms in their instruction? Student  A: My school does not use a social media platform for instruction, but they do show us You Tube videos sometimes. Me: Wo...

Can we teach children how to interpret information on social network sites?   As teachers and parents we can advise our youth how to become social media literate. children social networking      The increase use of social network sites by children as well as adults has significantly changed how we communicate or how we are more comfortable communicating.  The issue however is not only how we communicate it is with whom and how we interpret the messages received, while evaluating whether the information they are exposed to is real or fake.   We know that social network sites are not going anywhere, but rather increasing in popularity and use. So yes, we can implement tools and strategies that help users become more literate.        Rheingold offers a set of five literacy categories in his article, Attention and Other 21st Century Social Media Literacies .   The important literacy categories are:  attention, p...

                                                                          Children's Privacy My thoughts on CIPA/COPPA... I appreciate these laws being implemented and put into affect to protect our children's/student's privacy, because I acknowledge the benefits the internet has to offer our children and students.  Without these Acts in place the web/internet would not be safe for our youth.  With the invention of the web/internet we have gained many opportunities to enhance our knowledge.  However, not all sites on the internet are  appropriate for our children and they need to be regulated. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) gives parents the opportunity to control what information...

I choose to take an adventure into a self guided exploration about Digital Tattoos!       Digital Tattoo      A digital tattoo generates a positive and/or even a negative digital reputation. A digital reputation evolves from any information about yourself online that is either posted by yourself or others, intentionally or unintentionally. When using any online type of search engine like; blogging, people and sites you follow,  updating your status, checking into a location, messaging a friend, like, sharing, or commenting on a post, posting a photo, visiting a website, … everything you do online leaves a trail. This trail contributes to your digital tattoo and digital reputation- REMEMBER THAT!      Although this may appear difficult for our students to understand, students have the opportunity to leave impressive trails of their digital reputation if we take the opportunity to teach them how  it is done.  We can inform ...

  Safety     Upon reviewing my school's acceptable use policy for technology, I noticed that it focuses on what student's should do to be safe and what sites are available to them to enhance and share their learning experiences.  There have been many r ecent informational developments in the area of technology, especially due to the pandemic.  Many resources for classroom as well as online teaching are helping to improve the quality of instruction in ways we have never seen before. Without these advanced learning software, students' educations would have been negatively impacted on a greater scale. At the same time, the use of advanced learning software has implications for student's and teacher's privacy.  Reflecting upon the ways in which data concerns are present in every aspect of our lives. As educators we need to find a balance between these reinforcers whenever possible.  We are obligated to keep our student's ...