Individual Digital Project

This project had to be one of the most frustrating for me throughout my college career. At first, it was a pretty smooth sailing experience. I had my ideas, and everything was flowing pretty well. I knew where I wanted to go with the project and mapped it out accordingly. As problems began to pop up, I was able to maneuver myself around them. The vision of my presentation changed as I was putting it together. It originally was going to focus on just the stereotypes that are presented in a young adult sports novel; however, I chose to mold it into a introduction to that specific genre. It made sense for me to highlight stereotypes still, but I also wanted to put in some of the other features of these novels. There are three core themes or characteristics in this genre, and each were talked about in the presentation. I really liked the idea of presenting this as the beginning of a unit or project for my future classroom. I would love to have my class read some young adult sports novels while in my class, and this project would be the perfect(maybe not perfect) gateway to the genre.

I also discovered that this would be a good thing to do for a lot of my lessons. It would be useful to use this type of project as an opening to any new unit or concept we will be studying. However, the process for completion is very time consuming. I do not know if I would be able to have this type of opening for every project in my first year, but I can see this being a huge part of curriculum by the time my third year rolls around. I think my students would really respond to the use of technology in presenting projects, and they would also maybe be interested in learning to do it themselves.

I had three major problems when putting together this project. The first one happened as I first starting the project two weeks ago. I had just inputted half the slides, and my laptop came unplugged. This would not be a problem for most people, but my battery is zapped which results in my laptop shutting off immediately. It erased everything that I had done and even forced me to download Photostory again. This was by far the most frustrating thing that happened. I put the computer down and took a long break from the project. When I returned to the project, I had a hard time getting my slides to save correctly. They were saving as transparent images instead of the way I had them. After some maneuvering and improvising, I was able to get them to save correctly. My last problem is my fault; I had the bright idea to just save the voice recording for the last minute. This was the biggest mistake I made personally in the whole process. The microphone that I was using would not stop doing a clicking sound, and I had a hard time getting it to transition properly. I was able to at least get this part of the project to be presentable even though I am still not very happy with how it turned out.

Looking back on the project, I really wish I would have done things a bit differently. Seeing the final product, I think there are a few different places I could have went with it that would have been more effective. If I would have focused on maybe a more specific aspect of the genre, it might would have flowed more effectively. However, I do think this would serve as a great example for the opening of a unit or project on young adult sports novels. This project took a lot more time than I was thinking it would, and it was truly a challenge. I am happy and pleased to say that I was able to complete something that was challenging to me. I was very intimidated by the project at first, but I really feel like I learned a lot and can improve my abilities in the long run.

Video clip project

My assignment is now completed. The two pages needed by you are on here as well. The video for this project is posted below.

W-oogle Response

I had a chance to look at the very beginning of the internet. It was a rather simple page, but it had a search engine on it to give it some credibility. It even had a link to the last page of the internet as well. It was a pretty funny set of webpages. They had a pretty nice structure to them, but it is obvious that the internet has no ending. There is an infinite amount of information that can go on the internet because new things are happening every single day.

When pulling up the Martin Luther King website, it looked fairly credible at first glance. It had a lot of “accomplishments” listed as well. After diving deeper into it, it is obvious how fake the website is. It is pure propoganda, and I am actually sort of embarassed that I am putting a link to it in my blog. It is crazy that it is actually one of the top websites that pulls up when typing his name in on Google. The website is offensive, and the information is completely outrageous. To degrade a man of his magnitude in that way is a tragedy. On google, you have to really evaluate the information before you use it. The top results are not always the best; sometimes you have to dive deeper to find quality information.

The article about Wikipedia was very interesting to me. This is how I have always used Wikipedia. Using it for the beginning of your research to guide is never a bad idea. It helps to narrow the search and guide in the right direction as far as research goes. There is actually quality information in it, but you have to be careful as to what you take from it. That is why it is always best to double check with other sources to make sure the information is correct. It also provides you with a lot of quick sources to use; this can be helpful when beginning research as well.

The Social Web

Richardson chooses to focus on the subject of blogs, wikis, and RSS in Chapter 6 of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts. Twitter is highlighted for all of its popular uses and its educational purposes. The traditional following and commenting is mentioned, but the writer expands upon that by creating an educational network with peers. By choosing other professionals to follow, it is easy to make your Twitter into an information hotbed to assist you in the classroom. It is not mentioned in the text, but Twitter also provides you with the ability to make lists. These lists enables you to sort friends into different categories to get the exact information you want and need. This would make it much easier to have Twitter become an educational experience for students and teachers alike. If there is a lists with only educational peers and professionals involved, it would be an easy place to find the information that you are looking for.

