Cartoon Analysis

1. The issue that inspired the cartoon is why fish can't live in both the ocean and fresh water environments. It also could have been inspired by the way tourists are blatantly obvious.
2. A real place that is being portrayed is the ocean but there are no real people.
3. Labeling and irony are used in the cartoon by the usage of showing that the three fish on the left are obviously not from the ocean because they have fresh water tanks on their backs and the fish on the right are saying that they can obviously tell those fish are tourists. It's ironic because the fresh water fish look brighter and fancier so they stick out and even without the fresh water labeled tank it would still be noticeable that they are not from that area.
4. The cartoonist's point of view that is portrayed in the cartoon is showing how people from other places go to visit somewhere they think is exciting while the people that live there are bored because it's their home.
5. No, it's purely comical.
6. The fish could have had a tour guide or some other type of person showing them around.

Elementary WebQuest

1. I think the best WebQuests are Ice Cream and Ancient Egypt. They are the most fun, engaging, and they integrate group work in a successful way.

2. The two worst are Where Is My Hero? and Grow School Greens. They are not very organized and they don't incorporate group work well, it's mostly individual and then compiling it later.

3. To me best means it is engaging and educational for the student and also is able to connect them together. Worst means it is poorly organized, difficult and/or boring. 

Double Entry Journal #11

1. Quality teaching is the transformation of content
2. New technologies are tricky because they are opaque
3. Even though print and writing are great things, at some point there are aspects that are lost in the transition

Scatch About Me Project

About Me
I used the Scratch cards to change color and to say something.

Double Entry Journal #10

QUOTE:
"Success is based not only on what you know or how much you know, but on your ability to think and act creatively." (Resnick, 2007-08)


RESPONSE:
I selected this quote because I thought that what it said about success is very true. Too many people think that success is only based on smarts, but to truly be successful there needs to be a broader basis than just that.  Being able to act and think creatively is important because creativity is what can make someone unique, and that is very important. A lot of people pride themselves on how much they know, but if they don’t know how to apply that they aren't truly going to be successful. Educators need to show students that success is not based on only knowledge and the resources from the article are good examples of that.

I chose this wordle because it is a good representation of success and creativity. I especially liked that "success" and "creative" were the key components of the wordle. 

SOURCES:
Massey, L. (Designer). (2008). Wordle. [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://creativeliberty.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/surf’s-up-creativity-links-for-july-14-2008/


Resnick, M. (2007-08, December/January). Sowing the seeds for a more creative society. Learning & Leading with Technology, 18-23. Retrieved from http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Learning-Leading-final.pdf

Scratch Tutorial

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iPhone App Review

Stack the States Lite (Free) – This is a great game for students learning about the United States and wanting to find out fun facts about each state. The goal is to build a stack of states as high as possible and each time you get a high score you will unlock a new state and you want to try to fill up the map. Not only does the game help teach interesting information but it also helps children learn the location of each individual state. The graphics and details in the app are also very well done.

-This would be a fantastic app to use in a future classroom! It has the capability to have more than one player’s records saved so that they could save their progress and compete against each other. I would use it in my future classroom during a history class and I think that it could be extremely helpful during preparation for a test that would be given about our country. Not only is it educational but it’s fun too and that is extremely important. 

1st Grade Math Splash (Free) -This app is great for teaching place value and numbers and comparison. Those are the free sections but there are also sections you can buy to help with other skills. The app is interesting because it integrates a kid friendly underwater theme with easy to understand math skills. It also gives a score at the end of the section to let the player know how well they did. One helpful component is that the child’s parent can sign up to receive weekly updates on their child’s progress so they can keep track of how their reviews are going.

-I would use this app in my classroom for review purposes more than anything. I think that it is a great learning tool; I just wish that there were more sections that were already unlocked. The different skills that the app features would be very helpful during reviews in the classroom and I think that students would enjoy working on it together or by themselves. Not only could it help students reinforce what they've learned but it also could be a helpful visual tool for those who may be struggling with the content. I also would have the parents sign up for the progress report so not only could I see what they were doing when they reviewed in class, but also so the parents could be involved and see what their child’s strengths and weaknesses are. 

