Facebook

I think facebook is one of those social media tools that students use frequently. I think they daily if not hourly are checking their newfeed and making statuses. I do agree with the one researcher cited in our lecture that said that these status are taking something that would just be in passing and making it permanent. That is true–there are many inane circumstances that are published and then documented on a wall or email that never go away. I think many students are conscious of this, but I think the ones who use the tool as a means to vent or unload frustration may not have the same sense of permanence that other more mature users may have. This is a concern to me, but I think most students realize that many people can read this and as self-conscious as they are, they create their own filter. As far as using facebook in the classroom, I think the uses are limited as to what could actually be useful in secondary schools. I think the idea another teacher in the class suggested of using the format of facebook as a way for students to characterize different individuals from novels is useful. The students could make a “profile” for a character. But I don’t think they should make an actual profile on facebook–maybe just create a pseudo one on the computer or on paper. The idea of a class fan page may work, but I think it would probably just be skipped over in the newsfeed. I really think students see facebook as an escape of types, and having announcements about school probably would be low on the priority list. That to me is more for email or other communication tools.

Technology policies at school

Since I live in Lee County and it is where I hope to teach, I did some research on the technology status and policies in this school system. This is what I learned:

Lee County has 2.5 computers per classroom in addition to labs. They want to increase this issue. All classrooms have Internet access. Students have access to email and Skype. Classrooms have used wikis collaboratively and teachers are encouraged to use Think.com.

Each school requires teachers to do at least 10 hours of technology integration for staff development. With the growing Hispanic population, teachers are encouraged to learn and use translation programs in particular. Teachers use NCWISE and other electronic databases for their documentation and organization needs.

The school system promotes the 21 century learner and has goals of developing online resources for all students. Additionally,  the county has a current Strategic Technology Plan that the system is working to implement in full.

Google Maps….

So I played around with creating a personal google map recently. It was easy for a technically challenged at times person, so I was pleased with that! It was fun to play with. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to actually start and then to figure out what my url was. But plotting points was easy and efficient.

I guess a good use for it in the English classroom would be to plot points in conjunction with novels that are being read. I could see how that would be a fun activity for the students. I think the major issue would just be making time to do a fun activity like this when there were so many other objectives to meet in the standard course of study.

Perhaps this could be one of those assignments you work on if you end up with extra time at the end of a unit or something. I do think it is a fun activity and incorporates technology in an uncomplicated and interesting way.

Internet searches and multi-tasking

This week we were encouraged to view a film entitled “Digital Nation” that was available through PBS.  The researchers examined how media, particularly the Internet have changed society, especially students and young people in general.

I liked the film because I think it confirmed some things that I already believed. They found that mult-tasking may be inhibiting intelligence.  I totally agree with that and in fact I often wonder if the emphasis on multi-tasking in schools and in home life contributes to ADD or ADHD because kids just aren’t encouraged to truly focus on something.  It’s as if this skill is no longer valued. The skill of focusing on one thing versus being immersed in mutiple different activities all at once does not seem to be valued much at all by some parents, teachers and other educators.

Personally, I love to focus on one thing. I like to read without the TV blaring. I like to talk to someone without them typing or texting while I’m conversing with them. I like to sit down to write a paper and truly give it my attention because this usually helps me clearly state my thoughts and know what I want to say.  I think in this way I get more accomplished. I think I also get the added benefit of reflection that comes for focus. I don’t think people who multi-talk very often reflect on things that they have done. But I think focus brings reflection later, because there’s one thing you’ve thought about, and it frees your mind up to delve in and analyze the information later.  My personality is just like that–I relish being able to think through something and convey what I gleaned from the new perspective or information. So it drives me a little batty to feel like you have to multi-task strongly or you’re not up to snuff. I think about various job interviews and how this is always a question asked and I wonder if people ever  wonder what they are sacrificing in order to be able to say they are strong multi-taskers.

I loved the part of the film where the college students were so confident that they were awesome multi-taskers and professors just needed to trust them on this issue, only to find that in lab tests people who said they were wonderful at this “skill” were often horrible at it! The researcher said they lacked attention and memory skills in addition to losing expediency in the process.

I think teachers today, especially English teachers, can encourage students to develop the skill set of focus. Just by learning to read and analyze a passage, students are engaging their brain in a different way than active searching on the Internet brings.  And I think this is a good thing, especially if they want to succeed in higher education. There is so much reading that is required and the ability to reflect and analyze information is paramount if one wishes to be successful. I do think technology is important and should be used by teachers as it is so used in real life. But I don’t think other components should be let loose–it would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  We’d have a huge amount of people who can read and are Internet savvy, but have never actually sat and read a book. This would be a loss for any person, in my opinion.

Delicious

First off, what a crazy name for a social networking site. My original B.S. is in Communication with public relations, and having a public relations perspective on this, I think the name could use tweaking.* It looks like the type of thing that would go to spam in my email, if that makes sense.

