Presentation

The topic I have chosen for my presentation is respect. I would like to use it as a character building lesson in the future. I intend on using it with Boys and Girls Clubs at the after school program as a smart moves lesson, also.

Scratch project

I chose to modify my project by altering the color of the text throughout the program. I thought the original yellow text was monotonous and very distracting from the message the author was attempting to convey. Click here to view my modifications. If you would like to see the original content of this Scratch game click right here.

Class blogging

I have enjoyed the experience of blogging with Fairview students. I think that they have valuable information that will help me as a future educator. I definitely believe that blogging has a place in the classroom. I am not very fond of the format of classblogmeister, but will look for alternate ways to incorporate this activity into my classroom. I strongly agree that this is an activity that benefits all that are involved.

Scratch and meeting content standards...

Now, that I have a better understanding of the uses of scratch--I believe that this will be a very useful tool for students. It will allow them to convey the information they have learned through visual and auditory displays that can be shared in a variety of different settings within a classroom. The content standard I chose is from the WV Department of Education Content Standards for 21st Century Learning and Technology.

21C.O.PK-2.1.LS3 Student articulates thoughts and ideas, representative of real and imaginary experiences, clearly and effectively through oral, written or multimedia communication.

The Scratch project that I would like to modify that meets this content standard can be found by clicking here. The first modification I would make is that I would like to see these same issues addressed, but I would like it to show how it would impact the student's life in particular. It is generally easier to understand a concept such as pollution etc. if it is presented to you on a level that you can personally relate to. Secondly, I would like to change some of the background images instead of just showing pictures of the earth. Finally, I would modify the color of the text. I think it would be more powerful if another color was chosen.

Scratch

The scratch game that I found that deals with the content area that I hope to teach can be found here. I really like how they used letter recognition, keyboard skills and beggining sounds to illustrate the concept of phonemes. I would like to do something similiar concentrating on the vowels.

Henry Jenkins - Convergence Technology

Cultural convergence "describes an emerging pattern of relations bringing together entertainment, advertising, brands, and consumers in creative and often surprising ways. These new relations are underpinned by three key concepts: transmedia entertainment, participatory culture, and experiential marketing." It combines the old way with the new more technological way. Jenkins describes what is going on with the technology has its definite benefits, but it is not without risk. The implications in education are endless. Convergence technology allows all to access information that could only be found in a library before. It is important to note that there are definite benefits to this culture in education, but it is not without risk. It is important that the teacher is aware of the benefits and risks when using these tools in a classroom. For instance, in a classroom today most schools ban the use of youtube, social networking sites, cell phones, ipods, etc. All of these tools could be beneficial to use inside the classroom, but most schools ban them. For instance, ipods would be extremely useful in secondary education in viewing and submitting podcasts. I believe the problem with this new culture is that it is second nature for most of our students to use this technology, but is foreign to most of our educators and administrators. I believe it is important for us all to keep learning to keep up with the latest technology. It is important for us to learn the benefits and risks associated with these tools, so that we can use them to our advantage to truly create a classroom with endless possibilities.

Validation of web sites

The website that I chose to validate was Dog Island Free Forever. I initially chose this site because of the .com in the url. The domain told me from the beginning that someone was trying to sell me something. After further inspection, my initial hypothesis was correct. They are indeed trying to sell you something and they are selling bs. It is not exactly clear on the home page who the author is but, upon further examination the president of the group is listed on another page. I attempted to use easywhois to locate additional information on some of the people listed within the site. For example if you are interested in further information about the site it fields the email to the address of SuniCopey@TheDogIsland.com. When using the easywhois tool to validate it stated that "The expiration date displayed in this record is the date the registrar's sponsorship of the domain name registration in the registry is currently set to expire". The same information was found when looking up dogs@TheDogIsland.com which should have given me more information on the director of imports.
The information on this site sounds bogus from the beginning. Even before my search for information to prove that it was bogus, I knew. The whole premises of their site makes me question their legitimacy. Anyone who asks you to send your dog away with the chance that you will never see it - unless of course you are very rich - is clearly full of bull. However, if you are not very rich and still find yourself questioning whether or not to send your dog away to the island after reading this ridiculous proposal they WILL SELL you an empathy training leash.....that you connect to the collar of the dog and then you can connect your collar to the other end and then you---too can find out what it feels like to have your chain YANKED.....but, I am going to bet that you will feel like this after visiting this site without ever having to put on the leash.