blogs enhance literacy?

From what I read about “Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy”, the author makes some simple yet qualifying points. Her argument seems to be that blogging is good for learning and good for literacy. I think that a lot of her points that she brings up do make sense: blogs are easy to publish, allow people voices they wouldn’t have otherwise, and keep free speech alive. However, I wonder if perhaps blogging and other parts about Web 2.0, such as social sites and even things that connect us like text messaging, might be dumbing down the English language. In a lot of cases, especially with young people, we often type in slang, intentionally spell words wrong, use incorrect grammar and punctuation, all in the name of convenience and pop culture. I wouldn’t be surprised I there were a good number of young people out there who think the correct way to spell “you” is “u”. I think that the number one compliment you can give blogging is that it has made communication easier. No one feels the need to be correct in all of the things I mentioned, because they know people will understand whatever point they are making no matter how words are spelled or ideas expressed. So to simply say that blogging and Web 2.0 has done nothing but good things for learning would be incorrect in my opinion. I think this will only get worse, as communication progresses and blogs become even more rampant, we will see a decline in the understanding of correct grammar and proper language use.

map assignment

Here is my concept map. I chose to do it on the late night talk shows on regular TV. I think there are a lot of different choices, and there are many similiarites and few differences. I came to this conclusion after watching them and creating these ideas, and seeing how many of them share the same ideas. I don't think I will do my final project on this, but I think this is a good basic concept map idea.

I think concept maps are good to help you get started on papers/big assignments. For one of my other classes, we actually did a concept map activity earlier today. The teacher put up an idea, and we picked two people that fit that idea, and we started naming things about them that could connect. I think concept mapping is a good way to brainstorm and to show people how things go together. These ideas not only work for our web 2.0, but for all classes!

social network? hmm

Latour’s book “Reassembling the Social” (which I spoke about today), makes a lot of sense once you start understanding it. Latour argues that putting the label “social” on things is unnecessary and leads to boxing ideas in. I think that the world as a network, runs off of everything. From people to animals to technology, everything needs to be in function. It is unwise to be putting the label of social on things in an attempt to describe life as a certain way. Stuff happens, things change, it’s a natural part of the world. Describing phenomenon’s as a “social” science or some sort of social force is redundant. We are all a part of this social network, although Latour wouldn’t like us calling it a social network!
I think that the world is full of intermediates and mediators, which is something Latour might have a different opinion on. It takes mediators to push new forces through, and intermediates are the people who are pushing these through because the mediators are behind them. There are obviously powerful people and hierarchies in our world, so I think that it is natural that intermediates do exist. However, perhaps we are made mediators when we begin to push these forces because it takes everything to bring a force through. I’m sure Latour will keep discussing this with himself, and share it in his next book.

hidden power of social networks

Anne’s discussion on “Hidden Power of Social Networks” was another example of connectivity, which seems to be all we talk about. Part of her discussion was about breaking people up into groups and having us find what was similar about our blogs. It was an interesting way to look at breaking down social networks. I think that if we really wanted to, we could have found a way to group any random people in our class together and found some sort of blog similarity between us. I think her point about not being able to categorize everyone together, in terms of business employees was very valid. I think a lot of times whether it be in business, sports, or other uniform social walks of life, people are judged by standards that may not be the right way to look at everyone. For instance, in sports, just because a basketball player can score 20 points doesn’t necessarily mean he is a valuable player. He might play on a losing team and only be scoring garbage points. A winning team might have a player who scores less than that guy, but rebounds and defends and does what it takes to win. This makes him the more valuable player. The same with what she says about the business employees and how a peripheral and central employee aren’t exactly cut and dry who is better. I learned from this discussion that it is easy to make the mistake of putting people in certain categories that may or may not accurately represent who they are or what they are capable of. You must be able to interpret results accurately.

map theory

We have used concept maps as students as early as grade school. Well, at least I have and I'm sure you have as well. I remember teachers in elementary school having us make concept maps that would link all of the particular characters and themes in the different stories we read together. As a kid I remember liking these things and thinking that they were very helpful in linking information together. I know alot of kids thought they were annoying. I like the line in this reading that says "The learner must choose to learn meaningfully". If connecting a bunch of words together can help you recall parts of a novel, business plan, or whatever important information you need, then it is up to the learner to choose to learn. Concept maps provide clear, precise, direct information to the reader. I also agree that you must "possess prior knowledge". We only ever made concept maps after we were finished going over whatever it was we were making a map of. It doesnt make sense to link things together if you don't first have a general understanding of the idea.
The concept map works like the mind. One line in the reading is that the map is like our brain because of its complex connections of information. All parts of our brain must flow to process information to other parts of the body. The concept map shows you visually how the flow of information is connected and how parts of ideas are generally connected and not seperate intities.

strange but true

I saw a news story today about a family whose mother died a long time ago, a mysterious death that was believed to be an accidental overdose. The woman’s kids were young at that time, and knew little about her death. Now they are adults and remembered their father talking about a preacher she used to go and see. One night, one of the kids was watching a local news report and they were talking about that same preacher and how he was involved in a woman’s mysterious death a long time ago. So the kids went and checked it out and realized it was the same preacher and he was with their mom when she died. The only reason that story aired on TV was because the police released the wrong files of a man with the same name that was supposed to be on the news. So the kids went to meet with this guy to find out what he knew about their mom and they end up finding out that he is the father of 2 of them. Also, they find out that they used to attend the same church when he was the preacher there! If that doesn’t show an example of being connected and six degrees of separation, then I don’t know what does.

six degrees

The more I think about the “Six degrees” book we were informed about, the more I am amazed at the concepts. To think that we are all connected by technology and even through social life is a popular idea, yet one I never understood or believed. I had heard all about the six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing, although I wasn’t sure who he was, I thought the idea that you can connect every actor or actress to him was nutty. Even during our class discussion, when we were discussing if somehow everyone on the planet is connected and whether we could relate ourselves in someway to someone. I immediately thought to myself, “there is no way anyone in here could get to the President.” Thinking that surely this has to be the most powerful person in the land, and none of us could connect to him. Then Mrs. Strickland asked the question of if we could get something to him, and sure enough, one person spoke up and said they had the proper connections. I was floored that we could get something to the President in less than six steps!

I think the internet works in a similar way. With the right links, clicks, and what not we could be viewing anything and connecting to anyone almost. On facebook there is a group I found called six degrees of separation where they are trying to see if everyone on facebook can be linked somehow. I would say yes, we are all linked. By being a part of this group, we have all linked together for something. I think the internet is a giant web that is connecting all people, whether they use it or not. You don’t have to be computer literate to be a part of the web. Anyone can post anything about you whether you know it or not. I think one day, the internet can make it possible to link people in less than six steps.