Getting past the name though, I found this social networking idea immensely beneficial. I really like the idea of bookmarking things I need so that I don’t have to have a perfect memory or my laptop every time I need to find something online. I could see how this would be usable in that sense, right off the bat.

I think it could be extremely useful in teaching, as long as the site and subsequent sites weren’t blocked at your school. But even so, it would help me organize resources I wanted to use for school instead of always bookmarking them on my computer. It seems to function as a type of file drawer, if a person takes the time to organize the content efficiently.  Otherwise, I think it could end up being a terribly crowded inbox like my husband’s email (he has hardly any folders and just has about 500 messages in his inbox all the time. This would drive me to crazytown.)

I am looking forward to using this tool in this course and finding if it is beneficial to me in the long run. I suspect it will be. This I can see immediate uses for the teacher, but not necessary as a tool to interact with the students like the wiki would be. But I may be incorrect on this point…I have been known to have to eat crow before… I hate that term. The visual is just hideous, but I can’t stop from using that term now and then. Must come up with a more sensory-assuaging phrase.;)

Wikis

So a quick few thoughts about wikis.

First, I am pretty impressed with myself that these things are making sense to me:) I am not a savvy person with technology usually, but I have to honestly say that this class on technology has really been a beneficial experience for me so far.  I expect that the whole semester will be good information for me.  I love how these social media tools and uses of technology are explained to use in non-technical language that us normals can understand.  Suffice to say, I’m really pumped that this is all making sense to me.

Really looking forward to exploring the wiki concept more.  I think it is a great organizational tool and would make sense to use in the classroom.  I can also see how it would help departments stay on the same page, and any business for that matter.

Personally, I am currently at the tail-end of trying to organize a bridal shower with two other ladies who live in two other states.  If I had know how to set up a wiki, it would have been a MUCH more accessible and usable tool for us to coordinate together and stay on the same page, than the mass of emails we have been sending to each other. A lot of food for thought!

So this week I explored Twitter for the first time and set up an account.  So far it has been slightly interesting, but hard for me to get truly interested in.  Perhaps this is because I am not using my phone and only accessing it through my computer….but this is also how I deal with my Facebook account and I was almost instantly swept away with the idea of Facebook and spent hours on it at first. I found some friends on Twitter and some fan sites for shows I like, but to me I still haven’t found a huge draw.  I don’t dislike it, but I’m not fascinated by the networking of it either. Maybe it’s because I am innately a wordy person; maybe because I just have not given it enough time.  I guess we will see how I feel about it in a few weeks or months and will compare my later experiences with my beginning ones.

My professor, Dr. Chuck Tryon put a lecture on Twitter on our course site and discussed some of the educational implications of it and its uses in the classroom. One thing he suggested was using it as a tool to get students engaged.  I liked the idea of using a tweet such as “it was a dark and story night” and asking the students to submit tweets to finish the story. I think they could do this individually and tweet a whole story, or on a list all the class could work together.  In this instance it could be a “round-robin” sort of game where the teacher started with the first phrase and each student goes a round the room one at a time and adds a tweet in order to make a full story together.  That sounds like fun.

I guess the idea of students posing as a character from a novel and tweeting from their points of view could be an interesting tool in characterization as well.  Students would probably enjoy an exercise in characterization using media more than just writing a paper about it, so that would be a good way to help them feel motivated and have fun while learning.

Ideas on Blogging

This week in my course on using technology in the language arts curriculum, we are discussing how teachers can incorporate blogs in their students’ learning.   We were asked to read an article called “Why Heather Can Write” by Henry Jenkins.  This article was about fan fiction and about the fact that an adolescent female started a fan site for Harry Potter based on the newspaper used in the film.

It does make a person understand the power of the Internet and the following one can find through it.  It also makes me realize the power that fan fiction can have for writers young and old.  I think  the fact that these characters already exist and have entered a person’s imagination, helps to open a creative outlet/inlet for a writer.  Often this is not tapped into in the usual language arts curriculum.  The interesting thing about fan fiction is that it is often shared with countless others over the web.  Writers get feedback; not necessarily about form, but about content.  Many teachers would argue that this type of writing could create bad habits, but the other thought is that writing about something you are interested and even passionate and invested in creates writing as a habit.  That has to be a good thing in this day and age where so many teachers are trying to find ways to motivate their students to want to learn.

I think a reason that blogging invites writers as fan fiction does is that it seems more meaningful in a way.  In blogging you are writing for and to other people, not just a teacher.  There is something more compelling and true-to-life for a student to write for others instead of writing to say the correct thing to please the teacher.  It makes it about more than the grade–it becomes focused on communication and collaboration.

hello new world

So this is my first post to my first blog ever…here goes.  Seeing as I don’t have too terribly much to say and this is an assignment for my grad class, I’m thinking this just sufficient.

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