Sample videos

In the context of Alex Reid's essay on podcasts, here are some videos I'd like to discuss:

• Kevin Lee's "Video Essays as Teaching Tools."
• Alex Juhasz, "Final Video" and Sample student video list.
• Bill Wolff's class: "Canceling Class is Awesome!" and his assignment that students reflect on what YouTube means to them. Their answers in class discussion and in video format.
  

PowerPoint Is Evil

“PowerPoint Is Evil” by Edward Tufte is an opinionated article about why he thinks that PowerPoint is not a preferred mode of displaying and presenting important information. While the concept of displaying a presentation using slides and bullets is not unique, the ease and availability of PowerPoint has created an over-use of the product. Tufte says that it encourages the user to present as little information about the topic as necessary. Tufte believes that this takes away from the whole concept of the topic and important points that may not be able to fit in the slides. He feels that a PowerPoint presentation should not be the final product. Rather, it should be an accessory to the final product. He also discusses how it is being over-used in schools. While students are using this medium for creating their work, they should be writing more substantial pieces not on PowerPoint. This, he believes, takes away from what they should be learning and practicing. I agree that it should be used in moderation.

Tuning In

Students and iTunes University was basically discovered by students who wanted to record lessons. "Coursecasting" allowed students to share information about lectures, web sites, and databases. This allows the students and faculty to communicate, which I think is a good idea. Students and faculty can upload and download information easily. Students using technology such as blogs and wikis to communicate is a great addition to a students learning. However, I don't think it should be used by itself. I think that students need various ways to write, whether it is through technology or not. Students only get better when they practice. The more they practice writing, the better they get. Exposing them to different ways of communication is the best way.

Digital Divide

In this article, The Myth about the Digital Divide…”, Hawkins and Oblinger discuss the meaning of the term Digital Divide. First, they explain that there is still a divide even though the gap is gradually shrinking. The reason that the divide still exist is the fact that the divide can mean a number of things. While students may have a computer, it may not be a new model and therefore lacks special features that new systems have. Students who may have a fully loaded computer may not understand how to use all of the features. Still, some may be savvy with using certain Online tools, but may be inefficient in other areas. Still while the system may contain all of the features, the student may not have access to the Internet. Again, even with all of the capabilities, the student may not have the access to sources that can provide tutorials or coaching when they run into a problem with their system or how to utilize functions and tools that they may not understand. In the study titled, "Second-Level Digital Divide… ", Eszter Hargittai, discusses pretty much what Hawkins and Oblinger mention. She concludes that the digital divide goes beyond the ownership of a computer and even the access to Online features . She explains that ability to efficiently and skillfully use the Internet is another type of digital divide which age does play a role in. She explains that younger users from the teens through the twenties are more savvy users. Still slower users, with practice and time, have room for improvement.

Tuning In

In the article “Tuning In” , Alex Reid discusses the wide range of iPod and mp3 media player use. Educators are aware of the popularity of these technologies among the youth. So, their goal is to merge this interest with the academic world. Professors are using iPods to broadcast assignments and to communicate with student. They then use this medium to blog and twitter. This method is also being used in the workplace to communicate with employees as well. It seems to me that everyone is trying to get someone’s attention in order to get them to do what they should already be doing without the aid of incentives.

PowerPoint is Evil

I really enjoyed this article about PowerPoint being evil. It does seem like a bad prescription drug that seems to have way to many side effects. I don't see why people think it is such a big deal to do a PowerPoint presentation. I think that it's ok in the business arena, or when you are trying to sell something. However, in the school setting, I'm not sure it is real effective. Students need to be able to do research and write papers. In the article by Edward Tufts I agree that the PowerPoint presentation in school minimizes the reading and effort students need to put into their work. Learning how to write and do research for a report should be more important than a PowerPoint presentation. However, I think it is good to know how to do a PowerPoint presentation, but I still think the old fashioned way of doing a presentation is better! I think it requires less work than if you actually sat down and wrote a paper. Students today, are always looking for a short cuts to keep from doing work. When students do PowerPoint presentations, there doesn't seem to be a lot of work put into the presentations. In other words it seems to be more about using the technology than the quality of work itself.

"Powerpoint is Evil"

Wow! Tufte was really reaching when he entitled his article, "Powerpoint is Evil." His assertions are based entirely on opinion and are purely subjective. I attended a leadership conference on this past weekend and found the use of powerpoint extremely effective an engaging. To write off the entire tool as evil is rather silly and immature. The users have more to do with a single presentations effectiveness rather than the tool itself. Tufte goes on to say, "Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. Elementary school PowerPoint exercises (as seen in teacher guides and in student work posted on the Internet) typically consist of 10 to 20 words and a piece of clip art on each slide in a presentation of three to six slides -a total of perhaps 80 words (15 seconds of silent reading) for a week of work. Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days and everyone went to the Exploratorium or wrote an illustrated essay explaining something." I disagree with this overarching generalization and believe that powerpoint has been an effective tool in the use of summarizing, interpreting and evaluating literature. Students must select pertinent information to place on slides which uses higher order thinking skills. I totally disagree with Tufte's opinion and am curious as to the "real" reason he believes that powerpoint is evil!

