Gem 5 - Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World

Content Collaboration is always a hot topic in schools and among general workers since group work will never go away. Some content collaboration tools are wikis, blogs, google docs, and zoho suite. These places provide students with appealing, collaborative, online environments that support questioning, engagement, and sharing of ideas. Each type of web 2.0 tool accomplishes their tasks in different ways, but each allows users create a space to share and collaborate in which encourages analysis and synthesis of information. This can be extremely useful for teachers since much of learning is focused on teaching students how to find information and use it effectively. In the chapter there are many examples of how these tools are used in schools to enhance students learning through collaboration. There is even a list of 10 ways wikis support learning:

1. supports planning, collaboration, and critical thinking skills
2. facilitates inquiry
3. encourages personal accountability
4. provides practice in peer editing and reviewing
5. empowers through shared authorship
6. encourages responsible writing
7. deters plagiarism by showing process
8. engages and motivates students
9. supports constructivist learning
10. provides practice in validating information

They even show how to make a wiki page and how to set it so that only some people can edit. there are a bunch of features that educators can use when making wikispaces like unlimited pages, permissions for only authorized authors, WYSIWYG editing, RSS feeds, multimedia support revision history, and templates. There was also a lot in the chapter about blogs and google docs, but I didn't really learn much from the book that I had not already learned in class.

Gem 4 - Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World

Managing and organizing information has always been a struggle in school and this book touches on that in chapter 4. On the internet there is an overload of information just because of the sheer volume of information available, the convenience of information access, the diversity of information, the continuing trend fo interdisciplinary research and the fact that more searching is being doing by non-professionals. In this chapter they mention 5 categories of tools that can be used to help manage work flow: start pages, graphic organizers, calendars, outliners, and list makers. Personally, my favorite online organizational page is iGoogle. I have my lists, events, and updates from my mail, calendar, and other places all in the same place. Google in general has been a great way to organize group efforts by keeping information all in one, organized space. The gist of the chapter really recommends students using places like iGoogle to organize their school events by syncing to the school/ classroom calendar and making to-do lists for homework and projects. I think that this would be best used in a school where students have access to computers of their own so that they can make these lists right on the spot and add events as they come up.

Gem 3 - Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World

Chapter 3 is about social bookmarking. I mostly read this chapter because I had never really heard  that term. After reading approximately the first paragraph I figured out it was just tagging and all tagging related activities. Most people have been apart of tagging, tag clouds, and folksonomy. I remember when a little while back Google was using people to help them tag images by partnering people up and seeing how many matching terms you and your partner could get. Even in that context, I could tell that there were some problems with the system of normal folks tagging pictures. Sometimes there are errors, not every one is great a coming up with a one or two word description, and sometimes they didn't even know what the picture really was and labeled it wrong. This chapter does say why social bookmarking can be used in education because it:

1. proveds a free, efficient, effective, and reliable way to save and organize web sites, podcasts wikis, blogs, articles, images, and other media.
2. creates a collaborative environment.
3. supports a discovery/ exploration process.
4. allows users to tap the "collective intelligence" of the web.
5. provedes the opportunity for "sense making" through tagging, annotation, critiquing, or adding descriptions, highlighting, and adding sticky notes.
6. provedes and effective frame work to collaboratively evaluate web sites.
7. encourages students to analyze the web site content.
8. offres either public access ro complete privacy for a class or group of students.
9. supports anytime/ anywhere learning.
10. Integrates with other newer technologies.

One of the social bookmarking tools for education that is highlighted in this chapter is Diigo. It supports active learning by organizing tags and books marks and allows them to make up web pages as they would a book with sticky notes, highlights, and comments, and then they can share those notes with others. I think this would have been a handy tool for our classes since we went through so many web pages and links.

