I completely agree with Friedman's shifr from a 2.0 to 3.0 world. His points are very well written and portrayed and are interesting to boot!
It is very important to be aware when transforming a student from a single dimensional way of learning to a 3-dimensional one. Instead of just conversing with those kids in their own class, by transforming into a 3-dimensional world, we are allowing them to communicate to those in other town, states, and even countries. There are several benefitst to this way of learning, as it will become much easier for students to receive a greater plethora of knowledge.
By blogging, podcasting, creating personal wiki cites, etc...students will be much better off in college and in the post-college life. I know that certainly I will as a result of the many helpful texts that we are reading in this class, along with the importat info that we are all getting from each other and our blogs. There's a little 3-dimensional learning right there!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Are We Getting Our Money's Worth?
This article was really interesting because it truly makes its reader think about the question, are we really getting our money's worth by attending college? I feel that the answer to that question cannont be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." It is true that those who pay more for college are getting a better education than those who pay less? Are Harvard students receiving a better education that those of us who attend SUNY Cortland? These are all questions that are relevant to this article. I feel that the answer to these questions really depends on the person. It is very possible for someone to receive an equal education at an IVY League school as opposed to a SUNY school. It all depends on how much time, work, and effort the students chooses to put in to their studies.
I feel that most people in America who go to college, do it because they don't really know any other way to succeed. You always hear in high school and from your parents that, "you're not going to go anywhere without a college education." But is this really true. I feel that in most cases, this is true. But there are several people who have made a great living and it wasn't because they attended college. Without a doubt, we are forced to pay way too much to go to college. I don't see why it is fair that we must attend college in order to get a good job, yet for 10 years post-graduation, we are stuck in debt, paying back college loans. College is rather hypcritical if you ask me. I truly don't know whether or not I am getting my money's worth by going to college.
Sure, I am learning a great deal of important information in my classes, but in all honesty, I am learning more outside of the classroom. By living alone, cooking your own meals, choosing whether or not to get up for class, etc...we are slowly but surely becoming adults. Going out, socializing, drinking too much, making mistakes...they are all very important aspects of college. I feel that many of life's lessons are taught and learned during the college years. It certainly is a transitional period. Before I came to college, I literally had no idea what the real world was like. Not that I have a huge understanding of it now (since my parents pay for my car, cell phone, tuition, housing, etc) but I have still learned what it is like to live away from the safety-net called home. The mistakes that I make I must suffer the consequences on my own. My parents of course are always there for me, but college has taught me how to deal with difficult issues on my own, without consulting them all the time on whats right and wrong.
My answer to the initial question that the article brings up is that I feel that most of what's learned in college doesn't cost a dime. In college, you find a sense of self, self-worth, and gratification, not only by getting an A on a paper or a 95% on a test, but by making life-long friends, making mistakes, and picking yourself up when you fall. This isn't to say that classes are worthless, because they most definitely are not. I just feel that we have to pay to learn lessons that go beyond the institution of "school." We are paying for our futures in more ways than one.
I feel that most people in America who go to college, do it because they don't really know any other way to succeed. You always hear in high school and from your parents that, "you're not going to go anywhere without a college education." But is this really true. I feel that in most cases, this is true. But there are several people who have made a great living and it wasn't because they attended college. Without a doubt, we are forced to pay way too much to go to college. I don't see why it is fair that we must attend college in order to get a good job, yet for 10 years post-graduation, we are stuck in debt, paying back college loans. College is rather hypcritical if you ask me. I truly don't know whether or not I am getting my money's worth by going to college.
Sure, I am learning a great deal of important information in my classes, but in all honesty, I am learning more outside of the classroom. By living alone, cooking your own meals, choosing whether or not to get up for class, etc...we are slowly but surely becoming adults. Going out, socializing, drinking too much, making mistakes...they are all very important aspects of college. I feel that many of life's lessons are taught and learned during the college years. It certainly is a transitional period. Before I came to college, I literally had no idea what the real world was like. Not that I have a huge understanding of it now (since my parents pay for my car, cell phone, tuition, housing, etc) but I have still learned what it is like to live away from the safety-net called home. The mistakes that I make I must suffer the consequences on my own. My parents of course are always there for me, but college has taught me how to deal with difficult issues on my own, without consulting them all the time on whats right and wrong.
