Amy’s Weblog

The SNS network I chose to study is Facebook.com.  I had a Myspace page at one time and thought I would venture into another network.  To start out I would like to give a brief history of the SNS. 

Mark Zuckerberg at the age of 23 founded the SNS site Facebook.com.  Mark studied psychology at Harvard University and developed many SNS for his friends and in February 2004 he created Facebook and got the name from sheets of paper being distributed to freshmen that profiled students and staff.  By August 2005 it became Facebook.com and the address was purchased for $200,000.  Schools slowly gained access to the site and grew world wide quickly.  As of July 2007 an article posted that over 30 million subscribers had joined the SNS.  It is rumored that Google and Yahoo offered 2 billion to buy the rights to this popular SNS.  (www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia)

            To understand more of the social and cultural connections with “facebook” I found an interview with Danah Boyd conducted June 24, 2007.  The article addresses the issue of teens that were flocking to Myspace has now divided.  There is a group that prefers facebook and others that prefer myspace.  Danah based the article on her finding observing behavior for six to nine months of teens using these social networks.  Boyd mentions that facebook was only available to college students at the beginning and then slowly too high school students in mid 2005.  Students had to be invited by the college students so it was labeled the cool thing to be invited.  In September it opened doors and more high school students were able to have their own accounts.  Boyd mentions that the press deemed it as a college site even thought high school students were joining and deemed myspace as dangerous and sketchy.  She mentions a divide in class between the two sites in the article saying facebook was more exclusively whites and myspace a more diverse population.  There is a divided and an image about who uses what network.  She goes on in detail about the divide and the familiarity of college students using facebook.  There is a language that Boyd says she has not mastered and that marketing is appealing to the divide.  She says that politicians, educators, military has figured out the divide and know what to sell and persuade to these two different groups.  (www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html)

boyd, danah . “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and Myspace” Apophenia Blog Essay. June 24,2007. 5/07/2009 <www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html>.

So my social networking on Facebook has grown.  I have about forty friends that I have found and approved.  I think that is many friends but I am sure that many others have more.  I still haven’t crossed over to the dark side and tried the little surveys.  I do like the birthday calender that lets me keep up with my friends birthdays.  I find that writing my status on the wall and commenting every now and then doesn’t consume my day.  I can check it for about five minutes after work and before bed.  Comparing it to Myspace I really enjoy this site much better.  I real don’t share music, surveys, fancy backgrounds, feeds, and so forth.   I l  the simple format, family pictures, and mature group of friends.

After I viewed the video I thought about how much technology is in our home and how much we rely on it.  I do not have as much as Dr. Lowell but I do spend time on SNS, IMing, exploring topics and communicating on the web.  I have a phone with out Internet but would love to acquire one in the near future.  I think that the biggest statement was that he said he is not in school.  I think that most of the world thinks we must attend a structures educational system in order to learn.  We use discovery education in side the school because students learn better discovering.  Wait isn’t that what we are doing.  We have the freedom to communicate and locate our own information.  We learn by our own means.  I don’t know if the world will ever catch up to the 21st century.

“While receiving education we seldom think of the purpose of education. We hardly think of the reason behind education. It is while we grow up that we begin realizing the purpose of education and understand its application in the daily life. We begin to realize the purpose of education only after it begins finding applications in our professional and personal lives. Education continues through all the phases of our life as knowledge is oceanic and one can never claim to have acquired all of it. “

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/beliefs-about-the-purpose-of-education.html

I thought that is was interesting that the article mentioned that we don’t realize the importance of education until it finds applications in our lives.  Growing up as a kid I didn’t think of school as preparing me for the world ahead.  I thought it was something I had to do.  My mother read and did activities to prepare me for school and elementary school was something I had to go to.  In high school I started to realize the importance of school preparing me for a career.  I found that classes instructed me on career choices, typing skills, banking, and so on.  I realize now that all the learning I received had prepared me socially and mentally for the real world.  As early as my mother teaching me right and wrong I apply it today.  Education’s purpose is to prepare us to make choices on how to be productive citizens.  Is it restricting?  I think so in certain ways due to money and state curriculum.  In order to progress and change society we need education. 

“Bill Beattie, one of the famous authors and writers believes that education should teach us how to think, rather than telling us what to think.” (same site) 

I thought this statement is interesting and I would like everyone to tell me if they think if our current education system teaches out to think or tells us what to think.