Gem 2 - Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World

The second chapter in this book is called, Searching the Web. As I figured going into the chapter, it's mostly about search engines. It does touch on the difference between using a search engine to find "the answer" and discovering a lot of information about a topic. In education there is a use for both since sometimes students need to know specific information and other times it only needs to be general and can be a discovery experience. One list I saw in there that I really liked is the five facts students need to know about search engines:

1. One search engine can't do it all.
2. There is an invisible Web that search engines can't penetrate.
3. Search engines can't read your mind.
4. Search engines do not evaluate the content on a Web site.
5. and One search engine can't search the entire Web.

There's even a chart on how different search engines can be useful to students. Some examples are that Exalead offers support through phonetic spelling, truncation, etc and Quintura encourages exploration by presenting information through a dynamic cloud. It's a pretty handy chart for educators because you can have students use the one(s) that fits your project best and pretty great for students because they can evaluate which one they want to use based on how it can help them. This chapter also tells you how to go beyond a basic search like doing a synonym search and a word definition search. There is also a whole list of search engines that will do a multimedia search like youtube, skreemr.com, live.com, and dogpile.com. 

This chapter was a good resource for different ways to search/discover information on the internet for teachers and students.

GEM 1 - Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World

The first chapter of this book, Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World, is all about learning, literacy, and web 2.0. It introduces what web 2.0 is and how it is different from web 1.0. The big difference I can see is that web 2.0 is a web platform where everything is built rather than needing to use packaged software programs that are different for each individual computer. The big draw of web 2.0 is that it uses a lot of collaboration and user participation to make the applications better. Something I like about this first chapter is that it gives 10 immediate reasons why web 2.0 applications are good tools for education. These 10 state that web 2.0 tools:

1. Motivate and involve students in learning, using tools that many are already using for personal purposes.
2. Align with the American association of School Librarians' Standards for the 21-Century Learner and International Society fo Technology in Education's National Educational Technology Standards.
3. Prepare students with authentic skills from working in the real world.
4. Encourage collaborative learning strategies.
5. Support learning as a social process.
6. Allow for interactive learning.
7. Provide student with authentic audiences.
8. Are free and fun to use.
9. Provide an anytime, anywhere learning environment.
10. And connect students to a global community of learners.

Another tool out of this chapter is the Inquiry and Web 2.0 Integration Guide. It takes you through the Stripling Inquiry Model to help students learn and apply new information through technology. The chart I found takes you through the 6 different phases of inquiry, connect, wonder, investigate, construct, express, and reflect. It then tells of different teaching and learning strategies that can be used. The chart also has a section for what kinds of technology and tools/resources could be used to help express that phase of inquiry.

This first chapter is a pretty good introduction to web 2.0 and has some pretty nifty tips for how to start using it in the classroom immediately.

Take a bite out of cyber crime?

http://www.mcgruff.org is a cite for bullying in general. It is mostly on face to face bullying and also touches on cyber bullying. It is a site for kids and has games, downloads, and an easy to maneuver site. The games are not extensive, actually there are only eight, but they have an easy to interpret message which could be used for younger children. There is one video, but it is about girls and ballet so it is not very appealing to boys. There are posters and cartoons that can be read and printed out in the download section and that seems the most applicable to teachers and parents because they can used it as a resource for things to do with their kids and the posters are kid friendly in content and presentation. There is only one section on cyber bullying which is tucked away in the advice section. The advice section is large, compared to all the other sections, but focuses on face to face bullying. Not that the face to face bullying tips can't be applied to cyber bullying, but it is a bit of a stretch for elementary kids to make that connection.

I like the cite for it's kid friendly look, but it is only really good for face to face bullying. Cyber bullying looks like a second thought on this site. There are some good teacher/ parent resources, but I'm not entirely sure that kids would look at that section of advice and downloadables and really use them. Maybe if they update the site and make some better games, it will be a really great site for kids to go to and learn. Maybe they will get more on cyber bullying some day.

Get Smart! Net Smart.

