Blog Post #2

When thinking about my MMP, a couple different communities come to mind. The first one that I would like to explore is Google Classroom. I do not have much knowledge about Google Classroom, except for watching it being used during my practicum last year. My teacher set up the classroom and every child in the class was a member. All of the worksheet files were uploaded, so if a student misplaced their hard copy or were absent, they could find it located their. During class, the students would work on the worksheets provided and were responsible for turning it in on the site by the due date. I want to learn more about this site because I feel like it can be essential for the organization of the classroom. Also, it allows for students to have access to the school work while at home if they want any extra practice. Having this in the classroom really teaches students the importance of responsibility, while also promoting a sense of community in the classroom.

Another community that I would like to join is Podbean. Podbean is an online community that allows people to make and record their own podcast and share it with others. This can be a very useful tool in the classroom, especially for social studies. In history, every event has multiple perspectives and it is important to listen to and understand these perspectives, in order to grasp a deeper connection to the material. I would like to use this community to have students create their own podcasts about their take on a certain event. Whether it's with a partner, and it is in a mini-debate format, or created individually and later listened by other students, it provides an outlet for the students to hear and listen to each other. Hearing each other’s opinion on a certain topic can help expand our own knowledge, so having something like this in the classroom and facilitate student learning. I figured that if I successfully explore and utilize these two communities, my future history classroom can run very smoothly while allowing students to get in touch with their creativity.

Discussion Post #1

     The Daley reading brought in interesting perspectives on the idea of literacy in relation to technology. As the world advances, literacy is no longer just reading and write worksheets and books, now new technology is brought in to supplement those. This can either be a beneficial or negative thing, depending on the students. The quote that sparked this discussion is an interesting take on the negative aspect of the technological literacy, she wrote, "Multimedia, so ubiquitous to young people's experience, often seems to be particularly hard for them to deconstruct (Daley, 36)." In my experiences of working with students in the classroom, I have actually seen the both sides of this argument, one that supports the Daley quote, and one that opposes it. 
     During my fall student teaching internship, I wanted to incorporate technology whenever  could. I always used the projector and gave interactive lectures with power points or prezis displayed behind me. The real struggle was trying to get the students one to one technology. Sometimes, I was able to secure the computer lab for the students to work on a personal computer while they researched information for a project. One project that we had was a Revolutionary Talk Show. The students had were given questions that they would be asked at this talk show, which would be held in class two days later. While watching the students, I noticed that they would just copy word for word what they found on each website. Most of the students would not read what they were writing then break it down into their own words. So after seeing this, I figured that they would do it during the talk show; but, of course, I was wrong. Even while presenting to the class,  they read exactly what they had found on the site. The problem was that there was not any analyzation. The students would not process what they were writing; instead they would just see what was on the surface.
     On the other hand, I have seen students in the classroom debunk Daley's quote. During my practicum last year, I was placed in a middle school where the technology ratio was one-to-one, where each student had their own device or Chromebook. Sometimes when working with these Chromebooks, their teacher would assign them a primary source document or an article for them to read. Rather than just reading, they would have to analyze the article and answer questions. They would use an app called Kami, which would allow them to analyze and annotate the article, as a pdf on the Chromebook. This allowed the students to highlight, underline, and mark up the articles to help them understand and process the information easier. From what I saw while walking around, this approach seemed to be pretty effective. However, in both my experiences, I never had any administrators discourage the use of multimedia in the classroom. From what I have heard from other teachers, it is important to use technology in the classroom, especially when an administrator is observing your teaching.

Blog Post #1

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2.         For the first blog post, I decided to analyze the Ciroc commercial with Diddy in it. I believe that this commercial was intended to attract new customers, particularly those who might not be familiar with the vodka or those in the higher class or those trying to be. From prior knowledge, I know that Diddy has been heavily involved in the hip-hop culture and already has supporters of the brand through those means. However, the commercial featured a song by Frank Sinatra, which is completely different genre. By using an iconic song as such, it will gain the attention from a different audience from one that was playing a rap song. The commercial is seen through Diddy's eyes, as he takes part in a high class gathering involving men dressed in suits and women in fancy dresses, while drinking Ciroc. With this scene being portrayed, it is selling a possible, but slim form of reality. Not everyone will partake in a scene like this while drinking Ciroc, but they are trying to sell the audience a dream of the high life. It is possible that upper class audiences will see this and can relate to the actions in the commercial, so they feel that they can relive this scene. Others, on the other hand, will see this and go purchase the vodka in hopes of being able to somewhat attain what they saw in the commercial, or at least feel upper class for the night. 
           One of the most important decisions when it came to the design of the commercial was the theme. Yes, it was a higher end gathering, but to match the Frank Sinatra idea, the gathering seems to be modeled after a social gathering of the wealthy from the time period of the early to mid twentieth century. This design was a great decision because it also gives off the idea that the Ciroc brand is a long lived company, one that generations of respectable, important people have used and loved. Associating the brand with this level of wealth and making it seem like an institution will surely attract new customers and reinforce returning customers decisions.
   

About Me

Hey everybody. My name is Tim and I am currently a graduate student here at Rutgers University studying  Social Studies Education. I have recently finished my student teaching this past fall in a US History I and an AP US History class. Now that I have some experience in the classroom, I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge and incorporating new strategies in the classroom, such as technology, in order to encourage student learning.