If this site doesn’t explain it any easier than I don’t know who could. Lee LeFever explains just how easy and helpful the del.icio.us website can be to teachers and students alike.  

<object width=”425″ height=”355″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/x66lV7GOcNU&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f”></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/x66lV7GOcNU&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”355″></embed></object>

Del.icio.us is a great new technology. It creates a network for teachers and students to share beneficial information. It’s easy to understand and makes websites organized to go back to and revisit. Bookmarking is a way for all of us to save those great websites we want to go back to over and over. The Internet is a great tool for teachers and students and its nice to be able to share the information one person finds with fellow classmates and coworkers.

Before going to the del.icio.us website I recommend watching the video clip first. It’s a lot easier to navigate and understand the website after watching Lee LeFever’s introduction.

These are strictly just my thoughts…

The article by James Paul Gee, states that a game called Pikmin is rated “E” for everyone and that the player has 30 days, which every 1 day is equal to 15 minutes, to save the captain (player). What I can’t seem to grasp is the fact that the game could potentially last 450 minutes! What kind of parent would allow their child to sit around playing video games for this amount of time? Even if they broke the time in half or in quarters it’s a ridiculously excessive amount of time to be playing video games.

This game, although I have never played it, seems like there is no educational purpose. For a six-year to be playing this game so often would be a waste of time. Are they really learning anything? I highly doubt it.

I have younger cousins that play excessive amounts of video games and I have yet to see a benefit. They often times prefer playing video games over watching television or doing their homework. What boggles my mind is that my relatives allow them to play video games before even doing their homework.

I think that parents need to reevaluate the video games their children are playing, especially younger aged children. It’s their job to monitor the games since they are the ones most likely buying them for their children.

Parents- find other productive things for your children to do or more educational games to play.

Rebecca Moore Howard of Syracuse University says, “the Internet is described as the cause of a perceived increase in plagiarism.”

As a college student, I use the Internet as my main source for research for just about any assignment. Libraries waste too much time when the Internet can help you find the information you’re looking for so much faster.

I’m writing this blog for students to realize how important it is to site their sources. Copying and pasting isn’t a good idea when it comes to writing a paper. With online websites, such as Turnitin.com, it just isn’t worth it. So many people are getting caught for plagiarizing today, and failing college courses because of it. It’s true, the Internet does offer a lot of “cheat sites,” but they aren’t safe to use. All a professor needs to do is type a sentence from your paper, in quotes, into google.com and they’ll find where you got your information from.

So remember, when in doubt… just site your source. Even if it is a small bit of information you’re better safe than sorry.

On average, do you visit at least four websites a day? Because I know I do. Recently in one of my courses I was introduced to www.netvibes.com and have become hooked. It’s the best way to organize all the websites you commonly use onto one main page. I know I personally check the weather, myspace, facebook, and my email all in one sitting several times a day. Netvibes allows you to visit all of those pages from one website. It’s GREAT!

You can even personalize your page with a background and images. You can share your page with others at your discretion. So I hear there will be more updates to the site in the coming months and I’m looking forward to them.

Netvibes is just another site that allows us to get to the information we want faster and easier. It takes a little time to get a hang of all the settings and set-up, but once you get it it’s really simple.

Check it out today!

I just don’t understand how someone can actually get caught up with watching these short video clips. Maybe a high school teenage girl could, but anyone else I would think would find it as cheesy and a waste of time. I’m not sure why, but straight from the beginning, I knew it was all an act. Lonelygirl acts very fake in the video clips.

Flinders, the creator, doesn’t seem to have much talent. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t make it when he tried in the beginning. I do understand the Internet TV phenomenon, but I hope it doesn’t all turn out to be as corny as these clips.

Internet TV has a chance of doing great. I know I personally spend more time on the Internet than I do watching television. However, if the video clips they are going to post are going to be like Lonelygirl, then I’m not interested. I need more substance and more drama to stay hooked. The character “Bree” is just too ditzy and scatterbrained to hold my attention, even if it is for two minutes.

For those of you interested in making your judgment on Lonelygirl, go to this site: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/lonelygirl.html

First and foremost, I did not find Diigo to be a simple program to use. It took me about a week to figure it out and I had to contact Diigo over the phone and via e-mail.