Getnetwise is a site about net safety. It is a cooperative effort to keep kids safe on the web. There are blog posts, how to videos, and lots and lots of information on how to keep your kids safe and your computer safe in general. GetNetWise contains the largest online repository of instructional how-to video tutorials that show parents and users how to keep their family's online experiences safe and secure. Instructional videos range from setting your search engine to filter pornography in its search results to activating your computer's security settings. The blog posts are even current, which is always a problem when trying to gather information that applies to the Internet. This site even has a link for kids so that they can look up safe places to go to on the Internet. Getnetwise seems like a really good resource for internet safety for kids, computers, and personal information.

A Hierarchy of Technology Needs

On one site out there on the webs there is a combination of technology and the hierarchy of needs done by Maslow. Most teachers are familiar with Maslow, but most have not seen the technology hierarchy of needs. First, there needs to be an established infrastructure. Then you need to have an effective administration. Next, you need extensive resources. On the next tier, You can implement an enhanced teaching program. Lastly, you can then empower you students. What this shows me is that there is a lot of work that goes into having the technology in the first place. It may be hard to get it in place, but I think that it has a much greater positive effect in the long run. Schools need this to help them keep in mind the amount of work that is ahead of them and also to keep in mind what teachers and students need before technology can start having a positive effect.

Professional Learning Sites for Learning Professionals

Continuing to develop outside mandatory development days can be hard and not fulfilling. The site I looked at, http://www.sedl.org/pubs/change34/, helps you set up a community in which you can continually learn and feed off of others ideas. The site tells you every thing from what a learning community involves and its attributes to what some outcomes should be of the learning communities. It is not just for teachers either, it has information and other helpful things for administrators, principals, and staff as well. This site makes it really easy to form a learning community and keep it up since it also gives out free materials for continuing learning. It gives the feel of a small group from church for the school. It is a pretty good little site for helping to cultivate learning in between mandatory development days and it is more rewarding in what you learn that is applicable right away to instruction in the classroom.

Techtorial

Sometimes technology can be hard to get and understand. You do not have to try and understand it alone with this nifty collaboration site! On the education world website there is a section called techtorial. It has hundreds of tutorials that you can read or watch that will guide you through all the steps of the program. All of these were made by one Lorrie Jackson and only takes about 15 minutes to read. I went through a couple of them and the tutorials go through all the basics while also covering the complexities of the program, for the most part. There are also ideas for teaching using the different types of software she just taught you how to use. It really is a good place to go to to get good technology ideas quickly that will work well with a lesson.

Lights, Camera, Action! Technology Director on the Scene

Adam Hotchkiss, a technology director at CAK, came to talk to the class about being technology leaders and managers. He made a distinction between leaders, the visionaries, and managers, the support and facial tours behind the leaders. He said that most of the technology you should get needs to be supported by everything the school does. Making long term plans are essential to getting technology in the classrooms and integrating it into daily lessons. These strategic plans should be broad and not specific so that your equipment is not already outdated by the time you want to put it into practice. The biggest thing to consider is the total cost of ownership like hardware, software, furniture, and the people needed to train the teachers. Other things to consider would be funding, who is available to accomplish different tasks, what goals do you have, where are you getting the equipment from (new/used), warenties, etc. All these things are good to think about when trying to update or outfit the school with technology. It is also important to maintain the new equipment and keep spairs do what you can so that teachers are more likely to use the technology and not think of it as unreliable so that the technology isn't wasted.

Polly Brake's Technology Time

Polly Brake came in and gave a special lecture on how she has interacted with technology and has helped it grow in her school. It all started with a comment on how her classroom was boring. Well, she got two smart boards and watched it grow from there. At first, other teachers were hesitant to use the technology or they ended up not using it to its full potential. Now there are a lot more smart boards in Polly's school and she is helping those teachers who are of using the technology well use it much more effectively. Polly is really leading her school into technology and how it can be used in the classroom and she encouraged the rest of us to be technology leaders in our future schools as well.

