“Stud”

How many people simply buy a car just to get them from point A to point B? Vehicle shoppers associate perceptions with every vehicle they buy. Trucks encompass this bias more than a car or a SUV.  The trucks range from a small around town truck to a larger truck with pulling power that is meant to haul things. The more hauling ability means the more manly the man who drives it right? Hauling ability naturally associates with the driver’s physical ability, regardless of whether their truck actually does any hauling. All people that drive trucks are very masculine that are successful with women. A masculine man would never appear getting out of a hybrid. This type of association does not connect with people with strength.  Associations are also based upon where the truck company is made (or rather was founded). A Chevrolet, Ford, or Dodge trucks are labeled with having an American man as a driver. Where as a Toyota truck driver is looked at as supporting America’s competition.

When I drive my boyfriends Chevy lifted four wheel drive truck, which makes me just as tall as most semi drivers, I acquire a sort of a ruler of the road persona. I know that I am seen and people usually do not act the same way towards me as a driver as when I am in my small Toyota Camry. There is a sort of intimidation that comes with the higher bigger truck that can’t be found in a small vehicle.

The wonder of a child’s brain

As kids we are always asking our parents why. The young brain wants to explore and learn all. How and when does this end and we simply accept the definition instead of asking the endless why question. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that Postman states that “one in one hundred students has ever been exposed to the art and science of question-asking.” I understood the difference between have and do. But is this not another childhood lesson we learn by just being around people using them properly. Why should this be taught? But in fact it is not how we learn but how we associate it with the world around us.

                It is interesting to think that it is because of this that each language differs. Now it makes sense that different words in different languages can’t be translated. True, it is easy to see this difference when comparing different languages. But what about trying to find new definitions for your own language? Some kids do this when their young as well, often creating a made up language only known between them and their closest friends. What is it that we lose when we grow up? Has education really assimilated all our brains into one mold? Like the article states can you think of a cup as more than a cup? Is it really language or education that has limited our brains? As a teacher how can we correct or prevent this?

The link below offers words that can’t be translated into English? See if predetermined words come to your head. Ask yourself why? Can you define the picture without this word?

http://listverse.com/2010/09/23/10-words-that-cant-be-translated-to-english/

YouTube in the classroom?

Being a student in an online class makes me a little more familiar to multimedia publishing. However, in my class the podcasts are designed with just the classmates in mind. I can barely grasp the idea of learning a subject on line let alone direct a subject to a whole unknown mass of people. But I am still able to imagine the endless possibilities associated with the subject.

One example that comes to mind is to gear the technology to the students’ preferences. Use what the students already like to. The endless visits to YouTube only prove my point that students rather enjoy podcasts. This continues in their preference for music, making Audacity a great tool for in the classroom and at home amusement. But not only does Audacity allow a better personal way to enjoy music but it allows any thing it touches to become automatically more interesting.

Making learning more interesting seems to be a high priority in the classroom. However, to make learning more interactive is a better way to describe the classrooms of today. So why not use interactive technology to make this happen? It is already happening outside of the classroom from e-books to how to videos on YouTube. Teachers just have to use the tools that their students are already exposed to.

The link provided talks about subscribing to a podcast can allow the reader to be away from the computer. This is an excellent tool in a classroom as often the computers are limited to the amount of students that need one. The article also explains the mere advantage of listening to a human voice. Whether that is listening to or putting your voice out there gives power. Another benefit of pod casting is that it is free or a least inexpensive.

http://www.wtvi.com/teks/05_06_articles/interactive-podcasting.html

RSS what?

I was initially confused, and turned off, by the language of the rss. However, once I understood exactly what it meant and I went through the motions, I laughed at how scared I had been. I remembered that often names and titles can scare a person off more than the event or subject its self. I feel like this should be remained something like “Think smarter not harder.” Because this is exaclty what it does. It allows me to basically have a briefcase of all beneficial ideas, thoughts, sources at a click of a mouse. This reminded me of the social bookmarking tool but a little more fast paced, as the information was sent to you instead of you clicking the link to go to it. I find this beneficial to allow me to follow slow or fast bloggers, maybe they don’t blog every week or month but when they do I want to know. Well know I can easily.

The word easy connects so well to this form of technology. Easy for having personal new recipes sent to you. Easy to have the latest teaching information sent to you. The way the world of teaching and the world itself is, by the time it gets printed it is out of date. These tool allows readers to skip the waiting step and find the information now. It allows them to know whats fresh. So why not allow students to enjoy this media. This is can be important when learning or trying to interpret about current events. A current events paper can become so much more with a live feed about the information at your fingertips.

