Photos are another important aspect of Myspace. It allows us to document our lives and share it with our friends. Growing up my parents had boxes and boxes of photo albums. My sister and I loved to look through them, even if we didn’t know what the picture was or who was in it. I feel as if we view the pictures on SNS as online photo albums that we can share with anyone we like. I enjoy (and so do others I have asked) looking through others’ pictures even if I don’t know what specifically the picture is of. Often times though a description will be written under the picture explaining what is going on and people in the picture can be “tagged,” meaning you can label their name and if you are already friends with that person then Myspace will send them a message informing them that there is a new picture of them. The downside is that you cannot force someone to delete a bad picture (unless it is against Myspace rules) but you can untag yourself.

So, on the subject of friends (the main reason everyone I asked uses SNS).  I love being able to find people I have gone to school with in the past and present and also family members. Often times I find that I only talk to the same few friends (most of whom I see on a regular basis) but I enjoy being able to keep up with old friends by reading their pages and status. The status allows you to say what you are doing or feeling at any given point in time. Some people I feel go overboard by changing their status every hour it seems like or by detailing their day by the minute.  The ability to keep up with friends as I get older becomes even more important. Many of my old classmates are graduating from other colleges, getting married, or even having kids, and lets face it, few people have time to call and keep up with everyone. With SNS I can spend just a short amount of time checking up on everyone.

Myspace is a very public area. People you are friends with can see your pictures, other friends, and posts. There is more privacy with messages because only you have access to read them.  All the public access also allows you to share more things like applications and music. Many musicians and artist have their own pages that fans can follow for updates. Myspace also allows you the option to be notified when certain friends make changes to their profiles. My biggest disagreement in the beginning was lack of privacy from outside viewers but I quickly learned how to change settings and I now feel much safer.

My suggestion is that younger users of Myspace ask an adult to help them set up privacy settings. Again, it was a little more confusing to set up than Facebook’s and before I had it all set up I was getting a lot of people trying to add me who were a little sketchy.

I find that Myspace takes up much more energy to maintain in comparison to Facebook but it also allows for more self-expression. With post, messages, pictures, applications, and friends we can express ourselves and share it with others. In such a fast-paced world, SNS allow us to quickly and efficiently keep up with loved ones. While I’m still addicted to my Facebook I think that I will still hold onto my Myspace profile for awhile.

I notice a few of my friends change their status religiously and some will also make theirs VERY detailed for every step in the day. Why would you want the entire internet world to know what you are doing every day and every part of that day? I think SNS have pushed us toward losing our privacy. I realize you can set your privacy settings for who can see your page and status but sometimes I think I need privacy from friends and family as well.

My friends list is small but includes a lot of family, friends, and fellow students. I was very excited to find some friends that were not on facebook. It is always exciting to add new people you have not spoken to in a while. Im still playing around with it but does myspace have a chatting option like facebook does? I really enjoy that. Well, Im going to play around some more with it and see what others are doing. Maybe Ill learn something new!

So, I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to watch this video and after I got to the page I was really curious as to what I could learn from it in less than 3 minutes.

First  of all you are my hero for being able to read 80 novels and write 4 last year and still be able to keep up with family and work! WOW! that’s all I can say.

Secondly, I never really considered how much our lives revolve around the technology we use and how many hours a day, week, or year we spend using them. Not that we couldn’t live without them but it would take some adjusting. I myself get on the Internet most EVERY single day to either check e-mail, SNS sites, blogs (as of this semester), and one of my favorites (when I’m not a poor college student)….shopping. I own 2 laptops (ones real old and not real usable but I still have it), 2 digital cameras, an mp3 player, and a cell phone with all the options ( a mini computer in itself and too complicated for me to figure out how to use). The quote at the end said it perfectly (and I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t watched it yet).

We have all become self-educators (at any age) and some of the subjects are more complicated than the college calculus class I took as a junior but its interesting and we stick with it til we get it perfect. Calculus, on the other hand, I forgot immediately.  Growing up I always considered my parents to be technologically challenged but one day a few years ago my mom decided to get a cell phone. This was a huge step for her and she swore it was a mistake for months…but then the whole system made sense and now she can’t live without it or her camera. My dad started out in a similar fashion and last year they decided to upgrade their nearly 10 year old computer with one that could do a little more than allow you to only check your e-mail (it was way to slow to do much more). Now they send me pictures and videos through e-mail, they no longer HAVE to watch the 6 o’clock news to keep up on current events, and they seem to feel overall more involved with the rest of the world. My parents are both over 55….it they can be 21st  century learners, anyone can. Sometimes I think we just don’t realize were learning when were having so much fun!

