Author Archive

analyzing a person on twitter

Brittany Gafas, otherwise known on twitter as Staticinyourskin, follows 66 people who appear to be a mixture of mostly friends and celebrities. She has a sense of humor considering that her location says “Wonderland” and her Bio says “Curious and Curiouser.” I can tell many things about her life from her tweets. For example, she works for a special needs school which involves music therapy. Her job is sometimes draining, but she absolutely loves it. She also is a Phillies fan, because she is attending one of their games. She has been living with her parents who have been married for 32 years, but they are selling their house soon. She tweets between 6 and 10 times a day ranging through all hours of the day and night because she mostly updates her status from a mobile device or the web.

Brittany is also my next door neighbor, so I have left out the details which I already know about her. However, after knowing her for almost 22 years, I can definitely understand how Twitter can really portray who someone is. Her tweets are a mirror image of many aspects of her personality as well as her professional life.

Twitter Application Blog

“Just Tweet It” is a Twitter application that allows users to search for people with similar interests listed in their bios. There is a directory listing by topics and subtopics. Once you find a directory category, it lists all twitter users in that category. Just Tweet It also allows users to list themselves in this directory with a more category-specific bio about themselves. For example, i searched the Education category. Within the Education category, there are many subcategories such as; teacher, students, colleges, universities, homeschooling, etc. By choosing a category or subcategory, a directory listing of Twitter users with those particular interests appear. This application can be extremely useful to people in the education field because it allows you to follow people with the same interests. Sharing ideas, thoughts, lesson plans, behavior action plans, technology, support, etc. can all be done through this twitter application. The internet has been a huge breakthrough for teachers in terms of sharing lesson plans and ideas. The  Just Tweet It Twitter application has just made it even more convenient for teachers to share ideas and collaborate.

“Who Am We”- response

“Who Am We?” is an interesting article that talks about online gaming. This idea was never really clear to me. Video games and computer/online games sometimes seem to take over a person’s life. Dungeons and Dragons, World of War Craft, Second Life, MUDs, etc are all games in which an online community can be established. Players become interactive with each other and almost create a story each time they play. While it is nice to have a hobby which can include these online games, I do not believe it is healthy for it to take over a person’s life. Some people can even become emotionally attached to the people in the games and form love relationships with them after talking with them and getting to know them over a period of time. If the person is in a relationship in their real life, this could definitely cause a problem.

In response to snyder47, I feel the same way about young children on the internet and playing these games. A young boy or girl could easily play Second Life and pretend to be a 25 year old. There are also many online games that can expose a child to explicit content if the parents do not block these types of sites and games. Teachers also need to be aware that these types of games and new technologies ARE out there. Talking to parents and other teachers in the school can definitely help prevent problems like that. Part of being a teacher is being a team with the parents of the children in your classroom. Working together to build a community inside and outside of the classroom is one of the most important aspects of the teaching field.

technology used in ELL classroom (video)

In this youtube video, technology is being used in an ELL (English Language Learner) classroom. Students are testing on the computer and doing individual work. They save their answers in a folder which is able to be accessed by the teacher. At another station, students work in groups to solve math problems on the smart board. It is great to see so many different ways to get students more involved by using technology. For example, if students had to solve the math problems on paper, they may not have been as excited about it. Solving the problems on thesmart board makes it fun and interactive.
Take a look….

Article on technology in the classroom

I was browsing the internet and came across the article titled “Literacy Technology in the Elementary Classroom, A Quick Look at the Possibilities” by Ira Socol. The article talks about how literacy is extremely important and schools in America need to put more emphasis on it because many students are not learning as much as they should. Socol explores technology as a possibility for boosting students’ proficiency in literacy. Teachers can use software and websites that read to children at different levels. These computer games and websites can help with skill-building and comprehension as well. ESL learners can also benefit from these programs because stories can be read in different languages as well as half English and half Spanish or another language. Check out the article here.

“Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” –response

“Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” was a very interesting article for me because I used to have facebook myself for a year. The first 7 months I barely went on it and did not even have a picture. I would go on and “poke” my friends to be funny. Then one day I decided to update my profile out of boredom and start commenting my friends. I mostly enjoyed the sharing of pictures because I did not always have my camera when I went out so I was able to download the pictures of me that other people had. The more I went onto facebook, the more I realized how much information about people is really out there. I could tell who was friends with who and when people updated their status, I could see what they were doing for the day.

My best friend went away to college in Delaware and we were able to stay in touch through facebook as well as the phone. I got to know her friends and roommates from her school through facebook also. When I went to visit her, I felt like I already knew her friends and they felt like they knew me too. It made meeting them in person for the first time not so odd because I had already talked with them and I already knew many things about them. As Haley quotes in the article “It’s like I can read everyone’s mind.” I was able to get to know my best friend’s roommate and friends at school through status updates and comments on facebook.

