No More Blogging?

In this blog titled, “What If We Couldn’t Blog Anymore!?” by Brian Crosby, Crosby explained that blogging in school is an essential part in learning how to write better and become great thinkers. He says that if we couldn’t blog anymore we would become less educated in writing and thinking for ourselves.

While reading Crosby’s blog a question came to my mind, “How would this affect us?” It would affect us by crippling our advantage to better our writing and thinking skills. I’m not saying that we wouldn’t become great writers without it; I’m saying that without blogging we would lose an advantage that would really help us better our writing and thinking techniques. For example, in class we are doing PLN responses. If that technique was taken away then we wouldn’t have the advantage to connect with people all around the world and we wouldn’t have the ability to get involved with discussions and better our writing and thinking sills. All around the world people are blogging and interacting with other people around the globe. If blogging was exiled from the internet then we all would have one less advantage to help us become outstanding writers and thinkers.

While writing this response another question came up, “How would this change people’s lives?” I believe this would change many lives by exiling a big part of people’s lives. Like I said, many people love blogging and for many other people blogging is apart of their daily life style. If we were to take blogging away a lot of people are going to be upset and angry. For some people if blogging were banned, it would hurt their life style especially if blogging was a big role in those people’s lives. That is why blogging shouldn’t be banned. If we ban blogging all we are doing is taking away a huge advantage that we could use to help better our diction and better our writing and thinking techniques. That is what I believe would happen if blogging were exiled.

New Technology

In the blog post titled, “Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology,” by Brian Crosby, Brian posts a quote that tells us that new technology in schools helps us obtain more knowledge and it makes teachers better at teaching. It explains that all schools should have updated technology or more enhanced technology to help us as students and teachers to learn and teach more thoroughly.

This blog post made me ask the question, “How does new technology enhance our knowledge?” I believe new technology enhances our learning because it has better techniques that are more up to date techniques that we as students can actually learn and use everyday. The new technology can help us in a lot more ways that the old technology couldn’t. Everyday we use strategies that help us do our homework and do a greater job in school. The new technology can help us enhance those strategies so that we can do an even better job at school. In class this year we are doing PLN responses. This is an example of how technology can enhance our learning. Our PLN responses help us become better writers and great thinkers through the use of new technology. This technology is available all over the world and I believe that everyone should use this technology to their advantage. Whether it’s using it to better writing skills or to obtain valuable information, the new technology shouldn’t be wasted. Everyone should obtain and use this helpful new technology. This also brought up the question, “Does the new technology give us new opportunities?” Yes, this new technology prepares us for the future and opens our lives to new opportunities. These opportunities could be jobs that we might want to do the rest of our lives. The new technology could help us obtain the job we always wanted and it could better our opportunities to obtain higher paying jobs. All this technology could better enhance our lives and our futures and that is why we all should not let this new technology go to waste!

Campus Safe or Unsafe?

According to the article, “A Promising Life, Ended in a Lab Basement” by James Barron in New York Times, a Yale student was murdered and stuffed in a wall in the science part of the Yale building. This murder has scared everyone on Yale campus and everyone around the United States.

Twenty four year old Annie Le was valedictorian of her high school class. She was studying in the Science department and was apparently murdered and stuffed in a wall near the science classrooms.
Murder always scares me and I'm sure that it scares everyone else too. Even if the murder took place at Yale, I still believe we as students should be careful about who we meet and see. How did she die? Well nobody knows yet but they think that the death was no accident. So apparently it was a murder. The murderer hasn't been found yet but the police are working on it. This made me think the question “Is our campus safe?” Hopefully it is, and I do believe it is. However, I would still be careful around campus even if the campus seems safe.

Everywhere around the world, murders take place. This one murder at Yale just shows how violent humans are, how a life can change in an instant, and how anywhere and everywhere you go isn’t always safe, especially in big cities such as Denver. How can we prevent ourselves from becoming a victim? One way is to always be carful about who you hang out with, who you meet, and who you see. Any stranger you see could be a murderer or a kidnapper, so always watch your back. If you feel like you are being watched, then go hang out with your friends or call your parents. Those few ways of being careful about whom you see and meet could save your life. This article has changed the way I think of the world around us. Now I know that the world is a very dangerous place and that I should always be carful.

Extra Time in School?

In this blog post, “Extra Time in School, if done right, I’m for it,” by Brian Crosby, Brian explains the pros and cons of having extra time in and at school. He explains how extra time can be very helpful and how it can be a waste of time.

Brian explains that if the extra time in school is spent on helping kids who are struggling in certain subjects, he would support the idea. I agree with Brian because not all students are perfect and are advanced in learning. Some students need time to practice the skills that the teacher is trying to teach them. That is what I believe the extra time in schools should be spent on. Should it be spent on just learning or extracurricular activities too? Yeah, why not! Kids who participate in sports and clubs tend to get better grades and overall due better in school. Having kids spend extra time in school would be a very good thing for kids who are having trouble in a certain subject or just need time to study and do homework. However, if the extra time were spent to intensify what is already being taught, then it would be a waste of time because those students who can’t keep up with the skills that they are supposed to be learning, will just get farther behind.

Schools all over the world should have extra time in and at school because there is a plethora amount of students in the world who are excellent in school and do all of their work, but then fail their unit tests. This problem is probably due to the lack of studying and time management. With all the sports and activities that students participate in around the world, some kids might not have enough time to go to practice, do homework, and study. That is why being able to have extra time in and at school is such a great thing to have. Having extra time to study or go ask for help on a subject just might be the solution to this “failing unit tests” problem. So, should we have extra time in and at school? If the extra time is used responsibly and correctly and not just to intensify subjects, then yes, we should have extra time.

Meshing Wesch and Thompson

This article and video explain how the web helps us become better writers and also how it destroys our writing techniques. The article “New Literacy” by Clive Thompson and the video “The Machine is Us/ing Us” by Michael Wesch both imply that the Internet is a place that can help us become great writers, but can also destroy our ability to write as well.

Clive Thompson described how texting, Facebook, and PowerPoint, have all contributed to turning our language and literacy into a, “Bleak, bald, sad, shorthand.” How will this affect our writing in the future? Well, it will literally kill our ability to write essays and all sorts of formal papers. All this new technology can indeed help us out, but if we abuse the technology’s power we could be heading towards a literacy revolution. Michael Wesch on the other hand explained how the new Web 2.0 is helping us become more involved with our writing and discussions around the world. He believes that the new technology is reviving our writing, not killing it. Wesch thinks that if we use the web in a responsible way to help us become better writers then it will help us become better writers. In English class this year, we are learning how to think deeper into what we are reading and writing. The video and article help explain how we can deepen our thoughts about what we are reading and writing and it helps us understand who we’re writing for and why we’re writing. Everywhere around the world people are blogging and discussing how Web 2.0 helps further enhance our writing skills, and by learning how to deepen our thoughts, we too, will be able join the discussions around the world.

Is technology killing or reviving our ability to write? In a way it’s killing our ability to write due to all the texting on phones and abbreviations for words. We are forgetting the Revising Process, capitalization,and punctuation because all we do is text, text, text all day long. The web isn’t all that bad though, due to all the information it can give us and how it can get us involved with the world and the people in it. Take blogging for example, blogging gets people interacted and involved in discussions with other people around the world. Getting involved in discussions can definitely help enhance our writing and reading. There’s a lot that we can lose and gain from the web, but if we gain that information and use it to our advantage, we will definitely enhance our writing capabilities.