A Few of My Favorite Things

John Hunter's World Peace

    John Hunter, a fourth grade gifted teacher, invented a world peace game that is designed to challenge the cognitive abilities of children. The game began as a 4x4 piece of wood; however, now the game has transformed into a four layered board piece. In the game, the students name four fictional countries and are assigned positions for each country. There are fifty interlocking problems that the students must work through and try to increase their countries beginning value in order to win the game. All of the problems are based on Africa.
    I believe the idea of this game is wonderful to challenge students. First of all, it will really help students develop better critical thinking skills that will help them later in their education. Also, it really opens the eyes of the students to worldly problems. This game could ultimately help the students be more aware of trying to help fix worldly issues. However, there are also additional problems associated with the game. Elementary education is so focused now on test scores that teachers will have issues getting the game approved to use in their classrooms. Principals might view the game as distracting to the students and not preparing them for their state tests. Also, parents might find that the game is too mature for their child. Although these are common problems of materials used by teachers in a classroom, I believe that students could greatly benefit from participating in John Hunter's world peace game.

Voki

Ocean Animals- Concept Map

Ocean Animals

I.       Dolphins

A.    Echolocation

Dolphins use their echolocation as their sonar system. They produce high frequency clicks which bounce off of other objects. This information is used to tell the dolphins the shape, size, and distance of surrounding objects.

B.    Mammals

II.     Sharks

A.    Livers aid in floating

B.    Cartilaginous fish

III.    Clown Anemonefish

A.    28 Species

B.    Born all male

Clown Anemonefish are born as all males. Then under certain conditions, some males transform into females. Once the males have transformed into females, they cannot turn back into males.

IV.    Sea Horses

A.    Propel with dorsal fins

B.    Move eyes independently

Sea horses are able to move their eyes independently of each other. This helps the tiny creatures protect themselves from danger because they are able to watch for approaching predators at all time.

V.     Sea Turtles

A.    Threatened species

1.    Pollution

As people dump trash and oil into the ocean, the sea turtle living closer to shore often eat the trash. This causes an infection throughout their body ultimately killing the turtle.

2.    Boat collisions

B.    Long life span

Most sea turtles that survive the harsh conditions live to be up to 50 years old. As they grow older, the sea turtle move closer to the shore line.

Digitial Citizenship: Using Technology Appropriately

     In today's society, people must constantly be aware of their personal safety. There is no difference in the digital world because there will always be dangers. However, people can be educated on the nine elements of digital citizenship. The first element is digital access which means that in order to be productive citizens we must be available to equal digital access. The second element is digital commerce which is the electronic element of buying and selling products through the digital world. Digital communication is the third element that describes how technology has invented multiple methods of communication. The fourth element is digital literacy which that people have to constantly learn about new and changing technology. Digital etiquette is the fifth element that discusses what is appropriate for the digital world. The sixth element is digital law which means that people are legally responsible for what is said in the digital world. Digital rights and responsibility are the seventh element that expands off of the right in the US constitution. The eighth element is digital health and wellness that addresses physical and mental implications technology can have on a person. The ninth element is digital security which describes how people should protect themselves from the dangers of the digital world.
     Digital citizenship is key in creating a beneficial use of the digital world. Educators should be aware of how to educate students about each element of digital citizenship.Students should be aware of their actions in the digital world, as well as their personal safety. If each person followed these guidelines, then the digital world would be more a safe place to use in everyone's daily lives. However, there will always be harmful elements of everything, so we should educate ourselves about our safety and our own rights in the new digital world.

'Safe' Social Networking Tailored for K-12 Schools

     Teachers realize the impact social media could have on a student's education and are tying to use the student's knowledge at the maximum potential possible. We live in a time period where students will use social media no matter what;however, safe social media sites have been designed to use social media to expand a student's education. These sites were designed in order to protect teachers and students, as well as, use the student's natural ability to interact on social media sites. Sites such as Edmodo and eChalk are controlled environments that are set up for teachers to lead students discussions. Also, teachers can monitor student posting and their are safety blockers on the sites to help block people from making obscene postings.
     I believe that these education social media sties would be extremely beneficial to students. It would expand social media to students, so that they could learn how to benefit from connecting with others. Additionally, it would help students to properly display their thoughts about a discussion instead of common oral discussions. The students would have time to reflect and organize their thoughts before having to share them with the class. I also believe it will help students to put more efforts into their work because their peers would be reading it also. As longs as the teacher safely monitor the posts, I believe educational social media will be beneficial for students.