Social bookmarking websites are something that I have had zero experience with. So after pulling up del.icio.us, I found myself thoroughly confused by what was going on. In the chapter, it actually highlights the uses of del.icio.us and other social bookmarking websites. It actually could be a big help in the future for me personally. Being able to connect and bookmark websites for myself and others will make it easier to find things that are useful for me. It is also cool to see the way it enables you to search RSS feeds in the URL to pull up exactly what you are wanting to find. With the tagging capabilities, it really makes everything as simple as possible and helps to slim down the internet just a bit.

Finally, MabryOnline is simply amazing. What they were able to create is nothing short of spectacular to me. Everything about the website is superbly done. I had no idea that something so cool could be created by middle school students. Any information you could possibly want is at your fingertips. The projects that they were able to do are great. It is awesome that they can still be pulled up from so long ago. Everything looks to be archived, and that is also cool for the students who were there working on the projects back then. I am blown away by what was accomplished and how useful this website is. It really reflects Dr. Tyson’s dedication to the school.

Social Networking

Social networking can have many positive uses on education when used correctly. If used properly, it can benefit the teachers and students. Teachers can implement the networks into their classroom setting, and it would help the students feel a bit closer to the teacher and the material. There are many different ways that this can be added into the classroom. As the grade levels get higher, the opportunities grow immensely. At Purdue University, they have implemented a new social networking tool to class discussions. For high school students, they could use an application such as Twitter to discuss projects or books. Middle schoolers could do the same thing, but something a little more organized might would be better for them. As teachers, it can help us as well. I discovered a new site today called Ning that provides help to english teachers around the world. The insight and collaboration there is simply amazing. The opportunites are truly endless as far as what you can do with social networking.

I really want to be able to use social networking and technology in my classroom. I feel as if there are enough privacy settings with each network that things can be concealed that need to be. I plan to keep my Facebook as long as I possibly can as it is a great way to connect with old friends and colleagues. The way to add these into your work is to just be truly creative with what you do. If you are creative, you will find an efficient way to use these networking tools in the classroom. The creativity really makes endless possibilities. A teacher could give book reviews or information through networks. A book, such as Ulysses, could be summarized or read through Twitter.

You have to be careful though, and always monitor everything that goes out to the public from your identity. If you are not careful, this could happen to you.

Digital Project Proposal

When I started thinking of ideas for this project, my mind was going everywhere.  I could never really settle on one thing. I thought about the guidelines that said it needed to be relevant to our subject matter, but I was also considering the fact that we were going to be given some leeway with our ideas. i know this might be a little bit of a stretch, but I would really like to try it out. So, here goes my idea.

Athletes have always been stereotyped as not being very smart. For my students in the future, I want them to see that does not have to be the case. I will be coaching wherever I end up teaching as well, so this will help me to stress the importance of studying to them for their futures. I want to create a presentation using photostory that compares the top athletes in the world to their GPA’s and education. I want to show how being smart in the classroom translates to being smart on the field or court. There is a correlation in this, and I really think it would help others to realize this. There are exceptions to this theory, but a lot of the best athletes have carried similar GPA’s. There is no reason for an athlete to think that he or she should not work hard for an education and just ride on their athletic abilities. I hope to put together a presentation that will motivate my future students and players to study harder in the classroom, and they will hopefully see how it translates to how they will play on the field.

Web 2.0

I can’t even really think of a time where the internet for me was not Web 2.0. That is probably why I was a little bit confused with the term and what it really meant. Web 2.0, as defined on Wikipedia, is “commonly associated with web applications that faciliate information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web.” Some examples listed are “web-applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, and blogs.” This is the world that is Web 2.0, and it is truly the only Web that I have experienced. Having the internet without all of these “simple” things would not be the internet at all for me. This is something we expect to be there, and it is what we know.

Creativity, information, and networking are at our fingertips every single time we use this process. This impacts us hugely as students and teachers alike. We are able to search and find everything that we need as students. It makes our classwork a lot easier and will also make better use of our time.  As a teacher, it does the exact same thing. We are able to access more tools to use in the classroom with all the interactive programs and features. We are able to connect with teachers from around the world to figure out their experiences and more lesson plans. This process makes teaching a better overall experience and helps make learning a better experience for the students.

The teacher blogs are a great example of what you can do in the classroom. You can teach and receive instant feedback from your students by using a blog. You can also give them instant feedback as well which makes them feel more important. By being able to address them at any instance, it can give more of a sense of belonging for them. They will see that you actually do care through the time you take to give a response. It can also be used for interactive learning as well. There is truly endless possibilities when using Web 2.0.

Below is a video about Web 2.0 and how it is used.