Diigo Articles important to me

I posted a few new websites in my Diigo Library that some of you may be interested in. This time I focused on something near and dear to my heart, how we as educators must take the time to do more than simply learn about technology, we must be aware of how technology is being used by our students. I have 2 children that are now in college, but through their childhood I have gone with them on their journey over the world wide web. So, I have played most of the video games that my son loves, even if they were not of the greatest interest to me. I know about first person shooter, creating an avatar, and true gamers versus casual gamers. (If you play angry birds,you are casual.) When my daughter began reading Manga, we read with her.  If you have not been to a bookstore lately I think you should go and check out the size of the Manga section. I have watched it explode over the last 10 years! When Manga lead to both of my children discovering anime, and they had very different tastes in the genre, I watched too. A few years ago I even went to an Anime Convention for the weekend with my teenage children. I was one of a very small group of middle age people in attendance, but I had a blast and I had a glimpse into what this population of teens and college students found so appealing. Facebook is how I know what my college age children are now doing, and Skype is what lets me see my daughter's face each week as she studies abroad half way around the world.  I watch tumblr  and view reddit and Cheezburger.

I continue to engage in what teenagers and my students are doing on the web. So, if my students tell me of a You Tube video they are all watching, I take the time to watch it. I hear about a site they love, I check it out. When I had a student tell me he was a "Brony", (that is a teenage boy that is interested in My Little Pony), I knew about it and could allow him to share. When the most recent K-pop video went so viral as to enter into mainstream American pop culture, I was already familiar with it. Hey, I had even gone to a K-pop concert in New York a year ago! I don't do all of this because they are of the highest interest to me, but I do this to help me stay connected to both my own children and the children I teach. This is something I believe strongly about. So, it is great to learn about all of the technology we can put to use in our classroom, but that isn't enough to relate to this technology generation. I believe we also need to take the time to understand the rest, such as video games and social media and how that side of the internet is where our children spend their time. So, here are just a few interesting articles. My Diigo