Unit 3 Reflection

Instagram has the capability of showcasing something you are passionate about or interested in. Due to Instagram’s easily accessible application and platform, I chose it as my medium to portray my ideas from my Unit III project. Almost every single person that I know or know of uses Instagram as a social media platform, people such as fans, friends, friend’s friends, and anything in between. To get my topics across to as many people as I know, I knew Instagram was the best platform. In addition, I decided to make my medium similar to “Humans of New York”. When I was in high school, I used to portray a lot of emotion in photos that I took of people and things. With these pictures I had taken, I then wanted to ask these people what exactly their prospective was on social media as they use it everyday. After getting their quotes and posting their pictures to complement their quotes, my ideas were expressed more adequately than I ever imagined.  

To best introduce my Instagram profile, my first (technically last) post embedded a picture of people standing at a New York train station all interacting with their phones. Under the picture, I posted my feelings towards social media and how I think it is beneficial and becoming even more beneficial as time goes on. I pitched the idea, really my thesis of the entire instagram account, about my thoughts on social media. This is what the post entailed: 

“As our society becomes more and more digital, everyone has to adapt. From getting grandparents their first cell phone as a gift to children using iPad’s in school to learn and type, technology advancement is moving at a rapid pace. Below this post, there are pictures and quotes from that individual that represent their thoughts on social media’s presence in their own meaning and context. Phrases, such as staying connected with others, develop relationship, portray our own image to others, and much more are featured on this page to better understand the leap that social media is taking, which can be inferred as bettering everyone else around us. Know how to manage it, now when to drift away from it, know what is right and what is wrong, and social media will guide you in places that we once thought were unreachable.”

The reason I took this approach was for two reasons:

1. Since Instagram is a platform where people can express their own personal opinions, I wanted to get it all out there before people got confused when scrolling through my feed. This would then allow people to understand the reasoning behind my pictures and the quotes below them. Think of it as a picture book in a sense. 
2. The vision. When people can understand the vision, they will look at the entire posts in a new prospective. For example, when a student is studying their major, they are probably going to care more about a class that is going to help them down the road in their profession, instead of focusing more in a class that has nothing to do with their major. The more inclined you are to an argument or an idea, the more you are going to concentrate on what exactly is being said by that certain individual. 

With this comes inspiration. People will take what they saw and learned, and apply it to their own concepts, ideas, way of going about their day. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it is very relevant in today’s world when looking at politics and social media itself. I want to spark people’s ideas and imaginations to think above and beyond, even try to change the world. So far, I can tell that my efforts in making this exchange, are possible, I have been direct messaged and have received close to one hundred followers in about a week’s time. 

Social media is special, and when I say that, I actually mean it. Social media is not special because of all the coding that was done to make it possible or the amounts of information held in the “cloud”. Don’t get me wrong, the tech specks are cool and I was really trying to be more exaggerative than anything, but here is my point:  Social media is special because it allows humans to interact in a different way than ever before and not in only a communicative slant. Social media and technology as a whole is impacting everyone’s lives in the world because of the features it holds, and that is by everyone being able to tell their own story. And here is really  what my entire post is getting at.

Storytelling, sharing, talking, typing, texting, all reverts back to writing. It reverts back to writing because you are simply doing that, writing. Profiles feature so many things. Things that I could not think of sitting here right now at this desk. Profiles from models to professional sports players to a video gamer to a food channel to LITERALLY everything. This is describing a person’s life, either in a way they want it to be or how it truly is to them. Everyone is telling their story now, but before, stories were not always told, not everyones narrative was on the web. 

So, is social media hurting us? Profiles can be damaging, comments can be hateful, and people clearly use social media as an outlet of their own pain. But, what if we as humans are really just all trying to explain our own stories. We as humans advance. We advance in every aspect, from being cavemen to now being able to change who we are as a physical being, we  advance. We have ability for betterment, so what if we are all trying to tell our own stories as each individual person and haven’t realized it? If everyone decided to “read” into our own WRITTEN stories, then would this world not be a better place than it is right now? 

