In high school I was definitely ahead of the masses on media use, mostly because my high school was blessed with so much new equipment. We had digital cameras, various editing suites, a weekly newscast ... we had options, mostly because the school was new and had money. So that was helpful. I did a lot of editing and video production for broadcasting, history and English classes. It made projects much more enjoyable and challenging, and we were able to produce these projects at a time when they easily impressed teachers.
Proudly, I joined facebook when it was still "thefacebook.com," in 2004. Since I have remained a passive user, fearing games as the sinkhole of all my free time.
In my first foray into the professional world, I maintained a blog and recorded weekly podcasts for our sports department, and in 2006 that was about on the curve for newspapers. It was a valuable skill to learn, though it admittedly required extra time (but you always do what the publisher tells you to do).
So that's a basic profile of my digitization. To look at facebook again - I think it is a bit scary that we are leaning more toward the stance that everything should be public unless you close it off, rather than the other way around. I see it as a tool for networking and for sharing bits of information about myself, but I find it hard to keep up with all the privacy settings. This bothers me, and yet facebook has become so integral to our generation - it is my primary means of organizing events and communication with large groups of people - that we cannot help but use it. What power we have given to that site. And that concerns me.
But, it is here to stay. Best to figure out ways to utilize it. And I am not yet to the point where I will use it in my class - at least not with me as an active participant. I want a buffer still between myself and my students.
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