Technologies in current/future careers

The technologies explored thus far in the course have really opened my eyes to possible uses in my current and future careers. In my present position as an athletic director physical education teacher at Savage Middle School in Modesto I am already planning on how to implement some of the concepts which have been presented. Twitter is an interesting technology in that I can see it as a way to improve the communication and unity among the coaches in my program. I would like to encourage all of my coaches to twitter about game results, field conditions, practice plans, transportation issues, and other information which would be good for a selected group of people to view.

Google Docs is another technology which I believe could really improve and streamline the function of the athletic league to which we belong.
http://www.salidamiddleschool.com/mval.htm We are constantly revising and updating documents relevant to our member schools, which if available for multiple users on this site, could expedite and even eliminate some of the time consuming meetings.

In the future I would like to teach or coach or work in the athletic administration at the collegiate level. I believe it could be very useful to operate a blog specific to my school, team, or program and it could provide a forum for anyone interested to keep up with and discuss and evaluate what is going on. The social networking sites like Facebook could be an effective way of networking within a community of people with common interests and connections.

Web 2.0 Award's Site "OODLE"

I chose to explore a few sites from the Web 2.0 Award's list. One that I found to be very useful and fun to play with is a classified/retail site called Oodle. It is a buyers and sellers site with options allowing the user to search wide or narrow areas for general or specific items. I enjoyed checking on available boats similar to the Ski Brendella which I own. My brother and I are avid water enthusiasts and we are always curious to see what our boats are worth and what is out there. These sites really enable a person to explore a wider range in order to locate and purchase private party items. http://www.oodle.com/

Google Docs

This is my test document for Google Docs, yet another online program I have never heard of or used. I just checked and I am now going to attempt to publish this to my blog. If you are reading this on middle school athletics then I was successful. I guess this program, Google Docs, could be really useful for collaborative efforts by many people not in the same area. I have now been at this for more than 30 minutes. I am having trouble posting this to my blog. I have followed the instructions on the help page but at this point I am not getting it to go. Frustration is getting a hold of me and I have so much work to do for this class and the hist/phil class. I will try again to send it through.

RSS Posting

I am still feeling totally overwhelmed by the technology involved in this program. However, I am beginning to become more and more efficient with the tasks and the ideas of how this new knowledge can benefit me are taking shape. The Bloglines account is really an exciting concept which I will truly enjoy. I go through multiple sites each day looking for information which will now be consolidated on one site. It is really quite simple but I had no idea about this service. I have included feeds from classmates blogs and several news and sport information sites. I look forward to discussing this with my colleagues in the coaches office tomorrow.

?kin710?

?kin710?, originally uploaded by richardrobertson92.

Here is photo I took this week of our new strength training equipment at Savage MIddle School in Modesto. We have the 8th graders in here 2 to 3 days a week. They are really enjoying it.

Savage Gym

P1010098, originally uploaded by richardrobertson92.

Here is a shot of our new gymnasium. We are truly lucky.

Social Network Articles Kin 710

These are the articles I examined-

Ferdig, R. E., (Editorial: Examining Social Software in Teacher Education (2007)
Weaver, A. C., & Morrison, B. B., Social Networking (2008)
Bolan, K., Canada, M., & Cullin, R., Web, Library, and Teen Services 2.0


Reading the articles about social media this afternoon has really helped me to understand more about what they really encompass. I am completely overwhelmed when it comes to technology and I have never visited a Facebook or Myspace page other than looking over someone else’s shoulder while they had one open. I found it quite interesting that during the Virginia Tech mass murder university officials and police used conventional radios and telephones as they attempted to manage the incident. Students, however, were quickly e-mailing each other and Facebook was a widely used method for people to let others know what was going on and if they were safe. On another note, I found it quite interesting that legal authorities and school officials have used information on sites such as Facebook as evidence of illegal activities.

Reading about libraries providing video gaming services was a surprise to me. The fact that gaming is considered a literacy activity is not something I fully understand. However, it would appear that something which seems to be extremely inviting for so many young people should be explored as a means of education.

The story about a professor checking a student’s Facebook site and seeing them scantily dressed with multiple people and obviously under the influence of something is exactly the strange and shocking type of occurrence which I believe keeps some people away from exploring the social media available on the web.