PLN 22

I decided to read something different than what I normally read which is normally from the Fisch Bowl or 2¢ Worth. But today the post I read was from The Denver Post and was titled Students report gunmen on playground and was written by the Associated Press. It talks about how some children claim to have been threatened by 2 strange men on their schools playground. Not much information was given in this post but it is still a very troubling matter.

What matters: There have been so many school shootings in Colorado that the U.S. must think that everyone in Colorado has messed up minds. The school that this happened at was in Grand Junction at Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School. Seven children reported the gunmen to be a teacher on Monday. They described the men to be between the ages of 14 to 25 years old. But when the deputies went to the school they found no sign of the men. But the deputies have no idication that the children were lieing. But if you think about it, this happened to children in elementary school who tend have a good imagination, but when you think about the amount of children who spotted the gunmen and were threatened then it seems impossible that that many children could tell the same exact story. This is also a very troubling event to me because if there is another school shooting then the security in all schools, especially in Colorado, will be so strick that students won't even be able to go outside.

What matters to me: This is not a good sign for schools because this indicates that schools aren't doing enough to secure its students. Even though no one got hurt this time, next time someone will and there will be devistating consequences. I also really want the school shootings to stop. It is really sad when people are so cruel that they think that children deserve to die. I want my school to stay protected and still be able to have off campus. But I'm not sure that we can do this and still be safe. When will this madness end!

PLN 21

I chose to read a post titled Three to think about by Karl Fisch. It talks about the new device called Kindle e-book Reader from Amazon. This revolutionary electronic has many uses.

• Listen to your class lecture by just tapping on your handwritten notes.
  
• View & listen to your notes on your PC and search by keyword.
  
• Email your written & audio notes to your classmates or study group.
  
• Translate a word or phrase by simply writing it on paper.
  
• Download one or more languages to your pen computer.
  
• Practice your pronunciation by tapping on a word and listening
  
• Write & send a message directly from your notebook.
  
• Create & send an animated voice message from your paper.
  
• Post a message, drawing or animation (with voice) to your blog or Facebook profile.
• Read a book of your choice

What matters: This is what education has been waiting for. This is one of the biggest steps into the future for eduaction. Just imagine schools without school book but Kindle e-book readers instead. Everything would be so much different in the classroom. It would also be so much easier to study. You can record your teachers lecture and then when you study you can just listen to the recording and study from it that way. Students can also share notes and do group projects so much easier by sending a messgae directly from your notebook and email your notes or projects to other students.

What matters to me: This will be a huge step forward into the future for classrooms now. Soon classes wont need anything but technology to do school work. We wont need to carry school books around but instead we can carry around our Kindle e-book and it will contain everything. We wont even need backpacks anymore. But before I leap to far into the future I need to think about if this new device will even succeed because I always see commericals for things like these and yet no one ever buys them. But they werent so advanced like the kindle e-book is. It has so many more features than the other devices created by Sony.

PLN 20

I read a post Majority of state teens text while driving that sounded very familiar to me. There are already so many teens deaths because of car accidents and texting isn't really helping. 460 teen drivers were interveiwed and 97% of them agreed that texting behind the wheel is dangerous, but yet 51% of the them admitted to texting behind the wheel and 66% of them admitted to talking on their cell phones while driving. But there is something being done to help this situation.South High School gathered plegdes from students saying they wouldn't text and drive but only 25 students have signed up so far. They encourage other high schools to start doing the same.

How it matters to me: I see this problem alot when my mom is driving me. I see teenagers and adults talking on thier cell phones or texting while driving. To me it just seems like a great way to get killed because there is no way to text and still pay attention to the road.My neighbor used to help with car pull last year and she would always be on her cell phone talking to her friends or boyfriend. I was constantly closing my eyes because I thought we were going to die. The car swerved alot and we almost got in a couple of car accidents. I really think that teens should turn off their phones when they are driving unless it is an absolute emergency.

How it matters to the world: This isn't just an issue in Colorado. It is a problem world wide. The are several teen deaths everyday because of drunk driving, driving without a seatbelt, reckless driving, and texting and talking on your cell phone while driving. There isn't much that can be done to prevent it because the police can't take away cell phones. But parents and schools can help.

Pln 19

I read Do schools have Birth- control role?. This is a very important issue in todays world. Girls are having sex at extremely young ages. Girls get pregnant most commonly around the ages of 15 to 17. People think that teens in middle school and high school shouldn't be aloud to have access to these things because it will only encourage them to do it more, but then the other side argues that teens are sexually active and there is no way to stop it so the only way to prevent girls dropping out of school because of being pregnant is to provide birth control to anyone who wants it.

What matters: If you ask any parent what they think of this they will think that it is a horrible idea and to stop it. The rate of girls getting pregnant at a young age is ridiculously high. I agree that something should be done. But I don't think that handing out birth conrol is the only way to solve it. I think that schools should start talking to parents about their children if the school is suspious that the child might be involved in sexual activities. I know that this sounds like a huge violation of privacy, which it is, but think it will help alot. But there are also alot of parents who don't really care and won't do anything about it no matter the warnings from the school, so i guess that giving birth control the kids in high school could be a helpful thing.

