The sites I'm following are mostly blogs by kindergarten teachers and people who teach English in Japan. A blog that reviews foreign films, a blog called Forecast Earth, and two or three personal blogs. I choose these sites because they were of interest to me. My ideal job would be teaching kindergarten, so by following the kindergarten teacher blogs I've been able to read about some very creative lessons and the teachers experiences. By following the English in Japan teachers' blogs I've been able to see what teaching in Japan is really like. And I'll tell you what, at least where these people are teaching, it is nothing like programs like JET and other overseas teaching programs try to tell you it is. So,thanks to these blogs, I feel like my knowledge of what these positions have the potential to be like has already significantly increased. I also think that if I continue to watch these sites, and even follow some others with different view points or experiences I will be able to become a little more rounded in my knowledge of the subjects, and thus hopefully have a little bit better understanding of what to expect if I end up in any of the positions of the people in the blogs that I follow.
What was challenging about this activity was finding blogs that were actually worth following. It seemed like a lot of the blogs and websites that came up in the search were more or less useless. And before I could even search for anything, it was somewhat hard to figure out what I wanted to search for. Since I'm not entirely sure what I will end up teaching, I decided to just follow blogs from every subject I have considered. However, I wasn't able to find anything worthwhile about teaching Home Economics. Once I found something I wanted to follow, it was really easy to do so since I only had to click an icon, it would ask me if I wanted to follow that site, and viola!
As a teacher I think I could use a feed reader to alert students to blogs and things that I thought would be of interest to them, or would pertain to the lesson. Instead of writing DBQ's on the board, I could have them access the reader (or bring it up on a screen) , and have them respond to something from that and write about how it is relevant to our class. I could also do a kind of activity that asked them to follow a certain number of sites on a given topic, and report their findings after a week. Kind of like what we were asked to do for this journal assignment.
To further my knowledge of feed readers, I would like to learn how to make a Google RSS account public so that other people could view what I was following. I might also like to learn a little more about other feed reading sources. Also, it would be interesting to learn how other teachers have used feed readers in their classes.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Access
Socioeconomic status affects access to the Internet and social media by limiting people’s ability to utilize these resources. People with a lower socioeconomic status often have less access to these resources. Since Internet is not a freely given resource, it can be hard for some people to obtain it, and thus hard to utilize it. Even when people with a lower status are able to access the Internet through libraries, etc. they still may not be as adept to using it as are people with a higher socioeconomic status who have had more experience with Internet and social media through their ability to have the Internet on hand and easily accessible.
Access to the Internet and social media is important because it is how many people choose to communicate, and the number of people choosing to make this choice is only increasing. Everyday there are 2 million more people accessing the Internet. These days, people use the Internet for networking, socializing, communicating important messages, leisure, planning, researching, advertising, and countless other activities. It is important for people to be able to access these activities in order for them to be able to keep up with their peers. Without access to the Internet and social media, it could be hard for some people to keep up with things such as the most recent research on stem cells, where the after hours office meeting has been moved to, or what their friends across the country have been up to recently. The Internet is an important to for discerning and delivering information and many people use it as their primary source to get information out to other people, therefore its important that those other people also have access to the Internet and social media so that they can receive the information.
In order to support students who do not have access to the Internet at home, we could inform them of places that give free Internet access, such as many libraries. It would also be helpful to talk to schools about providing students access to on-campus computer labs before and after school. It may also be a good idea for schools to begin renting out laptops for a night to students, just as you would rent out a book, so that the student is still responsible for returning it, but is also able to utilize the resource when they need to. If these things cannot be done, we can support students without Internet access at home by giving them guidance on how to make the most of their time on the Internet when they are able to get to a computer with free Internet access. Also, we should teach life skills of how to get by without the Internet so that students will be able to plan ahead and communicate effectively enough that the Internet is not constantly necessary.
Access to the Internet and social media is important because it is how many people choose to communicate, and the number of people choosing to make this choice is only increasing. Everyday there are 2 million more people accessing the Internet. These days, people use the Internet for networking, socializing, communicating important messages, leisure, planning, researching, advertising, and countless other activities. It is important for people to be able to access these activities in order for them to be able to keep up with their peers. Without access to the Internet and social media, it could be hard for some people to keep up with things such as the most recent research on stem cells, where the after hours office meeting has been moved to, or what their friends across the country have been up to recently. The Internet is an important to for discerning and delivering information and many people use it as their primary source to get information out to other people, therefore its important that those other people also have access to the Internet and social media so that they can receive the information.
In order to support students who do not have access to the Internet at home, we could inform them of places that give free Internet access, such as many libraries. It would also be helpful to talk to schools about providing students access to on-campus computer labs before and after school. It may also be a good idea for schools to begin renting out laptops for a night to students, just as you would rent out a book, so that the student is still responsible for returning it, but is also able to utilize the resource when they need to. If these things cannot be done, we can support students without Internet access at home by giving them guidance on how to make the most of their time on the Internet when they are able to get to a computer with free Internet access. Also, we should teach life skills of how to get by without the Internet so that students will be able to plan ahead and communicate effectively enough that the Internet is not constantly necessary.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Participatory Culture
1) What features of Participatory Culture are evident in the Networked Student video? Which are not?
