This is my final post for this blog and EDM 310. I apologize in advance for the volume of my voice. I've had a bit of a sore throat lately. Hope you all enjoy!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
PLN Final Update
My PLN has not changed much from my last update, but I can honestly say that I use everything on my Symbaloo and iGoogle page at least once a week, and many of them daily. I love the iGoogle system! I have made it my homepage on my laptop and have customized it to house my gmail, news news and weather updates, as well as quote and art of the day, sticky notes, and other applications. And I'm still adding to it because I'm constantly finding new gadgets. My Symbaloo has links to most everything I use on the internet, including links to my blog, the class blog, Carly, The Digital Native blog, and Mr. Karl Fischer's blog. I also have links to Twitter and Facebook, Amazon, and Pandora.
Special Assignment: Metaphors
1. Why did you miss the metaphor in Tom Johnson's post, or, if you "hit the nail on the head", why do you think you understood the metaphor and why do you think that others in the class missed the metaphor?
I think that the metaphor could be missed if the reader was taking the story literally, but for me it was sort of obvious that he wasn't really talking about pencils. For one thing, pencils aren't expensive, so why would the teacher need to get the parents to sign legal waivers for them to be taken home? Another, how is a student going to join the "Pen Pal network" with just a pencil? Like I said, to me it was sort of obvious we weren't really talking about a pencil here, but I guess if someone was just reading through it quickly they could miss the point.
2. What metaphors have you encountered since I asked you to create a log of them?
Some examples I've heard of metaphors:
Heart of gold
Walking through the darkness to get to the light
Raining cats and dogs
the light of my life
Apple of my eye
3. What other things can we do as educators to help our students to understand and to use metaphors?
I think assignments like this one are good ways to make students consider metaphors. I had never given them much thought until now, but they are really every where. Those in my list above are ones that I've heard today alone, and only the ones that I can remember off the top of my head. Metaphors are all around us whether we realize it or not, so bringing that to students' awareness is a good step to getting them to use them (they probably do it already without realizing it anyway, right?).
4. Why do we use metaphors?
Metaphors are about creativity, saying what you want to say in a way that is not necessarily obvious. If Mr. Johnson had not posted his metaphor, if he had just said outright what he was trying to say, would we still be talking about it?
Probably not.
When you have to think about things they tend to stick a little better than if you just read through it quickly. I know that I actually remembered reading this post, out of a sea of posts from the semester in this and other classes, because I read it twice - first when I thought was reading about the literal pencil and got caught halfway going "wait a second..." then I went back to reread.
Metaphors are there to make us think.
Project # 16
My final project, a collaborative project with Carly and Chelsea, is the blog How to be a Digital Native. On this blog, we have posted several things we have learned in this class and a few we've figured out on our own for future bloggers to use to create an interesting and useful blog. Check it out!
Summary Post C4T
For this Comments for Teachers assignment, I was assigned The Fisch Bowl, a blog run by Mr. Karl Fischer. Mr. Fischer is currently the Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado.
In the first post I commented on, Mr. Fischer was presenting the argument that the Denver Post should no longer print horoscopes in their paper, and instead use that space for other articles, because only 3/4 of the population believe that horoscopes are just for entertainment purposes. To this post, I replied:
"Mr. Fisch,
I am a student of Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama and was assigned to read and post a comment on your blog. I agree with your stance on the horoscopes being posted in the newspaper, to a degree. I mean, like you said, 3/4 of the population see them as nothing more than entertainment and that space that has up to now been taken up by it could be used for educational purposes, like something that is actually scientific. But, don't newspapers also serve to entertain? Yes, they provide news and should therefore be educational in some aspect, but there are also the sections of the paper that are there for entertainment and those are some that many people look forward to - horoscopes, book/movie reviews, lifestyle sections, sports, etc. Now, granted, I do not know a lot about the Denver Post, but if it is like a regular newspaper with all of those other entertainment aspects, why not keep the horoscopes? I'm sure that they generate revenue for the paper and provide some with entertainment."
The second post that I commented on was about an assignment that Mr. Fisher was giving his students. He assigned them to read a book that would be discussed and presented in class, which is pretty standard for a high school class. Then he took it a step further, by requiring that they blog about it and suggesting that the readers of his blog get involved in online discussions, which the times/dates/chapters of which were provided on a wiki link. I replied to this post:
"I think this is a great idea! It takes the group reading of a book to a whole new level. Sharing thoughts, ideas, and perspectives of books with classmates has always been helpful to me in understanding things from others' perspective, so branching even further to include their online community would take that even further."
In the first post I commented on, Mr. Fischer was presenting the argument that the Denver Post should no longer print horoscopes in their paper, and instead use that space for other articles, because only 3/4 of the population believe that horoscopes are just for entertainment purposes. To this post, I replied:
"Mr. Fisch,
I am a student of Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama and was assigned to read and post a comment on your blog. I agree with your stance on the horoscopes being posted in the newspaper, to a degree. I mean, like you said, 3/4 of the population see them as nothing more than entertainment and that space that has up to now been taken up by it could be used for educational purposes, like something that is actually scientific. But, don't newspapers also serve to entertain? Yes, they provide news and should therefore be educational in some aspect, but there are also the sections of the paper that are there for entertainment and those are some that many people look forward to - horoscopes, book/movie reviews, lifestyle sections, sports, etc. Now, granted, I do not know a lot about the Denver Post, but if it is like a regular newspaper with all of those other entertainment aspects, why not keep the horoscopes? I'm sure that they generate revenue for the paper and provide some with entertainment."
The second post that I commented on was about an assignment that Mr. Fisher was giving his students. He assigned them to read a book that would be discussed and presented in class, which is pretty standard for a high school class. Then he took it a step further, by requiring that they blog about it and suggesting that the readers of his blog get involved in online discussions, which the times/dates/chapters of which were provided on a wiki link. I replied to this post:
"I think this is a great idea! It takes the group reading of a book to a whole new level. Sharing thoughts, ideas, and perspectives of books with classmates has always been helpful to me in understanding things from others' perspective, so branching even further to include their online community would take that even further."
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