Scratch | Project | Pop! (Workshop)

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Gardens of Time

The Gardens of Time game reflects five of the ten things that students could learn through video games with interaction, production, the cycle of expertise,within the regime of competence, and exploring. It reflects interaction through being able to play with your friends and have "neighbors" that you can help out, visit, and who can in turn help you out. It reflects production because the way that you are able to gain coins or buy things for your garden is by advancing through the levels by completing the tasks. A major thing that the game shows is the cycle of expertise; the more you play the searching games the easier it is to find the objects from the list and the faster you are able to do it, which in turn gives you the rewards that you want. It also is within the regime of competence because while the goal is easy the task itself is also challenging. Finally, it reflects exploring by being able to go visit your neighbor's gardens, going to different lands to search for the hidden objects, and by getting to travel through time to do the tasks. Gardens of Time is a very good example of how students can learn skills through video games.

Double Entry Journal #9

QUOTE:
"Therefore it can be argued that in video games, failure is good as it helps facilitate alternate solutions to problems." ("10 things schools," 2012)


RESPONSE:
I chose this quote because I was surprised to find that risk taking and failure is something that schools and students can learn from video games. Most of the time one thinks of video games as just a source of entertainment and in some cases educational, but I personally have never thought of the experiences that take place in them as instructional about failure or risk taking. I'm not sure whether I agree with that or not because if I play a game I don't think I gain any sense of risk taking or lessons learned from failures from it. However, I also don't enjoy video games so the lessons learned could also be linked to the motivation and reasons behind playing the game. 


I chose this video because I thought that it gave a good explanation of the way that video games could help students learn.

SOURCES:
10 things schools can learn from video games. (2012, January 20). Retrieved from http://www.learningingaming.com/10-things-schools-can-learn-from-video-games/


(2008). Video games and learning. (2008). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s

Wikipedia Worksheet

Show Choir

• There are no cleanup banners.
• It is written in a clear and organized way.
• It is neutral and is mostly stating facts.
• Not all facts, but the ones involving certain groups or places are referenced.
• It seems complete and is not lacking.
• The first five references are not reliable, but the other four can be considered reliable.
• The article isn't rated.
• There are no issues around the article being discussed; it says that the article is within the scope of WikiProject Dance, so others were talking about expanding and cleaning up information about the history of dance and certain types of dance.
• I would rate the article as reliable. I chose to rate it as reliable because I was in it and I know the facts that it gave were true, the names of the schools that is listed could still be researched to find out whether or not the facts about them were true, and also because the viewpoint for writing the piece was neutral. 

Wikipedia

3 Things I Learned:

1. Wikipedia is able to do things that other encylopedias can't, like giving information to people everywhere despite things like the digital divide or poverty. I never thought about how Wikipedia would affect those who don't have quite the same resources that we do. 
2. They only have one employee; volunteers do everything else.
3. Running Wikipedia costs only $5,000 a month. 

2 Things I Agreed With:

1. The real problem with vandalism on Wikipedia is between the party of the thoughtful and the party of the jerks.
2. To be able to distribute proper information it needs to have a neutral point of view.

1 Thing I Disagreed With:

1. Anonymous users who aren't even logged in can go and edit the site.

About article:

I wasn't surprised because there are some times that I find Wikipedia hard to understand, but the article made it sound like it is hard to understand on every topic. While I think that there are certain subjects where Wikipedia is written in a hard to understand way, I still find it more helpful than most other sites. 

Ways to Use Wikipedia:

I always use Wikipedia for background information but I have never used Wikipedia for links, keywords, or references. 

Double Entry Journal #8

a. What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a Web-based encyclopedia that is operated by the Wikimedia Foundation.

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”?

I would say that it probably wouldn't be very reliable but, like the article says, other people who are knowledgeable about the subject are going to come along and not let something wrong be posted. There are many times that I choose to go to Wikipedia first because even though it doesn't seem like its possible, the majority of the time their information is accurate. 

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?

They put their trust in "wisdom of crowds", because they believe that because so many people use Wikipedia that errors and vandalism will quickly be weeded out.

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?

He left because he thought that it should give more authority to experts.

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page?

 Abuse or vandalism would be obviously false information or non-professional sounding information.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal?

 The statistics show that Wikipedia is one of the most popular and go-to sites on the internet.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?

I think Wikipedia is so successful because it condenses information about a topic into one space and a lot of times it breaks it down to make it easier to understand.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?

They may not want to accept advertising because they would want to stay free of bias and also by having ads that would give them profit and it is a nonprofit organization.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?

It increases the reliability of entries because it can check the IP address of anonymous editors to see who is editing the information on the site.

Think Aloud

Controversial Issue Think Aloud

View more presentations from stephanietonkery.

• A WebQuest that would be fitting for elementary school students to have to use the Internet to do research is Food Chain Jr.

