Book Reviews

July 1, 2012

Review One...
Digital and Media Literacy - A Plan of Action' by Renee Hobbs

I would not recommend this book. 

This book is simply sad looking. I feel that a book about digital and media literacy should be loud and out there. Kind of like media is. We are constantly surrounded by bright flashing lights of alluring television ads, loud music, and the constant siren call of social networks. This book does not say any of that. It really doesn't say anything. The boring green cover only has the title and author printed on it. It'd be more appealing if it had forms of media literacy printed all over it.

I figured I'd give the inside a chance. I discovered it to be just as dull and boring as the cover! It had the standard table of contents. But when actually flipping through the book I discovered it wasn't broken up into chapters like the table of contents suggested or I assumed. It was one continuous book with sub-headings. I believe that's what they're called. 

There were no pictures, I'm not saying all books should have pictures, but one would think there would be some pictures with the title being containing digital and media literacy. There were no charts or graphs that gave statistics out on how digital and media literacy are becoming more and more of a need in today's technological society. 

I will give the actual text some credit though. I skimmed through the book and just by reading the first sentence of each sub-heading you are able to get a general idea of what digital and media literacy is, even if you had no prior knowledge to it before. An example that I found and liked was…

Sub-heading 'Learning and Teaching: What Works'

"Today educators use a variety of engaging texts, including those from mass media, popular culture, and digital media, to support the development of digital and media literacy competencies across K-12 and higher education." 

I think digital and media literacy is soon going to be become the only way educators can get into the brains of students. I think digital and media literacy is important because we need to teach the tech savvy generation how to be safe and how to use/view it the right way.

In short I didn't think this book did justice to its title. 

Review Two...
'Empowering Students with Technology' by Alan November

I would recommend this book.

This this book screams technology. There are pictures of old advertisements, webcams, and  lights on a highway. It has a very flashy cover and the word empowering is printed in large bold letters. Who wouldn't want to read this?

Flipping through the book I find there is a very detailed table of contents. I find a more detailed table of contents more helpful. If you were just looking for information on a specific topic you could easily find it. 

I think the part that I found most interesting is on page 16. There is a chart breaking down the anatomy of a web address. I think we forget how truly complex web address are. It's just become second nature for most of us to type in a .com or a .html without thinking about what it really means. I also found it interesting that on page 19 there is another chart that talks about domain names. Such as what com, org, or net means. Com is a commercial or profit organization, org is a nonprofit organization, and net is a network. 

The only thing that may make using this book difficult is it was published in 2010. Even though that was only 2 years ago technology has advanced so much since then. In the book there are examples of web screenshots. The tool bars on top of the screenshots look almost ancient compared to what they look like today.

Class Eleven - Blackboard

June 29, 2012

The discussion question was...
Consider the use of mobile technologies and how you personally use them. Can you see a place for them in the classroom? In what context? What kinds of guidelines would you suggest for having mobile tools accessible in your school classroom?

I responded with...
I don't think we have a choice about whether mobile technologies should be in the classroom or not. Almost every student, starting around middle school, has at least a cell phone. The middle school that I work in, most of the students, not only have cell phone (the top of the line cell phones like the Andriod and iPhones), but tablets of some form too. Students are already so into technology I feel we are forced to teach it in the classrooms. We might as well teach them the correct way to use it, especially mobile technologies because they can go everywhere with the student. The article, 'Adventures with Cel Phones', was great because it had a teacher using  mobile technologies in the right way. The students were supposed to do a poll online and then the teacher responded to their answers. The article claimed it gave students who may be shyer a chance to speak honestly. It also warned that mobile technologies can be bad too. Students should be taught about internet safety, sexting, chat rooms, public messages, and using them for cheating in the classroom. The only way I feel that mobile technologies can be used in the classroom is if it used strictly towards educational means. If part of a lesson can be made more interesting and engaging to students by using mobile technologies, then why not use them. In terms of guidelines I think all parties, so parents, teachers, and students, should be involved in coming up with guidelines for when mobile tools are appropriate to be used. Parents and teachers should create a list of expectations from students and students should follow them, if not then consequences will occur. It's like any new set of rules in a classroom. The only phrase I can think of that I would tell students beginning to use mobile technologies in the classroom is…"Use it for good."

The short clip on NBC, 'Are Teen Brains Wired for Multi-Tasking?,' was interesting because the doctor scanning teenagers brains claimed that because of teens multi-tasking abilities their brains are becoming more flexible and able to sort out the information needed and unneeded.