"Tuning In"

Mr. Reid states in his closing arguments that "the challenges that result are not only technical or institutional but they are intellectual and disciplinary as well as we are forced to consider how our disciplinary paradigms have been shaped by the technological conditions of a print culture, conditions that are quickly fading away." I agree with his assertion because as an educator I find it rather daunting to incorporate technology with pedagogy in such a way that both are enhanced and better together than seperate. In addition, Reid says, "Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this ongoing innovation is faculty development. As it turns out, learning the technical matters of networked media composition proves to be only a minor challenge in comparison to reshaping one's pedagogic practice. From this perspective we have only begun to experiment with the implications of working in a media network that cuts across our courses." This will be the goal of teacher education programs as they prepare educators for the 21st century learner.

Wednesday's Readings

Sorry for posting some of these so late:

• Alex Reid, "Tuning In."
• Edward Tufte, "PowerPoint is Evil."
• Related, not required: "PowerPoint Anthology of Literature."
• Ester Hargittai, "Second Level Digital Divide."
• Hawkins and Oblinger, "Digital Divide."
  

The Rhetoric of Technology

In summary, I believe that Hawisher and Selfe's article focuses on the use of technology in the classroom. I get the impression that they do not believe that many opinions of educators who use technology in the classroom are credible. These teachers are advid users of technology in the classroom. Therefore, what they have to say about it is positive. Hawisher and Selfe build this doubt off of two observations. First, the teachers are bias and leave no room for expressing counterarguments. And, through observing classrooms, they have discovered that the results are not always positive. I believe that if you support something, you're only going to focus on the good because your goal is to "sell" the idea. In this case you can't believe everything you hear because the opinion is not well-rounded.

"New Media Literacy"

This article primarily deals with the possibility of erroneous information being masqueraded as truth via media outlets. With the rise of blogs and other web-based news sites the probability of these incidences rises drastically. I think the author made valid suggestions at the end of the aticle when he says to be skeptical of everything but not overly skeptical. When receiving news from the Internet it is imperative to check sources and verify the validity of the information.

"Old Growth Media and the Future of News"

The author of this article is optimistic about the rapidly evolving landscape that is technology. He believes that these changes have created a necessary flow of information in an expedient manner. This allows for the expansion of unpeeded knowledge to those who desire it. I for one am not one of "those" and find reading the newsapaer or watching the news adequate to disseminate information that is pertinent to my life. I felt like the article was too wordy and failed to capture my attention.

New Media Literacies

This article, “ Principles of a New Media Literacy” by Marko Ahtisaari, (or is it Dan Gillmor?), focuses on how various forms of media, whether contemporary or traditional, can not be trusted. While some news contributors may have good intentions, they way the story comes across may not represent the whole truth. In other cases, the news contributor may purposely ill inform the public by “putting a spin” on the story. This practice was overtly used against now President Barak Obama during the course of his run for the presidency. I was surprised, but should not have been, to hear that politicians and businesses such as Wal-Mart have paid people to create favorable blogs on their behalf. This turns a testimony into a lie. The use of technology has generated a host of new contributors to the media. While Ahtisaari/Gillmor sees traditional media sources as being watch dogs for each other, he sees this open criticism used more readily over the Internet. I believe that this is due in part to the anonymity these Internet reporters can hide behind. Maybe this obscurity encourages more honesty. In this case maybe the Internet can actually be more trustworthy than the big media stations. Who knows? In summary, believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear. Ahtisaari/Gillmor seems to end his article with tips to go by when deciphering what you should believe and not believe from any media source. What I got out of the article, “Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies” by Howard Rheingold besides the fact that he likes southwestern colors is the fact that Online communities did not create a group of people who love to socialize and help other people for nonprofit, but it is in fact, the other way around. Basically people how like to socialize and help other people created these Online communities. The article, “Old Growth Media And The Future Of News” by Steven Berlin Johnson must have been the short article you were talking about. Because of its brevity, I was rather confused on where the article actually stopped and someone elses blog began. All I got out of this was the fact that Johnson couldn’t wait to get the next copy of MacWorld. …..Well, I guess this turned out to not be the short article. Johnson still talks about the evolution of Online news seekers began with the computer junkies who loved to get the latest technology news from magazines. Now they get it quicker from the Internet. And they’re not the only ones using this technology. In fact, many people who would have been less likely to interact and share the same interests in the past tend to now cross paths frequently while browsing through the same Internet sites.