The Networked Student video is a good example of many features of Participatory Culture and the skills associated with it. In terms of features, the video in and of itself is an example of the “low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement” as the creator is able to use his imagination to create the video, and thus engage our own imaginations to help us understand the concept. Even the character in the video was able to use his own artistic expression to put together his presentation. It also displays “strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others” since it is his creation and he has posted on youtube to share with others. The character in the video also share’s his creations with others. It also shows how “what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices”. The character also passes along his own experiences to novices as he is also having experiences passed to him from others. This person also clearly believes “that their contributions matter” or else he would not have taken the time to create and share his video, the same goes for the character within the video creating his bookmark website and sharing it. Though the video doesn’t directly show that the creator cares what others think of his video, the video mentions blogging and commenting on blogs which shows that people care what others think.
In terms of skills associated with Participatory culture, this video is a good display of many of them. For example, this video shows the skill of “play” as the creator experiments with his surrounding’s in creatively solve the problem of communicating this information. It is possible that he also adopted an alternative identity for the purpose of improvisation for his “performance”, though this is not clearly evident. This video also effectively shows a “simulation” constructing models of real-world processes in an active way. It also shows “appropriation” since the creator was able to sample media content before deciding how he wanted to convey his information, and then essentially “remixing” another creators style to make his own point. The video also demonstrates “distributed cognition” since the creator was able to interact with tools to enhance mental capacities and facilitate learning. Due to the credits at the end of the video, we can also assume that it demonstrates “collective intelligence” since one person wrote the script, and another created the visual media, an someone narrated, thus showing their ability to pool knowledge towards the accomplishment of a common goal. We can also assume that the creator(s) used “judgment” to determine what information to include in their communication. The character in the video shows us “networking” skills as he uses a social bookmarking page to collect, distribute, and compare information.
Some skills that perhaps were not entirely evident in this video were “multitasking”, since the narrator only needed to know his script and didn’t necessarily have to pay attention to the visual components, and “transmedia navigation” since the information was portrayed the same way throughout the video. Also “negotiation” wasn’t very prominently portrayed since there was no clear evidence of “discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms”.
2) How do the experiences of the student look similar/different from experiences students have in your classroom/context?
In my classroom context, the experiences of the student look fairly similar to those expected of my students. The character in the video uses the internet to research his topic, as my students will do. He also was involved with blogging and although blogging is not involved in my most recent lesson plan, it was an important part of my first lesson plan, and would be utilized in my classroom. Also, as the student is able to share his work with the web, in my classroom the students would also be sharing their work on the web through the course wiki, which is publicly viewable. There is no experience that the student in the video had that I would expect not to be found in my classroom, however, some of his experiences I had not originally planned on. For example, though I did not directly plan to use social bookmarking websites or google scholar specifically, I would certainly not rule out using them in my classroom.
The Networked Student video is a good example of many features of Participatory Culture and the skills associated with it. In terms of features, the video in and of itself is an example of the “low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement” as the creator is able to use his imagination to create the video, and thus engage our own imaginations to help us understand the concept. Even the character in the video was able to use his own artistic expression to put together his presentation. It also displays “strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others” since it is his creation and he has posted on youtube to share with others. The character in the video also share’s his creations with others. It also shows how “what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices”. The character also passes along his own experiences to novices as he is also having experiences passed to him from others. This person also clearly believes “that their contributions matter” or else he would not have taken the time to create and share his video, the same goes for the character within the video creating his bookmark website and sharing it. Though the video doesn’t directly show that the creator cares what others think of his video, the video mentions blogging and commenting on blogs which shows that people care what others think.
In terms of skills associated with Participatory culture, this video is a good display of many of them. For example, this video shows the skill of “play” as the creator experiments with his surrounding’s in creatively solve the problem of communicating this information. It is possible that he also adopted an alternative identity for the purpose of improvisation for his “performance”, though this is not clearly evident. This video also effectively shows a “simulation” constructing models of real-world processes in an active way. It also shows “appropriation” since the creator was able to sample media content before deciding how he wanted to convey his information, and then essentially “remixing” another creators style to make his own point. The video also demonstrates “distributed cognition” since the creator was able to interact with tools to enhance mental capacities and facilitate learning. Due to the credits at the end of the video, we can also assume that it demonstrates “collective intelligence” since one person wrote the script, and another created the visual media, an someone narrated, thus showing their ability to pool knowledge towards the accomplishment of a common goal. We can also assume that the creator(s) used “judgment” to determine what information to include in their communication. The character in the video shows us “networking” skills as he uses a social bookmarking page to collect, distribute, and compare information.
Some skills that perhaps were not entirely evident in this video were “multitasking”, since the narrator only needed to know his script and didn’t necessarily have to pay attention to the visual components, and “transmedia navigation” since the information was portrayed the same way throughout the video. Also “negotiation” wasn’t very prominently portrayed since there was no clear evidence of “discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms”.
2) How do the experiences of the student look similar/different from experiences students have in your classroom/context?
In my classroom context, the experiences of the student look fairly similar to those expected of my students. The character in the video uses the internet to research his topic, as my students will do. He also was involved with blogging and although blogging is not involved in my most recent lesson plan, it was an important part of my first lesson plan, and would be utilized in my classroom. Also, as the student is able to share his work with the web, in my classroom the students would also be sharing their work on the web through the course wiki, which is publicly viewable. There is no experience that the student in the video had that I would expect not to be found in my classroom, however, some of his experiences I had not originally planned on. For example, though I did not directly plan to use social bookmarking websites or google scholar specifically, I would certainly not rule out using them in my classroom.
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