Social Justice

During this entire class I have wondered about what I would do if I was teaching in a low income area where not every student had internet at home. Although I get very excited about using everything I am learning in this class, that has always been in the back of my mind. I think that the article had a very good idea about discreetly finding out what kind of access your students have to technology. I like the idea of doing a survey at the beginning of class. However, I don’t feel like giving them information for a community center or library is sufficient. It definitely makes a difference if that student lives within walking distance to one of these locations, but if not, they are most likely not going to utilize these resources. This may be because of lack of transportation or it is just one more step to finish their homework that the other students don’t have and they may just not do it.

My opinion is that if only a few students, or maybe even one, do not have easy access to internet or the technology required to complete an assignment, I should not require the assignment in the first place or I should give them an option to complete the assignment in an alternative form. They do still need to learn important technological skills, so if I was in a school that had the resources, I would make all technological assignments to do in-class. If I am not in a school with the technological resources I would then follow the advice of the article and search for resources using the Digital Equity Portal and Toolkit. I may also speak to my principle and superintendent or try to get the community involved in raising money for the school. If I am in a low income community and a school that does not have the resources, my guess is that I will be advocating for my students in many other ways as well. Technology definitely deserves a spot on my “to fight for” list because, like the article stated, having technological skills is vital for the future success of our students.

I would do my best to not allow the lack of access of a few students ruin the chance for the rest of my students to gain technological skills. I would simply do most or all of the technology based assignments in-class or I would give the students without access an alternative if possible, so the rest of the students could do the assignment with technology. For example, I created a webquest that required my students to make a travel blog. For a student who had no access to a computer or internet at home or near home, I would print out the webquest pages for them, allow them time in class to research and print out information or go to the library and allow them to turn in written blog posts.

I think there are ways around a lot of the issues, but I think the hardest to overcome would not be your students not having access at home, but the school not even having access to technology either. Now I realize the importance of technology in the classroom and I hope to advocate for it in my future teaching job.

Should cell phones be banned from classrooms?

I tend to agree with Josh Allen on this one. I think that cell phones should not be used in the classroom. Every use that Liz came up with for cell phones in the classroom could be done on the computer. The nice thing about that is that you don’t have to worry about a student using the computer during an inappropriate time in class (it should be pretty obvious, unlike a cell phone).

I think she is missing a major factor when she stated, “There are businesses that are completely mobile, and job interviews that are done via phone. Students need to learn how to use their social devices as a professional tool if they want to be competitive in the future”. First of all, the students that already own the kinds of phones that she is talking about will already know how to use all of the gadgets, so I think they will be fine as long as we teach them the professional skills they will need in the business world. As far as the students that don’t have these types of phones, we cannot require them to purchase them for school because that is obviously unfair and I agree with Josh Allen when he says that, “Any monies spent on phones and plans would be much better served with any number of other technologies.”

Before reading this article, I did not know that buying every student a cell phone was even discussed in schools. I am curious to know how common this is. I would also like to find the best ways to control social cell phone use in my classroom.

Is Chatspeak Destroying English?

I tend to agree with Greg Monfils in saying that no, chatspeak is not destroying English. As I was reading the other side, written by Linda Howard, I thought of the foreign language example. I am a strong supporter of bilingual education and I think it would be inconsistent of me to agree with Linda. Many people think that knowing another language endangers a person’s command of the “more important” language. Well, that is simply not true and there is plenty of research to back it up. If a person is taught when to use which language and is educated in both, then it is a benefit to know both. Greg argues that student’s, “command of chatspeak is directly proportional to their awareness that the fashion of chatspeak subverts traditional rules of written English.” I think this is very true and disproves most of Linda’s arguments.

It is extremely important to teach our students when chatspeak is appropriate and when it is not. I don’t think it should be allowed in the classroom at all. Unlike Greg, I would not allow my students to email me using chatspeak. They need to learn how to write professional emails to professors, bosses, and colleagues in the future. I think Linda’s fear that it “will be difficult to switch gears and construct adequate, meaningful academic papers and other assignments” can be solved by simply educating our students. It is our responsibility to teach them how to write and express themselves in meaningful, academic ways and to also teach them when to use which type of language.

I am anxious to see how much this really affects student’s writing in the classroom. Do they already know not to use chatspeak in school work like Greg argues? My feeling is yes, but I guess I will just have to wait and see. Another question I had while reading the article was: Does it affect students who already struggle with writing more so than those who don’t struggle? Linda argues that yes, it does, but I guess I will have to wait and see on that one also!

