Week 4 Activity 1 6816

What a great way to help students create research projects!  The first two track star sites were two great topics the graduate students could further examine.  I liked how there was background information, that included websites from both standpoints then actual research conducted on this topic.  But the last topic on Time Travel made me think of how I could use this in the classroom, especially in the science classroom.  This allows an easy, organized way for a teacher to provide the information that the student can analyze and conduct research. 

Weekly Reading #4 6809

I believe that a picture can be worth a thousand words.  Most people are visual learners, which would mean that some may need pictures to help them understand what something means.  This quote from the article ,“Many students' comments addressed the emotive power of illustrations and the role illustrations played in helping them understand the emotions of the characters,” further proves the importance of relating pictures to meaning of texts and concepts.  Sometimes just by looking at a picture, we are able to relate it to another idea or memory. (“Visual representations can provide the memory peg needed (Kozma, 1991) to connect with appropriate background knowledge.”)  On the other hand, sometimes a picture is not worth a thousand words.  (“When the text and illustrations do not match, the illustrations can actually interfere with comprehension and reduce learning (Willows, 1978).”)  We have to be very careful when we are using pictures or diagrams to help student learn and comprehend.  The wrong image could make the student learn the wrong thing, which would more than likely be embedded in their brain. 

The idea of learning with pictures is closely related to the assignment of creating an illuminated text.  We had to be careful what images, texts, animations, and music we chose.  One wrong thing could completely change the meaning of what we were trying to say.  But, with the correct images, we were able to give text a deeper visual connection.  I believe the use of creating illuminated texts in schools would be very beneficial.  I think it could help students with comprehension problems and all students by giving them the skills to analyze and understand the text by looking at a picture. 

Week 4 Interview with a Teenager 6809

The person I will be interviewing is my step-nephew James (name has been changed).  James is 12 years old and lives with his mother during the week and with his dad on the weekend.  At the present time, James's dad and step-mom (my sister) are currently living with my parents until their house is completed.  So when I go home on the weekends, I am able to observe James's use of digital media.  I believe that James has a iPod touch and Kindle Fire.  So one of the questions I would ask him is how often he uses the internet on these devices and what does he use the internet for.  I do know that James is sometimes grounded from these devices when he makes a bad grade at school.  I believe that as a student, he is not motivated.  This should be an interesting interview. 

Weekly Reading #3 6809

1. What findings in the Media Ecologies: Quantitative Perspectives surprised you the most? How does the finding change the way you think about young people, technology and learning?

The number of hours teenagers spend using computers, TVs and mobile phones is high, but not surprising.  Whether you are at the doctor’s office, the grocery store, or at a restaurant, teenagers are glued to their phones and iPods.  We know this epidemic of teenagers spending several hours using digital media is only going to increase with future generations.  As teachers, we need to incorporate as much educational content in digital media in the classroom as we can so the knowledge can follow the students out of the classroom. 

2. What are the benefits to a genre-based approach to understanding youth engagement with digital media over a categorical-based approach?

The benefits of using a genre-based approach are that more details are examined and taken into consideration.  For example, the type of media platform, frequency of media use, gender, age, and socioeconomic status are examined.  As teachers, we know that every student learns at a different level.  The way students learn media literacy is not any different.  They are at various learning levels and should be taught skills at their level. 

3. What aspects of Michelle's (Box 1.2) computer use at home have implications for computer use at school?

The first thing to note about Michelle’s computer use at home is that it is restricted and limited.  This is what most schools already have in place.  I think that teachers should give assignments at school using the internet, but should keep an eye on them so they stay on track and not “mess around.”  The second thing to note about Michelle’s computer use is that she is able to help her mom use the computer to connect to family and pay bills.  The skills that teenagers are learning today should be brought home to teach their parents who might not be technology savvy. 

4. As you read about Clarissa (Box 1.3) consider the affordances of digital technologies that help Clarissa shape her identity and the role they play in literacy engagement. Do you think there are positive implications for these affordance in school-based literacy instruction? If so, what are they. If not, what are your concerns?

Clarrisa was able to get a sense of self-identity and connect with others on Faraway Lands, as well as improve her writing skills.  I think this type of media use could be used in the classroom, but with limitations.  The interactions they have with each other should be monitored.  But overall, why not use this in the classroom?  This type of social media can incorporate educational content, but in a way that is relevant and interesting to young teens. 

5. In the section titled Messing Around we read about the sophisticated and creative technology practices young people are developing on their own outside of school. Do you think it is important for teachers to know about and understand these practices? Why?

