Social Networking in Education

When it comes to social networking, all I can think of is Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. However, more exist, and apparently, online social networks are becoming a bigger part of the generation before us each and every day. Normally, most students check their social networking accounts such as Facebook more often than their student email or school homepage. Evidently, it is a crucial part of our students’ lives, and by adapting it into education, students will feel more engaged with what is taught to them; more than anything, social networking opens the door to doing homework collectively, while students are still doing their own work. Or are they? Will they?

Creative Activities

Some ways for teachers to interactively integrate social networking into students’ learning include giving them the option of creating a social networking page for the authors or characters from the story and the option of creating a page based on a novel. Assignments such as these, obviously, are more innovative than the old fashioned powerpoint presentation or poster boards I was assigned in my time. Students are bound to find them more interesting, and since they are engaged in online social network on a daily basis, by bringing it to the characters/novels, students would feel feel closer to the characters in the story and connect more with the novels. Also, by creating a page based on a novel or its characters, students grasp the main events and themes of the novel in a creative manner. This shows students’ understanding of the plot, and also shows their synthesis of the events that are going on. They could make comments on the page as if the novel or the character is on their fan or friend list.

What to Watch out for

Now the negative impact and how it is shown. The primary fear of and the primary concern about implementing mainstream social networking into schools is online predators.

However, the risk of encountering predators is relatively slim on social networking sites, 27-29%. Casting the predator issue aside, inappropriate comments are always at bay when online social networking is involved, no matter how heavily they are monitored. This could be an important issue to discuss with students before they start.

If teachers were to use social networking sites to engage students, how will the contents be monitored? I’ve heard of a high school coach who promotes his team on facebook and updates events, but at the same time, he has come down to his students’ level by befriending them. This is when we weigh out the pros and cons of using online social network.

The concept of groupthink is similar to online cliques that share similar ideas. This is what we want students to avoid as we allow them to explore and use social networking for education purposes. We may have to tell them: it’s perfectly fine to disagree, but there are boundaries which they cannot cross.

What Does it Mean for Teachers?

The Ning site we talked about in class provides a vast amount of resources that are very useful for teachers, especially new and student teachers. Teachers can share their ideas and help each other out on the English Companion Ning. It has many pages that could be navigated easily and appears organized, which is a great tool even for the less tech savvy like me. This site helps struggling teachers to gain some new insights in how to improve their students’ learning experience. In many instances, it provides a medium for teachers to share ideas for many education related concepts. Of course, in this realm, everyone is a professional, and is expected to present themselves in a professional manner. For professionals, online social networking bridges the gap that geographically separates us and allows us to help each other by making the boundary invisible, allowing us to come together and improving the experiences of students.

I definitely feel like the Ning site is something I will use as a resource for now and in the future. Also, the use of online social networking could be kept at a moderation. Students are supposed to have their fun, but not always. I believe that if technology is integrated too much into their lives, they will think it as school work all over again. It will lose its purpose. However, I will definitely integrate some creative activities (writing, images, social network pages, ect) into my future teachings.

The World of the Hunger Games

Upon completing The Hunger Games, I thought this novel raises many questions regarding society and what it is doing to us. It reflects the notion that society places certain ideologies into our thoughts and we unknowingly accept them because that’s the way it is. The novel raises many issues great for discussion. One of the things that stood out to me as I began reading the novel was the role Katniss plays in her family; she’s been the one who has been bringing home the bread for four years, since her father’s death when she was eleven. Her family, I believe, belongs to the lower class; going hungry at days when there’s not enough food to eat. Katniss the girl becomes the hunter who brings home the bacon; she is in a way masculinated in the story. The novel also raises questions regarding individuality and the dependent nature of humans. Alliances are formed and broken during the Game because everyone knows that they are going to kill each other in the end with only one person standing. I wonder what would happen if the alliances were never broken? Would that mean a rebellion against the government? And what if the contestants defied the rules of the game? It would only symbolize rebellion of the masses against its government. At the same time, the theme of trust is prevalent throughout the story as well as Katniss doubts Peeta many times at his gestures of kindness. In a way, the social class from which Katniss comes diminishes her confidence as a young girl in her society. Most of the time, she wouldn’t believe the compliments paid to her by those who came from a different social class, including those that came from Peeta.

