Thursday, September 13, 2007

Sample PLN Entries...as promised

Jessie and I wanted to showcase some of our students' PLN entries. Please take a look:

Kelly S. wrote about Karl Fisch's Did You Know presentation,

There are things on there you wouldn’t have guessed, one that caught my interestwas that it said “if you are one in a million in China… there are 1300 people just like you” talk about having a twin! Some of it was more random than other stuff, but some was really just imaginative, but probably true. It talked abouthow in the “future” there will be a computer that exceeds the capability of thehuman mind. Now the first thing that came to me was; robots are going to out smart us and take over the world! Well I don’t believe that we know what we don’t even knowhow smart we are?! In my social studies class we were discussing all the stages we have economically gone through as a country, and even as aworld. There was the “cave men” age (I suppose), agriculture age, industrialage, and now the technological age. So what will be next? I don’t think anyonereally knows what next huge breakthrough we will make. Maybe something inmedicine, they could find a cure for cancer, which would change a lot of things!Or what if we were to find another world out there, this galaxy is huge, bigger than we can even comprehend. We’ve only studied our backyard, there’s a whole universe to explore! There is no doubt of how quickly and drastically we are changing economically (mainly technologically), so what will the world look like in just 10 years? Will I have a computer chip installed in me that connects me to anything or anyone within internet and communication devises? Will kindergarteners be learning to type, instead of write? Are these changes good? Orare we getting way over our head? I’m really not sure all I can do is I guess just wait and see.

Dennis K. wrote about a quotation from The Fischbowl,

If adolescence is defined as the "learning" stage in life, if middle- aged is defined as "the starting to get it point", and if old age is the "reaching death" point in life, then, I believe that America as a country is basking in the warmth of its middle period. When the lands of North America were settled by early English Pilgrims, the territory entered a new era in its time period. As America developed, many mistakes were made and many lives lost, but America persisted through its early career. It then arrived at its "proficient" point where it developed based on its own learned lessons of the past. America has not met its old age, for, it is in no immediate danger of becoming nonexistent or a lacking nation. When faced with the question of technology slowing or accelerating the “death” of a country, I will present the following. It depends. If the “death” is very evident and unavoidable, then the scientific and technological knowledge we as humans possess will not suffice in order toprevent a “death”. If the country is at a stage where it can see death in the future further away, scientific and technological advances may be able to aid the country in its climb towards proficiency. As normal “deaths” of nations are primarily caused by the poor marketing conditions and economics, technologicaladvances in goods may help companies sell more products, earn more money, and as a result, pull the endangered country out of jeopardy. Likewise, scientific breakthroughs may lead a country to fortune through the utilization of theirscience in sold products. Although science and technology can be used in such away as to postpone “death”, it can also be used negatively to speed the process.When products are stripped of their scientific and/or technological values,sales for the product will diminish. If enough products are affected, the process of “death” will quicken.

Anna K. wrote about Will Richardson's blog,

I have just finished reading a recent post by Will Richardson called My Flickr Conundrum. This blog raises a question about taking photographs of landscape. His question was, “why take pictures of places that you visit that probably aren’t going to be as good as the photos that others have already taken that are already available for you to use in your own albums, slide shows, whatever? I mean, unless you want to organize the wife and kids in front of the spot just to prove you’ve been there, what’s the point?” I believe the point is to be able to call the picture your own. You can always look up a picture on the internet, but if you do that, you are not able to say, “I was there and I took that picture.” It doesn’t matter if it’s the worst picture in the world, you can still be very proud of it.

Sam H. wrote about David Warlick's post regarding cyberbullying,

I read a recent article written by David Warlick in the 2 cents Worth subscription. This post is regaurding cyber-bullying and how it is still an issue, but now its not only children who are doing the bullying.I looked at that post and I realzed something. It is a lot easilier to cyber bully than we think. I have heard countless times that cyber-bullying is a major issue and because I havent been involved in it I don't tend to think about it, but maybe it is something that we need to start thinking about more now. Technology has taken over in our world today and now it is much easier to say things, over the computer or maybe even texting on a cellphone, that you wouldn't say to someones face.Now we ask ourselves, why is it easier to say things over technology than to someones face? The reason that was brought up in this post is people feel more comfortable over the web or other forms of technology because there is a physical distance between the two. People feel more comfortable saying harsh things when there is distance between them because they arent afraid of the consiquences.How does this matter in the world? Now that technology is booming more and more adults are beginning to use technology for various forms of communication; thereforethe right of cyber-bullying in the adult ages has increased. Now we ask ourselves, with this technology how are we going to be able to lessen the rate of cyber-bullying among adults and children? The answer I am not yet sure of.

1 comment:

ashleyb2008 said...

I am really excited that we get to use laptops in our learning process because i feel like as teenagers, we are interested in finding out things on our own and researching the internet, rather than spending an extremely long class period reading out of the book. the book and lectures do become dull, and laptops give us a more interesting approach to learning