Literacy Log

(I know I did not need to post this, I just posted this for my own use for later.)

Literacy Activities Log

Your name:__Michael Dwyer__

From _Saturday October 2, 2010_  to __Friday October 8, 2010__ (date)

Date 10/2	Literacy activity Reading, writing	Text/media Google news, Science News Magazine (Sept 11 issue), Introduction to Special Education (Smith & Tyler), Literacy (David Barton), Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)	With whom/what for Self, students, my son
10/3	Reading, writing	Google news, Japanese texts, Introduction to Special Education (Smith & Tyler), Literacy (David Barton), Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)	Self, students, my son
10/4	Reading, writing	Google news, Japanese texts, Introduction to Special Education (Smith & Tyler), Literacy (David Barton), Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)	Self, students, my son
10/5	Reading, writing	Google news, Japanese texts, Introduction to Special Education (Smith & Tyler), Literacy (David Barton), Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)	Self, students, my son
10/6	Reading, writing	Google news, Japanese texts, Introduction to Special Education (Smith & Tyler), Literacy (David Barton) Cub Scout Bear Handbook, Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)	Self, students, my son
10/7	Reading, writing	Google news, Japanese texts, Introduction to Special Education (Smith & Tyler), Literacy (David Barton), Epson Stylus NX420 Series Quick Guide, Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)	Self, students, my son
10/8	Reading, writing	Google news, Introduction to Special Education (Smith & Tyler), Literacy (David Barton), Percy Jackson, the Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)	Self, students, my son

Annotated Bibliography #3

Stansbury, Meris. (2010). Coming soon to a preschool classroom near you: Robot teachers? eSchool News, Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/08/11/coming-soon-to-a-classroom-near-you-robot-teachers/

Meris Stansbury has revealed a new and exciting (though slightly frightening) new application for technology in the classroom... robot teachers.  Well assistant teachers anyway.  In the age of digital natives, many students might eagerly learn almost any topic from a friendly robot who is patient and gentle. Images of "I Robot" or BattleStar Galactica come to mind, but these gentle little robots have been programed so "early childhood educators" can have access to "cutting-edge technology tools like other professionals have in their fields."

When I was at the Indiana State Fair this year, there was a Japanese exhibit called "Bridges to Japan" that presented a Japanese robot named Wakamaru. This little robot could only understand Japanese commands, but it could speak several recorded English messages. (see link with pictures http://photos.indystar.com/galleries/10347-bridges-to-japan-at-the-indiana-state-fair)
From reading Barton's Literacy, I learned that the process of children learning to talk, and learning to write are actually closely tied to each other, therefore, if my students had access to this robot in class they would be able to improve (or practice) their Japanese speaking, which would aid their literacy in Japanese.

Annotated Bibliography #2

Hong Kong AFP. (2010). Wire youth forget how to write in China and Japan. eSchool News,retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/08/27/wired-youth-forget-how-to-write-in-china-and-japan/
Full article retrieved from http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100826/technology/lifestyle_hongkong_china_japan_culture_technology

When I was living in Japan in 1994-1995, computers were just starting to catch on there.  The complexity of the Japanese writing system made it more difficult to type in Japanese than English, so even though Japan was ahead of America in most technology, the average Japanese person did not even have a computer at this time, while most Americans did.  But things would rapidly change, and with the advent of typing in roman letters (a.k.a. "English letters") and the computer displaying a list of likely kanji characters that have those sounds, typing in Japanese has become easier than hand writing Japanese.  But just as English spell checkers have arguably enabled Americans to get by with terrible spelling, many Japanese and Chinese people have begun to forget how to write their characters by hand! 

This article was published in Hong Kong, so it mainly talks about the Chinese angle of this problem, but it equates just as well to Japanese which I teach.  The article writes "There is even a Chinese word for it: "tibiwangzi", or "take pen, forget character."  Interestingly, the Japanese also have a word for this which they call ワードプローばか (word-pro-stupid).  It is interesting to see how even though technology is essential to our world and our ability to adapt to the changes we face, not all of the effects of technology are positive.