http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/ en Copyright 2009 Mon, 04 May 2009 12:21:48 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss For my final exploring the field entry I decided to go back to my research question dealing specifically with motivators (intrinsic vs. extrinsic). There are a number of studies have concluded that participants with higher levels of intrinsic motivation have higher levels of happiness and overall well-being. On the flip side, there are still some researchers who are not convinced of that these results can be generalized to all people. While these researchers may fewer in numbers, they do have a notable face, Daniel Gilbert. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/05/looks_to_be_intrinsic.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/05/looks_to_be_intrinsic.html Exploring the Field extrinisc motivation happiness intrinsic motivation Mon, 04 May 2009 12:21:48 -0500 In the article, "Assessing children's oral storytelling in their first year of school" Riley and Burrell look at the important role that storytelling plays in the classroom. Some of the benefits of oral narration in the classroom were improved reading ability, better developed writing skills, wider vocabulary, and a greater ability to use descriptive words. Also, frequently exposing children to hearing and telling stories in class can lead to higher reading comprehension when they start to read actual books. In their study, Riley and Burrell enroll a group of 5-6 year old children in a program called "StoryTalk" which is developed to enhance the children's language skills as well as narration ability. The participants were told a story and asked to retell the same story that they just heard multiple times. Their re-telling of the story was rated in terms of overall sentence structure, vocabulary, word structure, basic concepts, and formulating labels. Researchers used two different measures to score these categories: Tell Me - New Zealand SEA Story Retelling task, and CELF. Researchers found that children's scores in all categories went up with the second retelling of the story, although they had a few drawbacks as well. Teachers who were giving this assessment test found that it was difficult to assess the categories accurately. There would definitely have to be a training session or multiple raters to make this test more accurate. Regardless of the drawbacks, teachers found that many students who had not been excelling with normal schoolwork thrived with this assignment. Riley and Burrell (2007) wrote, "The assessment gave the children an opportunity to say more than they would normally be able to say in a group or whole-class situation" (p. 192-193). This all goes back to the original idea that allowing children to participate in storytelling tasks in the classroom is an alternative to normal teaching techniques. Not all children learn in the same way and allowing them options will give more children a chance to excel especially in terms of language skills, written and narrative. Gaining more insight into the benefits of storytelling on things such as sentence structure and label formation could provide an alternative teaching style that ensures that no child is left behind on the road to learning. Riley, J., & Burrell, A. (2007). Assessing children’s oral storytelling in their first year of school. International Journal of Early Years Education, 15, 181-196. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/05/the_importance_of_stories.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/05/the_importance_of_stories.html Exploring the Field child development language development storytelling Fri, 01 May 2009 11:25:05 -0500 It is odd to look back at the beginning of this semester when we were presented with the daunting task of selecting a topic for our senior thesis. We all hated the idea of finally having to realize that eventually we would have to complete a senior "comp". Now, the problem is no where close to worrying about a topic, but on how to perfect it. I arrived at the concept of happiness in college students awhile ago , but I am only just starting to realize how my senior thesis may turn out. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/social_comparisons.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/social_comparisons.html Exploring the Field downward social comparisons happiness upward social comparisons Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:02:28 -0500 ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/i_dont_want_to_have_a_sleezy_s.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/i_dont_want_to_have_a_sleezy_s.html Exploring the Field delivery dialogue Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:54:07 -0500 For my exploring the field entry, I would like to discuss the TED talk by Stuart Brown: Why Play is vital - no matter your age. To briefly give an overview of the video, Stuart Brown talks about the history of play, and its different types such as narrative, bodily, imaginative, etc. These different types of play all help the brain in numerous ways, especially in the learning process. Brown also discusses something called your personal play history. People with a history of play during their childhood have an increased ability to problem solve in creative ways later in their life. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/ted_talks_about_play.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/ted_talks_about_play.html Exploring the Field child development play Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:01:34 -0500 Mark Bauerlein's book The Dumbest Generation has some interesting findings on student's reading for pleasure. He presents data on how many books college freshman and seniors read for their own enjoyment or as a supplement for course readings. While these numbers are dismally low one has to argue that with the heavy course load students encounter how can you expect them to find the extra time to read for fun? This not only affects college students, but also students in high, middle, and elementary school. We are in the age of No Child Left Behind, legislation that has set the standard high for students. Kids have to score at a certain level of improvement for their schools to receive funding from the national government. Students are taught how to choose the correct bubble on standardized tests, and are only expected to read enough to get the point of the story - not to actually enjoy what they are reading. Having this constant pressure to perform at an increasingly difficult level could be leading students to become burned out and no longer excited about learning. This could explain why fourth and eighth-graders show improvement, but at the high school level this tapers off. By the time students reach high school they are no longer excited about learning, because it has become just learning to the test. Bauerlin also has data that states children are no longer reading for fun because they feel it has no benefits at all. But couldn't you argue that children are just engaging in reading different mediums, such as reading magazines, blogs, stories on the internet, etc.? Reading these un-educational books could provide a break from the rigorous work that students are encountering in school. By raising the standards in school and pressuring students to achieve such high test scores are we turning children off from reading or learning? ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/why_arent_we_reading.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/why_arent_we_reading.html From Class No Child Left Behind Reading The Dumbest Generation Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:28:33 -0500 Chapter two of "The Dumbest Generation" by Mark Bauerlein follows begins with same punch that is found in chapter one and I assume the rest of the text, our generation has been dumbed down by technology. Not only does the author continue with his accusations that our generation is the worst the world has ever seen, but he supports his argument with flawed statistics. The first mistake Bauerlein makes is by overwhelming the readers with numbers. There are statistics from every major firm and agency in the country about the consistently falling educational scores of our generation. Now before diving into the problems with most of these statistics, I do want to say that some of these facts are alarming. The idea that there is a majority of students our age who are more likely to identify Germany or Japan as an ally to the U.S. in World War II is scary, regardless of the sample. With that said, the majority of the statistics presented are flawed or lacking the necessary information to be credible]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/convenient_statistics.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/convenient_statistics.html From Class Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:33:11 -0500 In Chapter two of his book The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlen states that according to survey responses, higher-income households don’t produce proportionately higher reading rates. To most people this would be surprising. Many people would assume that the more money your family has the more emphasis that your family would put on education. To me, this is not the case.]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/more_money_more_problems.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/04/more_money_more_problems.html From Class technology use The Dumbest Generation Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:20:56 -0500 ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/in_thinking_further_about_my.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/in_thinking_further_about_my.html Exploring the Field rhetorical figures tropes Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:48:48 -0500 Dr. Beer's article begins by addressing the title of SNS (social networking sites) used in boyd and Ellison's article. Beer states that this title is not clear enough in defining the sites it encompasses. I agree with the concept with the idea that these sites are not used so much for networking. Facebook in my mind is presents the illusion that we have a vast social network of friends and acquaintances. In reality, how many new friends have we made because of Facebook? These social networking sites have enabled us to increase our amount of socializing, not necessarily networking. However, the problem I had with the beginning of this article was the author's argument that the title SNS did not "fit the parameters of its definition" (519). ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/whats_wrong_with_the_title.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/whats_wrong_with_the_title.html From Class facebook SNS Web 2.0 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:02:31 -0500 Boyd and Ellison discuss what makes social network sites unique is not the ability to "network" with strangers, but to instead make visible your social network to people who are already part of your social network. In her book, Always On, Naomi Baron mentions how when using Facebook and other social networking sites, users have the ability to portray themselves on their "best day." But why do we need to portray the best of ourselves if we are only using social network sites to communicate with people who are already a part of our social network and know us at our best and our worst? Are we actually looking for networking opportunities or are we just that narcissistic and feel the need to impress everyone around us? The term narcissism means love of oneself, and refers to the set of character traits concerned with self-admiration, self-centeredness and self-regard. Using Facebook profiles as an example, very few people have a blank information section. Instead, profile pages are filled with interests, favorite movies, quotes, books, etc. And how can I forget the "about me" section which is usually the most narcissistic of them all. Boyd and Ellison discuss how "social network sites are structures as personal (egocentric) networks, with individuals at the center of their own community." This goes right along with the idea of editing that was also mentioned in Baron's book. We have the ability to edit who we are and present ourselves however we may chose on these sites. An important idea that needs to be addressed in future research is the variety of ways people portray themselves on these sites (humorous, serious, etc). Does it have something to do with personality type, how a person was raised or something completely unknown at the present time? Maybe social networking sites are making our population more hypercritical and judgmental. This is something that will not be able to be determined right now; however, if the attractiveness of one's Friends and the postings on his/her Wall impact our impression of that person, I would say things are not going very well. Is it right to create an impression of someone based on their Facebook profile? If it is true that our social network site profiles are only portraying us at our "best" then that impression may not be accurate or reliable. I mean if you show up to class looking grungy and not having showered for a few days, I don't think your Facebook profile, no matter how good you look, is going to help change opinions about you. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/facebooknarcissistic.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/facebooknarcissistic.html From Class facebook SNS Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:58:06 -0500 As we grow more and more "connected" to the media, Beer makes a good point, is it profitable to separate our online and offline lives when looking at social network sites. The main example that interests me is Facebook Friends. Is a Facebook friend the same as a face to face friend? Or does technology, in particular these social network sites change the rules of the games? It would only make sense that since these social network sites are such a big part of our lives that they would leave some influence on us as consumers. Beer also makes a good point about how to conduct research on social network sites. He says that researchers should join into the SNS craze. If you can't beat them, join them right?? Even when joining these sites, will researchers gain the same understanding of social network sites as the people who have currently incorporated them into their lives? Is it important to realize that these researchers are only joining these sites to gain knowledge about how they function and the people who use them rather than using them as a connection to friends? On this note, perhaps just being on the social network site will help researchers clarify how users of these sites see things. Beer quotes Lash in his article stating, "we make sense of the world through technological systems" (520). Simply stating that since these technologies have such a large part in our lives and that we are so connected, it is hard to form an understanding of something without looking at it through an SNS's eye. We have already seen the changes to the way that we define a friend, what else will change because we are no longer seeing the large separation between our online and offline lives? Perhaps we should document the ways that these social network sites are changing the way we view things such as the definition of a friend so we can keep track of how technology is impacting our lives. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/friend_vs_friend_whats_the_dif.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/friend_vs_friend_whats_the_dif.html From Class facebook SNS Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:04:03 -0500 I am surprised to be able to say that my first idea for senior thesis has panned out, at least to this point. I began with the idea of exploring happiness, because I believe it is one of the strongest motivators in the world. After conducting further research I'm "happy" to say that I believe my topic can be well explored here at Allegheny ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/intrinsic_vs_extrinsic_1.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/intrinsic_vs_extrinsic_1.html Exploring the Field extrinisc motivation happiness intrinsic motivation Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:49:44 -0500 The article by Jerome Singer I read has a lot of important and interesting information about the benefits of imaginative play in early childhood. Singer looks at various aspects such as language acquisition, imagery, and the emotional benefits of imaginative play in developing children as well as those in middle childhood. In terms of language development the article states, "children who were more inclined to make-believe play also excelled in comprehension, clarity, and organization of words used in describing a picture" (Singer, 1998). The article also states that, "Children's play is one major way in which the young child can deal with complexity and novelty of its environment" (Singer, 1998). The really interesting party of this article is that it not only looks at developing children, but follows the positive aspects of imaginative play into middle childhood, a field with virtually no research on at the time. Singer writes, "while imaginative play in its overt form continues in middle childhood, it is increasingly less obvious and takes on somewhat different forms. Yet children yearn for it and teachers in the schools who use make-believe formats for teaching often find tremendous responsiveness from children" (1998). So how does this relate to my comp? I am very interested in the way that children learn in the classroom. This article cites several past articles and also gave me several ideas on how I could potentially build upon these findings. If people are so worried about the way children's language is developing, perhaps we need to look at the underlying causes instead of just using media as a scapegoat - something we have been continuously bombarded with in readings. Perhaps allowing children to have more time to engage in imaginative play will help them develop more elaborate verbal fluency, and the language problem will get smaller. Also, in using play in the classroom, children will be more connected/interested in what they are learning leading to more enjoyment in the classroom. More enjoyment could lead to more drive to succeed instead of just doing what is necessary to pass from one grade to the next. As you can see this research has limitless boundaries. Introducing new techniques into the classroom can only add to the quality of the education that children are receiving. The more data the better- because the only way education will change is if there is substantial proof that children will be receiving the same quality education with the new method as the old method, and that they will still be scoring as well if not better on tests measuring their academic aptitude. Hopefully my comp will help pave the way for positive changes in the field of education. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/playtime.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/playtime.html Exploring the Field child development imaginative play verbal fluency Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:38:28 -0500 What is the deal with media's impact on youth's development? In the article by Thurlow and McKay it discusses the problem with lower academic performance and the fact that media consumption is routinely blamed as the scapegoat. But is technology really to blame? Or is there some other force at work undermining the education of children? Even though it is easy to blame technology for all problems, you can't ignore that even though this generation is the "net generation" just about 9% of the world's population is actually online. If only 9% of the world is online how can technology be affecting everyone's school performance? Understandably, the United States is a very connected country, and if you do not have access to a computer at home, you can always access one at several locations such as libraries, schools, etc. throughout the community. Knowing that Americans have constant access to technology, perhaps we have to look at this as a positive rather than a negative impact on education. In fact, later in their article Thurlow and McKay state that, "parents generally believe computers are an educational resource and computer use may be related positively to academic performance" (2003). Knowing that the internet is a limitless source of information where children are free to explore whatever drives them could be a big plus for education. There is also a big plus in internet communication. Being online offers you the ability to connect with social environments that you might not have contact with otherwise - for example when you are looking at schools long distances away you could chat with current students online and get their opinions on the school without having to travel there right away. While we know from the article that boys and girls use technology in different ways, boys are more interested in the technology itself and entertainment such as video/computer games or surfing the web while girls use it more for communication purposes - perhaps bringing more of these aspects into the classroom would help engage children and have positive impacts. So how do we combine old methods with new technology to have the biggest positive impact in and out of the classroom? Since media is obviously here to stay, how do we make sure that technology stays positive and doesn't have a negative impact on the development and safety of children?]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/technology_positive_or_negativ.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/f/fillerb/weblog/2009/03/technology_positive_or_negativ.html From Class education technology Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:09:33 -0500