C4T Project #4

I was assigned to Eric Langhorst who is a 8th grade history teacher in Liberty Missouri.

C4T#1 comment #1

In Mr. Langhorst most recent post titled The Hudson River Miracle Five Years Later posted 15 January 2014 He reflects on how a pilot of a U.S Airways plane emergency landed a plane on the Hudson River. Mr. Langhorst talks about the power of Twitter and social media and how social media has changed citizen reporting. Mr. Lnghorst recalls sitting in a waiting room watching a news talk show and checking his Twitter feed. He began seeing Tweets about a plane that landed in the Hudson River but wasn't sure if it was true because the news channel had not began reporting on it. After a few minutes pass he began to see pictures of the plane in the river, still the news was not reporting it. Then later the news talk show was interrupted with breaking news. He remembers thinking about how this has shown the power of twitter and potential for citizen reporting.

Like Mr. Langhorst I also see the power of Twitter and social media in reporting breaking news. Although Twitter and social media can be great news outlets they can also be an outlet for false information. An example of this is the Nick Saban too Texas controversy. Social media has great power and like what Peter Parker's uncle said "with great power comes great responsibility". There are several people on social media who will report false news or speculation on news especially when it comes to sport news. It is up to the reader to dig deeper into the report to check its authenticity. Twitter and social media have already changed the way we share and receive information. It will be interesting to see how much social media will shape the modern world that we live in today.

C4T#1 comment#2

In Mr. Langhorst's second post titled "Edcamp 2014 Reflections-Why I Love Edcamp" he reflects on the amazing events he experienced at Edcamp. Edcamp is an event where teachers from all over come and share ideas and experiences to help each other in their fields of education. He reflects on how he has attended several Edcamps in Missouri and each one has been amazing. This year at Edcamp Liberty 200 teachers attended to share ideas and discuss different topics. Edcamp is not like other conferences that most teachers attend. At Edcamp teachers are free to stand up share their ideas on the spot instead of having to submit a written copy of their lecture 9 months prior. Mr. Langhorst explains that at other conferences teachers are forced to sit and listen to dry lectures from a professional, but at Edcamp teachers are free to walk around and share their ideas in different groups or just socialize with their peers. Edcamp is truly a great experience with other educators.

This experience sounds truly amazing an i hope that i can have a similar experience when i am an educator. I love how they utilize technology through Blogger and Twitter to connect teachers to the event. I also love the freedom of the event. Teachers being allowed to share their ideas on the spot can be very useful. When one teacher shares their idea and another can freely get up and add to that idea it makes the event more personable.