| Last entry |
[Nov. 30th, 2005|01:55 pm] |
The Gutenburg site/project was interesting to read and learn about because many sites on the internet offer online journals but they charge $20 - 40 for membership fees that sometimes lasts a few months or at max a year. If we knew about this site earlier we could have used it to research papers for each of our classes. It's great to know that there are free services of all kinds to help students, teachers and children such as last week's blog about the tuxpaint. It is interesting how some individuals come up with such ideas, i would have never thought of copying/distributing books and articles because the copyright dates have expired. In fact, i wasn't aware that they can expire! Light literature can be used for young children, heavy literature can be for adolescents and adults, and references can be used for post-secondary school students.
In the second article, i agree with the writers because computers should be additions to our lives, not substitutions for important components of our lives. When children read animated stories off the computer they are deprived of the ability to imagine and play out the story in their minds, in a sense, they are told what to imagine and think. Overall that can be negative for their growing minds because they do not get the chance to imagine, or create images within their minds. Personally i know i needed my mom to read with me a lot in grades 1 to 3 because my english and reading was bad. It helped when she went over the words and slowly sounded out each letter and waited for me to join in, and take over to guess what the word may mean. If i had been given the same lesson on a computer, i'm almost definate that i'd gain the same reading skills much much later such as grade 4 at the very least. Sometimes the most important things in our lives are the most simple things such as outdoor play, tactile books and tools. |
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| Week 12 - TuxPaint & Jason's article |
[Nov. 23rd, 2005|03:57 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  content | ] |
After reading the articles and informational pages on TuxPaint's website, it was interesting to learn that there are programs that offer so many professional tools within them for free. I was amazed that TuxPaint offers tools and features such as the ability to draw with sparkles, rainbow coloured paint brushes, and it was unique with tools such as fade, darken, chalk, tint, drip,and cartoon because Adobe Photoshop does not even offer many of these tools. It is good to know that such educational programs are free and readily available to all children, even those with slower computers operating at different speeds. This would be a good tool to use in the classroom to see if children understand concepts such as colours, and shapes. With the stamps option, children can practice and learn about creating patterns. Having this program as an option to use in the class is good because children learn and display their knowledge in different ways using different tools. Perhaps they can improve this program by offering different canvas sizes, but overall the parental and teacher controls option is very well thought out, parents can save paper by setting this program to print every 10 minutes so that they can stop the child from printing 100 different pictures because of this time delay option.
After reading Jason's article i noticed these two articles tied together. Open source software is useful especially in classrooms because it is free and you can change certain parts of it so that it is tailored to the teacher/classroom needs. As can be seen in tuxpaint, anyone is welcome to translate the program into yet another language if they would like to do that as an act of kindness/consideration to others. The parents are also able to customize the features offered to children using the program. |
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| Week 11 Children as Photographers |
[Nov. 15th, 2005|09:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  rushed | ] |
This weeks readings were very similar so I'm going to just write it as one post instead of 3.
I thought it was neat how the researchers wanted to ask children about their thoughts and feelings when they took the photographs, usually teachers/parents ask children about their drawings and other creations but not about their photographs. It is interesting to think of photography as a way to express yourself and to try to analyze photographs to understand children better. It was also a good idea to ask children if they are happy with the results because it will make them think of technology and how they can modify their tools in order to get better results, we seldom ask children 'Are you happy with your painting? what would you change to make this painting better?'. One concern was that in the Sharples' article, they asked children about the intentions behind the photographs a week after they were taken, but would children really remember their initial intentions for that long? Perhaps if they had asked them after each picture, then the results would be more accurate.
It is interesting to note the age groups and what they focus their thoughts and pictures on, it seems to portray how children develop quite accurately; first they're egocentric so everything is about themselves or their immediate environment/family, then when they are older they want to find their own identity, and finally once they've found their identity they look for others that share the same interests.
Again, I wish there were cheap digital cameras for when i was growing up, i loved taking pictures but my parents would say "Such a waste of film...Why on earth would you take a pic of that?!?". When parents say such things to children it puts them down and tells them that there are only certain purposes for the camera, in my case that would be to use them when everyone knows you're going to take the picture. I personally believe the best pictures are not neccesarily the prepared and posed ones.
All i can say is that the future generations will be lucky to have so many more devices/technologies to play with and use at such cheap prices. I'm pretty sure that i will allow my future children to have a DigiCam like the ones we bought for this course! |
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| Successful pic with the new mini Camera!! |
[Nov. 15th, 2005|06:35 pm] |
After many mistakes, i finally got the picture to actually show the two stuffed animals! At first, even when i saw them in the centre of the camera.. somehow when i uploaded them they were always cut off *sniffles*
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| Stan's pic of the Moon |
[Nov. 10th, 2005|07:42 pm] |
My oldest brother took a telescope and a digital camera, put it together and voila!