If teachers were able to know what students are creating out side the classroom, they could incorporate it into their curriculum.  This would benefit both the teacher and student—the teacher could cover educational content while at the same time the students are really engaged and learn because it is something they do everyday and enjoy it.  An easy way to accomplish this would be to have the students fill out a survey. 

6. Should schools support students' in "geeking out"? What are the educational and ethical implications of "geeking out"?

I think schools should not discourage students from “geeking out,” depending on what they are considered being a geek for.  For example, most people associate “geeks” as people who are hard-core gamers.  But what I learned is that maybe we are all “geeks” in our own way.  So if teachers could learn what students are spending the majority of their time doing, then maybe they could make the content they are learning more relevant.    But we need to teach our students how to balance their time using media. 

7. The young people studied for this book lived in urban settings in California or New York City. Do you think young people in West Virginia behave in similar ways and develop the same kinds of digital literacies? Provide examples from your own experiences with young people in West Vriginia.

I would assume that students that live in urban and suburban areas in West Virginia would have similar percentages as compared to students in California.  Some students are going to spend the majority of their time using media, if they come from an area where their schools and parents can afford these media devices.  Unfortunately, students that live in poor rural areas in West Virginia can not afford these media devices and sometimes do not get a chance to use them in the classroom because the school cannot afford them.  If we want all of our students to be media literate to stay current with our technology savvy society, then we need to provide these under-privileged students computer access in their schools. 

Week 3 Activity 6816

Literacy Quiz with my answers

. List 4 major search engines and a major directory.
Google, bing, yahoo, ??
2. What is a blog?
An entry from an individual about a certain topic or their opinion on something.  People can provide comments to the blog.
3. Why might you use quotation marks when conducting a search?
To search for something particular or a quote.
4. URL is an acronym for…
?
5. Identify three Boolean search terms.
?
6. How do you find the owner or publisher of a Web site?
Look at the bottom of the page or under the contact us section of the site if possible.
7. Identify these extensions and what they represent:
.org(organization)     .com(commercial)
.sch      .k12(school)
.edu(college/university)     .gov(government)
.ac      .net(network)
.mil(military)     .co
8. How do you find out who is linked to your school’s Web site?
?
9. What clues in a Web address might indicate you are on a personal Web site?
.com
10. How would you conduct a search for the following: a list of Web sites of all the academic institutions in South Africa? (Hint: South Africa’s country code is .za)
Use a search engine
11. How do you find the history of any given Web site?
Look at the websites information at the bottom of the page
12. How would you conduct a search for the following: US higher education Web sites that contain the word turtle?
Type US higher education web sites and “turtle”
13. How do sites get to the top of a result list in Google?
The site at the top is the most visited. 

Answers to Questions I missed:

1.  ask.com; InfoSpace

4.  Uniform Resource Locator

5.  And, Or, Not

6.  Go to www.easywhois.com and enter the URL of the site you would like to research.

7.  .com – company
.sch – school (used outside of US)
.ac – higher ed outside of US usually used with country code, example, “.ac.uk”
.net – network

.co – Company (if paired with a country code, example “.co.uk,” the state of Colorado or the country, Columbia)

8.  Go to Google: www.google.com and do a link: command search. In the search box type link:your school’s address.

9.  Look for a tilde “~” or the “%” sign or a personal name “jdoe” or the word “user” after the domain name and the first forward slash “/“

10.  Go to Google: www.google.com and type site:ac.za in the search box

11.  Use the Wayback Machine. Go to www.archive.org and type the URL of the web site you would like to research into the search box.

12.  Go to Google: www.google.com and type “site:edu + turtle” in the search box.

I chose to look at the website transitofvenus.org.  This website was the fourth website listed when I used Google to and searched for the Transit of Venus.  This website was listed after the website produced from NASA.  The first thing I noticed about the webpage was that it had a domain name that included a .org, so I knew that it might be a good source.  I looked for the author of the page, and was directed to a page that described that he was an education professional.  He had good credentials, so I would trust his work.  The website was created in 2001 and received a lot of traffic around 2004 when the last transit of Venus occurred. 

I learned that there are easy ways to check is a website is valid.  First I would check the domain name to see if it was created by just anyone, check the extension, then I would look at the history and author of the website.  It is not that hard to determine if a website is credible, you just need about five minutes.  I definitely learned a lot from this assignment. 

6809 Revised Illuminated Text

Illuminated Text

Still having trouble with the music.  I chose the song "Daydreamer" by Adele.  I also added more animation to some of the text and adjusted the timing.

6809 Illuminated Text

Illuminated Text

Music is missing on author stream.  I am still working on that.