I think I find myself somewhere between the Typical Teacher and the Modern Teacher. I definitely rely heavily on the more tried and true elements of the Typical Teacher Network
(colleagues, print and digital resources, curriculum documents). I think this is because I'm more comfortable with this network. I've observed typical teaching networks for my entire career as a student and 3 times now as a student teacher. In the Education program they put a heavy emphasis on curriculum, digital resources, family and local community. I've never had a class (before this one) that discussed the importance of social bookmarking, video conferencing or online communities. For this reason, I just feel less confident using these tools. I think in order for me to implement some of these systems in my classroom I would need to observe how a co-operating teacher or colleague uses them.
I think a typical student would align more with the Modern Teacher. Social Networking Services are such an important part of our society at this point. I think it would be silly not to use them as an educational tool. However, I still struggle with how and where to integrate them in to my classroom.
I found this Media Smarts infographic very helpful. It seems to be geared more towards parents, but I believe that a lot of the same concepts apply to us as teachers. The top parental concern in digital well being is misinformation. I think that this is definitely something that should be touched on in the classroom, especially if you do a lot of research projects. I think we should be teaching our students how to recognize credible, legitimate information sources as well as sources that may be opinion based or just unreliable. I think that we also need to be aware of where we, as teachers, are sourcing our information. I often use the internet as a resource when building lessons, especially if it's in a subject I'm not an expert on (ancient Egypt for example). I think that it's very important that we ensure that that the knowledge and information we pass on is legitimate. It is our professional responsibility.
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