I definitely fall into the category of technology multi-tasking. Just as I was reading over articles and watching the videos I was also checking Facebook via my phone and listening to music via my computer. But I need to be surrounded by at least one form of technology at all time. Most of the time it's my cell phone. I carry it around the house and it sleeps in my bed while it charges.

Prezi...
http://prezi.com/ivu7gljxxjhl/mini-schnauzers/
Overall I liked Prezi. It's a different and definitely more interesting way of doing something similar to a PowerPoint Presentation. I did mine on Mini Schnauzers. I own a Mini Schnauzer and am obsessed with her! All the pictures on the presentation are of her. I was going to put way more up, but the assignment said a "short" presentation.

This could definitely be used in the classroom. Any student could use this when making a presentation. Like I already said it's far more interesting then just looking at one boring slide after another. Students would be able to make their own unique presentation. It reminds me a little bit of Glogster and how you can type whatever you want and then drag them around the screen. Adding images and videos was simple enough too.

The benefits of this are the flexibility it allows. You are able to choose a template of your choice and a layout of your choice. The way in which you want it to flow is also up to you. The only immediate drawback that I noticed was it took me a little bit of time to figure out how to use all the tools. I did watch the instructional video and that was very helpful. But I think with more time I could easily master it.

Class Ten

June 27, 2012

Tonight we met in the library to learn about web searching and evaluation. That's what the syllabus says anyways. Our first activity of the evening had us get in groups of 4 and explore the library. We were sent out with a worksheet with sets of questions on them.

The questions were...
How are student using technology in education? What technologies are they using?

My group essentially walked around the main level of the library and stalked people on their study habits. The majority of people who were studying or looking studious were using pretty standard forms of technology. Like the desktop computer provided by the library and then individually owned forms of technologies such as smart phones and tablets. One student was using headphones to listen to I'm assuming music while they typed something on a desktop computer. Double technology usage!

How is the library using technology and providing technology to support education?

I will confess that my group kind of cheated when finding this answer. We stopped at the librarian's help desk and he strongly hinted to us where we could find our answers. There was a list of all the types of technologies and services that the library offers. They were online catalog, ask an actual person, computers obviously, smart phones and tablets, electronic books, printable journals/newspapers/magazines, digital articles, print books which seem like an ancient form of technology now a days, music/film titles, a scanner, microfilm, and QR codes those things that you scan with a smart phone app.

We were also given our guidelines for our final assignment tonight. We are to create a lesson plan on a topic of our choice. Then insert some of the Web 2.0 activities we did throughout the semester. I made a glog or Glog, do you capitalize stuff like that? But I made one of those on The Butterfly Life Cycle. I am planning on creating a lesson plan on that and then having my fictitious students make a glog or Glog on an individual specific topic of their choice. So a student could choose to just do a glog or Glog page on the caterpillar stage. I also think it'd be great to have them make an Animoto video. Mainly just because I like using Animoto. It was so simple. 

We also then got to explore Fairfield's data base online. Checking out the online books were pretty neat. It's amazing how much information we can access now via the internet. I often forget that I have literally every type of article, book, document on any given topic with the simple click of a mouse.

Class Nine - Blackboard

June 25, 2012

The discussion question was...
Should social networks be used as part of the school curriculum? What is the age limit? Can you see the possibilities or do you believe that it is still a tricky area for schools? On a professional note, should Facebook or other social networking sites be used to connect with students? This topic has been an area of contention for many schools and educators.

I responded with...
Should social networks be used as a part of school curriculum? I want to say yes, but part of me says no.

The yes side of me believes that we should teach students how to act on social networks as a part of the school curriculum. We should teach them the benefits of being part of a social community. How these networks can be used for good. In the video 'Internet Becomes a Lifeline to Haiti' is an example of how students could benefit from being on a social network. People were left without food or shelter, but had internet. They were able to communicate with their loved ones across the seas and let them know they were safe and alright. They were also able to share pictures of the destruction that earthquake caused their home. Through Facebook and Twitter people created pages for donations. Information through these social networks often shows and tells more than the evening news. People have instant and constant access to social networks at all times.

