Post #8

After hearing everyone talk about Topic so negatively I am very very very thankful that I didnt ever take freshman composition at Tech. I think it is absurd from what everyone in class was saying, to not know or ever encounter who grades your paper. Half of understanding and benefiting from a grade is seeing and discussing the comments made by the teacher. Our discussion in class today was really interesting. I don't agree that web 2.0 is taking away credit from talented people... In fact I think it is doing the opposite. People who "make it big" now are even more admired because they are competing with so many more individuals. There is a fine line between the reader and writer on web 2.0 but that is not news to anyone! Everyone knows that when you read the review for a product, if its really good and shows no flaws, it was possibly written by the creator. It goes back to what we have been saying all semester-- what you see on the internet has to be taken with a grain of salt. I also think the loudest people don't always succeed. Alot of times when peopel are too in your face about an issue or too loud people block them out and don't listen to their argument. It's the people who are more shy that are listened to when they speak. If someone who is normally quiet speaks up, then it causes others stop and listen. I don't want to repeat what I said in my last blog but I was not a fan of the MOO. I thought it was too chaotic and a waste of time. I know alot of people were just having fun, so I guess in order to really judge that method of education we would have to do it several times.

Blog Post #7

I think that the internet can be used as an effective means for communication, but things like Facebook, Myspace and Wikipedia should not be used for composition… only communication. Like we experienced in class today, online classes would be very sporadic and off topic 99% of the time. I’m sure everyone had fun today using the MOO but how much educational value was there to it all. In order for a student to get anything out of chatrooms used for education they need to be taught from an early age the purpose of these teaching methods. There would have to be very strict teaching guidelines to monitor, not only the quantity of participation from each student, but the quality as well. The video we watched in class today on youtube was very interesting to me. It raises a concern for people who are planning to become a teacher. If education is going to continue to advance technologically it seems near impossible for teachers to catch up. I think generation gaps are natural, ya know as things advance it makes since that the older crowd would be slower to catch on. I do know a lot of parents who text message and have Facebook accounts, so it is possible to stay current. All of the technological advances do kind of scare me, but I think about what people predicted about the millennium and it has been fine so far. When the changes come gradually everything seems a lot more manageable. A question that I would like to have answered is what will happen to our grammar and our students’ language if everything begins being taught online? Just think how different text message lingo is from how you would write an English paper.