Journal 2 Journal 2: Join an Affinity Group and Share Your Digg Experience

The affinity group that I joined was http://elementarytechteachers.ning.com. I joined this group this group to see how other educators are using technology in their classroom. I hope to learn new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom.  

The Digg readers that I joined were Educator’s PLN, for the love of learning, crazy for First Grade and Common Core and Education Tech. I found that it was an effective way to keep up to date with my interest. There were many different articles but also pictures and video postings. I found video postings to be very powerful and it conveys a message to the viewer. One particular video I watched was about giving and the tittle was Best. Video on Giving. Ever . by Joe Bower. It was followed by a short paragraph and asked if we are teaching the right things for the right reasons. We can only teach students about respect, honestly, trust and loyalty by showing it through engagement and real relationships in life. It was a good reminder that we need to teach academics skills as well as life skills in the classroom. The video was inspiring.

In addition, I found different lesson plan ideas and topics for my classroom. People would post lessons and ideas with pictures and templates. It was a great resource for me to find new ideas and incorporate it into my classroom. I really enjoyed the posting of pictures and videos with the articles and lessons. This is a great way for me to keep up to date with my interests as well as get new ideas.

Can you use anything your learned from the Digg site? Yes, I am able to download the videos and pictures. I can use the videos and pictures in my lessons to show my students. I can also share what I learned or ideas from the forum and share it with my colleagues.

Should students create a Digg account? I think students in middle school or high school should create a Digg account. It is a great way to keep up with current events and can be a useful tool for teachers to assign assignments. If we want our students to be well rounded then this would be a great way to keep up with society. It is easy for students to keep up topics they like as well.