The Evolution of Man...

Trends?

Today I learned something really cool. It was one of the most amazing fuctions of the internet I have every seen before. Combining the power of Google with the vastness of information availible on the internet.


The application is called Google trends. All you have to do is select two different words or concepts and type them in to Google seprated by a comma. The trends look at google search word history over a specified time period. When there is a significant spike or decline in hits there is always a new story to go along with the current event.


I decided to try this comparing Charile Sheen and Oprah since in the past year both have been significant public figures in the media. Here is what I have found...

I can see this becoming a very powerful research tool in the classroom. Teachers can not only ask students to look at statistics and make comparissions they can also ask for demographical studies.  Ideas can be focused under different perspectives, and we can see concepts in ways that we may never have considered before.


Underneath the actual trends graph there is a breakdown by location that the search initated and even the language used to search.

Media and Body Image

A video I made telling a story about how the media can play a critical role in the development of self in children as they reach impressionable stages in development.

Tales from the Facebook... and other horror Stories

When I started working on this particular literacy assignment back in February I spent countless hours fighting with facebook. My idea was to create a profile fully devoted to literacy skills. I wanted to explore social media under a new lense. My idea was to find application and thus justification to bring facebook culture into the classroom.

The first of my frustration came very early on in the process. I found I was constantly frusterated becuase I could never accomplish what I set out to do. I found that I would have some very grand ideas in my head about what I would want to do, and it would just never look right. The worst part was when I would waste time looking for a fuction that was not even there. I spent more time upset and trying to tweek my account then I actually did learning or adding to my profile or understanding.

In order to help understand why I changed my direction I have created a list of both positive and negative aspects of my facebook experience.

NEGATIVE

•  Limited functions and difficult to bring a wider variety of media types and ideas into the interface
• Slow to load, page constantly kept refreshing
• Subject to the patriot act and so involuntary lack of privacy was a concern
• I could not delet or change my profile page to get rid of what was not relevant. I constantly had huge gaps in my profile and was promted to fill them.
• Annoying advertisments. I found that I was constantly being overwhelmed with different adds and people who fewed my profile could be tricked into believing I endorsed these products.
• Too much fluff when attempting to find true digital literacy content I was constantly being greeted by useless or wasteful information or advertising. With my blog I had more control over the content and was able to limit the flow of information.

POSITIVE

• Pre-created template was easy to upload specific file types to
• Many people already have accounts so I could easily network and build my PLN
• Brand reputation when I refer people to facebook or make a specific reference many people will already know exactly what I am talking about.
• Facebook groups. The UOIT M.Ed had a group I joined, I was able to connect with peers easily ask questions and get answers in a way that was easy and relatively low stress.

I am glad I made the attempt to use facebook; however I am more pleased with my decision to cut ties when I did and move on to the blogspot method of collecting and sharing information. I think going through the facebook process and learning all about how things could be done was an important learning opportunity and that social media really does have it's place in the 2.0 generation classroom.

I Googled Literacy

I was surprised to find out recently that the powerful web search mogul Google was also a huge supporter of bringing literacy digital literacy into the classroom.  

The website offers a large extent of free tools (including this blogspot website) that can be used to transform literacy instruction into a powerful instrument for exploring understanding. In this particular blog entry I will explore the various tools offered and highlight the best aspects of each. Essential the goal is to create a how to guide about how to access the best digital literacy tools offered on the World Wide Web

I first became aware of Google’s extensive collection of classroom tools when I was exploring my own discussion I would be leading on “Copyright in the Classroom”. I was directed from a generic website to the Google teacher academy portal where I was able to access all sorts of different tools and resources for staying safe and in the ethical white zone while online. While previewing the information available I found it to be high quality and accurate. In addition many of the suggestions given and activities shared were effective and easy to use methods of bringing digital resources ethically into the classroom.

GOOGLE DOCS – This tool is an all new way of effectively communicating with peers, and tackling group projects. Instead of everyone sitting around someone’s kitchen table and making notes on a piece of paper Google docs allows for multiple users to virtually use the same word document at the same time. I recall going through school and emailing my completed work to one person so that they could bring it all together, now each person in the group can take responsibility for their aspect of understanding right up until the final product.

GOOGLE EARTH – Image having the whole world at the click of a button. Google earth is not only effective for mapping modern geography and events, teachers can use it to bring history to life. Google earth in combination with a basic internet search will be able to help students identify the exact location of past historical events. One particular suggestion of lessons created by the Google team was to use the power of Google earth to outline historic trading routes of early explorers and the division of land territories monitoring how they changed over time.