The Rock Star of Quizzes: QuizStar

For assessment using computers, QuizStar makes quizzes easy to make and easy to take. You make a class, make the quiz, have your students log on, and voila! There's an easy to read results page. The quiz itself can be made up of many different components allowing for multimedia quizzes in different formats including multiple choice, true/false, and short answer and in different languages (of all things!). QuizStar makes quizzes as about as engaging as they are going to get considering you can use movies and pictures in your quiz, but it also allows for more than just remembering and understanding since you can include short answer. It's also good that the results can be viewed in so many different formats. Quizzes are graded automatically, and results can be analyzed in multiple formats, including by class, student, and question. Reports can be saved, printed or downloaded in an Excel file. If you want to share the results with students, parents, or even the principal, all you have to do is download it.
I think this could be a really nifty way to take quizzes and assess what the students know while getting the feed back teachers need in a timely fashion to help their students learn.

Talking Made Easier

There is a site on the internet that has a mission to enhance the independence, quality or life, quality of education and employability of individuals with disabilities. It seems like a great cause and I believe that they have done a great job of it because they have so many options on how to accomplish that goal. The company is called IDEAL Group and they make portable assistive technology software smartdrives (or PATSS for short). All of their technology is designed to be portable and free giving a great advantage to the user. The greatest benefits of their devices is that it improves transition outcomes for individuals with disabilities from home to school, home to work, school to school, etc. It can be used with any computer, which reduces compatibility issues. It also helps eliminate stigmas of "special" equipment and enhances the quality of life, independence, and quality of education and employability of individuals with disabilities. The number of free smartdrive portable applications that are available through IDEAL Group is a little boggling. There are around 35 free programs that can be used ranging from being able to turn speech into text to helping children with disabilities to get on the internet.

This site, www.ideal-group.org, is a great resource for the classroom especially for inclusion classes where students who need a little more help can get it without getting a negative stigma placed upon them.

Plagiarism, It's Not Just From Adults.

I looked up this website: http://www.plagiarism.org/ and it relates to chapter six's TF/TL standard 6. It is a very professional looking site and has a lot of teachable material over plagiarism. The first thing that is seen on the sight is a document checker. If you click on it, it sends you to this site, https://www.writecheck.com/static/home.html, and you have to sign up, but it does a lot for you like checking your work against other works along with other student's work and spelling and grammar usage. It also has educational tips on plagiarism which says why students plagiarize, what intentional plagiarism looks like verses unintentional plagiarism, and what the cultural perspectives on plagiarism are. This particular site also gives lots of information on how to site information and even what a citation is. I believe this could be used to introduce plagiarism and put it in proper perspective while giving options on how to use these works properly. I know that sometimes citations can be confusing and that it can be tempting to just put it in without giving proper credit, but this site explains everything in easy to understand terms while giving the proper solutions to citation issues.

Autumn is the Best Season. Ever.

I believe that there is little to dislike about Autumn.Yes, it does get cooler in Autumn, but it is a welcome relief from the Summer heat and humidity. Personally, I don't miss either of those atributes of Summer. Also, I don't miss the amount of bugs. The temperature is getting lower and the activity of the annoying insects are as well. That alone would give Autumn an A+ from me; not that my opinion of Autumn would ever make Autumn change it's behavior. 


Another great part of Autumn is that people wear more clothes. The joy of wearing jackets is upon us and the bliss of not seeing half naked people who have no business dressing like a hooker. A++ there. Walks and runs become an easier task as the activity warms you up instead of making the depressing heat worse, but it is not so cold as to prevent you from stopping to look at something and therefore freezing to death from the momentary lack of movement. 


The trees change to brilliant colors of red, yellow, and orange. This wonderful change from the rest of the year of either green or dead and makes a good change of pace while giving prettier sunrises and sunsets. After the trees are done changing, the leaves fall and create pretty cascades of leaves to walk through and later jump in. For added stress relief, many trees will drop acorns and pine cones to crunch and smash.


The air itself is also better. Along with it being less humid, it is crisp and clean and fresh. It makes you want to just take a big breath in and smile. Breathing is just easier when it feels so good. The kind of air that Autumn brings refreshes people and makes outdoor activities more enjoyable. You can even make little puffs in the air with your breath and entertain yourself for hours.

