Journal 7: PLN

Affinity Groups

At the beginning of the quarter, I signed up for two affinity groups: Classroom 2.0 and Internet en el Aula. Classroom 2.0 granted me membership into their network within days while Internet en el Aula took about a week. Classroom 2.0 was more active in sending me email reminders about various events they were having on their site or conferences I might be interested in attending. There was a Librarian 2.013 world wide conference online which was very intriguing. Unfortunately, it was during my daughter's birthday weekend, so I missed it. Classroom 2.0 also had a lot of "Live" sessions in which one could interact with community members at the same time. Hopefully, once the quarter slows down (or comes to an end) I can 'attend' one and see what they have to offer. I really enjoyed receiving emails because once I opened them, I usually wandered off to their site to read various articles or posts. One post I read last week dealt with various ways teachers recover from a horrible day at school. It was entertaining yet inspiring reading this post. One came in handy while I was subbing in a kindergarten classroom last week on a rainy day. It was bad enough that my kindergartners did not have recess, but as I put away their art projects to take home, I did not realize one student was missing his pumpkin because he was absent the day it was made. He began crying and all the attention from the class was focused on him and how to make him feel better. It was difficult to regain their attention. Then I remembered one of the quotes I read from a post in Classroom 2.0 which said:

 I try not to force it when class is going downhill. Chances are I will have to reteach the topic again tomorrow anyway because of how the class went. So instead of everyone being frustrated or me rolling my frustration to the next class, I change up the lesson.”

-Ms. Emerson

I then stopped my teaching. Let the class talk to him. Had everyone take a deep breath, stand up and get their bodies stretching for a few minutes, and started the lesson over. It went smoothly (as much as it could in a kinder class) there after. 

RSS Feed & Twitter

Though the affinity group was great to look at, I truly enjoyed my RSS Feed and Twitter best. I liked that I kept receiving constant articles to look at at anytime from one place. They were more useful to me because I downloaded the apps on my phone and had access to them at anytime without much effort put into looking things up. Without the apps I may have forgotten to check in on them! Both Digg and Twitter gave me the opportunity to weed through various articles of interest and share those I enjoyed reading with others. I'm still trying to get the hang of Twitter since I'm not much of a poster but more of a reader. But I did re-tweet a few articles of interest dealing with autism and the holidays. One of the articles included tips on helping children avoid sensory overload during the hectic holiday seasons approaching. The tips varied from crowds to meals to travel and schedules. It was really helpful and I shared from of the tips with parents and colleagues.

Final Thought

These tools are very useful personally and professionally. They enable you to stay up to date with current events in the world of education. They enable you to think outside the box and see what other states or even countries are doing to better the educational field to fit the needs of the students we are here to serve. They enable you to stay united as an educational community which shares ideas, experiences, issues, resolutions, and much more. I will definitely keep these resources at the tip of my hand to make sure I continue growing professionally and personally. 

     

Journal 6: Self Reflection

The very first webpage we made was overwhelming due to all the information we learned in a few hours. I was slightly familiar with HTML and had randomly stumbled onto the View Page Source section of webpages, which I inevitably tried to read it. The page source did not seem very readable and almost felt like a foreign language, but as I analyzed it, it seemed pretty intuitive. Though I was interested, at the moment I never thought I would find myself not only knowing how to read it but also how to write it! And even though the first day was draining, I also could not wait to dive deeper into the world of HTML. 

It has been a very gratifying journey writing and deciphering HTML. I love being able to write in TextEdit and see it transform once opened in a browser. Dreamweaver has made it easier to code since it begins inserting tags for you and it detects an area that has missed a closing tag, semicolon, and what not. Though it does not make it super easy to identify the problem it does narrow down the area. I really like working with Dreamweaver because I can see how webpage is developing as I am writing it. I also appreciate the use of TextEdit because it helps me reinforce all the codes I need to learn without having them right at my fingertips. 

CSS has been great! I love the idea of it, but there is so much markup language that it is going to take me a while to learn. And although it is also intuitive, I feel that I might just forget a selector. This is also the area in which I end up making mistakes because I forget a semicolon or bracket.

The hardest yet most rewarding book assignment has been Jen's Kitchen. It was a bit difficult trying to link all the pages to one another and making sure the correct hypertext link was inserted so that you page could link where you wanted it to go. I really enjoyed seeing the end product and it helped me understand how my server is set up and how to link to files or folders within it. Which, in turn, helped me better understand how to link my index.html page. http://www.csupomona.edu/~bopinedo/ged512/books/chapter6/Exercise%206-1%20to%206-7/jenskitchen/ex6.4.index.html. I did not find any particular book exercise hard; I found some to be tedious because of the amount of work (coding) needed but not the exercise itself. 

