G. Brasher's Blog

Technology Case for Schools-Mai’Nada Comics Sketches

gbrasher — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:01:08 +0000

Mai’Nada Comics Sketches
is a website where students or teachers can create comic sketches and tell a story. However, I can see how administrators at schools could see this as a site they might need to block. Administrators would have to be worried about what students or teachers are sketching, drawing and saying on this website, and that it is used for educational purposes only while in school. Because anything that is said that is considered profane or unacceptable behavior reflects directly on the student, teacher, and the school. As this website is a way to express what they feel by drawing and writing out comics, it can also be a dangerous place if students misuse this technology. It leaves to much room for students to be able to threat, single out, terrorize individual or groups of students, and claim that is just their freedom to express what they feel, without actually saying or doing something in person. That is a potential problem and liability that administrators would have to deal with.

I still think this progressive technology could be extremely useful in the classroom as a way of offering another activity to display what they have learned besides the classic paper. I think the positives outway the negatives with using sights like these, as long as they are monitored properly. It is also our job as teachers to teach students responsibility and awareness of the good and bad while on these websites which promotes proper behavior inside and outside school. This comic sketch website allows students to be creative in almost any subject area. For instance, students in an English class for a project could create the characters they invision from a book and write and draw out a scene in a comic strip, or possible continue a story by doing a comic strip, or encourage creative writing skills by having students create their own story with a comic strip. There are so many options available with using these websites, these are the type of websites students are interested in and are visiting. It is possible that by using them in the classroom, they will start to use these websites in a more intellectual way in and out of school. I think it could be beneficial for students to learn how to use these critical thinking skills in a variety of ways that will help them in educational and societal settings.

Milwaukee Art Museum Architecture

gbrasher — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:47:11 +0000

Milwaukee Art Museum Architecture

Tim Tyson: Closing Key note

gbrasher — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:55:56 +0000

He was was very interesting to listen to and brought up ideas that I had never even thought about using in the classroom. I think our society and school systems are so very fortunate to have access to so many resources and be able to globally distribute information, projects from students, texts, ideas, and much more. This can not only get students excited to learn but these activities that use technology can get students engaged in their own learning, and helps them learn how to solve problems and learn in a more meaningful way. Isn’t this what all teachers are out to do, to have students engaged in their learning and for it to be meaningful and applicable to their lives and surroundings?The fact that 11, 12 ,and 13 year old students can have an impact on people around the world through their contributions with schoolwork is amazing. That is real learning, communicating and sharing knowledge on their own, rather than not having a voice and listening only to the teacher teach. Technology can truly help create an authentic learning experience for students. What teachers have to realize is that no matter how young the students are, it is the teachers’s jobs to provide meaningful class activities so the students can have a meaningful learning experience. This meaningful learning experience means exploring new topics, and introducing new ways of learning by using technology. Technology like students using videos, podcasts, blogs, etc. These projects give students the freedom of learning more, increasing their comprehension and impact on people around the world. Tyson said his students at Mabry Middle School have touched on subjects that are not always touched on in middle school, but rather subjects that the students are interested in and that are highly intelligable that can benefit their learning experience as well as the experience of others who view their entries on itunes. Students are learning about the affects font, images, words, and other media have on society, then they are using this knowledge to create their own projects about interesting topics and sharing them with the world. The videos shown in Typson’s presentation that were created by students were great, I was really impressed with what students can do when they are given the tools they need in order to learn. I think that is awesome to see an enhanced learning environment with technology. I wish alot of this would have been more available when I was in middle school. I’ve learned that what students learn doesn’t have to come directly from the books, they can learn alot more through the use of technology and critical thinking about real life issues that effect everyone. Students are learning more in depth concepts that are not necessarily seen in text books but pertain to the subjects and correlate with the performance standards, while bettering the students learning experience and comprehension. This is SCHOOL.

Websites

gbrasher — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:39:43 +0000

Piclits, Scratch, and Voki were websites we looked at today. I found Scratch to not be as user friendly to navigate around the website, it didn’t directly tell me what to do or how to do it. However, Voki was very interesting. This would be a very useful tool for the classroom, you could create an avatar and have it be another way of communicating information to students, or have students create their own avatars based on characters from stories, or as themselves and have them write about why they picture a certain character or themselves in the way the potrayed them through avatars. Piclits is something I would defintely use in the classroom. I like how you can put pictures up on a screen and drag words or create words to put on the picture. That is a great way for students to learn how to use analytical skills by analyzing a picture and putting key words on the page. These websites are something you could use to keep the students attention, as well as provide them with more applicable scenarios and texts besides books, so they can use these skills in the real world.

Media Literacy

gbrasher — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:39:54 +0000

It is amazing the difference in media literacy from the 19th and 20th century to the 21st century. Students and teachers have access to media of all sorts, which reach beyond just print material from books. Technology has improved therefore the literacy of students has improved, there are different ways for students to express themselves, analyize, and evaluate texts, that relate to real world issues. I didn’t even think about the difference between centuries on how students now have the ability ot create, and participate in their own literacy, through many outlets on the web, by using various multimedia sites that encourage and improve a higher form of literacy. It is so important for people to be literate today, because as a society we consume a very high rate of media through tv, the internet, newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio, music, video games, and much more. Students have to learn how to adapt and be able to understand the world around them through communication that involves other media that is more visual and readily available compared to books/print. The world of media is more complex, can be more difficult to understand and have embedded messages, therefore it is necessary that as teachers we help to teach and further the knowledge of students throught these same types of media, since it is what is in the real world. We have to provide students with the skills to be able to analyze the message behind media and the construction of the media source.

