Wikipedia: My humble opinion

Wow!!! I really hated wikipedia before this class and didn't really have a reason to. Most of my hatred stemmed out of arrogance. I felt that using wikipedia for research was lazy and unreliable. Boy was I wrong. Wikipedia is reliable, you just have to be careful about what you are reading in wikipedia. You also need to double check the information you find. I plan on using Wikipedia in a future Health class setting. I could use Wikipedia for any Health subject. I could have the students research a health subject only using wikipedia and distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a web-based informational site contolled by the masses. Wikipedia uses mass communication to allow anyone to edit a post. Thier theory is if everyone can edit information, this will weed out any false information or vandelism. Larry Sanger was one of WIkipedias founders and left the company because he wanted more professionals to have control over the site.He went on to create a new site called Citizendium. When the author talks about abuse or vandelism I think he is saying when someone changes a post to something entirely untrue. Also vandelism could be when someone posts something offensive or totally biased, having no factual information. Wikipedia is one of the fastest growing web sites in the world. It is also one of the first hits in a google search, and more and more people visit this website everyday. I think wikipedia is so successful because it is easy to find information and the information is not watered down. You can almost also rely on wikipedia to be accurate because usually there is someone closely monitoring that page. I dont think Wikipedia wants advertisement because that could bring in some bias. That would be a slippery slope, and I dont think Wikipedia wants to go down that road. Wikiscanner is awesome because it allows the reader to check the IP address of the editor in question to the article. This is really cool because it lets you see what the editor is all about.

Jing[1]

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Web Page Evaluation

The site that I am evaluating is http://www.thedogisland.com/.

The domain for this site is thedogisland.com/
This domain lessens the validity of the website because it is a commercial web page. When dealing with a commercial web page there is always a bias.

There is no individual author identified in this website. However it would appear as if the group or organization responsible for this website is dog island.
While the organization is mentioned in the website, it lacks credibility. The website does explain its purpose, goals, and guiding principles but it does so in  avery vague way. This site does not seem to give all of the details needed to be a real company or organization.
This website only provides many names in the organization. Xiao Min is the President and Co-founder, Han Fei is the Chief Dog Handler, Soong Lee is the Director of Imports, Linda Reyes is the Direct Initiative Director, Diane Rogers is the Researcher and Dogologist, and Jenny Bliss is the dog trainer. I tried googling these names and found nothing other than the link to dog island. This seems really fishy to me. If this site was credible wouldn't the author or company provide background information about its employees.
I was really skeptical of this website because of the vagueness and lack of information that could be backed up. I went to google and typed in Dog Island for real? The first link that I got was snopes.com
Snopes is dedicatied to revealing false information and providing the general public with accurate information. Here is what snopes.com has to say about Dog Island:
The Dog Island site was a hoax created by students as a project for a Contagious Media class.

Verbal Learner

Students Blogging Rules

Students will conduct themselves appropriately when participating on the blog. Students shall not

use any profanity or inappropriate language on the blog, and will not make any obscene, profane,

harassing, abusive, hateful, embarrassing, disrespectful and/or discriminatory comments on the blog.

Students will only use their first names.

Students will keep their passwords secure, and will not permit and/or facilitate any other individual’s

access to the blog. Students will be responsible for anything posted in their name. Students will not

use any other individual’s name or password to access the blog site.
Students may post pictures or videos of themselves or others with approval by the teacher.

Students’ postings may be removed or excluded by their teacher, the administration or the Board at

any time for any reason.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

Gullf spill crisis

President Obama seems really concerned in this picture. He almost seems helpless. His body language suggests that he has been defeated. His facial expression would imply that he is deep in thought, and he has no answer or solution to the problem. The camera angle this photograph was taken is to show a close-up of President Obama's face. This communicates uncertainty, and puts panic in the American people. If the President of the United States is worried and has no solution then this must be a serious issue. There are books in the background that shows he is doing his research on the issue. These books were purposely placed there to provide comfort to the viewer of the picture. Even though President Obama may be concerned, he is doing everything in his power to fix the problem.

This picture of President Obama shows confidence. He appears very confident in this picture. His body language suggests that he is in control on the situation. He also appears to be taking action. Unlike the first photo, President Obama is on site, getting his hands dirty. He has many people surrounding him, which makes him look important. The American flag flying in the background is very patriotic and communicates unity among Americans. No matter what political party you may represent, everyone wants this crisis to end. The choice of clothing is very interesting for President Obama. He is not wearing his usual suit. He is wearing a blue collar outfit with his sleeves rolled up. His appearance would imply that he is ready to go to work. Anything that needs to be done he will do it. 

Teacher of the year!!!

Media Literacy

While more and more students are going online for information our schooling system is still stuck with traditional literacy classes. Many current media literacy classes revolve around recognizing propaganda in the media, while most students still do not know how to distinguish reliable search results in a search engine. Traditional literacy skills would include reading comprehension and writing skills. Many teachers believe that teaching media literacy would eliminate or dull the traditional skills. However media literacy skills due improve reading comprehension because students have to distinguish what is true/untrue, bias and so on. While teaching media literacy, a teacher could assign a blog assignment to work on students writing abilities. Many areas in media literacy could easily be taught in a traditional literacy class. Teachers need to take that next step, before they lose their students completely.

This quote is from Coach John Wooden. He was a legendary basketball coach at UCLA. Coach Wooden won 10 national titles and holds the record for most consecutive wins by a men's basketball team. Coach Wooden was more than a coach. He was an excellent teacher. He believed in kinesthetic learning and learning by doing.

No textbooks!

This article gives a good argument for not having textbooks in a classroom. The main argument is that textbooks limit a students thought process. I think that as a new teacher this is a bad idea. Textbooks give you a good outline of what you should teach your class. As teachers, we should not be limited by our textbooks. When we become comfortable with the material that we are teaching then we can wean off of the textbooks and start to become more creative. It will take a lot of hard work, but I think that it will pay off.

1st post

My name is Corey Smith and I am from Beckley, WV. I am a physical education/ health education major. I plan to teach middle school. I believe that children are kinesthetic learners and experiential learners. This means that they learn by doing. The types of activities my students would engage in would be mostly team modified games to teach them the importance of teamwork. Also they will learn the basic skills to be successful to maintain a healthy lifestyle.