Journal 4: Project Plan

•   Site title – Azteco’s Auto Body

•   Developer – Belén Pinedo

•   Rational or focus – The goal for the site is to inform clients about the business. It will give clients information on location, services, examples of previous work, contact information, and more.

•   Main features outline – Home | About | Photo Gallery | Social Media 

•   Content –

       

·      Home Page: Contains a video of the area and the employees working on a complete car.

·      About Page: Company information, history, employees. It will contain links to “Contact” information page and a link to “Directions” page with a map

·      Photo Gallery: thumbnails of various jobs completed. Thumbnails will open to individual pages containing a larger image and a brief description of the work done.

·      Social Media Page: Links to the company’s Facebook page and Yelp

•    

•   Number of individual Web pages about 10.

•   Target audience – Clients who need to fix the bodywork of their vehicle.

•   Design considerations. User friendly.

•   Limiting factors – I might have trouble adding the video and or recording it.

Site Map

Wire Frame

Journal 3: Commercial Concerns in the Social Web

Friesen, N. (2010). Education and the social Web: Connective learning and the commercial imperative. First Monday, 15(12). http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/

view/3149/2718.

The article written by Dr. Norm Friessen focuses on the negative aspect of education and the social web: advertising. Many sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google accounts (Blogger, YouTube, etc) appeal to the educational field for the purpose of being connected in and out of the classroom, locally or internationally. However, the author makes a very interesting point in which he states that the company's main purpose is not the customer who has signed up to use the site, but rather the customer who has signed up to post advertisements on their site.  Dr. Friessen quotes Steve Greenberg who warns, "You are not Facebook's customer. You are the product that they sells to their real customers - advertisers. Forget this at your peril."

All these sites, Facebook and Google, use various methods, or "algorithms," to satisfy the needs of their customers (the advertisers). Facebook for instance, uses ones information (i.e., age, gender, religion, location, likes, relationship status, etc) to allow advertisers to better target their audience simply by looking at the information we have provided them. According to Dr. Friessen, Google uses "complex, hidden algorithms to target adds in precise ways based detailed tracking and analysis of user searches," emails sent, and other information, to make it easy for their real customer, the advertisers, to target their audience more precisely. 

Another great point the article makes is that of the "dislike" button. Many services have yet to create a "dislike button" because it would hinder their advertisers. By adding this button, it gives the public the power to dislike a particular brand, item, or store which would only bring bad publicity to the company, and therefore, they would not want to advertise on sites that allow us to fully express ourselves. Though it limits our ability to 'dislike' brands, companies, items, etc., I also would not necessarily want a dislike button placed in these sites for the mere reason of internet trolls/cyber bullies. Unless the "dislike" button is geared only towards advertisement or posts made from companies/groups, it gives people the ability to put others down. With cyber bullying having such a huge impact on our students, and though they find harsher ways than just a "dislike" button, it gives them more power to put others down in various ways. This type of negativity would not be good to educational sites where students are supposed to feel safe. However, we can teach our students to use the correct type of words to disagree without insulting others as well as how to agree to disagree without it impacting our relationships at school. It would be a great gateway to teaching tolerance. 

Question 1: How do social networks and advertisement affect the learner?

Social networks allow learners to join a space where they can express themselves and continue learning from their peers. It gives students a voice and opportunities to express themselves at multiple times of the day. When advertising comes in, however, it can distract the learner from staying on task or finishing online assignments they may have. Advertisers use the information one provides the site to target their audience. When students see add about their friends playing a particular game or liking a particular company, they may feel pressured to like the same things or play the same games, therefore, distracting them from their learning and making the companies more profit. 

Question 2: Can social networks exits without adds?

I do not believe this is possible. In a world were making profit is one of the biggest goals in life, people will find ways of making money. If one can make a couple of dollars by allowing advertisers to post on your website, I'm sure many of us would take that opportunity. Advertisements are all around us, we can either choose to pay attention to them or walk away (or not click on them). 

Journal 2: Affinity Group & Digg Stream

Affinity Group
After looking through the various affinity group links, I chose 2 different networks that appealed to me. One in English and one in Spanish. These affinity groups are quite different from one another. The one in English, Classroom 2.0, appeals to my technological side and its integration into the classroom. I hope to learn various techniques used by other teachers in the classroom in regard to technology and gain a better sense of support from them. The same goes for the Spanish affinity group, Internet en el Aula. However, as I explored this site, I felt overwhelmed, almost like the first day I walked into my bilingual classroom and felt like i was playing 'catch up' with the academic Spanish I was not used to. I have not practiced my Spanish as much since I last did my bilingual clinical practice in Fall 2012, therefore, I also hope to learn new academic Spanish vocabulary and at the same time learn what the Spanish community is doing in the educational field.

