After going over the Top 100 Tools for Learning article, I feel like an aboslute caveman!  Yes, I have always been aware of many of the top tools like, Facebook, Google, and Twitter but up until three weeks ago I had no clue what Dropbox was and after seeing it all the way up to #6 on the top 100 list I feel like society has passed me up compe.   I had a former coach of mine who is now at Long Beach State University ask for me to send him a video of a local baseball recruit through Dropbox.  My response was simple, "what is dropbox" his statement of "dude you have got to be kidding me" made me feel 2 feet tall!  My old coach doesn't have a twitter or facebook account and made me feel like I had fell way behind society!  I have been able to learn about the benefits of Dropbox and will use it to commuicate articles and video with my players for the rest of my coaching career.
 
Web 2.0 applications have forever changed our education system.  According to the article, The Best Web 2.0 Applications for Education 2012 by Larry Ferlazzo, Web 2.0 applications must be accessible to english language learners, free of charge, classroom usuable, fully browser based.  These requirements make the applications easy and simple to use.  I have never been the biggest fan of all these online tools until the past month.  With online education forcing students to use these tools and applications, it forces them to catch up to our tech savy society today.  During my undergraduate in class experience I had zero knowledge of how to record my own video or pod cast, create my own website and had never heard of any of these web 2.0 applications!  This online program has prepared me and made me confident
 
During my Kinesiology 710 course I have been able to learn about a lot of online technologies that I was completely against prior to the course.   For example I have learned that a Fan Page can completely benefit my career.  I want to be a Head College Baseball Coach someday, by creating a fan page, I would have the ability to give a constant recruiting tool to prospective student  athletes that did not have much prior knowledge of my program.  Uploading videos will be especially beneficial, as I have learned that prospective student athletes love "cool" things about a program.  By creating the "coolest" possible video of my program, consisted of the current players, it gives the prospective student athletes the chance to see the fun type of atmospehere they could be apart of.
 
 
http://www.elon.edu/e-net/Article/59585

The article "Generation Always-On" brings up concerning points about our youth education for years to come.  The studies showing that the attention span of this generation has decreased from that of the previous generations shows that technology and parts of social media maintain space in the human brain. 
I feel that as long as education systems continue to push towards a fast paced shifting system then our youths will have success.  However, if the system that I was brought up in takes places with lots of in class reading with a subject per hour ration then our classrooms could be in trouble.
I agree with the statement that in the year 2020 the brains of teens will struggle.  The relability of social media to communicate definitely decreases the face to face communication performance.  As well as the ability to find scholarly information!  When teens are asked a question these days, before they even think about the answer they whip out their iphones and google search the answer, it is creating a lack of ability to carry a deep thought process which would result in quick and irrational decisions down the road!
 
Picture
I decided to have some fun with this picture and insert my six year old nephew on the cover of People Magazine as the first ever child to reach the MLB.  Two things created this, the first is that I was throwing wiffle balls this afternoon to him and watching him demolish the balls.  The second was the outrageous magazine storeies you see while you are in line at the supermarket! I feel so blessed to have him in my life.

 
    We constantly warn our student athletes to watch what they post on the internet, specifically with the kind of language they use and photos that they post.  Their social media sites are a representation of them as a person, and they in turn are a representation of our program.  Meaning that our program could gain a negative image in someone's head solely because one "mistake" or "joke" that an individual posts.
    At the same time social media networks allow for college athletes to interact with athletes from a different university as well as give them the opportunity to feel like they are on the same social level as professional athletes.  For example, with my new twitter account I will have the chance to retweet a post of my
 
Hello All,

    My name is Matt Souza.  I am currently working on my Master's Degree in Physical Education at Fresno Pacific University where my anticipated completion is the 2014 Summer.  I also received my Bachelor's Degree in History from Fresno Pacific.  

    During my undergrad years at FPU, I was apart of the baseball program, in fact baseball has been a major portion of my life having played throughout college and now currently I am in my third season as an assistant coach at FPU.  I enjoy the constant interaction I get with my players and the ability of watching them achieve their dreams of playing college baseball while they earn a college degree that can never be taken away from them is something I will never take for granted.

    I grew up in Hanford, California where I remain extremly close with both of my parents of whom I am forever grateful for raising me in a Christ filled household.

    Author

    Matt Souza, 25 years old.  Assistant Baseball Coach- Fresno Pacific University.
    PHIL 4:13

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