However, I do not have a facebook profile anymore due to the privacy issues and my future profession as a teacher. I was told by almost every Education teacher at Rowan and everyone in the teaching field that I should not have a facebook account because it is unprofessional, especially if there are party pictures of me in my profile. In one of my teaching classes, my professor actually looked all of the students up on facebook and brought up their profiles’ on the smart board in class. She then pointed out inappropriate pictures on the students’ facebooks along with comments involving slang and cursewords. She said that if a future employer saw these pictures we would not be hired. When working in the presence of an elementary school, I will need to maintain a certain image at all times. No pictures of me in a bathing suit, drinking alcohol, or making inappropriate gestures will be able to be publically accessed for the simple reason that if a student were to see the picture, I would be fired. After my professor pulled up everyone’s inappropriate pictures, I deleted my facebook account. I have not yet begun to question whether or not I can have a “more professional facebok account.”  So for now, I will just have to settle for twitter!

WebQuests

One way to use technology in the elementary classroom is through a Web Quest. A webquest is created by the teacher which incorporates links through the web. In a webquest, there is usually a problem to solve and a project or task to complete. Internet sources are used however the teacher deems appropriate. Essentially, it is like a website with different pages such as the directions, task to be completed, step by step instructions, links, and a problem to be solved. Sometimes there is a story line involved to make it more interesting. Here is a link to hundreds of successful webquests created by teachers — webquest.org. This website provides a search engine for webquests submitted by teachers according to subject area and grade level.  In addition to this website, i found an article online with some information about what webquests are and how to create one. I hope that this post can provide future teachers with some  creative ways to incorporate technology in the classroom =)

here is an example of a fun and creative webquest

Different types of technology in the classroom

Technology has been in the classroom ever since the typewriter has been invented. Over time, schools have expanded their technology with the new inventions and ideas being created every year. Below you will find a youtube video created by a student to show the many different ways that technology is brought into the classroom…take a look.

The National Project to Expand Technological Literacy…Does it really work??

While reading “Literacy and Technology Linked: The National Project to Expand Technological Literacy” by Cynthia Selfe, a few interesting points were brought to my attention that pertained to my major–Elementary Education. This national project to expand technology and literacy is called the Technology Literacy Challenge by the Clinton administration. The Technology Literacy Challenge project says that it will “offer all Americans equal access to an education rich in opportunities to use and learn about technology” (pg.5). Just before turning to the next page, I started to wonder how this would actually work because there are many school districts that certainly would not be able to afford this type of technology. My suspicions were confirmed as I read further. “Schools primarily serving students of color and poor students continue to have access to fewer computers and to less sophisticated computer equipment than do schools primarily serving more affluent students or white students” (pg. 6).

Two years ago when I was in my Teaching and Learning Communities I (TLC I) class, I was placed in Sumner Elementary School in Camden, New Jersey. It was very upsetting and disturbing to me to see that a school and a city could look like a 3rd world country right here in New Jersey. I immediately thought of Sumner Elementary when I was reading this article. The classroom that I was placed in did not have any computers and it was a 4th grade classroom. I was also tutoring many of the students because the school was not able to reach an appropriate overall score for the NJ ASK test, which would eventually lead to even less funding for Sumner Elementary. This school also did not have a computer lab or a computer technology teacher. Some classrooms had older computers and some teachers brought in their own laptops which they bought themselves so that the children could have access to computers. Obviously, the Technology Literacy Challenge was not doing its job in this school and it is very unfortunate.

Charles Sumner Elementary School Camden, NJ

“Writing as Technology” Repsonse

The three writing spaces that I use the most are pen and paper, the word processor on the computer, and text messaging on my cell phone. Each of these spaces has characteristics which make them unique. For example, paper is a writing space which allows others to see your writings even after we are no longer on this earth. Writing on paper involves using a medium such as a pen, pencil, marker, crayon, or a highlighter. The mediums can be mixed together or used separately to convey whatever message the writer wants. Also, if the writer makes a mistake, it can be erased if using pencil, but it must be crossed out with other mediums.

The second writing space that I use the most would be Microsoft Word on the computer. This writing space is unique because it allows the writer to convey their message by using a keyboard. The writing is more uniform and clean cut because of certain fonts. The font size, color, and type can also be changed and mixed. If an error occurs, the backspace or delete button can be used to correct the problem. These documents can also be saved on a hard drive or printed out for others to read long after the writer is no longer living as well. The people who use this writing space must have a basic knowledge of computers and the word processor.

The third writing space that I use the most would be text messaging on my cell phone. This is unique because it allows the writer to text and receives messages from cell phone to cell phone. The actual text used is a font which is created by using the number keys with the corresponding letters. The words sent through the text message are usually abbreviated by the writer. Some people say it is like a completely different language in some ways. For example, the phrase “by the way” is shortened to BTW. In addition to the language, the space allotted to create the message is only 160 characters. Sent and received messages are stored in the cell phone and must be deleted after reaching the maximum capacity of storage space, which is different for each individual cell phone.

The two writing spaces which remediate each other are pen and paper and the word processor on the computer. Pen and paper were among the first writing spaces long ago. Before the paper we use today, cave walls, scrolls, and papyrus were used. Now, the word processor on the computer has remediated from paper and pen. It is used for personal writing, school writing, writing books, screen plays, and almost any type of writing. Although paper and pen are still used as writing tools, the word processor on the computer is used equally as much, if not more.

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