This article was quite similar to the story of 1984 & Big Brother's success in invading privacy through computers! This article reminded me of the April 4th rumor of a serious computer virus/worm hacking into the computers because it focuses on how our privacy over the last decade has decreased with technology. Everyone was frantic because they were afraid someone would hack onto their computer & get vital information. Well, sadly, this could happen any day of the year!
My soon to be in-laws actually had someone decode their credit card number and purchase $300 in sporting items. I didn't even know people like this existed! There are people who try to arrange numbers to access credit cards! Thank goodness the credit companies are aware of this & actually called my in-laws at like 2am to report it!
People really take advantage of technology and it may be scary to see where our privacy with this technology goes in the future. Ever since 9/11 the government has seriously buckled down... I think I heard a while back that there are specialists who radar searches on the internet if people try to google something like "how to build a bomb" or anything of that sort. I can't remember what the policy is called!
In the article, the freshmen were persuaded to give up their private lives in return for a free iphone! Wow, people are greedy! I don't think I would become materialistic for something like that. Thank you, but I like to take my showers alone! Ha, ha.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Evolution of... everything!
I found this video on youtube and I just wanted to share. It's about the evolution of dance and it is absolutely hilarious! Take a look!
This video definitely goes along with the idea that technology is evolving in our world. Our media is also evolving including film, music, and even our hobbies!
This video definitely goes along with the idea that technology is evolving in our world. Our media is also evolving including film, music, and even our hobbies!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Naruto & Persepolis
I recently finished reading Naruto and Persepolis, two graphic novels, that were easy and fast reads, but I enjoy the traditional novel. First of all, reading Naruto backwards was confusing to me for awhile because I kept wanting to read it from bottom to top instead of top to bottom. Wouldn't that make sense? If it's suposed to read backwards, shouldn't it read from the bottom--up? HMM?
I enjoyed Persepolis a lot more because it was in first person narrative and had an interesting plot line. Naruto was just a little too geeky for me to be honest!
In all truth, I didn't really enjoy reading these novels as I thought I would. But hey, at least I can say I gave them a chance! I hope that when I begin teaching I can add these to my book collection for students to choose from if we do something like independent reading. I bet someone would like these & appreciate a change from wordy pages!
I enjoyed Persepolis a lot more because it was in first person narrative and had an interesting plot line. Naruto was just a little too geeky for me to be honest!
In all truth, I didn't really enjoy reading these novels as I thought I would. But hey, at least I can say I gave them a chance! I hope that when I begin teaching I can add these to my book collection for students to choose from if we do something like independent reading. I bet someone would like these & appreciate a change from wordy pages!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter & some random thoughts
Happy Easter!
I just had a very stressful week! I had two big exams, 3 papers to write and one difficult novel to read this week. Talk about busy--I'm so surprised I didn't break out with a cold sore or acne due to all this stress I've endured!
I finally have time to catch up on Heroes. I'm two shows behind, so after this blog I am going to sit back and relax for a change! Tomorrow we don't have Multi-Modal class, so I am going to use that time to begin reading our graphic novels, and some errands that need done such as picking up Sentinel for my dog at the vet.
I wanted to talk a little about Second Life and what I thought of my experience with it in class. First of all, I was totally shocked to find out that this program is used mostly by people in their 30's! When I toured it and tried it out, I felt like it was a program I would enjoy as a kid...The idea of having an avatar and walking around in a chat room seems like a waste of time to me. I'm not sure if I would like to incorporate this type of activity in my classroom because I think people would just goof off--just as a lot of us did when our characters were dancing.
Dr. Kist took us to the computer lab room where elementary students are usually observed as they use technology and I remember him saying something crazy: "This is what your classroom might look like in the future!" And then I looked around only to see laptops on the tables. I am a paper and pencil type of girl, so the thought of moving solely to laptops scares the heck out of me. Don't get me wrong, I DO rely on technology a lot, but the thought of losing the old fashion technique of things doesn't fit my idea of ideal classroom setting. You know what I think a laptop classroom would turn into? Students ignoring the lesson being taught, web surfing, solitare, textmessaging behind the screens, and working on other class work. We've all see it, we've all done it, and if you ask me, I think it is so disrespectful! Even though we aren't trying to be disrespectful, we are so exposed to technology that we can't keep our hands off it. Look how often we check our facebooks, spend hours shopping online, and sending emails. Once a computer is in front of us, this is one of the first things we do as part of our HABITS!!!
I want to walk into my classroom where there are educational habits for the students. I don't want laptops where students will always be checking their emails, browsing facebook, etc. I want students to be conditioned in things such as discussion, journal writing, or simply sitting there quietly waiting for class to start with paper and pencil ready!!
I just had a very stressful week! I had two big exams, 3 papers to write and one difficult novel to read this week. Talk about busy--I'm so surprised I didn't break out with a cold sore or acne due to all this stress I've endured!
I finally have time to catch up on Heroes. I'm two shows behind, so after this blog I am going to sit back and relax for a change! Tomorrow we don't have Multi-Modal class, so I am going to use that time to begin reading our graphic novels, and some errands that need done such as picking up Sentinel for my dog at the vet.
I wanted to talk a little about Second Life and what I thought of my experience with it in class. First of all, I was totally shocked to find out that this program is used mostly by people in their 30's! When I toured it and tried it out, I felt like it was a program I would enjoy as a kid...The idea of having an avatar and walking around in a chat room seems like a waste of time to me. I'm not sure if I would like to incorporate this type of activity in my classroom because I think people would just goof off--just as a lot of us did when our characters were dancing.
