The reading we discussed today talked a lot about the forms of new technology used in schools and how it is used interactively. The article said how we should use technology together and not apart, that way we will get the most effective type of new media advances. When I was in grade school we rarely ever used new media, except for in computer class. My brother is in grade school now and I feel like they do much more online work than I even did, which is a great thing. Without introducing kids to new media, you are not preparing them. They need to learn about new media because that is pretty much all the business world uses today. I found this website that gives teachers hints on how to expose kids more to new media and technology. Some of the ideas it suggest are; online homework, which I think is a great idea because in college a lot of my homework is on Blackboard or other online sites. They also suggest using overhead projections and powerpoints because they will draw kids attention more than just writing on the chalkboard. The thing I liked the most about this website is it mentions the "paperless classroom" which means that you submit everything online and there are no worksheets or handed in paper. This idea will teach kids how to be comfortable with the online world and also help the keep the world "green" by not wasting paper.
We also discussed in class the importance of Facebook and politics and mentioned how the most common reason people "defriend" others on Facebook is because they get annoyed with their political views that they post via their status. I have bad news for those who get annoyed with the politics on Facebook...it is NEVER going away! Well..at least according to this blog/website. This article states that Facebook is going to play a permanent place in Politics. The author cites several reasons for this. For example, Facebook is free, unlike many other campaign sites. It costs politicians nothing to campaign via Facebook, so why wouldn't they use that as their main source of getting their message out there. This article also makes another important point saying that unlike Google where ads are targeted at content keywords on a site, Facebook ads allow one to identify with the ads and target people who agree with your value system. The author of this article ends by saying, Facebook is around to stay because as of right now it is America's top social media source.
Lastly, I decided to do some more research on "defriending" others on Facebook and look more into the most common reasons people "defriend." This article states many top reasons that people "defriend" such as; annoying status' about politics and religions, also crude or racist comments on their walls or status updates. This article discusses a survey done about unfriending in which they discovered that the people being "unfriended" are typically the ones that go around "friending" random people. Those who rarely "friend" others are rarely ever "unfriended" by others. I thought this was interesting but it does sound about right. I know my friends that never friend request people on Facebook often get very annoyed when they get friend request from people they do not know well, so it does make sense that they would later unfriend those people.
That teaching website is an interesting find and even though I am all for kids being taught in paperless class rooms I have to admit that I am a pen and paper kind of guy. I was into computers and the whole digital revolution early on but when I have to write a paper or do some personal writing I prefer to start off on physical paper. There is just something about actually using a pen rather than a keyboard. I am probably just old fashioned in that sense.
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