Instragram Commercials

I enjoy learning and using social media such as Ning, Facebook, and Google Hangouts are great places to start collaborative work or continue the group work previously started. Other social media apps, such as Line, allows groups to create chat rooms and virtual meeting spaces to share ideas, designs and other works.

I intend to continue to use social media to improve the learning that takes place between myself, my fellow teachers, and my students. I have tried to incorporate the latest and greatest technology has to offer to my students, but it seems like technology is changing every few months.  What is consistency and should that even be something to be worrying about?

#ics119

Listening is Hard

How can we use LEARNING to help improve active listening, reflective listening and perception checking skills?

 

Learning is a lifelong journey and can be used to increase ones use of active listening by having more conversations with people and really put effort into listening to what they have to say (genuine interest) and not just hear them. Learn to ask follow-up questions to draw out additional information to avoid making assumptions. Finally, practice using "minimal" encouragements like "Uh huh" and "can you expand on that?" in your discussions throughout the day at school or at work.

One can Learn to use reflective listening by taking the time to practice restating what the person you are talking to has said and listen to their response to see if what you restated was correct.

Lastly, perception checking skills are very difficult and something I have been trying to improve on for a number of years to assist in having discussions with my administrators or teachers. Learning these skills are most helpful in delicate situations where you must learn to paraphrase or summarize what the speaker has said to check for understanding.


Parents use Learning to improve their Active Listening skills making it easier to talk to their children and one another.

For fun, here's a classic Rap skit about someone who is in dire need of Learning listening skills.

Web URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz3rubGrGZQ



Collective Thinking

I have to deviate from the norm here because this blog assignment was just too confusing for me to wrap my head around. I didn't know if my video link was supposed to be related to the listening and checking processes that were covered in the readings or if it just had to just be about out life purpose.

With that said, I read through the week 4 readings and watched the videos and in the middle of it all I had a debate ... with myself ... regarding collective knowledge and how it impacts society. On one end, I see collective knowledge sharing as a great way to pool our ingenuity as a group that could better the world. The other side of me kept saying, "We are the Borg. You must assimilate." Is this science fictional society what it means to be a collective?

Here's a cool video that explains "The Collective" if you want to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceElG0c2CsM

#ics119

Learning YouTube Playlist

https://www.hawaii.edu/cte/images/sliders/slider-1-2.jpg



The videos I chose for this week's assignment dealt with Education, Learning, Teaching. I kept them focusing on Vocational and Technical education which is my occupation and what I have spent my life learning

For some reason, I could not give each video a rating other than thumbs up or thumbs down, so I decided not to mess with it.


Here is the URL to my YouTube Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT2klqu4fY7tPJhUUGcydfxjRWlJ0v7kJ

Images

"Manufacturing and Engineering Technology Career Expo 2013" 

by COD Newsroom is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Picture URL: https://flic.kr/p/hE5Xcy

"Vocational Schools"

by educationnews.org/ is licensed under free use.

Photo URL: http://www.educationnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/vocational_school.jpg

"How community is related to your life purpose."

"Learning Comfortably"

by Mike M

The first image shows two girls testing out an FRC robot. Having more and more girls in the field of robotics is something that is growing every year and our Technology learning community has been pushing for more and more female students to play an increasingly active role in Robotics, Engineering and Architecture.

The second image shows two students using a milling machines. This is a strong learning community image because today's society sees technology as the use of computers and gadgets. The image depicts the revival of how important the trades are within our community, but more importantly our society. 

The last image was taken with m cell phone of two of my students lounging around the VEX field. Even though they know that they are supposed to be working, they also are comfortable enough to just kick back and "smell the roses". This image portrays the "feel" that we strive to accomplish within our community where we promote an environment where students are comfortable to work and share with one another to complete a common goal.

I almost forgot!  #ics119

Life's Purpose

Who are you?
My name is Mike Massad

What do you do? –
I am best at being a teacher. I am a father. I am a mentor. I am a character!

Who do you do it for? –
I do this for my family first. I do this for my home. I do this for my sanity.

What do those people want or need? –
People come to me for advice and knowledge because that is what I have trained for my entire adult life. They trust that the information I provide is accurate and true without an ulterior motive or agenda for personal gain.

What do those people get out of it? –
In the end, I think I make a difference and all for the love of seeing my students grow, seeing my children prosper, and seeing my professional community thrive.

#ics119

Life's Passion

LEARNING

You are the scholar, with a sharp mind that’s always coming up with new ideas. You are driven by curiosity and a search for the truth, often preferring to connect with people’s minds than their emotions. You would make a fantastic researcher or teacher, as you are good at explaining and interpreting. Your work must include mental stimulation - you’re at your best when you’re thinking hard.

Blog about your findings.

I really do agree with the results that I am a learner.  I am in the education profession as a teacher as well as being back in college again this year. I have been taking a college class every few years to keep up with current trends and to sharpen my teaching skills.

 The question is if I am taking classes purely for learning sake? The answer is no. As a teacher, my salary is tied to the amount of professional knowledge I have. If my pay wasn’t tied into degrees or college credits, I think I would be avoiding taking classes and just go on with life. I would love to admit that I enjoy taking college classes and learning new things, but “adulating” is just so darn time consuming to enjoy the luxury to continually expanding my knowledge through post-secondary education!

I can assist our class community members by using this passion of learning to talk with them about college classes that I took or are currently taking and give advice on what I’ve experienced. For those who are interested in education, I can share my experiences from both the public and private schools I taught at.

For those in other social media connections, I still see myself as a resource or counselor.

I’m hoping that after this semester, I will have pushed my passion for learning enough to earn enough credits to be at the top of my pay scale which is equivalent to someone with a Ph.D.  

#ics119

I Googled myself and......

I Goggled my…

- Full first, middle and last names together  

     and I was directed to a bunch of “White pages” sites showing places where I have lived in   Hawaii and they offered their services to fully access a person’s information at a premium cost. 

- Full first name, middle initial and full last name 

   and I was shown the address to the house I own that is found on public records online.

- Full first and last name 

   and I was shown possible social media sites.

- Nick name and last name 

   and I was taken to my blog site! The third thing on the page 😲

I then clicked on the images tab and saw a page full of old white men but not me.

I then added Kamehameha to the end of my name and that’s’ when I got my work information in the top link, my department link in my second link, and our Robotics in the third link.. KS Robotics Blog site! 😲

#ics119

How can you use the Internet to encourage employers to hire you based on the content and images you post on social and professional networking sites? 

I know that prospective employers do check social media for an applicant's digital footprint to "see" if he/she is the sort of professional they want working for their company. A person's digital footprint may be the tipping point if there are two applicants who are equally qualified for the position. 

You can encourage employers to hire you by putting your best digital foot out first. Remove all of the drunken college night selfies, or provocative pictures with friends that could be taken the wrong way. You can also use blog sites or create your own web sites to post your professional information to have a digital resume and include projects that you have worked on or other accomplishments. 

There are also other sites and online communities that you can join, such as Linkedin, that will build your professional network.

Based on what you learned and discovered from Googling yourself ,and what you know about your own social media footprint, what would you change? What are your goals for your online presence?

As long as my Facebook account stays private, I think I'll be good. Outside of work (Robotics counts as work), I don't have much of a digital footprint. If someone really wanted to find out any information about me, they may be able to do so with the assistance of online sites that they would have to pay for their service. I know that property managers do use cites and services like this for rental applicants. I don't think I would change much about my current digital footprint, or lack of one.