NeighborhoodWiki

I don't think that this website is very user friendly. I find that you have to be moderately tech savvy in order to navigate through this website and get to the useful information. Once I was able to find the information on the NeighborhoodWiki website, I found that it was a nice way to incorporate interesting information posted by students. For example, I clicked on articles and found a posting related to skin. As a Science teacher, I was interested as to what students would have written about skin. I found the information to be quite interesting. A student posted that "Skin covers organs and items in bodies. In a lifetime a human sheds more than 18kg. Every minute about 35,000 skin cells fall from the body." (Retrieved from "http://theneighborhoodschool.org/wiki/index.php?title=Skin) This is information that others can use for projects and reports. However, it is not accurate and maybe could be used as an assessment tool. I think that with easier navigation this Wiki website would be a very useful tool and could be a model for other Wiki's to be incorporated into academic classes.

Teens and Social Media

I find it interesting that overall, girls tend to post more via the Internet than boys do, whether it is blogging or simply posting pics for friends to see. However, in one particular area, boys dominate and are nearly twice as likely (19% vs. 10%) to post videos or video content that others are able to view. Other forms of social media that teens engage in are "traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social networking sites, instant messaging, and email." This is a representation of approximately "28% of the entire teen population and they are more likely to be older girls." This doesn't surprise me in the least, because girls tend to need more social communication than boys do. I am glad to see there is an interest in social media regardless of its form.

Macgill, A.(2007). Teens and Social Media: The use of social media gains a greater foothold in teen life as they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media. Retrieved January 12, 2009, from, http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp

Computer Access

I teach in a temporary and in turn do not have any computers in my classroom for students to use. However, our school has two computer labs, one of the labs is based on a sign up process. The other computer lab is used by each teacher that teaches a discipline tested on the MSA's. This computer lab is used to allow students to practice their MSA skills through a program called study island. Students in Math, Science, and Language Arts go to the computer lab once a week in each of the three disciplines. My school also has 3 mobile labs. These are laptop computers that travel to classrooms and teachers are allowed to use them during instruction. Each student has access to a computer equipped with Internet at their own desk. As teachers we also have the technology to control all laptop computers, deciding what the students are and are not allowed to view. They can be required to only see what is being seen on the teachers computer or be allowed to surf the Internet visiting appropriate sites at will.