Webquest Comment 2 - Tom Ramsey

I really liked the topic of this webquest. It is a great combination of Tom’s two endorsements: social studies and science. I think students will really learn a lot from this project and is a great way to raise awareness about the relationship between salmon and humans. I really like how they have to come up with a solution to the issues that they discover. They are really engaged in their own learning by doing this. I also really like the video that Tom included. It is a video based on his personal experience and I think the students will really like that. Tom included everything required in the rubric except for the standards in the teacher page. He had many links for the students, pictures for each task, and clearly described the requirements.

My suggestions for improvement would be to fix some of the grammatical and syntax errors. Students will definitely notice that and, as we have heard, love to point out all of our errors! I would also suggest having the links open in a new window. That is just something that I like to do when I am looking at multiple things online. Besides that, I think this is a great Webquest project and Tom’s students would/will learn a lot from this experience!

PowerPoint Presentation Reflection

I really liked the variety of topics of the power point presentations. I love learning about random things from my classmates! It was obvious that everyone carefully chose their topic and were passionate about it. That was the best thing I saw: their passion for their subject. It was evident when they presented that they chose that topic because they are genuinely interested in it and want to share the information with everyone else. I have learned so much from everyone’s presentations. For example, I learned about Chichen Itza, the Isle of Man and the bike race, and how to make a camera out of a box.

The least engaging thing about some of the power point presentations were that they were not created/presented in an interactive way. Some had too much text and the presenter relied on the power point too much. This way of presenting is not interactive with the audience and if we ever use power points in the classroom, we need to interact with our students or else we will lose them.

If I could change something about my power point presentation I would probably add more slides in order to clarify and practice the vocabulary more. I went through really new information pretty fast, so I don’t think anybody actually learned anything long term. If I was doing this with a real Spanish class I would have added more slides and gone a lot slower.

I always thought of power point as a tool for student’s presentations or for some kind of business meeting. I never thought of it as a teacher tool and I was a bit skeptical at first. It turns out that it can be very useful. I really enjoyed getting creative and finding a way to use it in a classroom to teach my subject. I am excited to use power points in my classroom now because I feel like there are so many possibilities and it can be a great visual for students during my lessons. I only need to be careful not to rely too heavily on it and get lazy. Power points have amazing potential to be boring, so I should only use it when it can add to my lesson, not as a crutch.

Is Technology Shortening Student Attention Spans?

I agree with different parts of both sides of this article. I thought Marcovitz made a really good point when he used the plant example. With educational technology, “allow students to explore rich worlds, growing generations of plants and animals in an instant, watching them die, changing the parameters, and then doing it all over again”. An important question that he asks is, “After seeing a flower bloom in a minute, who has the patience to wait for it to bloom in real time?”. This is why I think using technology in the classroom is all about balance and using the right kind of technology. I would probably not use this flower blooming simulation in my classroom. I would however, grow a real garden with my students and allow them to keep a garden journal in a blog. I think that technology does not need to be completely ignored because as David Son says: “Technology has the power to capture our children’s attention by making learning interactive and fun”. This is very true, but we cannot fully rely on technology to capture our student’s attention, we want to instill an intrinsic desire to learn, not simply get their attention long enough to do a lesson. We want them to be curious and patient enough to observe that flower as it grows in real time; that is teaching something that goes beyond the walls of the classroom, that is teaching them life skills.

When David Son described a perfect school that uses technology in a way to argue for his side, it actually had the opposite effect for me. That sounds terrible! “They tell a story using software, video and audio on a computer”. That can be a great differential tool, but every student needs to be able to get out a pencil and paper and write a good story. For me, it comes down to balance and using the right kind of technology at the right times.

I am curious to find out how many teachers are actually using technology in their classroom. If they are using it, what kind and how much? Is it mostly used in extremes? One teacher is anti-technology and another is all about it, so they use it everywhere? I think there should be a mix. How would the majority of teachers react to this article?

Webquest Comment 1 - Heather Campos

I think Heather’s webquest looks really good and polished. It gives clear directions. If I was a student, I would know exactly what to do and when I needed it done by. I liked how each task was divided by days, so the student knows when they are doing that specific task and how long they have to complete it. She follows everything in the rubric, except I didn’t see a video, which was a stated requirement on the webct page, but not stated in the rubric. So, I’m not sure if that matters.

One suggestion I would make would be to check over the wording of questions. There were a few syntax errors and we all know students will pick at anything the teacher does wrong! I may also put a few more pictures. There are pictures on some of the pages, but a few more visual aids may liven up each page a little.

