Kist- The Socially Networked Classroom

When reading the foreword of The Socially Networked Classroom, I was surprised at how honest the principle was in his conversation with Kylene Beers. Two of his comments truly resonated with me, the first comes from the first page of the foreword: “We’re still working off a factory model of education, moving kids quickly from one class to the next every 42 minutes with no processing time between classes just so we can get them in and out of seven classes during the day. I think that could be a hard way to learn for some kids.”

Sadly, this seems to have been the model of education for decades, and I feel that a lot of students are suffering because of it.

The second comment that resonated with me comes from the second page of the foreword: “The teachers show the kids what they want them to know, and the kids tell it back to them on the test.” As a student, I know this comment holds truth. Apparently, I am not the only one that feels this way. When I listened to the 2008 National Teacher of the Year, Michael Geisen, he commented about test taking in schools and said, we are not trying to make “jeapordy champions.”  

When looking at test taking from the perspectives of the principle and Michael Geisen, we can see that tests sometimes measure how much information a student can cram into his or her head and regurgitate onto a piece of paper.

From reading this book and listening to Mr.Geisen, I have realized how important it is for teachers to move on from 20^th century methods of teaching and to teach students skills that are more relevant to the 21^st century.

*If you want to know more about Michael Geisen, and his ideas about 21^st century teaching follow this link http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?=1864

Kist- The Oral History of the Internet

I use the Internet everyday, but I never thought about the history and creation of it. It's amazing to see how the Internet became what it is now. It's is also surprising to see how few people actually knew about it when it was first created. You would think it would be, well, kind of a big deal but according to Leonard Kleinrock so many other significant events happened in 1969 that no-one really noticed the Internet.

It's also interesting to see how much controversy surrounded the Internet. Microsoft lost a lot of respect from competitors when it put three major companies out of business and Bill Gates made Netscape a target. I couldn't help but to notice how similar this is to the controversies that surround Facebook. The other day, I rented The Social Network and it seems to me that Mark Zuckerberg made quite a few enemies while creating Facebook. I would imagine that Bill Gates made a few enemies of his own as well. I feel as if the idea for the Internet as well as Facebook came from a lot of different people but one person in each of these cases, are recognized for these creations. To me both The Oral History of the Internet as well as The Battle For Facebook recognizes this point.

Kist- Multigenre Autobiography

As of now things are going pretty smoothly with my Multigenre Autobiography. I still have some work to do, but I feel like I am going in the right direction. Building my Multigenre Autobiography has been very enjoyable. I never realized how books, television shows, and movies played such a huge role in my life. It's fun to think about what kind of texts I enjoyed as a child up till now, and it's interesting to see how my reading habits have changed over time.

While building my Multigenre Autobiography, I noticed that computers and movies did not play a significant role in the classroom. When reflecting on texts from school all I could think of was books, and occasionally movies pertaining to those books.I truly hope that I can integrate more than just text books in my classroom.I feel that using more than one kind of text in the classroom would be advantageous to the students who will be in my classes.

I would definitely use this assignment with kids in my class, because they too will see how much multi-modal literacies affect their lives.

Kist- The Battle For Facebook

I first created my own Facebook in high school. My sister was in college at the time and told me about it so I decided to make one to stay in touch with her. At the time, I hardly ever used Facebook I actually preferred using Myspace.  Now that I am in college, I use Facebook almost everyday to stay in touch with my friends and family.

From the get go, I thought that Facebook was very similar to Myspace. I got the vibe that the idea for Facebook was not original but branched off of other social networking sites. Turns out I am not the only one that feels this way.

Since the award winning movie The Social Network came out there has been a lot of talk about whether or not Mark Zuckerberg was the original creator of Facebook. My take on the story from the Rolling Stones article is that he got the idea for Facebook from the Harvard Connection but transformed it into something that the founders of the Harvard Connection never could. However, to hear another side of the story I decided to watch a YouTube video of the Winklevoss twins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugI_gRR6rB8&feature=related). I also watched an interview of Mark Zuckerberg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qfcWSZAHvM).

When comparing Facebook to other social networking sites Jeff Jarvis, the director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York, states: "It was better than its predecessors," says Jarvis. "Friendster was a game; MySpace was a tacky home page. Facebook was the best to come along."

While there is still debate about who really created Facebook, one cannot deny that Facebook is a great tool for the classroom. While looking through the text The Socially Networked Classroom, I found that a teacher actually created an assignment called the Jacksonian Reformers Facebook in which students create a Facebook for one of the reformers they learned about in class (Kist 91-93). The idea of using Facebook for a project is brilliant because the information about the reformers is organized in a way that is familiar and easily accessible to students. 

Kist 1- Little Brother

I am aware that Little Brother is a work of fiction; however, I believe it is very relevant to the society in which we live. Our generation is commonly referred to as the millennial generation; we are different than the generations before us and immerse ourselves in technology. I read a report about the millennial generation (http://pewsocialtrends.org/2010/02/24/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change/) and I couldn’t help but to notice some of the similarities between us and Marcus. According to the report we embrace multiple modes of self-expression but we also want privacy in regards to our media outlets. Marcus is the same in that he loves expressing himself through technology but wants privacy.

Unfortunately, neither of us can have total privacy when it comes to technology. Today, employers can check up on us by viewing our Facebook or Myspace. People can also hack into our computers and access our personal information. I feel that Marcus really sums up how one feels about privacy when it comes to technology in the following passages from Little Brother. Marcus has just given the password to his cell to the DHS and these passages describe how he feels.

The first passage is on page 56; “The truth is I had everything to hide, and nothing.”

The second passage comes from page 57; “It’s not about doing something shameful. It’s about doing something private. It’s about your life belonging to you.”

These quotes resonate with me because I feel the same way when it comes to my tech gadgets and Facebook.

I would definitely use this text in my classroom because of how prominent multi modalities are in our culture. I would like to do an activity with my class such as the poster board exercise we did the other day in class. I would also like my class to make a wiki based on the over-arching themes they chose for the book.