Chatspeak

Before reading this article, I agreed with Linda Howard when she writes, "When it comes to students and their use of chatspeak, it will be more difficult for many to switch gears to effective and meaningful writing." I have received papers and writings from middle-schoolers that is encoded in chatspeak, and have believed for some time that those students didn't understand how to properly discuss their ideas in more formal vernacular. Howard continues with, "The shortcuts and acronyms that make instant messaging, text messaging, and online chatting so popular have no place in academic, business, and other formal writing settings where it is essential that all individuals involved are using language that is clear and concise." And she does have a point, using chakspeak in a formal business presentation would if not get you fired, it might get you an uncomfortable meeting with the boss.

After reading Greg Monfil's ideas about students use of chatspeak, I felt archaic. Not only does he only argue that chatspeak is not hindering our students ability to use higher English, "nor do I believe that their command of written English would increase appreciably if they would only fore go chatspeak and strive to exhibit a command of written English at all times." His discussion of chatspeak brought to mind my own use of piglatin. As a child, my friends and I would speak in code to each other where the words were backwards. We did this to keep our conversations private. We had big secrets that adults need not know about. I wonder if chatspeak is this generations creation of piglatin. Monfil entertains the idea of chatspeak as their way of rebellion against the stoic ideas of my generation. "If chatspeak is leeching into papers, it’s probably due to a small bit of rebelliousness as opposed to obliviousness," writes Monfil. I like this idea; students know when to use chatspeak and when to use proper English, and if they don't its my responsibility as a teacher to instruct them in the proper place for chatspeak.

Classrooms and Cell Phones

Both sides of this argument have valid points. Yes, cell phones are used for non-educational purposes. Yes, teachers need to prepare students to function in our technological proficient world. Yes, financially the required use of cell phones will create a burdon on our school districts. Yes, there are multiple potentcial educational uses for cell phones within the classroom. I think incorporating the use of cell phones into the classroom is not a financially viable, and easily managable tool within the classroom.

"When discussing the money that districts would spend on cell phones, don’t think about just purchasing the phone. You will also be paying for some type of plan that would probably include text messaging and Web access if you were to get the most out of what you have," said Josh Allen. This explains the financial pitfalls of cell phone use in the classroom. One thing that wasn't really wasn't discussed is the gap between studends financailly. Not all students and not all families can provide their children with phones that have text messages and web access...I can't even afford web access on my personal phone. We can not expect our students to complete assignments that require devices that are out of their financial grasp.

While yes students need to understand how to use technology to be prepared to funcion in a professional environmnet, they are going to use their phones to talk to their friends, send inappropriate pictures, and even start fights with other students. Because our students are so plugged in, they will have trouble focusing on using their phones for the assignments instead of answering the text messages their friends down the hall are sending. The pitfalls of using cell phones as a teaching tool out way the positive possibilities. Although, I have heard of some successful lesson plans using cell phones and text messages and I can see maybe constructing one lesson involving the use of cell phones to get students engaged with a seemingly dull topic...maybe, but you'd have to twist my arm a bit.

PowerPoint Thoughts

Because I am a first-generation, digital native, I am very familar with PowerPoint and computer based presentations. I actually learned a lot from my classmates presentations. I think Katie 's use of images to get us to learn new Spanish words was very helpful. Also, Thomas's use of personal photographs to talk about an ancient culture gave me a more personal connection to the subject matter.

In some of the PowerPoints the amount of text was rediculous. One thing to be aware of is how much the teacher is relying on the PowerPoint as notes for the presentation, instead of working from a notecard or notes not on the actual PowerPoint. I know I struggle with this, especially infront of people my age, and the nerves for me are significantly less when talking infront of a group of younger students--its definatly easier to look at the PowerPoint slides then look a the sea of faces expecting you to teach them something.

In most situations PowerPoint is a useful tool to teach, introduce, or lecture on a new subject. I also like the way Joe Mannion uses slides to put up class directions during small group or individual work time...its very helpful to be able to look up and see exactly what I am supposed to be doing (even adults don't pay attention all the time). At the same time, PowerPoints can be dry, or uninteresting and the best way to get others excited about the subject is to engage them in an activity, which PowerPoint does not do very well. If I keep this fault in mind and don't create my class around PowerPoints all the time, the digital presentation of infromation is very helpful...and our students can make their own presentations too!

A Comment on Teenage Obesity WebQuest, By Heather Campos

http://questgarden.com/85/62/7/090729083056



Heather's WebQuest is very well organized and thoroghly planned out. By breaking her students into groups, and assigning each person a specific job, she is recreating a real-world colaborative project. The topic she has chosen is current and effecting many students in today's world. By having students make a final presentation and written diet/exercise plan will help students struggling with weight develop a way to change their life. Heather has created a incredable student pages, but is still working up her teacher pages. She will have a well rounded WebQuest apon completing this portion of the website.

Her exact expectations of her students are clearly outlined; no student should have a question about their specific roll, or the overall goals of the project. One thing that makes these sites more interactive is to imbed the URL links in the photographs or within texts. While I was exploring her site, I kept trying to click on her pictures, so that is one area I might explore further.

However, I did enjoy her breakdown of the points values on the evaluation page. It lets students know, again, exactly whats expected of them and what their levels of effort will get them grade wise. I think for my own WebQuest, I would 'borrow' some of her levels of evaluation, my grading rubric could be flushed out a little more after reading Heather's evaluation page. Generally, I really enjoyed exploring her WebQuest.

A Comment on Latin America Traveler's Blog, By Katie Swanson

http://questgarden.com/85/81/3/090801195942/index.htm

Katie Swanson's WebQuest is very welcoming and is a great activity for Spanish students. I think the students will love to make a travel blog and be challenged by blogging in Spanish. There a links to help students find information about the different countries and ideas for different topics for students to include in their blogs. The expectations for each blogpost is very clearly described, while working in pairs is an interesting idea for this online activity. I think partnering up will help student brainstorm ideas for travel. Although the student pages are well developed, Katie is still working on developing her teacher pages, but I think she is well on her way to making a great WebQuest.

A suggestion I would make is to create the links as attached to an image, or a specific word, instead of pasting the URLs directly into the WebQuest (I think it just looks cleaner). If she had included a commenting requirment for each group to comment on at least one other blog each week, would increase the class interaction. Also, some of the text is small and might be difficult to read for students who struggle with English or reading.