Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Bringing it all together...
After using the three different softwares to create a digital story, it is great to know the wide range of options and freedom we have when it comes to sharing information. Personally, I think Animoto had the coolest result...I barely had to do anything, yet the pictures and the music looked absolutely awesome together. I wish I could brag to people that I put that slideshow together myself, but Animoto did it all for me! (Another bonus: Less work!) Even though it required the least amount of work and (in my opinion) had the most aesthetically pleasing result, Animoto offered the least amount of freedom in telling a story. Besides being able to choose your own pictures and music, the software does everything else for you. There is no option to make comments or to know the order/emphasis that each picture will be given. For that reason, if a teacher wants to tell a specific story with details and timelines, I don't think he or she should use Animoto. However, if a teacher wants a less formal but more exciting presentation, I think Animoto would be great to use.
While I didn't like the result of ScrapBlogging as much as I liked Animoto's, I think the scrapblog was the most fun to put together. It allows for the most creativity as far as making your own decisions go, and it really gives the opportunity for the artistic side of a person to come out when they design each page with pictures. Like I said, this webpage was very fun to put together, but like Animoto, I do not think it offered the most freedom out of the three software. Yes, it allowed you to choose pictures, but there wasn't much room for comment or explanation.
Although I found VoiceThread to be the most boring to put together as well as the most boring result, I think this one is the best when it comes to telling a story. This one allows the creator to choose the pictures, the order, and the comments. If there is a specific "story" a teacher would like to tell, VoiceThread definitely gives them the most freedom to tell that story. However, I think they are somewhat boring to watch, so I would probably still choose Scrapblogging or Animoto for my classroom.
While I didn't like the result of ScrapBlogging as much as I liked Animoto's, I think the scrapblog was the most fun to put together. It allows for the most creativity as far as making your own decisions go, and it really gives the opportunity for the artistic side of a person to come out when they design each page with pictures. Like I said, this webpage was very fun to put together, but like Animoto, I do not think it offered the most freedom out of the three software. Yes, it allowed you to choose pictures, but there wasn't much room for comment or explanation.
Although I found VoiceThread to be the most boring to put together as well as the most boring result, I think this one is the best when it comes to telling a story. This one allows the creator to choose the pictures, the order, and the comments. If there is a specific "story" a teacher would like to tell, VoiceThread definitely gives them the most freedom to tell that story. However, I think they are somewhat boring to watch, so I would probably still choose Scrapblogging or Animoto for my classroom.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Internet: Friend or Enemy?
Everyone has heard it before: The internet is a dangerous place for young kids, and it gives them too much freedom, independence, and privacy than they know what to do with. I've always been wary about the internet myself, and watching this documentary really made me consider the rules that I am going to have when I have children of my own. One of the things that was great about this documentary was that it touched on the impact of the internet from many different angles. It is typical to hear people focus on only one potential danger of the internet, whether it be online predators or online bullying. However, this documentary focused on both of those things, as well as the dangers of negative body images and shutting yourself out from the rest of the world.
Since all of us are mostly around the ages of 20 or 21, I think we are a funny position in that our generation was the first to become truly internet savvy at a relatively young age. I started talking on AOL when I was in 6th grade (and I still have the same embarrassing screen name), and internet research was a huge part of my classes in junior high and high school. Now, though, it seems as if kids are starting to use the internet at a younger and younger age everyday. In fact, one of the girls interviewed in the documentary said something to the effect of, "Like, come on, I mean, I've totally been using the internet since I was like, in second grade." Second grade? Are eight-year olds really ready to handle the land of the internet?
While many people would like to think that parents play a large role in determining the impact of the internet on their children, I really don't know if this is the case. To an extent, yes, parents can be incredibly influential, and should try to have as much control over their child's use of the internet as they can. However, even going to the lengths of having the family computer in the kitchen did not stop one woman's son's drunken escapades from ending up on YouTube. And another family knew how much their son would shut himself out from them once he got online, yet they did nothing to deter his internet usage. Overall, I think parents should be as involved as possible when it comes to using the internet, but unfortunately, I think much of the impact that the internet can have depends on what their friends are up to and what is seen as the "cool" thing to do.
