The area that was the most impactful to me was the number of students who admit to using their cell phones to cheat (35%). This number is certainly larger since the study only reported the students admitting to cheating.  Another sad number was that 23% of students don’t believe that storing test information on your phone was considered cheating.  Cheating is as old as the first test, but now cheating has gone high-tech.  If you would like to read the entire report about cell phones, teens, and cheating, please click here to review the results from Common Sense Media. 

  There are some pilot programs that are using school-owned phones, often being funded from an outside source.  Qualcomm funds a program called Project K-Nect to help at risk students with math.  Jessica Bramble posted on the discussion board that it would be less expensive to have students use their cell phones instead of the school purchasing a responder system.  This may be true, but we will always have the “have’s” and the “have not’s” and this would just drive the wedge in deeper.  Unfortunately, I think the cons far outweigh the pros when deciding to use cell phones in the school.  Calculators, not phones, should be used in the class during testing.  I am definitely not against using new technologies in school, but I most assuredly am against cheating; and I think this is what happens much too often when cell phones are permitted/tolerating in the school.

Our discussions have taught me to think out of the box when it comes to using mobile technologies.  My blog only focused on cell phones because I feel that the majority of our discussion posts tended to focus on them.  I understand that mobile technologies is far more reaching than only cell phones.  The only suggestion I have for our discussions would have been to focus on more than just cell phones.  During our Instructional Strategies Matrix, we learned about countless hand-held devices that could certainly be considered mobile technology and would have been worthy of praise and discussion.

A peer, Renee Rudzewicz, posted that teachers could be compared to modern-day doctors.  She said that doctors need to continue their education to be current with technology because it helps in areas such as less invasive procedures that would not have been possible had a doctor not educated themselves.  Teachers can learn to make learning appear less invasive; like Marc Prensky’s idea of sneaking in games while educating. I guess that’s why teachers need to keep attending classes and accumulating credits. Maybe we could use those opportunities to pursue technological advances.  I agree that teachers need to be part of sharing technology with students.  I don’t think that gaming should ever take center stage, as I had posted earlier on the discussion board; however I wouldn’t mind games taking home an award for “best supporting actor”.  Marc Prensky has given me a fresh outlook on the benefits of letting loose a little bit and allowing for some creative learning while using technology in the form of games.

I enjoyed the many paths that this discussion board took me down.  So many of my peers shared wonderful ideas about using technology and gaming in the classroom.  My only suggestion would have been to have evaluate more than one entrepreneur in the field of technology integration.  There is no doubt that Marc Prensky has many wonderful ideas, but shows like TED have also shared with us many other exciting concepts that would be very interesting to evaluate.

One of my peers used the word synergy when she was talking about the interactions of all the components of TPCK.  I thought that this was a great word to summarize the concept.  TPCK is the interactions and relationships of all things that go into a successful education.  I think the bottom line of all of our discussion posts was that we need to address the area of integrating technology with confidence and power.  Most of us admitteed that we are not 100% comfortable with using all the new technology available to us.  The good news is that most of us have a desire to attempt and gain successes in the area of ubiquitous technology.  This class has forced my hand to accomplish more in the area of technology than I had ever thought possible.  I am gaining confidence that I will enter a classroom with a pretty balanced package of technology, pedagogy, content, and knowledge.  The success of my students will be the proof. 

Our classroom shared many views pertianing to integrating technology into the classroom.  Some shared positive, wonderful experiences while others shared slip-ups and mishaps.  Both interpretations were honest and telling of how we must tackle our new responsibilities.  I would have liked to investigate the successful integration of the TPCK strategy as it would pertain to new students in college.  Are there any colleges teaching this concept?  I am greatful that the discussions shared many casual insights to integrating technology into the classroom, not integrating the classroom into the technology.

*Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge, by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler. The article was published in Teachers College Record, volume 108, no. 6, pages 1017-1054, 2006.

Through the many ideas shared with me through the discussion board, I learned  many key points relating to the effective use of PowerPoint in the classroom.  I learned the “10-20-30″ rule to help create purposeful and engaging PowerPoint slides.  I learned NOT to bullet everything in my presentation.  Using too many fancy and whimsical transitions will take attention away from the message.  Seth Godin also warns not to use the built-in sound effects.  He advises ripping relevant music from the Internet or a favorite CD to create the right mood.  The bottom line is that PowerPoint is a powerful way to share information.  Everyone in the educational ladder can use this user-friendly program to convey many forms of information.  Lecture notes, inspirational images, announcements, reports, or just plain fun and games have all found their way into the PowerPoint platform. 

