Multi-Modal Literacies: Little Brother Post 2

I'm so interested in this book! It has so many issues worthy of discussion I don't know where to begin.  One thing I've found particularly interesting is the censorship of the press and the references to the Declaration of Independence and the first amendment.  The situations in this book remind me of the state of America directly following the attacks of September 11, 2001.  Everyone was overly paranoid about terrorism which led to the passage of the Patriot Act which took away certain civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution.  The situations in the book are obviously on a much higher scale than they were after 911 but I think the message remains:  Citizens' civil liberties should not be taken away under any circumstances.

Multi-Modal Literacies: History of Facebook

I thought this article was really interesting.  Before reading this the only thing I knew about the development of facebook was the fact that it was developed in a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg.  However, I think this article shed light on a lot of important issues.  First of all, I think it's really amazing that a person younger than I am now was able to create something that is so influential and widely used today.  However, I also thought all the legal issues were interesting.  I think the fact that Zuckerberg had so many confrontations with close friends and associates proves that he wasn't a very good person which makes him difficult to admire for his work.  I have a lot of mixed feelings about this because I think facebook is a really impressive invention but I don't admire the ways in which it was created.  I think this article also brings up important issues about the nature of facebook in general.  For teachers, I believe it's important for teachers to teach students acceptable use of facebook.  It can be a great way to communicate with friends and work towards educational goals, but students need to be aware of the way in which they are representing themselves and be careful not to post pictures or statuses that can be incriminating or represent themselves in a way they would not want.  I think facebook is a great tool that needs to be used responsibly.

Multi-Modal Literacies: An Oral History of the Internet

I think this was a really interesting article which contains a large amount of information.  I liked the fact that the authors combined factual information with interviews from the different people involved with the development of the internet.  It must have taken a lot of research to create this article due to all the people that were interviewed.  One thing this article really did for me as that it showed me how new the internet really is. I was born in 1989 and the internet basically grew up along with me, which is something unique about my generation.  Reading this article showed me that different online services such as youtube, facebook, wikipedia, ebay, and amazon were really only developed in about the last decade.  It's amazing to me because these are websites and services that I use regularly and have become things that I have taken for granted.  However, ten years ago, when I was eleven years old all of these things were in their early development.  I think the internet has really changed the way in which college campuses are run as well.  When I think about colleges twenty years ago, they didn't have the same technology we have.  We communicate with professors and receive memos through e-mail and vista.  We have numerous online assignments such as our blog assignment in our class. We also have access to research databases in the comfort of our homes. I think these things have really aided in my learning experience and I plan to utilize the educational services the internet has to offer in my future classroom.

Multi-Modal Literacies: Little Brother

So far, I've read about one-third of the book "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow.  At this point in the novel, I have a lot of positive things to say.  I think this book is a great example of a  book that could be used in a high school classroom.  It addresses a lot of key issues such as the country's increasing reliance on technology and the idea that many fear that technology is becoming too powerful.  The book also touches on the idea of human rights and what people can do to stand up for their rights.  Furthermore, I also think the book touches on the idea of the importance of each individual.  I think this would be important for high school students to read because it provides students with an example of a teenager who can make a difference.  I think teenagers often think they aren't important and they can't make a difference in regards to world events, and I think this book shows that teenagers are very important.  This book was interesting because it's very different from a lot of books I've read.  At the beginning of the book, it seems like the events take place a long time in America's future.  However, after reading more of the book I'm beginning to think it takes place in present day America because of references to historical events in relation to the lives of the characters.  Overall, I think this book is very thought-provoking and can lead to interesting discussions with high school students.  It will be interesting to see how the book turns out as I continue reading.