Global Collaboration

As a student at Vally I have recently experienced global collaboration. Our project we just finished was talking to kids around the world about a topic and doing a report.For example mine was  globalization and outsourcing--current issues/news. I had the chance of talking to these students and I got a feel for their views on the topic. It took about a week and half to complete the project but it was well worth the time.  Is wasn't always easy though, there were students that didn't contribute as much, but there were students that had a ton to say.

I think that most people should experience this before they leave high school and go out into the real world because it teaches you how to communicate with others effectively. By having this experience I feel it has put me one step in front of everyone. It can be hard at first trying to do this but then it comes easily. Schools middle school and above should have to complete a global collaboration. They will most likely like the process.

There are many advantages in having this collaboration. It provides many opportunities and later in life when you go to jobs. Many employers see that as a separator in candidates.  I'm glad that i have this chance and I will use it to my best ability.

The World is Flat

Is the world actually flat or have we just made it seem smaller. I have just finished reading excerpts from the book The World is Flat by Thomas Frieldman. He has told me his ideas and how all of these ideas affect our world. He presented a total of 10 ideas. The top to that stuck out to me the most were outsourcing and offshoring. Outsourcing is where companies send work to other countries and have them do the work. There were a lot of pros and cons with this. Positives being that the work can be done faster, allows your company leverage in growth, and finally accesses to other resources. But the negatives to this could be it cost a lot of money and it sends jobs away. The other idea was offshoring; this is when companies take their business and go to a different country where they can produce products for a minimal cost.

            In this book I agree with the things he is talking about I just don’t like the idea of shipping our companies out to different countries and having them do the work for us. But I think that if I weren’t for all this technology we would be lost. The steroids of the computers are great too because this is how we communicate. The thing that surprised be about the flatteners was the part about the Berlin Wall. So after the wall was destroyed the Internet started up.  So I guess we have that to thank!

            I’m excited to get further in the Flat Classroom. As of know I loved watching and reading everyone’s handshake projects. I’m excited to start the project with people we don’t know I’m just scared that it will be confusing. I was really interested in the international people from this project. My questions were how they communicate with us. What is their native language? Can they understand everything we say? But anyways I have really enjoys the project so far and I would really enjoy doing a Skype session with everyone!
            So what have you enjoyed so far about this project? And also, what did you learn about the book?

Digital Citizenship

What is it to be a good citizenship in the digital world? The answer seems so simple but many people have problems showing it.  So you should be safe, responsible, reasonable, and use ethics while functioning online.  This seems so simple but everyone can’t follow these simple rules. So here are a few tips so you can have a better online life.

One of the first things you need to follow is privacy. This means that you need to respect others online because not everything is your business.  You should also set up privacy settings online to increase your safety.

 Self-Expression and identity: So make sure that you show yourself as yourself and don’t make up some random person.  You have to keep in mind what you put out online will be one there forever.

Connected Culture you also have to be sure that you know how to treat others and avoid all the temptations of bullying people online. If you do that person that was bullied can go to an adult and report it.

Respecting others work is big to because there are a lot of temptations to just copy and paste. So you need  to get their permission in order to use it as your own.  It will save you from getting in trouble.

In my digital communications class our teacher had all of us students say what we though digital citizenship was. So here is what the students said: http://wallwisher.com/wall/dig_citizen

If I were to rate my online behavior on a scale 1 to 10 (10 being the highest) I would give myself a 8. I would do so because I know I have used other people words and tweaked them just a little bit. I know I have also said things that I wish I wouldn’t. But as long as I can admit that I can lean from those mistakes and not make them again. When I am with my friends I probably say more things when I’m by myself. I’m glad we had this lesson so I could learn how to improve my online responsibilities.

So be safe and watch yourself online it will make you a much better person and it won't cause fights that you can't get out of.

 

All About Me

Hey guys! I'm Emily and I'm a sophomore at Valley High School. I'm, 15 years old and I'm a twin.  I love to play and watch sports. My favorite NFL team is the Steelers! But the only sport I play is soccer. My position is left defender. I also love to do things in the water like tubing and water skiing. I created this blog so I can discuss what we did in class. The class I'm currently enrolled in is Digital Communication, but everyone here calls it Digi Tools.

 In this class we do a variety of things. We learn about online safety and how we should have good online ethics. Other main thing was how to use a variety of different programs. I have learned a lot from this class and I really enjoy it! This class revolves around the use of technology and we get in habit of using it every day. I think without it we would be lost.

How about you do you like Digi Tools? What forms of communications do you use?