So I feel like I let the class down.

When reading through the expectations for the final post and what you actually had to posted I have a feeling of self doubt. From the looks of what others have done through google+, Twitter, and WordPress I feel sort of ashamed because I feel like I didn’t respond, and that I didn’t have a strong presence during the class. However, when actually thinking about where I came from and what I actually have done (considering I thought I was helping you guys out just not in the conventional way).

I did have a twitter presence where I liked, retweeted, and even recommended reads/ other twitter handles to follow as future educators such as..

#ecmp355 on the topic of the universities wifi.. Lol https://t.co/vZTtcPx3ZN

— Brayden Dreger (@bdreger96) May 18, 2016

Just started following @AutismEducatio1 considering Ill be spending the summer with clients that have autism. #excited

— Brayden Dreger (@bdreger96) June 7, 2016

What do u think of this #ecmp355? Texting and walking may become illegal in some areas of the world! @kbhildebrandt https://t.co/Wd2gmJ8E3s

— Jessica Henrion (@JessicaMHenrion) June 8, 2016

 

These are just a few examples of how I have reached out to fellow classmates, and followers.

Sadly I did not respond/comment as much as I wanted to on WordPress but I feel as if I did acknowledge these opinions/comments and blogged accordingly or brought them into my own life and built off of them. I also did not focus as much as I feel I should have on Google+ but again I did acknowledge the links, and opinions stated.

The point I kind of want to make here is the fact that I was by far not a social media person at all prior to this class. I did not have a twitter presence at all! I did not blog at all.. I basically avoided the internet unless I was told to. The fact that I actually had a twitter profile picture, and I also followed people let alone actually tweeting; I find that I took a huge step forward into this digital citizenship. The point that I am trying to make is that I feel like I did not do the most “twittering” or blogging in the class, but I feel like I did a lot considering where I was at before ECMP355.

The things I can take from this class are:

• The fact that I am actually reading twitter (I have made it a part of my routine TBH)
• I approached touchy subjects through my blogging which managed to get me on one of the top posts of the week
• I have a stronger digital citizenship because I considered the possibilities of employers looking at my social media (private IG, and private Facebook, professional looking twitter)
• I have expanded my network through saskedchat
• More aware of cyberbullying due to Carole Todd
• More aware of the positive side of the internet and how it can be used in the right way as a teacher.

So even though that I feel I did’t participate as much as I should have, I have a feeling that I am in a way better spot then I was at the beginning of the class!

Thanks for Everything

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So Idk where I am at..

So to be completely honest (I think I use that phrase a lot..lol) I don’t know if drumming is for me. I don’t know if its the fact that my schedule is hectic with work and drums are loud and I can’t play past 9:00, or if its just not for me. An amazing thing happened though after I saw Shakey Graves open for City and Colour (Id almost say Shakey Graves was better) I noticed a different kind of playing style that I have never heard before. Shake Graves when he plays by himself manages to not only fingerpick (which is hard) but also keeps a relative beat with a Tamborine and a bass drum with his right and left food; and I gotta say that it sounded fricken amazing. So, I am the adventurous type and sort of completely forgot about all of the other drums and focused on the bass/kick drum and playing guitar and I gotta say… I feel amazing. I feel as if I just found a new method to my madness considering I wasn’t thinking drumming was for me! 

So I don’t know if this is the end of my drumming career or what not but it felt weird not strumming a guitar, but I also love the kick drum so I incorporated the two; if you check out my twitter I have a small snippet of how I sound with this new method (it isn’t perfect but I am working on it). Wish me luck 🙂

#holycrap

I’m gonna go ahead and say this right now that saskedchat was fricken crazy! Never have I been so immersed in social media to the point that my phone was blowing up along with my laptop overheating; What a great experience and I prompt anybody to try it! One of the many experiences that I will be taking from ed chat will be the fact that I was actually utilizing twitter…(crazy hey?) but if you know me through blogging, I have a very persistent hate for social media such as twitter. However, I was actually using twitter in a positive way to gain relationships with fellow colleagues and get educated. That in my opinion is the most meaningful experience I will take from ed chat is the fact that I was actually using twitter which truly shows how I am opening up to social media more and more now!

 

Working with kids.

