Citizendium

This article
Conserninng a new free online encyclopedia, from the makers of Wikipedia, that is taking into account the realiablity of the article editors. Though this seems to go against the entire premise of a wiki, regular people will be able to edit content but they will not be able to do so anonymously. They are thinking that this will help with the crediability of the site in scholastic circles, as we discussed during the last class wikipedia has been banned from many the works cited page on many campuses.

Though the arrtcle was incomplete, I would really like to read it in its entirity, I googled the name and went to there homepage
saw there mission statement and veiwed their company blog. Though they have no set lauch date, they have currently tried an expirement. They are deleting all of the wikipedia articles that they have been working with to give their authors a little more creative reign. I thought the dialog was interesting, maybe some one could check it out too?

On line Learning

According to the Boston Globe article, the number of students taking class on line is increasing, though I was a little shocked that they counted the number of virtual seats filled as opposed to the number of students taking on line courses. Could they have calculated the number of students enrolled in what would be considered a full-time education?

i can see both the advatages and the disadvantages of this. A major advanage is that students from across the country will all be receiving the same education from the same teacher. The freeing up of the students time was also a very strong point. That allows for the fostering of child parent relationship which is often compromised due to the educational demands of students outisde the class room.

The Downside is that the amount of the information the student retains may be compromised. It seems that most kids, who do not see the value of education, wold go to great ends to take advantage of this new system, and have all of their resources present when taking a test. Also the personal relationships between teacher and student would be lost. I know that side questions that were not covered in class could be emailed, but it seems that some of the students understanding of a concept could get lost in the email exchange

Task#3 The R.O.U.S.'s no silly RSS's

File management has been taken to the next level. having Richards explain how to get information from a news source ws very helpful. I didn't think that is could be possible because I was of the understanding that all internet search were time sensitive, meaning that list generated from search results appeared only when typed. I'm glad that I was wrong.

How I would employ this in a ELA class room. (the first 2 are lesson idea, i hope that is alright)

1) have students compare and constrast sources, regarding a given subject matter, to show students how each source's interpretation of the same event or information are written for different audeinces.

2) Having students use blog feeds from other bloggers to illustrate public misconcepts about a topic

3) Check the progress of my future students' work and have all of the most recent information and uploaded avaible one one page

Task #2 Article

I think that friedman's response would focus on "those whose intelligence is deployable in new directions on short notice, not to those who are locked into a single marketable skill, however thoroughly learned and accredited." Pointing out that adaptable intelligance is th only way that one can thrive economically in Global 3.0.

Sadly, I feel he would not see the need for legions of people skilled in the field we are about to enter. Seeing that his mind seems to focus on profit potential and economic possiblity, I can reasonably assume that he is waiting for technology based education to eneter the spot light in the next decade or so. This would make teaching, as a mass employment possiblilty, obsolete.... In no way do I think that THIS would be a good thing, and in all probablity would deeply enrage my meek little form.

Task #1 2.0 to 3.0

Freidmen states that "the dynamic force in Globalization 3.0-the force that gives it its unique character-is the prfound power for individuals to collaborate and compete globally" (p10)

The importance of individual collaboration of students and teachers has almost become old hat (though of utmost importance) in the few short weeks that we've been together. The possiblity of students working with people from around the world gives them no limits to what they can learn.

The competition factor however is something thatI feel will be the diatomic opposite of Freidmen's business examples. In business groups compete to accomplish goals or innovate products before anyone else so they optimize profits. In class rooms, the focus of the teacher is not to horde all of the availble resources so their classes are the in the highest scoring percentile. But to use what works and share it with others. Globalization 3.0 makes this possible anywhere on the planet where there is internet access and not within the confines of one brick building.

Web 2.0 on Nickelodeon

In this New York Times article Nickeldeon is bringing the read/write web on air, by devoting some of their airtime to the on-line creations of children. Though there is the potential for educational programming created by children, I think idea is trying to link up one form of media to that whcih will soon replace it.

task #3 Standards

The ELA/NCTE standards center around critical thinking when consuming and composing various forms of mass media information.

The fifth standard which emphasizes that teachers should “engage students in critical analysis of different media and communications technologies and their effect on students' learning.” Is the most encompassing of the seven because it ensures that students are not only grasping the information they are being exposed to but learning how to break the info down into smaller pieces and manipulate them cerebrally. Hobbs research shows that this is attainable, while also offering the entire process. This gives us an idea of some of the obstacles we may encounter from parents as well as students.

task #2 The Hobbs summary and my relfection

Renee Hobbs set out to see the effects of teaching media literacy in a 11th grade English class in Massachusetts, is goes along perfectly with what this class is all about. This new form of media, literacy even spiked the interest of a few students who have taken the traditional version of the class. Once again proving one of the underlying tones of Will Richards, when teachers create a learning environment where students are trully interested in the course work they will thrive.

