Intro to Authoring Tools

Intro to Authoring Tools gave me some very useful knowledge this semester. I enjoyed reading the text, as I was able to learn about new things that I never really thought about in relation to e-learning tools. E-learning is something that I am very much interested in as I progress in my career. I was very happy with the way the course was run and the information that was presented. Although the birth of my son is one of the best things in my life, he did make it a little stressful at times as he would not let me work when I wanted to. Which is probably why the time stamp on some of these postings are late night. But anyway I am looking forward to taking Advanced Authoring Tools in the Spring.

Project 2

Being a math teacher, I always find that when I get involved with group projects for classes in the Educational Technology program that I am able to see how things work in other subjects. The end result of this project was positive for me because I learned a great deal about using authoring tools in education. The other members of my group (Dina, Stephanie, & Tara) were fantastic. Because I am very math-minded, and never really enjoyed Language Arts as a student, that never affected my contribution to the project, as mine was more of a technical role. Although the material that we presented in the project is not something that I could use with my students, the use of authoring tools can be integrated into my classroom teaching.

I forgot to mention... It's a boy!!!

In an earlier post I mentioned my feelings the night before I was to enter "fatherhood". Now I am proud to announce the birth of my son Jeremy on the 1st of this month. It has only taken me a little over two weeks to announce it, but I have been busy getting used to this life adjustment. It is definitely worth it.

Technology Maven

After reading about the viewpoints of Seymour Papert on Technology in Schools, I could honestly say that I agree with him 100%. He begins his article with a comparison of the emergence of technology in the school system with the improvements made to cross-continental transportation in the early 19th century. Papert describes the design of today's schools as being the stagecoaches of the early 19th century. The use of technology in these schools would be likened to airplanes in travel.

Based on this comparison Papert posed the question on whether incremental change could lead us from the school of yesterday to the school of tomorrow? When he compared the design of the school system to a "stagecoach", he said that it was not possible to go from the stagecoach to a jet airplane with a series of small improvements. His point was to show that education in schools will not improve by making just a few small changes.

As I continued to read the article by Papert, I became interested in another point that was made as it related to math education. I currently teach mathematics so it was something of importance to me. With advancements in technology that have taken place certain math skills are becoming obsolete or have very little value to the student as they go through life. One skill that was mentioned in the article was long division. In a time when calculators are being used more often, one does not need to know long division to understand the mathematical idea of dividing various amounts or numbers.

The Night Before...

As I sit here trying to compose my thoughts of Chapters 1-5, I can't stop thinking about how tomorrow I'm going to be a father. For the past 9 months I have been imagining what tomorrow might be like. The further away from the actual day the easier it is to picture it. Now the night before I do not know what to think. I am experiencing excitement, nervousness, happiness, anxiety, curiosity all at the same time. I just want to meet this person that my wife and I will spend the next 18 years (at least) molding him/her into a respectful citizen. I look forward to the adventure of parenthood as I will begin it tomorrow.

Nonstop HTML!!!

My life has been nonstop work these past few weeks. It has almost been three weeks since my last posting. My wife is due with our 1st child in two weeks. I have been getting the baby's room ready and trying to stay afloat with my job, my graduate classes, and my extra service positions. I am the webmaster for the Rahway Middle School web site and also the Union County Educator's Association web site. This year I decided to redesign the RMS web site because it was basically crying out for a "makeover". The Principal and the rest of the Staff have been really pleased with the new design. So much so, that more and more teachers are approaching me to get their clubs or class projects on the Web. As much as I am flattered, and excited to work with everyone this couldn't happen at a worse time. I am about to become a father, and my time will shift toward my child. That is why I am trying to finish coding all of these pages so I won't have so much hanging over my head later. I had just set up five new web pages before I started this post. And now that I am finished, I have to go update my Publishing to Web (EDTC 617) web site.

Online Social Networking

Social networking gives individuals the opportunity to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, and establish business contacts. There have been online social networking services popping up the past few years. The two that are the most popular are Myspace and Facebook. I think a lot of good can come out of social networking. Social networking sites give young musicians and artists a chance to post some samples of their work to gain more exposure in a sort of cheap advertising campaign.

Recently I read an iteresting article that talked about Myspace and Facebook and the types of people that join each network. Although I am not that familiar with Facebook the article seemed to make sense to me. According to the article, "The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes and other 'good' kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. MySpace is still home for "kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school." By listening to the buzz around my classroom as to which students use Myspace, and which students do not, I have to agree with this statement about the choice of a social network being a social issue. I find that most of my honors' students do not use Myspace; however, I do not know if they choose Facebook instead.

I think it is really interesting that these two social network services can be debated just as someone might debate Mets and Yankees. If further research proves that this article is correct then I would argue that we have online social cliques as opposed to a social network.

Levy, Steven (2007). Social Networking And Class Warfare. , Newsweek, Vol. 150, 6