This letter of review may seem slightly scatter brained, but remember it is that time of year. I feel, though, that I have some delicious pointers for the four of you to chew on, and remember that I am learning a long with you. If I have pointed something out that is unsolvable at this point, I apologize.

Navigation:

As for the navigation, I really found it easy to get around the website. I also feel that many of your future audience members would find it easy as well. I also really appreciated having the links follow me wherever I went. What I mean is that each time I clicked a specific link, I was able to find a link to get me back home/about/manifesto, etc.

Choices:

I found that all of the technological choices made on this website aided in the information on the product. I found it to be clean cut and organized, which is more than I can say about a lot of websites available.

Purpose/Focus:

This is where it gets fuzzy for me. The issue may be simply that the argument is over my head but it is not really clear to me. I gathered that education system is stifling some kind of creative outlets for students, but I am biased in this. Let me explain why. The majority of information I saw under The Dispelling Myths and Creativity suggested that teachers are not using activities that incorporate creativity because they fear they might have class management issues. That is, they will have troubled students. I disagree that teachers are straying away from creativity at this point. This is something I plan to incorperate into my classroom, as do many of my peers. I am unsure where this is aimed to be posted because this whole entire thing, teachers will find insulting or as a personal attack to their teaching strategies. The majority of the reason that teachers do not use technology or creativity in the classroom is because the Illinois State Learning Standards do not allow much room for that. And many teachers are not happy with this, either.

Credibility:

I really enjoyed the bios. I was slightly caught off guard by Andrew’s in a foreign language. Is there an option to read this in another language? Some of us who do not read this language may actually want to find out more about Andrew.

Also, Paper weight’s “about” kind of bothered me. I believe teachers were referred to as lazy. I agree that the majority of teachers we had in high school sat behind their desks and did not offer us innovative ways of using technology. What I have learned in my education education (LOL) at ISU is that once teachers get into the classroom they miss out on the new things that come along in education. For example, blogging which came out in 1995 has just recently made its mark on the classroom. It really takes a long time for things to get into schools because teachers are secluded. To refer to them as lazy anywhere where they might see it really risks losing a large portion of your audience that may be more supportive to those who are not teachers. And not all teachers are lazy.

Appreciation:

I really did enjoy what I learned throughout this website. I appreciated it as well. Once the tone is adjusted, as a future teacher, I may soon find it even more relevant than I did before.

Three More things:

The two articles were really tiny font and there as a lot of information. I found this super intimidating and scary. When I see there is a lot to read, I usually click to the next screen and skip the reading
A lot of random symbols showed up throughout my reading. I don’t know if this is because I do not have a PC or what… but I wanted to make you aware.
The video was very bland. I feel that there was more that could have been done to incorporate media to the manifesto. I could tell that he was reading off a screen and it really did nothing for the information being presented. Also, the manifesto text link leads no where and I would have much rather read that…..

*** I really enjoyed this thus far, and I cannot wait to see the revisions!!!

Our project was not completely finished and basically needed to be put in order for the group reviewing to understand. That would be the first thing I’d like to get done. We plan to put the final project together this afternoon in class, which I am really looking forward to.

In the review that I received we were told that our project was straight up boring. I was disappointed because I didn’t believe the information I had found in research was boring and for someone in a multimodal classroom to not find it entertaining that so many people are using this mode of communication boring confuses me.

First of all, I reviewed the original piece.

I found the long bits of information to be very intimidating. It is a personal pet peeve when texts are presented as big chunks of words and sentences. Though only a few sentences can still look like a lot to read. I feel like this information could be presented in a more encouraging way, that is, it could be less intimidating if it were split or even put into some kind of mini categories further.

I also did not pay much attention to the options at the bottom of the screen. Whether or not this was due to personal preference, I’m not sure at this point. I believe that the audience should be encouraged to follow these links, this could be done by mentioning what is under these links within the main text, or even labeling with topics rather than numbers.

I wish there had been some kind of youtube link for the video because I was not able to view the wmv format.

I really enjoyed the option of “or.” I think that is something that needs to be repeated.

2/3 project describing project in words.
Single spaced
1 for each group
Collaborative

Title
Authors
Technologies
Abstract

Due Next Friday- April 24th:
-Peer review letters to all members of reviewed team

Due two weeks from today- April 29th:
-proposal draft (collaborative)
-blog post re: outline revisions done for major project

Due three weeks from today- May 6th:
-Final class portfolio- everything is due (will be further discussed April 29th)
-Do not actually meet as a class.

Does that make sense?

Regardless, our thesis suggests that educators should be using twitter within their classrooms to further prepare their students for the inevitable. Twitter is infiltrating numerous advertising techniques and companies are jumping on the bandwagon.

Our plan at this point is to compose an essay using numerous twitter updates while linking to videos and citing through links. This leaves the reader the option to learn more about whatever point applies to them the most.

HW:
Go through research- decide main theme that you want to discuss. Pull out quotes and cite all sources used using MLA.

This video is strong in 1&2.
This audio was off and difficult to bear. I would have much rather just had music.
The video itself would have been much more acceptable in 2004, not in 2008.
The video was simple in comparison to the topic it was supposed to cover, which makes it harder to label “credible.”