Hobbs is collecting her data from direct observations as well as interviews with teachers, students and faculty as the program progresses through the year. Pointing out how she used both qualitative and quantitative she explains gives depth to her findings as well as gives her research a human quality, which is often lacking in classroom research.

What I am finding interesting in the first chapters of the book is how these students are interacting with one another as if they are a part of the Web 2.0(in class room discussions and in their group work) but without the computers. For me, who has never been in front of a class, this adds validity to the excitement that children feel when they are learning about something that interests them.

I also think that Val Aubry makes I good point, that I feel I may forget once I am teaching in a classroom: “we were not here to make kids potential English majors. Instead, we were aiming to help students become critical thinkers” (26). This idea is paramount in the New English that we will all find ourselves teaching. The students who have no interest in English beyond the classroom, will leave that space and take something with them that they will carry for the rest of their lives… what could be better than that?

Task #1, i hope this is deep enough

The six principles of media literacy that Project Look Sharp deals with appear to perfectly compliment the research of Renee Hobbs. Hobbs was documenting the effects of media literacy in classrooms and the principles of PLS, seem to take her work at Concord High School and generalize her findings. Hobbs research is more specific than the guiding principles of the PLS, but that is because her research takes the reader along the process of validating the effectiveness of media literacy in the classroom.

Though, I do not know how long PLS has been in effect, the web page itself dates back to 2001 (thank you “Way Back Machine” and Mr. Warlick). This is three years after Hobbs’ the implementation of the English 11 curriculum. Hobbs’ finding stand on there own, by looking at both the text and the PLS we can see how the steps towards integrating media literacy in classrooms came to in being.

TheURL again

http://web.mac.com/jo_tutko

Did the link work, on the second attempt?

MY website's URL

Hello all

I finally published my website, the URL is
I'ld like to know what you think, and in what ways I could improve it.

E-ink (new content?)

While reading Warlick, E-ink stood out so I did some digging. I hope this is as new to me as it is to you.

E-ink is a form of electronic paper that is to used to cut down on the eye strain that is caused by the back lighting of most computer screen, it has the appearance of ink on paper. The interesting thing about this is the pixels do not need a constant power supply to retain the image and can hold and that angle of the incoming light does not affect the quality of what is on "the screen"

That was not what I thought it was at all, but I did learn that there are thin leafy sheet available out there called digital paper which can be used with a specific pen to write out digital documents. If this in not a step in the direction of the Warlick intro then I do not know what is.

Project update

My web page is finally finished, all I have to do is upload to a the sever and all is well. It seems most of the hurdles that I encountered where problems interfacing with the mac and not knowing just how many possibilites iWeb has to offer.

The actual site that I made, has my resume, a short blurb, about how i got to back to school & New York State, the three poems I published (i nterlinked each of the potry pages so navigation is easier, and thought that that was very cool) Basically, I like working with iweb and am interested to hear how I can improve and change my site.

The NCTE Postion Renewal

It is one thing to learn about something in a class room, but it is quite another it see it applied in the "real world." This shows us the beginning stages of the change that is the focus of most our discussions. I have often thought that any concept that is a resolution is usually a bad thing, I am glad that my undestanding as well as my literacy is being redefined.

It seems to me that the next step be having multi-media presentations be a requirement for graduation, like the Presentation Skills requirement that have to met.

Task 2: KSU's Youtube video

The final moments of the KSU YouTube video cause the cognitive dissonance that Professor Stearns was talking about during our last class meeting. The read and write web is something that is going to have us reshape the entire world as we know it. We, as humans, are often reluctant to change and tend to approach it from a pick and choose viewpoint (I think that’s why the video had anthro journals in it).

Before we try to grasp the changing form of governance, the idea of literacy must first be tackled. The three-dimensional reading that Warlick talks about in his second chapter shows us perfectly how a student can completely learn a subject. To such an extent that that anyone picking up the report is going to learn something new. The obstacle that I see us having to over come is whether the information the student is conveying will be retained, that seems to be the problem with teaching despite the medium.