I love Autumn...

I Really Want a Cloak

Cloaks are pretty freaken wonderful. I really do wonder why we don't wear them anymore. You can wear them all the time, they are warmer than jackets, they have awesome written all over them, and they swish. That's important to the awesome factor. Cloaks are also worn by some of our favorite characters, like all the Lord of the Rings characters. Other than being able to be warmer and mimic your favorite Lord of the Ring character, cloaks are also useful for other purposes. It could be a blanket, a hobo bag, a hiding place, a sleeping bag, a pick-nick spot, halloween costume, a renaissance accessory, or the cloth used by bull fighters! A multi-purpose garment if I ever saw one.

Oh, I really want a cloak...


The place to find awesome cloaks!

My Life is Boring

I can say with 90% certainty that my life this school year will not change much. I get up early, go to my placement, work with students until about 3pm, come home and not see anyone, go to bed early. Repeat. While my time with my students can be interesting and funny somedays, I still don't have a life outside of school. The only time my schedule is different on the weekdays is on Friday. That night is for HHJJJ, or the House as I prefer to call it (It's just easier). I also work in a computer lab for a couple hours on a couple nights, but it feels about the same as what I do when I'm at home. Just messing around on the computer waiting for the time to fly. I do get a lot of time for reading now, more than when I was in regular classes. I do long for a good adventure though. Just something exciting needs to happen. Maybe a fire-breathing dragon can rampage? Or wild turkeys can try to take over campus! Possibly I just need to take a road trip, take a walk, snap some photos... That's actually something I can accomplish and make happen, but I think my first two options would have been more fun :) Now all I have to do is find a few folks able to hang for the weekend to relieve my boredom and anti-social behaviors. We'll see how that goes...

What Ever Happened to Xanga?

So this blog was for my class over the summer, but I have no intent on taking the class again and wish to repurpose this site. It happens to be for my sanity so I think I'm good with it. At least I feel less crazy posting to a potential audience over blatantly talking to myself.


Anyway, what ever happened to Xanga? I really miss just being able to blog and post stuff. It was easy to share life instead of short and usually annoying status updates about what is happening every second of every day. Personally, I can't take it. I like being able to share stuff, but what is usually shared is unimportant, not well thought out, or has no explanation as to why it's there in the first place. It becomes harder and harder for me to believe that anyone really has anything to say with the multiple updates about "I'm taking a shower" or "I stubbed my toe!" or my favorite is the fill in the blank updates that really have nothing to do with that person, but with whoever ends up on your friend bar at the moment... "You're in a car and X is the driver..." Do we not have better ways to spend our time? I guess not. I'm over it. 


Also, I don't like instant gratification updates and the "like" button. That was always confusing to me. Why do people like these things? I've seen friends like a status or picture and then like every freaken comment under it. 


"Really now, I'm glad you like everything, but could you be more specific as to what on earth you are liking so much???"


What about positive and negative status people "like"? 


"I'm exhausted, but feel accomplished!" *like* "Okay... do you like that I'm exhausted or feeling accomplished? I'm not sure I like your 'like.'"


And God help us if we are being sarcastic. People don't pick up on that as well as they used to.


"I feel just dandy! Just got harangued by my parents and stubbed my toe. Oh joy!" *like* Commenter: "Glad you're feeling so well!" Commentee: "Seriously???" *face-palm*


Facebook and Twitter are not the sole perpetrators in making people stupid, but I'm fairly sure it made it more obvious.

Mapping Out Stories In A Slightly Different Way

To end my class, CPED 5300, I made a Google map showing the different place mentioned in the book. there were fewer places than I remembered, but it was still a good exercise to see what Google maps could do. It's not hard to find the place you are looking for and place a marker down. I thought I could reorder the markers, since it was letting me do so, but when I save it the markers go back in the same order as before. I can tell it to draw lines or make a line using streets to guide it. It makes a route a long the way. I even got to make the markers different colors/ shapes and I can  put in a title and a description. I can't add pictures, but I can edit the html if I really want to. Overall, I think Google earth would be better suited to doing a traveling sort of thing, but if all you need is to show where things are in relation to one another, then Google maps will do just fine. Just make sure you are doing them in the order you want them in.


