10 Questions

10 questions that will reveal the most about how UF students use social media, particularly Facebook.

1. How often do you access social media websites such as Facebook?
2. Is Facebook linked to your email and/or phone?
3. How long have you been using Facebook?
4. How many friends do you have on Facebook?
5. Do you use Facebook to keep in touch with friends/family?
6. Do you use Facebook to share photos with friends/family?
7. Do you use Facebook to plan/receive information about social events?
8. Do you allow outside applications to access you account via Facebook?
9. Do you use Facebook for some other reason? If so, what?
10. Do you think it is appropriate for students and teachers or bosses and colleagues to be friends on Facebook?

Wikis in Education

The idea of using wikis in education is relatively new and still in the trial and error stage of development. However, here are a few links related to use of wikis in the classroom that propose insightful and innovative means of using the conglomerates effectively.

First off, TeachersFirst provides a "Wiki Walk-Through" that informs teachers of what a wiki is, who uses them in the classroom, and further, suggests specific ways of using them in different courses.

Another helpful source is the WetPaint website, which proposes many ways of using wikis in education, for example by creating teacher-peer collaborations. This site allows teachers to bounce ideas off of other instructors around the world who teach the same subject to gain new perspectives.

Finally, there is an excellent presentation on SlideShare that discusses some of the many ways to use wikis in an educational environment. Ultimately, the presentation is claiming that in today's fast-paced society in which the internet is intricately woven into our daily lives, wikis are an obvious tool to be implemented in education.

I must admit, I was at first skeptical toward the idea of using wikis in education. With such freedom to post and edit information at will, it seems as though there is no way of separating fact from fiction. However, after researching the many beneficial uses for wikis in education, I feel as though, if used appropriately, the free-form collaborations can help students and teachers alike. Students across the world from one another can post to a common site just as easily as two classmates. Teachers in Florida can compare their lesson plans to those of teachers in Oregon. The possibilities are endless and I think it's safe to say that wikis in education are here to stay.

Facebook Survey

After creating a survey and having my friends respond to it, I found than many of my peers use the social networking site in much the same ways that I do. For example, the vast majority of respondents claimed that they use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends (100%), share and view photos (81%), and plan and get notifications about events (62%). Further not a single respondent reported using the site to play video games such as Farmville.

The survey also revealed that, like me, 50% of respondents check their pages not only everyday, but multiple times per day, which demonstrates how deeply connected my peers and I are to one another via the social networking site.

Follow the link to view see more results: Facebook Survey

Social Networking, Boxxy, Sexman and Tech User Types

• According to the chart provided in the Pew Report, most American teens use social networking websites in much the same ways that I do. As you can see below, most teens use such websites to stay in touch with and make plans with friends. However, slightly less than half use them to make new friends and even fewer use social networking sites to flirt with others.
• As for the YouTube videos posted by "Boxxy" and "Sexman", I was slightly disgusted to see that this is what my generation has come to. In any other time period in which expressing one's every thought and passing whim was not so simple as it is today, no one would pay the slightest bit of attention to these two, clearly very bored teenagers. First of all, I found "Boxxy" to be completely irritating. Enough said. As for "Sexman," just the mere sight of this kid makes me sad that people like him actually exist. The technology based world that we live in has enabled behaviors like this to become acceptable and this saddens me. What happened to going outside and playing when kids got bored? Obviously times have changed, and the kids are changing, too.
• Finally, in response to the tech survey, I was labelled an "Ambivalent Networker," which means I have "folded mobile devices into how [I] run [my] social life, whether through texting or online social networking tools." This label was interesting to me, seeing as how I did not realize the extent to which I had incorporated technology into my daily life. However, I do agree with the qualification that, I may find all of my connectivity to be intrusive - sometimes enough is enough. 

Lesson Plan One Reflection

1. I learned that a lot more effort goes into creating a lesson plan than I had originally anticipated. For example, in preparing a plan, one must anticipate not only what she wants her students to learn, but also how she wants them to learn it and how long it will take to do so. All variables must be accounted for and preparation is key.

2. I would like to know if it would be better to have a rigid lesson plan versus a more fluid, free-flowing plan or vice versa. I would also like to know how detailed a lesson plan should be, e.g. should all components of the agenda be written down? Or should some aspects be left to the discretion of the teacher?

Lesson Plan Assessment Review

The following links will direct you to two lesson plans that I find vey helpful in student achievement. 

The fist lesson plan can be found at http://www.lessonplanspage.com/MathExploringSlopes912.htm. This website is very helpful in teaching how to calculate slope to beginner algebra students. This plan facilitates the learning process for students, because it not only guides the teacher to demonstrate the method, but it also guides teachers to relate the process to real world situations that students can readily understand.

The second lesson plan can be found at http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/search/?_N=407&isBrowse=Y&Ne=658&Nr=OR(Resource_Type:Lesson%20Plan,Resource_Type:Informal%20Lesson%20Article,Resource_Type:Unit%20Plan)&N=407+673. This plan provides a clearly developed path for teachers to follow in teaching the science of sound to middle school students. It is effective, because it provides several examples of activities and games that teachers can use to keep the learning process fun, while keeping the experience educational.

Assessment Links

Three links that help explain how to assess learning include:

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/asindex.htm
http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/IASA/newsletters/assess/pt3.html
http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/assessment/bloomtaxonomy.asp

I chose these links, because each of them express different points of view toward the assessment of learning. Further, each is presented in a user friendly manner.