We are all Cyborgs Now! TED Talk - Amber Case

Thanks again TED for another "riveting talk by a remarkable person!" I really enjoyed Amber Case and her analogy of our "cyborg selves." Amber talks about how as technology in evolving we are becoming a "screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on "external brains" (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives. But will these machines ultimately connect or conquer us? Case offers surprising insight into our cyborg selves.

Well worth taking 7 minutes and 53 seconds to sit down and watch and reflect on your life in 2011. How different is it to the life you had 2 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. I reflected on the notion of how little time I have to myself to reflect and think. As Amber points out in her TED talk, this "me" time is so valuable - the time where you can sit with no interruptions from anyone or anything. How often are we actually on our own. When we are by ourselves we often are still texting, skyping or surfing the net. AH it's time to book a holiday to a hot sunny destination with no 3G!

Google+

I LOVE facebook and the social networking opportunities it provides for me.  I am even MORE excited about the prospect of Google+ for a few reasons....  I particularly like the idea of the "circles" - "share what matters, with the people who matter most." This will give me the option of creating different "circles" of friends - work colleagues, professional connections, family and friends all within the same platform.  At the moment I tend to use Twitter as my Professional Learning Network and Facebook as my personal social network but there is often cross overs.  Imagine being able to share personal photos with family and friends and professional photos with work colleagues all within the same platform.  The future, as usual, holds so many exciting possibilities to explore - I look forward to giving it all a go! Check out all the other cool information about Google+ here.  Google+Sparks, Google+Hangouts, Google+InstantUpload and Google@Huddle - I eagerly await in anticipation Google!

Morena,

For today's PD session we are going to explore Wallwisher and brainstorm ways we could use this tool in our classrooms:-) By either clicking on this link OR clicking on the pink "post a sticky" on the wall below - add your WHAT NEXT from ICT PD Vision Days on Friday and Saturday.



Follow this link for ways to use Wallwisher in the classroom:-)

Check out this blog post on other ideas for using Wallwisher in Education.

CHALLENGE - Use Wallwisher in your classroom over the next week and share your wall with us next Thursday morning:-) If you have a class blog you are able to embed your Wallwisher on to that.