The First Chat

What people often learn about me is that in person and online, I tend to be a very shy person, despite the fact that a lot of my interests kind of put me "out there" such as blog writing and teaching.  For some reason I feel comfortable addressing a large audience, but when it comes to one on one interaction I sometimes have problems making connections because I want to shrink into myself and just hide.

The chat was not much different, except that I was probably a little more active than I usually am in these things.  I actually talked with one woman from Poland about the country (my mom is originally from there -- she immigrated in the 1960s), and another woman I made a comment to when asked if anyone was near Burlington, VT (I live in NH, but not near the border).

Maybe it's because I'm so tech-oriented already, but I don't have problems navigating through this landscape, probably because I've been doing it for so long.  And I've learned how to cancel out the noise of so many distractions when it comes to going online.  But I also can't resist the new gadgets, either, so I have accounts all over the place, but a lot of them I've abandoned just because I've found someplace better or it just wasn't worth my time to go there everyday.

My main goal with this class is being able to implement the use of digital cultures in the classroom, especially when school districts are against it.  I have two Facebook pages that I maintain -- one is my personal page, and one is my "teaching" page for my students to go on.  The "teaching" one I don't go on too often because it was set up initially to just put the students on there so they wouldn't see my personal page. This I did because the students I had on my page initially were friends of my stepdaughter, and when I went to a workshop on this they advised teachers to take students off our Facebook. Instead of doing that, I just moved them, and started adding more students.

So I am looking forward to the official start of this course.  Now if only I didn't have so many places to navigate to!

#edcmooc

About Me

Name: Lori Ingham
Location: Franklin, NH

I'm a mom and stepmom who currently works as a substitute teacher, both on long term and day assignments.  Currently I am doing a long term that is supposed to last until mid-February at Winnisquam Regional Middle School in Tilton. I'm substituting right now so that I can gain more experience to have my own classroom eventually.

I'm fascinated with technology, and am always looking for ways to integrate it into my classroom.  I've taken two courses on using it to teach writing, and am looking forward to this more social look at its use.