Learning from RSS feeds Twitter

Twitter-

pbslearningnow-I read an entry that asked how far a teachers stretches when it come to protecting children. For example if someone posts on twitter that they are going to hurt their child is a teacher responsible to investigate? In this case a teacher had contacted twitter who then called the cops. I think people should be more careful what they post. Violent jokes in public domains are not a good idea. We should take what we say on the internet more seriously.

pbsteacher- I read about a teacher who had just discovered a new technology she plans on integrating into her classroom. It's called Edmodo and students and educators can share through it without sharing any personal information.

edutopia- -I read a tweet about the 10 things someone would tell a new teacher. Some of them were obvious like having an am and pm routine. But some of them were interesting like using twitter to collaborate and making sure to start engaging interactive projects.

coolcatteacher-I plan to stop following this individual. To many personal conversation and complains. Not enough information.

MrNitto- I found some information about what is going on around town. I would not check it on a regular basis.

Google Reader-

BBC- I learned that despite many budget cute England will not be cutting their $5000 electric car subsidy that goes to individuals who by electric cars.

npr- I decided to read an blog about how books are going more and more electronic. It seemed to relate directly to this assignment because we are being asked to do more reading online. This article says there are some sticky monetary situations going on and who makes the money off publishing books may shift.

Just Bento- I don't plan on continuing to follow this website. I might take a look at it if I want to make Japanese food on the go. It offers many links to Bento cook books. All in all it attempts to relate way too many things to Bento boxes.

weburbanist. I found this feed interesting. I read an article about how missile silos left over from the cold war are being converted into homes. I think this feed will be full are interesting information.

The Kitchn-This website was definitely one of my favorite it provided many interesting in season recipes. One entry I liked in particular was a set of recipes of sweetcorn. I think this blog could be useful for my "our classroom garden" unit because we would be making in season recipes when our garden produced.

My Personal Learning Network

I decided to use the different Web 2.0 tools for different personal educational needs. In Twitter I decided to follow a friend someone had mentioned was on twitter, simply because this is the only person I actually know that I know is on Twitter. I also decided to follow Edutopia, pbslearningnow, pbsteachers, and coolcatteacher to see if they had any interesting and creative educational ideas to share.

In Google Reader, I decided to follow both NPR and BBC News sources. I can never seem to find time to keep up with what’s going on in the world, so I thought this would be a good place to start. I also decided to follow their twitter feeds just to see the difference between the two. Lastly, I joined the employee bundle just to see what is out there. I figured the employees must be connected to some of the best RSS feeds.

In Delicious I booked marked a couple educational related bookmarks. I searched math and came up with a site that links to worksheets, and I also bookmarked cool math because I think it is a great site for engaging math games.

Link to site I tagged on delicious

Article 5

Today I choose to read the article Multicultural Education and the Digital Divide(September 2001)by Paul C. Gorski, Hamline University and EdChange. As a TESOL student I am interested in and currently studying multicultural education. Multicultural Education is not, as many may believe, simply teaching about other cultures from other parts of the world. Rather, it is an approach to Education that work towards equity and equality for all people. It strives to have teachers use teaching techniques which help to even the playing field for all students in a classroom. The article grapples with the fact that in 2002 Women surpassed man in access to the Internet. That means more women were using the Internet then men. The authors believe that allow this is a giant stop towards equality they do not believe it is the end of the digital divide between the sexes. This is because the technology we use is often works to subordinate less systemically favored characteristics and individuals. They also discuss how privileged groups often look at equal access for all groups as the main goal in bridging the digital divide. The authors believe that this makes it even more possible to keep the privileged, privileged and the disadvantaged, disadvantaged. I agree with this sentiment. Simply increasing access to technology will not bridge student achievement gaps. When working with technology teachers should use a multicultural ethic and meet all students where they are.






The Article

Article 4- Libraries

I recently read two short articles from the American Library Association. One was called “Libraries: Ensuring Information Equity in the Digital Age” (Kranich, 2001) and the second was called: “President’s Message: Reaching out to the Underserved: (Hayden, 2004). Both of these articles addressed the digital divide and how libraries should play a role in keeping media access equitable. They mentioned that libraries are community recourses that should not only be responsible to provide access to information on the internet but too also teach people to sort out and find the best quality information. They also brought up the fact that The Gates Foundation is working to bring technology to Native American tribal peoples. The information age has the potential to create greater equality in accessing information but only if we make an effort to spread its technology to all people. Although this article did not directly address schools I believe libraries can play a huge role in reducing the digital divide. Especially as a resource parents can use to become more digitally literate.

In fact, I decided to research this topic because I was made aware that Citizens of Monroe County can only access the internet through a Library for a maximum for 1.5 hours a day. In such a highly digital world that seems outrageous. I can understand that all individuals should have a turn to use the internet in the Public Library, but if there is no line why should someone be kicked off without even the opportunity to come back later in the day?

