Jaxonenglish

Cathryn McConaghy, the author, discussed the difficulties with rural schools. This uses mainly Australia and its rural schools as an example. Some of they key details of this article were the length at which teachers remain at rural schools and the ideas teachers have before and after visiting a rural school.

The chapter I choose was the introduction chapter to the book, Art School, by Steven Henry Madoff. This section is basically trying to show how important an art education is to a full, rounded view point of the world. He talks about a range of what, and who are artist.

talks about different kinds of knowledge that kids in out schools have today.

This talks about how social medias such as Facebook, texting, and other social networking technologies are used to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning. Students collaborate or "meet" to discuss issues in the "adult world"

This article is about how students are using digital medias as apart of their learning. The authors also define what they believe to be social and cultural tools of technology and how they are used.

This article describes what the Language Immersion Program is (specifically talks about spanish), how it is beneficial, what the drawbacks are, research studies, and how children are effected by using the program. The author's opinion is clear, so in her whole article she has a slightly persuasive tone and she makes the program look and sound amazing to probably everyone who reads it. There is some good information about the program and some research studies, and the benefits/drawback are very interesting.

In the chapter called "High-Stakes Testing," the author is talking about the role of standardized testing and bench marks in schools. Later goes on to also talk about the roles of teachers and how it effects them.

Good information about do students or teens even know what Bullying is and what do they think about it on the Internet. Group of students are interviewed about bullying.

In the article "Why Youth Love Social Networking Sites", Danah Boyd writes about Social network sites like MySpace and Facebook create a bridge for your social life and online life. Her article examines how these students use Social Networking websites to interact with their peers. She also addresses the issue of privacy and how it can be altered with in a social networking setting.

This article the author talks about how the different social networking sites have brought students together. A place where they can communicate with their peers and meet others. She addresses that fact that it allows the public to gather.

In the article Why Youth Love Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life by Danah Boyd is all about the way social networking sites work and how that connects to a person's real-life identity. Or in other words, how a person can form his or her own identity through social networking.

This article starts with talking about how students want to think outside of class. It states that they are scared sometimes of being judged on what they say or how they say it. Chat rooms or Backchannels is what they call them can help these students. In the article it shows some graphs about how the students used these chat rooms that were set up and how often they used them. according to the graphs as school seemed to continue, the students seemed to go in less. This article was great to understand the difference between in a classroom learning, and the way the web can teach the students and they can open up more and feel more safe in it. They don't want to learn between four walls all the time is stated in the article, and i think this is a great way to look at learning. broaden their horizons, because they all ready are and want to know that it is ok.

This entire article was about online chat rooms and how we can incorporate chat channels into schooling for collaboration, explanations, and discussion about topics in class. It talked about many of the good things and the bad things about chatting online and how we should be able to use chatting in school. The word backchannel is used for anything going on in the background while a teacher is lecturing or presenting. This idea of backchannel is talked about throughout the article. It explains what backchannel is, how we need to change schooling to work with it, what problems it creates, what things it works well with, why kids are using it so much, and how it could be used positively for classrooms.

In the online article Zero- Thumb Game How To Tame Texting, written by Sara Bernard, directly focuses on how to use texting as a tool in the classroom. This article doesn't look at texting as a horrible thing that needs. Another main topic in this article is how comfortable students are with text talk, that it creates an atmosphere where passive students feel as if they can participate. This directly shows how students feel more comfortable to participate because they are more comfortable with the technology. So maybe this idea of text messaging in the classroom isn't such a mad idea after all, it creates a comfortable environment for almost all students, and creates a new form of teaching when to use the text talk and when not to.

In the chapter "Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences" from Marina Umaschi Bers book, Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth, the author claims that online games, such as Zora, help our youth engage in community and civics. Zora allows it's players to create their own individual avatar, with physical, mental, and emotional traits that the players choose. Bers argues that Zora is a great way for children to think about their identity and civic life by making choices that will show them how to acquire certain sills and attitudes to become good citizens. Like many other researchers, Bers agrees that it is easiest to learn by doing, and games like Zora are helping to improve the youths social awareness. This chapter describes engagement in society not only by voting and being political, but by forming communities and volunteering.