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| Beautiful Sunrise |
[Nov. 9th, 2005|03:02 pm] |
Here is Jason's beautiful and artistic picture of the sunrise. It looks so professionally done!
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| Week 10 AccessGrid --> I will never wear white ever again in my life! lol. |
[Nov. 6th, 2005|06:17 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  embarrassed | ] |
Children can benefit through the use of accessgrids by gaining new knowledge and experience with new learning technologies, maybe in the future if this type of techology was easier to carry around, then children might be able to go to other countries or field trips without having to go there physically. They can tell the other user "turn the camera to the left to see what's there" and it would almost be as if the child has been transported into that environment if they get to control and ask the other user to show them their surroundings.
Overall this experience participating in the AccessGrid seemed normal to me, perhaps due to the fact that i have used webcams and microphones before for chatting with my boyfriend when he lived further away.
When we entered the room that had all the programs and devices set up, it felt strange at first because i expected the images to be projected right onto the wall at the same level as most of us would be (when we talk with someone in real life). It was interesting to see so many different angles of the same picture, and to be able to see what the other user can see (our classroom and the exact location of everyone). It was a little awkward to converse with Ken because we don't know him very well, if i had been in that same classroom but with people i know, i'm sure i would appreciate the technology even more.
I believe the part where Ken moves his arm in the screen that had many frames within it, amazed me, it was a cool effect and was scary because the delayed projections of his arm moving seemed paler by each frame and it gave a ghostly vibe. Did anyone else feel that way?
Also, my experience with the AccessGrid was enhanced when my classmates volunteered me to be the new projection screen because i was wearing a white sweater(P.S. I hate you girls lol, i'm just teasing). I only wish someone else was wearing white too so that i could have seen what everone else saw, i guess i'll just use my imagination for now! |
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| Week 12 |
[Nov. 1st, 2005|11:02 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  uncomfortable | ] |
Metaportal for a megatrend Article:
This new technology may make learning concepts easier for children, instead of telling children why they should/shouldn't do certain things, they can learn for themselves through using this device to converse with other children in different settings and environments. An example would be having the children in Canada speak with children from developing countries where starvataion is a common problem, or having children compare what they may have in their own respective countries so that they can learn to appreciatee things such as food and education.
Overall i imagine that this experience for us tomorrow will seem maybe spooky, like those old movies that have the main character enter his/her house to find ppl talking to them from the television shows, but tomorrow will be different because it is in real time. This concept is bizarre yet a good idea because it may change the lifestyles of many families if the husband/wife can do their 'out of country' business trip now at home or at their workplace with this device. They can get the task done, but save on driving/travelling time and time away from their families and friends.
Video Conferencing with preschool Children:
This article was interesting because it shows that children can learn important things from interacting with others; in this case, they learned that they share a similarity in the songs that they sing, even if the words are replaced, they recognized that the song was 'The farmer in the dell'. Noticing differences and more importantly, similarities help children engage in acceptance of others because they may learn to look for similarities first.
Even if the technology is relatively new, perhaps they should perfect the programs and connections better so that the next time they test this device out, the results would be more clear and valid. So far the results sound pretty good. I'm still having a hard time believing this can be done! I remember watching Star trek and thinking the video/graphics people were really skilled to make those pop up hologram pictures of people...who are able to interact live, but now with developing technologies, the impossible seems to be possible.
Children as photographers Article:
Giving children a camera to use is an interesting way to see what they think about the world; what is important and what is not? Very much like Freud's theory that young children (as seen in this article) like to focus on themselves during certain periods of growing up. It makes sense that children take pictures of themselves and their immediate family first because when they are young these are the only people they usually share their most deep secrets to, but when they grow up and meet friends, they crave independence and privacy from their family (mainly from parents)and tend to value friends the most because they define who the individual is.