Double Entry Journal #7

     Technology can be used in the classroom to support students with learning disabilities of all kinds because there are many different types of software and other tools out there that can assist them in their learning process. Software such as HELP ReadTM and TextAssist are good tools that are helpful to students with learning disabilities, dyslexia in particular, because they help them with the reading and pronunciation processes. Technology is also important because things such as audio devices can help those who have trouble with learning by listening and computers and spellcheck can help students who struggle with writing
     WAYS TO HELP STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES is a very helpful resource to use when thinking about how to help students with learning disabilities. I thought it was very informative, especially with the way that it breaks down how to help students in a way that caters to their specific weakness. While it isn't dealing with particular disabilities like dyslexia or ADD, the strategies given can apply to those students as well so that the information can be used to help learners with any problems.

Website Evaluation

     Edutopia, a web site published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation, released an article with reasons why art in education is important. The link to the article is http://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development. Information about the organization is clearly stated on the site's foundation section.In the foundation section there are also links to in-depth information about the mission of the organization and a message from George Lucas. An address, along with others avenues of contact, is listed.
     The information is not biased because the focus of the organization and website is to make education better by helping students, parents, and teachers realize how they can make education as beneficial as possible in today's society, especially with the integration of technology. It does not rely on loaded language, it is just using language that would appeal to teachers. In a way it uses emotion as a means of persuasion because it is trying to appeal to teachers and parents who know that educational society should be better and want to make a change. In certain areas it provides other viewpoints but there are no links to alternative viewpoints.  The site's information is extremely well organized and it clearly states the points that it is trying to address .It seems extremely thorough and is easy to understand. The site is copyright.
      The information should be current since the site is about the evolving education system; it is up to date. Yes a reference date is listed for the materials and all of the links work. It is a very professional site.
     Since it is a .org site it indicates that it is a non-profit organization.
     The article describes the correlation between the arts and academic success and how the arts should be revived in schools instead of taken away. It also seems credible because not only is it a non-profit educational source, but one of the founders of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Steve Arnold, is very involved in other educational ventures. The man for whom the foundation is named, George Lucas, is well known for his accomplishments in the entertainment industry. With these accomplishments he has been a strong supporter of using new technology to promote learning, so the website for his foundation is credible and very informative.

Magazine Cover

Double Entry Journal #6

The relationship between media literacy skills and traditional literacy skills are intertwined yet different in several ways. Media literacy used to focus more on moral issues such as stereotypes and undesirable influences and also on things such as advertising. However, today's digital media is focused more on the technological aspect of things and about using technology correctly and to the fullest extent. They also have a relationship when it comes down to how things are read. While it may seem like there isn't a difference between reading something in a book and reading it online, for some people there is. Nevertheless, the same skills used in offline reading are the same skills used in online reading as well. There also is now the problem with having to judge whether or not the work is true, where as when it is in a textbook there is not much doubt that it's a reliable source.


QUOTE:

"Researchers who directed several hundred college students to three bogus Web sites about fictitious nutritional supplements found that half of the students lacked the skills to identify the trustworthiness of the information, yet most thought they had strong research skills (Ivanitskaya, O'Boyle, & Casey, 2006)."

RESPONSE:                                                                                                                                       
The fact that college students who thought they had strong research skills were able to be fooled by bogus sites really surprised me. Because of the technological age that we have grown up in I assumed students my age would be able to judge whether or not information was false based on the sources given. I think a major reason is we assume information can be taken at face value when we really need to look into it further. This is a good example of the fact that media literacy skills need to become a more important part of the education system everywhere.


I chose this video because I think it is a good representation of media literacy.

SOURCES:

David, J. L. (2009). Teaching media literacy. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 84-86. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx

Ivanitskaya, L., O'Boyle, I., & Casey, A. M. (2006). Health information literacy and competencies of information age students: Results from the Interactive Online Research Readiness Self-Assessment (RRSA). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 8(2), e6.

(2009). Show your media literacy. (2009). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v6uG4-lNLo&context=C372aee1ADOEgsToPDskJGSg457XcNsuDGrZ9XouF6

Reflection Voki

The only revisions I made to my reflection were I changed the sentence about what the students would be making from "In my future classroom, I plan to have students create digital stories on either a previous vacation or their dream vacation to a specific country they studied prior to assembling the story." to "In my future classroom, I plan to have students create digital stories about a specific location they have visited or would like to visit. Prior to creating the story they will research and learn more about the location and it's history."  The sentence was too long and needed split up. I also took out some words that were unnecessary when describing how to make a good digital story.

Reflection Revision

In my reflection I found five uses of the word "that", four of which were unnecessary. 