In my junior high and high school, Facebook and MySpace weren't really big things. By the end of senior year, I could see that a lot of the younger students were getting sucked into the mystique of MySpace, but for kids my age and years older, we were never really affected by it. To me, the biggest problem I always found with the internet was its time consumption. My friends and I would be up talking online for all hours of the night (and we still do), but internet bullying was luckily never a big problem where I grew up. However, I can see more and more how the internet is constantly sucking kids away, and it's starting to become annoying. I can't go a night at a friend's house now without someone YouTubing something, going on ITunes, or surprise surprise, checking their Facebook. Last Spring Break, I went to Arkansas for Habitat for Humanity, and I went an entire week without using my cell phone or the internet. That was the longest I'd gone without using either in a very long time, and I have to say, it was one of the most refreshing weeks I've ever had. This just goes to show that we, along with young kids of today, will never be able to resist the impact of the internet.
Unfortunately, I do worry about the internet. There are obviously many positives to it, but there are even more dangers. And even as parents and teachers, there is only so much we can do about it. It will be great to educate our kids about technology, and hopefully they will use it to their benefit both inside and outside the classroom. However, it is important that we educate our kids about the dangers of the internet and give them options besides technology. I feel like the days of riding your bike, playing in the backyard, and going to the playground are coming to an end for young kids because all they want to do is play video games or work on their MySpace Page. It's a shame that this is starting to happen, so when we have kids and students of our own, it is important that we tame the internet from turning into the beast that it has the potential to become.
Since all of us are mostly around the ages of 20 or 21, I think we are a funny position in that our generation was the first to become truly internet savvy at a relatively young age. I started talking on AOL when I was in 6th grade (and I still have the same embarrassing screen name), and internet research was a huge part of my classes in junior high and high school. Now, though, it seems as if kids are starting to use the internet at a younger and younger age everyday. In fact, one of the girls interviewed in the documentary said something to the effect of, "Like, come on, I mean, I've totally been using the internet since I was like, in second grade." Second grade? Are eight-year olds really ready to handle the land of the internet?
While many people would like to think that parents play a large role in determining the impact of the internet on their children, I really don't know if this is the case. To an extent, yes, parents can be incredibly influential, and should try to have as much control over their child's use of the internet as they can. However, even going to the lengths of having the family computer in the kitchen did not stop one woman's son's drunken escapades from ending up on YouTube. And another family knew how much their son would shut himself out from them once he got online, yet they did nothing to deter his internet usage. Overall, I think parents should be as involved as possible when it comes to using the internet, but unfortunately, I think much of the impact that the internet can have depends on what their friends are up to and what is seen as the "cool" thing to do.
In my junior high and high school, Facebook and MySpace weren't really big things. By the end of senior year, I could see that a lot of the younger students were getting sucked into the mystique of MySpace, but for kids my age and years older, we were never really affected by it. To me, the biggest problem I always found with the internet was its time consumption. My friends and I would be up talking online for all hours of the night (and we still do), but internet bullying was luckily never a big problem where I grew up. However, I can see more and more how the internet is constantly sucking kids away, and it's starting to become annoying. I can't go a night at a friend's house now without someone YouTubing something, going on ITunes, or surprise surprise, checking their Facebook. Last Spring Break, I went to Arkansas for Habitat for Humanity, and I went an entire week without using my cell phone or the internet. That was the longest I'd gone without using either in a very long time, and I have to say, it was one of the most refreshing weeks I've ever had. This just goes to show that we, along with young kids of today, will never be able to resist the impact of the internet.
Unfortunately, I do worry about the internet. There are obviously many positives to it, but there are even more dangers. And even as parents and teachers, there is only so much we can do about it. It will be great to educate our kids about technology, and hopefully they will use it to their benefit both inside and outside the classroom. However, it is important that we educate our kids about the dangers of the internet and give them options besides technology. I feel like the days of riding your bike, playing in the backyard, and going to the playground are coming to an end for young kids because all they want to do is play video games or work on their MySpace Page. It's a shame that this is starting to happen, so when we have kids and students of our own, it is important that we tame the internet from turning into the beast that it has the potential to become.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Paying Kids for School?