I enjoyed learning about all of the fun ways to use PowerPoint.  My peers are certainly creative!  I would like to make one small suggestion and that would be to discuss more the just PowerPoint.  The discussion topic was presentation software, but we all fell comfortably into the PowerPoint arena and forgot to look elsewhere for presentation software ideas.

Death by PowerPoint? Not anymore!

The students of the 21st century are quite clearly a very technology driven group of children.  I have learned that I do not know everything.  Students can read through a teacher trying to act like they know what is going on; when they actually have no clue.  I prefer to draw on students’  knowledge and pair that with the situation of trying to integrate technology effectively into a classroom or library.  Students get a kick out of helping their teacher… and quite honestly, I get a kick out of their enthusiasm to help a Digital Immigrant!  I was also touched when I watched the video that Paula Wagner gave us a link to view.  The video addressed the funding of low-income schools in their quest to integrate technology.  In conclusion, I have learned that technology is only as good as the people using it, and is only valuable if it is available to students and teachers.  We are all trying to swim through this tidal wave.  By throwing each other a life line, we’ll all make it out with success.

Our discussions posts were a wonderful wave of responses into and out of the digital world.  Many of us posted our memories before technology became such an important part of our daily lives.  I appreciate that there is so much information and avenues for education in the field of technology.  My suggestion for this post would be to polarize different lessons with and without technology.  Using technology for the sake of using technology is not the answer and after participating in this post, I have a better understanding of how others view successful technology integration into the classroom and the school.

New York:  Little, Brown and Company, 2006;  232 pages.

Nick is a very lucky 14 year old.  He has grown up with two parents that have given him the best of both worlds.  His one parent is level-headed, works a steady job, goes back to school in the legal profession, and even wins the battle over cancer.  Her other parent fixes the car when it breaks down, takes him paint-balling, and gives him “the sex talk”.  Nick’s mom’s name is Erin, and his other mom’s name is Jo; there is no dad.  Nick is quite content with this relationship and sees nothing wrong with having two moms.  He begins to realize that society is not quite so accepting.  His third grade teacher is one of the first people to show Nick how cruel society can be; she “forgot” to hang his family portrait on the school’s walls on family night.  She “found” the picture in her bottom drawer under a stack of papers and gave it to Nick who lovingly kept it in his family’s scrapbook.  Julie Anne Peters devotes the first half of the story to Nick’s memories of his moms before their separation and then the second half is given to Nick’s current stories about how he is dealing with life during the turmoil.  Nick’s mom doesn’t see Jo as a person who Nick should be hanging out with and since there was never any legal adoption, Jo has no rights to Nick.  Erin uses this to keep Nick away from Jo and severely punishes him whenever he wants to spend time with her.  Nick and Jo have such a strong and profound understanding of one another that nothing can keep them separated.  When Kerri, Erin’s new girlfriend, moves in, Nick can’t handle it at all.  Peters does a fantastic job of following Nick down his path of depression without minimizing his true pain.  Kerri ends up being a silent crusader for Nick and convinces Erin to allow Jo to have shared custody of Nick.  Erin battled cancer and won.  Jo battled alcoholism and won.  Nick battled depression and loneliness and won.  Everyone is a winner.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the author made Nick a relatable character.  Peters did not focus on the lesbian aspect of this story as much as she focused on the grittiness of true life.  Having your dog die, finding out your mom has cancer, watching the nastiness of alcoholism, knowing your mom is having an affair, and watching your parents split up are all issues that many teenagers will unfortunately see every day.  I kept thinking that this kid was going to snap at any minute.  How much more can a kid take?  Between Mom and Jo is a story about how a fourteen year old boy deals with and overcomes these many challenges.  It is also a book that quietly addresses the issues dealing with gay marriage and homophobia.  I really did wonder how much more this boy could take and thought the onslaught of emotional issues was a bit much.  All in all, this was a good book to read to gain a little insight into the world of how a child sees life living with gay parents.   

3Q – 2P

The recommended ages are 13 – 16.

The cover art seems a bit dated and would probably turn teenagers off.  The nylon-webbed folding chairs remind me of the seventies.  This may lead a teenager to believe that this book is too dated.

New York:  Henry Holt and Company, 1993;  200 pages.

