Foot: Oral History of the Internet

I just finished reading the Oral History of the Internet.  I didn't know that they just kind of "accidentally" discovered the Internet.  It seems like none of them think they did anything really big at the time.  They were just winging it.  It was interesting how the article went chronologically from the moment the Internet was invented to now.  I remember when my family got our first computer.  I think it was 1992 and I was 11 years old and we had AOL.  There was e-mail, chat rooms, and games and that was pretty much it.  If I had a report for school I still went to look in the encyclopedias.  Our computer had a word processor on it and I was so happy that I could type my papers on the computer and print them out instead of using the typewriter.  The paper that went into our printer was a real ream of paper, the pages were connected and the edges had holes to help the paper go through the printer.  When it was done printing I had to tear the pages out of the printer and then separate the pages and tear off the edges with the holes.  When I read the article I was remembering how computers have changed as I was growing up.  It was like re-living that time in my life.  It was really neat.

Foot: Pleasure Reading

All of the talk about technology that we did in class and all the technology that we are reading about made me think about a book I read over Christmas break.  I read a book called Matched by Allie Condie.  This book is young adult literature.  It is set in the future.  It isn't specific about what year it is but I'm guessing at least a couple hundred years in the future.  Something happened to end society as we know it and they rebuilt society.  They thought the people from the old society had too much technology and they had too much of pretty much everything.  They picked 100 Songs, 100 Poems, 100 Lessons.... etc.  They got rid of everything else.  They figured if there was only 100 of everything the people could appreciate things better.  They also had a lot of technology in this new Society.  Every student had a "scribe" which is what they used to write with.  No one knew how to write with their hands, they could only type.  The Society didn't want anyone being able to make new poems or stories or whatever, so they stopped teaching people how to write.  They had computers that matched people to each other too.  People didn't get to choose who they married.  The Society matched people based on likes, dislikes, eye color.... etc.  The Society wanted to have the best possible next generations.  Jobs were also chosen by The Society.   I won't give away the ending of the book because it is a very good book.  But they have some very interesting technology.  I would recommend this book to anyone.  I would even like my students to read this book when I become a teacher.  This book is the first in a trilogy.  The second book is going to come out in November 2011 and the third will come out in November 2012.  If anyone else has read this book I would like to hear your thoughts on it too.

Pytash: Chapter 1

I enjoyed the Seven Guiding Principles for Literature Teachers.  The following is what I found important from each one.

1. Students Must Read
     - Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. It is very important because it gives students the chance to control their learning because they learn with the aid of a teacher or more knowledgeable peers.  They are not just lectured to.

My favorite part of that section is the quote from Vygotsky: "the only good kind of instruction is that which marches ahead of development and leads it."

2. Don't Confuse Reading for Pleasure with the Study of Literature
     - This section says students should read two very different kinds of books.  The first one acts as a mirror, which means the students can relate to the story.  The second one acts as a window which allows students to experience other worlds, other times and other cultures.  Students need both kinds of books.

This section also mentions Oprah's Book Club.  Oprah started hosting a new segment called "Traveling with the Classics." Her first selection was John Steinbeck's East of Eden. I have not read that book yet but this section makes me want to read it.

3. Dont' Simply Assign Difficult Books; Teach Them
     - This section really made me think.  It said that sometimes teachers abandon the classics because they think their students won't be able to understand it.  This section says that it's not enough to just hand the students the book and expect them to understand it on their own.  Teachers need to walk their students through difficult books and help them understand.

4. Reading Literature Requires Language Study and Builds Vocabulary
     - This section stresses that students who come to school with rich vocabularies thrive and those who arrive with a language gap never seem to make up the difference.   The book also says that instruction can make a difference.  This book recommends that every teacher should read Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. It said that that book should be mandatory for every teacher.  That is very interesting to me.  It must be a pretty good book.  I can't wait to read it.

5. Reading Literature Build Background Knowledge
     - This section is very important because people don't think about how much background knowledge is important until they read something to which they have no background knowledge.  The more a student reads different kinds of books, the more background knowledge they will acquire.

6. Reading Literature Educates Students' Imaginations
     - I think the most important part of this section is the first two sentences.  "Good literature is disturbing. It forces readers to examine the lives of others objectively from the inside out."  Students need to be exposed to things they are not used to because it gives them the chance to be exposed to worlds and experiences they have never known.

7. Metaphorical Thinking is a Life Skill
     -This section shows that students use metaphors all the time without even knowing it.  They think of metaphors only when thinking about English class.  It is very important for students to understand the power of a good metaphor.

Foot: Little Brother/ The Socially Networked Classroom

I started reading Little Brother and I noticed a whole bunch of different kind of technologies.  The students all had their own laptops provided by the school.  There were metal detectors at the front doors.  There are cameras all over the school that used to have face recognition software but now they have gait recognition software.  I have never heard of gait recognition software before, maybe it is made up and maybe it is real, I don't know, but I think it's cool.  The library books even have tags in them so the librarians can track exactly where each and every library book is.  There is even more technology when the kids in the book get picked up by Homeland Security when there is a terrorist attack.  I started thinking about all the technology in the book when I started reading The Socially Networked Classroom.  Dr. Kist talks about different ways to incorporate technology into the classrooms.  I like the idea of every student having a laptop.  In Little Brother the laptops provided by the school have programs on them that restrict the websites and programs the students can run.  I think that is a good idea because students only need to work on school things while they are at school.  I think it is important for all students to have access to different kinds of technology.  I think if students learn to use different kinds of technology in school they will be better prepared for life after school.  I hope to teach my students how to use different types of technology in my classroom.

In Chapter 2 of The Socially Networked Classroom Dr. Kist talks about the Multigenre Autobiography assignment that we also have to do for this class.  I think it will be easy to find images from movies, books, and TV from when I was growing up.  I am very excited about working on my autobiography.  I have searched for any images yet but I have a lot of thoughts going through my head about all the things I grew up with.