Please come…you’ll love it! My school district competes every year….we are only one of a few platinum level districts in the state! It is a great experience for students! Maybe we’ll see you there….come by Magoffin County High School’s table if you come!

My final thoughts are along the lines of Jeffrey’s email that Dr. Lowell sent out.

I like doing this kind of a class and other online classes will seem so different now that this approach has been given to me. 

Thanks to you Dr. Lowell and everyone in the class for a great semester!

Anyway, I ran across this from my Opening Bell about technology in the classroom.

Technology helps teachers gauge classroom comprehension.

The AP(5/8) reported that Providence Junior/Senior High School in Clarksville, Indiana “has installed a computerized system called SMART — or self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology — in four classrooms.” The technology allows teachers to “ask questions of students, who then enter their answer into a handheld device similar to a small remote control. The teacher can see how many students got the right answer and determine whether more review on a subject is needed.” Further, “[t]he system gives immediate information about how each student is performing and can print out personalized study questions for each student.” Educators involved with the Clarksville school called SMART “an effective way to engage students,” as well as “a very quick way to gauge the understanding of everybody across the board without that fear of being made fun of.”

Sounds to me like an innovative approach.

http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/2008/05/useful-information-in-and-out-of.html

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found interesting this week. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Discus – a collection of library resources purchased by the South Carolina State Library for use by South Carolina citizens. If you don’t live in SC, your state may purchase similar resources for its residents. The website includes an FAQ page with information about accessing the databases provided by DISCUS. It also has a neat “Kids” page that my students have used.Kuder – “provides Internet-based tools and resources that help students and adults achieve their educational and career planning goals.”

Filamentality “is a fill-in-the-blank tool that guides you through picking a topic, searching the Internet, gathering good Internet links, and turning them into online learning activities. In the end, you’ll create a web-based activity you can share with others even if you don’t know anything about HTML or serving web pages.”

Make Worksheets – free sample worksheets available.

The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education “sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. We focus on projects that utilize real time data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet’s potential to reach peers and experts around the world. Below is a catalog of projects that are currently being or have been sponsored by CIESE . Each project has a brief description and links to the National Science Standards and NCTM math standards it supports.”

Ethnography (Greek ἔθνος ethnos = people and γράφειν graphein = writing) is a genre of writing that uses fieldwork to provide a descriptive study of human societies. Ethnography presents the results of a holistic research method founded on the idea that a system’s properties cannot necessarily be accurately understood independently of each other. The genre has both formal and historical connections to travel writing and colonial office reports. Several academic traditions, in particular the constructivist and relativist paradigms, employ ethnographic research as a crucial research method. Many cultural anthropologists consider ethnography the essence of the discipline.^{[citation needed]}

I chose to do my ethnography on MySpace.  There is so much controversy about this SNS, and about many of them, and so since I have a 15 year old daughter who spends a huge amount of time on the site, I initially thought I would check up on her by having my own page, which is located at http://www.myspace.com/elvis412.

When I first designed the page, I enlisted her, and my niece’s help, and if it weren’t for them, I would not have a home skin or a song, and I would have about 9 out of my total 14 friends less showing up under my FRIENDS category.  I do have 5 friends from my class, and the 9 others that my daughter Paige helped me get-either by me just knowing them, or them thinking it was cool that I had a MySpace page.

And to the defense of MySpace, and what it stands for to my daughter, her friends, and myself, I now can and will always stand up for her and her circle of friends—plus myself -in the social networking that occurs from this site.  She was my first friend, so what can I say to that that is anything negative.  Her profile is private, as is mine, and I hope all of her friends, and as far as her activity on the space, she mainly just converses with her little network.  No, she doesn’t do much about school on it, except for maybe asking about an assignment through her IM, but as far as her safety and education, as long as she is on MySpace and not out drinking and driving, or doing all the other things that teenagers can engage in, then I’m okay with her on the SNS.  If she is safe, she can get her education, and I believe that one day one her teachers will have a MySpace and it will have more of an educational meaning to her.

There are many activities, and things about MySpace that she and her circle of friends utilize more so than me, and some of my friends from EDUC 628 utilize the options as well.