The link is here: Number the Stars


View Number the Stars in a larger map



Have fun!

3-2-1 Cheese! Photos and Videos on the Internet

I have had a lot of experiences with accessing and viewing photos and videos online. There's searching for photos and videos like on google and youtube, facebook, blogs, hulu, and the like. I've downloaded some photos just because they were funny or because I needed them for a class and I've downloaded some video to complete a project, like Capstone.


I've also added to the videos and pictures online, mostly through facebook and youtube. Most of the time I share a picture because I want to share an experience I had with others or because I thought the picture looked cool. Same thing with videos, though I have uploaded some video just for class purposes. I also think it's a good way to keep a digital album for most pictures or videos.


Creative Commons is like a copy write except that these licenses allow creators to communicate which rites they reserve, and which they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. I think this has some pretty important impacts on teachers and students. It give teachers a chance to talk about ownership of digital items and how they can be used responsibly, but it also give students a chance to see how they can take other digital items and make it their own.

How To Get Your Green Card for Digital Citizenship

I think a "model digital citizen" is aware of internet safety and stranger danger. They also know not to cyber-bully, plagiarize, or do things that are harmful to them or others now and in the future, whether they think it will be seen or not. They need to know that respect for themselves, others, and the laws and rules that surround us all are to be follow at all times and in all places they go, on and off the internet. I do not think these characteristics are followed all the time by most folks. Using pictures and music that is under copy write  for example, runs rampant on the internet. People say unkind things and then end up getting sued for it. There are only a few people that I know personally that model digital citizenship in a way that I think is good.


I really do not know much about sexting or student felonies attached with it, but I think a good lot of them do not really think toward consequences or that there is really anything wrong with it. I have a problem disciplining people who do not know that what they are doing is wrong; mostly because they will go back to it. I feel like usually we end up disciplining without correcting, both need to go hand in hand if things are to change. The real root of the problem needs to be found out before discipline can happen and I think in a school setting students should see a counselor to see about getting to the deeper issues.

The Five Iron Frenzy Fan Page!

Here is the page I created for class on my favorite band:
Click here!

Mini-Games VS Complex Games

Personally, I love games of all sorts. I remember playing educational games like the ones mentioned in the book like Reader Rabbit, the Jumpstart series, and SimCity. I liked having these at home since all my sister and I were allowed to play were educational games when we were in elementary school. I think games like the Jumpstart series could have a good place in education, but I like them better at home where parents can supervise if they want to. For me, these games were a good reference for later. I remember this one historical game where you went through the life of the explorers and learned through exploring the map and playing mini-games as well. That game got me through many history classes and even became a reference for one of my papers in history as well. I think that without those games I probably would not have done as well in school or had as much of an interest in what I was learning. If you can't tell from my last post, I'm in the 11% that became serious gamer early in life. So games speak to my interests more than it might for other not-so-serious game players.

If students do develop their own mini-games as an assignment I think I could compare it to them making a poster. They would have to do research for the game to make sure that it was accurate in whatever it was covering, but I think that if the game wasn't already mostly developed it would seriously detract from the quality of the work being done. The more in depth a student has to go with a topic, the more complicated the presentation of that information will be. 

MMORPG's and Other Virtual Worlds, My Favorite!

Virtual worlds are not new to me in any way. I started early with Sims and progressed to online sites like Legend of the Green Dragon and Gaia Online, then games on the Playstation 2 like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. Now I have taken all my experience and moved to World of Warcraft. Most of these were online virtual worlds that were also MMORPG's. I have enjoyed these sites because it gave me places I could explore and people to talk to that I normally wouldn't have met or have access to. I love doing both of those things, but usually I'm shy or weary of strangers and am not as open to talking as I end up being in these virtual worlds. Sometimes the sites will have story lines along with the characters and world and I find it interesting to look into the story that we are all trying to play into.

