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

Free Writes Unit 1

I chose this free write because it was my first of the class and I was worried about missing so much class time because of my basketball travel. I had some professors in the first semester that were not very compliant with our travel needs and sometimes just gave me zeros or didn't respond to my emails because I was missing class. Now that we are a month into WRT 205, I can say that I am not worried anymore. My communication with Lindsey has been great and she has been completely understanding.

Unit 1 Draft

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."

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."

Ethan's Speech Picture

Surveys/Polls/Quizzes - Unit 1

Should College Athletes Be Paid?

After looking through a few polls on the internet about whether or not student athletes should be compensated, I found this one from the Washington Post to be the most interesting. THe reason I found it to be more interesting than the others was because it composed two questions. The first asking if basketball and football should receive more revenue than other sports teams because of how much they make for their university, while the second one asked if college athletes should be paid for their names in video games, their own merchandise, and social media. The general population thought that scholarships are adequate compensation for student athletes, but 66% of people said that they should be paid for their name or image in media. I find it relatively interesting that this is what people who are not athletes are thinking, generally because they are the ones supporting these athletes. Since I myself happen to be a student athlete, I can agree that each players should be paid for their image/media, but I also think that players should receive more compensation than just a scholarship. I have teammates who struggle financially and have to find ways to make ends meet for their families, as well as themselves, whether that is having a job on top of sports and school or learning how to handle the money they do receive even better than they did before they got to college.