Here are some stats to give us an idea of how pervasive and permanent the internet has become for those of us who cannot come to terms with it well just move out of the way.
* 90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
* 247 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
* 1.4 billion – The number of email users worldwide.
* 100 million – New email users since the year before.
* 81% – The percentage of emails that were spam.
* 92% – Peak spam levels late in the year.
* 24% – Increase in spam since last year.
* 200 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 81% are spam).
* 1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September 2009).
* 18% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
* 738,257,230 – Internet users in Asia.
* 418,029,796 – Internet users in Europe.
* 252,908,000 – Internet users in North America.
* 179,031,479 – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
* 67,371,700 – Internet users in Africa.
* 57,425,046 – Internet users in the Middle East.
* 20,970,490 – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.
* 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
* 84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
* 27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
* 57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.
* 4.25 million – People following @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher, Twitter’s most followed user).
* 350 million – People on Facebook.
* 50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.
* 500,000 – The number of active Facebook applications.
Data sources: Website and web server stats from Netcraft. Domain name stats from Verisign and Webhosting.info. Internet user stats from Internet World Stats. Web browser stats from Net Applications. Email stats from Radicati Group. Spam stats from McAfee. Malware stats from Symantec (and here) and McAfee. Online video stats from Comscore, Sysomos and YouTube. Photo stats from Flickr and Facebook. Social media stats from BlogPulse, Pingdom (here and here), Twittercounter, Facebook and GigaOm. Was that too much to swallow well that is exactly how information on the internet and its processing hits us. Have fun and see you in cyberspace

That's all folks...

I have always wanted to be a teacher. For as long as I can remember that is what I wanted to do. It was one of those resolves that you are not sure how it entered your consciousness but it is just there. My philosophy as a teacher is based on the following concepts:
Passion: I believe that a teacher is someone who is passionate about a topic and equally passionate about communicating that topic to others.
Communication: Effective teaching not only involves being passionate about a subject, but being able to convey it to students in such a way that they will understand it, and apply it to their lives.
Caring: A teacher must care for the students, first as people and then as learners. He must also care for the subject and for the entire learning process.
Individuality: Teachers should realize individuality in their students. Every student has a life, a story, thoughts, and feelings that they bring with them to the classroom and the learning process.
Questioning: All too often, students regard teachers and the textbook as the final authority on any subject. I believe students should be allowed and encouraged to question what the book says. The Roman orator, Cicero once said, “The authority of the teacher is the greatest obstacle to learning.”
Real World: I try, in my teaching to bring in current events whenever possible so that students may link what they learn in class with the world around them. The truth is that many times we do courses and subjects that we have problems attaching to our reality. ICT for Reading has been one of the most relevant courses that I have done it is truly grounded in reality.

Hesitant technologists

Technology has the potential to assist teachers in meeting the literacy needs of diverse populations of students by contributing to student-centered teaching and transforming the role of the teacher from a direct deliverer of instruction to a facilitator of learning (Askov & Bixler, 1998). Complex views of literacy are currently emerging as people use new media to make meaning, express themselves, and communicate and work with others. As a result, various forms of information and communication technology (ICT) are redefining the nature of literacy (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004). The development of these new literacies have presented challenges for teacher educators as they prepare teachers to teach a wide range of literacy skills to culturally, linguistically, and academically diverse students. Teachers, like myself and teacher educators, the role I will soon play as reading specialist are now expected to integrate new technologies into their curriculum, reflecting standards developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). According to the International Reading Association (2002), students and teachers are now expected to become proficient in new literacies in order to become fully literate in today’s world. As new literacies and new technologies are being integrated into classrooms, however, research has revealed that the majority of teachers have not moved beyond mechanistic uses of computers (Bruce & Hogan, 1998). Innovative and transformative uses of technology have become the exception rather than the rule. Sadly, the research has revealed that teachers stay with what is traditional and therefore comfortable. It is left up to individual teachers to use their professional development to enhance their pedagogy and become current.

Digital citizens

Social networking, collaborative technology. Wow the World Wide Web has really turned the world into a global community. Everybody is connected and thinks they have to stay connected. What should be our response to this new space in which we exist? Several times I heard Aisha make reference to us as digital citizens, so I decided to explore the term a little further. As a digital citizen we are not part of a futuristic, sci-fi location but as digitalcitizenship.net puts it "a person who participates in society using a certain amount of information technology”. Normal0 falsefalsefalse EN-USX-NONEX-NONE To qualify for the unofficial title of digital citizen a person must have the skill and knowledge to interact with private and government organizations through means of "digital" tools such as computers or mobile phones, along with access to these devices. Long before I heard the term my students were already digital citizens, some good and upstanding and others well let’s just say if there were digital prisons they will be in it. As we introduce our students to the digital world the onus is on us therefore to also teach them to be responsible citizens who respect others and are willing to live and play by the rules.

"Order in the classroom!"

Over the last few weeks musings have been made about the use of technology in the classroom by members of the reading class. My students are exposed to very little of it as a teaching aid. Although there are E-beam, laptops, projectors and other media little or none is utilized. I used to think too much dependence on technology can lead to apathy in students, can cause them to despise reading and will lead to their failure in the given subject. I have now come to accept that it is an inevitable part of education in this day and age and as such students should be allowed to regularly utilize it in the classroom setting. Students seem genuinely excited about the lessons, whenever I use the technology, I sometimes simply have to walk with a laptop and they become excited. The problem arises when you have to get the equipment and set it up, which could be a bit intimidating. Thankfully we just got a technician who will hopefully eliminate those problems. Another problem which arises is the management of the class during a lesson using Web 2.0 technologies. The logistics of many classes in secondary schools can turn a simple lesson into a discipline nightmare. Yes I will admit that talking and socializing is normal for developing adolescent but what I have a problem with is excessive talking and ill-timed socializing. The NEA believes that "when teachers, parents, and other adults in the lives of young adolescents begin to think of this social behavior as a normal part of human development and not an aberration, they can enjoy and accommodate behavior changes along the developmental continuum." I think I am at that point in my teaching career.