A sentence written in the passive voice is, "For example, the digital story Patrick's Amazing Summer Vacation was created by a student, Patrick, and describes his adventures that took place over the summer." It should be, "For example, the digital story Patrick's Amazing Summer Vacation, is a video created by a student, Patrick, that describes his summer adventures."

Fair Use Questions/Double Entry Journal #5

1. Media in Education would be things such as showing a movie to a class as a reward, while Media Literacy in Education is more focused on the understanding, analysis, and deep thinking behind the media messages.
2. Cultural creativity.
3. It is more important today because of the ever-changing technology surrounding us.
4. Was the work used for a different purpose than it originally was meant and was the amount of the material used an appropriate amount.
5. Yes, because the teaching is using it to teach the students a concept. The movie is used to show the racial stereotypes, not just for entertainment.
6. Principle four, which is, student use of copyrighted materials for academic and creative work. It relates most strongly to my digital work because it was a hands on learning experience using media literacy, had a certain goal, and was also educational.
7. Yes, there should be just enough to teach the goal.
8. No, because as long as it still pertains to the school related assignment and isn’t taken out of context, it is okay to use in an educational setting.
9. It depends on the situation. If the school system’s rules are letting the teacher get everything accomplished that they need to for proper learning then they don’t need to worry about it.
10. I was surprised with the myth that talked about making money. I always assumed that as long as you weren’t profiting from it it was okay as well.



Yes, my digital story that I made for class does fall under the fair use guidelines. The pieces of media that I used were all used for a specific purpose, they all were given credit, they weren't used in an excessive amount, and they were used in an educational assignment by a student.

Double Blog Entry #4

QUOTE:

“As with any art form, digital storytelling continues to evolve to accommodate new technologies, purposes, and creative visions. The important question for educators to ask is, “What does digital storytelling offer education?” (Ohler, 2005) 

RESPONSE:

I had never really thought about this before, but it proves a very good point. Students start out drawing or telling stories and then eventually they write down their own, more complex stories. With technology evolving the way it has, it makes sense for their stories to be told digitally and incorporate writing, art, and music. I also chose this quote because I think digital storytelling is a great way to integrate technology into creative writing. With that said, I don’t think there should be too many digital storytelling assignments. They can be so time consuming and lengthy I think that they should just be given sparingly.

I chose this photo because I thought it was a good representation of all of the skills that can help make a digital story more efficient. 

SOURCES:

Ohler, J. (2005, December). The digital world of storytelling. Educational Leadership, 44-47. Retrieved from http://www.jasonohler.com/pdfs/digitalStorytellingArticle1-2006.pdf

Tolisano, S. (Artist). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://4everlearner.pbworks.com/f/digital-storytelling-skills-not-tools.pdf

Digital Story

Classroom Examples - Elementary

Projecting Success
     This activity involved the use of technology in a rural town where the students had no interest in learning. The teacher used digital cameras to encourage the students to learn how to use technology and also used her own success as a writer as motivation for them to want to write. She had them do a project where they took pictures of themselves as famous authors and then had them create slide presentations with facts about their lives. Not only was this motivational to the children, but also to the parents.
     The strategy being employed is reinforcing effort. It works because the children learn to feel confident about the work that they're doing when they can see their achievements, they begin to enjoy what they're doing, they use enjoyable tools such as technology, and they enjoyed receiving praise from their teachers, classmates, and parents.

Double Entry Journal #3

QUOTE:

"Gradually, we have become less obsessed with correctness and more focused on tolerance and personal expression. This shift, however admirable, has linguistic consequences. " (Baron, 2009)

RESPONSE:

I chose this quote because it, along with the rest of the article and the article from the New York Times, made me realize just how many changes occur to the English language that go unnoticed. When before there always used to be a lot of emphasis placed on correctness, now it has just become common to change the way things are written or just look over them if they're wrong. I completely agree that text messaging is one of the major factors that has changed the way we speak and write. I also agree that modern times have caused confusion with when to use apostrophes, when to break up a word, or when to combine a word.

My opinion is drawn off of the fact that I personally see people using text-messaging lingo everywhere and I shamefully do it as well. We use the phrases so much they’re commonplace now.

I chose this graphic because I thought it was humorous and fit in well with the way texting plays a large impact in society.

SOURCES:

Baron, N. (2009, March). Are digital media changing language?. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are-Digital-Media-Changing-Language¢.aspx

Shea, A. (2010, January 22). The keypad solution. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Wheeler, E. (Producer). (2010). Social media is not an excuse for bad writing. [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://wheelerblogs.com/tag/pr/page/2/

Learning Styles and Preferences

Do learning styles exist?

