The idea of blOggin instead of using a pen and paper is an amazing idea. It shows how far we have come with our technology. It gives us the opertunity to do homework, research and add attachments to our writing with the simPle click of a button. Blogging may seem like the way of the future but it doesn't come without its flaws.
Blogging helps us do our school work without the need of bringing home books, binders, or pencils. Blogging helps me do my homework when I forget the bring home my books. The blog also helps me express my opinions more clearly through videos and pictures. If I traditionally used a pen and paper, I would not be able to make my points clear as they are in my blog. Blogging is also efficient as your work will always be there. You might need to look back on your work and if you used pen and paper, you might not be able to find it. Blogging also saves time. But with all the good, comes the bad.
Blogging may Help you finish your work faster, but it may also crash and you might lose all your work and end up wasting more time then if you just used pen and paper. AlsO, if the Internet is down, you will not be able to post. If you work on your blog a lot, you will also damage your eyes which is a very big downside. Blogger also crashes very frequently which results In loss of work. Losing all you hard work is very heartbreaking and unmotivates you to work at your full potential since you lost all your work. The biggest downside of using a blog are the distractions. You can click on facebOok, twitter or any social networking site and get distracted.
So as you can see, blogging comes with its benefits but also it's drawbacks. It may make you finish your work faster but if it crashes, you end up using more time then if you just used a pen and paper. In my opinion though, I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and we should stick with blogging.
Friday 25 November 2011
Monday 21 November 2011
The Positive and Negative Effects of Blogging
We [the class] started to use this blogging system since early-mid November as an educational tool, instead of using pen and paper in class. Many different reactions to this new environment of learning were considered in our classroom. Some people actively contributed to their blog by posting and commenting necessary content as they were asked to. Others used the blog as an excuse to evade their assignments given to them by the teacher. As different problems occurred, we started to question: should we continue the use of our blogs? If you look at it, their are many positive and negative consequences to this blog. We must first analyze the different advantages and disadvantages to blogging in order for us elucidate and resolve this crisis.
Let us take a moment to review the CONS of blogging.There are two important physical effects in blogging: our eyes and our ability to type. Sitting in front of your computer screen is very unhealthy for your eyes. Your vision will start to get blurry, and the next thing you know, you're wearing glasses. Computers can also produce intense headaches, dry eyes, and changes in color perception. This link will fill you in about how computers affect you, as well as solutions to those problems.
Typing, in my opinion, can be either a con OR a pro. Some people are insanely fast at typing, while others type at about two words per minute. Some people can finish homework 2 hours faster, as typing helps them excel, while others spend an extra 2 hours on homework each night because of their shameful typing skills. To those who are horrible at typing: look on the bright side. Blogging can help improve your typing skills; you never know, your future job may require you to have impressive typing skills, and blogger might be that one tool that helped you get to that typing level!
My final con is: the Internet. The internet possesses many temptations that are unavoidable, such as YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.. These temptations can lead us to lose our train of thought, which can lead to work that isn't horrible, but could've been extremely better. Distraction plays a huge factor in the quality of our work, and our work habits.
Now, to our PROS. Our blogs provide many benefits for us. The blogs not only prepare us for university, but they also help us adapt to a different style of learning, which in this case, is a very modern environment. I think that our blogs also help us improve our skills to connect and provide support for our writing. We have the ability to post links, videos, audio to help stabilize and back-up our writing, which would not be possible if we wrote on paper with pencils. That helps us as writers to support our ideas with related examples and connections, which also benefits readers as they can understand better what message we are trying to send. Also, blogging improves our ability to provide constructive criticism, which is a very important ability to embrace not only in education, but also in everyday life.
There are more pros than cons, in my perspective. Many of the cons were due to the inattentiveness and work habit issues in class. Most of the cons that I have listed can be solved, and do not require a lot of effort, so I believe that we should continue our blogs.
One suggestion I have for the teacher is to allow those who actively participate in their blog groups to continue the use of blogs, as some people actually grow a lot and improve dramatically through the use of blogs. For those who do not participate and give their best effort to try to help their blog groups succeed, they should be no longer allowed to participate in blogs, and go back to paper and pencil.
Let us take a moment to review the CONS of blogging.There are two important physical effects in blogging: our eyes and our ability to type. Sitting in front of your computer screen is very unhealthy for your eyes. Your vision will start to get blurry, and the next thing you know, you're wearing glasses. Computers can also produce intense headaches, dry eyes, and changes in color perception. This link will fill you in about how computers affect you, as well as solutions to those problems.
Typing, in my opinion, can be either a con OR a pro. Some people are insanely fast at typing, while others type at about two words per minute. Some people can finish homework 2 hours faster, as typing helps them excel, while others spend an extra 2 hours on homework each night because of their shameful typing skills. To those who are horrible at typing: look on the bright side. Blogging can help improve your typing skills; you never know, your future job may require you to have impressive typing skills, and blogger might be that one tool that helped you get to that typing level!
My final con is: the Internet. The internet possesses many temptations that are unavoidable, such as YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.. These temptations can lead us to lose our train of thought, which can lead to work that isn't horrible, but could've been extremely better. Distraction plays a huge factor in the quality of our work, and our work habits.