After watching the documentary Sext Up Kids it just brought me more attention of this issue, and how I completely fell into the actions described at a grade 8 level. Just to jump right into it though I have a question to ask.. What is it that women are fighting for? Now I don’t mean this in the wrong context but on one end I see the f**cked up market appealed to young teenagers specifically females as proclaimed in Sext Up Kids; However I also see the other end of the spectrum where women should be able to wear what ever they want to be confined to their own feelings. During the documentary I was inclined to the understanding that all women feel as if they need to perform in order to please men. After the documentary I started thinking more about Facebook where you see a lot of opinions that revolve around the idea that women should be able to wear whatever they want regardless of how much it reveals. So I am sort of confused on what this fight is about and I need some help bringing this opinion to light

HOWEVER! One of the biggest eye openers for me was working for YMCA before and after because I was working with kids, which is great because I am going to school to become an educator. I gained very great relationships with coworkers and students but there were many days that I questioned what exactly was going through some of these kids heads. Regarding the teenage life portrayed in Sext Up Kids I have one thing to say regarding my opinion stated in the last paragraph…. THERE IS NO REASON FOR A GRADE 4 TO DO THEIR HAIR AND WEAR MAKEUP FOR PICTURE DAY. This was the biggest eye opener for me because at the age of 12 there is absolutely no fricken reason for make up to be a part of that childs life at that point in time; I don’t think it should be a part of society to begin with but at fricken 10,12 years old?!?! WTF!!!! I understand both points I made before, yeah the market aimed towards teenage girls is messed and is aimed towards them becoming more revealing, I also understand the point that women should be able to wear whatever they want because men can do it making us equal (we should be equal to begin with). I still feel like regardless of which opinion is given, a 10 year old does not need to enhance their appearance in order to please people. A 10 year old shouldn’t even know what make up is, I sure as hell didn’t.

Now this seems like a very touchy topic and I don’t know how this blog post is going to portray itself to everyone in the world, because you are not sitting in person with me to understand my context. I am just going to say to defeat any turmoil that I believe in equality.. I don’t believe that a person should not have to enhance themselves in order to please the world. I understand why there is a market telling girls and women to reveal themselves and I hate it in my opinion because it is down right disrespectful. However we as the consumers have the choice to buy the products or not, we can change the market. If we don’t buy their stuff they will change because the consumers are ultimately the ones that control the market. #Change

Its just one ant.

Googling my name.

Following May 24’s class I decided to google search my name just to see what shows up if an employer, or school division were to do so. I was somewhat surprised but also disappointed to what comes up. When I google my name the first thing that pops up is my Facebook profile.. Alright.. I did a major sweep of anything on my Facebook so no unprofessional photos, or posts appear and you essentially need to contact me before you can see anything. Next are just some old profile pictures and what not, then theres my youtube account. Then there is my youtube account; again there is nothing unprofessional on there just some guitar videos, video game montages, and old embarrassing videos of myself. What is left on the first page of my name is basically my social media forms so twitter (which is professional and being used now), Instagram (which is also the same as Facebook, I have to allow someones ability to look at my stuff), and my old Vine account (lol). Last of the first page is a relation to Darren Dreger who is an NHL player given that we have the same last name.

This is the part that disappoints me, on the first page I have no professional outlook of my lifestyle and personality that may benefit me to an employer. It takes going to the second page to see a link to my bio on WordPress, but even then there is no professional vision on my first page. This is where I see the importance of building a strong digital identity because you want to direct someones attention to the best image of you; as we know the internet could possible harness a lot of unprofessional, disgusting personal information about yourself if you aren’t careful because anything posted to the internet never leaves. So having it difficult to find this information by having the positives on the first page is by far one of the better things you can do for yourself as a digital citizen.

Early 2000’s Youtube

After watching the excerpt from Michael Welsch, and the presentation from Alec Couros on digital identity it got me thinking of how far we have come with social media. Back in the early 2000’s when I was first introduced to youtube it was a much different website then what it is now. Back then videos were only ever 5 minutes long max because the servers couldn’t hold enough data for a video longer than 10 minutes. The videos were so grainy that it was as if you were looking at the pixels, and for the most part the videos were flash videos (cartoons), or video game skits. Now youtube is on its way to having 4k resolution and there is billions of accounts all unique and such.

The reason I am referring to old youtube is because of how much the internet impacted the world with such a simple concept. When you think back to the old youtube videos such as the “numa numa” video or “star wars kid” normally the only way for people to get that video were through chain mail and what not. However, there was this website that allowed there to be a community that anybody in the world could access; because of this community these videos were able to circulate around the world and essentially create the youtube that is to this day the leading video community in the world.