Children's Internet Protection Act July Deadline

     On July 1, 2012, CIPA will include educating students about online safety and cyberbullying in order to receive E-rate federal funds. Schools are able to receive E-rated federal funds by complying to the regulation of the CIPA. Although this new regulation of CIPA is not confusing, schools main issue will be to have a plan written by the deadline to include instruction of online safety and cyberbullying into student curriculum. CIPA does not mandate how the schools are to include this curriculum, so school districts are able to teach the curriculum in the way that best fits their students.
     I believe the biggest issue school districts will have with the July deadline is making the requirement more complicated than it is. School districts have free will about how to teach the content and how to address the information. I believe the most logical way to teach the content to younger children would be to set up a computer play center in each class. The students would have to learn how to properly work the computers before they ever were allowed to use it. I believe once the school districts work out the issues of implementing the new regulation that the students will greatly benefit from the exposure to online safety and cyberbullying. This regulation could ultimately save the lives of children.

A Future Full of Badges

     Universities are now looking into a technological badge to change the way universities validate higher learning. UC-Davis in California is one of the first to receive a badge for their development in research on plant genetics, water conservation, and pest control. These badges were created by the Mozilla Foundation, creators of Firefox web browsing. These badges would be described as awards of achievement for groups and individuals. The badges would ultimately help people display their academic achievement and goals more clearly to future employers. The badges would change entire way academic offices displayed students' achievement rather than displaying a general transcript with letter grades.
     The badges system, I believe, would ultimately be beneficial for all aspects of education. IT could really impact a student's learning because it allows the student to display their knowledge in a relate-able fashion. It would also allow students to become responsible for their learning rather than relying on a general letter grade. Additionally, the badges systems allows for people to track their own goals and success. Students would be able to see growth and potential continually rather than only at the end of a semester. I believe the badges would be beneficial if used correctly in education to distinguish achievement and success of goals.

How To Incorporate Gamification in My Future Classroom

     Gamification can be extremely important in classrooms today. By using the student's natural competitive nature, I could help the students learn new concepts. Several people today view student's education as lacking because they believe students are no longer motivated to learn. However, that is such a wrong statement because students can easily be engaged in learning if the teacher implementing gamification in their classroom. The first focus must be on the students interest and skill level. You would not expect a 7 year old boy to want to pretend to be a father to a baby. However, if the gamification was installed in the activity and the boy thought it was a competition to see who could properly hold a baby or feed a baby, then the boy would be more motivated to correctly preform the task. With each lesson, you have to look at the broader message of the lesson and not focus on the actual activity to the students. The boy would not be excited about the lesson if I started class by saying, "Today we are going to play with baby dolls!" As a teacher, I have to be able to incorporate every students interest and motivating ideas into helping the student gain a better understanding of the concept being taught. 

The Virtues of Blogging as Scholarly Actvity Review

     I really thought it was great to see the blogging aspect of research being shown as accountable research. In our society today, college students view journal articles as a nuisance that our professors require us to research. However, it is not the information in the articles that students are bored by; the style of journal articles are outdated. Being technically savvy,  I would much rather research a blog that displayed videos or presentations about a topic than read a fifteen page journal article with only one way of communicating the author's idea. Research even shows today that students learn information better when it is displayed to them in multiple methods. Additionally, students would also be more self-motivated to do research for themselves if they could research for accountable blogs. Blogging helps students see how information can be displayed multiple ways while still gaining the same knowledge of a journal article. Of course, scholarly activity will always be done through research; however, universities should begin to recognize the impact blogs could have on educating students. Since research shows how students gain a deeper understanding of knowledge through their preferred interest, universities should begin allowing blogs to help formally educate students on new research. We should all continually use our vast array of technological knowledge to display our research findings to others.  

Vision of K-12 Student Today- 2011

  Technology occupations are continually growing. With this increase of job fields, students must be proficient in technology skills. Although students know how to use technology as social media and gaming, students should also be taught technology skills in order to be applicable for these upcoming jobs.  These students additionally need math, comprehension, and foreign ability skills. China and India are largest English speaking countries. spend most time using technology. 89% of teachers never used a blog.

How Web Literacy Personally Affects Me

     In today's society, the use of the internet has increased drastically. This is a great advance in our technological world; however, only if people use the knowledge of the internet to its maximum potential. As a young adult, my generation viewed the internet as a way to interact with our friends through social media and help simplify research information for our research papers. Unfortunately, our pride of technological ability is actually a false perception because we are not using the ability of the internet properly.
     I had never reflected on my use of the internet until I began this course. Being that I desire to be a educator, I now see the importance of ability of the internet because students need to know how to truly use the internet. For example, I had never thought of twitter as being anything more than another social media site. I thought hashtags were simply conversational ques. Having my eyes opened to twitter's ability, I now see how it can be used to research information or seek guidance from others concerning information through linked hashtags. This enable others to gather their own information and publish their own thoughts and ideas concerning topics.
    As a future educator, I have to be aware of my students' knowledge to successfully use the internet for gaining knowledge. Additionally, I believe that students will be excited to learn new ways to gain knowledge through their own social media sites. I have to be able to teach my students that the internet has much more potential than we use. As technology increases, I want my students to be able to increase their knowledge of how to access the maximum potential of each piece of new and old technology.