How it matters to me: I am not into doing those kind of things because I seem to have different morals that most high school students do. I'm not into drinking, doing drugs, or having sex out of marriage. Reading about schools just handing birth control really makes me... mad. This is just what parents are trying to prevent and the school isn't making it very easy for the parents to keep their children from having sex. But the other agument for this situation is very convincing too. The school has given in to giving students birth control because many teens are sexually active and parents can't seem to stop it. They are trying to prevent girls from dropping out because of getting pregnant. But I still don't think this is the best way to solve this problem.

PLN entry #18

I read an interesting post called I need answers: What will the home of the future look like? by Vicki A. Davis. She talks about how she fell in love with technology because of her dad. Her dad was taking her to a meeting at 3 PM to talk about the question "What will the home of the future look like?". The group holding this meeting has grant money and is going the build the house that we need in ten years.

What matters: I think that this is a really cool way to advance into the future because they can help think of new devices we can use in the future to make the futuristic home better.This will definitly be challenging for them to do because you can never know everything that is going to happen in the future and what new technologies will be invented. I think that we wont even be using the computer anymore in ten years and we will be using something entirely different and much more advanced. We will probably not have a tv but something better and more advanced and will have the same idea as the tv did only much better. The houses will probably be bigger and not made out of what is today, but something better and less flamable.

How it matters to me: This is very important to me because in ten years I will probably be a mother and I interested in what an average house will be like in the future and what my lifestyle will be because of the changes in technology and the ay homes are built .

PLN 17

Something very disturbing caught my eye when I was looking through the Rocky Mountain news. The title was Teen guilty of torturing autistic boy's tortoise. This was a very sad to read because now the seven year old autistic boy is now tramatized from this. He thinks that the same thing that happened to his pet will happen to him. The 18 year old boy responsible for this is named Jose Antonio Mosqueda. It took place in Ventura, California.

What Matters: When things like this happen, it is clear that the people responible are not healthy mentally. Mosqueda took the 40-pound African spurred tortoise named Bob from a backyard. He then slashed its legs and neck, puntured its shell and then threw it at a wall. This is an unquestionable sign that Mosqueda needs mental help because any normal person doesn't just do that to an innicent animal. The worst part is that the owner of the tortoise loved that animal more than anything and it was helping him with his disease of autism.Thankfully the animal survived and is recovering from its wounds. Mosqueda faces 3 years in jail, and 5 years on probation and he has to pay $5,479 in restitution. He also lost possession of his own pets. He later gave his apologizes to the family and his attorney.

Why it Matters to Me: This is a pretty upsetting article to read. It puzzles me why he would do such a thing to a poor animal and autistic boy. When I was little my nieghbors used to go a big grassy field behind my house and catch gardener snakes. They would then torture them...I wasn't sure what they were doing at the time but now that I am older and I think about it I realize how horrible it was. When I read this article it reminded me of that and I started remembering all the blood and the sadness in the animals eyes just before they died. I just hope that the autistic boy recovers from this very tramatizing experience and that Mosqueda gets mental help will he serves his 3 years in jail.

PLN #16

When I read Parents and Internet-Using Teens it raised a very intersting subject. The blog talks about how the internet was originally created for educational purposes but now it seems that students are using it for social purposes more than for education.

What matters: There are alot of good things that can be helpful for students on the internet, but yet there are also alot of bad things on the internet that are very distracting and are inappropriate for teens. Today there less parents that say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than there was in 2004. That doesn't mean that there is an increase in parents who think the internet is bad for their children. It means that there is an increase in parents who think that the internet isn't effecting their children one way or another. Some parents also think that thier children spend to much time on the internet. But parents are often more concerned with what websites their children are looking at more than they worried about how long their children are on the internet.

How it Matters to Me: My parents are constantly concerned with what I am looking at on the internet. They used to be concerened with the amount of time I was on the computer because I used to be on it constantly and yet it was never to do anything educational. But alot of my friends parent don't really care about what their kids are doing on the computer or what they are looking at. I think that the internet is misused alot in todays world. Whenever I get on the computer is usually to keep me entertained and kids don't want to go to educational websites when they are bored. Most kids get on the computer for the same reason as I do. To email, IM, visit chat rooms, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, ect. Those sites are the main reason children aren't looking at educational things and are staying on the computer for hours on end.

PLN Presention reveiw

My pln presentation was way to short. I didn't talk to fast though and I talked loud enough for everyone to hear me. But I relied on my paper way to much. Alot of my comments said that I relied on my notes to much and didnt make enough eye contact. When I was writing my presetation I didnt realize that it was so short. I was just trying to summarize some of my plns that were similar. But when I presented it just seemed so much shorter that all the other people before me. But I did improve from my last presentation that because I didnt stutter as much, it wasnt to long, and I didnt talk to fast.