My answer to the initial question that the article brings up is that I feel that most of what's learned in college doesn't cost a dime. In college, you find a sense of self, self-worth, and gratification, not only by getting an A on a paper or a 95% on a test, but by making life-long friends, making mistakes, and picking yourself up when you fall. This isn't to say that classes are worthless, because they most definitely are not. I just feel that we have to pay to learn lessons that go beyond the institution of "school." We are paying for our futures in more ways than one.
RSS Feed
I must admit that when we mentioned an RSS feed in our podcast that I was still a little confused on just what it was. Of course, Will Richardson has cleared this little issue up for me as he ususally does (when reading his book, of course). I was aware that RSS stoof for Real Simple Syndication, but again, I wasn't really sure what that meant. Richardson mentions that if you are an educator, "it's the one technology that you should start using today, right now, this minute" (75). In his book, Richardson lists several ways that an RSS Feed is necessary in the classroom. Three of those reasons are:
1.) Instead of giving students a large number of weblogs to search through in hopes of finding your latest posts, why not put all of this content in one place? By using an aggregator, it becomes quick and easy to post all of your most recent information on to one cite. This would come in handy if I ever were to teach a class like English 307
2.) Not only beneficial to teachers, students will find RSS feeds very helpful as well. RSS feeds allows students to stay organized. They can stay in tune with things that interest them, like books, websites, authors, etc...
3.)Finally, RSS feeds are important because it allows students and teachers to view each other's blogs. Much like our class, it is extremely helpful and beneficial to read my fellow students' blogs for insight and info!
Richardson was very correct by stating that we as teachers need to learn about RSS feeds today. It clearly will help us all in the future!
1.) Instead of giving students a large number of weblogs to search through in hopes of finding your latest posts, why not put all of this content in one place? By using an aggregator, it becomes quick and easy to post all of your most recent information on to one cite. This would come in handy if I ever were to teach a class like English 307
2.) Not only beneficial to teachers, students will find RSS feeds very helpful as well. RSS feeds allows students to stay organized. They can stay in tune with things that interest them, like books, websites, authors, etc...
3.)Finally, RSS feeds are important because it allows students and teachers to view each other's blogs. Much like our class, it is extremely helpful and beneficial to read my fellow students' blogs for insight and info!
Richardson was very correct by stating that we as teachers need to learn about RSS feeds today. It clearly will help us all in the future!
Students Learning Less
So, I just got done reading the article on students learning less that in previous years, and I must say that I am not surprised. As unfortunate as it may be, teachers are cutting their students short in high schools all over America. I can personally relate to this article, as many of the teachers I had in high school were complete pushovers. I took a few AP courses as well, and in all honesty, they were a joke. For those students who were able to get into AP classes, teachers automatically assumed that they were smarter and more knowledgeable than those students who were in regular english, economics, people in government, etc...classes, that they felt that it wasn't necessary to teach all the time. Quite often (believe it or not) we would actually watch movies in class. But these weren't movies that in any way related to our course. They were just popular movies that teachers thought that we would enjoy. It was almost our reward for being "smarter" than the average student. Little did they know that they were harming us. I passed my AP english exam, but didn't receive credit for my AP government class. My government teacher harldy ever taught us anything about the topic of government, nor anything relating to gorvernment for that matter. I feel as though teachers look at AP classes as being freebee classes; rather they view them as classes that students would be better off teaching themselves.
I am also not surprised that students are not performing up to their age level in english either. I was evaluating some papers in one of my classes this morning, actually, and I honestly can say that I was shocked. These papers were so bad another reader would have assumed that they had been written by 5th graders. The sad reality is, is that these were the compositions of junior-senior college students who were ENGLISH MAJORS. I almost got up and walked out of class as the students were reading their papers aloud to the class. I don't mean to sound conceited or over-confident, but these papers were awful with a capital A. I feel that these students could easily have gone to one of the schools who were studied in the article. Just the basic elements of english, like punctuation, grammar, and spelling, were incorrect. I feel that it would be extremely beneficial for my professor to have a few classes where we just deal with the basic fundamentals of the english language. I had to give a grade for each paper that I corrected, and there was only one paper that I gave an A to. The highest grade besides the A was a C- and even that I thought was being generous.