I remember growing up and wanting to take more pictures, i love to reminisc, but my mom was one of those typical parents who would tell their children "Stop wasting film!". Children nowadays are so lucky to have technology at such convenient prices and a lot of varieties. I wish they had cheap $15 or even $30 digital cameras back when i was a child!! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 18th, 2005|11:43 pm] |
Article #1 Seductions of Sim
It was interesting to read this article to be reminded of how technology can help children learn through their interests. I was amazed to read that a 6 year-old boy would be able to comprehend city budgets and other governmental concepts that may be associated with adults. Most children enjoy playing video games or interactive games and they (Sims) have used this to teach children concepts such as life cycles of animals and humans and other ecosystems. Within these topics, children learn to fulfill basic needs and proper living conditions for the characters or animals in the game. It is important to keep in mind that games can have errors so it is hard to guarantee the same results every time the same steps are taken; therefore it would be difficult to explain to children why the animals may breed in certain times and not in others. Also, taking care of animals on a computer game will always be easier than to have a real dog as a pet, if children are not warned that there is a difference in real life and life in the computer system, parents may be in for a lot of whining. Sims may serve one good purpose; children may become more able to multitask and organize things because they are required to take care of complex systems and keep them from dying.
Article #2 National Parental Warning
This 'secret' feature in the game was most likely created with censorship in mind but was not well thought out; it can be easily accessed by anyone regardless of age; all they need is the ability to read and use the internet. Children as young as 8 years old may be able to crack this 'code'. Another problem is that once this option has been broadcasted, children who were once unaware will now go to search to see if what they hear is true.
Prior to reading this article, I was aware that they re-released the game for individuals who are 18 and older. I agree with their decision to do so, it would have been better for them to have not made this mistake in the first place, but their solution is pretty good.
Article #3 Open Source Household
There are pros and cons to using open source programs in the house.
A positive feature would be that open source programs provide free services that allow you to do what you need to do while saving money. In the case where you need to crop and fix pictures, Adobe Photoshop = $600+ US normally, but similar open source programs like GNU Image Manipulation Program = free! With each program that is downloaded, in the long run, a lot of money is saved. This can be related to brand name clothing items, children should be aware that the other options (home made or non-brand name clothes) can be just as good or even better.
A negative feature is that open source programs don't make money, so the programmers work on limited resources because of lack of funding so this may affect the accuracy of the products/programs that are created. |
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| Hacking Humans (Week 6) |
[Oct. 11th, 2005|11:42 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sick | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Craig david - You don't miss your water | ] |
This article was interesting in that it highlighted an important point; it's not technology that's dangerous, it's us humans. We are the ones who censor our information that we give out to others, we choose to blog and post personal or not so personal things according to our level of comfort. So maybe it's more practical to focus on how to protect children from telling too much; there should be information that can never be given online to people they have not seen or met before. Sometimes it is this carelessness in giving away personal information that humans can be manipulated.
The issue of censorship from the parents is difficult to solve, many years ago i started to chat with another guy who was supposedly my age (i was about 18 at the time and claimed he was 20 & that he liked me). Later on i was randomly clicking on MSN and realized through his MSN contact card that he's actually 40, needless to say, i never talked to him again. Even if parents check if the person on the other side of the screen is a child/adult, they can never tell 100% if they are who they claim to be.
Children and teens should be taught about posting only what they mean online because sometimes they may post hate/unprofessional messages or letters to others and get in trouble for it later on when they are older and mature. For example, a student can post sexual/racist comments online and later on in life be denied a job because there is 'evidence' that this person doesn't work well in multicultural settings. |
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| still for week 5 |
[Oct. 2nd, 2005|06:36 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  thirsty | ] |
Article #2 "Children's Emerging Digital Literacies: Investing Home Computing in Low- and Middle- Income Families" from the Centre for Children and Technology link
The research done for this article can be sketchy because it was based on 20 children within a year's time, but the information does seem helpful and it makes sense. The article explores how individuals are divided by digital gadgets, so instead of the famous "low-income families miss out on the computer experience because they can't afford it", an organization named 'Working with Computers for Youth'provided low-income children with a computer and had people teach them how to use it. I agree it sounds very beneficial and it may help lessen the gap between the computer abilities of low- and middle-income children, but it is not very practical because there isn't enough organizations that are willing to provide so many computers, lessons, and check ups to all these children. Even if there are enough organizations/donations for such ideas, what happens when they stop sponsoring/donating to these children? They cannot possibly afford to buy and maintain a computer, so the gap widens again.
It was interesting that i never thought of the benefit of low-income families with computers; they found that these children were more likely to benefit from computers in an educational way because people are always around them (the computers are positioned in areas of the house where everyone can see and use them, which is censorship).
the recommendations at the end of the article seemed fairly useful although again some of the points are common sense. Most of the points were new ideas to be explored such as having more programs that teach parents and children how to use the computer, perhaps lessening the digital gap between parents and children should be more important to explore since it affects many people all over the world.
