Most of the people that I have on Facebook do not update everyday, but there are a few who update daily, sometimes several times a day.  I guess the activity levels vary upon how many other things that are going on in lives outside of cyber world.  All of the interactions between individuals in my network are friendly ones.  There is not any of the cyber fighting going on like others have going on, but rather, pictures of kids are posted and commented on and people are having conversations by posting messages on walls.  It’s a lot of fun to read and participate in. 

So why exactly do people visit Facebook?  As I previously stated, the majority of my contacts are there for friends.  People who I went to college and high school with now live in different states from Connecticut to Colorado, and it’s neat to keep in touch with them this way.  We post pictures of our kids so that we can watch them grow, even though we don’t live close enough to watch them grow in person.  We reminisce about the old days and laugh about the things we used to do and say.

The quizzes and polls on Facebookare also entertaining.  Some of the quizzes are so funny, and it’s hilarious to read about how friends are scoring on these quizzes as well as taking them myself.  Polls about top five favorite things about various topics are fun to do and read about too.  I probably spend more time then I should on Facebook, but I am totally addicted to it and want to know more about it, so I spend hours looking around and finding new tools to use.  I’m getting better about monitoring my time on it, but at this point, I’m still addicted to it.

The language posted by myself and my friends are appropriate in content.  Usually any vulgar comments are edited somehow, and everything is usually PG or PG-13!  The thing that I have noticed about posts, as far as grammar goes, it seems that capitalization, punctuation and spelling rules are not followed.  This sometimes drives me crazy and I want to correct the errors, but I also realize that it is part of the social networking site and is similar to texting.

Here are my previous posts on this topic:

So, I recently went through all of my friends’ profiles to see what they have listed as a reason for joining facebook.  The greatest majority of them listed that they were there for friends, a few listed networking as their reason, and even fewer listed that they were there for dating purposes.  I must say that I agree with the majority of my friends because, I too, use facebook to keep up with friends.  It’s easy to keep up with friends and their children through this site. 

While I was viewing the profiles of everyone, I couldn’t help but to notice how many ‘friends’ they had listed.  A few people had over 700 ‘friends’!!  Can that be right?  I agree with some others and the thought of  how it seems that it is some sort of popularity contest.  I don’t have nearly that many, I have around 70, and I think that’s too many.  I would like to keep up with everyone, but having that many makes me miss some of their updates.  I can say that I keep up with about 20 of them consistently where we chat, send messages, comment on photos and/or write on each others’ wall.  This is time consuming, but fun!

As for the accepted language and behavior on Facebook, I would have to say that those I am in contact with usually keep things clean and use appropriate language.  If, for some reason, someone feels the urge to curse, he/she usually uses the ‘text’ abbreviations and/or bleeps some of the letters out using asterisks.  I don’t think that there’s a written etiquette out there, but I think that it’s common courtesy to keep things “clean” for others to view.  Anyway, I’ll post more as it comes to me…

Okay, so I’m totally hooked on Facebook.  I’ve been signed up with it for a couple of months.  I use Facebook primarily to catch up with old friends and to talk with family members that I don’t get to see all that much.  I find myself checking it a couple of times a day (on days that I work) and on days that I’m not working…well, um, we’ll just say that I am on it a lot.  I’ve been able to catch up with old friends from college, which I haven’t seen in a long time, as well as friends from high school which I haven’t seen in an even longer time.  I love having the ability to do pop-up chats with friends who are on line, to send messages or to send “drinks” to old friends.  I also like to take the quizzes and challenging my friends to see who scores the highest.  (This is where some ‘useless knowledge’ comes in handy) as well as sharing photos of my children and life in general with my friends and love to look at what they share.  A friend of mine recently went to England and shared photos from her trip…I was amazed at the beautiful pictures she shared of Stonehenge, castles and the beautiful homes…how exciting?!   She now lives in Connecticut, so I never see her and had it not been for Facebook, probably would have never had the opportunity to see her pictures. I’ve recently discovered the “flare” part of facebook, which allows me to browse through pins to decorate my flare page…I love looking at the flare…it makes me laugh…it’s too fun!

I’ve also been reading blogs from some of you about activity that you are seeing, and find it fascinating as well.  Some people out there are “cyber fighting”?  That’s hilarious!  The people that I talk and share with are pretty laid back and don’t have the fighting and talking about others that someone was talking about.  On the other hand, I too, have seen people use Facebook as a means of advertising. Another one of my friends is a real estate agent in Lexington, and she often posts pictures of homes that she is selling and tells of open houses that she is holding.  I’m not interested in the homes that she is showing, but I still like looking at those pictures and think that she probably gets some business from doing so.  I actually view it a great and inexpensive way to do advertising, so why not?  

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough for now.  I’m looking forward to reading what others are seeing out there.  Until then….

I used to have a MySpace account, but didn’t like it all that well.  I was talking to some friends of mine, and they encouraged me to set a page on Facebook.  I was hesitant, but I have chosen to set up a page on Facebook.  I have enjoyed it much more than MySpace.  It is easier to find people on Facebook, and I have become somewhat addicted to it.  I have found and talked to people through this that I have not spoken to in quite some time, and have really had a good time with it.