Hall brings up a great point in this article, one that I completely agree upon. He says, "[w]hat it suggests is that we are telling students that they're being successful in these courses when, in fact, we're not teaching them any more than they were learning in the past," she said. "So we are, in effect, lying to these students." He is 100% correct. Teachers are not there to baby students, especially those at the high-school level. It it time to crack down on students and really begin to give them a run for their money before it's too late. I truly feel bad for the students' papers that I read today. They were quite obviously cheated by both their grade-school teachers, as well as their college professors. It is time to step up and help improve our students. They will never succeed any other way.
I am also not surprised that students are not performing up to their age level in english either. I was evaluating some papers in one of my classes this morning, actually, and I honestly can say that I was shocked. These papers were so bad another reader would have assumed that they had been written by 5th graders. The sad reality is, is that these were the compositions of junior-senior college students who were ENGLISH MAJORS. I almost got up and walked out of class as the students were reading their papers aloud to the class. I don't mean to sound conceited or over-confident, but these papers were awful with a capital A. I feel that these students could easily have gone to one of the schools who were studied in the article. Just the basic elements of english, like punctuation, grammar, and spelling, were incorrect. I feel that it would be extremely beneficial for my professor to have a few classes where we just deal with the basic fundamentals of the english language. I had to give a grade for each paper that I corrected, and there was only one paper that I gave an A to. The highest grade besides the A was a C- and even that I thought was being generous.
Hall brings up a great point in this article, one that I completely agree upon. He says, "[w]hat it suggests is that we are telling students that they're being successful in these courses when, in fact, we're not teaching them any more than they were learning in the past," she said. "So we are, in effect, lying to these students." He is 100% correct. Teachers are not there to baby students, especially those at the high-school level. It it time to crack down on students and really begin to give them a run for their money before it's too late. I truly feel bad for the students' papers that I read today. They were quite obviously cheated by both their grade-school teachers, as well as their college professors. It is time to step up and help improve our students. They will never succeed any other way.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Wednesday's Presentations
I just wanted to post and say that I thought everybody did a great job with their projects on Wednesday. I learned so much from each and every one of you, and am definitely feeling a bit more confident when it comes to English 307. I was really impressed with Willis, Theresa's, and Barb's group. They did such a great job with their website. It looked like professionals had created it. Savanna's group also did a great job with social bookmarking, too. I was so excited when they showed us how to do a del.ic.ious page. I had been wanting to know how to do that for a while (and I think Ray was glad that I stopped annoying him with all of my questions!) Megan's group also did a great job with their podcasting project. It was interesting to see the difference in our presentations, as both of us took different approaches to podcasting. I would definitely like to learn how to integrate pictures and music into our group podcast. It would just make it so much more interesting and fun to watch. Lauren's group did a good job too with their presentation on wiki project. It just seems to me that there is so much to forming a wiki site/ wiki post. I definitely would like to learn more about how to do that, just because it is such an important thing to learn (especially for a future teacher).
I am looking forward to seeing Kaitlin's presentation next class. She always does a nice job with her presentations, as I was in her seminar last semester and she did a great job with that. All of this new knowledge that we're learning in this class is definitely going to prove to be very helpful in the future. I am much more comfortable with the Macs, too, which is something that I never thought would happen! Ok, well I just wanted to give kudos to everyone who presented on Wednesday. Thanks for teaching us some new and interesting material!
