Module 3: Universal Design for Learning and Digital Citizenship

Since I don't have a background in education and will not be pursuing a career in education, the tasks in this module were a bit challenging. It does help that I have grandchildren that are in school.
This module was about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Digital Citizenship. Sometimes in my current career, I have had to train new employees. You could say that I was their teacher. I can definitely see where it would have been helpful to use a UDL in the training process. Going forward I would definitely set goals and use the framework of a UDL to improve and optimize the training experience.
Understanding Digital Citizenship is critical for parents and teachers alike. The mother of my two adopted grandchildren is very well versed since her 13 year old son is constantly on a tablet, computer or phone. She uses several apps to monitor his activity.
Monitoring a child's digital activity can be very tricky. They are very sophisticated and you must be very careful when dealing with each individual child.

Module 2: Bookmarking and Networking

I’ve really enjoyed learning about the bookmarking and networking sites in module 2.  The three that were discussed, Delicious, Bitstrips and Twitter made me think of ways they can be used in my current profession.  I work in the Oil and Gas Industry doing research. Sometimes I work alone and sometimes I work with a group. I have also been put in charge of groups of abstractors and I can definitely see how these technologies can help with communication and productivity. Twitter could be used to communicate instructions or daily motivational messages to a group of workers. In the past I’ve had problems with workers repeating the same mistakes. Bitstrips would be an excellent way to communicate instructions in a comedic way that may be more memorable so mistakes could be avoided. Delicious would be a very useful tool. All websites from Clerk’s Office of records to historical records sites could be bookmarked for all to use.

The only problem I foresee is with using Twitter. There are so many distractions and one could easily waste a good deal of time exploring twitter when they should be working. There could also be a problem using Bitstrips. I would have to be careful about sending out a message that could be seen as condescending or hurtful.