Websites Targeting Kids/Teens as Possible Texts

gbrasher — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:56:55 +0000

I was looking at the website for CapriSun, the juice drink for kids/teens. The Kraft Brand CapriSun created this website. They used colorful animated characters on the main page, with a game that they can play, they also used creative language like “Disrespectoids”, which sounds alot like other robots or other characters in movies or shows that are attractive to this young audience. Children or teens would automatically be atracted to this page, because it is a game they can play, instead of just reading something on a page. Then they can play the game and see what happens to certain characters that “disrespect the pouch” meaning don’t disrespect the drink. Starbursts also attracts a young audience. It’s statement is a pack of contradiction and drama. That is definitely what is a part of a teenagers life, and something many teenagers can relate too. The website is colorful, loud, music that is intriguing to that specific audience, and has videos. It obviously doesn’t largely appeal to an adult audience because the environment on both the starburst page and CapriSun page is something that is more young looking, and something the youth would want to play around with. Both of these messages basically say, if you don’t drink this you’re disrespecting it, or eat these for an exciting time that is relateable to their lives. Starburst commercials pick scenarios that are familiar to that audience, like cheerleaders, or a club, or scenarios that are humorous to that age group. Lip Smackers chapstick is an intersting product, with a very girly/preteen vibe website. The message sent is this product is fun, and can make you girly. This website is loaded with links to girl characters on shows who use this product, games, contests, ecards, chat boards, videos, music, photos, advice and much more. The creators used bright pinks, greens, purples,etc., plus bubbly letters, and icons associated with girlyness. This website promotes girls being confident,happy, and with a high self-esteem. It not only promotes their product, but promotes good values young women should follow, as well as who to look up to.

My thoughts on Scrutinizing the Cybersell by Dr. Crovitz

gbrasher — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:56:16 +0000

I thought the article was very interesting about how Dr. Crovitz talked about the media culture that is a part of students’ daily interactions. It is important that Dr. Crovitz pointed out that the web can be used in ways in the classroom that are new takes on the same standards that are being taught in literature classrooms. We need to teach students about critical thinking, and how to fully understand websites, just as they would with print. Especially since multimedia texts, and advertisements are largely directed towards a younger audience. These texts are persuasive in different ways than print can do. Multimedia texts can persuade an audience with a credible website, colorful print, video, language, and sound. This opens doors for classroom activities, such as research and in-depth analysis of what message is being delivered through websites. Students can also create projects that record their findings, and explore new ideas and their thoughts on what they are reading, much like we are doing with our projects in class. English Teachers are responsible for teaching the generations ahead to be able to adapt to new forms of media.

Ch.4 of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms

gbrasher — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:27:56 +0000

Teachers tend to stay far away from Wikipedia, but Wikis allow you to be editor in chief on whatever subject you so chose. There is so much flexibility to using a wikipedia, and can also be beneficial in the classroom.

Wikis have the possibility of not containing accurate information but according to the book Wikipedia is one of the most accurate encyclopedias in the world, which I found to be surprising. None the less, there are challenges with wikipedia, but if teachers do some research and teach their students ways of using wikipedias, it can actually become a great learning experience.

Possibilities for activities using wikipedia would be having students look on wikipedia and find a topic that has no entries, and for them to do some real credible research, and learn how to add and edit an entry on wikipedia, so all the world can benefit from this knowledge. Or just have the students go on Wikipedia and look up things they are studying and add to or correct mistakes in the entries. This is a fun assignment and nontraditional which can be helpful every once in awhile to stray away from the traditional research paper or assignment. Wikipedia can be used for any classroom subject, and can be used to gain these technologically independent students’ attention.

Who knew Wikipedia could be more useful than just a starting point for research?

Quebracho

gbrasher — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:31:37 +0000

What is a Quebracho?I have no idea, so I found that the encyclopedia referred to Quebracho as “axe breaker”. I found out through other sources like wikipedia and britanica that it is a hardwood type of tree, and that is likely the reason for the name “axe breaker”. All of these sources confirmed that these sorts of trees grow in the Gran Chaco area of South America.

The information was very limited in all the sources I used, and said just about the same thing. Wikipedia seems to be more accessible than both britannica and the encyclopedia. Britannica was annoying because it had a pop up that wanted me to buy a membership to Britannica. Wikipedia though is unreliable and can be altered by unreliable sources,but has many entries. But it can be used as a good starting point for researching interests. The Encyclopedia is dated and can’t be changed, or include pop culture. Kind of interesting what other resources yield on the same search of a topic.

Oh I also made an edit to a typo on a Wikipedia page…wow I’m learning so much!

Such a funny video

gbrasher — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:45:50 +0000

This video made me laugh so hard. This is a video of a baby who can give the evil eye, and I’m not quite sure how the baby does it but it is absolutely hilarious. I hope you enjoy!