Everyone writes, everyone has stories, everyone wants to express themselves in some way, shape or form. Social media is really just one huge outlet for people to explain themselves and express themselves. With this comes the communication, comes the interactions between each other, comes the business deals, comes the djing (quote from instagram), comes the dreams. 

Looking back on comments that my classmates gave me, Emma Waters gave me a great piece of advice that I continue to keep in mind. She said, “I like how you took a visual approach to your blog. Not only do you use the sources putting them into your own words, but the pictures and graphs you included amplified your overall project because it keeps the viewer engaged.” Whenever I browse the web, even since a young age, too much text in one area without anything around it frightened me. It seems like the words were somehow swallowing me when I was reading it. I would later stubble upon other sites with pictures to help you better understand the content, maybe give you a visualization of what that person is explaining, so in my writing I wanted to replicate that same sort of idea. I want my blog to not only be informational, but entertaining for the reader. 

Unit 3 Portfolio

https://www.instagram.com/brendanwrt205/

Graphic Novels

Graphic novels were definitely a part of my childhood growing up. I was not a huge super hero fan, but things like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and those type of graphic novels were so good, you could catch me reading them in just a few hours. The graphic novel I picked up at Bird Library got my attention because oh the cover, it honestly just looked really interesting. It turns out this graphic novel is probably the most confusing one I have ever come across. It is called "Aama" and is about a mute child that goes on a journey to find the answers to the evolving world of Ona(ji). They are trying to find the eye of the release point of the biotech experiment "Aama", which is a project that it quickly becoming out of control. After reading the graphic novel, which was only about 85 pages, I could easily relate it to WRT 205 class. Lots of the problems and topics that took place inside of the graphic novel all dealt with evolving technology and what problems could be faced if we keep upgrading and making technology better. It is nice to see this futuristic technology being used in a new way, a somewhat unrealistic way that technology is used in these fake worlds.

Reddit

The internet is endless. You are capable of finding literally just about anything on the internet, I mean you can even buy exotic animals for the right price on the right sites. Both of the podcasts I listened to for class focused heavily on Reddit, with some glimpses of instagram and twitter. I am pretty familiar with Reddit, I use it to find threads of new music and see tips on beat production/music production. People really seem to have their own different minds on Reddit and if you can find the right threads, they can be extremely helpful and interesting.

After listening to the podcasts, one was titled, "Turning Hate On The Internet".  I found it interesting that there are people out there that are trying to better the internet and troll in the right way, by creating positive reinforcement and humor. One can imagine with the free roaming that Reddit allows, there is definitely some stuff that should not be there. Pages like "faggots" and other homophobic pages out there exist, where people bash others for being something they are not.

The other podcast I listened to was called "There Was An Attempt". For a little background, a comedian, by the name of AJ, posted a picture of himself and a white man with AJ's hands around this white man's neck. Everyone in the town then saw this and started calling him by the name of "AJ the Whitesboro Choker". He did this on purpose to replicated what had happened to his people year's before, and switched the roles on purpose. If people are offended now, shouldn't they be offended about what happened years ago?

Unit 2 Reflection

How did I choose the audience for my piece?
To effectively choose my audience for this piece, I actually got a sample size of just about every age group. The reason I did this was to get a mixture of responses with how people use their social media and why. My responses were really sound and they were similar to what I had hypothesized to what people would say. In terms of my rhetorical choices for this piece, I decided to be a little bit more laid back, so it would be a fun read instead of a dry read. The reason I chose to do this was because if I am going to read 2,000 words and its dull, I am going to skim through it, but if the reader keeps me entertained with photos and humor, I would definitely be more inclined to read it through thoroughly.

What's going on in the social media topic right now?
I think there are two sides to social media currently. I think you have a side of the population that is all for social media and another side that does not like the way it is used. I think the side that enjoys it is the 13-25 age group or "teens". The reason I say this is because we grew up with the use of technology at our finer tips and we were the first to ever use apps like instagram and snapchat, so it really is a part of our everyday lives. In contrary, we have adults today that only see teens on their phones using social media and find it as almost "blocking" to experience life.