New Media Literacies

Feel free to ignore the statement in the syllabus that you have Teaching Carnival posts due. I'll handle that on my one, although I will explain Teaching Carnival and invite you to participate. Here are the readings for Wednesday that aren't in the textbook (including one relatively short article not listed in the syllabus):

• Dan Gillmor, "Principles for a New Media Literacy."
• Howard Rheingold, "Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies."
• Steven Berlin Johnson "Old Growth Media and the Future of News."
  

Dr.Tryon on Twitter and the tool that cries back

In response to your contribution on Twitter, Dr. Tryon, one thing I have to say is well-written! No offense, but could you have tweeted that? LOL:) :) :)

In response to the new technology that monitors typing speed and characters, I have to say that students and teachers would find this tool exciting but for only a short while. Eventually it would get on everybody's nerves!!!:)

Tweets on Twittering,

Going back into a previously discussed assignment on Twittering, I focused on the article “Twitter for Academia” by Dave Parry. First of all, I enjoyed reading his work. I liked the fact that I could relate to his encounter to Twitter. He did so with hesitation especially when it came to applying it to his classroom. Once he made the decision to use this technology, he did find several benefits for its use. It fostered inside and outside classroom discussions that eventually encouraged blogging on these ideas. Twittering allowed the students to get to know each other better; it also allowed Parry to get to know his students better. The fact that twitter is global makes it interesting to students. They get to see what people all over the world are up to. The interesting fact that Parry pointed out is how you may find blogs in a variety of languages. That’s so cool! I never really thought of that. Twittering allows you to track words and events; it provides instant feedback. You can find out about topics that interest you in your profession or a profession that you are interested in. What would be attractive to students that I teach on the middle school level is the fact that they can tweet a celebrity!!!!!!! How cool is that???? What may be interesting to a teacher is Parry’s point on how Twitter is “good for teaching grammar.” As the article mentioned, twittering allows for “teachable moments.” It also allows teachers to teach grammar in reverse. While students have a limited amount of space to convey their thoughts, they must be mindful of each type of punctuation that they use due to the fact that the 140 character maximum can often lead to “ambiguous” messages. Still, Twitter allows students to brainstorm and share ideas. It can also make writing assignments, such as round-robin, fun!:) I recommend that teachers read this article because it is successful in encouraging teachers to incorporate this type of technology into the classroom.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

I found this article to be intriguing because it sought to explain the Internet's effect on this generations ability to access, analyze, utilize and interpret information. This is important to understand, especially for educators, because it could possibly change the way we teach and hold students accountable for their learning. The testimonies from "intellects" that suggest that their ability to read and comprehend significant amounts of information have been dulled due to skimming and scanning of Internet sites is troubling. From my own experiences as a Reading teacher, students can't read and comprehend longer works of literature and this has frustrated me. I remember reading and sometimes re-reading books like Jane Eyre and The Scarlet Letter, enjoying every moment as if I were there myself. Nowadays my students struggle through short stories like Langston Hughes' "Thank You, M'am." This article suggests that it may be a result of my students use of the Internet. If this is true, if our brains are being re-wired because technology, then educators need to find a way of disseminating information in chunks that can be analyzed, interpreted and applied. This is the goal of longer readings anyway.

Write or Die

I came across Write or Die, a little online toy that forces you to write quickly this week in my Twitter feeds. Basically, you set a word length and a time length and you have to keep pace or the computer will make awful noises, such as the sound of multiple babies crying. The screen also goes red, calling attention to your speed. Obviously not for all students, but might be interesting to use in an in-class exercise.

Twitter Talk

In case you're interested, an expanded version of my recent blog post defending Twitter ended up being published on Alternet. I've been amused by most of the comments so far, which tend to allege that I'm either "pro-corporatist" or being paid by Twitter.

Anyway, just thought you might be interested.