With this being said I can see the positive sides of the internet and how many people you can reach out to so easily because of this digital community. I can contact an educator in Arizona that could give me ideas on lesson planning rather than you know.. Having to fly to Arizona (Idk why I would that was just an example). The positive to this is the world is more open then it was before social media sites were created when such resources were only possible through word of mouth. Now we can just as easily find possible lesson plan ideas on Pinterest as making Kraft Dinner.

Lets do this…

Alright! I did it. I finally did something that has been in my interest for basically my whole life. I am currently renting a drum kit!!! For my ECMP 355 learning project I am going to work on becoming a drummer (which is something I have always wanted to do).

So first thing off, I have drummed before in my life which means that I have a few basic beats in my head; I also play guitar so I have a natural rhythm going on. However, this is the first time I ever played an acoustic drum kit.. The sound, feel, and overall placement of the heads are all different from what I am used to (and thats not even a lot!). So you could say I am basically starting from scratch with natural rhythm

 

    (It actually didn’t take that long to set up!)

Second off I am renting in the meantime (I wish I could buy but I have no money). The guys at long and mquade also said that renting is very good for beginners because you have yet to discover your sound, let alone the basic rhythm down. So with renting has its complications.. they forgot to give me some serious components: my seat stand (its called a throne lol), a leg for my bass drum (the biggest one), and a ride stand (one of the bigger cymbals that make that “ting” sound, so I need to get those covered before I can really go at er.

Last of all I want to leave the people who read these with a little treat/ a control. I want to have the same song I am covering in my first post, and also my last post to sort of show my progression. If you’re somebody who knows me, “Stressed” Out from Twenty One Pilots is the answer to my life at this moment, with that being said I want to be able to drum to the sick beat that is “Stressed Out”. So I am going to leave this blog with the video of my first  drum cover ever 😉 ENJOY!

Twitter Talk.. #idk

Just a heads up this is a blog on all social media not just twitter.

So as I have stated before in previous blogs I am an introvert. Only like interacting with small groups of close friends and what not; This also applies to social media. I avoid forms of social media (I barely even use Facebook) because 1.) I am an introvert and 2.) I think its a waste of time and destroying society. Now it seems like I am jumping the gun here and completely bashing social media but I have my reasons for both using it and disliking it. I do understand the important, and beneficial side to social media. Forms of social media such as Twitter, and Facebook are great networking tools given that employers pretty much put a face to your digital identity. It is also perfect for getting a professional profile to your name considering that in todays society that social media is EVERYTHING.

Every living thing seems to be revolved around social media which directs me to my negative beliefs of social media. It can get very messy; Social media is basically an option for a**holes to say whatever they want with no real consequences. Not saying that I am a softy that doesn’t want to get bullied, I just don’t like associating myself with negativity most of the time. I also still have a gut feeling that social media is destroying society in the sense that when I go for supper with my parents, Ill put my phone down (giving respect to my parents) and they will be typing away doing whatever they do on their phones. I feel like people should not be glued to their phones 24/7 in order to get social media fame over actual socialization.

I understand the benefits of social media, and I am ever growing into a more digitally active individual (I actually got a twitter account),However I still have my doubts. I understand there are methods to avoiding negativity on the internet (somewhat) but I still feel like the proper way to interact with people is to actually talk to them face to face, rather than on a screen.

This video sums up how I feel about social media; Though I am still open to discussion and what not!

 

 

Hello Hello

Hello everyone that will be taking ECMP 355 with me during the spring semester. My name is Brayden Dreger and I will also be taking ECMP 355 (hence why I am making this introductory post). A little about myself I am an adventurer, an introvert, and a musically inclined individual. I love camping, fishing, hiking, snowboarding basically anything outside I will do because I would rather be outside than inside. Most of the things I do are actually by myself or in a small group because surprisingly I am an introvert and most likely will tend to myself which sort of digs into my idea of a technological presence. I play guitar very well, and believe that I am musically inclined because of the level that I enjoy music (I really like music). I love Marvel movies as my learning project for ECS 210 was a voice over of the new Civil War trailer (inside joke kinda)

I avoid most social media forms such as Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram (Ill post one every three months lol). That is why every time I take a class that involves blogging, I become a little less introverted (technologically) because I am enforced to have a presence online. Apart from me never really going out with huge crowds of people I consider myself a very down to earth, and outgoing individual with great ideas. If you are interested in viewing my Instagram here is my account.(the links in the word omg)

I look forward to the rest of this spring semester because for once I have a feel for blogging (after ECS 210), and think my presence will be greater in time.