Double Journal Entry #4

Do Learning Styles Exist?

Response:

After watching the video about learning styles, I agree with the author that learning styles do exist but are not a surefire way to set up your teaching style.  The author states that learning is meaning based and I also agree with that comment.  When we learn we use a combination of all learning styles- kinesthetic, auditory, visual, tactile- but to really learn something we must know the true meaning of the content to actually remember it.  We use the clues of how we remember something as to the style of learner that we are.  If we are visual learners, we visualize the object but we also assign a meaning to the object.  If we are auditory learners, we hear the name of the object in our subconscious mind, but we also assign a meaning to the object…so forth and so on.  Theorists try to explain the learning process as a definite approach, but in reality no one knows exactly how we learn, and it can be different for each individual in question.

Double Journal Entry #4  What Wikipedia Can Teach Us About the New Media Literacies

 

Quote:

“The real gap between tomorrow’s digital haves and have-nots will be a lag in competence and confidence in the fast-paced variegated digital universe building and breeding outside schoolhouse walls…. Today’s digital youth are in the process of creating a new kind of literacy; this evolving skill extends beyond the traditions of reading and writing into a community of expression and problem- solving that not only is changing their world but ours, too… In this new media age, the ability to negotiate and evaluate information online, to recognize manipulation and propaganda and to assimilate ethical values is becoming as basic to education as reading and writing.”

Response:

I thought that the article was very informative for students, teachers and all Wikipedia users.  It gave me a broader sense of what students face in determining the validity of articles, how Wikipedia should be used as a research tool, and how a sense of pride and accomplishment can be obtained from submitting an article to Wikipedia.  The examples of students that submitted articles for review were eye-openers of behind the scenes and how Wikipedia works with copyright laws and editing.  Knowing how to submit a good article following Wikipedia’s guidelines would be beneficial knowledge for the student.  The quote that I have selected above talks about the gap between digital haves and have-nots, and pertains to how I sometimes feel like a have-not because I am not up on all of the digital skills.  I feel that it is important in order to compete in the job market with others to advance yourself with digital skills.  Students must learn how to evaluate information online to determine if they are using a reliable source for their research.  As a non-traditional student sometimes it is difficult for me to determine if an online source is reliable.  The digital skills are essential to today’s students to ensure success in the classroom and beyond into the workforce.  The new media literacies that are associated with Wikipedia include online articles and journals.  Using Wikipedia helps develop the 21^st century skills that students’ will need by encouraging them to check the validity of the sources that Wikipedia uses, which will help students enhance their research skills.  I think that teachers should let students use Wikipedia for research purposes because most of the articles are valid.  The students should not cite Wikipedia in their research but just use it as a starting point to find other valid resources.  Students should also take into consideration the editors of the article that they are using and the validity of those editors. 

http://henryjenkins.org/aboutmehtml

Jenkins, H. (2007, 06 26). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://henryjenkins.org/aboutmehtml

Wikipedia Worksheet

This article or section has multiple issues.	no
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.	no
The neutrality of this article is disputed.	no
The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.	On a few instances
This needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling.	no
This may contain material not appropriate for an encyclopedia.	no
This article only describes one highly specialized aspect of its associated subject.	no
This article requires authentication or verification by an expert.	no
This article or section needs to be updated.	Yes, it could use more info.
This article may not provide balanced geographical coverage on a region.	no
This is missing citations or needs footnotes.	no
This article does not cite any references or sources.	no

2. Read through the article and see if it meets the following requirements:

Is it written in a clear and organized way?	yes
Is the tone neutral (not taking sides)?	yes
Are all important facts referenced (you're told where they come from)?	yes
Does the information provided seem complete or does it look like there are gaps (or just one side of the story)?	complete

 

3. Scroll down to the article's References and open them in new windows or tabs. Do they seem like reliable sources? (For help in determining the general reliability of a source, check out the Knowing What's What and What's Note: The 5 Ws (and 1 "H") of Cyberspace handout.)
   
   Reliable references:     Bitmap, and  a Economics professor
   
   
   
   Possibly unreliable references: 
   
   
   
   Definitely unreliable references:  one author
   
   
   

4. Click on the Discussion tab. How is the article rated on the Rating Scale (Stub, Start, C, B, GA, A, FA)? What issues around the article are being discussed? Do any of them make you doubt the article's reliability?

Class B rated

 

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5. Based on the above questions, give the article an overall ranking of Reliable, Partially Reliable or Unreliable.