Raising babies when you are just a child yourself is hard.  But you don’t have to tell that to Jolly.  She’s only 17 and she not only has a two year old boy named Jeremy, but she also has a baby girl named Jilly.  Jolly doesn’t have a husband.  She just has two babies from two different boys.  She warns that if ”You go smoking that drug,/it goes straight down inside your underwear,/ it makes no stops in between./ You end up pregnant because some guy has some nice high for you.”  Jolly calls this drug an “Afro Deez”.  This is how a seventeen year old single mother looks at how she got pregnant two times and got ditched two times.  Jolly advertises for a babysitter so she can go to work in the evenings; Jolly refuses to go on Welfare because she is afraid they will take away her babies.  LaVaughn is only 14 when she calls Jolly about the babysitting job.  Even though she’s earning money for college, LaVaughn’s mom doesn’t think it’s such a good idea.  LaVaughn convinces her mom, and sets off to fill her bank account.  LaVaughn enters into an apartment that looks and smells like the bathrooms at a subway station.  Filth, dirt, and cockroaches have taken control of Jolly’s tiny apartment.  Jeremy and Jilly make that all that seem insignificant when they steal LaVaughn’s heart.  LaVaughn wasn’t expecting to care so much for the children; nor was she expecting to have so much empathy for Jolly.  Jolly has no one; no mom, no dad, no grandparents, just Jeremy and Jolly.  LaVaughn helps Jolly out by working for free while she job hunts.  When that doesn’t pan out, LaVaughn convinces Jolly to go back to school so she can get a real job and make some real money.  Jolly slowly learns the value of an education and before long, she no longer needs LaVaughn.  LaVaughn feels sad that she no longer has Jeremy and Jilly to care for every day, but she is proud of herself for helping Jolly to be a better mom than she could have ever hoped to be without an education.  Jolly and LaVaughn learn many valuable life lessons throughout this book, the most important are friendship and self-respect.  Both girls have learned that when life gives you lemons; you just have to make lemonade. 

Make Lemonade is written in prose-style writing.  Each line is a thought running through the mind of the main character, LaVaughn.  Each line flows into the next as another thought pops into LaVaughn’s head.  Many sentences just start and stop where LaVaughn’s thoughts start and stop which makes it a little difficult to read at times.  Both girls are trying to make their lives better, but LaVaughn is the only one that has a role model to help guide her.  Luckily for Jolly, LaVaughn’s mom–Big Mama– has enough advice and guidance for both girls.  This strong influence is felt throughout the book as LaVaughn shares her ramblings about doing the right thing; knowing just what her mom would recommend.  It was also very satisfying to read about a young, single mother of two that did not want Welfare, but to make it on her own.  I was sad for LaVaughn in the end of the book because Jolly had grown up and felt she no longer needed LaVaughn.  LaVaughn had grown up too, but that just made her feel more connected to Jolly and her children.  The best part about this book is that no matter how bad you think you have it, someone else has it worse; BUT they aren’t giving up!

3Q – 3P

The recommended ages are 12 – 17.

The cover of the book that I read was rather boring.  It’s collection of story mementos was cute, but not very appealing.  I have seen other covers for this book that would be more eye-catching; for example the cover featuring a brilliant blue background and a bright yellow lemon slice.

New York:  Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006;  288 pages.

D.J. Schwenk from Wisconsin learns that not talking can be as dangerous as talking.  A fifteen year old should not be single-handedly running a family dairy farm…but she is, ever since her father got hurt and has to have hip surgery.  D.J. is so humble that she does not even realize that if it were not for her, the family farm would have folded.  She milks the family’s herd of dairy cows before and after school every day.  She mows the grass on the farm whenever it needs done.  She has even given up her spot on the basketball team because she could not do both; school sports and the farm.  D.J. only mildly complains when her younger brother is always awol from the farm so he can go to baseball practice and his endless line up of games.  She has two older brothers that would have been a great help, but they have left for college to be star football players, and they don’t call any more.  The sad part is that D.J.’s family does not discuss the big fight that left their family torn in two.   She just plods through each day, trying to pass English and tending the farm.  D.J. does have a good friend Amber, who she finds out later is a lesbian and has the hots for her; which by the way, D.J. had absolutely no idea.  Amber quits being D.J.’s friend when D.J. has a crush on the new farmhand.  The new farmhand is the star quarterback from a rival high school.  His name is Brian Nelson, and he is way, way out of D.J.’s league…or so she thought.  D.J. ends up being a private trainer-the emphasis is on private- for Brian.  His coach wants him to have some intense off-season training; and since D.J. grew up being a star receiver for her two older brothers when they practiced on the farm, she was an obvious pick.  No one is supposed to know since they are from rival schools so they spend their summer taking care of the farm and training in the upper pasture.  D.J. is insulted when Brian compares her to a cow; she just goes where she is told and doesn’t complain.  She decides to take control of her life and do something that is not an aimless-do-as-you-are-told existence.  After a summer of conditioning, D.J. decides to try out for her high school football team, and she makes it!  Since Brian did not know of her intentions, he was hurt to find out she was on his rival’s football team.  The season-opener scrimmage was a game played between D.J.’s high school and Brian’s high school.  D.J. got an interception from Brian and ran it all the way for a touchdown.  Brian was quietly impressed.  The end of the story leaves a lot left unsaid.  Brian stops by the Schwenk farm to offer his appreciation for D.J. and the reader is left hanging as to whether or not Brian and D.J. will become a couple off the football field.

