Journal #9

Journal #9

Tim Wu’s Slate article “iPhony” is quite the bold statement. Determined to cut the iPhone hype concentrate with some good, old-fashioned water, Wu is completely unafraid to call Apple’s new iPhone remarkably unrevolutionary, and he’s terribly glad you asked. Wu calls the iPhone’s closed-platform design and single carrier availability quite the contradiction to Apple’s corporate mantra of “Think Different”. Pointing to the sub-par internet outside of limited immediate Wi-Fi service areas, Wu questions exactly what Apple thinks is revolutionary about a hand-held personal computer that does so little to challenge the status quo of the wireless industry. Remaining hopeful, he does provide some ideas for improving any future editions of iPhones, such as permanent roaming that allows users to choose the carrier that provides them the best service or changing to an open-platform design that will allow developers to make the iPhone as great as it could (and some argue should) be.

Question 1:

Is there any indication of whether Apple will be releasing OS upgrades/updates or phones with greater capabilities like Wu wishes the current iPhone had?

A small amount of research seems to indicate that OS upgrades could be downloaded via computer or to the iPhone directly but there is no indication at this point whether any will be released.

Question 2:

What does Apple have to say to critics of the iPhone?

Steve Jobs replies to most criticisms that Apple has plans for developing applications for the iPhone’s web-browser Safari, but the fact remains that these applications would remain limited to when the iPhone has Wi-Fi access. Beyond that there seems to be no response to other criticisms.

Journal #8

Journal #8

Michael Agger’s article “Google Spy” concerns a whole new level of internet voyeurism. While GoogleEarth was stunningly powerful and massive, Google Street View is a kind of creepy snapshot of real streets on GoogleMaps taken with real cameras of real people doing normal real day-to-day things. And while it was to be a very useful application, giving users access to real images of real locations instead of just top-view schematics of typical online map applications, many who were wittingly or unwittingly caught in embarrassing poses when the GoogleShutter snapped have been eager to make their complaints addressed.

Question 1:

Is Google Street View really worth the money put into it?

I’m not sure exactly, but it probably cost a lot to get people to drive around some of the United States’ largest cities and take real photographs of every street and then take all of those images and insert them into a whole new software application that is supposed to load the images instantly for millions of users. I guess it just sounds expensive.

Question 2:

It seems like Google has a lot going on. The article mentioned Google Patents—what is that all about?

Google patents is a section of Google designated for patent searching. You can even download .pdf’s of patents for personal record keeping. Perhaps the article mentions it because it was one of the less useful Google tools.

Journal #7

Journal #7

According to Christopher Beam’s article “In Your Face”, Facebook.com is the sleeping giant of social networking sites. Beam’s article comparatively analyzes the web’s most popular social networking sites and comes to the conclusion that if Facebook.com would only add a few truly useful components to it’s already practical and respectably clean interface, well, “The rest of the Internet might as well surrender.” Calling Myspace.com downright creepy and citing the uselessness of Second Life’s large-breasted 3D avatars and make-believe currency, Beam believes that Facebook.com and Myspace.com are already the closest things we have to “virtual worlds.” He believes that the final missing link (one that Facebook.com is quickly discovering) combines the demands of the real world, such as real-time news feeds, email, and instant messaging, with the familiarity and utility of the virtual world. Beam says that with mergers like Yahoo! and Myspace.com on the horizon, Facebook.com would only need to write some truly useful applications for its users spaces to create an unstoppable social networking juggernaut.

Question 1:

Do people really use/care about Facebook and social networking that much?

In a word, HECK YES THEY DO! Facebook.com has 27 million users and has seen a dramatic increase since the release of Facebook Platform.

Question 2:

Who else is capitalizing on this?

Beam adds that even politicians are deciding to use social networking sites like Facebook to promote themselves. My.BarackObama.com can only boast of 70,000 registered users, while on Facebook.com, Thousands of users have downloaded the Obama Facebook application and hundreds of thousands have joined Obama-themed groups.

Journal 6

Journal #6

In an article from the April 2005 issue of Learning and Leading entitled “Filming Compassion”, authors Janet Bremer and Marilyn Clark discuss service learning and show different ways that teachers can incorporate components of service learning into a curriculum. To be honest, I didn’t really understand what they meant exactly by “service learning” so I guess now I’d loosely define it as “an assignment or project that makes students complete by contributing to disadvantaged areas of their communities.” In this case, students were assigned short video ads that the inner city school or daycare center or homeless soup kitchen could use to show how students spend a typical day at school or to show potential donators all of the services provided by the soup kitchen. The students were given a rubric outlining all of the criteria that had to be satisfied to receive a good grade so that it would be ensured that their work would be of value to the school/ centers/ organizations after they were done.

Question 1:

What grade level would such projects be appropriate for?

This kind of activity would probably be most useful in the upper education levels, like grades 9-12. I think it would be easier to arrange transportation to and from the shooting locations if the students were teamed up with each other such that they could get the work done without depending on their parents. I also think that older students could be more mature and could get more out of this kind of project as opposed to younger, more immature grade levels where they might not be at a place where they could really take it seriously or make a quality film for them.