I am looking forward to seeing Kaitlin's presentation next class. She always does a nice job with her presentations, as I was in her seminar last semester and she did a great job with that. All of this new knowledge that we're learning in this class is definitely going to prove to be very helpful in the future. I am much more comfortable with the Macs, too, which is something that I never thought would happen! Ok, well I just wanted to give kudos to everyone who presented on Wednesday. Thanks for teaching us some new and interesting material!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Hobbs & NCTE Standards
When I first examined the 6 components for media literacy, I must say that I felt it was pretty self-explanatory. Perhaps the most interesting point that I viewed when reading these 6 bullets was # 2, which states that, "Media literacy can and should be integrated across the K-12 curricula at all grade levels and in multiple subject areas" (PLS). When I read this, I literally knocked myself on the head and stated, "Duh!" As intelligent as that may sound, it's true. If you are going to be using the media to teach in the classroom, it is vital for students to start young. Children as young as kindergartners (as mentioned in the PLS article) should be exposed to media literacy. Of course, monitor students, but I totally agree that students need to start at a young age. I wish that I had had all of the many opportunities that today's youth have when it came to all of the new media technology. Imagine how much better off we would be, especially in English 307, if we had been taught how to use computers in the classroom? Obviously, all of the technology that we have now wasn't available to us when we were elementary school age, but there was no reason why in the upper-level grades that we couldn't have learned more about the media through the many tools that were available to us. I went to the largest high school in New York state and graduated with 900 students. I feel as though we were cheated when it comes to technology and media literacy.
When reading Renee Hobbs, I feel as though Hobbs' third project is the most interesting (this woman has accomplished so much in the 20 years that she has been involved in media education). I love how she is going into a Maryland classroom to find out "the impact of media literacy education on students' academic performance, family communication and civic engagement." I think this is an extremely good subject to study, as media literacy is becoming more and more important in the classroom in the past few years. I feel that Hobbs may find that media literacy has some positive and negative effects. One negative effect could be that on academic progress and family communication. While claiming to be doing school-related activities, some students surely will get off track and check their MySpace, Facebook, and Instant Messenger. This in turn will put a damper on family communication, as its sometimes hard to pry children off of the computer. In contrast, media literacy certainly has some posititive attributes as well, don't get me wrong. By connecting with foreign students, other classmates, and family, media literacy could be extremely beneficial. Sharing ideas on the internet can be very informational as well as educational.
By reporting on her findings, Hobbs' research can be used by others all around the United States. Maybe through her findings, other teachers can read up on her progress and enforce some of her ideas in their own classroom. In relation to the PLS article, I feel as though Hobbs would agree with the many intriguing points that they make. Based on her book, she may find that intigrating media literacy at such a young age as those in kindergarten may be a bit too extreme, but I do think that she would agree that children must begin to learn this type of information at a young age. Without a doubt she would agree that, "Media is essential for the development of informed, reflective and active citizens in a democratic society" (PLS). Overall, Hobbs' book so far is very interesting in the sense that it emphasizes many similar points that we discuss in class, as well as topics dicussed in Richardson's book.
When reading Renee Hobbs, I feel as though Hobbs' third project is the most interesting (this woman has accomplished so much in the 20 years that she has been involved in media education). I love how she is going into a Maryland classroom to find out "the impact of media literacy education on students' academic performance, family communication and civic engagement." I think this is an extremely good subject to study, as media literacy is becoming more and more important in the classroom in the past few years. I feel that Hobbs may find that media literacy has some positive and negative effects. One negative effect could be that on academic progress and family communication. While claiming to be doing school-related activities, some students surely will get off track and check their MySpace, Facebook, and Instant Messenger. This in turn will put a damper on family communication, as its sometimes hard to pry children off of the computer. In contrast, media literacy certainly has some posititive attributes as well, don't get me wrong. By connecting with foreign students, other classmates, and family, media literacy could be extremely beneficial. Sharing ideas on the internet can be very informational as well as educational.
By reporting on her findings, Hobbs' research can be used by others all around the United States. Maybe through her findings, other teachers can read up on her progress and enforce some of her ideas in their own classroom. In relation to the PLS article, I feel as though Hobbs would agree with the many intriguing points that they make. Based on her book, she may find that intigrating media literacy at such a young age as those in kindergarten may be a bit too extreme, but I do think that she would agree that children must begin to learn this type of information at a young age. Without a doubt she would agree that, "Media is essential for the development of informed, reflective and active citizens in a democratic society" (PLS). Overall, Hobbs' book so far is very interesting in the sense that it emphasizes many similar points that we discuss in class, as well as topics dicussed in Richardson's book.
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