Living on a farm in a football community, I found this book wonderfully enlightening.  I appreciated that D.J. did not go into too much detail to bore the reader about dairy farming, but just enough so we could understand what she was talking about.  I liked the way she talked about herself.  She was self-deprecating, but not in a mean way.  She was not a size zero, but after working on a farm her whole life and being involved in sports; she understands that she has to have some meat on her bones.  I loved that she found her inner strength and became a star football player.  She was accepted by her teammates, especially since she had two older brothers that were hometown football stars.  I’ve been around a lot of fifteen year old girls who like to complain about taking out the trash; it was awesome to hear about a girl who works so hard and rarely complains.  This book is great to share with a girl who is hiding a secret talent. 

5Q – 4P

The recommended ages are 14 – 17.

The picture of a cow with a tiara is too cute!  I think the first impression of this book would be about a small town beauty pageant.  The cow looks like she could be auditioning for the “happy cheese comes from happy cows” commercial!

New York:  Amulet Books, 2004; 162 pages.

Roger Kelly is killed in a plane crash.  He leaves behind his best friend, Ken Pritchard.  Ken is sixteen years old, and he is devastated by the untimely death of his best friend.  He makes a silent vow to himself to figure out how to become invincible.  He finds a woman’s small classified ad promising him just what he wants.  Cheri Buttercup’s apartment is a long way away from Ken’s posh Greenwich Village apartment, but he makes the journey.  After convincing the woman that he wants to have his soul taken from his body in order to become physically invulnerable, she performs a ritual on Ken.  Cheri Buttercup seals his soul and hides it where she hopes he will never find it.  Ken realizes his invulnerability as soon as he arrives home and touches a 450 degree pan and he feels no pain.  Ken wants to further prove his new abilities to himself and convinces his family to fly down to the Caribbean and scuba dive with the sharks.  After being bitten by a shark and showing no signs of the attack, he is convinced that he is invincible.  While on the island, he has disturbing dreams of digging up his dead friend’s corpse.  He meets a girl on the island named Sabine.  She witnesses the shark attack and immediately recognizes Ken as the zombie he has become.  She is very knowledgeable on zombies and gives Ken a quick lesson.  Cheri Buttercup is a Bokor which is a bad witch doctor.  There are good voodoo priests called Houngans who try to combat the evil Bokors.  Ken shares his dreams with Sabine who explains they are all clues to where his soul will be hidden.  Because Ken has become a zombie through a Bokor, he must reunite with his soul as quickly as possible.  Bokors take control of their zombies and force them to commit horrible crimes.  Ken flies home with his parents to New York where he continues to have haunting dreams.  Sabine and Ken communicate through e-mails and he tells her all of his dreams until they figure out where his soul is hidden.  Ken asks Cheri Buttercup for his soul back but instead of the $50 he paid her to take his soul; she now wants $50,000 to give it back.  Ken decides to find his soul for himself using the clues from his dreams.  Sabine flies to New York in order to go to Lake Wannamaka with Ken in the dead of winter to scuba dive for his soul.  They find his soul guarded by a cadaver zombie of Roger’s body.  Luckily, they fight off the cadaver zombie and rescue his soul.  Ken is reunited with his soul under the direction of Sabine.  Cheri Buttercup tries to blackmail Ken’s parents into giving her $100,000 for his safe return.  She is eventually arrested after the police officer sees Ken’s alterself reunite with his realself when Ken’s parents attempt to pay Cheri Buttercup the ransom.  Ken is eternally grateful for all of Sabine’s help.  Ken discovers that Sabine is a zombie. He decides that it is okay to be a girlfriend that is a zombie.

