Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

I am back from a 2+ month of self-imposed social media hiatus. I will say it was a rather refreshing experience in that I was free from the personal pressure I put on myself to stay "present" on the web and not constantly feel a need to read, tweet, and write, something every day. But, on the other hand, I also feel a little out of the loop and that perhaps I lost a few followers because of this lack of presence. It was however a much needed break and gave me some perspective. It also allowed me to focus on the chaos in my life such as selling a house, buying a house, getting two kids off to college, driving across the country to my new home and next adventure. I am here, I am back and I am hopefully going to have some things to say. In honor of the start of school for so many teachers and students, I thought I would share some interesting curriculum's from three companies I have either had the privilege to work with over the past few month or who I am just explori...

The question - does social media impact personal life? The answer - yes.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The answer - it depends. I have been on vacation the past week or so and am currently on personal leave to finish writing my dissertation proposal (which, as you can see, I am procrastinating!) During my vacation, I swore I would take a break from blogging, Twitter, email, and all things electronic. I lied. I admit - I did honestly make the attempt and in fact, did not turn on my computer one time.  However, the iPad is a constant companion, especially since the books I am reading (currently, the Game of Thrones series) are on there, so I had the iPad with me a lot - even on the beach.  It was very easy to check if I had emails, to check out my Facebook or to send a Twitter or two.  Long story short, I failed miserably at the disconnecting aspect. View from chair and under canopy! Which brings me back to the question of does social media impact p...

I am exhausted. I don't mean physically, though let's face it, I could definitely use more sleep (which could easily be solved if I stopped reading in bed). No, I am exhausted with trying to keep up with my social media outlets.  Don't get me wrong - I love tweeting, blogging, discussion forums, Linked in groups, and Facebooking (though admittedly, as my friends can attest, I am definitely NOT a great Facebook participant). But, I think the daily expectation of being social is getting to me...it's a combination of guilt that I am not posting enough, pressure to find relevant things to blog about or tweet about, and that pesky little problem of actually having a full-time job that requires some of my attention. Those of you who tweet know how easy it is to get side-tracked reading tweets, clicking links that lead to the reading of articles and blogs. Which takes you down the path of responding to a discussion forum or a blog post. Next thing you know, two hours has p...

As I mentioned in my previous post I have been working on a draft of my literature review, much of which focuses on online professional development.  Online learning communities are a big part of what I have been reading about, and, as I have been involved in many online communities myself through online courses and chat forums, it got me thinking about what exactly constitutes and online learning community.  Specifically, can Twitter be considered an online learning community?  Why Twitter you ask?  Probably because I have recently delved into Twitter myself ( @vpigreenie ) and am slowly learning how to navigate this social media tool. Definition from Wikipedia : An online learning community is a public or private destination on the Internet that addresses the learning needs of its members by facilitating peer-to-peer learning. ......... In an online learning community, people share knowledge via textual discussion (synchronous or asynchronous), audio, vid...

I read to interesting postings this morning - one discussing the possible limiting of students 'freedom of speech rights' when using social media and the other giving 20 tips on how to modeling appropriate technology usage in the classroom for students.  The first article by Neil UngerLeider entitled Teens and Their Teachers at Odds Over Social Media, First Amendment Rights talks about the possibility of government control of students social media postings.  The second, a blog posting by Heather Wolport-Gawron entitled Twenty Ways to Model Technology Use for Students suggests different ways teachers can model appropriate use of technology in their every day classroom practice. At first glance, seemingly unrelated yet, perhaps Wolport-Gawron is on to something here.  If we, as parents and instructional leaders model appropriate use of technology, INCLUDING social media, then perhaps the seemingly inappropriate comments and use of social media by students might become...