I think virtual worlds could have a place so long as they were closed to just the class or the school. It would be neat to have students become virtual people and see history unfold before their eyes as they explore it through their avatars. It could also be a great starter for a writing prompt or introducing different genres. I'm sure there are other applications and I'm excited to see where these virtual worlds can lead students in the classroom.

You TwitFace, an Accumulated Experience with Social Networking

I've been using what is labeled "social networking" since about 8-9th grade. It all started with Xanga. It was basically a way to blog without having your name on it. You could search for friends using their screen name or just wander and find open blogs to read. I thought it was really good because I could find people from all over and of any age and have a conversation without having to worry about the information on my homepage. Facebook killed Xanga. My Space was working on it, but Facebook was the nail in the coffin. I never went on My Space because it was known for its issues. I only ended up getting a Facebook account when a friend made one for me so we could still talk. At first, I really didn't like Facebook because I loved having my Xanga. As more people came on to Facebook, I began to keep up with that instead of Xanga because no one needs two sites to keep up especially when Facebook seemed to be doing the same thing and I could keep all my real life friends in one place. Facebook has changed a lot since I've had it; some features for the better, others for the worst, but it still helps me keep up with friends and family that are far away. I still like Xanga much better than Facebook, but I have to go where everyone actually is otherwise there's no point to these social networking sites. I have enjoyed posting videos up on Youtube, but I have only dabbled with using that site. I've looked at Twitter, but I can't see a big use for it that is not covered by Facebook.


I see social networking having an impact in a big way to bring people from all over the world together. In real time we can keep up to date with friends, check blogs, and talk to anyone from anywhere. Now for schools the most beautiful thing I can see happening is seeing schools from all over getting together  to further education by letting students meet other students and learn their ways and culture for themselves. Along with that, these students would be making making huge impacts in making cultural connections that will effect them on into when they are getting jobs. That's really how I want to see these sites being used and I think that it would be pretty awesome to see students making cross-cultural relationships like that.

The Way iPads died... Or not?

Netbooks are a bit of technology I hadn't really been introduced to. I had seen them in doctor's offices and probably mistook them for real computers on the laps of business folk, but I have never seen them in schools. I think this technology could be a good way to get cheep computers into the classroom, but I am unsure how useful they can be. It says in the book that these netbooks were designed "to handle the kind of work that the majority of computer users spend the most time on - surfing the web, basic word processing, viewing a brief video clip, and the like." But I am unsure as to what that really means for classroom use and student learning. If all you're looking to do is get quick internet access for research or do some word processing, I think these computers could be useful for a cheep way to have a mobile computer lab, but it's really nothing like a computer. Or so it sounds. 

I have to say that for all the technology that has been developed, I'm rather on the fence when it comes to assimilating it all into the classroom. In the book it talks about there being three main concerns for netbooks: "network security, size, and system capabilities." Personally I'm not concerned about size. I'd be more concerned that there is no way for a teacher to control where students were going on the internet and that it is so basic that there are no other programs that can be added to it so that the probable lack of  internet cannot be made up for and word processing becomes it's only capability. I do like having computers in the classroom for occasional use and added learning experiences. But I don't like trying to use computers every day for everything possible. Yes, it's important to teach students about technology and proper use, but it's also important for them to learn how to write and spell without the help of a word processor or spell check. It's important for students to learn how to use books as references. It's important to get students away from the internet to see how they can live life without it and still get along in this day and age. In short, I am a proponent and I am not. If I can choose when students have netbooks and when they don't, I think I could be.

