Double Journal 6

Quote:

“The President wears a blue shirt, red tie, and dark suit with a U.S. flag on the lapel. His hand, eyes and head are raised, looking off to the right. The photograph has been taken from below, angled slightly upward.”

I find this quote fascinating that they took the photo from the angle below the president and angled it slightly upward because it is like showing that the president is above us all in this nation.  It seems obvious to me why the president would wear a blue shirt and a red tie because our national colors are red, white and blue.  I find it interesting thought that they feel the need to comment on the fact that he is wearing a blue shirt and a red tie.  It shows the president has respect for his country by sporting its colors and flags.  It would be rude if he was wearing Italian colors or Spanish colors.  At a WVU game we don’t make a big deal out of someone wearing blue and yellow because it is expected of the mountaineer fans to wear it, however; when those colors are missing it can be construed as you not supportive of the Mountaineers.  You wouldn’t wear Marshal colors to a WVU game, if you do people make something out of it, just a people would make something out of it if the President wore another country’s colors.  Then why is it important to point out that the president is wearing our colors if it is expected of him?  When you look at the U.S. flag on the lapel of President Bush we see that as expected.  However, when it was then missing from the lapel of President Obama’s suit when he was running for Presidentcy, it was then scrutinized that he did not support America by refusing to wear the flag pin on his lapel.    

Related Material:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvBpm_3kCAw

Reference:

Abiloc, D."A Seven Power Lenseon 21st Century Literacy." Multi Media     Schools.(2002): 30-35. Print. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6DFAmexYq7vMTFmZjZhNWItZWY5Ni00NzdhLWIxYzItMmE4NmI0MGI5NzJl&hl=en&pli=1

Doyouhearwhatihear08. (Designer). (2008). Obama refuses to wear the flag pin . [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvBpm_3kCAw

Photo Analysis Photo 2

Photo Analysis

Double Journal 5

"I was watching a 10th grader struggle at his computer to create a multimedia presentation for his language-arts project. He wasn't struggling with the technology-like any infoage kid, he could click around the screen with considerable ease. It was the aesthetics that seemed insurmountable. As I watched him clumsily cramming together scads of video clips, graphics, sounds, buttons, and a few words, it suddenly hit me like a ton of bits: He was trying to create art, and no one had shown him how. In the process of fumbling with the medium, he was losing his sense of what he wanted to communicate in the first place." (J Ohler, 2000)

I liked this paragraph because I have been in that tenth graders seat and struggled while losing what I wanted to begin with.  It is great for teacher to recognize this because it makes the learning process much easier if you can diagnose the problem.  I feel that the map we made in class felt easy and understandable.  The first one was seemed a little confusing, but now that I know how to use it I should be able to make them with ease now. 

Using digital media to tell stories and using the map to help illustrate your ideas is a great way to make things more interesting for the digital age children.  It should help kids like my nephew who struggles learning, but can learn and play a video game with ease.  My hope is that teacher will understand how important it is for young children to have the homework provided to them in a digital way so they can grasp it with less difficulty. 

Related Material:   http://plus.maths.org/content/digital-art

Reference : 

Ohler, J. (2000, October). Art becomes the next r. Educational Leadership Magazine,58(2), 16-19. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCKbHYY-gzXtLXnLak8i_hoV7TPAOfxNIamNrkWW3Pc/edit

Dartnell, L. (2008, September 1). Digital art.+Plus Magazine , (48), Retrieved from http://plus.maths.org/content/digital-art

Digital Story Map

Related material : 

http://www.technokids.com/computer-curriculum/junior/digital-storytelling-lesson-plans-technomovie.aspx

Copyright

1. According to Copyright in an Electronic Environment, students cannot upload their multimedia project to YouTube because Fair use ends when the multimedia creator loses control of his product's use, such as when it is accessed by others over the Internet.

2. The limitations are Up to 10% of a copyrighted work or 3 minutes, whichever is less. Clip cannot be altered in any way, however; multimedia can be altered to illustrate a specific technique or to support a specific instructional objective.

3. It depends if you are diminishing the creator’s value then yes you need permission. You must ask permission if multimedia projects are used for non-educational or commercial purposes.

Photostory

Double Journal 4

“Ten years ago, a project like this would have been to complex and expensive to be within the reach of most 6^th graders.  But media-based stories are now everyone’s to create.  And with the Internet as an international stage, they are everyone’s to watch and enjoy.”

            I agree with Jason Ohler, ten years ago there were so many things different in technology.  Computers were larger, Cell phones were nowhere near as advanced as now and the internet wasn’t used as interactively as it is today.  It is amazing to be able to supply our students with the future of knowledge that we ourselves didn’t have.  To be able to create media-based stories using a computer is exciting in its own right, but to be able to share them with the world is just exhilarating. 