Now, to our PROS. Our blogs provide many benefits for us. The blogs not only prepare us for university, but they also help us adapt to a different style of learning, which in this case, is a very modern environment. I think that our blogs also help us improve our skills to connect and provide support for our writing. We have the ability to post links, videos, audio to help stabilize and back-up our writing, which would not be possible if we wrote on paper with pencils. That helps us as writers to support our ideas with related examples and connections, which also benefits readers as they can understand better what message we are trying to send. Also, blogging improves our ability to provide constructive criticism, which is a very important ability to embrace not only in education, but also in everyday life.
There are more pros than cons, in my perspective. Many of the cons were due to the inattentiveness and work habit issues in class. Most of the cons that I have listed can be solved, and do not require a lot of effort, so I believe that we should continue our blogs.
One suggestion I have for the teacher is to allow those who actively participate in their blog groups to continue the use of blogs, as some people actually grow a lot and improve dramatically through the use of blogs. For those who do not participate and give their best effort to try to help their blog groups succeed, they should be no longer allowed to participate in blogs, and go back to paper and pencil.
Should we continue using the blog for completing assignments?
During the past few months, our class has been using blogger to complete our assignments. Using a blog is definetly a different way of doing homework, which includes many pros and cons. Do the pros overpower the cons blog have,or should our class stop using blogger?
At the beginning of using blogger,our class had tons of technical difficulties. This put us behind schedule and playing catch up. It ended up taking two weeks to actually start posting. Also,throughout the blogging experience, people didn't listen to instructions or were to lazy and didn't end up posting on time or at all. This led to groups being shut down and students receiving letters home to parents. Since the blog was online, people didn't think it would be as big of deal if they didn't do their work because maybe the teacher wouldn't notice.
Although there were many cons to blogging, there were definetly pros as well. For example, we got the chance for our peers to comment and critique our work through the help of commenting. This tool was very helpful because not only did we get Mrs. Lees to critique our work, but our peers too.
Overall, I think blogs were a good expierience, but only a portion got a hang of it even after all this time. I think it would be a good idea if the students had the choice to either keep using blogger or go back to paper, depending on how well they used blogger.
Sunday 20 November 2011
Should we continue blogging? (No)
Blogging has had both desired and undesired effects on our class. Blogger has allowed for third person reviews on the individual's post, increasing our formal writing skills and giving us the ability to comment and increase our feedback to others. But there are also quite a few problems, causing me to believe that in this case the consequences greatly outweigh the gains.
Problem number 1:
Technical Issues.
Although blogger has helped us with having a homework 'community' it has also become notoriously unreliable to not allow us to complete our homework. At the start of our experience there were LOTS of problems, as with all startups. The main difference though is that many of those problems have still not been solved. Like how some people can not post with blogger even when they are authors and how blogger sometimes causes my Internet explorer to temporarily crash. Also, although there is online help from our 'community' the responses to our problems are often not given within our needed time frame of the assignment, causing the quality of our work to deteriorate. In some cases, such as Montana's, blogger has not allowed him to post at all even though he is a 'team member' in the group. Yes, we may need to know how to use blogger in the future as members of our society, though I believe we have learned all we can about blogger from this little experience.
Problem number 2:
Distractions.
This may be one of our problems and not blogger's, but as it affects the majority of students it is an unintended problem. We are still just kids, and its unhealthy for us to be super disciplined. Blogger is an online tool and that means that we can do our homework along facebook and youtube. Having these distractions destroys our train of thought during our homework assignments and reduces both efficiency and quality of our work, making it a rather unenjoyable experience for us students, as blogger tends to drag on much longer than needed. If we had ti write the assignments out, the majority of us would usually do so without the computer on. And no one can really blame us students for this problem either. What can you expect if you give a kid a reason to go on the computer? Also remember the saying, all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.
Conclusion:
Blogger has given us some perks to the online writing world but let us not forget the downsides. I found that it creates either a really well learning experience for some or a really bad learning experience for others, with very little middle ground. I believe that when one idea fails we should give another idea a chance, (please post ideas in comment box) and that blogger, even though it had potential with our class, has run its course in our curriculum.
Problem number 1:
Technical Issues.
Although blogger has helped us with having a homework 'community' it has also become notoriously unreliable to not allow us to complete our homework. At the start of our experience there were LOTS of problems, as with all startups. The main difference though is that many of those problems have still not been solved. Like how some people can not post with blogger even when they are authors and how blogger sometimes causes my Internet explorer to temporarily crash. Also, although there is online help from our 'community' the responses to our problems are often not given within our needed time frame of the assignment, causing the quality of our work to deteriorate. In some cases, such as Montana's, blogger has not allowed him to post at all even though he is a 'team member' in the group. Yes, we may need to know how to use blogger in the future as members of our society, though I believe we have learned all we can about blogger from this little experience.
Problem number 2:
Distractions.
