Cheaters and iPods?- A Downfall of Technology

Often times in lecture halls, during those psychology 101 courses, kids will sometimes listen to their iPods
while the lecture is going on. This is often possible because slides
and PowerPoint are used and it is much more entertaining to listen to
Nirvana than a lecture. In this article I found on Yahoo, high schools
have started banningiPods because of the way kids can use them to cheat. Since the ear piece is
so small to begin with, hiding the wire and earpiece is something that
can be easily done: "officials realized some students were downloading
formulas and other material onto the players."-- Clearly this is the
problem.

I think the key is that eventually, "each district will
have a policy in place for technology — it keeps a lot of the problems
down." Technology clearly has its positives and negatives. Cheating is
now one of the negatives with the iPod. The result has to be limitations on when they can be used. They should in no way be banned, just regulated.

Here is the link if any of you want to check it out. What do you guys think
of this problem? If you read the article, take a look at what Kelsey
Nelson had to say--Quite interesting and I'd be curious to hear your
opinion.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_hi_te/ipod_cheating

More Details on the Media Literacy Project

My group has been specifically focusing and analyzing on the show
Family Guy. Something very cool happened to Lindsay with her blog-- she got
a comment from a man in California telling us not to only focus on the
show, but broaden our focus on the commercials aired during Family Guy as well.

This is a great, simple point that we did not even think of! So, tonight when
we meet after class, Lindsay, Charity , and myself, we will be able to
further our project on the commercials as well. We can view aspects of what kind of viewers are the commercials pertaining to? Is there a reason why those commercials are on as opposed to others? What sort of commercials seemed to be missing? etc. Does anyone else have any other ideas they would like us to investigate?

Response to Will

The way in which Will engages his children about books is fascinating.
Even so much as the idea of writing books and then being able to send them
out for Christmas presents is a great idea on his behalf. He brings
writing and the aspect of books into his child's life and it actually
intrigues her. From his eagerness and enthusiasm comes his daughters--
and the enthusiasm coming from books is so commendable on behalf of Will.

Teachers should learn something from this. Even though writing, reading, and books are associtaed with school, which is associated with boredom (most of the time), it doesn't need to be that way. Taking those aspects of school and turning them into something fun for kids is the way to get students to see school as enjoyable.

Shape-Shifting Portfolio

In all honesty, some of this technology still confuses me. I am at times hesitant and nervous to get started with it because I am a person who gets easily frustrated. Either frustartion or disappointment cues in because I fear I may not be satisfied with my work.

I absolutely enjoy learning about all the tasks and events I can create with technology, I just feel like I need more of a one-on-one on how to perform.

I do however look forward to learning how to incorporate more technology into the class room and hope to take a course that perhaps guides me in doing so.

Do It On Your Own!

I think it is interesting how Will basically says how a degree in Social Computing is pointless! He takes a major and simply says that people can start doing this on their own, for free. Makes one wonder how many other courses, having Will's outlook, can be abolished in this very same way!

In relation to the whole idea of Social Computing, I like how beneficial it can be for students alone: "Students pursuing a specialization in Social Computing learn to analyze online social interactions, both in online communities and in more diffuse social networks. They learn about features of social computing technologies so they can recognize opportunities to put them to use in new settings and make good choices about alternative implementations."

Once again, this really relates to my whole take of letting students explore in order to benefit themselves. It is also such a positive feeling to figure things out on your own (i.e. "more diffuse social networks," "make good choices about alternative implementations,"). It seems as though Social Computing does not necessarily need to be a major, but maybe even a class taught in high schools? What do you guys think about that? Or is that happening already and I may not be aware of it?

Kids are Competent!

I believe a common theme among the three articles for this week's blog quiz is that kids are competent!


In regards to these articles, our readings, and our talks in class, kids
are capable of more than teachers, or any adult really, often think.
For instance, we should all be aware now that our students might know
more technologically than we do at times. I think one of the main ideas
is that we need to let these kids explore; do not hold them back.

"When adults see young people misbehaving or underperforming, they often respond by infantilizing young people even more[...]"


Kids are a lot smarter than we all think. We should let them show it and
never hold them back. Because, as we saw in the O'Brien article, if
they are held back and get the feeling that they are incapable, then
they will think that too, and that is detrimental.

Baltimore County's Use of Video

In this article it was explained how Maryland's Baltimore County Public
Schools has installed video servers and a video-on-demand system in all
of its 169 schools. The second most appealing idea to me was by a
woman, Della Curtis, who discussed what the ultimate goal of that
school district is: "The vision is to make the curriculum more
21st-century and engaging." It should be a more engaging environment,
because why should kids dread going to school? It is a place they must
attend almost everyday for many, many years, they might as well enjoy
the place!

The idea that was most appealing to me was how a
growing number of districts, "has convened teams of teachers in each
school to brainstorm ways of using the new resources to their fullest
potential across each academic discipline." This idea is fantastic
because it gets teachers to WORK AND COLLABORATE TOGETHER! As a student
we have all had those good teachers-- the ones that intrigue us and
appeal to ourintellect versus the not-so-good teachers-- the ones that
bore us over and over again with the oh-so-appealing (sarcasm) chalk
and blackboard. With the use of these tools and the collaboration of
multiple teachers using them, maybe we can start ridding school systems
of the boring teachers whose classes kids dread attending.Afterall, what teacher wants to be dreaded?