Google/Library Research

I really did not find the article, “In Google We Trust”, to be interesting, but instead informative. It was research based and scientific. Basically a study was created using eye monitoring devices to determine how students utilize Google and rely on its service as one would definitions in a dictionary…meaning to say that the first one is the most commonly used and is therefore a more reliable source. This conclusion is based on Bing Pan’s article, “In Google We Trust”. In addition to this, Nicholas Carr, in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, further discusses Google’s goal of equipping people with the ability to be their own search engine somehow literally connected with Google.
This is indeed a frightening thought. Once I asked in class whether or not this new language and emergence of instance messaging technology could physically change a person’s brain networks. This article seems to be answering my question in the affirmative. I found it rather daunting and unbelievable how so many people professed how constant engagement in technology (i.e. on-line reading) has disallowed them to think and process long works of literature. Someone who actually was a literature major confessed to no longer being able to sit down and read a book in its entirety. Their brains just don’t work like they used to do while they would read. The unsettling part is learning that one of Google’s goals is to implant some type of device that will enable its users to download information directly in their brains. As the article indicates, this type of technology will make us stupid. If this article has any- merit to it and can be backed up by credible research, then it’s no wonder why our students have such a hard time reading passages on the End of Grade Test. They want technologically advanced schools, but at the same time they may very well be producing less sophisticated humans. The brain is already its own intricate CPU. I say don’t mess with what God already created; you might end up with something that you wish you’d never had.
The article, “It Wasn’t Me Was It?”, by DeVoss and Rosati focused on the issue of plagiarism. It was rather lengthy and boring. However, it discussed the fact that plagiarism should be taught to students in two different ways. First, students need to understand why it’s wrong and how it’s wrong. Not only do they need to understand that it is not honest, but they also need to know when they are being dishonest. The article mentions how one professor was confronted by a line of students, most of which were perfectly innocent, did not know for sure whether or not they were guilty of plagiarism. That brought up the fact that students have to be taught how to properly research and site sources. They have to be taught the difference. The article also recognized how the use of plagiarism can be used as a teachable moment. Tips on how to best address this topic are provided and on-line research is also encouraged. Michelle Sidler’s article “Web Research and Genres I Online Databases…” also encourages the use of the Internet as a primary research tool. While this tool is efficient and accessible, she explains how it does come with its costs. Before students can use this tool, they have to be fully aware of and abreast to the academics of on-line researching tools from the Web address to the Web page itself. Students have to be familiar with what was described as Web language or terminology as well as what to keep and what not to keep. This text was informative more than interesting. I guess I feel this way because it was an article to be more as a source for on-line researching than for entertainment.

Teachers and Facebook

I thought that it was interesting how we have just been discussing the issue of privacy with teachers and these on-line “social networks” such as Facebook, and here it is discussed in the newspaper. I am not one who is so fascinated about the past that I have to “investigate” what everyone I once knew is up to. I also do not have a desire to publicize my post high school or collegiate history to everyone from my past nor to those in my present life. Therefore, participating in on-line socializing is not for me. I like the real thing anyway. If I can’t talk to you and hear your voice, words on a screen are just not that real to me. I’d rather communicate face-to-face versus picture-to-picture. Still, it is rather unfortunate for those teachers who do find entertainment in socializing this way that they have to be judged under a different microscope than almost any other professional would be. I guess you can compare it to someone who joins the military and ends up going to war—You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for the job. So I guess we can stop complaining about being treated on a double standard. On one hand, we want that same respect that teachers of the past once received. On the other hand, we want to have the same rights to display our past times as freely as anyone else does. But, we can’t have it both ways. With on-line social networks, there is no privacy. We are publically displayed even if we don’t create it ourselves as we see the case for Mr. Lopes and his mysteriously created Facebook account. This is what has me worried: What if someone creates an account under my name and then displays unmentionables on my behalf, therefore potentially getting me fired for no fault of my own.

See You After Class/Is Google Making Us Stupid?

When I saw the article about teacher's on Facebook I had to blog about it! This is the very reason why I don't have a Facebook account. Teachers really have to be careful with the information they put out there about themselves. One of the teachers in the article equates herself to being like a local celebrity, which means you have to be on your best behavior at all times. If you are on Facebook you have to be careful with the information and pictures you decide to post because it can cause problems on the job. One of the parents also stated that if teachers do have a Facebook account, that's fine. However, if teachers are out partying that's ok as well, but it should not be public. Teachers are looked upon differently in today's society, because we are considered role models. Its like we are always on stage and being watched, by students and parents. Teachers have to be extremely careful in our personal lives, and make sure it does not effect our teaching. Teaching is what I do, not who I am!
The article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" was very interesting because I do think that the Internet is a handicap in some ways. People don't even read books anymore. They read blogs and short articles to gather information. It appears to be a whole lot easier to Google something than to go to the library and do research. In some ways, the Internet has made us lazy. Students have become so dependent on the Internet that they do not know how to do research. Its not just students either it is adults. According to the article some people don't even want to read a long blog or read a long article. They actually just skim the blog or article. It appears that Googling is better and does not require a lot of work for most people. The Internet is a good tool to do research, but it should not be the only resource students use. I think it should be an addition to research!

Teachers on Facebook

Thought y'all might be interested in this Fayetteville Observer article on teachers and Facebook in Sunday's paper. See you in class on Wednesday.