I think this is a great project for students. I really like assigning the roles of dietician, doctor, and trainer. I think it engages them in the topic, lets them have some ownership rather than telling them about obesity and fitness plans. I think they will learn a lot more this way and it may spark more personal interest in the topic or possible careers in this field. I also like that they present to the class, this way classmates can learn from each other, rather than the teacher talking at the class.

Cyberbully Reflection

Cyberbullying is using the internet (social network sites, chatrooms, email, etc.) and cell phones to deliberately harass someone. In addition, creating a false identification to manipulate someone is a form of harassment unique to cyberbullying.

The only time I can remember ever being involved with something similar to cyberbullying is in middle school. I participated in a terrible, yet completely typical drama among middle school girls. By the end of 8th grade my best friend and I had developed somewhat of a rivalry with another girl we had been friends with in the past. I don’t remember how it started, but my friend and I filled out an online survey about this girl with pretty rude comments. Next thing I knew we were in the counselor’s office discussing this email and have never been friends since.

Schools must always consider if their punishment for cyberbullying fits the “Tinker” standard. The Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District ruling states that schools cannot restrict student speech unless it is disruptive to school activities. On the other hand, there are laws that state that the school must act if they see a student being harassed on school property in order to create a safe school environment. Schools must find the balance between these standards while attempting to create a safe school environment where all children are able to learn without worrying about their safety.

Some of the court rulings were a little frustrating. Especially the one about the student creating a parody about the principle and the court ruled that it was unlawful for the school to suspend the student because it was created on the student’s personal computer at home. In my opinion, this was incredibly disruptive to the learning environment of the school and is considered a school issue.

I think that many times it will be obvious when a student is being cyberbullied. They may become quieter in class or less social; their grades may suffer as well. I also think that it is easy to sense tension between groups at school and this will be accentuated as a result of cyberbullying.

It is almost inevitable that cyberbullying will affect the classroom. Therefore, I feel the school should be able to regulate what goes on off school campus when it affects its students while they are on campus. The school can at least hold meetings with the students and a counselor, get their parents involved, and incorporate cyberbullying into their school policies. The school must bring this issue out in the open, discuss it, and make it clear that it will not be tolerated.

I think as a teacher I will try to create a general environment of respect for others and will not tolerate disrespect, harassment, or bullying in my classroom. I also hope to be a teacher that stands in the hallway between classes and deals with issues I see instead of ignoring them. I think it is a good idea to have an initial class discussion about respect in general and include cyberbullying in this discussion. This should be an issue that is continually revisited to remind students of the expectations. If specific issues come up I will speak with the students involved privately and may have a class discussion as well about the topic in general. I would definitely get the parents involved since they are most likely the owners of the computers these kids are using. If it seems to be a school problem I will advocate for school wide awareness raising. Maybe the school counselor can visit each class individually to discuss the issue of cyberbullying.

Copyright Reflection

Before this class I don’t think I ever really thought about copyright laws. The one thing that really surprised me was the discussion on showing movies or videos to a class. I never would have second guessed a teacher’s right to show an entire movie in class. The impression I got from our discussion and the readings is that a teacher can show a movie in class mostly because the nature of the use is educational.

I think that most of the copyright laws are fair. I guess it depends on who you are. If I created something I would definitely agree with the copyright laws and maybe want them to be stricter. However, as a student and a future student they seem a little ridiculous. I do think they are important because the creators do deserve credit for their work. There seems to be a good balance with the fair use laws in allowing people to build off of other works or ideas.

I will definitely pay attention to the amount of pages I copy or how many copies I distribute of a particular article to my students. Like Micaela suggested, I may even call the publisher and ask permission if I am not sure. Hopefully, I would not be the kind of teacher that uses the same things each year. I think I would get bored with that and the readings suggest avoiding using the same work for many years.

Just as I will inform my students about plagiarism, I will also teach them the basics of copyright and fair use laws. I think that if I, a Master’s student, had no idea about a lot of these laws then my middle school and high school students definitely won’t know. It is also a good way to teach them about respecting the property of others and valuing the time and effort put into each creation.

Twitter Seen as Tool for Social Change

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106963768

I thought this story was interesting and somewhat related to our class

My new kitties

Here are my two new cats. We adopted them last weekend. Marvel (like the comic book) is on the top and he is 3 months old. He is a lot smaller than he looks in the picture. Benjamin (bottom) and he is 5 months old. I love black cats! His eyes look weird in the picture because of the flash, but he has beautiful brown eyes!