Question 2:

Would supervision be a problem?

Supervision should not be a problem as long as the students have arranged in advance with the organizations/schools that they may come and make the films.

Journal 4

Journal 4

In the online article “Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog”, Patricia Deubel outlines some key factors in creating a successful instructional blog. While blogs may seem like yet another unnecessary novelty in the educational sphere, the authors would seem to indicate otherwise. Educators see blogs as an opportunity for students to participate in class discussions without having to be in a classroom. For those students who “might have something truly relevant to say but are too shy to do so”, the blogs can be a great way to incorporate a broader range of views without the trammels of classroom teacher-student discourse and the typical “few who dominate discussion”.

The authors agree that in order for a blog to be effective, it must be bound by rules and guided by goals. Students, in order to standardize and regulate postings, will have word count/content requirements and will also abide by a mandatory code of conduct that will keep them abreast of ethical considerations pertaining to computer/internet use and well versed in standard netiquette. They also agree that student commentary should be top priority and that individual learning will take place most effectively when the students’ own ideas are allowed to come out and when they are active participants in their own education process.

1. Couldn’t an effectively monitored/guided classroom discussion be just as effective as this?

Public speaking isn’t that big of a problem for students, so in a sense, yes, a classroom could be effective. But blogs are unique because of just how open the responses can be in setting and in format. So students can not just reply how they want to, but when. Students may learn more because they will not just be reading class material, but will also be able to read other students’ responses and think about others’ ideas before responding themselves. Blogs don’t solve the problem of classroom participation in learning, but they do offer some very handy solutions.

2. Could this be a novelty concept, like the MUVEs?

Blogs are fairly straight-forward in their function and use, and they require very little technological expertise to operate or at least post. There are no elaborate avatars, economies, designed environments. It is simply classroom dialogue placed in a new setting that many students may find much more approachable than direct in-class participation. It makes the job of the teacher and the student much easier and requires very little computer knowledge on both their parts. Blogs may be here to stay.

Journal 3

Journal 3

In the article “Social Justice—Choice or Necessity?”, authors Colleen Swain and David Edyburn raise a number of questions regarding social justice as they pertain to a teacher’s selection of classroom technologies and their availability to all students. While providing some admittedly poor examples of technology use from a social justice perspective, authors Swain and Edyburn do provide a general set of ideas that define truly equitable technology use in the classroom, claiming that it should be equally “available; used routinely; used in ways that reflect real-world applications of interest, complexity, and power; used to enhance learning opportunities for all students; and used to monitor teacher/students progress over time.”

Questions

1. Is it really such a big issue that it needs an article written for it and a “Digital Equity Portal” devoted to providing resources for effective and fair technology use?

I don’t know if it’s that easy of an issue to solve. Social inequality exists because of historic prejudices, stereotypes, existing social systems and programs, and basic geographic and economic inequality that are intermingled with the others. It seems to me that this ideal of social justice looks good on paper, but as far as making it a reality in a classroom, a kid with a personal computer in his or her room will still be more technologically adept than a student who has to take a bus ride or wait for a parent to come home from work to get to the library for computer access. While the classroom can attempt to be a level playing field for all students, it cannot possibly hope to be the final solution to the problem of social and economic inequality and their effects on student opportunities.

2. Why is social justice in the classroom so important?

As educators, it is crucial that we create a learning environment that aims to promote equality and fair treatment for all students. In terms of technology, this includes providing equal access and being prepared to assist those students who may be at a disadvantage when it comes to learning through technology. This is how technology use in the classroom enters the realm of social justice and gains new significance.

Journal 2

Journal 2

The article “Real Life Migrants on the MUVE” by Ross A. Perkins and Cathy Arreguin explores the worlds of possibilities and opportunities for learning in MUVEs, or, Multi-User Virtual Environments. Explored for entertainment value in massive-multiplayer online role-playing games where users can create virtual identities for themselves and interact with others in mythical worlds and slay dragons, now educators are catching on and beginning to embrace this technology in the classroom.

Some see this technology as an invaluable tool that could allow students to learn in more abstract ways and could allow teachers to present students with learning situations and environments where they could be studying multiple subjects or ideas simultaneously. The article focuses on a specific program called “Second Life” from Linden Labs in San Francisco whose technology has been implemented in the 8^th grade curricula at Suffern Middle School. While many call it a novelty, the fact remains that many educators are endorsing MUVEs as learning environments of the future where the possibilities are truly endless.

Questions

1. Why would teachers go through the trouble of paying a subscription to a service, buying computers and programs, then learning the software and going through the trouble of creating a digital bulb and a digital socket, just to teach kids how to screw in a light bulb when they could be learning how to do this in real live? Is this technology really that convenient or does it foster creativity at the expense of practicality?

Teachers would use these environments not just to teach kids simple things, but to provide them with diverse and unique opportunities for learning that they otherwise would not have been exposed to. The technology is by no means convenient, but the lingering hope is that the work put into developing a lesson plan in these environments will pay off in the learning experiences, progress, and understanding of students.

2. What are the estimated costs for the sustained use of this program in education?

The Second Life website says membership is free.