Smart Classroom

I have not been exposed to interactive whiteboards, so it is hard for me to grasp the concept that the articles are talking about. However, I do agree that if new technology is present it should be used to its full extent, or at least used more in depth than the technology preceding it. It seems easy to say that teachers should learn the new technology when I am referring to someone else. When I think about myself in the situation, learning concepts that I cannot even grasp right now, terrifies me. This concept also terrifies me that I will not only be able to understand the concept but I will have to know it well enough to incorporate my teaching with it.

However, the concept of having a board for the whole class seems exciting and seems like something I desperately need to learn. But I feel the concept of this classroom of working with the technology to better understand it applies here as well. I hope my future school has taken the technological leap to include white boards so that I may take the step to understand and explore it.

Hunger Games

I was instantly drawn to The Hunger Games because everyone I know has said nothing but good things. I was so excited to get a chance to read it that I started reading it, I think, the same day I bought it and couldn’t put it down. It may have been that I understood the connection that Katniss had with nature. To me, nature is a place to get away from the world and it gives me a chance to understand myself. I felt this in her connection but more so as her life depended on her experience with nature. I had foreseen and dreaded the Hunger Games as much as she did. I thought Katniss and Gale were going to both be called and this would tear their relationship apart. But I was wrong, thankfully so.

Through the rest of the novel I wanted to be Katniss. I wanted to be the girl that protected her sister. I think this ability is what I want my students to feel. I want them to be so attached they find themselves in a character or are able to live outside themselves for just a minute. To learn and to be thankful for the society they live in.

Another aspect that caught me off guard was the fact that the government used technology to kill their own people by altering the dead players. Not only did they die because of their culture but they had to suffer further for entertainment. I understand the connection with this book and technology but I would like to look deeper at the role culture and entertainment can have on a society, our society. I think exploring these concepts in a high school as well as using the Digital Literacy Project could illustrate to students to take a step back and understand that entertainment can hold significant power over them if they aren’t careful.

The American Experiment

Almost immediately after starting this article I was on the author’s side of the argument. “All children can learn.” I’m sorry but this statement deserves everything including knives thrown at it. It’s true that all children can learn. This statement is constantly proved through television and the simple fact that children have the ability to mimic. It does not seem a vital statement to me, it simply needs more.

Furthermore, the articles states that “all children can learn” to love their country. I believe that children should not learn but rather love and appreciate their country through self-discovery. It brings me back to Little Brother and the concept that Marcus pushed himself to love and understand his country; it wasn’t someone teaching him to appreciate it.

I am not fighting against patriotism or saying that the only way for children to acquire their own patriotism is through a war crisis. I am, however, saying that the appreciation of one’s own country carries a deeper meaning if children learn to look inside. It is important for schools to teach how the government runs but it should not demand appreciation of it.

Little Brother

This book was a hard start for me to read. Either by its rather boring and simple cover or because of the denseness of the technology lingo I was initially turned off.  However, the more I got invested the more I saw the benefits of this book in the classroom. The benefit of fighting for what you believe in is a beneficial tool for any student at any age to learn. I picked this picture to illustrate the many times that this country had to fight for what they believed in. This book spoke of several other instances where citizens fought for the right to be an American. Starting with hippies the book illustrated how an organization fought for what they believed in. Furthermore, the book demonstrated that these groups not only had the ability but the right to fight for their rights.  The Constitution is often regarded as merely words, but this book shows the power and importance of the doctrine. As well as highlighting the importance of understanding it. It is because of this doctrine that Marcus was able to fight for his country. Little Brother highlights the importance of not only diving into a text but also for understanding and fighting for your rights.

Wiki

The dreaded word in most classrooms and on most works cited pages is usually the first stop for fast information. If I want to know new Disney pages or my roommate needs to know how to pick a lock we head straight to Wikipedia. Sometimes when starting to gather information for a paper that I’m clueless about I go to Wikipedia to get a rough idea about the subject I am about to research. I am terrified about approaching Wikipedia from the editor standpoint, because I feel that my knowledge is not worthy of creating or editing information that everyone can see and criticize. Once again, I am preventing myself from accessing the full benefits of the internet because I’m scared. However, using Wiki as a co-creation tool in a classroom excited me. If students learn how a Wikipedia page is created then they should intuitively be prone to the benefits and downfalls of a co-created site. It is interesting how one website can hold both beneficial and dreadful connections to education.

Web 2.0

When I got access to a computer for the first time the most exciting part was America on Line (AOL). There was nothing beyond it for me then. Now I can’t imagine the internet if it didn’t go beyond AOL. I find it odd that I have only been half experiencing this new internet. I have taken for granted the connection that I can have with the internet. Until this blog I have only read and taken in information, instead of putting my own footprint on the World Wide Web. Surprising to myself once I created my blog I was excited that I had my own URL. I felt powerful. This new internet allows kids to not only acquire a sense of authorship but gives them a chance to obtain a sense of pride.