There are thousands and thousands of studies going on about social media and technology as a whole. Clearly, I was not even able to get past the first two pages of google because of how many studies and informational posts there are. The topic is also extremely relevant as our society beings to become more and more inclined with the use of technology.

The primary research that I conducted definitely spills right into the cup of the social media and technology concept because my responses were similar with the responses of others in other studies. Teens are claiming to be addicted to their phones more than they ever have been and parents are starting to limit the use of technology at early ages. I think some more studies will come out about both sides, how technology is helping and hurting our society. It almost reminds me of how politics are these days, you pick a side and anyone that agrees with the other side automatically disagrees with anything you have to say about how you feel about the topic.

My Responses
I was very successful with getting people to engage in my pitch homework for this unit. The reason I think I had over twenty responses was actually because of technology. I sent them out by texts and all people had to do was type one or two sentences and send them right back. And who would ever say there is no benefit to technology? I had all the answers to my questions and could form a hypothesis through these questions being answered in pretty much an hour. I then just sent them a quick text back thanking them for answering my questions and that if they wanted to see my final product of the unit, they were more than welcome to.

Application to the world
I think there are two things I could definitely use in another class or even just in life when it comes to learning about the topic in unit 2 and the way it was assigned. First, I would definitely use the 10-1 rule again. List ten things about something and how they are beneficial to you everyday. I think this can help your brain accept things more easily. For example, you have a test the next day in a subject you do not necessarily like, well write down ten positive things you are learning or doing in that class and it makes the outlook on things more motivational and positive. You could also do this about a sport you are playing. Secondly, I would also use the idea of forming an argument through first person research and online research. Arguing, while it may have a negative connotation, it is important. With substantial evidence to back up your reasonings, you can argue just about anything and possibly get your way with it. I enjoyed the unit 2 process and have learned from it.

Unit 2 Portfolio

It seems like social media has been around for years, from MySpace to the creation of Snapchat, the world of technology around us is transforming. Kids are getting smartphones at younger ages, parents and even grandparents are using social media to keep up with their friends and family, and there are so many ways to use technology, even ways that people have yet to figure out. I believe that social media and the smartphones we are equipped with take up a huge portion of our lives on this planet and while this may send a negative connotation, I do not believe it is negatively impacting us in the way of writing and communication between others, it in fact is more beneficial.

To better comprehend my claims, I first took the time to interview some of my teammates, classmates, parents, and other adults about how they use technology and social media in our day and age. Below are the attached questions and answers from others about the way they use their technology:

1. How do you like to interact on or use instagram?
- "I use instagram to keep up with basketball recruiting and to post pictures of myself. I like to use it to communicate through direct messages too, especially with my friends from home."
- "I use instagram primarily to look at celebrities and other people's lives."
-"Instagram is my favorite app because of all of its features. It is a better facebook."

2. How do you like to interact on or use snapchat?
"I got snapchat when it first came out. I use it to keep up with all of my high school friends while we're at college."
"I use snapchat to send funny pictures and videos to my friends"
"Snapchat helps me communicate with girls when I first meet them"

3. How do you like to interact on or use twitter?
"Twitter is dead to me. I haven't used it since I was in middle school"
"I use twitter to check on Syracuse basketball articles, all things related to Syracuse sports really."
"Compared to snapchat and instagram, I never even use twitter to be honest."

4. Do you always have your phone on you and why?
"I always have my phone on me I can't live without it. From texting to social media to all things I like feeling involved."
"I can't remember the last time I did not have my phone with me. I need it for everyday things."
"I lost my phone one time for a day and I remember how lost I felt, but also refreshed. It was almost as if I had a new life lol. But, when I have my phone, I am always on it."

The reason I decided to infiltrate these quotes onto my blog is so people would feel more connected with others when they are discussing social media and how they use it. 

I found all of my responses to be pretty similar to what I thought they would be. When I asked people about instagram, they were more eager to talk about it because I think it is the most popular app used by millennials. As I went down the line of top social media platforms today, twitter was rarely talked about and snapchat was deemed as a way to talk to their friends, instead of just texting. It was surprising to see how similar some of my friends answers were to each corresponding social media. I also assumed that snapchat would be talked about a little more in terms of use, but it seems as if instagram still is the most popular app.