While I was viewing the profiles of everyone, I couldn’t help but to notice how many ‘friends’ they had listed.  A few people had over 700 ‘friends’!!  Can that be right?  I agree with some others and the thought of  how it seems that it is some sort of popularity contest.  I don’t have nearly that many, I have around 70, and I think that’s too many.  I would like to keep up with everyone, but having that many makes me miss some of their updates.  I can say that I keep up with about 20 of them consistently where we chat, send messages, comment on photos and/or write on each others’ wall.  This is time consuming, but fun!

As for the accepted language and behavior on facebook, I would have to say that those I am in contact with usually keep things clean and use appropriate language.  If, for some reason, someone feels the urge to curse, he/she usually uses the ’text’ abbreviations and/or bleeps some of the letters out using asterisks.  I don’t think that there is a written etiquette out there, but I think that it’s common courtesy to keep things ”clean” for others to view.  Anyway, I’ll post more as it comes to me….

I’ve also been reading blogs from some of you about activity that you are seeing, and find it fascinating as well.  Some people out there are “cyber fighting”?  That’s hilarious!  The people that I talk and share with are pretty laid back and don’t have the fighting and talking about others that someone was talking about.  On the other hand, I too, have seen people use Facebook as a means of advertising.  Another one of my friends is a real estate agent in Lexington, and she often posts pictures of homes that she is selling and tells of open houses that she is holding.  I’m not interested in the homes that she is showing, but I still like looking at those pictures and think that she probably gets some business from doing so.  I actually view it a great and inexpensive way to do advertising, so why not?

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough for now.  I’m looking forward to reading what others are seeing out there.  Until then….

When some parents consider home schooling, it is understandable, and the reasons that most give for home schooling deal with safety concerns and educational concerns.  Safety concerns come from the number of shootings in schools and/or the amount of bullying that goes on in schools.  The educational concerns come from teachers that are not providing the adequate education that the parent(s) feel the child should be receiving.  I hope that there is not much of this going around, but I’m sure that it can be a possibility.

I found a website http://homeschooling.about.com/od/gettingstarted/a/homeschool4you.htm that gives tips to consider before adventuring in home schooling.  I thought that this site was pretty fair in evaluating certain things before embarking in home schooling.  I don’t know how much of this happens in Kentucky, but I would imagine that it is not a large number.  I found that the Kentucky Department of Education also has a link of questions to consider before starting to home school, so there must be some of this going on somewhere within the state.

The purpose of education is to produce responsible citizens who know about, care about and can function in society.  Education should and can help people become self-sufficient individuals and it helps people maintain social relationships.  Reading, writing, mathematical and science knowledge, as well as understanding where we come from and where we’re going (social studies) are all important and can provide for meaningful and fulfilling life experiences.  Overall, it is the intent of education to provide individuals with the skills and knowledge to perform daily activities responsibly as productive citizens of the world.

I used to have a MySpace account, but didn’t like it all that well.  I was talking to some friends of mine, and they encouraged me to set a page on Facebook.  I was hesitant, but I have chosen to set up a page on Facebook.  I have enjoyed it much more than MySpace.  It is easier to find people on Facebook, and I have become somewhat addicted to it.  I have found and talked to people through this that I have not spoken to in quite some time, and have really had a good time with it.

To be continued……

The textbook brings asks a great question to consider when assessing educational equity and that is “Who is being served and how are they being served?”  Once you have identified this, you can then look at the following factors:

• social context – How are schools being viewed?  Are schools in your community being viewed as opportunities to advance and better self regardless of individual backgrounds, or are they being viewed as a tool for controlling students and is some place that children have to go?
• economic context – School funding and student achievement are factors for evaluating programs.
• political context - Look to the community; forces outside of school walls will enhance or inhibit learning for certain groups of people. 
• educational reform context – Making changes at all levels:  national, state, local, community, district and classroom and then integrating technology into each of those levels effectively.

How does digital technology improve the level of equity?  How does it hamper?

Digital technology improves equity levels as students can share with those who are connected.  We can attempt to narrow those gaps between “haves” and “have nots”, but the realization is that there will always be a gap.  It is good to have goals but its hard to admit that these goals will not be met 100%, and to me, this is where digital technology hampers levels of equity.  There is a strong desire for those who are “have nots” to become “haves” but it’s not an overnight problem that can be solved.

How does access (or lack of access) to digital technology effect a culture?

After watching the interview with Dana Boyd, it is more apparent to me that technology effects our culture.  I found it interesting that children now going online can be compared to older generations using phones.  It is the “norm” now and that is how our culture and society are evolving.  I don’t consider myself old and I would rather talk via e-mail over the phone any day of the week.  So, I can see how children can see this as a normal means of communitcating and is shaping our society.  Those “haves” can also be exposed to cultures and people with whom they may or may not know, where as the “have nots” obviously do not have this exposure.  I have no answers (other than those we’ve already talked about in other posts) to fix this, but I do find it rather unfortunate. 

What can be done in educational settings to address issues of the Silicon Ceiling?

