Where are the Computer Teaching Jobs

Today, I blog with a purpose.  With 21st century education being on top of the educational hit list, I find myself utterly shocked at the lack of postings for Computer Technology Teaching Positions.  Even the computer integrator positions have gone down drastically.  Did my months participating in etmooc make me blind?  There were so many other computer teachers, or like minded people that I  truly hoped and believed the postings would start in April as usual.  Go to Google and type in Computer Technology Teaching Positions, or better yet, try any of the famous searches I have done, "digital media" "social media" "adjunct professor" "computer educator" "computer integrator" "technology teacher" "computer teacher".  You will not find much if anything.

I got my master's in computer technology integration as I love computer technology of any kind, I truly do.  Ok, I have a special love for social and digital media as well as citizenship and digital storytelling, but you get the point.  I can and love to teach education, computer productivity applications and have a special passion for teaching blogging and web 2.0 which allow for communication, collaboration and creativity (the building blocks of the 21st century learner).

I am truly starting to think I should have gotten my master's in a content area such as science (as the positions I do see are always "core" subjects), and while I like science a lot, I'm not ready nor can I afford the classes needed for a new certification.  Hmm.. now in order to teach, I am considering leaving what I consider to be the most important subject "computer technology"??  Here in the state of New Hampshire, I think we are progressive yet as I have extended my search to include the state of Massachusetts with not much success.

Has computer education falling to the wayside?  Am I living in the wrong location?

I wonder how many will see this for I am not self promoting though I do think I am an amazing teacher, but as my master's classes fall to the wayside due to lack of enrollment, I look to other colleges and public education and am truly surprised at the lack of posts for positions for which I am qualified, here in NH, with a certification and master's in Computer technology integration and five years of experience I am left to wonder if I picked the wrong field, the wrong state, or the wrong country.  I hear technology is at the top of the educational food chain in some European countries, and I know it is obvious when I look at my community from etmooc. I guess I'm just a frustrated computer technology teacher displaced and needed to rant.  Ok, I miss teaching full time, I admit it, but how do I fix it?

I would geniunely love to hear comments on this one!!

My MOOC Experiece: Etmooc

This has been an amazing journey. And I really wanted to sit down to see what I have learned or contributed during my time with etmooc. Well, please excuse me as I will discuss applications as they relate to concepts.
Session one already had me. I had a great time watching the etmooc sessions on blackboard; I switched my social bookmarking from delicious to diigo. I installed scoop.it and I love it. My switch in social book marking allows me to underline text, make things to “read later” and well, I really like the lists. Scoop.it, well, what an easy way to share. I have also enjoyed buffer for tweets and have become slightly addicted to pearltrees. See my social media pearltree here. I like that I can organize information in a visual manner and I like the branching, it reminds me of mind mapping which I have always taken too.
I ended up installing silver bird to twitter chats (see my post here). Oh, I learned I am not a fan of twitter chats and that’s ok, but I had no idea they even occurred.

I actually use my twitter account at least three or four times a day during what I have termed my “blogsphere” time. I literally went from tweeting 3 times to having over 120 tweets. That means I shared 110+ times, not bad. Oh, and I now dedicate 1 hr a day to commenting, blogging or reading and I love it. Why I did not take this time before is beyond me.

I learned to blog again but with passion. I’ll be honest, I was a disenchanted blogger, it’s the darn comments, I feel irrelevant if I share but no one is reading, That's me.

The topics we have covered really leave for reflection and in-depth learning if you choose to do so, but how could you not. We had/have great teachers/facilitators that engaged us in new ways to share, learn and engage. I was the disenchanted blogger which is a shame as I have taught it for years. I love blogging now and am really enjoy just opening up a post and considering what I have found to be significant or fun information I might like to share. Sue Water’s gave great presentations that reminded me to be a better blogger, link to people and reflect, some of the things I had forgotten. My blogging community has grown and I really enjoy commenting on blog posts, I find the more you comment, the more you learn, but that might be me. I’m a reflective learner.

