BP2_2010011_EduUses4Blogs

FOR EDUCATORS
Blogs are a very popular type of Web. 2.0 tool. A blog is a communicative device that allows educators to teach their students by a learn by doing, writing and reflecting method which is a part of the R2D2 Model for multi-media assets. This practice is an improvement from the isolated education cycles of the past where students are given the work and have to regurgitate its comprehension not always through collaborative efforts and peer to peer reflection. Blogs change how information is formulated and then shared amongst peers and scholars alike. Observations in problem-based assessments have governed industries outside of education, namely engineering, medical and scientific. Blogs can be introduced into middle school aged students. While they are building a repertoire of online interaction, they will likely assimulate into further developments that involve education. Teachers can continue to use blogs to promote topics relevant to classwork, enhanced comprehension and teachers feel they promote literacy in the classroom (Hufaker, 2004)* By teachers exercising these simple task involved with blogging, students will develop professionalism in there writings knowing that there comments may hang on the world wide web for another millennium.

TECHNICAL

Blogs have become a conventional and affordable means to communicate information from any computer and all around the world. The enduser needs only basic comprehension of website design and development to implement it. A blogger needs to know very little about authoring tools and web design. Published material becomes immediately accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This added accessibility has been called the democratization of web publishing (Oatman, 2005)*. Can you imagine your ideas being filtered onto a website in Hong Kong? Blogs are world wide as the Web.

FOR THE NEWS AND FREELANCE WRITERS

Blogging has become one of the world's greatest resources. In fact, countless web based news organizations are starting to see the blogs draw to their site. Bloggers are there to be the people reporting events of tomorrow. The social activities connecting us all has defined how we see the world, take in information and react to it. The videos helped me to observe what has been happening right underneath my chin- a whole new possibility of advertising yourself, creating pertinent connections with affluent industries and people connections is what the Internet's about in the 21 century. The video by Commoncraft airing on Youtube, efficiently describes the precision of Blogs and RSS feeds. The movement created with the tiny pieces of pictures on paper was quite an effective tool to show the usage and advances of bloggers. The real face of bloggers are the self determined freelance writers that they are; reporting the news as we see it. Bloggers are the transporting mechanisms of the people's take on a product, viewpoint, experience and related media polls. Theoretically its sufficient to say that the policy of writers gone blogging is in the higher percentiles. Blogging is like how syndicated TV was for Oprah back in the eighties, she had no idea of how much money she could make in syndication.

MOVIES AND BLOGGING

There was a movie most recently about Julia Child's famous French cooking that took a world -wind plunge into a bloggers unique world. Who would of known if you remotely paid attention in english that you would be able to advance into the wonderful of writing in such a way that could create popularity with specific topics that uniquely define the world we live in today. When I spent my funds on that movie rental entitled Julie and Julia, I was surprised to see how low budget the film was; especially with Meryl Streep. I mean there was absolutely nothing to this movie's background- a NY apartment- Julia's so-called French apartment (Canadian shoots). It was simply the wonder-lust of NY city's working class developed into a mixture with french cooking, and writer's block. The Headline reads: a writer decides to add splendor to her half-boring, overworked life with becoming obsessed over Julia Childs, Master French Cooking book with Julia Childs; she makes a vow to blog and to tirelessly cook her 524 recipes within a 365 day year. Woohoo!

Now don't get me wrong, I love Meryl Streep, there isn't a movie that she's done that I haven't seen. Its just that the movie's simplicity makes me want to get my own movie done. Its mostly done in a studio where you can recreate the ambience of Frances outside tea gardens and such. The best parts of this movie were governed by the effects of her blogging; how it shaped her relationships, including almost getting fired at work for bringing her boss into the conversation in one blog. Her boyfriend left her in frustration at her anxiety to complete the task, extended to the more palatable benefits of her blog, which was a couple of book offers from some major book publishing companies and her cooking took it a few notches up.

Equally compelling component was that Julia Child's was madly in love with her first boyfriend/ husband. That was quite interesting when i found out Julia Child's was in her forties when she decided to dedicate her life to cooking and embarked on writing her first book, which took almost three years and 3 different companies to get to the right one- Goldfigure! For an explanation on how this movie got done; they say walk with a giant and you will have the same power as the giant.

References:

West, R., Wright, G., Gabbitas, B., & Graham, C. (2006). Reflections from the Introduction of Blogs and RSS Feeds into a Preservice Instructional Technology Course. TechTrends:

Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 50(4), 54-60. doi:10.1007/s11528-006- 0054-9.

