Thursday, February 11, 2010

Week 5

Wikipedia Scanner

The program that Virgil Griffith made for scanning Wikipedia to see who edits what, is an OK tool! As far as if (or when) Wikipedia can be used as a trusted source of information, I have never thought of Wikipedia a trustful source. It is just too easy for anybody to go on there and edit anything and everything. With this new scanning program I don't think that it will help Wikipedia ever become useful. People will still be able to edit anything, they will just be caught faster and more easily.

Wikipedia Scanner is a really great idea I just don't think that it really is all that useful. I mean what does it really matter if Wal-mart went in and re-worded a few sentences or if a big time company went in and deleted a few paragraphs? This is just a new way to show that big time companies lie and how they will continue to do so. So, I will say again, this new program is an OK tool.

"What I've Learned this Year"

The post by Mr. McClung of "What I've Learned this Year" was great. It went through what he thought his first year as a teacher was going to be and then what it actually turned out to be. His initial thought of how it was going to be all about him and how he taught just to please his superiors and not about his students and how they learned. Boy, was he wrong!! He finally learned that it is all about his students and that he needed to communicate with them and become more flexible with his lessons. He just needed to get over his first fears before he got into the groove of things.

His thoughts of what he went through in the beginning were exactly what I am having now before I start teaching. There are a lot unknown factors that are scary and so I think that teachers, especially new teachers, have this idea that they are going to be able to go into the classroom and present this perfect lesson and not have any problems. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!! Communication with students is a key factor in teaching as well as being able to go with the flow. So I think that Mr. McClung learned so much in his first year and I thank him for sharing with everyone what he has learned!

3 comments:

  1. Good start Danielle. I would like to have seen more substance in your post regarding Wikipedia. Really, you just kept repeating yourself. Mr. McClung is right in the need to be flexible in your teaching. Over the past several years, I have learned to be more flexible in my lesson plans and to try new methods as we go along. Another thing to keep in mind is that no two classes are ever alike.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you when you are saying that it is an Ok tool. Also, what you said about Mr. McClung I liked. Being flexible is very important in the teaching field.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now I don't exactly agree that wiki is an ok tool, I think that if people could not change the important information it would be much better. Otherwise your blog was very enjoyable to read.

    ReplyDelete