            By using media tools from the internet to create such media-based stories is a great way to pull the students in and help them become more enthusiastic in English class.  By allowing the student to make a video the project becomes more personal and much more in-depth.   It makes the student want to do the research for the project, such as the research done on the first media-based stories shown in class.  Doing the research for a history video is much more exciting than doing the research for a history paper.  It is great to be able to allow technology in every subject and this is a great way to introduce it to English.

Related Material:

http://youtu.be/tZPUWBP9fXE

References:

Ohler, J. (2005). The world of digital storytelling. Retrieved from http://www.jasonohler.com/pdfs/digitalStorytelling Article1-2006.pdf

lynross1984, J. (Designer). (2011). Jeremy's photo story of his kindergarden year! . [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZPUWBP9fXE&feature=related

Too far with Twitter

Double Journal 3

Quote:

            I contacted several of the spelling-reform organizations in operation today to ask them about their feelings on adopting text-messaging shorthands as a kind of spelling reform. Alan Mole, the president of the American Literacy Council, when asked if his group had ever considered allying itself with the texters, said that it had not, although he added that text messaging “does serve the purpose of raising consciousness” about the fact “that there are different ways of making people spell.”

Reaction:

            I selected this quote because as a texter, I find myself using abbreviations to spell words often because I do not know how to spell them.  I have always been a bad speller so when it comes to text messaging I do not wish to be made fun of because of my ability to spell, so I abbreviate.  My new cell phone comes with a program called T9 when activated it helps spell words.  If you are even close to the word it helps you spell it.  I find that using this program actually helps me become a better speller because as I use the words and the program often enough I see the miss spelled word spelled correctly.  This causes the correct spelling to be seen as many times as I use the word.  Eventually I spell the word correctly just from having seen it so many times.  This also boosts my confidence because then I know a new word to spell correctly.  What I am saying is I find text messaging educational in the spelling department.  I may still abbreviate, however, the words I do spell out I spell correctly.  I find nothing wrong with using text messaging to learn to spell.  I also find nothing wrong with text messaging abbreviations because abbreviations have been around for years such as, instead of saying with we write w/ or without we write w/o so why then is brb or lol bad?

Related Material:       

            In the latest Reader’s Digest September 2011 a New Jersey mom sent in something her daughter had said while eating Cheese curls.  “‘Wow!’ Said my tween daughter.  She was reading the nutrition label on a bag of cheese curls.  “These must be loaded with cholesterol.  The Label lists it as Omg!” My tween son took a look.  “That’s zero milligrams, not ‘Oh My God.’”

References:

Shea, A. (2010, January 22). The keypad solution. The Times Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Torrence, K. (2011, September). Life's funny that way. Reader's Digest, 101.

Picasso Head

Double Journal 2

Quote:                  

“These days you sometimes hear students saying "brb" (be right back) to one another when they temporarily take their leave. I have also overheard "lol" (laughing out loud) in conversations among young people. However, these neologisms need to be put into perspective. Infusion of written acronyms into everyday speech is a common linguistic process—to wit, RSVP, AWOL, or ASAP. If a few more lexical shortenings make their way into general usage, that's nothing out of the ordinary.” (Baron, 2009)

Reaction:   

This is a very interesting view about how digital media may be changing our language.  RSVP and ASAP became shortened before there was a digital media to change our language.  What I do not understand is, why is it so bad to say “brb” when we say ASAP?  I never thought of this view before, seeing it brought to attention begs the questions, why does one harm the language or threaten the language and the other one is acceptable.  I understand it is only natural for the older generation to say that the younger generation is ruining our language or changing our language.  These same complaints have been going on for generations.  For as far back as learning it has been said that the younger generation is losing the older generations language.  That if we kept going there would be no more language. 

If you look around the world no language stays the same.  In Switzerland they speak High German and Low German.  The younger generation speaks a variation of one and the older generation speaks the other.  If you learn the one the older generation speaks and go to Switzerland and speak it in front of the younger generation they will laugh at you and say you sound like my grandmother.  Language changes as time changes, nothing ever stays the same including language. 

