Journal #7 PLN Reflection

I joined the Classroom 2.0 affinity group and surprisingly it isn't completely dead like most of the other affinity groups I was poking around on throughout the course. I received at least one email per  week that listed free conference sessions, updates to events, or research opportunities. They had a free informative session for "connected librarians" last week, which one could attend through the connectedlibrarians.com website. It seems like every day they have some kind of presentation or event that correlates to technology in the classroom, in October they had presentations with titles ranging from "Connection to Collaboration", "Connected Leadership", and "21st Century Classroom Management". The website itself has an extremely useful section on the left called "Finding Interesting Discussions" which breaks down forum threads by category, making it easily to search for discussions relevant to what you are looking for. I highly recommend this affinity group, it was extremely useful for me and I can see myself using this resource in the future.

In terms of the Digg Reader, I found it pretty useful for keeping news stories organized by source. This can be a useful tool for students and teachers to individually organize all their web sources for a project, presentation or research. Digg has it's drawbacks in terms of collaboration however, which is why I prefer Reddit as a social network for content, whether it be news, jokes, videos or pictures, the community and the commenting ability makes it a superior social news site in comparison to Digg. I have mentioned Reddit before, and I think it could be a powerful tool for the classroom and is totally free. A class could have it's own subreddit that the teacher could moderate (add/remove users, content, etc) and the entire class could submit and comment on each others posts.

Twitter is an interesting case as I mentioned in a previous blog post. I didn't find it useful during this class or for anything really. I only find it useful for its ability to collect information like social trends and to see the daily 'hive mind' thoughts of humanity. As I said before, I normally use Twitter as an openly public user to proclaim my frustration or approval of political or worldly events. I don't use it to communicate with any friends or family, but I do find that companies, celebrities and other personalities tend to use Twitter for everything and can be the only reliable way of communication with them if you don't know them. For example, Formula 1 on the BBC and SKY both have twitter accounts specifically to ask questions directly to the commentators or personalities. It introduces a fun way for companies and entertainers to interact with their audience. I really think Twitter is an excellent social media outlet, though I do not think it is a good tool for direct student-teacher interaction. Email is and will be the main point of contact for most people in the professional world for a long time to come, so I'd rather focus on some sort of email communication between student and teacher to build that essential skill.

Journal #6 Self-reflection

I came into this class with a solid background in the basic structure of HTML and CSS, albeit with a few gaping holes in my knowledge. The only formal web instruction I had was at a nerdy 13 and under technology summer camp where the day was split into two sections, intro to web, and intro to game programing. Since that camp I have always had an immense interest in how the internet and websites work. When I was in high school I created a few basic forums, bought my own domain name, and created a few gaming based websites. I used a lot of WYSIWYG editors like DreamWeaver (Version 4! No, not CS4 - Version 4, like when Macromedia was still its own entity and not owned by Adobe) and Photoshop 7 and mostly everything was static, so HTML and CSS vocabulary was unnecessary or very limited. It wasn't until I was in college where I started helped create a website using WordPress and the woman I was working with was so specific, I had to learn enough vocabulary to get by using the themes within WordPress. Because of my self-taught, round-about way of learning HTML and CSS, these gaping holes in my knowledge have suppressed my creativity and frustrated me.

This class has, perhaps unsurprisingly, filled in a lot of these gaping holes. My major issue was vocabulary confusion - the mismatching of definitions for basic things. For example the difference between elements (<p>, <a> , <table>), classes (specified groups of elements to make up a sub-style, noted with a period [.name]), and the id selector (aka divs, sectioned areas of styles for individual elements noted with a hashtag [#name]). The last class period when we started creating the two column layout was when it finally all came together. It is so basic, but I just didn't make the connection that the placement of divs within the structure of the HTML is key. I knew to use CSS rules to negotiate it's place with the other divs, but if the divs aren't nested in correct order in the HTML the layout won't appear as desired. 

I enjoy the hands on format of the class and I am really enjoying the new HTML5 stuff that is being shared with us, even if we aren't using it. It is awesome to see how much is being incorporated directly into HTML, like the drawing canvases and advanced form field integration, without having to go to third party products like Flash. Mostly, this class has made me extremely excited to get to the advanced course with Dr. McGarvey, so I can get to the really fun (err, complicated) stuff.

I don't think anything was really overly complicated, so I will share what my favorite project has been so far. My favorite has actually been creating the navigation buttons and the CSS behind it. You can see my red to gold navigation buttons on my main page, http://www.csupomona.edu/~dcstewart/first.html . 

