This digital project was something that I was definitely not looking forward too. After many sleepless nights over the last couple of weeks leading up to the due date and constantly pulling out what’s left of my hair, I was able to construct something that had an okay resemblance of a digital project. This was the first time that I actually spent so many hours just trying to get something done outside from a research paper that wasn’t easy and it was even a whole lot harder for a less tech savvy individual such as myself. When I first started coming up with some ideas for my project, I decided I wanted to do something that would help me teach a term to my future students. After much thought, I decided that I would talk about prepositions. Prepositions are a rather simple term that many students do not put much thought in thinking about and neither have I in such a long time. Sometimes it’s best to just come up with something that will be educational as well as fun and that is what I wanted to do with this assignment.

Let me reiterate, I am just scared of technology and usually don’t depend on it unless I have to check my email or if I just want to browse the internet. With this project, I made a bunch of power point slides and then I used Photo story 3 to mold everything together and make my video. My computer was acting up a few times and I thought my information was going to be lost but everything turned out fine. I put in a lot of man hours in-between the time I had available to do this project and I had a bunch of papers and tests in other classes but I did my best to navigate past those obstacles. This was my first attempt at making a video all by myself trying to teach something useful for students while also making it mission-oriented with an assignment at the end for my students to complete. I’m sure with the more opportunities I have in the future to really dive in and get my hands wet with technology, as far as making narrated assignments in the shape of movies are concerned, I will do a good job at teaching a grammatical term. In the future with any other project like this that I might come across, I know I will be able to construct a more pleasing project to the eye for my peers as well as my students. I’m still a novice for now and in time I hope I will be able to change that label into something better.    

Here is my digital project.

One of the interesting new words that we discussed today in class was on memes, which is pronounced meems and rhymes with dream, which is defined from dictionary.com as a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. The type of meme that has caught my eye is the advertising and marketing meme, that is better known as viral marketing, is the Bert is Evil meme that has a picture of Bert from Sesame Street. Memes have the ability to spread rather quickly like wildfire over a small period of time and they slowly add information from what was originally started.

What really is a metaphor? The basic definition from dictionary.com calls it a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison. Looking at the metaphor “Students are raw recruits who need to be trained”, I find it a rather interesting phrase that can be dissected in many ways. Being a student in school provides them the opportunity to learn, and with the quote, looking at students as raw recruits is the same as looking at them as football players. And when it comes to football, practice is the key to success and training through practice, provides the best results. Metaphors are a good way of comparing things and you can always find similes not too far behind being dealt in the same conversation.

Check out this Youtube video on some cliche metaphors.

One of the clever things that are just beginning to slide into the classroom are podcasts. Podcasts are basically audio broadcasts that can be heard from off the internet. I am still new to this in one way or another, being a dinosaur when it comes to new technological items, but I am starting to put it all together. One very cool and informative podcast that I just recently found out about is Grammar Girl.  She gives great tips that are just out of this world good when it comes to little tidbits that can be quite helpful in the world of grammar, for teachers, and in the classroom, for students. Grammar Girl even includes a great podcast on How to Write a Great Blog Comment which can really take blog writing to another level. Podcasts are very useful and there are just so many that I can’t even name them all but Grammar Girl’s podcast is just top of the line. Using podcasts in the classroom will be something that I plan on experimenting with just to get a good handle on how to use it effectively.

Check out this Youtube video on Podcasting in Plain English.

One of the great things that I got out from reading chapter 6 of Richardson is that the social web is a continuing growing and learning process. Everyone that is willing to contribute and share knowledge helps out the next person in line. And this falls great into place when educators and students are involved. The internet is already an everyday flow of conversation and information, and social bookmarking is one of many useful tools to get things going on the right foot. Two social bookmarking sites that the author uses and cites within the chapter are Diigo and del.icio.us. These two sites really help develop an organized and explorative source of information for teachers to pass along to their students. I mean, when exploring the internet on a daily basis, for pleasure or research purposes, there are always great links that just need to be saved for future reference and social bookmarking, is one of the great tools to help with that.

Social bookmarking is a great way to involve students to getting to know how to use technology that will not only be insightful within the classroom, but for their own personal use outside the classroom. The only negative that can come from this is not using this process to get better acclimated with social bookmarking. The more that teachers as well as students continue to play and get a good feel with everything, the more that they will not only help others but also themselves immensely. Personally, I never even knew about social bookmarking until reading this chapter and now that I know, I have to make a conscience effort to create accounts at these sites and really know my stuff so I don’t come off as a nincompoop to my students. Whatever I’m able to bring to the classroom can only be a benefit to my students and I will try my best too incorporate social bookmarking, to some degree.

To social network in the classroom or not to social network in the classroom, that is the question that is on the minds of so many educators across the globe. With the lightning fast pace of technology and the social networks that are available at the click of a mouse such as: Facebook, MySpace, and the ever fast and growing Twitter, each seems to be making its way inside the classroom, in one way shape or form. Now for teachers to decide whether or not they want to use it and even accept their own students as the friends is an easier said than done decision. Its one thing to know your students inside the classroom, but it is a whole new different type of ballgame when the bell rings and they are chatting it up and saying God knows what over the various social networks.

