PLN - #1

Hello, I am Mark Spontarelli.

This article was very interesting to me. Mainly because the author talked about social media sites and networks that I have never heard of before like, Yik Yak, Medium. WhatsApp, and Kik. Those are all new to me but it was interesting to read about how they worked. I have never used Tumblr either and it was interesting to see how it works.

So to introduce myself, I am Mark Spontarelli. I have a almost 3 year old who is wild as all get out and a lovely wife who I have been married to for almost 5 years. I love Jesus, music, Akron, and coffee. Lots of coffee. I am majoring in Special Education. I am an Education Aide for students with developmental/intellectual disabilities at Blick Clinic's Alternative Education. I absolutely love working with this population.

I agree and disagree with some of the things that the author wrote. The author is only 19, so maybe I am just out of the loop but when he talked about sites like Yik Yak and WhatsApp and Tumblr, and talked about how so many people used them and everyone was on them before class and during class, I just didn't get it. Probably cause I have never used those and had never heard of some of them. I can see where the author was talking about young kids on instagram. My wife's cousins are real young and somehow they have an Instagram account and are posting pictures. I was very surprised when these young kids were requesting to follow me on instagram. And, I do see a lot of older folks using Facebook. I feel like 95% of the people I know have a Facebook and that is insane!

I have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Facebook and Instagram are the ones I use the most. I selfishly love posting pictures of my almost 3 year old and my wife, they are just so cute!
As for Twitter, I mainly use it to read articles. I follow 500-something musicians, actors, comedians, and news and music. I hardly have any followers at all, and that is ok. I don't tweet much at all so I don't really care if I am getting likes or retweets if I choose to tweet.

Basically, I guess I represent my self on social media as a family man and musician. I do not post much of anything different than that. I like Facebook because I am able to keep up with family who lives across the country.

I think that technology can be very useful in the classroom. There are so many apps out there to improve learning. I have really seen this with my students with developmental disabilities. There are so many apps that are improving their speech, listening, reading, safety signs, and so on. Social media for classes I am in now is very cool as well. I like the tweet sessions and the blogging. I am only 25, but this seems like a whole new world to me and I need to get hip to the times. Technology will just be getting bigger and bigger in everyday life and will have a lot to do with education. I am really excited to learn these different tools.

-Mark