For those of you unaware of what Diigo is, here is a definition I found on their website: “The social annotation service introduced by Diigo allows users to add highlights and sticky notes, in situ, on any web page they read. Imagine a giant transparency overlaying on top of all the web pages. Users can write on the transparency as they wish, as private notes or public comments. And they can read public comments on the transparency left by other readers of the same page, and hear their “two cents” and interact with them.”

Once I got it working, it wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed being able to read the feedback from my classmates. I also liked being able to post my own thoughts and/or questions. I still haven’t figured out the difference between a sticky note versus a bookmark and highlighting. For educational purposes it’s a great tool. If I were teaching high school level I would definitely have considered using this tool. As a future elementary school teacher I could use it with fellow co workers and articles I come across.

Diigo has yet to be widely publicized, but I think it will become more popular over time. Annotating in college is important and can be helpful to students in being able to read others thoughts or understanding of the material.

For those of you interested in Diigo, the website is: http://www.diigo.com/

After reading james Paul Gee’s “Semiotic Domains: Is playing Video Games a ‘Waste of Time’?” I started to think about the whole idea of how video games can be linked to literacy. Here is a part of the article:
It was quite a sight to watch a six-year-old, as Captain Olimar, lead a multicolored army of little Pikmin to fight, build, grow more Pikmin, and explore a strange landscape, all the while solving multiple problems to discover and get to the locations of the spaceship’s missing parts. The child then ordered his Pikmin to carry the heavy parts back to the ship. When this child’s grandfather made the following remark: “While it may be good for his hand-eye coordination, it’s a waste of time, because there isn’t any content he’s learning.” I call this the problem of content.

Even though it appears that the six-year-old is taking part in a profound literacy pastime, I feel as if the markers have taken video games too far. The article focuses on how children are able (through many different principles) to grasp skills in reading and comprehension, I do feel that video games are not the answer. The article does not go on to discuss how children are spending too much time with games, and should just pick up a book instead. Many video games are extremely violent and allow children to believe what goes on in the video game is ok to do in their own lives. I just feel that the idea of video games is not that great for children to be playing, in terms of expanding their literacy abilities. Children should be reading literature and taking a walk outside, instead of playing games for hours at a time and not experiencing what life it all about.

When people think they can’t get a job anywhere else, many people say, “Oh I’ll just be a teacher.” Some people may think that becoming a teacher is the easiest job to get. Some people may also think that being a teacher is simple. THEY ARE ALL WRONG! The classes that you need to take and all the information that your professors want you to know is off the charts.  I have taken at least 20 courses in the 3 years that I’ve gone to school and it’s hard to remember everything that professors put into your minds. Sometimes it goes through one ear and out the other. I just try to remember the most important things. There is so much that professors teach you about what you need to know when you are the classroom teacher. You need to know classroom management. You need to know the Core Curriculum Standards of what your students need or should know by the end of the school year. You also have to keep orgnaized of what you are going to teach and how you are going to teach the subjects in your class. What’s worse is that if you are going to be an Elementary School Teacher, you need to keep up with teaching 5 subjects and all the lesson plans for those subjects and how you are going to maintain everything. I have been told that being a teacher is more than a 9-5 job. It may even become your life. But, A great accomplishment!!!! You will be an EDUCATOR!

The one thing I’m extremely nervous about is any teaching position interview that comes my way. I’m afraid I’m going to frezze and become mute during the whole interview. The principal and other administrators will be asking many questions and I don’t know what to expect or how to answer. This is a reason why I don’t think I’ll ever get a permanent position. My nerves always take over my mind and body. If and when I get a position I’m terrified of my first day on the job. I just hope that I have good classroom managment. Maybe I should talk to someone to help calm my nerves. This is all overwhelming.

For my education classes I was recently introduced to the EASIEST way to write a lesson plan.  You can subscribe for any amount of time you want; anywhere from a month to a few years.  The cost is substantial and well worth it.  It gives you a complete layout and all you have to do is type in the information.  It also gives you the content standard for each lesson you want to teach.  I find it to take off SO much additional stress that we as education majors don’t need.  It’s quick and easy, and I plan to use it even after college when I’m in the classroom.  I recommend this to EVERYONE, if you don’t already have it!