O'Brien

When reading O'Brien, it immediately made me think of my brother. This is his first year in college and he attends Suffolk
Community College on Long Island. My brother, Zack, has never liked
school. To this day actually, the kid is not fond of it one bit. One
thing to add is that learning was and still is a difficult task for
him. He was one of those kids that had to go to the resource room and
take tests in another room and stuff like that. One thing that O' Brien
states I feel was relative to Zack:
When students discover, early in their academic careers, that they are not
doing well in reading (it could be any school discipline), and they
attribute success to stable factors
outside of their control (e.g., the texts are too hard, effort doesn't
yield results, the teacher is hard, they just don't have the ability),
success is perceived as unattainable, universal, and permanent. (O' Brien
30)
This is just it! When my mom, dad , or myself would tell him he is smart, you can do well in
school he just didn't believe it. But there were certain
things in high school that this kid actually did enjoy! And wouldn't
you expect...all surfaced around bringing technology into the classroom
even a couple of years ago.

He told me how even then,"doing like an exercise and letting the students use powerpoints
rather than like write stuff on paper and then they present it" was
more thrilling than what was mostly being done. I'm sure the use of powerpoints
, especially under the control of the students, wasn't as often and
common as Zack and his other peers would have liked. Teachers should
know that through technology, even what is now the old-schoolpowerpoint, can help kids realize that they can be successful in scholastic endeavors:
When students perceived that they were successful, and they could set
personally relevant goals and see that they were improving, they would read
and write more, build fluency, and decide to persevere, even on tasks that
they perceived as being difficult (Anderman et al., 2001; Pintrich and
Schunk 1996). (O'Brien 30)

Media Literacy and My Podcast

Lindsay and I will be meeting on Monday night to start perfecting our Media Literacy project. We will be working with the television show "Family Guy." Hey, if anyone has any specific episodes they think they would like us to incorporate in this let us know asap!

Simultaneously, I will be working on my own Podcast. I am meeting Ray in the library on Sunday so he can give me some assistance, especially with the images and such. I am aiming this podcast toward the Cortland Lacrosse team.

A Little Personal...

So, I have not talked to my Aunt in a year 1/2. We have always been in contact but it has always been a struggle because her and my mom do not get along, thus creating distance between us for as long as I can remember. My mom and my grandmother are also pretty distant but not as much as my mom and aunt. So, I received a text the night before Easter from a random number saying "Happy Easter." I felt bad that I got that someone would send me that text and I had no idea who it was; so, I lied and said my phonebook had recently been erased, "Who is this?" It responded back to "Aunt Niecey" (Aunt Denise). So we got to talking...texting actually.. and it was fascinating to me that texting brought us back to talking. We were texting for a good hour that night, I followed with a Happy Easter phone call the next day. With that she told me she had an e-mail now and checks it 3-4 times a week! I've already received approximately 6 e-mails from her already! I also learned from her that my grandmother has text messaging-- my 70 some odd year old grandmother has text messaging!! WHAT?!?

So, from this it just goes to show me that everyone is getting on the band wagon of technology--even 40-year-old aunts and Grandmothers!

Sorry if this was boring for anyone to read, just fascinated me and seemed more than appropraite for this blog.

Comments on the Chat

Many different issues are brought up in this chat. I will touch on a few of them.

The first is the gaining of information from the internet. To put it in simplest terms, what is good and what is bad? Since I am going to be using the internet, computers, and technology in general in my classroom, I think a primary way to leading my class in the right direction for the year and years to come, is to have a lesson on what sources are legitimate. Make them understand that not every website they go to has valid information. "For example, of the students tested, only 52% could accurately judge the objectivity of Web sites." My class will be part of that percentage!

There was also a discussion about the average age of computers in classrooms. I think schools should really attempt to get decent aged computers into the classroom. We have to make these students intrigued with learning! If those old, sooooo slow computers are still in classrooms, who is going to want to use those?

One man asked the question of whether technology is walking educators these days? In some ways and at some times it may be. The key is to start getting ahead. Yes, George Washington did not have a computer or ipod in his day. But, we do now. And what is the harm in using the tools that are in front of us. They surround us! We need to not be hostile towards the new technology and let it in so we can use it to the best of our ability, especially in the classroom.

Digital Decade and the Opinion of Students

The "Digital Decade" article talks highly of the technology being used
today as opposed to 10 years ago. It states how nearly all schools can
access the Internet
and the percentage of instructional computers with high-speed access is
somewhere around 95 percent. Video recorders and digital cameras are
being used to further students' creativity level in the classroom. It
also states how blogs andpodcasts are being
used. The only thing
which was disturbing in "Digital Decade," which seemed to be proved by
the next article "Outside Interests," was this:

In its annual
survey of the states for Technology Counts, the Editorial Projects in
Education Research Center now finds that, unlike 10 years ago, most
states have technology standards for students and educators, for
example. But few states test to see if those standards are being met,
so the degree to which schools are reaching them is unknown.

So,
it is said that all this technology is being used in many parts of the
U.S., but an accurate estimate is untraceable and unknown. Randy
Herrera makes some very interesting
statements about the technology use in his classrooms. He feels as
though his technology use at home outweighs the usage at school. His
technology use starts right when he wakes up for school by the use of
his alarm clock and then text messages from friends on the bus ride to
school. He gets to school and this is all taken away/ unavailable:

"In
English, for instance, there is a computer in the classroom, but he
says students are not allowed to use it. To do research, his class of
29 troops upstairs to the media center to share 15 computers."

"When
I step in school, I feel like I’m not me anymore. I have to jump into
this whole old-fashioned thing where everything is restricted."

"[...]technology 'facilitates me doing what I do best and shows my creativity, who I am'"

Some schools are limiting students' creativity and are diminishing
the drive that kids could have if technology were used in the
classroom. Why is this even happening? Because it shouldn't be. We want
students to want to learn. If that means bringing in technology, then so be it.