-Yes, but they are more of preferences than styles.

Are they useful for classroom instruction?

-They're not as important as they seem to be because it is more important that the presentation matches the nature of the subject and not a certain learning style. Just because people may have ways that they prefer to learn doesn't mean that they can't learn in other ways.

What is the best philosophy for using learning styles?

-David Merrill came up with the best philosophy for learning styles by saying that the instruction should most importantly be determined by the content and then after that be adjusted to help enhance learning styles/preferences.

Comic About Technology

My Learning Style

I am a visual learner.

Technology could be used to support my learning style by the use of things such as smart boards to present lessons, which would make it easier to show pictures that relate to what is being taught; iPads to do group projects, so that it is visually interactive; and the Interwrite Pad so that visual learners can interact with other students while learning the lesson.

Double Entry Journal #2

QUOTE:
"Games like Guitar Hero 3 will help the auditory students to use the guitar as video games. The music teachers can use this kind of games to teach their students how to use the guitar." (Newsweek, 2007)

RESPONSE:
I chose this quote because I strongly disagree with what the writer of this statement was saying. Sure, it might help the students that are more inclined to learn through auditory methods, but the part of the statement saying that music teachers can use Guitar Hero to teach their students how to use a guitar is what I disagree with. As a music person, I know that Guitar Hero is nothing close to the real thing. Since I have also played Guitar Hero, I can say that it is true that it is enjoyable and entertaining. However I feel that a lot of times video games give a misrepresentation of how something really is. I am strongly for more technology being used in the classroom, and if it was a true learning video game I would definitely use it, but I do not agree with what this writer was saying. 

This post from a real guitar player delves deeper into why I disagree with the post from the WikiBook. To me, it would make much more sense if we're trying to encourage the auditory learners to enjoy music to teach them something, no matter how easy, on a real guitar instead of on Guitar Hero. 

Guitar Hero VS Real Guitar?

SOURCES:

Battle of the Bands. (2007, November). Newsweek, 150(20), 85. Retrieved November 3, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

Guitar hero vs real guitar?. (2008, April 09). Retrieved from http://www.linksback.org/gadgets/guitar-hero-real-guitar/(2011). Web 2.0 and emerging learning technologies/learning styles. 

Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Web_2.0_and_Emerging_Learning_Technologies/Learning_Styles

Poll Everywhere Wordle

I learned that some people have tried extremely strange foods.

I also learned that several people seem to have all tried the same kinds of food.

Computer Response

What is the strangest food you've ever eaten?

Text Messaging Response

Make your own poll voting question with Poll Everywhere

Double Entry Journal #1

QUOTE:
     "The new classroom should teach the huge array of complex skills that come under the heading of digital literacy." (Heffernan, 2011)


RESPONSE:
     I chose this quote because I agree with what the writer was saying. I think that much too often teachers only want to teach the skills that they are comfortable with and that they themselves were taught in school. In this day and age with the ever-growing advances in technology, it is extremely important that teachers equip their students with the abilities they need to be able to succeed throughout their life. However, I do not think that because this is becoming a technology based era that other subjects should lose their importance. The general subjects that have always been taught should still continue on, but educators need to find a new way to incorporate the two to make it as meaningful and helpful as possible for the students. Teachers need to realize that it really is time for an educational makeover.


This video reinforces the above statements and shows visual examples as to how children have not been getting as much out of their education because it does not relate to them as it should. It also states that while a lot of people say that the so called "digital divide" is caused by economic differences, it really may be because teachers are not supporting the technological changes. 

SOURCES:
Heffernan, V. (2011, August 07). Education needs a digital-age upgrade. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade/?hp


(2008). Will technology transform education. (2008). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbQ0sDFaPYQ&feature=related

My name is Stephanie and I am from the Fairmont area. If given the choice, I would choose either 1st or 3rd grade to teach. Teaching the younger ages has always appealed to me, but after participating in FSU Reads I also have found I enjoy the older kids as well. The subject I would love to be able to teach is reading. There are so many different ways to approach the subject and I believe that fostering a love for reading is extremely important.
I believe that children learn based on the atmosphere and enthusiasm provided by the teacher. If there is a teacher who dislikes what they're teaching then why wouldn't the students feel the same way about it? Children are influenced so much by adults and I don't think we take that into consideration as much as we should when we deal with them. They need to be enjoying what they're doing that way they will want to learn. I think that we should try to make their learning experience fun while still being educational. Ways that is possible is through different types of activities that keep them engaged while learning such as group  activities, art projects, and even music that can correspond with the given lesson or skill.