Texting Assignment

     After reading the article regarding texting among teens, there are so many things that I see.  I have a younger brother, who just graduated from high school.   I know he, being my example, texts a lot.  One month alone, he had around 10,000 text messages.  That absolutely floored me.  I can't even fathom having so many texts.  I remember thinking, does he even sleep at night?  What about during school?  How can this even be possible? 
     Texting is a way for teens to say what they want to say quickly, and in not-so-many words.  Not to mention, the texting "lingo" they use.  One must also wonder whether or not they can actually write grammatically and spell after texting all of the time?
     I do like knowing, however, that we can usually get a hold of most teens because they never go anywhere without their cell phones!  So not only can we talk to them when needed, they can also call someone if they need help as well.  For safety reasons cell phones can be very good.
     I know there have been instances of "sexting" even our small town of Alliance - which scares me to death.  Adolescents and teens fall into that peer pressure of wanting to be noticed and accepted and they don't even realize that sending those types of photos of themselves can be very dangerous.  They are often misled into believing that "nobody else will see the pictures".  But, usually teens can't keep something like that a secret!  They have to show at lease one person to "brag" about the text/picture they got (which can be illegal) and then guess what - before long many have seen this so called private and intimate photo via texting!  Bad mistake!
     My school policy is that they can have their cell phones at school, but they are not to have them in class or they will be confiscated.  I know that these kids are pros at texting and they are even able to wear a hoodie sweatshirt and have their cell phones in the front pouch and text without even being able to see.  Now, that is amazing!  But, that is also why our school doesn't allow cell phones in class.  They must remain in their lockers.


     For the next part of this assignment, Carole graciously agreed to take part in my texting assignment.  She said that when she did the assignment she texted Spencer.  She also said that they texted about the issue of having a four day school week.  I thought this was a good topic for us to text about as well, because my Principal has mentioned this idea as well.  She believes that it would save the district money because they wouldn't have to have staff to cook lunches, clean, etc. on fridays if there were no school.  We could also use those days for in-service training days. Sports could be on Thursday nights and staff could leave early on Fridays to do things on the weekend - and so on and so forth!
     Anyway, this part of the assignment wasn't actually about what we discussed so much as how it felt to text all of it.  Well, I think it was very frustrating to have to text about a topic.  I like to use complete sentences most of the time and it about kills me to use "text lingo".  I feel texting is great for a quick response or question, but terrible to talk lengthy about any topic.  You want to say all these things, but it is too frustrating to have to text all you want to say so you are forced to make it short without saying as much as you normally would.  I still would rather e-mail or call someone than text.  It is not as easy and natural for me as it would be for a teen who has grown up doing it all of the time.  I guess I am old fashioned and like to be able to say what I want to say and hear what I want to hear without cutting it short!  But, we managed to do it for the assignment.
    

Google Earth Assignment

Google Earth was interesting yet somewhat confusing to me.  When doing the Historical Imagery part of the assignment, I did Denver, Colorado because it is a city I am familiar with that is constantly changing.  It was interesting to see the visual changes in development and size as compared to years in the past.  I think it would be great for kids to choose a large city and do the same.  Many of my students will not have the opportunity to go to a large city because they are from lower income families.  This would be a great way for them to see the growth and progression of the city.  We could even just do Alliance, where we live.  The kids would also enjoy seeing how it has grown through the years as well.

I was able to find my home and record its coordinates (42 degrees 07' N  102 degrees 51'  29.56 W).  When talking about directions, coordinates, and location of places like their home or our school it would be great for the students to actually be able to find familiar places and view them on Google Earth.  A bonus would be to find the coordinates so we can actually locate it on a map/globe.

Using Layers, I was able again to go to the city of Las Vegas and find points of interest near a specified location.  I could see icons for museums, health clubs, first aid centers, police departments, etc. which would allow me to locate them very easily if I were visiting Las Vegas. 

Creating a Guided Tour...Now this is where I started to have difficulty on this assignment.  I was able to locate 5 locations, Las Vegas, Denver, Walt Disney World, Paris, and Puerto Vallarta.  That part was ok.  Then I was able to place Push Pins on each location and could see them on the left side of the screen.  But, when I went to find a picture for Denver and went back to add it to the right area under my site an place it in the right location, my Push Pin icons were no longer visible.  So I wasn't sure where to place the pictures.  So, at this point I had to stop with the assignment and talk to you about how to proceed.

I did learn a lot from this assignment, but feel that I just need to be able to play with it more in order to figure out how to manipulate it.  As you said, it is always changing and we just need to learn about it by doing.