Dr. Lowell, wonderfully put together video.

“Without history we would be doomed to repeat it”

By learning we are remembering and preserving history, traditions, and culture. Through education we’ve recorded and remembered out pasts as well as prepared for our future. Past mistakes keep us humble and past successes inspire us to improve. We don’t just learn our culture but others as well and use that knowledge to better ourselves. We learn best from each other.

Sometimes though, our education prevents our culture from growing. Low income or isolated cultures often are not exposed to or have access to much of the outside world, and in this case I feel education becomes a cycle of learning the same things and it prevents us from expanding and growing.

Recently I started a myspace page (just to try something new). I find it much more complicated and detailed but very new and interesting. It gives you the option of displaying your personality a little more with backdrops and colors. Other than that most of it seems petty similar to facebook with friends list, chats, pictures, ect. Im still getting used to it, it takes a little more computer skills to keep your pages organized and neat. Hopefully I will have more time to play with it in the coming weeks.

Cons- no social contact!, may have less access to new equipment and technology, A LOT of time spent with child/parent

I have met and gone to school with a few people who were homeschooled (most were home schooled during the earlier years and came to public school during the jr high-high school years). In all reality, most were ahead of the rest of us in school by quite a leap. But where they shined in school they lacked greatly in social skills. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t complete outcasts but it did take them quite awhile to adjust to the routine, rules, and distractions of the classroom and peers. I see no problem with homeschooling as long as students are kept up to pace and given the option of outside social contact through sports or clubs. When in school teachers always said “This is not a time to socialize” when we wouldn’t quite down but socialization really is a huge part of how we learn and it also helps to frame our personalities. Homeschooled kids need that interaction with kids of their own age as well as a break from their parent.

Technology can be used to research a subject or to back up information. Students can research and find answers to their own questions and almost teach themselves with a little motivational help and support. Computers and smartboards can help to organize information and make it more readily available when the subjects come up. You no longer have to filp through pages looking for the example you wanted, wasting time and getting distracted. Teachers are already pushed for time to teach students all they should know so now they must make the most of what time they are given. 

How do we use technology to educate?

Educational computer games can help young children learn new subjects in a fun way and new/difficult programs can challenge older students to teach themselves more in order to get ahead of the rest. Using technology to teach offers a new way to give information in a motivating and exciting way. The traditional method of teaching involves lecturing, writing, and repeating. Very boring. Offering kids the opportunity to ask more questions and challenge some of the answers they are given will also give them a sense of control over their learning. Technology and the internet allow them this freedom of learning.

Somethings just using a smartboard to deliver information to a class is not an effective use of technology to learn. Students should get excited about new subjects just like they get excited about a new game. Learning through the use of a game allows a student the opportunity to get excited. It can be challenging and educational. This goes back to how many hours a kid will spend on a video game (failing a hundred times) but its exciting so they try over and over again until the game is mastered. Papert even strongly says that this is the way education should be! Technolgy offers the chance to make subjects more challenging and engaging and should therefore be utilized.

I don’t feel classrooms have changed a whole lot since the book was written but I do feel that the ideas of how students should and can learn are a lot more open to change. This change hasn’t taken place because I think people just don’t know where to start. No one is really for standardized testing anymore but stuff like this is still done because what other method do they know? Teachers have a lot to compete against. They are fighting students for their attention over video games and the Internet (because lets face it, that’s a little more interesting and challenging right now) and they’re fighting with parents and the school board that their students are learning and are up to par with their peers. School seems to have become a huge competition instead of an inspiring environment.

I think Papert feels that the whole world has changed, adopted, and updated technology, except education. Education has yet to fully utilize the potential that technology offers in the classroom. Learning and teaching is still very “old school” but as eyes open hopefully change will soon follow.

It has taken a long time to change but the gender gaps are capable of changing. I think the best way to address these issues in educational settings is to continue what we have been doing…encouraging kids that they can do and be whatever they like. If children learn and believe otherwise then continue to re-expain that girls can work with computers and boys can make clothes. Eventually the older generation and way of thinking will become out numbered. I think we have been going about it all in the right way but we just haven’t given it enough time to go through the change completely. If we fix one problem we will always find another. Roles may even switch as in the veterinarian field. Most all the veterinarians ready to retire are males (it was a male dominated field years ago) but now they are begging for males to enter. The roles have switched and it is a very femle dominated field. My friend in vet school said that out of a hundred females there are only a few guys so maybe in 50 years they will be arguing that there needs to be more equal opportunities for males in IT careers.