Privacy: 

I hope that all have they’re profile set to private, and NOT talk to people you don’t know.  I don’t.  Paige doesn’t, and anyone with any sense shouldn’t.  When I first joined MySpace, TOM was my first friend, and since I didn’t know him, I took myself off of the site because it scared me a little, only to find out from EVRYONE that he owned the space.

 Profile:

My profile has stayed pretty much the same since I acquired a space, but I think many people change there’s all of the time.  It is part of the fun.  Getting a new home skin about once a week happens a lot with my daughter and here circle of friends, and with this comes different songs, and for those of her friends her are really good at their profile presentation, slideshows are available as well as –slide TV-any many more applications.

The mood is important for some in the profile scheme of MySpace.  Some people update it daily, every 12 hours, I am not sure, but I never did anything with the mood. 

TOP FRIENDS:

This seems to be the most important for my daughter.  I set my friends to the top 24, and I have 14 friends, and I didn’t randomize it, so Paige would always show up first.  When I get more than 24 friends, I will set it to the TOP 50 friends.  I don’t want to get into this hype, but others utilize this feature a lot and this can stir up a lot of friction on people’s circles of friends.

Songs:

Changing songs happens a lot.  It is part of the fun too.

Pictures:

My friends add and update their pictures it seems like everyday.  I could never leave the house, and ask them to take pictures that day, and I would be able to see them that day.  Digital cameras are making a ton of money, and film developing probably isn’t now-a-days.

Bulletins:

 I posted a bulletin once, and got 1 response. (I can’t complain thought because I didn’t respond to posted bulletins at all.)Here is what I posted, and got a response to…  Thank you to the one who responded.

1.Why do you use MySpace? I use MySpace to keep in touch with my friends from high school and college mostly. We are scattered all over the place, and busy with our own lives, so it’s nice to be able to talk to them through MySpace.

2.How many hours a week do you spend on MySpace? maybe 3 hours
A day? about half an hour

3. Do you access MySpace from your phone? No my phone doesn’t have internet on it.

4. Is your profile private? Yes 5.How many friends do you have? 126 I think6.How many of them are YOUR friends? I’m not sure what this means… but I know all of them.7.How many of them are your good (not top) friends? Maybe 10-15 actual friends, the rest are just people that I know.

has a  post with excerpts from Danah Boyd’s observations of the site.

When MySpace launched in 2003, it was primarily used by 20/30-somethings The bands began populating the site by early 2004 and throughout 2004, the average age slowly declined. It wasn’t until late 2004 that teens really started appearing en masse on MySpace and 2005 was the year that MySpace became the “in thing” for teens.

While I may refer to the history as being a good reference, the observations about socio-economic divisions seem to me to be either old or wrong, or based on a certain pool of students surveyed.  Unspoken rule—what is written is not written in gold—it is an opinion.

 Observations: socio-economic divisions“good” kids are now going to Facebook: These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

• MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, “burnouts,” “alternative kids,” “art fags,” punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn’t play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers…..

Written in June of 2007, I think that her observations about socio-econnomic status—while then MAY have been true, I think that the culture of MySpace users is not that they are ostracized……  Her essay is about the pros and cons of MySpace and Facebook and fore further interest in her essay, at http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html, one could read here.

I am just for the space, so I will advocate for it primarily in this ethnography, and the culture to me of the space is not a social-economic division but can be considered a bridge instead….a bridge of cultures, education and technology.

This shows exactly how to export.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpvD7kWglR4

Now maybe he has some points in the Calculating Against Calculators chapter.  I will give him that.  I do agree that everyone should know their multiplication tables—without using a calculator.

Now for the next chapter, the Educating by Email one, I am so not in agreement with.  I have taken 25 online classes, and I really work hard at them.  I’m okay without the socialization.  I get that in my daily life, and will get it when I teach.  One point I would like to make is that he didn’t bring up the price of gas, and for me taking distance education classes is an option I will go with when I can because of the cost to travel to campus.

News Advisory 08-035 - April 28, 2008

            (FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) State Championship will be held Tuesday and Wednesday, May 6-7, at the Lexington Convention Center and Rupp Arena. The championship event is open to the public from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 6.