The one side of me believes that we should not teach or at least restrict the use of social networks in the school curriculum. The video 'University Tries Life without Twitter, Facebook' shows us that students have a hard time unplugging. This particular university allowed their students, while at school, to go on Facebook, Twitter, and Instant Messaging. I don't think they should be allowed to do that. I know, because I've done it, that it can be distracting and disturbing to others who are trying to learn. I think the only acceptable way that social networking sites should be used is if it somehow fits into the already planned curriculum. An example would be if the students were learning about natural disasters and how to recover from a natural disaster, exploring Facebook and Twitter pages of the Haitian earthquake would be beneficial to student's learning. But just allowing them to go or be on it constantly isn't healthy. Some student's claimed how miserable they were and others attended an internet rehab center. I mean come on! We are that obsessed and in need of the internet that we now have rehab centers for it?
Age limit. That's a tricky one. I don't think there is a specific age limit to when you can just set your kid free to a network of, well, anything. It makes me nervous to think of young children, like in elementary school, going on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. There is so much on there that can suck them in. I worry about the bullying issues and how words on a page can often be misinterpreted. I remember when Instant Messaging first came out. I would sign in, waited for my dial up to load, and then go crazy! I would explore chat rooms and make up stories about who I really was. Totally unsafe now that I think back to it! I work mostly in elementary schools and the students are always asking me if they can be their Facebook friends. It's wrong on so many levels because the things I post are not always elementary school age appropriate and student shouldn't be asking their teachers to be friends with them! Which goes onto the next question. I think social networking sites can be used to connect with students, but it needs to be for solely educational purposes only. Once you enter the personal pages or accounts of your student, barriers are broken and fine lines crossed between student and teacher. I keep going back to the Haitian earthquake example. If you are teaching your students something that has to do with the current curriculum and a Facebook page or Twitter tweets is only about a specific educational topic then social networking is fine.

Sorry, I really am all over the board with this discussion. I am so torn on what's right and wrong. I am a perfect example of a social networker. I live on Facebook. As I type my responses, I have my Facebook page open and am ready to read any new status updates or pictures that might pop up on my NewsFeed.

Twitter...
https://twitter.com/
I am actually not a fan of Twitter. I had a Twitter account for a short amount of time. I didn’t tweet my own life, but I enjoyed seeing tweets and posted pictures of celebrities. But for some reason my account suddenly getting all these X-rated followers. I can assure you that I am not the kind of person who looks at those kinds of things! Nor were any of the people I were following in that type of business. So out of frustration and disgust I ended up canceling my Twitter Account.

I do feel though it could be beneficial for the classroom. Students would be able to tweet about a topic during class. A teacher could also use it to tweet about a conference or convention they were at that might tie into their learning. I do though have concern for students who use it beyond anything academic. I’d hate to see a student of middle school age getting sent the things that I was getting sent.

The benefits of Twitter is it provides students an immediate connection to celebrities or teachers. It shows an inside life to someone who they may not be able to know in person. The drawbacks would be how much is too much exposure to things like this. A celebrity may tweet about something inappropriate or show a picture that isn’t appropriate.

Edmodo...
http://www.edmodo.com/
I like Edmodo. It webpage reminds of Facebook. It’s a teacher Facebook. There are spots for posting comments and assignments. A calendar is helpful because it can show students when their assignments and future assignments are due. There are also links on the side to GoogleDocs. Overall I can’t say anything bad about it.

This could definitely be used in the classroom. A teacher could post anything that is required for the class. This eliminates the mistake students have of “forgetting” to write down their assignments in their homework pads or “accidentally” losing their homework pads. Parents could even be added to see what their children are learning in class. It would give students the sense of online freedom, yet still provide restrictions necessary to keep them safe.

The benefits of Edmodo are it allows students go access everything in their class online through this teacher Facebook. I guess it’s a student Facebook too. Teachers can post assignments, grades, links, anything really. I really don’t see any obvious drawbacks. The only drawback I can think about is if students in a not so technological area or of low socioeconomic status might not have constant access to a computer.

Class Eight - Blackboard

June 22, 2012

The discussion question is...
What do you think about online learning or distance education? Should students be learning to take class online? Is that the wave of the future? These are questions for you to answer and consider on the discussion board.

I responded with...
I love the idea of online learning!

