My Presentation

I think I am going to do my presentation on littering and recycling.

Video Games

Gee's basic argument is that good video games include a lot of cognitive learning strategies that are often not, but should be, used in a typical classroom.

Before reading this article, I had a very negative opinion of video games as learning tools. Gee's argument is difficult to disagree with, however. Many of the skills that young adults and children learn in video games can help prepare them for the 'real world' even better than much of what they are being taught in school. Though content can be taught, it is more about the way in which it is delivered. I agree with Gee that the video game must be a "good" game and I believe that while most games support Gee's article, I would not suggest many of them for younger children due to their adult content and graphic images.

Scratch can be used in the classroom to motivate creative thinking. Like good video games, it helps the student to become part of the lesson by creating his or her own world through directing the action and appearance of his sprite.

Blogging With 5th Graders

I really enjoyed the blogging exercise with the 5th graders. I think that we can provide them with a different perspective than that of their teachers. I was surprised that they weren't encouraged to type more for their essays. I want to use blogging in my classroom, but I would expect as much work done in a blog as I would in an essay.

Scratch

Though I am still learning what Scratch is completely, (I'm in the process of downloading it now so that I can try it out for myself) I found one on the Scratched site that looks interesting and useful for an english classroom. It's called a wikiScratch Picture Dictionary. While it is still an idea in progress, it gave me the idea to use it in the classroom for vocabulary words. Each student would have a word of their own and could contribute to a final dictionary that would include all of the words. Each page would contain the word spelled correctly, a picture, and perhaps the phoenetic spelling and a sentence containing the word. Not only would you have a final dictionary at the end of each unit, you could put all of the units together at the end to incorporate all of the vocabulary words for the year.

Makeup Work: My Think Aloud

Click here to see the published version of my Internet Literacy Think Aloud.

Convergence Culture

Convergence culture, as Henry Jenkins explains it, is a collective media. Every medium is connected, creating a flow of information. It is a cultural rather than a technological process. He explains that old media is not replaced by new, as many believe, but is instead blended with new to create this convergence. As educators, we have an opportunity to utilize skills and applications in technology in order to better reach a younger generation. We must embrace these practices and learn to use them effectively rather than ignoring them in our classrooms. In today's classes, many children are either being taught that social networking and other digital tools are not safe, educational, or productive in any way. However, in today's businesses, these are the practices that are being used by those at the top. It is our responsibility to teach our students the skills necessary to succeed in today's world. They should not be limited to digital tools, but should instead be shown the safe, effective and educational ways to use them.

Is the Northwest Octopus Becoming Extinct?

No, it isn't. In fact, this creature doesn't exist. What does exist, however, is a hilarious internet hoax created by a man named Lyle Zapato.

At first glance, the site entitled "Help Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus From Extinction" seems legitimate. It is divided into sections including: an about section, why it's endangered, how you can help, frequently asked questions, sightings and media.

After reading through the site, I realized that it was a joke but young children may not catch on so quickly. Here are some steps that I took that could be used to verify the credibility of other, less obvious, sites.

First I noticed that the website was a .net site which lessened its credibility. In the corner of the site, there was a logo that read "site monitored by NSA". When I clicked on this logo, it took me to another webpage with comics. I noticed that these logos changed to appear as ads that said things like, "Are you infected with black helicopters?"

The site mentions that it is supported by greenpeas.org which I, after googling it, realized doesn't exist. The bottom of the site says to address concerns to Lyle Zapato. When I googled his name, I got a range of results that led me to believe that he has written books. This may seem credible at first. I then googled "Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus" and found a wikipedia page that informed me that this creature was an internet hoax created by Lyle Zapato. This google search also yielded results from websites such as museumofhoaxes.com.