Back in the days of junior high and high school, my friends and I joked around that we should get paid to go to school. We went everyday and it took up our time and energy, so why not? Now, after reading the Chicago Tribune article as well as the blogs of my classmates, I can't believe that schools have actually reached the point of paying their students to get good grades. I definitely understand that it is a source of motivation for kids who aren't crazy about school, but at the same time, is it the right kind of motivation? Brooke and I had a lot of the same feelings about the program being implemented in the Chicago Public Schools. (http://bkenned5.blogspot.com/). As a student, I would have loved getting paid for good grades, but as a future teacher and parent, I do not think it is the right message to send to kids. Furthermore, Brooke brought up a really good point I did not consider, and that is the way these students are getting paid. A 14-year old student probably has not yet acquired very much financial maturity; by paying them in cash, parents and teachers have no control over what the money is spent on, and more likely than not, these students are not going to spend their "hard-earned" money on extra textbooks for class. In Brooke's response, she suggested giving them gift cards to bookstores or grocery stores, therefore giving the school some control in how and where the money is spent. Gina also brings up this money issue in her response. ( http://teacherintraining-gwarner.blogspot.com/). Many school districts, especially those with high poverty rates like the Chicago Public Schools, are not getting adequate funds to provide their students with the materials they need to succeed. For that reason, instead of dishing out cash to individual students, the schools should consider spending they money on services or programs that would benefit their school as a whole.
Furthermore, Gina and Laura bring up all of the potential problems that could result from awarding money to high school students. First of all, Laura notes in her response that high school is a time to explore passion and interest, and it is not the time to "earn a buck." (http://laura335.blogspot.com/) After students graduate from high school, and hopefully college, they will have the rest of their lives to "earn a buck." Even in college, young students are thrown into the pressures of the real world when they have to juggle school and jobs and bills. However, in my opinion, high school is the time to be carefree from these worries. School, of course, should still be an issue that they are constantly thinking about. However, they should be thinking and worrying about school because they want to do well, not because they don't think they will earn as much as their friends at the end of five weeks.
This then takes us to an issue that Gina brought up: While there will be many students that will earn cash at the end of every five weeks, there will be just as many that don't earn anything. This, unfortunately, could cause psychological problems for the kids who don't "succeed." I have have many education courses here that have drilled into my head the idea that "success" is different for every student. For some, success could be straight A's, but for others, it could be raising a grade from a D to a C. However, CPS is now defining success by cash values, and I don't think that is something high school students should be exposed to. One of the hardest things for us as teachers will be to motivate our students, but I want to do it in a way that does not bring money into the picture.
Furthermore, Gina and Laura bring up all of the potential problems that could result from awarding money to high school students. First of all, Laura notes in her response that high school is a time to explore passion and interest, and it is not the time to "earn a buck." (http://laura335.blogspot.com/) After students graduate from high school, and hopefully college, they will have the rest of their lives to "earn a buck." Even in college, young students are thrown into the pressures of the real world when they have to juggle school and jobs and bills. However, in my opinion, high school is the time to be carefree from these worries. School, of course, should still be an issue that they are constantly thinking about. However, they should be thinking and worrying about school because they want to do well, not because they don't think they will earn as much as their friends at the end of five weeks.
This then takes us to an issue that Gina brought up: While there will be many students that will earn cash at the end of every five weeks, there will be just as many that don't earn anything. This, unfortunately, could cause psychological problems for the kids who don't "succeed." I have have many education courses here that have drilled into my head the idea that "success" is different for every student. For some, success could be straight A's, but for others, it could be raising a grade from a D to a C. However, CPS is now defining success by cash values, and I don't think that is something high school students should be exposed to. One of the hardest things for us as teachers will be to motivate our students, but I want to do it in a way that does not bring money into the picture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