Both videos were supporters. The video 'High Schools Embracing Online Education' had one student saying that she liked it because she could take courses when you wanted and wherever you wanted. She also believed that because she took a different course that was not offered at her high school it helped her in getting into the college she wanted to. The 'Salman Kahn - Talk at Ted 2011' video had the creator of Khan Academy on it. He showed data that proved that students were benefiting from using a combination of his online math education and teaching in the regular classroom. The data can be broken down any which way the teacher desires to show the strengths and weakness of each student. He talked about how students who have mastered certain skills can then in return help other students who may be struggling. He claims they are "humanizing the classroom." That the typical teacher to student ratio and interactions are usually one-sided; the teacher only talks to the student if there is something in the classroom they are not understanding. Salman Khan's goal is to still have teacher to student ratios, but have them be more meaningful. He ends his talk by bringing up the notion of an emerging one world classroom. I think both videos showcased the benefits to online learning. The thing that is most important in discussion is that results are showing that online learning is improving students skills. In the first video the high school student got into the engineering program of her first choice college and in the second video a mother writes to Salman Khan about how his program helped her son with autism learn math. The 'K-12 Online Learning Article' I felt was less supportive of online learning. They talked about the benefits of it and how it has provided an important role in meeting diverse students needs and how it can help those who are struggling with issues on learning quality, student readiness, and teacher professional development. But also discussed the barriers that could keep it from becoming a success such as…concerns about the quality of the courses, the costs, the attendance rate of students, and the need for teacher training.

When I was in an undergraduate in Fairfield I took an online Psychology course over the summer. I was trying to get ahead of my studies so I could graduate in 4 years. I actually did not enjoy taking the online course. It was one of the most difficult and demanding courses I have ever taken. That particular professor required us to watch at least 1-2 hours of videos and read 5 to 10 articles due for each class. This class "met" 3 times a week, like this one. We were also required to post at least 3, 1 page, counter arguments to another students discussion that was to be posted on the discussion board. We had to be online from on the discussion board for a selected number of time. So between the high homework demands and requirement for meeting times I was not a fan of online learning at the time. But I look back at it today and realize that online learning is really limitless. It completely depends on the professor or creator of the course of program. It also depends on how willing the person on the other side of the computer is to learn. You get only the amount of learning you want from distance education. Hopefully that statement makes sense, it makes sense in my head when I read it.

I do think students should be learning to take class online. I think it is a positive skill that everyone, eventually, will need to know since we are becoming a society of technology and can do almost everything online now. It also is good for students who may not be able to express themselves fully in a classroom of 30 other students. I think Marianne was the one who mentioned something similar to this in class. She said students who may be just as smart as another student in class, but have trouble outwardly expressing themselves could be given the chance to fully express themselves through the use of online. But I also believe that students should still be in the physical classroom for part of the time. If you get anything from school it's the lesson of learning how to socialize and be around other people. A discussion on a topic in person is very different than one online.
I definitely think this is the wave of the future. We are becoming more and more technologically advanced everyday. We do shopping, dating, pay bills online already, why not education! If it makes students better students then let's do it!

Survey Monkey...
http://www.surveymonkey.com/MySurveys.aspx
I didn’t love, but didn’t hate SurveyMonkey. I think it is what it is, a tool for creating surveys. Creating the questions and answers were simple to do. But I ran into some problems trying to email it and the link out. I had to do it twice to make sure it actually was sent.

I could see how this could be used in the classroom. It would allow teachers or students to make their own surveys on a topic either chosen by them or their teacher. Each student could hand it out to their peers and see the differences or similarities in their results. Although I don’t know if something like this would be entertaining enough for students. The layout of the website is kind of dull. The only choices you are given is the color of the heading on your survey and how you want you answers laid out, whether it be only one answer or multiple answers. This also may be because it’s the free version.

The benefits of SurveyMonkey are it would allow individuals, teachers or students to create their own surveys and be able to see the direct results. The drawbacks would be there really isn’t much more than what you see. I don’t think it would keep the interest of students and they would most likely not return to the website after completing their assignment. I don’t think I’d revisit it unless I had another assignment due. Where as other websites like Wordle and Wikis I will most likely revisit.

Class Seven

June 20, 2012

Class Notes...