More than 4,300 adults and students are expected at the event , with 94 school districts and 310 schools represented. This event provides P-12 students from across the state with opportunities to present their projects to people outside their classrooms. Some of the best STLP projects in the state will be on display for parents and the public to view. The items range from community service projects to entrepreneurial activities. In addition to projects, students will bring digital music, video, writing and art products. The students will be competing in many areas of technology during live demonstrations, presentations and panels. An awards program is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7, in Rupp Arena.The event is a unique because students take on major roles during the two-day event. Students will serve as STLP Engineers and Buddies, produce the awards program and serve as cyber-reporters. Universities, school districts and community and national organizations provide judges and learning experiences for the students during the event.            Also, during the competition, a new STLP alumni Web site will be unveiled. The site’s purpose is to celebrate the achievements of former STLP students as they leave school and move on to higher education and careers. A team of STLP students from South Floyd High School in Floyd County designed the site and will receive a special STLP Project Award for their work.            The site — http://www.stlpalumni.org — is set to go live on May 6. Henry Hunt of the Kentucky Dataseam Initiative provided guidance to the South Floyd team in implementing the site. Dataseam operates one of the largest managed computing grids in the world. By harnessing the untapped computing power sitting throughout Kentucky’s K-12 schools and businesses, the Dataseam computing grid allows researchers to access much needed computing capabilities to forward research and commercialization of ideas.            STLP is a project-based learning program that empowers students in all grade levels to use technology to learn and achieve. It was established in 1994 by the STLP State Advisory Council, which is composed of teachers, students and community leaders. The program is open to all students in all grade levels in every school in Kentucky. -30-

also, I ran across this post by Taly Weiss with some interesting information about MySpace and Facebook, where Taly gives reference to some other research links regarding SNS, as well as some insight into Dana Boyd’s observations regarding the history of the two SNS, and  hooks us up to Dana’s  essay, Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace.  I haven’t read her essay yet, as I am saving that for my research day.

Weiss indicates pewinternet, and iprospect as other research sites, and gives a short version for Danah Boyds’ observations: 

1. Historical perspective: 2003-2007

• When MySpace launched in 2003, it was primarily used by 20/30-somethings The bands began populating the site by early 2004 and throughout 2004, the average age slowly declined. It wasn’t until late 2004 that teens really started appearing en masse on MySpace and 2005 was the year that MySpace became the “in thing” for teens.
• Facebook launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only site. It slowly expanded to welcome people with .edu accounts from a variety of different universities. In mid-2005, Facebook opened its doors to high school students, but it wasn’t that easy to get an account because you needed to be invited. As a result, those who were in college tended to invite those high school students that they liked. Facebook was strongly framed as the “cool” thing that college students did. So, if you want to go to college (and particularly a top college), you wanted to get on Facebook badly. Even before high school networks were possible, the moment seniors were accepted to a college, they started hounding the college sysadmins for their .edu account. The message was clear: college was about Facebook.

This blog was written I July of 2007, so things have changed some since, but I think it is a good resource if your doing your ethnography of either SNS.

….I’m done blogging today

http://remonzer.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/cr20-resources-wiki/

Upcoming Workshops, Tentative Schedule

• We are looking for venue/location sponsors for each workshop. See click through to information about physical requirements, and contact Steve Hargadon if you think you can help.
• We are also looking for local coordinators to help organize for each city. Here is a list of the coordinator responsibilities. Contact Steve Hargadon if you would like to help.

Requests and initial sign-ups for Classroom 2.0 LIVE workshop in your area can be made here. If an organizing page has already been started for a specific workshop, there will be a link below.

• May 8 & 9, 2008: Phoenix, AZ Local Organizer: Cherie Stafford and/or Peggy George
• June 20, 2008: Houston, TX Local Organizer: Stephanie Sandifer
• June 28, 2008: San Antonio, TX (in conjunction with EduBloggerCon NECC) Local Organizer: Steve Hargadon
• July 14, 2008: **Boston, MA** (around BLC?) Local Organizer: Liz Davis
• July 17 & 18?: Chicago, IL Local Organizer: Lucy Gray
• July, 2008: New York Local Organizer:
• August 15 & 16: Salt Lake City, UT. Local Organizers: Rachel Murphyand Darren Draper
• September 19 & 20, 2008: Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA Local Organizer: Cheryl Capozzoli
• Louisiana (Fall, pending Steve schedule) Local Organizer:
• Atlanta (pending Steve schedule) Local Organizer:

Also, if you think you have everything for your ethnography, Remonzer’s post-here –made me think of things to do that I haven’t done yet.