Social media helps us communicate with each other in a distinctive way
Communication in today's world is quick and instant. Your phone tends to buzz with every notification, whether that is through email, text messages, direct messages, and much more. You can communicate with others across the world by the touch of your fingertips to a screen. You see teachers have their students put their phones in their backpacks before class starts or when you sit down at dinner you may have your parents ask you to put your phone away because it is a "distraction". Personally, I do not find phones to be a distraction, but more of a method to communicate and learn from others. Being quick and efficient in the world today, is the new method. I mean look, you can even order groceries on your phone and have them delivered. Who wouldn't want that in their lives when they have thousands of things going on?

Social media is a new language
I can only speak for myself when it comes to this, but I know people will agree when I say social media is a new language. The way pictures are snapped back and forth between people, the way texts are spelled differently, the way new words are formed through text, and much more are just small examples of this happened. An article on Instance Census touches on this when Dr. Caroline Tagg explains that the language of texts is closer to spoken word than writing, as it includes verbal pauses and interjections. It falls somewhere between speech and formal writing. Professor John McWhorter of Columbia University goes even farther, calling texting a form of spoken language. According to McWhorter, writing is an artifice, while text is “fingered speech” — much looser and reflective than formal writing, and in much shorter "packets" of words. Abbreviations that began in SMS messages such as “lol” have become words in their own right, with connotations outside of their original unabbreviated meanings (when was the last time you laughed out loud before typing “lol”?). Texting is not “bad” language, it’s just new language. While teachers and parents complain about the lack of "proper" English in emails, texts, tweets, and captions, it is more of a new language than not using the proper form of it. 

The power of the smartphone 
The smartphone is essential to social media because without the smartphone, most social medias would not be relevant or functional. Some may see a group of people walking around campus on their phones as "selfish and disconnected" from everything around them, but really nobody knows what could be going on inside of that smart device. There have been times where I'm using social media to direct message a classmate about homework because I missed the last class due to travel or I am speaking with a recruit and his decision on where he wants to play in college next year. Lots of things go on besides scrolling through a feed and just wishing your life was someone else's that you see online. Northeastern performed a study in 2016 (yes, that was three years ago) about smartphones and labeled the article on it, "Smartphones: A Supercomputer in your Pocket". If the title itself does not make you understand what a smartphone is and what it can do, the end of the opening introductory paragraph is "Today the smartphone in your pocket has more computing power than all of NASA when it put the first men on the moon in 1969". The smartphone and what goes on inside of it has limitless capabilities. It is truly unique. 

Is too much social media ever too much?
To simply answer this question, yes. Yes, there is such thing as too much social media and too much technology. To simply get around this dilemma, all that needs to be done is you as a person need to know when to put your phone down! There is a new app on all new iPhones called "Screentime" and it tracks up to every second that you have spent on your phone the past week. It then updates weekly, will show you monthly and yearly, as time is prompted. For you to better understand this I will list the amount of time I spent on my phone last week (keep in mind that I was in Utah for the NCAA Tournament, so I was probably constantly on my phone checking for bus updates, game times, texts from coaches, etc.)

                              Instagram: 7 Hours                        Safari: 1 hour

                              Twitter: 2 Hours                             Youtube: 2 hours
                              Snapchat: 2 Hours                         Music: 2 hours 
                             iMessage: 10 Hours                       FaceTime: 40 minutes

To be honest, these numbers even concern myself a little bit, but I will use travel as an excuse with flights and bus time, all of that. You can even manage on your phone now the ability to turn off applications, so you only use them for an hour a day (I might have to look into that). 

Tim Elmore, a writer for Psychology Today, touched on symptoms of relying on social media and being addicted to smartphones. He said people can be aware of things they did not need to know about way before they need to know them. He suggests that knowing when and where to put the phone down will help with their overall understanding of being "in the moment". He does not necessarily think that phones are the cause of awkward conversations or ones inability to hold a conversation, but it could lead to this if people are not careful. 

Ending Words

Social media has tons of benefits to our culture and world by the way it has been created. Many opportunities may present themselves through social media and it comes from all types of different creations. 