Gaming
- Good if it's purposeful
- Bad for special education kids because it's hard to get them back
- Big to some people and not others
- Tendency targeted towards males
- 2nd Life Game: recreated places and events
- Example: the tsunami, colleges, Michaelangelo's 16th Chapel

TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Video
- Organization that runs talks for educators
- Speaker: Jane McGonagal
- 3 billion hours a week playing online games
- Claims we need 21 billion hours a week of game play
- Solve obesity
- Camera set up in front of gamers
- Epic win: an outcome that is so extraordinarily possible and you are shocked when you get there and win
- Why we are better at games than in real life
- We achieve more in game world
- Inspired to collaborate and cooperate
- In game world we are able to overcome things VS real life we shutdown with problems
- 10,000 hours gaming by the age of 21

Big question: what exactly are gamers getting so good at?
1) Urgent optimism: the desire to act immediately in the belief there is hope of success
2) Social fabric: we like people better after we've played a game with them, even if they beat us, builds up bonds, trust, and cooperation
3) Blissful productivity: happier working hard
4) Epic meaning: love to be attached to awe aspiring missions

- Super empowered hopeful individuals: people who believe they are capable of changing virtual worlds, not the real worlds
- The problem she is trying to solve
- We are using games to escape the real world environment
- Created real world game scenarios
- Oil, Human Extinction, Evoke
- Hope to play games that matter
- We can make any future

Gaming...
Free Rice
freerice.com
I love this website. It’s cute and simple. It also really makes you think. I found that I was better at the Spanish category then any other. Which is funny because I haven’t taken Spanish since high school. But having a variety of different categories does make it more fun and you are working towards a good cause of donating rice to help end hunger.

Fat World
http://fatworld.org
I was depressed by this game! It made sad to have to choose the weight of my character and of course whatever selection you choose your character becomes either thinner or fatter. I chose average because I would be too embarrassed to pick the other ones! Then having to pick socioeconomic status. I mean come on! I picked poor because I wanted to see what happened when you chose that. It kind of reminded me of the games The Sims, but much harder to navigate. My character walked very slowly and I had trouble entering places. But I like the idea of it. I think it would be beneficial for students to play on because it teaches them about nutrition and spending money. It might work for an older elementary school age group.

Hot Math
http://hotmath.com/hotmath_help/games/kp/kp_hotmath_sound.swf
I literally laughed out loud when I was playing this game. First off because the concept is hilarious, you need to kill a cockroach by entering the correct answer. Second off because the music was amusing, it sounded like cockroaches on parade. Third off because it showed how terrible I am at x and y integers. If that’s even what they’re called! This game would be fun for students learning math in that specific area. The fast paced game makes them think on their feet and if they get the answer right they get the satisfaction of killing a cockroach. No one likes cockroaches.

I also found this additional website on various educational games!
http://www.cookie.com/kids/games/viewallgames.html

Class Six

June 18, 2012

Class Notes...
PowerPoint Presentation
- Media provides all these teachable moments
- Examples: economy
- Media literacy is a 21st century approach to education
- Television viewing is still the #1 after school activity for kids
- In the average American home the television is on 60 hours a week
- 85% of teens are involve din their personal electronics
- Based on the partnership for 21st century skills
- Every student in this country must be a critical thinking, a problem solver, an innovator, an effective communicator, an effective collaborator, a self-directed leaner
- Information and media literate
- Globally aware
- Critically engaged
- Financially and economically literate
- Visual literacy: how people see and understand things
- Most of our learners today are very visual
- Kids are very affected by images, especially girls
- Examples: magazines
- Information and media literacy is the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information
- Learning outcomes: critical thinking, analysis, organization, brainstorming, cooperation

Glogster...

http://laurenelizabethsloan.edu.glogster.com/metamorphosis/

Overall I enjoyed this activity. I like the idea of creating something that is informational and interactive. I enjoyed being able to choose my topic and spend time researching it. I liked how you could click and drag your various items around the pathfinder page. I also thought uploading pictures and texts were fairly simple. I did run into problems trying to insert videos and links. I was finally able to insert a video after plugging in my mouse to my laptop. I was still unable to create a clickable link though. There are several links in the bottom left of my pathfinder page that I’d like to be clickable. I also found myself spending far too much time searching through all the options for types of chat bubbles, text colors, and then general placement of each item. 

This could definitely be used in the classroom. It would allow students to choose their own topics and create their own unique pathfinder page. It also provides a way to access and control recourses for that particular topic, students aren’t just surfing the web clicking on unapproved websites. 

The benefits of Glogster is the customization part of it, you can literally make it look anyway you want. There are enough options for text (colors, sizes), inserting images and videos, sound. The list goes on. Glogster would allow students to do research on approved websites. The drawbacks are the amount of time one can spend trying to perfect it. There were also some technical aspects that I struggled with, I was unable to make my links clickable and could initially not figure out how to insert a video.