Related Material: 

I wanted to learn Swiss-German because I am Swiss and I would like to be able to read my family tree.  When I went looking for things to buy to learn I found a comment like this, “My boyfriend is Swiss, born in the capital Bern. I’ve wanted to learn his language to make visiting family more fun so I bought pimslers swiss german. After listening and practicing my boyfriend informed me that a lot of the terms and phrases are only used in Zurich, and others are out of date. If you study with this, people will most likely understand you... but when they start giggling it’s because you’re talking like their grandmother/father might. I understand it’s hard to make a course on swiss german because there are around 13 different dialects all over the country, each having its own expressions and twists on words. But I would love it someone could make one using the current Bern dialect.”  After reading what she had to say I realized that there are several dialects to the same language which indicates that language changes through different locations. Knowing that it changes with different locations why would the changing of language over time be such a big deal.

References:

            Baron, N. (2009, March). Are digital media changing language?. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 42-46. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are-Digital-Media-Changing-Language%C2%A2.aspx

            Sexton, J. (2005, July 08). Review on swiss german: learn to speak and understand swiss german with pimsleur language programs [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Swiss-German-Understand-Pimsleur-Language/product-reviews/074353848X/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Multimodal Learner

I am a multimodal learner, which the majority of us are.  I fall in the Visual and Kinesthetic category, where I learn by seeing and by doing.  I honestly did not learn anything new about myself, I was already aware that I was in these kinds of learner styles.  I did learn how to study better because I am in these kinds of learning styles.  For my visual learning I need to take my notes and use diagrams with them using symbols instead of words, also using pictures to help with keeping it in my head.  When it comes to Kinesthetic learning styles I learned that I need to take the notes that I took in class and elaborate on the real life examples given in class, also use photos and pictures to illustrate the idea.  I do feel that this is very accurate because I have always felt that I was a hands on learner as well as having to see it step by step. 

Wordle and Poll Everywhere

In the Instructional Technology class I am taking at Fairmont State University we used two tools to learn cool new ways to view answers to questions.  The two tools are Wordle and Poll everywhere.  The question we used was what ten words would we use to describe the of type teacher we would like to be.  What is Wordle you ask? Wordle is a fun tool that makes any word seem more fun.  It is used to take several words together and the more a word is used the bigger it appears.  Poll everywhere is a poll that people can use to get several people at once to respond to a question.  It is an interesting tool to use them together and use the words that several people posted to the answer of a question and make a wordle from those words to make the answers much more fun.

An anonymous teacher said, “I have just started using wordle in the classroom for literature analysis. Student groups will be creating a wordle to portray the significance of each chapter of The Great Gatsby. Each student must create their own wordle. Students will come together as groups and compare the wordles they created. For example, all the chapter 2 students will compare their wordles and draw conclusions about chapter 2 to present to the class.”  She posted her thoughts on February 28^th, 2009.  I found her idea fascinating and would love to have the opportunity to use her ideas in my own classroom.

In my classroom I would use these tools to help make certain subject matters more fun.  Spelling would be a good subject to use on wordle.  The student could write the words for the week in a wordle and they would need to know the spelling and the meaning of the word.  In using wordle and poll everywhere collaboratively it would help me to teach the students to be creative in conceptual understanding and thinking.   It would also be creative to have children take a poll where the question would be, “Give me 3 words you do not know the meaning to.” Then you take the words that they give in the poll everywhere and create a wordle from those words.  Then the words that appear the biggest are the words that several children would want to learn and teach the children the words from larges to smallest.  This can be a fun creative way to teach children new words.

Double Journal 1

Quote: “Pundits may be asking if the Internet is bad for our children’s mental development, but the better question is whether the form of learning and knowledge-making we are instilling in our children is useful to their future.” -Cathy N. Davidson

Reaction: Today's video games that our youth plays are preparing these children with important fundamental skills that are preparing these children for a world of technology.   It saddens me that as a future educator I have very little experience with technology and I can’t believe that I sheltered myself from learning technology thinking that it wouldn’t consume our future.  I hope that I receive the experience and knowledge I need in order to successfully teach children for a world of important technology. 

I understand where the other educators are coming from when they say that technology is not important, because they have a hard time supporting something they really don’t understand. 

If experienced educators were taught the technology and fully understood and appreciated it they would feel more comfortable with teaching something they are knowledgeable about to their students. 
            I feel that there is good and bad to every aspect of learning.  I feel that the internet is an amazing tool for learning.  However, it needs to be monitored at all times from school to home to make sure that the children don’t get on something inappropriate for them.  Using internet blocks that can block things that are not age appropriate is one great way to make sure that children use the internet properly.  To just say that it is bad for students is similar to saying that school is bad for students because other children can teach them bad things.  This is why we monitor children in school so that mean things don’t go unpunished.  Children need guidance and using the tools such as the internet is a wonderful way to prepare children for a technological future. 

Reference:

Heffernan, V. (2011, August 7). Education needs a digital upgrade. Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade/?hp