“Technology builds a bridge between our individual potentials and our ability to act on and influence our world”(Norton & Winburg, 1998, pg20) and can provide a path for American educational reform to close the learning divide.” Solomon pg 148 

The chapter talks about classrooms having a constructive learning style and that we need to teach outside of the walls.  Much money is being spent on professional developments and that teachers need to use the technology tools to teach children.  I feel that more money could be spent on equipment and actually using the tools in the classroom can help teacher learn more about it.  I know that when I sat through a PD over the Smartboard I remembered very little.  I used my handouts and used it to learn to navigate it.  There should be more  high quality professional developments for actually letting students engage in use of technology.  There are so many ways that children learn.  The world is full of technology.  We use cell phones with Internet access, we can order pizza online, there are online universities, and so on.  The growth is toward a technology based world.  We need to use these tools to not only teach our students reading, writing, math and other skills, but they need to be able to use and interact on their own.  I feel that we can help close the learning gap and we already use programs like Read Write Gold and other adaptive programs to help students learn.  Online classrooms connect students and to resources for research.  We are moving that way.

I would like to start off with positive and then go to the negative of homeschooling.  There is many benefits as a parent for a child to stay at home and learn.  There is a freedom of teaching to the child’s interests and pace appropriate for the students.  Inside a school system there is standards and time constraints that do not match all children’s abilities.  There is more family time to spend with your child.  There is no bullying or peer pressure from home.  A parent’s schedule doesn’t revolve around a schools calender.  A parent can take their children to experience museums, parks, and other locations without worrying about funds or transportation.  The freedom would have to be the biggest pro.  Some negatives would be that you will have to teach curriculum that is still on standardized test.  In order for children to attend college they still have to pass tests.  In my mind I need a break from my children and homeschooling places your child with you all the time and if you work then the evenings will be spent teaching.  Parents also need to teach and not just play.  We have some kids that come to school after a year of home school and have declined in the learning process.   The parents must be committed and the children willing to learn.  I know my toddler does much better with his teacher than with me.

I have started a Facebook account for my social network.  I have had a Myspace page when I was younger and really didn’t like it.  I thought I would try something different.  After I established an account I immediately found names of people that I have not talked to in a while.   I chose a Lexington network.  I was excited about some people I use to talk to at work and in college and some I really didn’t care about.  I reconnected with people I was really close to at one time.  I found it really exciting.  As I chose friends I noticed the list of possible friends keep growing from the people they are connected with.  I can see the possibility of  having a  large network of friends on a place like this.  I really find it is easy to navigate and that finding people are really easy to do.  Up loading pictures are a breeze and I will get more involved in settings later.  Something I did see is my sister-in-law has many pictures of my children and myself on her page.  I don’t know how I feel about anyone being able to see my children on the web.  I plan on looking in my privacy settings before I place my kids pictures on-line.  It is something that I am going to look into.   I look forward to getting more involved in the tools and how the social networks are going to work.  I will keep you posted.

I was out getting a few groceries with my son, which is four, this evening.  I was going through the aisle looking for something I needed when he pointed out a picture of something.  “Look mommy that woman is cooking dinner.   She is like you.  Daddy doesn’t cook dinner.”  I responded well maybe there should be a picture of a daddy cooking dinner.  There is already an impression of what a woman should do in my son’s head at the age of four that will probably stick there through life.  I have to admit growing up that was what I saw on t.v, from my mother, grandmother, and pictures in magazines.  Today I share the work load with my husband, have a college degree working on my second, and I still feel that it is my job to cook dinner and not my husband.  It isn’t because he does more than me, in fact I don’t think he could handle what I do with school, work and kids, but rather because the propaganda and my culture.   This goes into some of what the article talked about.  The impression that this is a male field is portrayed in public.  I think that we need to portray more women in the field to appeal to young minds that it isn’t just for men.  I know it sounds silly but I really think advertisements place images in our youth’s minds that we should do certain things.   There is a problem of access to “all”  consumers and producers.  The “haves” and “have-nots” are those that do and do not have internet access in their homes.  I really don’t know how to solve this unless there is a program that provides free internet access to homes with computers.  Then there are the homes that do not have computers.  Ideally it would be great to purchase internet and computers for everyone, but it would cost large amounts of money.  Maybe there can be programs in place that can take old computer donations and some internet companies can come up with some kind of plan to provide access.  The state of our current economy puts straints on achieving this goal.  If households are working and making money they will be likely to purchase computers and internet.  After all if we can get everyone communicating we are provided more opportunities.  Schools are a great place to use internet communications.  Most schools are equiped with resources to work with children.  We need to train our teachers to incorporate digital technology in their curriculum.  Let students problem solve and learn how to use it on their own.  Another way to help close gender gaps is to make the technology information field appealing with salary and benefits.  Make efforts to recruit students to go into the field and make education for the career affordable.