In "Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences" by Marina Umaschi Bers, Bers discusses a scenario that is being used all across the country. Zora is a three dimensional multiuser environment that students use to think about identity and civic life. Students make avatars and are in charge of everything going on in the city or summer camp. This came to life after identity construction environments (ICEs) were found that creative things to do on the computer make children learn better. The students work mostly with different civic identities like police, Jewish people, etc. along with real life, controversial community related issues which the students try to solve. Many of the tools used in Zora can then beused in real life and the moral values can be used both on the computer and in real life. Zora is different than traditional learning because "Children are put in the role of producers, instead of consumers, of information, knowledge, and habits of mind."

In Priscilla Griffith and Mary Olson's article, Phonemic Awareness helps beginning readers break the code, the authors give examples of how phonemics help children learn to read. In the article they quote Cunningham as saying "Phonemic awareness has been defined as the ability to examine language independently of meaning and to manipulate its component sounds." This is important because a child is able to break down a word to find out what it is. The authors also state that when children know how to rhyme or can recognize rhymes they have an easier time reading (516). Another example the authors give is when a child is able to break apart the phonemes of a word to create spelling by assigning the letters to represent the sounds (518). The authors believe phonemic awareness is important because "while phonemic awareness is not needed to speak or understand language, it plays a critical role in learning skills requiring the manipulation of phonemes-specifically word recognition and spelling." (518). This is important because the kids should be learning to read and spell by breaking words apart and not just by memorizing whole words.

In the article Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media, by Gitte Stald, the author states how the mobile phone is a source of identity for the youth. The focus of the article is on the meaning of the mobile phone in young people's lives and how it somehow shapes their identity as a person. Most young people's identities are influenced by the media they use. The idea that the youth's identity is mobile means it is always changing every moment, and changing relations between friends and family. The mobile allows the youth to communicate within physical and virtual spaces always in transition. This tool (mobile phone) has become such an important part in the young people's lives and it is almost impossible for it to not be a part of their identity.

This article talks about how young adolescents are constantly trying to find their own identity. They are always trying new roles to find out who they are. In this day and age many people are doing this by the use of technology. It talks about how people shape their image through myspace and other social networks. One girl named Isabella makes her site very elaborate and full of colors while boys of her age usually base their site around sports heros and masculine things. It further goes on to describe how adolescents shape their identities through technology.

In the article "Serious Games: Incorporating Video Games in the Classroom", Leonard A. Annetta (and other writers) write about Generation N, "N" standing for "net". Annetta claims that this generation has grown up with computers, technology, and the Internet to the point were its just normal to have it around; they have never known a time without it. This creates a generation gap between student and teacher. The students (especially k-12) are becoming more and more interactive with computers and can relate to learning better through the use of technology. However, the teachers often lack this technological knowledge that the students share, leaving the teachers in a game of catch-up. But according to Annetta this is a game well worth playing.

The first piece of advice the article Facebook Education brings to teachers is to create an alternate profile for yourself in order to avoid any awkwardness from the students seeing the teachers personal life and another profile for former students. Facebook Groups is an essential part of updating classroom work and homework and the same goes for photos. Updating photos of class work and homework can be a helpful way for students to know how to approach their work.

This very short article gives you four classic ways that technology can be used. It gives one or two examples for each type of technology used about how it can be used. It also talks about how participation and being able to follow along with the teacher's instructions is very important when it comes down to helping kids understand a concept easier. Technology is a way that we can keep students engages and interested in school today.

Imagine a suburban neighborhood at sunset. A police car drives past a quaint one-story home. The children inside are so precious; their parents would do anything to protect them. When chil- dren are at home, they should be safe. But what about the internet? A man at the end of the information super- highway sits in a dark room and with glazed eyes, he sits typing this to someone's blond daughter: Scott16: When can we meet 4 real? LizJones13: Tomorrow after soccer? LizJones13: Let's meet at 4 Scott16: I'll be there.

In Teachers Discovering Computers: Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom by Shelly Cashman discusses how teachers are able to bring benefit students learning by the use of technology within the classroom. This book, analysis's every part of technology and gives the reader many definitions of terms and literacy's that are needed to use technology in the classroom. Cashman "explains the difference between computers, information, and integration literacy", as well as points out why 21st century skills are needed to be incorporated in k-12 curriculum. In the first chapter she points out how teachers themselves can improve their "professional development, productivity tools in the classroom, and integrate technology and digital media in their instrumental strategies, lessons, and student-based projects.