LONESOME? DOES SOCIAL MEDIA HELP OR HURT?

If you are lonely, you are not alone.

One source says 60 million Americans suffer chronic loneliness.

Studies show that loneliness can cause a lot of health problems.

Now, we're being told the problem is getting worse because of social media.

That seems strange because social media connects people. 

Social networking on the internet helps if used to promote face-to-face 

conversation, but if used as a replacement for that.

So, I suppose the lesson is that it's okay to do Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Don't use it as a substitute for face-to-face interaction with others.  

More on the Classroom Digital Revolution

CONNIE USSERY, RETIRED MUSCOGEE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT MEDIA SPECIALIST,  WHO NOW TEACHES CARVER HIGH TEACHERS TWO DAYS A WEEK HOW TO TEACH WITH ELECTRONIC MEDIA, SENT THIS CLARIFICATION OF THE PREVIOUS POST ON HER TALK LAST SUNDAY TO COLUMBUS UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS.    

As far as I know, all core teachers at Carver utilize netbooks in instruction and I think most of the electives teachers do, when
appropriate, because tech support folks are bombarded when any networking problems arise. The students have to have their netbooks up and working during the school day and they make sure we keep them online. Teachers make sure their students bring them to class.  Paper textbooks will always be useful for classroom teachers as supplementary materials and especially for some types of special needs students.  Elective courses may rely on paper texts for a lot longer than core teachers because those courses are often taught using a variety of print and digital resources anyway.  I still think there are some teachers around the district who are “holdouts’ who prefer print textbooks, but I can’t imagine that they don’t utilize digital resources and software for projects.

Also, the researchers who talk about the differences in brain development among digital native children don’t make it sound like a bad thing: it’s just something that we teachers have to understand. Our students are as casual with technology as we used to be with doll houses and match box cars.  Their “learning curve” is way ahead of ours.

I hope I wasn’t too misleading during the Q & A yesterday.  I probably shouldn’t have tried to talk much about this since my talk was mainly about resources for UU, but I get excited and I find I have to reassure the people who aren’t comfortable with computer-based learning and project development, as some of the questions from parents and instructors indicated.

It’s very exciting seeing the teachers and the students working so hard to bring Carver into the 21st Century in instruction and in
facilities.The new building opens next fall and it’s going to be a showcase for technology and learning.

The New, Electronic Face of Education

WHAT ARE TEXTING, SMART PHONES, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, VIDEO GAMES DOING TO  OUR CHILDREN’S BRAINS?

Can the Facebook, Twitter, Texting, video game generation concentrate enough to become adequately educated for the future?  At the Unitarian Fellowship of Columbus service today, retired CSU History Professor Mark Berger raised that question to MCSD retired teacher and Media Specialist Connie Ussery, who. in her retirement instructs Carver High teachers in using electronic media to teach. The school is transitioning to digital textbooks.  Some teachers, she says, are making the transition, others are hanging on to paper textbooks.

Connie acknowledged the problem of attention spans shortening with constant bombardment of our young people’s brains by fast changing electronic media stimulation, and said the huge amount of time students spend looking at two-dimensional electronic images is definitely affecting the brains of young people. However, she says it has to be effectively used because electronic media images are here to stay and will probably increase.

And to think, I still read paper books, but I  do get my daily Ledger-Enquirer electronically.