Wikipedia Reflection

It usually depends on how much I know about my topic as to whether I will use Wikipedia or not. If I know absolutely nothing about it, I might start with Wikipedia and write down some important ideas, names, theories, etc. I will then go to google or search journal articles on the university’s website for those specific things. In high school I heavily used Wikipedia. Many of my teachers allowed us to use it as a source, but we had to have a number of other sources as well. I definitely relied on it too much for my research, but I learned quickly that that didn’t fly in college.

As a teacher, I don’t think I would allow my students to quote from Wikipedia. I would allow them to use it in a similar way that I do. We may go to the computer lab and structure our time. The first fifteen minutes could be spent writing, by hand, important ideas from the Wikipedia page concerning their topic. This would allow them to get a good start on their research and help them know what to look for in the first place. After that they would only be allowed to use what they wrote down in order to search on google or the school’s online collection of journal articles.

This article seemed to cover both sides fairly. I think it encourages the use of Wikipedia in the way it was meant to be used: as an encyclopedia. The article states that no encyclopedia is meant to “be used as a sole and final authoritative source” anyway (Johnson, p. 2). It also points out the Wikipedia has warnings on the pages that may contain bias or disputable facts. The article explains that one important difference between Wikipedia and a normal encyclopedia is that Wikipedia covers a much broader array of topics. This can be useful to students when they have a rare or very specific topic and do not know where to start their research.

Johnson also points out some key questions students should ask when evaluating the credibility of any website. Not only do we need to worry about Wikipedia, but the internet in general. I would definitely make sure my students learned how to do this before they begin any research project. I would also require that they use a minimum number of book resources. I think it is important for them to build this skill as well. Books provide in depth knowledge that most websites cannot and students need to know how to find this knowledge.

Teachers & Social Networking

I have a pretty common name, so I didn’t expect many results when I put my name in Google. When I first did a google search of my name I was shocked that my husband’s and my travel blog (http://dandkmexico.blogspot.com) was the second result. I told him about it and he kindly asked if I was signed into our gmail account at the time because that would probably make a difference. So I signed out and searched again and our blog came up as the 45th result. I then google searched my “handle” which is just my email address and the 8th result was my MySpace, which I have been meaning to delete for about a year. My Pipl search of both my name and handle came up with nothing, which was a little relieving.

There isn’t really anything scandalous about me on the internet. I wouldn’t really care if someone found our blog and read it. There may be some things I said that people would disagree with or I might be a little embarrassed about some venting I did on the blog, but there isn’t anything that could get me into trouble with my teaching job. I do want to delete my MySpace just because I don’t ever use it and it is really outdated.

The whole free speech issue is interesting and complex. Teachers have such a unique role in their communities. Most of the stories I read in the article seemed pretty unfair, but then again, when someone posts something online they should realize that it is no longer private. For example, the teacher in Maryland who complained about the parents on her MySpace has the right to free speech. On the other hand, if she chooses to be friends with her students instead of setting her page to private, she has then chosen to let her students into her private life and needs to be careful about what she posts online.

The story of the art teacher being fired because of nude pictures seemed completely unfair to me. Unlike the Maryland teacher, these pictures were not posted on her MySpace where she was friends with her students, but rather, this was professional artwork on her partner’s website. She is an art teacher and they hired her because of her artistic abilities. They should not then punish her for actually being an artist in her private life.

I am not an obsessive blogger and I occasionally use Facebook. It will not be hard for me to simply set my Facebook to private in order to protect myself and my job. I want to be the type of teacher that is a mentor to my students and go to their games, plays, etc. However, I think it is a bad idea to be “friends” with your students online. There needs to be a line somewhere and you are just asking for trouble if you don’t draw a line. I do like the idea of creating pages for clubs and events, but that does not require allowing students to look at your personal facebook page.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Mr. Harbeck’s blog was great. I thought it was such a great use of a blog to connect with his students. I can see his students keeping his blog as one of their regularly visited sites just to check if there is anything new. They can look around at all the videos, pictures, and other posts whenever they want. How often would a student just go to their binder to look at all their math handouts? My guess is not very often. I loved how he put an encouragement on there to keep them motivated for the remainder of the year. I think that is such a great way to communicate a message like that. Students are much more accustomed to and willing to read short posts of someone’s thoughts accompanied by a picture than they are to listen to an adult lecture them about their lack of motivation. It is also a great way for students to help themselves by looking at the extra help he posted for the test and this may save class time.