In the classroom, the above questions and issues, doubtlessly many more, will be brought up during discussion. This novel raises similar questions as Great Expectations as well as sharing some similar themes, which is why it made the list as one of the two YA novels I’ve chosen to help teach the canon in a way that is less intimidating to students which will also develop their thinking skills at the same time.

Digital Project: Great Expectations

Topic:

For my independent digital project, I plan to provide interesting background information on Great Expectations which may include the social, political, cultural, and possibly literary (contemporaries of the author, criticisms), that tells of what is going on at the time the book was written, and when the events in the book took place. I might cut really short clips from the Great Expectations movie and paste it into the presentation to make it funny/interesting, that is, if I can figure out how to do it, and if it is at all possible.

Format:

Since the novel is typically taught in a ninth grade classroom, I want to make it extra engaging by putting it in the form of a digital movie using Movie Maker with sound added to the images, similar to many video examples shown in class. The ideal would be to merge the very short Great Expectations video clips with the powerpoint slides that will combine to form the digital movie. This presentation, I believe, will help my students understand the text better as they read, as well as give them a background so they know what ideologies to look for when reading the book. I hope this approach in teaching the novel will engage the students into the work.

What is the American Experiment?

The first thought that comes to mind as I read the chapter was: this author views education as a political act, which reiterates Appleman’s statement in the beginning of the book Teaching Literary Theory to Adolescents that anything we do at a job is a political act; being an educator is one of those. I don’t think students need to love their country, but rather need to know what it means to be a citizen of US in an American school. However, students need to question the knowledge they are learning, because it is by doing thus that they take part in becoming a well-rounded American citizen. Sure, there are “values” which students have to accept, but not allowing them to question why or how we got those values is as ignorant as education is apolitical. Compelled to question what they learn, students learn more about history, interesting history; that they could view it from different angles. Providing students with an opportunity to seek out different arguments about various subject matters such as values and ideologies then becomes the story of the great “American Experiment”.

Technology is a great tool to help students seek such information. We must know that America is a place for freedom of expression, and the internet permits access to much information in the form which students are familiar with—information from the media. Although many writers have debated over whether technology is beneficial to humanity, it could enrich the learning experience of the students of today, just as the industrial revolution saved the lives of the poor. Technology may open doors to various aspects of education we would never think of; it could connect two different countries and cultures together within the context of the classroom; someday it could do much more than that. I believe that the more technology advances, the more possibility we have with educating students creatively. Also, it will be their benefit to make known to them the advantages and disadvantages of using media.

The way that the author laid out the arguments in this excerpt made me think that much politics are embedded in classics such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and etc. So what does politics mean exactly? What are values? How are they formed? When do we know certain concepts are acceptable and which ideologies are not? How do we know? In these contexts, the texts raise many fundamental questions worthy of debate. At the same time, students should have a say in debating what should be taught in the curriculum; at least, it should address or bring out relevant questions they may have. In my future classroom, I plan to raise questions that make students think than ask them to guess what the answer is on my mind.

Rxn to Little Brother

Little Brother raises questions about government and privacy in the age of technological advancement. It spurs questions and debate over issues such as: what are some ways advancement of technology could help us or hinder us? How will it be overused by those who know so much about it? What kind of trouble could technology cost society? What kind of rights are we willing to compromise for the sake of technology? The examples the author gave us, about Marcus’s unwillingness to give Homeland Security the passwords to his cell phone to protect his privacy, his father’s irregular traveling destinations, and how Homeland Security disbanded young dissenters with poisonous gas all raise questions about society. DHS violated people’s rights to privacy in the name of preventing another terrorism outbreak; its reasonable search warrant to question people about their suspicious private activities was unreasonable. Marcus and Charles both knew their rights as an American citizen, but view their constitutional rights in different ways. Although Marcus’s father’s point of view about the government’s intentions follows a different dynamic from the younger generation, he later realizes DHS is intervening too much. He realizes Marcus has a valid argument when he says the probability of terrorism is slim, and eventually joins Marcus in challenging DHS to fight for their rights as citizens. Another interesting question raised by the text is the guaranteed rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” the statement made by the substitute teacher about an individual to give up liberty and happiness for his/her life will cause students to react in their own way.

