Freedom and Electronic Books

Team Mash-up

My team and I will be exploring the mash-up of Electronic Books and Freedom. This basically looks how it sounds. Electronic Books able you to read books using technology. You can now read books on the internet or buy and dowload them on to new electronics, such as an Ipad. The definition I would use for freedom is being able to have a choice in the things you do. The image out of these two things are basically being able to choose and relate to the things you read electronically. Should schools switch to reading things electronically? I am neutral. My opinion on why schools should switch to reading electronically are it would be more  to conveneint for time. Students could actually listen to the book instead of trying to read it. Some students might find this helpful and some might not. I think personally it would help me because if I listen I can concentrate on trying to understand the book. My opposite oppinion is this would be a lot more expensive for schools. Also, only a majority of classes actually read books. These subjects are usually only English and History. So would techers allow personal use of these electronic books? I would hope so because they would be a lot more useful if they used it for more than just school. A lot of students do read outside of school and instead of going to a library they can just read these books electronically or even listen to the book.

Changing Styles of Teaching Methods

Most teachers these days follow the same teaching methods they have used for years, such as notes, reading, etc. Have they ever considered what the students think though? Most students these days find these methods very boring therefore they aren't going to pay attention. I am one of those students. In Chapter 5 of Tapscott's book it talks about how teachers should interact with the students and help them discover for themselves rather than lecture. I think this can be very helpful because students should challenge themselves and learn how to understand things without someone doing it for them. Tapscott also mentioned that schools should encourage kids to collaborate with each other. This could also be very helpful because they not only can teach themselves, but their peers as well. For when the teachers do teach they should involve Tapscott's 8 norms. This way the lessons are relatable and have meaning for teaching them. Teachers should let students have their freedom, but teachers can customize lessons so they benefit both the student and the teacher themself. Lessons should be entertaining, fast, and collaborative. I think ost of us would agree that technology would be a huge help with these norms. So maybe schools and teachers should consider this technology because it is a huge part of today and the future and us students are the future.

8 Net Gen Norms

There are 8 Net Gen Norms that the Net Generation expect of technology. They are all basically traits that should be followed. The 8 are freedom, customization, scruitny, integreity, collaboration, entertainment, speed, and innovation. Freedom is the freedom to use your choice of expression. You get to choose what you do and how you do it. The second norm is customization. Customization means you get to have your own personal expression. You can change anything to be your own personal thing, such as a wallpaper or a ringtone. The third norm is scruitny. Scruitny basically means watching how and what you research. The Fourth trait is integreity. Integreity is the citizenship of doing things. You should be honest when writing, such as citing sources and not plagarizing. The fifth trait is collaboration. Collaboration is being able to work together with other people and being able to communicate between each other. The sixth trait is entertainment. You want to have fun and want others to enjoy the work. It might not seem important, but it is because you want your readers attention and you want them to be entertained or else they wont be interested. The seventh trait is speed. Most of the collaborators want quick responses and want to be able to do things quickly because other people are involved. If someone is very slow in responding with research others will be annoyed. The final trait is innovation. This trait is being able to fix and improve things. With the new tools technology offers, improvement should be very easy and quick. We use all of these things mostly in our technology everyday. Technology is now a huge part of our lives, so we should be using all of these traits when using technology.

Importance of meeting deadlines

Deadlines are very important to business and education. A deadline is a due date of when certain things have to be done. Deadlines are very important to organization. If all things were done on time organization wouldn't be a problem, but it usually is. Businesses use deadlines the most for organization. This way they can keep a good record on things being done. Businesses would not be successful if it didn't have a strict way of making sure things get done. Education also uses deadlines quite a bit. I don't believe they are used for organization as much as business, but they are still used. Deadlines in education are mostly necessary for students and teachers dealing with time management. These kind of deadlines can be used as a teaching tool for the future because now students can work with managing their time to get things done without procrastinating. Deadlines also can prevent procrastination. Most high school students don't do projects until the last minute and eventually it will catch up with them. With strict deadlines students will maybe realize that they have to do projects or homework earlier this way stress won't catch up with them. Overall, deadlines are very important to business and education. They help with things such as organization and time management, which can make things a lot easier for everyone

Accepting criticism

Commenting is one of the many features that these new web pages offer. You can look at someone's page and be able to share your opinion. Netiquette is what should be used when commenting on pages. It is the fancy word for being appropriate on the internet. When commenting on a page it is ok to criticize, but it should be done in a way that helps the writer, not bring them down. Some things that can prevent the writer from taking criticism the wrong way are also putting complimenting comments. This way the writer can take the criticism and still feel good because there were other good aspects. Some things to avoid when commenting are argumentative comments, bullying, and inappropriate wording. Everyone can see these comments and it could lead to more trouble. Some tips for the writer are to take criticism as a helping tool to make your writing better. Sometimes people take criticism the wrong way and hold it against the person who wrote it. Writers should have the attitude that the person criticizing the page is trying to make them better, not worse. When you have the opportunity to use these tools, people should use them to their advantage, but with netiquette. This way both the writer and commenter get something good out of it.

Using a wiki to communicate information

A wiki can be used to communicate in many ways. It has features that allow you to make groups where you can share information with anyone you invite to join. Organizations are also using wiki's, such as IMB and Columbia University. Some things wiki's include that can be useful for communication are unlimited members, unlimited pages, and built-in discussion forums. For example, students can do classroom projects where teachers can view each students progress. Another example is certain organizations can posts schedules where all members can view and comment on the page. Other features wiki's allow groups are certain pages for each kind of group. It has labels for K-12, higher education, businesses, etc. These labels have different options for each group. For example the K-12 label offers more security and administrative control of the site. This allows teachers to go on the site and be able to delete, upgrade, and edit anything they feel they need to. Communication is a huge part of life today and these tools are just making it easier for schools, businesses, and anyone who wants to use it. Schools can basically teach lessons through wiki and businesses can communicate with the entire company with just one page on a wiki.