The ALA

Article Three

Today I read an article called "Connecting Across Many Divides: Digital, Racial, and Socio-Economic" by Hinson & Daniel(2001). This article is a little outdated but that aspect helped me to gain some new angles of curiosity on this issue. The article was about a community in Louisiana that got involved with a project called WishTV. WishTV gave a free one year subscription to the internet to all fourth grade families, teachers and churches in the community. 4th grade was used because they had a high stakes standardized test coming up and they wanted to see if the internet access would help boost student scores. This types of internet could be accessed without a modem or a computer. Anyone with a TV could access this special type of internet.

Although the article offered no test results the effects of the program seemed very positive. Both students, teachers, and parents were engaged and motivated to use the technology for education purposes. Teachers and students helped each other to use the technology and find educational resources. Students taught parents to use the technology and parents felt more connected to the schools. Parents were able to check the internet to find out what student homework was and could also e-mail teachers. Overall, the program seemed to be a huge success.

I believe that in the nine years since this article our relationship to the internet has altered greatly. Most students, at least in many large Urban districts have had access to the internet, at least at school, and think of it as a recreational tool. They browse it too play games and watch music videos. If they had it at home I believe they would use it the same way.

The community involvement aspect from this article is something I view as very unique and important. In order to get a keyboard parents had to attend a training and sign a proper use agreement. Although children probably used the internet for nonacademic purposes, I believe that the parental involvement helped to focus internet use on academic subjects. Internet at home can be a huge help in accessing information to complete homework assignments but it's important that parents show interest and encourage kids to care about their education. This community seems to have something that I believe many communities lack. A positive supportive relationship between students, parents, and school staff.

TV and Internet Combination

Article Two

The Article “Bridge the Digital Divide for Educational Equity” by Christine Y. Mason and Richard Dodds, presents the opinion that the proper implementation of technologies in schools can help bridge the achievement gap. It further explains that technological advances have the power to both hurt and hinder our most needy students. The Digital Divide is having the largest effect on none-Asian minority students. Less than half of African American and Hispanic youth are able to go on-line at all. While at least two thirds of Caucasian and Asian students go on-line. It also has the potential to have a huge effect on students with special needs such as special education students and ELLs. We need to make sure these groups of students are given the specialized technology needed to help them equally access technology and the internet.
Mason, C., & Dodds, R. (2005) see increased funding for technology and principals as the driving forces to use technology to make education more equitable for our most disenfranchised students. They believe it is up to principals to hire technology specialist and make smart spending decisions. Principals must work to purchase the most inexpensive technologies to fulfill future needs.
I do believe individual principals make a huge difference in the schools they work, but under out current economical and political climate more funding is unlikely. Strangely, more and more classrooms continue to receive technology such as laptops and smart boards. I do believe these tools are useful and work to engage students. Yet, I am uncertain that new technology is the best way to use limited educational funds at this time. I don’t understand how schools continue to put in smartboards while they lay off more and more teachers. Technology is very important, but the numbers prove that smaller student-to-teacher ratios increase student success. At risk students need access to technology but not before good teachers. The article also mentioned computer technology Universal Design for Learning (UDL). They said that when technology comes with it there is little need for teacher preparation. I will research UDL further.
UDL

Article One

I just read the article: “Redefining the Digital Divide: Beyond Access to Computers and the Internet” by Valadez abd Duran (2007). This article attempted to broaden the definition of “digital divide” to include more than simple access to technology. The authors explained that they believe the digital divide is multidimensional and includes four distinct dimensions: physical access, C&I (computer & internet) use in the classroom, availability of support for C&I, and social consequences of use of IT. This is because simple access to technology does not mean it is being engaged in a analytical and critical manner. Often times low income school districts are given the technology but use it to drill basic skill rather than allowing students to be creative and implement it into the curriculum. This is because of many of the dimensions listed above. For example teachers may not have access to the professional development necessary to become fully digitally literate. Their research supported their multidimensional view of the “digital divide”. Lower income schools seemed to have slightly less access to technology but they also had a tendency to engaged with it less often and in less meaningful ways then the higher income school. I agree very much with what was stated in this article. As a substitute teacher in the Rochester City School District I am very familiar with the skill drill programs students engage with during their scheduled computer lab time. In addition I have seen children engage with the computer in more interactive ways, such as, completing research for a project. Yet, this research is often limited to the daily or weekly hour that their classroom is able to get a lab top cart. Technology is certainly being installed in low income schools but skill and drill will not develop critically literate children. We must continually work to close the “knowledge divide” being furthered by the expansion of digital technology.

Digital Divide