The Centre for Children and Technology is an organization that aims to educate professionals about technology so that educators can enrich their students' lives with it. This organization or site seems to be more useful and valid than the FFE. |
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| for week 5 |
[Oct. 2nd, 2005|06:02 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
Article #1 "Frequently Asked Questions (And Answers)About the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)" from the Electronic Frontier Foundation link.
The COPPA is basically an online 'law' started in the year 2000 where websites directed at children under 13 require parental consent to collect any information from or about the children. I believe that this Act is better than having none, but it still has its flaws. First of all, I remember making up a Yahoo account many years ago when i was 17 and for my 'privacy' my brother said i was 'under 13'. Down the road, they suddenly said they needed a creditcard to prove that it's ok for me to use the account..of course i didn't give any personal info because it could be a scam.. so i lost that email account. A day later, i went back and made a new account, this time clicking "Yes, i'm above 13" and i got an account without having to prove i'm of age. The point is, children can do the same as long as they're literate. Secondly, websites having parental consent pages are not useful because a)children can forge or just click that "yes i approve of my child" button so it is not possible to know if it's the parent that's really giving approval b) parents may live busy lives and don't have the time or patience to sit down to such a long page of information c)not all parents are fluent in english to even read that consent page. This Act and article are not valid to me, there are a lot of common sense facts all over the article, it was not informative at all. It says that the Act is 'effective' but they do not mean it as in "children are safer" it only means that many websites now have this feature of asking for parental consent. The only reasearch done was roughly how many websites adopted this Act, but they were not specific with the number, they just said that many sites are being compliant but a lot more are not. With what i've said above, this Act makes parents think that the internet is safe and things can be censored, but they are not.
EFF is supposed to be an organization that wants to protect people on the internet and keep their personal information safe. I don't think their ideas are well developed enough to cover as many problem areas as possible. While the intentions of this group are positive, they need to work harder to gather more useful information that won't allow people to say "yea that's true.. but...". |
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| Underwater Cameras & Webcams |
[Sep. 27th, 2005|09:17 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
The underwater camera sounds like an ingenius idea, if such devices were adaptable to be installed in beaches, and affordable enough to install in all households containing pools/deep tubs, then this year alone we could have probably saved many many lives. Seems like there's a lot of drowning cases this year, especially with those 3 brothers, and many other cases of toddlers drowning in kiddie pools in backyards. Even if the cameras are not underwater, it would be amazing to create motion sensoring camera programs that sound off the alarm when the child enters unsafe zones ie) maybe there's a specific alarm for when the child exits the house or steps too close to the swimming pool.
The webcams in the schools/daycares can be a safety feature for the worried parent; they can check up on their child to see if the daycare is a quality daycare centre, or to check on what their child is doing (not climbing up on a high shelf). My parents once went to pick up my 2nd brothers from the babysitter, but his mouth was full of newspapers! Obviously they needed a new babysitter. Parents may also monitor what their child is learning and see how good/bad their child is doing. Most parents rely on the teacher to inform them of developing skills and skills to be developed in their children, but they do not realize that teachers/daycare staff have many children to supervise and care for so each child misses out on one-on-one time and in turn means the teacher might not have paid attention to 1 particular child at all that day. Sometimes i fear being a teacher because of that reason. Maybe if the parents could openly see the classroom through that webcamera idea, they won't ask me anymore.
Some may argue that it is stressful to be watched all the time (grown ups), and that the teachers may put on a show because they know they are being watched. It would be interesting if each day was different where the Early childhood educator would not know which days/times the cameras are switched on; this way the quality is more likely to be positive and realistic because there's a higher chance of ECE's revealing their true teaching methods ie) yelling/other inappropriate behaviours (then you can decide to save your child from the demon-from-hell type teacher...or leave them in there to learn 'discipline'. :p |
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| Web publishing as learning spaces article |
[Sep. 20th, 2005|08:39 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | anxious | ] |
Generally i believe blogs are interesting because you can communicate your thoughts and how your day was to many people all at once, instead of messaging each person or repeating yourself on the phone/in person, you can say "I've had a bad day/good day, just go read my page!". The internet (blogs and emails) has brought great convenience to us, we can now read emails and blogs whenver we have time and the same goes for when we want to send a response. There is also the added benefit of privacy, we can set our websites to allow only certain users/friends to see our entries, and we can also block certain users from seeing our information (if you know their username/email).
Blogs may be good for children, it can help them learn literacy through working with their interests; when you're interested in something, you won't consider it a lesson because you mostly see the fun aspect of it. Children can blog to feel better after venting or sharing feelings, know each other better (what goes on in the lives of their friends), and improve their literacy skills (if they're old enough to read/write).
