Journal#5

I understand and agree with many of the things in the article, “Can You Hear Me Now?” by Sherry Turkle. I have never been to any kind of conference or seminar so I can’t relate with her points about that, but I have always wondered how people spend so much time on their PDA’s and Blackberrys checking email and doing whatever else it is that they do. Nowadays it is even more crazy with the rising popularity of Twitter.com, where people who have Blackberrys or other compatible cell phones can update a “mini-blog”, known as “tweeting”, to let friends or anyone else know what they are doing. I also found her points about living a “second life” in the virtual world to be very interesting as well. I have always complained about people are always in such a rush like everyone is always “on the move”. I work in retail and one thing I complain about all the time is when customers call in to ask questions or check to see if we have an item, I am polite, knowledgeable, and try to answer any and all questions that they might have. More often than not, the second their last question is answered, they say “ok thanks…” and then hang up the phone. I would say that probably 90% of the customers that I talk to on the phone while I’m at work don’t say “bye” before they hang up the phone. Are people really in that big of a hurry?
I think that many people in the world are probably too intimate with their cell phones and computers and other technology. Based on the points that Turkle makes, it seems that those people who are aware that it is not necessary to rely on a Blackberry or check their email every 15 minutes, may be better off in the long run for retaining more of their “humanity”. I myself have never actually felt the need to be in the technological “in-crowd”. I don’t have a Blackberry. I didn’t even have a cell phone until I could afford to pay for one when I was 19. I’ve never owned an iPod, not because I’m against them, just because I’ve never felt like I needed one. Honestly this article makes me think that “TheMatrix” might one day become a reality.

Journal#4

I found the article, “Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Blog” by Patricia Deubel, to be somewhat interesting. I had never thought about how blogs could be used in elementary education before. I liked how the author started out the article in the first person discussing the sort of pros and cons of using a blog in a K-12 classroom. I definitely agree with the author that if you were to decide to use a blog in a K-12 classroom, there would need to be some purpose in order for it to be effective. She then goes on to talk about how to set up and moderate a blog in order to make sure that there is a purpose tied to an instructional outcome.

Is it realistic to think that blogs could work in lower elementary grades? I think for very simple things that they could work. For things like weekly discussions as homework and things of that nature it may be a little beyond students lower than 4^th grade. However I think that for a specific unit say in science or history, that you could ask students to do some research and provide instructions for students to post some information that they learned to a blog, and then as the teacher, you could respond to student posts with some questions or possibly use those questions to start a discussion in class the following week.

How do I think I could best utilize the use of blogs in my future classroom? As I plan to teach 2^nd or 3^rd grade my point made above would apply. I could see the use of a blog to be very helpful in communicating with parents sort of like a newsletter. I think I could also use it to post weekly homework assignments so that parents would have a way of knowing what their child is supposed to be doing instead of relying on their children to tell them. I have found out in my limited time spent in elementary classrooms, that there are some students that will lie to their parents about their homework, telling them that they don’t have any or that they already finished it. This could be a tool for parents, the ones who care to check anyway, to know exactly what their children’s homework assignments are so that they can check to make sure that it is finished and it could be used for both students and parents as a way to post questions that they may be having with homework assignments as well.

Journal#3

I really enjoyed the article, “Too Cool for School? No Way!” by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler. I think that this is the most interesting of the articles we have read so far. It talks about the kinds of things that are clear examples of technology and things that we perceive to be technology depending on when we were born. The main point of the article is that there are all kinds of new technologies such as iPods, GPS, and smartboards that are clear examples of technology, but are not considered educational technology until we as educators can repurpose them in order to integrate them into our teaching. The article points out that to do this requires a specific kind of knowledge, called technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). As we as future teachers navigate our way through the credential program we should pick up the technological and content knowledge necessary to become effective teachers. However, the article points out that, “each of these technologies has affordances and constraints, potentials and problems that we as educators need to understand before we can start using them for pedagogical purposes.” That point describes the technological knowledge part. TPACK is where all of these knowledge bases overlap in our teaching. The article gives three examples which were microblogging, visual search engines, and DJ software.

How can I apply what I have learned in reading this article to my future teaching? I had no idea that visual search engines even existed and it only took one search on one of the sites mentioned to understand exactly what they were talking about in the article. It made me realize that there are probably infinite possibilities for technologies that people create for a certain purpose that can have so many other uses if creative minded individuals take time to fully understand them. The iPod, which is a must have in the minds of most teens and younger children alike, has evolved tremendously since it was first created. I myself have never owned one, but I am familiar with how to use them. The newest version of the iPod Touch, which is controlled mainly using a touch screen, is able to wirelessly connect to the internet and allows users to download not only songs, but an infinite number of games and applications in just seconds, could easily be in the hands of every elementary school child in the next decade. If there is wireless internet capability in every school classroom, I predict that the iPod will become a valuable educational technology in the near future.

I am going to replace my second question with a connection to a video article I saw once. It was an education professor talking about video games being the future of education. He said that video games consist of ongoing problem solving and assessment. He said that video games essentially present you with a series of problems that you must solve in order to continue. If you can't solve them, then the game will tell you, "you fail, try again." Then once you solve the problem, you face a boss, which is basically a “test” on that “unit” of the game. He says that they are fun because, unlike students learning in schools today, they don't separate learning and assessment. It’s really interesting when you think about it and definitely goes with the context of this article.

Journal#2

After reading the article, “Social Networking for the K-12 Set” by Jim Klein, I was surprised at learning that a school district had designed and created their own custom social networking site. It’s pretty neat to learn how technologies, in this case social networking, can be adapted and used in educational environments. It is very inspiring that three people spent their own time which they were not paid for, and were able to create this social networking site. They obviously created the site with a lot of different things in mind, such as making it necessary for teachers to monitor any information that students choose to display publicly. One thing that I thought about while reading the article was the fact that students from an entire district could view other students’ work on the site. It made me think about this contrasts with how the only opportunities for students to view each other’s work in most schools is on bulletin boards in the school office or possibly in the halls at school. It seems like there have many benefits for teachers and students in the district as a result of this site.

I would like to know if there are plans to lend this technology out to other districts that may be interested. I didn’t catch any information that hinted at this and I think that if it has made as big an impact as it sounds like it has, that it is something that could be utilized in other districts as well.

I would have liked to know a little more detail about how the site works and what kind of different options there are for teachers and students on the site. The article described generally what kinds of things are on the site such as blogs and so forth, but I was curious about how the site works possibly more from a teacher’s perspective. Like can the teacher set up a class page and does the teacher control the layout and available options for the students in their class? I don’t recall reading anything about whether or not curriculum is incorporated to create an online element to individual classes.

Journal Reflection #1

Journal #1
This article was very interesting. I had a very basic understanding of most of the things mentioned in the article. However most of what I know about Google, I have discovered on my own. It was interesting and very insightful to have the opportunity to have it explained in plain terms. The article talks about how it is a known fact that Google is a very popular search tool and that people use it quite frequently. It then goes on to point out how the millions of people that use Google can make their searches on Google more effective.
1. Is it necessary for students to understand everything that is explained in this article? I don’t think so. I do think that the information in this article can certainly help make using Google a lot easier and more effective. I also think that the more information that they are able to understand about making searching easier, the better off they’ll be.

2. If I wanted to find a way to help students better understand the things mentioned in the article, what could be a good way to do it? An idea that I was thinking of, assuming that they know very little about advanced features of Google, would be to design a class project and let groups of students complete a section of the project. The teacher could do a walk through with the students pointing out how advanced search features can be more effective. The teacher could do this in a way as to provide a starting point and let the groups complete their part of the project.