I am not a big fan of Twitter, but its 140 characters are quickly making its way into the classroom. In California, students are already tweeting their way to better grades, and that is just the beginning of some of the uses that allow teachers and students to get assignments covered. But with all the positive things that can come out from social networking, there are still many mixed opinions on the subject, which is too be expected. The internet is not always the safest place for kids with predators always on the prowl, and there are cases where a few teachers and students develop intimate relationships, which are always ground for concern, but I digress. Social networking is the new wave of the future, and even though there are a few bad seeds out there, that will not hinder me from using this source in my own classroom with no ramifications on my part because quite frankly, I know how to be professional and put business way ahead of any other matter.

After seeing the amount of time and effort that is needed to complete this project, the first thing is coming up with an idea of what I want to do. Since I want to become an English teacher, I decided that I want to use a bunch of Powerpoint slides and Movie Maker, of course, to introduce my project on all the words that are designated as PREPOSITIONS. I will try my best to incorporate a little bit of all the elements to produce something that I can use down the line in my future classroom and hopefully give Buffalo a run for the top spot.

There is a good reason why Suzanne Collins called this book The Hunger Games because the second you pick it up and get done reading it, you will be starving for some more. I have to say that I am hooked right now just like Peeta is for Katniss. Right from the start of this book, the narrator is able to portray the power that the Capitol yields and how the other twelve districts are at their command. For goodness sake, there were thirteen districts but because District 13 rebelled, all the other districts had to undergo the formation of the Hunger Games and send one boy and girl from their represented districts, where out of the twenty-four competitors, only one would come out alive and the victor. The protagonist of the story, Katniss, provides a great perspective and undergoes a transformation from the start of the book from being the family provider/hunter for her mother and younger sister to a woman understanding her beauty, who is returning as the seventy-fourth Hunger Games and first co-champion with Peeta to District 12. I have to say that I love the way that the author was able to construct the book so that each chapter ended in such a climactic way, that you just have to keep on turning the pages to find out what happens next.

Katniss Everdeen was just a great protagonist and it was exciting to see how she was able to use her Robin Hood-like bow and arrow skills and her hunting capabilities, to perceiver. She is the definition of what a big sister should be to a younger sibling when they called out young Prim’s name at the reaping and Katniss volunteered to take her place without hesitation, when others could not and would not muster up the courage to take a twelve year olds place. Another element that showed progression throughout the story was the make believe friendship/bond that Katniss and Peeta have for one another. With the help of their mentor and only previous winner of the Hunger Games from District 12, Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta are able to keep the rouse going as two lovers to the point that there is a rule change and two people from the same district can come out as champions of the games but Peeta has been in love with Katniss since he was five.  I love reading a book that has so much action and mystery entangled so creatively, and that is exactly what this book by Suzanne Collins does. Reading is something that should be fun and I can’t wait when I have the time to read the next two books in this trilogy to feed my hunger, and find out what decision Katniss makes regarding Peeta and her best friend, Gale.

What does education really mean? After reading the article The American Experiment twice just to make sure that I was getting a good understanding of what was being emphasized, one topic stood at the heart of the article and it dealt with education. Many interesting questions were being thrown around but there as one that caught my attention and it stated, “Do new media make school obsolete, and create new conceptions of education?” That is a very interesting question right? I mean from the conception of the first schools that were established in America, getting an education and giving back to the society was the main goal and heart of every school system. Children were after all and still are in essence, expected to gain knowledge and develop an adequate understanding of their country. But in order for students to be able to do all those things, they must first have teachers that are able to provide for them the proper material that is needed for them to gain a proper perspective on the issues and arguments that have been and still are taking place in the United States.

Being a lifelong learner starts with being acclimated with some of the most important books and documents that have a large effect on one’s learning. From Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, to The Declaration of Independence, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech to name a few, all these material make a significant impact in America’s culture and influence teaching and learning. Understanding the history of where we reside as well as the Bill of Rights that are provided to every citizen is also quite important. Now more than ever, diversity is taking place within the United States and more questions are arising. However, the future of education, technology, and the countless arguments that have been taking place for so many years are moving along in the right direction and America continues to provide the best opportunities for its occupants.

Talk about your daily scares of terrorism, terrorists, and the lack of constitutional rights. The book, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, brings everything to a whole new vantage point for just that purpose from the young seventeen year old adult named Marcus a.k.a w1n5tOn and later better known as M1k3y. Something that stood out like a sore thumb throughout the whole book was technology. I have never been well versed in that language, but there are great details throughout the twenty-one chapters of this book to help give some insight on a few things. There are a few questions that probe my mind after reading the book, but the one I think about the most is simply, how many security measures does Big Brother (the government) need? All it took was the bombing of Bay Bridge and the lives of Marcus Yallow and his friends were forever changed. It’s one thing to be scared of terrorists, but it’s a completely different story to be scared of your own government and their tactics when dealing with terrorism.

High school is an adventure in itself, and being watched constantly by cameras that have feet recognition, for example, is not cool. Marcus was a senior that knew how to get around all the security measures that were installed to tie all the students down, and throughout his journey within the book, he could not let himself succumb to fear from the tactics of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after being held prisoner, he wanted justice. He used the technology that was right under his nose and being paranoid helped him, while also having friends to trust in his inner ring is what got him to prevail over Big Brother. I mean, who doesn’t like to read a book and the protagonist not only goes through a life altering experience, but they find their true love and for the most part, have a happy ending. Reading this book made me think of the movie Braveheart and Mel Gibson shouting from the top of his lungs one word as William Wallace and that word is, freedom. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is a great book for the more mature young adult to read that is looking to put their video games on hold and also any live action role playing to escape to their own Treasure Island and have some fun reading for a change.