Julie & Julia (2009) Nora Ephron (Screenplay) and Julie Powell (book). Julia Child's story of her start in the cooking profession is intertwined with blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book.

Commoncraft Website Blogs http://www.commoncraft.com/ viewed on You Tube January 09, 2010.

BP1_2010011_iGoogleScreenShots

BP3_2010011_Lumosity

Another interesting web 2.0 device for cognitive learning processes was explored on http://www.lumosity.com/.

The Lumosity website featured online games for building your brain. I found this site interesting while learning about brain training concerning logical- mathematical, verbal-linguistic, spatial-and visual learning styles. More specifically they had games that increase your brains neurotransmission of information such as games for memory strengthening, brain processing, task switching, spatial orientation and quantitative reasoning. It was like an online exercising program for your brain.

The brain-based learning initiatives for online are called Speed Match- a game that can help to fortify memory, Route to sprout- a game that can help a person to think before acting, and strategic planning; Raindrops- a game where you did math computations at a slow rate and it accelerated with more computation to increase fast psychomotor skills thourn (I meant to win);and Word Bubbles a game that can help to boost language and vocabulary.

If you travel virtually to Lumosity's site, you have the option to play the same five games or increase your membership with a subscription to 30+ games for strengthening your mind.

I believe students, young and old will appreciate this site not only for the sites intent, but for the other healthy brain tips they have within their knowledge center pages. They have online courses for those interested in perfecting a weakened brain-based skill. Their site has a user centered design made for information sharing and interoperability.* Lumosity also hopes to increase mental acuity, adaptation, and reduce symptoms associated with mental disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, attentional blink (a deficit in visual attention), aphasia ( inability to speak or understand language). These guys are serious; our mission is to create innovative neuroscience-based tools that empower people to lead better lives through better brain health and performance (Lumosity, 2010).

Research in the cognitive science industry is bursting through the seams. The researchers for Lumosity's site even have articles within the site where you can increase your awareness of the industry related findings. They have blogs and of course feedback from satisfied clients. Specifically, in the article Brain Benefits of Being Social, they talked about subtle speech queues of intonation, facial expressions, conversational comprehension and manipulating thinking for reaction concerning man's social skill directives. This article goes on to state that social support initiatives have a positive effect on patients who have dementia. It reduces the symptoms for dementia.

*( Web 2.0, Retrieved this day, January 10th 2010 from Wikipedia)

BP3_2010011_LearningGamesForKids

At first I became a little frustrated at all the tools that are available online; and not all of them are educationally efficient tools.

My search was specifically for web tools to obtain information on Web 2.0 tools involving interactive gaming for students in an Art class. I looked on sites that would help support learning with student to content initiatives. In my research process, I came upon this website through Howcast website at: http://www.howcast.com/videos/307224-Learning-Games-For-Kids Here I watched a video that exposed me to some of the uses on this site. When I came to the page for art educational components, I was disappointed. The games are too short.

From there I was able to go to this site directly and find the main type of site I was looking for that had a cognitive learning curve with additional psychomotor skill development for middle school and elementary students learning art technology. My goal, as an art teacher integrating technology in education, is to present an environment where kids can become integrated into different web environments and explore interactive technology online without creating a stressful environment. The formative assessments will help the teacher and student to become acclimated to the newer assignments given in the classroom. Sites like this have the student explore spatial contiguity (Richard Mayer, 1988), which in a nutshell is the process in which the student sees words and pictures close together to help imbed knowledge streams quicker into the brain.

At the Learning Games for Kids website, you will find an array of helpful interactive games that are colorful, simple and innovative for children. You can find anything from health games, crossword puzzles, math games, science and geographic games to enhance the learning environment. I love the new typing tools. This is great for students/adults who use texting in code and have to remind themselves of context during writing.

This site also offers other sited resources and references to other sites for teachers.

The real game or interactive site that was the most appealing for art was http://www.kids.albrightknox.org/index_launched.html It has a wonderful and colorful introduction. It was a project created for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo NY. This site brings up a room of choices for the student to research and understand some basic artistic concepts like: still-life, lines and curves found in a paintings by other artist. Juan Gris, for example was an artist featured. He created a still life painting done in a Picasso-like manner. The beauty of this interactive tool was the comparison between modern and classical art forms. You even find out that volleyball is a unique combination of tennis, baseball and basketball- great, concrete information!