One of the many benefits I see to creating a three dimensional text, is that student has the opportunity to annotate their own work, not just supplying substantial back round information on a given topic. Their writing style may contain nuances that maybe overlooked and now they have the chance to demonstrate to there teachers why they chose a particular word assemblage. This idea could also be used by teachers to have students better understand literary concepts in an assigned short story, of course in the form of an eBook.

connecting the unlearned

We are all entering a field under assumptions and pretenses that no longer apply. This thought is the corner stone that our ENG 307 class is building off of. The application of the technology is a concept that we readily grasp, the problems that we are encountering are more of a technical nature. The Will Richards’ blog posting of the 10 items that educators must unlearn is a tool that can help us rewire our brains and help us flush out some of the afore mentioned assumptions

“unlearning the idea that learning itself is an event” harmonized perfectly with all of the examples that Thomas Friedman uses illustrate the factors flattening the globe. He pulls from various businesses how they have innovated to stay ahead of the game. Wal-Mart’s ordering system based, ordering in actually what is going out of the door, can be seen as a way to control inventory: but there is an undercurrent that reminds us that the continuous process of education can not be ignored. The ever-changing business is just that a state of flux where if systems are not improved upon, become stagnant, then capitol ceases to flow.

To “unlearn the strategy that collaborative work inside the class is enough and understand that cooperating with students from around the globe can teach,” is exactly what UPS as the insource with other companies. Again, most of what Richards telling future teachers is already being employed in the business world. Having Nike concentrate their efforts on building a better sneaker while the boys in brown worry about supply chaining is collaboration at its best. In the classroom this can be seen in group work where the members’ strengths guide the partners through there weaknesses while side stepping the frustration of not knowing how to do something.

“To unlearn the practice that teaches all students at the same pace,” brings a higher quality of education into the lives of students. This brings enjoyment to the learning process by taking the high school student to the level that both Will Richards and Thomas Jefferson sought that of a life long learner. The benefit of that to us in the education field is a given whereas other would only see the value once their lives are enriched in such a manner.

Another page for task 1

I also went to http://www.backflip.com, which is virtual bookmarker that enables users to access their bookmarked pages despite the computer they are on. I signed up and listed the class blog page, my own, and bloglines… I seemed useful at the time but I was under the impression that a new tool bar would appear under the Mozilla tool bar to allow access, but this does not seem to be the case.

The usefulness of this in the classroom, seems ideal for teachers like warlick suggests, yet there are also possibilities for students as well. Researched topic pages can be saved online and accessed when ever needed, if the tool bar is something that can not be found, opening another internet window, instead of typing in the URL would save a lot of time.

Task 1: Digital flower power and word Virus

I played around at “internet archive” http://www.archive.org/index.php Which houses various uploaded texts and media files. There is also a feature named after Dr. Peebody’s invention, The Way Back Machine, this tool provides the history of web pages added to sites according to year and date, all you have to enter is the web sites URL, I did Cortland.edu and saw how our site grew, as well as BCC’s.

The there is a lot of uploading here, I was shocked to find a “Grateful Dead” heading under the Types of Audio files. There is an archive of live shows…a lot of Dead shows, some of which can be downloaded while others are simply streaming, while also a message board where fans could post. Digital flower power…groovy

I was very surprised that the site had 29 classroom lectures and readings by William S. Burroughs, of whom I am a big fan. There were in class discussions about creative writing and creative reading (not to familiar with that), but I am going to listen after posting.

Searching media through Archive is somewhat troublesome, because all searchs are opened to broader criteria than what you enter, try it and see for your self. But, I see how this could be a useful tool, for dating internet sources (as Warlick suggested) and for searching for information or a topic that you wanted to get all possible information for.

The site also includes searchable Text, audio book/poetry, moving images (as they call them), and open courseware.

task 3: Citizen Journalist, fact checkers & James Frey

I am finding it hard to pull one thing out and deem it the most interesting, I am sure others did as well. The concept of Citizen Journalism really caught my attention, though I see the advantages only negative examples came to mind.

The video cast of the tasered student in the library was shown in my multi-cultural lit class last semester, it was a very powerful series of images and an interesting story that would have never been seen if not for a camera phone. At that time, I thought, “Grand, people now have to opportunity to expose every facet of injustice that they encounter,” and I know that I was being altruistic. The only reason why most people wanted to see that clip was for entertainment purposes, I find that a sad critique of humanity.