This may be one of our problems and not blogger's, but as it affects the majority of students it is an unintended problem. We are still just kids, and its unhealthy for us to be super disciplined. Blogger is an online tool and that means that we can do our homework along facebook and youtube. Having these distractions destroys our train of thought during our homework assignments and reduces both efficiency and quality of our work, making it a rather unenjoyable experience for us students, as blogger tends to drag on much longer than needed. If we had ti write the assignments out, the majority of us would usually do so without the computer on. And no one can really blame us students for this problem either. What can you expect if you give a kid a reason to go on the computer? Also remember the saying, all work and no play makes jack a dull boy.
Conclusion:
Blogger has given us some perks to the online writing world but let us not forget the downsides. I found that it creates either a really well learning experience for some or a really bad learning experience for others, with very little middle ground. I believe that when one idea fails we should give another idea a chance, (please post ideas in comment box) and that blogger, even though it had potential with our class, has run its course in our curriculum.
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Cue for Treason: Question V (REVISED)
Question Number V:
5. Students often have difficulty relating to Shakespeare or other writers from the past. However, they do not have as much trouble relating to characters that are set in the past, as in historical fiction. Choose one of the main characters, Peter, Kit, Sir Philip or another, and persuade the audience that as characters we can still relate to them today. You may want to start with their characteristics and then think of present day examples that are similar.
Sir Philip is the landlord in Cumberland from the book "Cue for Treason". He was that person that had everything, but also wanted everything, which means he was very rich. He inherited estate from his grandfather. He also owned lots of land, and lived in a large mansion, as he was part of the noble class. Even though he had much more than he needed, he still wanted more. He charged people living on his land much more than what they usually payed, trying to make more money. He built a wall around the citizens' land without consulting them first, claiming that it was all his. He even planned to assassinate the Queen, so that he could obtain more power.
Sir Philip is a greedy, shallow, and selfish person. He abused his power by taking people's land forcefully and raising the rent rates, just for more money. Even though we see him as the very bad, mean antagonist, we aren't that different from him. It isn't ALL of Sir Philip's fault for being greedy. It's in our nature. As humans, we are all greedy. Some are just better at not showing it. We keep wanting more, even when we have what we need. As a Canadian citizen, living in Canada is a very fortunate privilege. I have all I need! No, I have more than I need! But I still complain and always want more and more things. I am a greedy person, just like Sir Philip Morton.
Kronos, or Cronus (from Ancient Greek Myths), was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, descendant of Gaia and Uranus. He, in my opinion, relates to Sir Philip Morton. Kronos envied Uranus' power, as Uranus was the ruler of the universe. From this envy, greed took over Kronos. He [Kronos] got a great stone sickle, and cut Uranus into a thousand pieces, so that Kronos could rule the universe.
A present day example in this world that relates to Sir Philip Morton would be the warlords in Somalia. As Somalia is in a devastating famine, international aid is mandatory. But all humanitarian aid sent to Somalia is either rejected, taken, or stolen by the warlords, our of their greed, and not thinking about all the dying Somalians.
Even if it seems like Sir Phillip is not like us, or related to us in anyway, in the end, we can relate to him in many ways.
5. Students often have difficulty relating to Shakespeare or other writers from the past. However, they do not have as much trouble relating to characters that are set in the past, as in historical fiction. Choose one of the main characters, Peter, Kit, Sir Philip or another, and persuade the audience that as characters we can still relate to them today. You may want to start with their characteristics and then think of present day examples that are similar.
Sir Philip is the landlord in Cumberland from the book "Cue for Treason". He was that person that had everything, but also wanted everything, which means he was very rich. He inherited estate from his grandfather. He also owned lots of land, and lived in a large mansion, as he was part of the noble class. Even though he had much more than he needed, he still wanted more. He charged people living on his land much more than what they usually payed, trying to make more money. He built a wall around the citizens' land without consulting them first, claiming that it was all his. He even planned to assassinate the Queen, so that he could obtain more power.
Sir Philip is a greedy, shallow, and selfish person. He abused his power by taking people's land forcefully and raising the rent rates, just for more money. Even though we see him as the very bad, mean antagonist, we aren't that different from him. It isn't ALL of Sir Philip's fault for being greedy. It's in our nature. As humans, we are all greedy. Some are just better at not showing it. We keep wanting more, even when we have what we need. As a Canadian citizen, living in Canada is a very fortunate privilege. I have all I need! No, I have more than I need! But I still complain and always want more and more things. I am a greedy person, just like Sir Philip Morton.
Kronos, or Cronus (from Ancient Greek Myths), was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, descendant of Gaia and Uranus. He, in my opinion, relates to Sir Philip Morton. Kronos envied Uranus' power, as Uranus was the ruler of the universe. From this envy, greed took over Kronos. He [Kronos] got a great stone sickle, and cut Uranus into a thousand pieces, so that Kronos could rule the universe.A present day example in this world that relates to Sir Philip Morton would be the warlords in Somalia. As Somalia is in a devastating famine, international aid is mandatory. But all humanitarian aid sent to Somalia is either rejected, taken, or stolen by the warlords, our of their greed, and not thinking about all the dying Somalians.
Even if it seems like Sir Phillip is not like us, or related to us in anyway, in the end, we can relate to him in many ways.
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