Digg Stream
My Digg RSS stream proved to be very useful. It gave me various articles and posts to read in one place! After I added many of the suggestions given in class, I tried adding a few more that interested me, such as Education Week and Projecto de Educacion Infantil Bilingue. It was great being able to get a stream of various sites that interest me in one. Some sites gave me the complete preview without going to the site itself, while others gave me a glimpse and I had to go the site to finish reading (which only detoured me into other articles of interest). One of the streams I read was 7 Ways to Make Teachers, Students Happier in School. A few of the suggestions I liked included taking the students outside during silent reading so that they can enjoy nature, relax, and read a god book at the same time. Listening to music and smiling were the other other two suggestions I might be able to incorporate in my classroom because it would expose students to various music genres that they might not otherwise get at home. Smiling is also very important because it makes you feel good and it gives students a sense of belonging.

Question 1: Can a Digg Stream be incorporated in the classroom?
A Digg Stream would be a great way to help students stay updated on current events and write a journal about it afterwards. It enables teachers to give students various resources from which to read and complete a journal. I remember reading newspapers in 5th grade and writing about it afterwards. We had to cut the journal and attach it to our paper. Online articles, however, is more 'green' and students are able to practice doing a Works Cited Page earlier (I remember starting in my 4th grade GATE class). It is also convenient because it gives students access to an article at home or on the go. It would also would great for older students in history, science, government courses.

Question 2: Are affinity groups helpful to a teacher?
Affinity groups are a very helpful resource for teachers...and parents. They are a way of communicating with other educators nationwide. This allows teachers to share experiences, lesson plans, management skills, opinions and ideas that have and have not worked for them. It enables us to gain a sense of support among the educational community as one tries to fit into what works best for them. It is also helpful for parents who are trying to find new ways of keeping their children engaged in class or behavior management that others may have tried. It is a 'salad bowl' of ideas from which you get to pick and choose what you like and try it out!

Journal #1: Part 1 (ch 1-3) : Getting Started

Robbins, J.N. (2012). Learning Web Design: A beginner’s guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and web graphics. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.




Summary:

Part 1 of Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphic contains an overwhelming amount of critical information. The reader is introduced to all the major concepts, terminology, and programs in the realm of web design. Chapter one gets you thinking about the level of involvement you see yourself within the web-designing world. There is the hobbyist or the person who plans on making a career out of it. Either way, one needs to figure out what scene fits them best within this broad field, since, you can either learn to do it all or become an expert in one of a few areas and hire others for different roles. The various roles include: visual design, user interface and experience design, web document and style sheet production, scripting and programming, content strategy, and multimedia. Becoming familiar with all aspects of web design, however, appears to be a must in order to be well informed. Chapter two proves a breakdown on how the web works from the server, to browsers, Uniform Resource Locator (URLs), HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript and much more. Robins gives a brief overview of the importance of HTML because it is part of the backbone of a website's text elements. It makes up the headings, text, paragraphs, emphasized text, images, videos, links, and more. HTML appears to be one of the most important languages to learn, which I am both eager and nervous to get my hands on. I've always been intrigued by HTML files and like to read through them. Though it does not seem too complicated, trying to go back and find my error scares me most if I am missing a few style rules that can change the whole formatting of the webpage. The third chapter reminds us of all the devices that now use internet and how to provide access to all (i.e., visually, mobility, auditory, and or cognitive impairment). One of the most fascinating points Robins made, which I had not considered, was the site performance and its correlation to revenue. I had not paid attention, but I do become impatient if a website does not load quick and do end up going to a different site. It is imperative to keep this in mind when creating web pages for clients or even for your classroom because you want to keep them satisfied and coming back in the future. 

Q1: What is the difference between frontend and backend design of website creation? On which end do you see yourself?

Frontend design deals with the browser while backend design deals with the programing on the server. With frontend design, one is responsible for image production, graphic design, interface design, JavaScript, HTML document and sheet styling development, and information design according to user experience. Backend design deals more with the programing aspect of the server such as database programing, form processing, content management system, information design according to how information is organized on the server, and the use of PHP, Ruby, JSP, ASP.NET, Java, and more. Though both designs sound great, I feel that frontend design fits me best because I've always enjoyed the graphic design and the image production parts of web design.

Q2: Why is Responsive Web Design important?

Responsive web design is important because it enables a website to be viewed properly depending on the device being retrieved from by providing custom layouts for every device. Therefore, the site looks and works properly on each device whether it be a smartphone, tablet, television, laptop, computer, etc. In order for a website to do this, it uses one HTML document and various style sheets that change the layout based on various screen sizes. Though responsive web design is important for the user experience it alone cannot work. In order to acquire the best user experience progressive enhancement is needed to deliver a 'baseline experience' to all browsers.