Then there are the privacy issues, and in this moment, I will make this blog’s only “big brother” reference. Seeing that morals and values are often upheld to an absurd extreme one can only image future websites archiving the…less glamorous?...moments of a person’s life, captured for ever, in low grade digital video. I guess we all have to keep ourselves in check.

On a slightly brighter note, the citizen based media movement is making sure that everyone who reports the news, or puts anything into print for that matter, has there facts straight. Countless legions of fact checkers are laying in wait, ready to point their finger at any writer who is trying to deceive the American public…. It sounds good, if that’s the way that I worked

The most notable and a perfect example of taking things a little bit too far was the debacle surrounding James Frey. He wrote a wonderful autobiography about addiction and recovery called “A Million Little Pieces.” At first, this book won its way into the hearts of millions, for it truly was a heart touching story, though it did have many sharp edges. I was surprised to see it on Oparh’s Book Club. However, an internet site called The Smoking Gun stated that the events in the book did not match up with police records. it seems that James fabricated parts of his memoir. He was ultimately dropped from his publisher but not before being scrutinized by Larry King and Oparh.

I guess that the “gonzo autobiography” will never be a valid literary genre. The fact remains that the man told a really good story that brought a darker facet of human experience into the mainstream. “A Million Little Pieces” was required reading in the Chemical Dependency class at the college I previously attended (I feel the need to say that it was book I found on my own). So as a depiction of addiction it holds merit, I found no need to drag the man through the mud because embellished parts of his life. Move the book over the fiction section along side the memoirs of William S Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.

Task 2 Friedman

The importance of creating and sharing content gives everyone the opportunity to “tap into thousands of minds that (we) wouldn’t normally have access to” (Friedman 114). The greatest example of this was gold ore excavation story, that team was looking simply for notoriety and profits; just thinking about all of those special interest groups that are available to anyone, makes me giddy. , the vast amount of accessible that is. This of extreme importance when considering what our future students should be learning, but it does not over shadow the fact that we will have to continue mastering technologies that have not yet been created.

We all have a saving grace when we encounter something that we do not know, because we will never stop being learners. We have the access so we have no excuses. How else will our student learn to teach themselves if they do not see us doing just that along side of them?

The strongest parallel with Richards and Friedman that I am seeing is how they pull information from numerous sources to inform their reader bases as well as accomplish their own tasks. This is a lesson within itself, utilizing the web, through networking, uploading or podcasting, to reach an endpoint, were ever they maybe. This is a very eclectic process, and though some people may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with this mindset, it will be an integral part of how we can better utilize our classrooms.

Girl Power

It has been more than a decade since I have been inside a high school classroom, I remember trying very hard to form an identity that was acceptable with my friends as well my teachers… I guess I am still a dork like that.

I feel that the changing classroom atmosphere offers the opportunity for gender annulment; similar to Will Richards’ point in the video cast, the teacher attention is now focused more on content and merit than the alignment of X and Y-chromosomes. The quality of the work is what matters and not the role the student occupies, be it gender or social. Though with blogs I can see how commenting holds a possibility for bias.

The section titled “The paradox of doing well” offered a startling fact; how the air of competitiveness in classrooms played off the strength of boys. I wonder if that holds true regardless of the teacher’s gender.

Going back to my high school experience, I distinctly remember if one of my teachers was the coach of a team, their attention was more focused towards the members of their team. The team’s understanding of the material being covered was paramount, more so than my other classmates. This bias did not seem contained to any specific gender, but to their role as a coach. As future educators, I think that bias is something that we cannot afford to make, for the sake of out students.

A thought on thoughts, from time

The functions of the brain, while sequentially processing, was something I found very interesting. I lack the biology background, so this information was new to me. The adding of another onion to a recipe, which causes the chef’s mind to toggle to another page of cognition, produced a very eerie understanding of the human mind. I knew exactly how our minds operated because of my limited knowledge of Windows! We all know that the brain is a bio-organic computer, but I never synthesized that tidbit of information with something I knew. In my head I saw the minimization of the chopping onion file and maximizing the one for recipe augmentation.

There is little disagreement that social networking technology is the next step in the evolution of the communication, but could we also be experiencing evolution of the human mind first hand, or at least through our children and grandchildren?

My logic is this: interfacing several different ideas through a computer maybe cause the prefrontal cortex not to atrophy as we mature, causing the white noise of thought to dissipate.

Seeing that there is a newness to this form of cerebral exercise, I see no way to test this idea at this time but in my mind, there remains the possibility.

If there is a flaw in my logic due to a lack of comprehension, I would really like to know.