- it builds relationships with other people

- allows you to stay connected with your friends 

- make money for yourself through advertisements

- laugh

- be creative 

- build an image for yourself that you like

- meet important figures in life 

- learn 

- sending your own thoughts in seconds 

- it changes the way you can communicate with others 

Social media is only growing and helping all types of problems be solved in this world. Take advantage of the positive side and try not to be coerced in the negative direction. If you know when it is the right time vs. when it is the wrong time to be on your phone or using social media, then you will only be benefited from its amazing opportunities. 

Finally, with all of this being said, my phone has too many notifications for me not to check it. I have been in the library for some time now trying to frantically finish my 2,000 words. Complaining to friends through texts or from them asking where I am, I am still connected even though my biggest connection seems to be with this blog post. I am thankful for all the opportunities social media and technology has decided to give me because without it, I would probably be more lost in this world. 

Unit 2 Draft

1. How do you like to interact on or use instagram?
- "I use instagram to keep up with basketball recruiting and to post pictures of myself. I like to use it to communicate through direct messages too, especially with my friends from home."
- "I use instagram primarily to look at celebrities and other people's lives."
-"Instagram is my favorite app because of all of its features. It is a better facebook."

2. How do you like to interact on or use snapchat?
"I got snapchat when it first came out. I use it to keep up with all of my high school friends while we're at college."
"I use snapchat to send funny pictures and videos to my friends"
"Snapchat helps me communicate with girls when I first meet them"

3. How do you like to interact on or use twitter?
"Twitter is dead to me. I haven't used it since I was in middle school"
"I use twitter to check on Syracuse basketball articles, all things related to Syracuse sports really."
"Compared to snapchat and instagram, I never even use twitter to be honest."

I found all of my responses to be pretty similar to what I thought they would be. When I asked people about instagram, they were more eager to talk about it because I think it is the most popular app used by millennials. As I went down the line of top social media platforms today, twitter was rarely talked about and snapchat was deemed as a way to talk to their friends, instead of just texting. It was surprising to see how similar some of my friends answers were to each corresponding social media. I also assumed that snapchat would be talked about a little more in terms of use, but it seems as if instagram still is the most popular app.

In terms of myself, I use instagram the most out of all apps. I like to keep streaks on snapchat with my friends from home, like some of my responders also said. I actually use twitter frequently as well because I get the majority of my news from twitter and I actually find it extremely entertaining for memes and jokes.

After analyzing my research questions, I formed a pitch/abstract to help form my ideas around social media. This is what it consisted of: 

All social media platforms are used differently by people. For instance, Instagram is used more for an "image" of each person's interest. Athletes will post pictures of them performing their sport, whereas photographers will post pictures of their most recent photoshoots. Instagram is used for more of an overall life capturing platform, while snapchat and twitter are used for personal thought and less filtered thoughts. I proceeded to send this out to the people that answered my research questions.

Social media has tons of benefits to our culture and world by the way it has been created. Many opportunities may present themselves through social media and it comes from all types of different creations. 

- it builds relationships with other people

- allows you to stay connected with your friends 

- make money for yourself through advertisements

- laugh

- be creative 

- build an image for yourself that you like

- meet important figures in life 

- learn 

Unit 2 Freewrite

This was not necessarily my favorite, but one of two free writes from class in Unit 2 because of all the classes I have missed due to travel. I chose this one because of how relevant it was to me and still is. I was constantly on a plane doing homework and making sure I was up to date in all the class time I was missing. So, the classes that I did attend I was using to learn from others and how they were understanding the unit. This helped me a lot.

Unit 2 Library

To be honest, I don't really go to the library that often. I'm constantly on the road and traveling, so most of my homework and time doing school work is either in a hotel room or on an airplane. The library is a nice place to get work done and lots of my friend's tend to go to the library pretty much every night. In terms of technology and the library, I feel like in today's society it is not necessary to go to the library for material, such as books, textbooks, etc., because most of it happens to be at my fingertips with my computer and phone. With that being said, if we did not have today's resources and if Steve Jobs never existed, I would probably be failing class because I would literally never have time to make it to the library to do extensive amounts of research for each of my classes. We should be extremely grateful for all we have with something that just sits in your pocket or backpack.