This cartoon pokes fun at the infringement of rights.

The question of government presented in the book can be applied to internet censorship. What are we protecting the younger generation from? In this age, information is flowing and exchanged freely; if the Xnetters can figure out a way around the school firewall and elude the school security system by changing the way they walk, what can make adults prevent them from doing so? If they believe they are exercising their rights as a member of society, then does that mean schools that block Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, and other sites are depriving students of rights?

The debate between Marcus and Charles was very interesting to see, and if I were to relate the book to my students, this is something I would definitely do, as it brings up great questions about what the government can and cannot do regarding infringement of rights of individuals. Marcus thinks DHS is depriving everyone of their rights with preventing terrorism as an excuse. In the process of protecting everyone with good intentions, DHS has become a terrorist to citizens. Charles, on the other hand, thinks the DHS is doing everyone a favor by protecting everyone by weeding out the criminals. The debate between Marcus and his dad also spurs a good activity for students to have conversations. To make the debate more interesting, I can ask students to search for articles online that support the ideas of each character.

Little Brother is a great novel for students to converse about, as it challenges them to think about the rights of an individual in society, as well as the responsibility of the government and its duty to us; in a way, I think the novel also allows us to appreciate what we have today, so that we can prevent what will and might happen in the future.

Pepsi Max Suicide Campaign

Launched in 2008, the Pepsi Max Suicide Campaign has caused much controversy as it focuses on its one lonely calorie who is so depressed that it wants to end its life any way possible. The ads invoke issues such as depression and suicide. In the first picture, the blue calorie has a gun in its right hand, and a bullet seems to pass through his back. In its left hand holds a flask of poison from which by the look of its mouth it had drank. Its neck is also tied to a rope, its feet, on a tree stump that is about to be chomped by a chipmunk. However, the blue calorie is still not dead after many attempts of suicide. So why is the lone calorie blue, not any other color like the feminine red? based on the target market of Pepsi Max being men, the color blue is obviously a symbol of masculinity. And why does the calorie appear invincible since he does not appear dead in any of the pictures? Would the audience interpret the calorie as invincible? Or does it create the stereotype that men are more likely to become victims of depression thereby more likely to commit suicide? Pepsi could send a clearer message if it inscribes something other than just “One very very very lonely calorie”. However, despite the criticisms of the Suicide Campaign, Pepsi Max was a success as people keep buying the softdrink. The target market of the Pepsi Max softdrink is males from age of 20-30; so by the use of the suicide campaign, is Pepsi challenging men to be unsentimental, even in the face of death? Or it could be that suicide and depression had never been a problem with males in the age group of 20-30.

When I first looked at the pictures, I didn’t see anything significant about them. It took awhile to read into the pictures and perceive its message. The second picture, for example, needs to be scrutinized if a reader wants to see what is actually in the picture. The calorie holds a bottle of oil in his left hand, whose contents he is sitting on; in his right hand, a match that is already set aflame, and on his head, too, a bomb is about to go off as it sparks above his head. It looks as if the calorie is about to set the oil below him aflame. Now above the calorie is a bucket of acid attached to the top of his head.

In viewing the details of the pictures gives me another perspective on how images may be interpreted by viewers of art and readers. The phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words” is enough to describe the power images can have on us, and offend and disturb us in more ways writings could. In the third picture, the calorie also has three ways to die: eating poison, cutting himself, and hitting the earth with a rocket. In viewing those images allows the reader to notice detail and connect the details with one another, which is also something that readers do as well. In reading those pictures, I related what I saw to what I know, and therefore was able to make inferences about the message from the ad. As a future teacher, I want to develop this kind of skills in students, and reading images is a good place to practice. When students examine the images, they are learning constructively. Reading images comes faster in some students, so it would be a good idea to give students the option of images for completing a project and it would also help them learn to make sense of what they are reading much easier too.