One point worth mentioning is that (as the article mentions)groups can form online because there is a special openess that is there, while real life prevents us from truly expressing our beliefs. We may want to monitor the kinds of groups our children have access to. There are many angry people out there who would love to recruit people to brainwash, it would be bad if one day cults/hate groups formed online and carried out their beliefs into actions. We also have to be careful that there is a certain degree of privacy set on our children's information and web pages to protect them from pedophiles and other creeps.
While the idea of 'travelling with a friend through reading about it online' seems interesting, i believe it does not compare to the real experience of seeing, smelling, feeling, hearing, and tasting things from another culture/country. This method (reading a friend's blog about their vacation) may be more interesting than to just look online for tourist information pages, but it's not as good as the real thing of physically travelling there. Going there yourself would be more meaningful and memorable in the long run. |
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| Two articles on computers and cy-dough-plasm |
[Sep. 12th, 2005|09:56 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | exhausted | ] |
Overall I agree with Sherry. Individuals reported feeling benefits from being able to practice being someone they’re normally not. I think they lack the courage to act how they feel because they don’t know how others will react, but chat rooms & MUDs provide a safe place to experiment (provided they don’t give away personal information that will risk their physical safety). Once they’re comfortable with who they would like to be, they can portray that aspect of themselves with more confidence because they’ll know what to expect and how to handle that situation. As ECE’s we should help children learn more about themselves and accept who they are. Computers may help them explore and express who they are so that they can make sense of it all.
Personally, I’ve been told many times that I’m outgoing, cheerful and talkative online, but in person I’m quiet, shy and reserved. I’m pretty self-conscious so in reality I can’t quite be who I am inside. The internet ‘version’ of me isn’t a fake or different side of me, it’s simply the part that I can ‘t quite express properly with speech. In person, I get nervous when people ask me to repeat because I don’t know if I’m not talking correctly or if it’s just the volume. When I try to repeat myself, I usually get tongue-tied and mess up so I get anxious and more nervous. On the Internet, these fears do not cross my mind.
I like technology and the Internet, although I find myself addicted at times to MSN. I remember in possibly grade 3 we had a computer game for math. In this game you’re racing with horses, so with a classmate, you’d both race to answer the math questions on the screen as fast as you can, the more/faster you answer, the faster your horse on the screen runs. I knew it was work, but it was really fun. If all aspects of education could be fun AND educational that would help decrease the drop out rate in school. I believe a lot of people drop out because they are bored, or they cannot see how the things they learn relate to their real lives. We must really find other ways to capture the interests of the future generations to keep them in school and actually enjoy it.
The Tamagotchi/Sims allows children to learn concepts about life; that everything that is alive requires food, attention, time, and love for it to continue growing in a healthy fashion. These devices are good because they let children make mistakes and learn the consequences so that they’ll be more responsible if they know what’s to be expected, and may give better care to a real pet. |
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| Technology and Children (The incredibles) |
[Sep. 8th, 2005|12:09 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  busy | ] |
yeah my first post is going to be a little sketchy, trying to tie in things from the movie to technology..but here goes!
After watching the incredibles, i realized that there were many devices used throughout the movie. Most of the gadgets were futuristic technologies that we do not have, such as gates that are made from laser beams, bullet and heat proof fabrics that can stretch A LOT and not rip, and robots programmed to hurt people. The movie seemed to have integrated many kinds of technology within the whole city; not only within the family unit. Many people in that society viewed technology as a norm, even children were able to create and use their own rocket boots. Others in the society seemed to have lived normal lives and feared the heroes because the heroes seemed to own the most technology-based equipment in town.
A few items of technology that i jotted down include: homing devices built in suits/cars; rocket boots; pop-up screens/holograms of maps/places/people; large robots; laser gates; automatic planes that fly and can submerge into water to land; eye/hand/voice identification combinations ; bullet/heatproof materials to be used for Hero uniforms; and cameras that can fly, scan a specific area for heat, then return to the owner's wrist (where it belongs).
Some of the gadgets were inappropriate, for example, the rocket boots weren't very realistic because it would be difficult for the owner to control where to go and balance themselves skillfully and safely. The laser gates may also be harmful for children, they may be too young to realize what lasers are and the dangers they may bring upon themselves if they touch the shiney red beam of light. Also, the plane that can adapt from land to water seems unbelieveable and impossible to create. The movie may be enjoyable for all to watch, but children may get the wrong idea and think that these devices are accessible and safe to use. |
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