Abstract/Pitch

All social media platforms are used differently by people. For instance, Instagram is used more for an "image" of each person's interest. Athletes will post pictures of them performing their sport, whereas photographers will post pictures of their most recent photoshoots. Instagram is used for more of an overall life capturing platform, while snapchat and twitter are used for personal thought and less filtered thoughts. I proceeded to send this out to the people that answered my research questions.

Research Questions

1. How do you like to interact on or use instagram?
- "I use instagram to keep up with basketball recruiting and to post pictures of myself. I like to use it to communicate through direct messages too, especially with my friends from home."
- "I use instagram primarily to look at celebrities and other people's lives."
-"Instagram is my favorite app because of all of its features. It is a better facebook."

2. How do you like to interact on or use snapchat?
"I got snapchat when it first came out. I use it to keep up with all of my high school friends while we're at college."
"I use snapchat to send funny pictures and videos to my friends"
"Snapchat helps me communicate with girls when I first meet them"

3. How do you like to interact on or use twitter?
"Twitter is dead to me. I haven't used it since I was in middle school"
"I use twitter to check on Syracuse basketball articles, all things related to Syracuse sports really."
"Compared to snapchat and instagram, I never even use twitter to be honest."

I found all of my responses to be pretty similar to what I thought they would be. When I asked people about instagram, they were more eager to talk about it because I think it is the most popular app used by millennials. As I went down the line of top social media platforms today, twitter was rarely talked about and snapchat was deemed as a way to talk to their friends, instead of just texting. It was surprising to see how similar some of my friends answers were to each corresponding social media. I also assumed that snapchat would be talked about a little more in terms of use, but it seems as if instagram still is the most popular app.

In terms of myself, I use instagram the most out of all apps. I like to keep streaks on snapchat with my friends from home, like some of my responders also said. I actually use twitter frequently as well because I get the majority of my news from twitter and I actually find it extremely entertaining for memes and jokes.

After inferring my research questions, I created an abstract/pitch about social media and what I think it does. Here is the pitch: 

All social media platforms are used differently by people. For instance, Instagram is used more for an "image" of each person's interest. Athletes will post pictures of them performing their sport, whereas photographers will post pictures of their most recent photoshoots. Instagram is used for more of an overall life capturing platform, while snapchat and twitter are used for personal thought and less filtered thoughts. I proceeded to send this out to the people that answered my research questions.

Social media allows for scrupulous amounts of ideas to take place with human interaction

- humans can feel more connected with one another

- you can discover new things through social media

- meet new types of people

- make money by advertising your business or self 

- find pathways for jobs

- make new friends

- connect with important figures in the world

- laugh 

- learn 

- create 

Unit 1 Reflection

Ultimately, for my unit one writing project, I chose to really analyze if technology is helping the everyone learn in the classroom. From students to teachers and so on. From my analysis of my three curated sources, I can confidently say that technology is assisting us more than we ever thought it could when it comes to learning productively. Each source that I chose I wanted to make sure that it was different in terms of who was writing it, how it was created (video, journal, professional study, etc) because that would give it its most in depth analysis of how technology is improving and helping our environment. In my fourth source, Zoe Bernard spoke about a navy sergeant who believed technology bettered his education: "The Navy reported that the students who had worked with the digital tutor made enormous strides in their education, and that they consistently tested higher than students who had studied without the program's benefit." In addition, my second source is what provided the most evidence that technology was enhancing and beneficial to all types of people through their study with teachers and students in an elementary school. "Another role that emerged from the data was the use of technology to enhance communication and feedback between students, teachers, and parents. Examples of enhanced communication in this study include collaborative online work between students, online polling of students during class, and detailed analytics and progress monitoring." The advancements technology is making is truly fascinating and I am excited to see what happens in years to come with it. 

