Weekly Reading #9

1. How do educators in youth media programs differ from the orientation of classroom teachers in terms of preparing students for using digital media for work related purposes?

It seems to me that educators in youth media programs seem to be more toward higher level thinking than average classroom teachers.  The media teachers propose more open ended questioning with more than one result.  Classroom teachers often only want one answer for their questions.  In the world that we live in today there are many ways to achieve results and students need to be able to answer questions in different ways.

2. With some important exceptions, how are lower income youth marginalized from using digital media in ways that might provide them with economic empowerment?

Sadly when you cant afford the games systems or internet, you are not going to be able to gain that digital ability like other students that can afford it and use it on a daily basis.  When students have the ability to use computers, they are often qualified for many jobs.  These jobs can change that students economic situation.

3. In 2005 the CEO of IBM announced that if we wanted know what business leadership looks like in the 21 century look at what is going on in MMORPG's. After reading Box 7.4 does this make sense? Are you impressed by the levels of commitment and collaboration it takes players to be successful in these games? Do you have new respect for gamers?

The level of leadership is unbelievable.  The young people would be great at collaboration to run a very large company. I do believe that this is what leadership in the 21 century will require.   It would be hard not to have a new respect for gamers at this level.

4. How do school need to change to become learning environments that cultivate the same kind of enthusiasm and commitment from young people like NeoPets did for Eddie? How can digital media play a role in the creation of these kinds of environments?

I believe that teachers will need to teach to their students learning styles.  They will have to embrace digital media and help students become more engaged in the subject matter.  Students are absolutely in love with technology and teachers will have to use this to keep their students moving forward.

Webquest

https://sites.google.com/site/flatwoodswittywriters/

Weekly Reading #8

1. What impressed you most about young people's engagement with creative production?

Its interesting to me to see how popular digital media aka YouTube has gotten. Students have gotten so creative with the productions that they are constantly working on.   Students are able to leave feedback for each other.  Sometimes not so positive feedback. 

2. What concerns do you have about young people posting content online? I think that they do a lot of impulse posting.  They don’t really think it through before they have already posted photos and comments that could hurt themselves or someone else. 

3. Do you think most school policy toward student use of the Internet is reactionary or a necessary evil? I think that if teachers would embrace the online creative learning concept  and stay on top of the situation that they would not have to have such a strict internet policy.  Students would need to be aware of their consequences if they do not follow the rules.  But I think that if they were encouraged to work creatively online that there would be less instances of violations where the internet is concerned.

4. How might teachers' capitalize on student's interest in creative production with digital media?   Teachers should consider having students create projects where they are putting the final project on You Tube.  I think they would really take a personal interest into the subject matter just to try and out do their peers. 

5. Link to an online lesson plan, article, blog post video or podcast that is an example of student engagement in creative production with digital media for school related purposes.

http://www.smilebox.com/testing/slideshowsOBNoP.html?partner=googlex&campaign=test-12-06-28-search_core_slideshow_Upsl-Act-Dnld&gclid=CL7atrjyl7ECFUff4AodmA9Fgw

Webquest product and technologies

I have titled my webquest Flatwoods Witty Writers.  This will be for elementary reading students.  My students will be expected to create a story.  They will use Storybird to help them create a story along with illistrations.  They might also use a  simple storyboard to help them with their story drafts. 

Learning about webquests

All of these Webquests have pros and cons but the best two are:
A Creative Encounter of the Numerical Kind and Travel Agent to Ancient Egypt.
The worst two are The Diary of John Wilkes Booth and The Environmental Problems with Landfills.
The Diary of John Wilkes Booth has a good introduction to draw your attention.  It was pretty simple steps to follow. It seems like they could have done more with it by using additional multimedia.
The Environmental Problems with Landfills had a good introduction  It  builds on prior knowledge. The evaluation part was missing.
Travel Agent to Ancient Egypt Webquest was very interesting. It was easy to get through and it had a video. It allowed students to become familiar with Powerpoint.
A Creative Encounter of the Numerical Kind used animation to pull kids into it.   It was a long process but it describes each step .

Webquest-Location of Trinidad and Tobago and Identification of Physical Features

I chose this webquest because it works for the grade level that I teach.  It allows students to learn about another country and its qualities.  It makes students think that they are an explorer on an adventure.

Webquest
http://questgarden.com/118/22/8/110202062524/

Rubric
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L94eQsp139HQOofnD5fiFGYjuwGX2PEULk4bVf9Y8qA/edit

Weekly Reading #7

It surprised me that more of the games played are played by women instead of men.  Considering that most of the games played in my house are by the guys. On both sides of my family, it is the guys consistently that play more games.  The article states that 38% are played by women.

The only games available when I was young was Atari.  I played it some but never really spent too much time with it.

It is important that we encourage children to play games as this will only support the concept of using technology.  In hopes that teachers will jump onboard the idea that games support technology use and encourage creative technology ideas.

Case study of technology final draft

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14uSfPNux9csQq68eTPczupxkXZcqtrFVuFbKDUAMFvY/edit