Journal #5 - Twitter

My account was created with Twitter when it was first launched in 2006. I think I have used it 5 times a year since then, for a few reasons. Twitter and my activity on it, is my only publicly viewable social media account. I do this because Twitter's ability to interact and provide data with the rest of the internet (the APIs they use). The catch is you must have a public profile in order for the data to be used by others. For example, a lot of researchers are using Twitter to run experiments on social behavior, collective conscience ("the hive mind"), and human interactions in the digital world. Researchers, news organizations and others will use the API's Twitter provides to analyze and sift through Tweets, location data, trending topics, and other information; so I leave my profile open to the public so I can contribute to the community, though I tend to post political or social issues that matter to me. Unlike Facebook, Twitter will allow me to keep my profile public, but limit almost nearly all other information, like name, friends, location and workplace.

The other reason I use Twitter is to follow celebrities from my favorite television shows and professional athletes. Mostly because they are amusing and post ridiculous pictures. Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear (UK) is constant entertainment.

Think CSS is tough?

This guy Chris Pattle is a CSS genius, artist, or whatever you want to call it.

The Simpsons, made with CSS!!!

Check out the collection:
http://pattle.github.io/simpsons-in-css/

Check out how it was made:
http://www.chrispattle.com/blog/simpsons-in-css/

Journal #4 - Site Map Rough Draft

Journal #4 - Site Map Rough Draft

Site Title:

Technology Equipment Check-Out

Developer:

Daniel Stewart

Focus & Format:

HTML 5 & CSS3. Submit forms via web interface.

Site Map

Wire Frame

Main Features & Content:

Technology equipment check out form for classroom or individual use. User contract / consent requirements. Information about equipment for checkout and the availability of inventory on requested days. Printable receipt of 'transaction'.

Target Audience:

Staff and faculty who would like to rent out equipment like laptops, iPads or other equipment for class or events.

Design considerations:

Form layout. Form fields. Required information vs. additional information.

Limiting Factors:

1. Can the entire form be written with HTML5? Probably not.
2. Security concerns with how to make data transferred between form and a server side database.
3. A server side database.
4. On demand availability of inventory.
5. Auto email responses.

Journal 3 - The Case for Social Media in School

Journal 3 - The Case for Social Media in School

This article made a bunch of great points about the pro's for social media use in the classroom. I haven't been in public education since high school so my knowledge of CIPA is limited, so when I read this, "Many mainstream social media sites like Facebook and MySpace are blocked in schools that receive federal funding because of the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which states that these schools can’t expose their students to potential harm on the Internet" (1). I finally understood why we had so many restrictions on our computers! The use of intranet or at least non-public blogs for education is definitely the way to go, just to avoid all of the issues with the law. "Delmatoff managed her social media class without a budget by using free tools like Edmodo and Edublogs" (1). I really like how these are free, but what is especially interesting to me is how they both allow an entire school to sign up and be centrally controlled by a IT, Educational Technology department or single entity. Being centrally controlled allows the institution to streamline the process for each semester, and allows teachers to focus on the content instead of the setup.

"One day she had students comment on one of President Obama’s speeches; another day she had them make two-minute videos of something on their walk home that was a bad example of sustainability." This is something I would have loved to do as a student and provides an excellent point for using social media tools in the classroom. Activities like making short videos or taking pictures of what students perceive as poor environmental etiquette and having the ability to share it instantly on the class blog may inspire them to post it on their personal social media account. Awareness of environmental and sustainability issues are going to be a huge issue in the near future and getting children aware and active early is going to be essential to the survival of our species. A bit of topic, but I was very inspired and excited to read that.

This article was written in 2010 and in the three years since cell (smart) phones and tablets have become even more prominent in children's lives. The  sixth bullet in Mashable's article, "Cell phones aren't the Enemy", is exactly right. Even more to the point is they are not going to go away, so acceptance of them being in the classroom is a good start. I see a couple of problems with this though, "Delmatoff would send text messages to wake chronically absent kids up before school or send messages like, “I see you at the mini-mart” when they were running late (there’s a mini-mart visible from the school). She called the program “Texts on Time,” and it improved chronic absenteeism by about 35% without costing the school a dime."

Q: With internet access and free unlimited text messaging available with most cell phones being so prominent do we still have to worry about those without?

A:
I ask this mostly because of the quote in the previous paragraph where the teacher texted her students to improve truancy, but who payed for the cell contract? We all know times are extremely tough for teachers, this NPR article describes the situation Lancaster Pennsylvania school district find themselves in, $5.5 million in the red (2). Plus what I heard this morning on NPR (can't find source) that teachers have had only a %0.75 raise in salary in the last 5-10 years. Is it safe for us to assume the teacher paying for unlimited text messaging and assuming the child has that as well? What about children and parents who can't afford it? I feel like there may be some issues by assuming every child will be able to have access to a cell phone, or a smart phone with the service plan to have the internet. I do understand the statistics show that an overwhelming amount of students have access to something they can get on the internet with or have a cell phone, but there is a significant percentage that are not that well off.