Netbooks have the same pro as they do con, they are extremely limited. Limitations mean that you can't add applications you want and it is not easily altered or updated. Limitations also mean that students cannot misuse them as easily as they could a normal computer or iPad. Just like an iPad they are portable, light weight, and easy to use. iPads, on the other hand, are very customizable and controllable. The biggest problem is that they are expensive and not specifically designed for students/children, unlike the netbooks. I have to say that I like both for very different reasons. Netbooks are simplistic and mostly worry free; they also have a keyboard and a track pad. iPads have a lot of exciting applications to use, which are very interactive. Either or both could be great depending on how they were to be used in the classroom.

MP3 Players For School? I Don't See How This Is Educational...

Really, I don't see a lot of pros to giving students MP3 players other than being able to listen to books, lessons, or educational podcasts. The cons are that they can be easily used to cheat, drone out teachers, and isolate them from other students.

I really like wiki sites for getting general grasps on subjects so when I saw wikimedia I thought I'd check it out. It seems to have a lot of free pictures, but I can't seem to find any sound clips. Pictures seem like a good source, but I'm not sure students want to use their MP3 players for just pictures. I could use pictures in a million ways: as prompts, visual stimulus, telling a story, making a point, explaining concepts, etc. Pictures are things students can use with projects or do any of the before mentioned activities.

Making a podcast is a really easy process and can be useful in making recordings for additional study time, to help make up homework, or to even make instruction time go quicker and easier. I think Podcasts could be useful in those ways, which I had not thought of giving students study materials in a podcast before.

To Cell Phone Or Not To Cell Phone? That Is The Question.

In the Brooks-Young chapter on cell phones, one thing that really surprised me on the use of cell phones is that  families with cell phones did not have a decrease the time that they actually spent together. What also seemed really off is that communication increased when family members are apart. It all seems a little backwards to me, though I am not very attached to my cell phone.


I think that there are some pros and cons for cell phone use in the classroom. Pros: Using web 2.0 technologies they can be integrated in the classroom to give everyone a voice in a quick and timely fashion. Cell phones can be used in a number of ways such as cameras, watches, alarm clocks, calendars, calculators, research references, and games. They can also be a great collaboration tool. Cons: Cell phones can also be misused to cheat, cyber-bully, and be an over all distraction when not focused toward classroom instruction.

Using cell phones to create podcasts seems like a wonderful idea to get students involved in class work and homework. Since I am thinking of a Language Arts classroom, I think it could be really interesting to have students create podcasts to present things they have written for in class assignments or even for homework. They could record an essay, poem, report, journal, etc and then other students could listen to it on their own time. This could easily replace some oral reports, which would give more class time for other projects and learning.

My 21st-Century Skills are probably less awesome than yours

In the beginning, Brooks-Young said that "Being confident that educators can prepare students for this new world is base don the assumption that they have some idea of what to prepare them for. And actually, they do." I've seen teachers in some classes floundering to master basic technology, let alone prepare others. Though, I have also seen teachers who were fluent and confident in their technological skills. Knowing what to prepare students for and knowing how to prepare them are two different ideas and teachers must know both extremely well to succeed in teaching these 21st-century skills.

Of course, most teachers will know the National Educational Technology Standards for Students, but I have not heard of the other two documents that were mentioned in the reading. They each have a slightly different framework to them. The first document, enGauge 21st Century Skills for 21st Century Students, seems to focus on understanding and getting it used. The second document, NETS*S, seems to focus more on collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and the general idea of digital citizenship. The third document, Framework for 21st Century Skills, focuses more on innovation and application.

I think it is interesting that there was actually an argument over if the curriculum should be revised to serve all students. If the purpose of education was not to server all students, then why would we have education in this form where we force children to come to school for their benefit? I believe that Brooks-Young is right in that the system of education now does not help all students flourish and I am glad to see that it was not only attributed to the lack of technology used and taught in classrooms. From the one survey, the Speak Up Project, it seems that at least there is now a small push to start changing how we look at the curriculum. It is also really nifty that Brooks-Young gives some strategies for classroom use and practical suggestions to use in future lessons.

My firsrt blog ever!

For CPED 5300 I started this blog. Lets see how far this goes...