According to the silicon ceiling report, girls and women are not nearly involved and/or interested in working with computers.  It is implied that young girls (in junior and senior high schools) should be encouraged more to partake in courses that deal with technology.  I sub quite a bit for a local high school, and have witnessed the gender gap that this report is talking about.  I once subbed for an teacher who teaches graphics other technology concepts classes, and out of all of the classes throughout the seven classes of the day, there were less than 20 females in those classes total….for the whole day!  I was proud of those girls that were in those classes, because they seemed to “hold their own” and knew/understand what they were doing.  I was sure to applaud their efforts because I know that there is a gender gap (thanks to this class).  Some of the girls that I talked to throughout the day had even expressed interest into working with graphic design for a career.  I would have never thought about doing something like that when I was younger, so I think that there is some improving in this area going on, but there is still a long way to go.  All that this report is trying to do is to make it aware that there is a gender gap out there, and that we all need to encourage (as much as possible) girls into entering this field, even though it has long been thought that men were better at math and science areas.

I enjoyed reading and listening to this post.  There were several things that I found that could relate itself to the education field.  The first quote is this “They want what we want:  better lives for themselves and their families.  How they get it – that’s in their hands.  We can assist them, but they don’t really need our help.  That mob will work it out for themselves.”  I think this statement says a lot.  I think that as educators, we do want better lives for our students.  We are always striving to make them into better people, and we assist them along the way.  As for how this post relates to learning; when he talked about how the fisherman were able to make a profit by the use of technology, I think this lends itself to learning.  We learn about ways to make our lives easier and better and we share those methods.  This is definitely how we teach (when we find a lesson that works well, we often share with colleagues) and is therefore related to learning.  Finally, how does this relate to equity?  “The mob is everywhere.”  We strive for all of our students to have equal opportunities, and have found that even those in less developed areas have ways of communicating in order to better their lives.

This site listed seven key components to educational equity.  I will list those seven components and then give my interpretation and comments for those comments with a summary at the end about educational equity, how it relates to NCLB and if it is desirable.

1.  Access – all students, no matter what race, gender, SES, etc. should have access to a free and appropriate education (FAPE)

2.  Instruction – students should have instruction available to meet their individual needs; whether this be performance needs or learning style, instruction needs to be individualized as much as possible.

3.  Materials – students should have access to materials that are free from bias; books with pictures of men and women of different races performing different tasks and jobs

4.  Attitudes – students should have teachers who expect all of them to succeed at high rates and not expect the boys to perform better in the math and sciences while the girls are expected to perform higher in the language arts

5.  Interactions – students should be able to interact with others for various tasks, and the groupings should be varied from time to time

6.  Language – this one can be a little tricky with second languages, but overall, the language spoken to students should be appropriate; no belittling and/or rude comments made, and speaking to boys and girls alike; also second language materials should be available -  the books and comments that have both English and another language are great

7.  Assessment – this should be the same and goes hand in hand with instruction; base it on individual needs, but it needs to be fair

In one of my other classes, just the other day, we were talking about this sort of thing.  Boys and girls do learn differently; that can be proven.  Boys prefer working hands on, moving around and require a lot of space to work, while girls prefer quiet activities.  Boys have more discipline and special education referrals because of their hands-on and active preferences.  Is this fair?  Certainly not!  However, think about how many women teachers there are…especially at the elementary level.  The majority are female and it’s hard for us to understand and relate to the rowdy ways of boys.  I’m not trying to justify all of the referrals, I’m merely trying to think of an explanation for it. 

The book took a different approach to discussing equity; it looked at how girls are not given enough educational opportunitites like boys when it comes to technology and math and science.  I’m not sure that I agree with that stand, but I can see where it comes from.  Throughout history, boys (men) have taken on the role of the professional jobs outside of the house; while girls (women) have worked within the home.  Because of this, we have developed certain stereotypes of what boys and girls should do (and what toys to play with).  I hope that we are getting better at losing those stereotypes and give boys and girls opportunities to work with and play with a variety of toys and manipulatives.  I know that I, myself, have never really enjoyed playing house or with dolls, and would have much rather been playing basketball or outside in general. 

So, is equity possible?  I would certainly like to think so, but I think that we are all humans, and we all have our faults…and this leads us to having pet peeves and favorites.  I would also like to think that just because we have little Johnny or little Mary who gets on our last nerve, we do not deprive them of the education that they each deserve, and that they each have educational opportunities that are equal.  Does this happen all of the time?  Probably not, but I do think that it is something that each of us would want, so yes, I think that educational equity is something that is desirable. 

How does NCLB relate to educational equity?  It makes teachers and administrators take a closer look at those at-risk students and students with disabilities.  Instead of placing those students in their own room away from the general population, students are being placed in regular classrooms and being exposed to the same education that general education students have been exposed to for years.  It also has teachers looking, caring and teaching those students who come from less desirable backgrounds and making sure that those students have educational opportunities as well.  I think that the intent of NCLB was a good one…it’s not attainable because all students do not learn at the pace that is expected, but at least those children are not being ignored anymore and are given a chance to be exposed to an equal education.