In terms of my own use of technology throughout this project, I can say that technology is really all I have used to complete the project. As I sit here in a hotel room in Raleigh, North Carolina preparing for our game against NC State, I looked around to see straight technology assisting me in pre game film, my homework, and a speaker to play good music. The internet is filled with information about technology, which I find pretty funny honestly. I have the TV on rerunning last night's NCAA games and listening to what may happen in the draft after players have been performing.  I am using technology to research about technology. Who would have ever thought? 

I feel as if the research I have is sufficient. The reason I say this is because of how many people are studying the use of technology right now, especially as it changes so rapidly in this day and age. I could probably seek more information on my now, such as athletes and their use of technology when it comes to game film, practice films, studying their opponents. Being an athlete is being a student just in another type of setting, you are learning everyday and using the same things to learn. I know the coaches are constantly on their phones and their computers, we have new apps that make us check into class when we are on campus and even an app that provides our entire schedule with when we have meetings, practice, tutors, flight, and much more. When I was being recruited, I knew to always have my phone in my hand because a coach could be calling at any second from any school in the country. Technology is a wild thing! But, now that I touch on this area of technology and sport, I am interested to see what coaches did back when we didn't have these types of benefits and how they were still successful with much less. 

I could in fact see myself using some of these sources in unit 2 and 3 because of all of the information they provided. Since we use technology to do pretty much everything, some of these statistics and findings could be useful later down the road for new projects. I like to be different and find new things, but if it came down to it and I needed a source that was reliable, I could easily go back and view these as I already have before. Since most of my sources used some type of research, with the research question being proposed next unit, I will keep these articles in the back of my head to reference or ponder when thinking of new ideas. 

Unit 1 Portfolio

Source Analysis #1: Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology by Dennis Baron

For the first reading assigned in WRT 205, we were asked to read "From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology" by Dennis Baron. Within this text, lots of interesting points were made about the evolution of writing and how it has drastically changed over years and years of formal words. The first writing technology was writing itself, posed Baron. Writing wasn't made to translate speech, which most assume that this was the case, but in contrary, it was actually to keep track of tax accounts and transactions. Writing actually allows humans to communicate in ways that speech does not. Writing can develop your own unique self thoughts, while speech is more of an indication of where you came from and who you grew up around. Later on in the article, he examines how the pencil turned to a lap top and so on. The pencil was actually not developed to write, but instead it was created to mark off measurements when people were building new structures. Through the process of developing technology, we now have computers. Computers provide the ability to write anytime, anywhere, any place to get your thoughts down and edit correctly. This allows almost all people to have an education because of the easy access that is provided to them. With this being said, a group called "Lead Pencil Club", which advocates for the use of pencils against computers, also known as the old fashioned way. The say that using a pencil instead of a computer allows for more memory and thought to be put into the brain than being able to quickly write. Baron wrote, "After more than a decade of study, we still know relatively little about how people are using computers to read and write, and the number of people on-line, when viewed in the perspective of the total population of the United States, or of the world -- the majority of whose residents are still illiterate -- is still quite small. Literacy has always functioned to divide haves from have nots, and the problem of access to computers will not be easy to solve." Technology has its strengths and weaknesses, as does everything. The computer will either allow us to advance into society or turn us into human beings relying on a system to get the job done for us, instead of using our own minds to think our own thoughts.

Source Analysis #2 - Teaching in a Digital Age: How Educators 

Use Technology to Improve Student Learning

To have a successful learning environment, specifically in a classroom, it is not necessarily important for there to be a vast majority of options to choose from on a technological side of thinking. With this being said, technology does allow for the brain to learn in different ways with the use of technology. Katherine McKnight and her team conducted focus groups and interviews, where they asked students and faculty how they enjoyed using and learning with technology. In addition, when it came to asking teachers on what they thought about technology in the classroom, most of the questions stemmed from their familiarity with the technology products they had been provided. If they knew how to use them adequately or if they did not use them because they did not know how.

After browsing through their research findings and graphs, they reasoned with a few questions: the participants' teaching history, their beliefs on if technology is even helpful in the classroom, if it is a challenge use technology, and much more. I will list some of the graphs below so it is easier to comprehend the numbers they received.