• You may use a Reliable article as a source (but remember that even if a Wikipedia article is reliable, it should never be your only source on a topic!)
• You may use a Partially Reliable article as a starting point for your research, and may use some
  of its references as sources, but do not us it as a source.
• You should not use an Unreliable article as a source or a starting point. Research the same topic in a different encyclopedia.

How did you rank this article (Reliable, Partially Reliable or Unreliable)? Give at least three reasons to support
your answer.

I would rank the article as reliable, because it has two reliable authors, cites factual information and doesn’t seem biased.  It could use a little more information in the article to add more authenticity, but I still think that it is a good article to use as a general reference point.

 

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How can you use Wikipedia in your personal life and what is the value for classroom teachers?

Wikipedia can be used in personal life as a starting reference point in research for a paper or just to gain general knowledge of a topic.  The value of Wikipedia for classroom teachers to use Wikipedia is that the information is easily accessible, easier for students to understand than an online journal for reference, and also a good starting point for discussion or research.

 

Wikipedia Article:  West Virginia& Wikipedia Worksheet

The article does not have any cleanup banners to indicate that there has been a problem with the article.

The article is written clear and organized and the tone is neutral and all facts are referenced and it seems complete.  The article seems to have reliable sources

The article is rated as a B class on the discussion page.    Some of the criticisms are : no info about religion, doesn’t qualify under the ”good article” guidelines, not enough info about ancestry, unclear climate chart and incorrect state wildflower.   The wildflower comment addresses the fact that there is a state flower and a state wildflower, they are two different things.  One comment questioned” Is there a good reason for West Virginia to exist as a separate state today?, by stating that “the civil war is long over, why not reunite the two states as one?”  Wikipedia tells this individual that, the talk page is not for making comments like this, it is only for documenting “as they are not what you want them to be.”

All in all, I would say that the article is reliable but is missing some information.  The article could be improved upon.

After reviewing the talk button, one of the reviewers of the article, “Bitmapped” ,has received the Original Barnstar award for thoughtful, steady support of articles that describe Wild, Wonderful West Virginia, the Geography Barnstar- for vastly improving the coverage of topics relating to the geography of West Virginia and the Photographer’s Barnstar for excellent pictures of sites on the National Historic Places listing in Braxton County, WV.  “Bitmapped” has a lot of comments on his page and tends to review a lot of articles and gets a B-class rating on his articles.  User:ACPS 110 made one comment about why West Virginia is a separate state, doesn’t have any reviews of his comment, and hasn’t reviewed any other articles, so I would say he/she is an unreliable source.  The last reviewer that I chose was User: Duoduoduo.  This reviewer states that he/she is a professor emeritus of economics, and has published six dozen refereed scholarly papers in a variety of areas in economics, finance, mathematics, statistics, and cryptology.  This reviewer is definitely a reliable source based on their bio information, and lists other Wikipedia articles that he/she is author of.

Double Journal Entry #5 Article: Teaching Media Literacy

Quote:

“Advocates of digital media education agree that reading online demands different skills than reading print-only texts does. They differ, however, on the extent to which training in the new literacies should go beyond procedural learning—how to use search engines, read URLs, identify Web site publishers, and so on—to include more cognitively demanding tasks that teach sound critical judgment and sense making.”

David, J. (2009, 03). Teaching media literacy. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx

Response: 

After reading the article, “Teaching Media Literacy” (David, 2009), I agree with the writer that online literacy and media literacy are indeed two different things.  Media Literacy involves reading and analyzing printed texts such as; books, newspapers, and journals.  Online literacy involves reading the same information in an online format.  As a non-traditional student returning to school, it has been difficult at times for me to verify the validity of a source that I want to use in a paper.  I know how to search online and find the topic of interest that I need to write about, but I don’t know how to determine if it is a reputable source.  I submitted a paper last week and I did not realize that I could not use Encyclopedia Brittanica as a reliable source.  I haven’t had any instructions on how to decode online media and determine what is appropriate or not appropriate to use.  I feel that many people including teachers from the “older” generation are intimidated on how to instruct on online media literacy when they feel that their students know more about technology than they do.  As future instructors, we must embrace technology and learn everything that we can so that we will be of a greater benefit to our students. 