The entire story was one unrealistic plot line after another.  Of course, zombies themselves are unrealistic.  However, the author did not even try to be sly about how things came to pass.  Roger Kelly dies, and mysteriously Ken wants to become invincible and wasn’t it lucky for him that he found a personal ad that promised just that!?  After having his soul taken, one of the first things he wants to do is get bitten by a shark in the Caribbean.  Lucky for him, he meets a zombie expert when he learns how to scuba dive.  Then, this new zombie expert is a cute girl whom Ken wants to have as a girlfriend.  She miraculously wants to help Ken dive for his soul, even though she is a poor island girl who helps teach scuba diving to tourists.  Ken is from a rich family, but he can only put his hands on $1000.  Lucky for him–again–he has just enough money to get to Lake Wannamaka where a ”closet” zombie couple put them up for free in their bed and breakfast.  The whole story was forced and predictable.  The only surprise was that Sabine was a zombie.  Really–a zombie girlfriend??  

2Q – 2P

 The recommended ages are 13 – 16.

The eerie picture of a skull is a good draw for teenagers.  The dark shadows and cryptic font plays right into the zombie theme.  Teenagers interested in thriller mysteries will pick this book up based on its cover.

Cambridge:  Candlewick, 2004;  320 pages.

We yield a power when we hold the remote control in our hands.  We can change the channel as soon as the commercials start rolling.  Imagine living in a world where you have relinquished all control for advertisements and impending corporate control.  Titus appears to be an ordinary teenager living a middle-class life with his friends.  M. T. Anderson gives the power of the narration to Titus where we quickly learn how illiterate he is when he shares his story.  Titus lives in futuristic society where nearly every human being is implanted with a micro-chip as soon as they are born.  This computer chip is called The Feed.  Through this Feed is a back and forth flow of information.  The Feed analyzes life styles and buying patterns and replaces free thought with a constant barrage of advertising jargon.  No one has silence or privacy.  The Feed is omnipotent.  The School is also a corporation owned entity.  Instead of learning math, English, science, and social studies; the students are taught how to be good consumers.  Titus and his friends leave earth for the moon or Mars for something to do.  They are often out partying where their lack of intelligence is always evident.  While partying at a nightclub, a terrorist attack renders their Feeds useless.  The unusual opportunity for free thought is not welcomed by the teenagers.  They are not used to being allowed to think for themselves.  While waiting for their Feeds to be fixed, Titus spends a lot of time with a poor girl named Violet.  Her Feed was not installed until she was seven because her family could not afford it.  She knows what silence is like.  She has even used a pen and paper, something that Titus and his friends find absurd.  Titus and his friends communicate through their Feeds through e-chatting which does not involve audible speech from their mouths, but Violet often prefers to communicate through speaking out loud.  Her oddness draws Titus closer to her.  She shares her concerns about The Feed with Titus who is not mentally capable of understanding her concerns.  When her Feed begins to malfunction and her family cannot afford to fix it, she contacts the helpline associated with The Feed.  They express that she cannot be helped because they do not understand her spending habits quite thoroughly enough.  Violet’s attempt to revolt is dismissed as a technical glitch.  The story ends on a sad note as the reader understands that as long as The Feed is connected to Titus and the others, Violet will remain an outcast.  The masses do not have apathy towards The Feed eventhough their hair falls out and disgusting lesions begin covering their bodies.  The trees are replaced with oxygen factories and the planet’s fish are nearly all dead.  But the community does not care, they just continue to shop.  Their lack of social concern leaves the reader lacking concern for them.

This outlandish world under total technological control is the most extreme length that consumerism can take.  M. T. Anderson has taken the notion of a Bluetooth and expounded on it.  The reader is overwhelmed with the constant barrage of advertising and obvious lack of education possessed by the majority of the population.  Titus’ foul mouth and the constant use of F*** U is annoying.  It was difficult to follow his strings of illiterate sentences sprinkled with “like” and curse words.  The acceptance by the masses of the gruesome lesions all over their bodies was a bit far-fetched.  I found it to be a depressing book.  The community as a whole has accepted total mind control and they do not even realize what has happened to them.  Feed is an attempt to be a window into our future if we continue to allow other people to make decisions for us.  Thankfully for us, we are not all idiots!

2Q – 2P

The recommended ages are 14 – 17.

The cover art is very appealing.  It even looks futuristic with the computer jargon faded on the front.  The bald head with a kind of large fingerprint on it looks eerie.  I think a teenager would pick this up to check it out.