Mr. Harbeck’s blog made me realize that teachers can use a blog for any subject. As a Spanish teacher I could have my students create a travel blog. They could choose a country and research the popular tourist attractions. They would then write, in Spanish, about their experiences in that country based on their research as if they were really traveling. They could post pictures and videos and if they wanted to get creative, could even photoshop themselves into pictures to make it even more realistic. Like Mr. Harbeck, I could post homework, practice exercises, vocabulary lists, extra help, study guides, and fun activities on the blog for constant student access. I could even post videos of native Spanish speakers paired with questions to check for comprehension. There seems to be endless possibilities.
I thought the “Don’t Feed the Trolls” article made good points. Just like any other new assignment, student online discourse needs clear guidelines. A lot of these suggestions sounded very familiar to what we have been taught to do in the classroom: role play rules, involve students in the creation of the guidelines, and model the rules for students. The only difference is that this is all being done online. I really liked the idea of students being able to give each other feedback. It is a form of immediate peer-review. Just as utilizing civil in-class discussions is important, so is online discourse essential for this generation of students.

Mark Prensky Articles

At first I felt I was somewhere in between digital native and immigrant. I think I may just be an immigrant that has lived in the “country” for a long time and is pretty well adjusted. I was in elementary school when we regularly went to the computer lab to practice typing and play the infamous Oregon Trail game. I remember getting AOL and chatting online for the first time when I was in 4th grade. I do pretty well with technology, but when something goes wrong I don’t have the depth of knowledge to be able to fix it.

I feel I have fallen behind in the last four years. I think the reason may be because I have been a poor college student for the last four years and haven’t been able to buy the newest laptop or cell phone. I think my digital immigrant tendencies are more dominating because my first reaction to new technologies is usually negative. It took a long time for me to start texting because I thought the whole idea was silly; “why can’t I just call them?” For some reason, I think I am always resistant to new “fads” in general and, nowadays, most are technology related.
In high school, technology in the classroom was limited. Every classroom had an overhead projector and most teachers had a computer in their room, but that was about it. In college it depended on what classroom I was in. There were old parts of the campus and the modern buildings. Some rooms were referred to as “smart rooms”. These rooms had a “doc-viewer” and were able to project documents from a thumb drive. It definitely made presentations easier, but sometimes that meant sitting through a lot of boring power point presentations.

There were a lot of things that bothered me about this article, but it also taught me some things and opened my mind to using technology in the classroom. It does make sense to use a medium to teach that students already use every day and Prensky is right when he says that we are not engaging students. The articles inspired me to think of ways I could use technology to teach Spanish. I would love to do some kind of internet “penpal” with students in a Spanish speaking country. I am sure something like that already exists on the web, but if not, there is always Skype. I also use an online dictionary (it is a website posted on my blog) that is incredibly useful. On this website you can post questions about difficult translations or phrases and professional interpreters answer your questions. However, I have to do my best to ensure that my students never use an internet site to completely translate a paper, paragraph, or even a sentence for them. That is no way to learn Spanish.

There were also things Prensky said that I strongly disagree with. I think my agitation is escalated by the fact that he is the CEO of a game-based learning company and is obviously motivated by sales for his company. His whole basis is that kids’ brains are “developed through game and Web-surfing processes on the computer” and we should therefore adjust the way in which we teach these students (Part II, p. 3). Hold on a second; is the fact that our kids are growing up on TV and video games something that we are supposed to just accept and adjust to? That makes me incredibly uncomfortable. I think a lot of neurologists and social psychologists would argue that the brain needs more than these stimulants to develop the critical thinking and social skills essential to a successful life.

Then Prensky really offended me in “Engage Me or Engrage Me”. He compares the engagement students receive from “musicians, movie makers, their TV stars, [and] their game designers” to students back in the 60’s who “never even knew what real engagement feels like” (Engage Me or Enrage Me, p. 1). I think students in the 60’s felt quite engaged when they went on a hike, climbed to the top of a mountain, fought for something they believed in, or played their favorite sport. You will never convince me that watching Paris Hilton completely demean herself as well as every other female or a ten year old boy sitting in his room playing video games by himself for 8 hours on Saturday is “real” engagement while those other things from the “past” are not.
Mark Prensky lost almost all legitimacy with me through comments like these. Nevertheless, I will not throw the baby out with the bath water; I still think that incorporating technology in the classroom is very important in reaching students today. Whether I like it or not, the fact is that students are spending “over 20,000 hours watching TV…and 5,000 hours of book reading” before they graduate from college (Part II, p. 1).

My Favorite Animal

My favorite animal is a cat. That sounds lame, but i love cats and I'm going to get a kitten (maybe 2) very soon! I will have a picture of my new cat when I get it, but for now I only have a picture of the cat I want.

My First Blog!

Hi! My name is Katie and this is my blog. I am in the MAT program at Concordia and I am going to teach High School Spanish! Yeay!