Blog entry

How a ragtag band created Wikipedia

After watching the video by Jimmy Wales, creator of Wikipedia, I leaned how the process works to submit articles and how articles get edited.  I also learned that Wikipedia is funded by public donations and only has one paid employee.  I was also amazed to learn that only 1/3 of Wikipedia users are English and the majority of users are German, Japanese and French.  I agree with Jimmy Wales that Wikipedia is a good source for students to locate information and is useful to people all over the world.  I also agree with Wales that quality control is a big issue for Wikipedia.  It is important to verify the validity of the sources of information and to keep a neutral point of view with the postings.  As Dr. Lindstrom mentioned in class, I have seen textbooks that have been written with bias.   Wikipedia or any online source of information such as; Google should not take a political stand or biased viewpoint on any information provided to the public.  The fact that the administrators are elected is interesting since I haven’t heard of this before.  It seems as if the general public is unaware of how Wikipedia is behind the scenes.  I disagree that this is a good concept.  Wikipedia should be more upfront with the public and willing to accept administrators from outside their community that are reliable legitimate sources.  All in all, I found the video interesting because I didn’t know these things about Wikipedia.

Double Journal Entry #4

Do Learning Styles Exist?

Response:

After watching the video about learning styles, I agree with the author that learning styles do exist but are not a surefire way to set up your teaching style.  The author states that learning is meaning based and I also agree with that comment.  When we learn we use a combination of all learning styles- kinesthetic, auditory, visual, tactile- but to really learn something we must know the true meaning of the content to actually remember it.  We use the clues of how we remember something as to the style of learner that we are.  If we are visual learners, we visualize the object but we also assign a meaning to the object.  If we are auditory learners, we hear the name of the object in our subconscious mind, but we also assign a meaning to the object…so forth and so on.  Theorists try to explain the learning process as a definite approach, but in reality no one knows exactly how we learn, and it can be different for each individual in question.

 

Wordle

I think that using Wordle in the classroom would be alot of fun for the students.  Using Wordle is almost a type of abstract art form.  A teacher could create a wordle image from a class poll, descriptive words of students in his/her class or have the students to create their own wordle image for a holiday gift for their parents.  There are many different ways that a teacher could use Wordle in the classroom.

 http://www.wordle.net/
http://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-methods-tips/58905-create-lesson-plans-using-wordle-web-technology/

Make Belief Comix

Double Journal Entry #3

Quote:
"The visual learners like to have a general idea about what they want to learn before they get the details (Al-Failkawei, 2005). Moreover, the visual learners like to organize their place, especially the place where they usually study and learn. A well-organized place will improve the visual learner's ability to comprehend a topic (Al-Failkawei, 2005). Posters can get the visual students’ attention (Al-Failkawei, 2005). There are some words (noun or verbs) that will attract the visual learners. The noun words are vision, scene, image, eye, show, color. The verb words are imagine, clear, recognize, watch, and see (Al-Takriti, 1997). Visual learners like to read books that have color pictures (Al-Failkawei, 2005)."

Response:
After reading the article on the three different types of learners, (visual,auditory and kinestetic) and taking the survey I have discovered that I am a visual learner.  I thought that the quote was very interesting in that all of these circumstances applied to my learning style before I even knew what type of learner that I was.  As a future elementary school teacher, it will be beneficial to be able to recognize what type of learner that each of your students are.  When using classroom instructional time, you will have to modify your lesson to be able to connect with all types of learners.  When doing a science activity with the students you can make sure that you have charts and graphs for the visual learners, class discussions for the auditory learners and hands on activity for the kinestetic learners. 

Web 2.0 and emerging learning technologies/learning styles. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Web_2.0_and_Emerging_Learning_Technologies/Learning_Styles

Picasso Painting by Debra

 Picassohead

I am a visual and auditory learner.

Double Journal Entry #3
Quote:
Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University and author of “Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World,” shares Crystal’s view. She predicts that the number of “textisms” will stop growing as people continue to develop more proficiency in using handheld devices and as the devices continue to grow more sophisticated than simple telephone touch pads. She adds that part of the appeal of texting shorthands is their novelty, and that that will fade.


Response:  After reading the article The Keypad Solution I can agree with Ms. Barron on her comment about the appeal of texting shorthand will eventually fade.  I think as the cell phones change over time, texting in a more formal way will be easier and faster.  I think that it will also depend on the age of the texter.  As a non-traditional student when texting I do use occassional "texting shorthands."  It also depends on who the receiver of the text is.  If the receiver of the text is a close friend, I may be a little careless with the spelling and abbreviations of my text messages than if I was sending a text to my boss about a project at work or my parents who may not get the lingo.  I don't feel that people who text are losing the ability to communicate verbally or the ability to spell. 
If the students get a good background of the English language throughout their schooling they will know how to use proper grammar and spelling and utilize it when needed.

Shea, A. (2010, 01 22). The keypad solution. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Polleverywhere Wordle Image