PICASA – This is a powerful picture organizing and editing software. Using a photo editing tool like picasa is a strong form of literacy. Students would be taking either an original or acquired image and transforming it or creating it to fulfill a specific purpose. Picasa can also be used for creating mash-ups, the software can be utilized to combine image files from different sources and bring them together to create a whole new source.

BLOGGER – This entire website is an example of a blogger. Teachers can use this format to post information for their students to access, or have students create and maintain their own blogs. Having a blog is an excellent literacy tool. It is proven that one of the most effective tools for ensuring knowledge has been acquired is the convention of teaching the information to others. Having students keep a blog and compile a list of ideas from the lessons or questions for future study is a an excellent multi-modal skill for ensuring the acquisition of knowledge.

NEWS – Up to date information about all sort of current events. Locations can be changed to receive new feeds from different locations and perspectives. This tool is excellent for teachers working on media literacy units or just asking students to consider current affairs. Teachers can ask students to search any variety of topics and then compare and contrast the information as it appears from different new outlets. Google news is an excellent tool for teaching voice in writing, bias, and general language arts skills.

IGOOGLE - Google was made just for me. Now when I log onto my home page I am greeted by my own specific preferences and ideas. I have all my up to date news from local agencies, the weather for the Markham area as well as my favourite comics and virtual hamster great me each morning. I am also able to make changes as my interest change. Using this tool in the classroom is a significant literacy tool. Students can learn how to interact with knowledge and streamline the process in order to achieve the desired results. The more I learn about literacy, the more I understand that literacy is this idea of learning to communicate and process ideas and concepts that make up our world and be able to respond to them in order to achieve a goal.



Playing and Staying Safe online

Loose Tweets Sink Fleets

So today in my eternal quest for knowledge I came across this poster put out by the United States Navy. The idea built on the concept of “loose lips sink ships” from the post WW2 era. This whole idea of “Loose tweets sink fleets” got me thinking…

Social media is a concept that has been around only about a decade now. Prior to that we had ways of communicating however we were in no way as connected as we are now. A friend of mine in one of my other classes is a drama teacher who is bringing digital literacy into the classroom. In real time her class tweeted Hamlet. Each student took on a role and in real time would respond to the comments or ideas of the line of text prior. This idea of real time communication is revolutionary and completely changes the way that we communicate and interact with one another.

So let us now switch our attention back to the difference between sinking ships and going for the entire fleet. As a result of real time wide spread communication we are now able to reach a lot more people much much much quicker. We also now have a larger audience of both personal contacts and complete strangers.

As I have mentioned before I come from a marketing and commerce background. For 4 years I studied the factors and ideas of how to influence people, essentially what caused us to make decisions and form opinions. I learned, and I would love to give a reference; however, it is said that even the most successful and expensive well planned marketing campaign is only on average 14% successful. However, word of mouth and personal suggestions result in a 72% adoption rate. This means, if you truly want a product or concept to be successful don`t just try and sell it, get people talking. Personal recommendations or what is referred to as word of mouth (WOM) marketing is the penultimate goal of those in the sales profession not only is WOM extremely effective, if done properly it can cost next to nothing. In fact a company called www.houseparty.com has taken this idea and just gone with it. The company gives away amazing pre-packaged all inclusive parties for absolutely free, all you have to do is open your house up and invite a few friends.

A long time friend of mine is currently working at a major retail chain. She will tell me stories about peers who have gotten in trouble with management and even been fired for posting a comment on their facebook wall as harmless as ``ugh work again today``. The power of word of mouth advertising is so significant and the power recognized by the companies so much that an employee posting a comment about not wanting to go to work is powerful enough to damage corporate reputation. In the past telling a friend or just venting to a single person was powerful enough to bring down the ship; now because of social networking and the power of the media we are going for the whole fleet.

So what does this mean for literacy? No one can argue the power and vastness of social media. The concepts have penetrated society and the education system has finally stopped to take notice. We as a society communicate in a whole new way. A gradual paradigm has taken us from traditional pen and paper to a real time, instant, everything happens now way of life. This is what literacy is now. Literacy is no longer just being able to read and write, it is our way of communicating. Social media is powerful; it brings together aspects of visual pictures, audio and video sharing with current and ever evolving ideas.

The message we can get out of all this is be careful because you never know when a lose tweet has the power to sink the fleet.