Journal 4: Project Plan

Curriculum Project:

Site Title:  HRT 383 FOH and BOH Tutorials

Developer:  Jenesie Hardyman

Rational or Focus:  To provide tutorials and guidance for the RKR students

Main Features:  Access to Front of the House Tutorials, MICROS, Opentable and Cellartracker

Access to Back of the House Tutorials, Cheftec

Content:  There will be 7 webpages

1.     Homepage

2.     FOH

a.     Opentable

b.     MICROS

c.      Cellartracker

3.     BOH

a.     Cheftec

4.     Login to Blackboard for reference to class

Target Audience:  HRT 383 class

Design Goals:  Easy to use, clean navigation, smooth running

Limiting Factors:  Need to alter tutorials, not sure how to do that

Figure out how to setup blackboard login on webpage

Make my own tutorials if needed

Wireframe:

Sitemap:

Journal 3: The Case for Social Media in School

Kessler, S. (2010, September 29). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/

This article suggests that the use of social media can be a good thing for our youth.  It allows them the opportunity to express themselves, in a safe way, and keep them responsibly occupied.  The teacher that implemented the social media site saw increases in class participation, grades and a decrease in absenteeism.  Although she couldn't absolutely guarantee that the site was only contributing factor, they inferred that the outcome was good, nonetheless.  The fact that she was able to assign non-credit/non-graded assignments that the students completed, was interesting.  "Through polls taken before and after the program, Meinhardt determined that students spent between four to five fewer hours per week on Facebook and MySpace when the extra assignments had been implemented."  The use of text to keep the students accountable was also interesting.

The article argues that, "social media, like the Internet, will be a part of our world for a long time. It’s better to teach it than to fight it."  They found ways to embrace it's use.  The use of the social media in school, in a supervised environment, allows the student to express themselves and "if you know the answers or have good insights or ask good questions, you’re going to be really valuable online.” 

I wonder if when I was in elementary or high school today, how I would feel about the use of social media?  I recall being asked the answer to the questions for homework or a test by my "friends".  I don't recall giving anyone the answers, because I always felt that I spent time doing my homework, so why should my fellow students skate by using me?  However, in this setting, I think I would feel empowered to give my opinion or my reflection on a topic.  I think in the blog setting, participation is key, regardless of whether my answer is "right or wrong."

Which leads me to the question of how I would feel about my children using social media in a classroom setting.  I have a four and six year old.  They already ask me to use the computer to play games (online, although I'm not sure that they know what that means).  I know they use computers in class for various activities.  I think that if it were in this controlled environment, with my permission AND the ability for me to see the posts (or at least excerpts of quotes), I would feel more comfortable.  I think this would give me the an opportunity to engage in conversation with my children about the topics presented.

Journal 2 - Join an Affinity Group and Share your Digg Stream

The Affinity Group I chose is Brainify.com.  It seems like the most logical group for me to join, as I work in a university setting and I am also a student.  Learning from others' experiences and research seems like a good place to start.  edupln.ning.com.  I had to change as I sent a request to join, but never received a response back.  Honestly, I chose this group because there really aren't many to choose from.  Most of the links to the other groups do not work anymore.

In regards to the Digg Stream, I originally thought it was similar to Twitter.  However, it really isn't.  Instead of someone, a company or a news feed blasting tweets at me all day long, I get to pick and choose what I want to read about. Although I can pick and choose which tweets require further analysis and reading, I have to scroll through it all.  It really is a time consuming process.  With Digg, the feeds or website I follow are very clean and easily accessible.  

Q:  Is the internet our “digital” rabbit hole?

A:  Clearly, the answer is yes.  Through surfing the web, I become so entrenched in whatever I am reading or learning about that I don't realize how much time I’ve spent on it.  Which leads me to my second question . . .

Q:  How much is too much?

A:  I don't think that there could ever be too much.  I think having access to all this information is fascinating, scary and overwhelming at the same time.  I am a life long learner and that is partly due to the fact that I can choose what else I want to learn about just by opening up Google. Digg, Twitter, etc. and finding what is out there.  With that being said, I can easily see how all this access can become addictive.  Yet, I still think the more the better.