Graph Info 

Ultimately, after the study was finished, they found some interesting conclusions. Technology allowed for better individualized attention in the classroom. Teachers even stated five key benefits that were provided: (a) Shy students could record and present on a device, instead of live, in front of the class; (b) online assessments presenting items individually helped focus easily distracted students; (c) autistic students remained on task longer via the aid of personalized visual schedule applications; (d) nonvocal students participated in discussion boards; and (e) special education students improved reading fluency by recording themselves reading a book. All of these five things have proven to be extremely beneficial for each student, no matter their learning condition or what helps them learn best. 

Technology is evolving and improving each day in the classroom.

Direct Quotes: 

"From the plethora of media comparison research conducted over the past 60 years, we have learned that it's … the instructional methods that cause learning. When instructional methods remain essentially the same, so does the learning, no matter which medium is used to deliver instruction."

"Another role that emerged from the data was the use of technology to enhance communication and feedback between students, teachers, and parents. Examples of enhanced communication in this study include collaborative online work between students, online polling of students during class, and detailed analytics and progress monitoring."

"Using technology, students can authentically extend the purpose and audience of their work. They can actively find their own information to support the construction of knowledge that can then be shared with a larger community that extends beyond the walls of the classroom."

Did this source succeed?  - Yes, this source succeeded because it provides statistical numbers that prove education and technology go hand in hand when making learning more successful. 

Source #3 - Technology in the Classroom by Ethan Dickens

For my third blog post, I wanted to explore a Ted Talk of a student who has been using new technology in the classroom and get real feedback about it. Ethan Dickens, an eighth grader from Pasco County Schools does just that. He uses humor and facts to give lots of credit to technology and how it helps students learn. In addition, he also begins his speech about the health of students and how they lug around huge textbooks everyday in their backpacks, but when provided technology, this saves a lot of pressure on a growing adolescent.

Ethan touches on the basics. Applications and notes can help students with bad handwriting, eyesight problems, and more. But, what I found most surprising in this short Ted Talk was that Ethan spent time making sure parents understand the parameters of giving their kids a phone, tablet, and/or computer. Parents can enable settings inside of these devices so that they are not able to view anything on the internet, especially toxic people, as we have discussed in class.

Ethan was a courageous kid getting up in front of thousands of people to discuss how technology is bettering himself and his classmates in a world that is becoming more and more technologically focused.

Direct Quotes:

"An average child uses technology for 7 and a half hours daily"
"A phone is about 3 grams of weight, which can end up doing remotely anything you need, including textbooks that can be quite heavy."
"Audio, visually, and actually doing it helps the learning process. Technology provides all of these to occur."

Did this source succeed? - Yes, this source succeeded because it provides information from a student who uses technology everyday in the classroom and describes its beneficial nature to every kid learning and growing. 

Ethan's Speech Picture

Source Analysis #4 - Here's how technology is shaping the future of education

Here's how technology is shaping the future of education was written by Zoe Bernard and she touches base on how technology really is shaping the future of education on every campus in America. Traditional educational methods are soon to be wiped from the majority of all classrooms because of the evolution that technology is taking to help students learn more efficiently and proactively. She emphasizes new math platforms that can help kids with dyslexia and different learning disabilities, which can lead to a better way of learning something that may be difficult. Adaptive learning is replacing old textbooks and students are tackling subjects with the aid of tailor-made computer programs that assist their needs. The article was perfectly summed up when Bernard said, "While educational models of the past focused on providing students with the requisite skills to turn them into skilled workers, the educators of today are more concerned with teaching students how to learn on their own." This quote represents how technology is becoming more improved and more important for the abilities of adolescents to improve their education. 

Direct Quotes: 
"With adaptive technology assisting individuals at every skill level, students are better equipped to learn on their own."
"The Navy reported that the students who had worked with the digital tutor made enormous strides in their education, and that they consistently tested higher than students who had studied without the program's benefit."
"In the future it's likely that we'll start seeing classrooms adopt a one-to-one ratio between kids and devices."

Did it succeed? - Yes, this article succeeded because it shows that all types of humans, whether adolescent or adults are learning how to learning more productively with technology. 

photo credits