Dr. Kist took us to the computer lab room where elementary students are usually observed as they use technology and I remember him saying something crazy: "This is what your classroom might look like in the future!" And then I looked around only to see laptops on the tables. I am a paper and pencil type of girl, so the thought of moving solely to laptops scares the heck out of me. Don't get me wrong, I DO rely on technology a lot, but the thought of losing the old fashion technique of things doesn't fit my idea of ideal classroom setting. You know what I think a laptop classroom would turn into? Students ignoring the lesson being taught, web surfing, solitare, textmessaging behind the screens, and working on other class work. We've all see it, we've all done it, and if you ask me, I think it is so disrespectful! Even though we aren't trying to be disrespectful, we are so exposed to technology that we can't keep our hands off it. Look how often we check our facebooks, spend hours shopping online, and sending emails. Once a computer is in front of us, this is one of the first things we do as part of our HABITS!!!
I want to walk into my classroom where there are educational habits for the students. I don't want laptops where students will always be checking their emails, browsing facebook, etc. I want students to be conditioned in things such as discussion, journal writing, or simply sitting there quietly waiting for class to start with paper and pencil ready!!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
I <3 Novels
WHOA. This article titled, I Love Novels was not only weird, but kind of scary to me! A woman who wrote a novel on her mobile phone? Now, that is a little too much for me. In Japan, creating novels via cellphone is a normalcy--I wonder if there are any American authors who do this. For me, I'm a paper and pen type of gal, so the idea of creating a long novel using the tiny buttons on a cell phone sounds ridiculous to me!!
I do like Mone's story of how she got her book noticed though. Readers on the internet who read her work were really eager to read more and as she puts it, "It came to me that there needed to be the hills and valleys of a story," saying that she had to continue on and build upon her story. I really like that quote a lot because it says that without plot, conflict, characters, themes, symbols, everything, you don't get a story, you get just words.
Another thing I noticed as I read this article is that the "cell-phone-novel" is centered around women. As explained, Love Sky is about sexual mishap and focuses on how "sex leads to all kinds of pain, and pain is at the center of a woman's life." In Japan, men are the dominant sex, so through the "cell-phone-novel," women can communicate their feelings. However, the idea that through this mean of creating a novel, most authors stay annoymous. If I ever wrote a book, I would definitely want my name and face on it for credit! But perhaps the women of Japan respect their culture of male dominance and want to remain annoymous as a sign of their cultural norms. This article is definitely cultural, but it scares me because what is our world turning into? I enjoy text-messaging short messages, but I can't even imagine writing an essay or novel through the means of a cell phone.
I do like Mone's story of how she got her book noticed though. Readers on the internet who read her work were really eager to read more and as she puts it, "It came to me that there needed to be the hills and valleys of a story," saying that she had to continue on and build upon her story. I really like that quote a lot because it says that without plot, conflict, characters, themes, symbols, everything, you don't get a story, you get just words.
Another thing I noticed as I read this article is that the "cell-phone-novel" is centered around women. As explained, Love Sky is about sexual mishap and focuses on how "sex leads to all kinds of pain, and pain is at the center of a woman's life." In Japan, men are the dominant sex, so through the "cell-phone-novel," women can communicate their feelings. However, the idea that through this mean of creating a novel, most authors stay annoymous. If I ever wrote a book, I would definitely want my name and face on it for credit! But perhaps the women of Japan respect their culture of male dominance and want to remain annoymous as a sign of their cultural norms. This article is definitely cultural, but it scares me because what is our world turning into? I enjoy text-messaging short messages, but I can't even imagine writing an essay or novel through the means of a cell phone.
New Literacies in Action
I really like Dr. Kist's book and his experiences in different school settings. It is amazing how technology has been advanced and humorous how Kist explains what he grew up with. I'm eager to see how technology advances when I am a teacher and to tell my students what I grew up with--I'm sure they will get a laugh out of this just as I did with Dr. Kist's technological experiences.
In chapter 2, I liked reading about "The Monument Project." The first thing about this project was that students were in groups and were given time in class to work on it. I am FOR group work as long as time is given in class. I've always hated teachers & professors who assign group work allotting no time to develop ideas or creations in class. It seemed like students had an easy time with the monument project, but those who struggled seemed to get no attention or help from the teacher. The Walt Disney Group were struggling and were lacking motivation in their completion of the assignment. I wish that the teacher would have done something to motivate them! They were taking their anger out on the class a whole, saying, "I hate this class." And this is probably because they were struggling.
As a teacher, I think it is important to be supportive of each and every individual student. Yes, you will have students who don't like the content area or who struggle, but I think our job is to try to maintain some interest and avoid the students from saying "I hate this class." I think a student can dislike a subject area, but still like the class & its structure, its variety & of course, its teacher!
In chapter 2, I liked reading about "The Monument Project." The first thing about this project was that students were in groups and were given time in class to work on it. I am FOR group work as long as time is given in class. I've always hated teachers & professors who assign group work allotting no time to develop ideas or creations in class. It seemed like students had an easy time with the monument project, but those who struggled seemed to get no attention or help from the teacher. The Walt Disney Group were struggling and were lacking motivation in their completion of the assignment. I wish that the teacher would have done something to motivate them! They were taking their anger out on the class a whole, saying, "I hate this class." And this is probably because they were struggling.
As a teacher, I think it is important to be supportive of each and every individual student. Yes, you will have students who don't like the content area or who struggle, but I think our job is to try to maintain some interest and avoid the students from saying "I hate this class." I think a student can dislike a subject area, but still like the class & its structure, its variety & of course, its teacher!
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