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.