I have come to know the power of comments and a community sharing thoughts on the same subject. It is a truly powerful thing and you cannot teach collaboration, you can only guide it.

I truly feel that my social media skills have been given a full make over. I learned that I love Google plus communities and it’s an amazing way to share and create circles of knowledge.

I finished my course proposal for Social Media and Responsibility in Education. I could not have done that without all of the sharing of knowledge and great content that was provided to us. It gave me and extra nudge.

Ah, and rhizomatic learning. I am a rhizomatic learner and the topic is so in depth and interesting that I could research and write about it for hours, luckily, Dave Cormier has already done that and I have read and blogged a great deal about this fascinating concept that makes so much sense to me. We spread so many different ways when we learn, we shoot off in different directions and we all take various paths when we are allowed to have a say in our learning. Each person will have a different outcome but it will definitely be in depth.

Digital storytelling took me down a very familiar road and reminded me why I love it so much, again, so many resources and great content, that I reframed a digital storytelling course proposal that span’s 12 weeks. Thanks Alan, your work in this field is already amazing. I redefined digital storytelling and have decided that if you really need to stick to the basics of a “story” before you digitize it. I’m sure many may disagree. I feel we are doing an injustice to ourselves and our students if we let them think any words with a set of pictures are a true story. It may be fun, it may be explanatory, but the story as the literary component and story boarding cannot be ignored.

I went outside my comfort zone and created a story about a very unpleasant experience. I haven’t done so much storyboarding in a while and it so reminded me of how important it is. My digital story took a lot of effort, time and pain but I think it was very therapeutic. Feel free to see my goanimate story here. I shared so much of myself, some may say too much, but I needed it and I was hoping to inspire some or get suggestions, I didn’t and that’s OK. I have to deal with things on my own terms.

I made animated gifs and played with gimp again, something I had not done in years. I like animated gif’s, I think they are fun and a great way to express an idea, thought, emotion.

I’ve decided to make this a series of blog posts as I had no idea this had become so long. I have so much more to reflect on from the past few months with etmooc, stay tuned. Thank you to Alec Courosa and friends for making my journey possible.

Thanks to Comments, I Feel Connected-Best learning day ever!

Today, I opened my email account and yes there are comments to be moderated on my blog. I cannot begin to describe how excited I got! Still am! Wow, comments are a driving force and the pleasure you receive is odd to say the least. I think it goes with “I have been acknowledged”. I have hit a topic that others in the same predicament and the commenting was amazing as was the advise and knowledge shared with me.

Ok, so now to the next task, thanking everyone, replying and reading the wonderful links sent to me. I have received great advice and I have made new connections. I have learned and shared. Ah, the joy of the comment cannot go without heed any longer. This is awesome, I want to write great blog posts everyday now, join more mooc’s or communities where I can learn and share more more... I wonder if that is what makes “us” different, this intense need to share, to get suggestions, to learn an open online format. So you may wonder when I say “us” but that I mean those of us who joined a mooc, have a blog, like to wiki and most importantly love to find new software/applications to help us embrace our main love which is education.

I will be honest about one more feeling today, a little fear,. What if I do not have another good blog post? What if I am not an eloquent writer? What if my point doesn’t make sense? I know many of you must be feeling this way as I have for years (I just never admitted it). Are my thoughts and finds good enough for a good blog post? Should I write about…..?? Can I add more aspects of my personal life?? For the first time since I my blog started, I no longer am willing to let these insecurities hold me back. So for you beginners and those new to blogging or etmooc, congratulations and blog away. We all feel lost in blog land sometimes. …

So there it is, my best online learning day in a long time.

My question now is how do we turn it around and give it back? I want everyone willing to blog and share to have such a great day. Can we all resolve to comment on 2-3 blogs a day? Would you do this if it was asked of you as a condition to participating in this particular #etmooc?

And I need to pay it forward, look at this great post from a fellow etmoocr that I can Please take a moment to read …Lisa Sanderson’s blog at http://abbtechtuesday.edublogs.org, she has a great post on connected learning and crowdsourcing.