Q: How do we address these students?

A: That is the big question facing educators and lawmakers right now! According to a recent University of Michigan study, "76 percent of U.S. children have computers and access to the Internet in their homes, and those between 12 and 17 years of age log in approximately five hours a week to use them" (3) . Over three quarters of the children they studied had access to the internet, which leaves 1 in 4 without access. This is especially true in poorer and rural areas. The most interesting experiment going on right now in California. The Los Angeles Unified School District is in the pilot phase of a plan which will see each child in the district have their own iPad, though the project is extremely pricey and is expected to cost $1 billion (4). Even in the pilot program there have been problems, from lost and broken iPads, to children breaking built in security measures, to the entire network infrastructure needing upgrading (4).

Sources:
1. Kessler, S. (2010, September 10). "The Case For Social Media in Schools." Mashable. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

2. Sanchez, C. (2013, September 7). "New School Year Brings Sequestration Pain For Many Districts" NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013 from http://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/219870250/new-school-year-brings-sequestration-pain-for-many-districts

3. Heller, K. (2012). Do Children Really Spend Too Much Time in Front of Screens?. Psych Central. Retrieved on October 20, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/do-children-really-spend-too-much-time-in-front-of-screens/00010535

4. Gilbertson, A. (2013, October 11). "LA Unified’s iPads pilot phase continues on bumpy road: schools back out, suffer technical glitches" | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC. 89.3 KPCC - Southern California Public Radio. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2013/10/11/14956/la-unified-s-ipads-pilot-phase-continues-on-bumpy/

Journal #2 Digg Reader, a far cry from Digg's birth as a social news source.

Journal #2 Digg Reader, a far cry from Digg's birth as a social news source.

I have much higher opinions of Digg Reader than I initially had after using it as my first stop for news in the morning this week. I actually really enjoy how Digg Reader searches for and organizes the content and sources so easily. This brings me immediately to question number one though.

   (Q1) What is the point of Digg Reader if RSS Readers are built into every internet browser?

   A: It's all about the searching. Digg Reader's search feature is outstanding. I was able to find so many   different places to get information for things that I am interested in, for example, I didn't even know the GeoPolitical research company, STRATFOR, releases any of it's articles for free via it's RSS feed. Simply by searching GeoPolitics, I was able to see that someone was linking to STRATFOR's GeoPolitics feed and I was able to search just for STRATFOR and found the feed immediately. The organization is so plain and simple, it makes it a marvelous way to skim through the headlines or jump fully into an article.

I used Digg back when it first started in 2004 and was an active user for three years, before it's demise. What interests me is how Digg become an RSS reader, as the original Digg.com was founded by Kevin Rose, a former TechTV personality and was actually a social news website. A social news website is a space where user's sign up and submit content (article, blog, news, picture, video, whatever) and other users can comment or "like" or "dislike" the content. Social news websites gained major popularity on the web around the same side Facebook took over MySpace as the leading social media web site. Digg's way of sorting content was by to put the content with the most "diggs" (likes) at the top and "buried" (dislikes) content would be at the bottom. Check out how Digg used to look by using the "Wayback Machine" from our first class http://archive.org/web/. Digg's early years were a huge success, with millions of active users all over the world. This caught the eye of the CEO of a startup internet entertainment and content creation company called Revision3 http://revision3.com and eventually had a staggering $200 million in funding and revenue. Podcasts and video casts seemed to be the future and Revision3 wanted the jump on it, using Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht both of whom would easily recognized by the tech savvy or those who watched TechTV (before it was sold to G4 TV). Together they launched a video podcast called "Digg Nation" which would feature Kevin and Alex commenting on the most dugg stories of the week and interacting with Digg users. The show and the website were widely popular from 2004 up until 2008, when researchers showed that a huge amount of the most popular stories that made it to the front page were submitted by around 100 users. This revelation caused an uproar in the community and that is when upper management decided to push a more advertising based formula for calculating the amount of diggs a piece of submitted content would get and add limits to the amount of content people could submit. The Digg community was outraged at the change and thus began the demise of Digg. As Digg began to flop, Kevin and the other influential founders left the site and Digg became a husk of it's former self, as most of its users abandon it to other social news outlets like Reddit and StumbleUpon. Kevin Rose now works as a venture partner with Google Ventures, which invests in startup companies on behalf of Google. This brings me to my second question.

   (Q2) Why did what was left of Digg become an RSS reader?

   A: Simply put, Google was completely dropping it's RSS reader called Google Reader. Internet forum discussions during the time show that the Google Reader community was extremely disheartened with the announcement and were actively seeking solutions but not one of the other RSS collection websites did not offer the same easy to use and manage interface as Google. Digg saw this as an opportunity to evolve the company to fill the gap Google was leaving behind and captured a good amount of Google Reader's former users.