Article E

Brisco S. (2007). Which Wiki is Right for You? School Library Journal. Retrieved Oct. 18, 2010, from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6438167.html

I read the article “Which Wiki is Right for You”, by Shonda Brisco, off of the School Library Journal.  In this article, Shonda talks about three different types of wiki’s that are great and easy to use, especially for educators.  These three wiki’s are called: PBWiki, Wikispaces, and Wetpaint.  These are all wiki’s their own pros and cons. 

                PBWiki is easy to use.  What I find interesting is that the PB stands for “Peanut Butter”.  The creator uses this because they claim that PBWiki is, “just as easy to make as peanut butter sandwiches.”  It’s also allows you to start with 10 MB of free memory, choose from 3 different types of looks for you wiki, and is advertisement free.  If more space is needed, PBWiki has three plans from which you can upgrade from. 

                Wikispaces starts you off with 2 Gigabytes of memory.  It too is an advertisement free website.  Also, this has special plans that range from five to hundred dollars for more space up to 40 Gigabytes.  You just need a user name, email address, wiki name, and you need to decide whether your wiki be public or private to register.

                Wetpaint sounds the best to me.  This is a wiki site that’s free of size with unlimited amounts of storage.  It also promotes a feel to your wiki by offering twenty four different page styles.  Also, email notifications are sent to your email when new information is added or changed.  Unlike the other two wiki-sites, Wetpaint has advertisements which could be distracting.

                As far as wiki use for me, I don’t think I’ll ever use one.  I don’t really get them.  I know they’re easy to use, but I just don’t think I’m interested in them nor will be.

Article D

Prensky, M. (2004) “What Can You Learn From a Cell Phone”. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-What_Can_You_Learn_From_a_Cell_Phone-FINAL.pdf

I read the article “What Can You Learn From a Cell Phone? – Almost Anything” by Mark Prensky.  This article just basically talked about how awesome cell phones are.  Cell phones have changed a great deal ever since their beginning.  They changed in ways according to their size, shape, and capabilities.  Mark says in the first paragraph, “Today’s high-end cell phones have the computing power of a mid 1990’s PC.”  Cell phones have this much capability and also use “one one-hundreth of the energy”, according to Mark.  To me, that’s pretty amazing.

Cell phones are computers in your pockets.  They allow people to do almost anything now-a-days.  SMS (Short Messaging Service) Messaging, also known as texting, is a very handy feature.  It allows people to send messages back in forth without talking on the phone.  It’s a quick and also addicting feature that everybody, and I mean everybody uses.  Before, all you could do was text words between you and another party.  Now you can send texts containing, music, pictures, and videos. 

When I say they’re computers in your pocket, I mean it.  Cell phones are actually handheld computers.  They’re capable of gaining access to the internet.  When on the internet browser, it’s not like it’s slow.  It’s actually pretty decently fast with its 3G speed.  The only limit I’d say cell phones have with the internet would be how much you can see on your screen.  I know on my phone, the LG Envy Touch, if the site had a lot on it, it’d tell you that the content was too big or too much.  Regardless, that’s pretty much the only flaw.

Article C

Cole, Sonja. June 4, 2009. “25 Ways to Teach with Twitter”, Tech&Learning. Retrieved Oct. 6, 2010, from, http://www.techlearning.com/article/20896

I read the article, “25 Ways to Teach with Twitter”, by Sonja Cole.  She explained different ways you can utilize the profession of education using Twitter.  First off, what is twitter?  Twitter is a micro-blog.  It allows you to tell your followers what you need to tell them in just 140 characters.  Many celebrities use Twitter.  I had a Twitter account, but then deleted it because I figured it was pointless to have.  Recently though, I just reactivated it though.  I’m following a guy named Dwight Howard.  He’s the center for the Orlando Magic.  He uses his Twitter all the time.  He doesn’t really talk about himself in a bragging type of way unlike some celebrities would do.  He does a lot of events.  He was really big into a charity event for Haiti. 

Going back to the point, I found three targets that teachers can use Twitter for.  These three targets are, students, parents, and other teachers.  With students, educators can have their students become followers.  Since most students have cell phones, they can have twitter updates sent to their phone directly.  So the teacher can post something on their twitter such as a link and the students will receive it within seconds.  Parents can do the same thing.  They can follow their kid’s teacher and have updates sent to them as well.  Twitter would be a great way for parents to keep in touch with teachers. 

Teachers are the last target.  Twitter can be used to keep in touch with other educators.  Educators can help each other using Twitter.  Lesson plans can be briefly discussed, they can share different teaching methods, and they can also schedule meetings with one another. 

Article B

I ended up reading a different article than I was supposed to.  My article was number four, but I instead read number five.  This article is called “Geeking Out With Digital Media”.  The topic in this article is about how digital media can help the youth be educated.  At first it was said that computers, I-pods, and other personal electronics would only distract a student.  Now they’re looked as useful learning tools. 

The focus in this article is the internet.  More specifically, it talks about Cogito.org.  Cogito, in the terms of the author who wrote the article, is an online community for geeks.  It’s really a place for the “above average students” to get in touch with other “above average students” and associate with each other.  It’s not just any ordinary online group page or anything like that.  Cogito is a website full of blogs and forums such as “I learn, I Teach”, a forum where students help teach and learn from each other. 

Other online things that are also being, or can be utilized for learning is websites like Twitter, Facebook, and I’ve also learned that podcasts are increasing with educators.  One thing that I think I’d enjoy would be Skype.  However, I think Skype needs to be updated so you can Skype with more than one person at a time.  A website that can do that is called Tokboxs.com. 

I think this is a pretty sweet idea.  It’s a great way to intertwine education and technology for students.  Personally though, I’m a face to face type person.  I feel more comfortable learning and even teaching with people in the same vicinity as me.  So I don’t know if I’d really enjoy something like Cogito.

(Geeking Out To Digital Media, 2009)