Social networks (Cell-phone)

I think that some high-technically equipped cell-phones are also a form of social network medium and it affects the quality of education like the computer. An article from the New York Times, issued on May 26, 2009, reported that because of the the existence of the high-speed network system and the technology companies like Samsung and LG, South Korean is the test case of the cell-phone future. In my opinion, the South Korea to be walking on the milestone now and they have the potential of delivering education to our children and many other students via a new medium. 

You can think the cell-phone is new devices. It is true that cell-phone is the revolution as a communication tool. They originated in the 1920's. Radios were used since 1921. Features were put into these radios in the 1940's and they were used by police. The concept of the cellular phone was developed in 1947 which originated from the mobile car phone. The first actual cell phone was invented in 1973 by Martin Cooper. He worked at Motorola at that time and  other assisting inventors who used the idea of the car phone helped him.  The first time people used cell-phone in the public place was in 1984. It was really large and expensive. In 1986, the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) decided to increase the frequencies to allow research for better connections and they they made it. This allowed calls to pass from tower to tower.

So,  how people have developed and used the cell-phone these days and how the cell-phone affect in people's lives and education...... 

They are using the cell-phone in various way. It is not only for the communication. Of course, the most biggest part is to communicate with others. Besides, they can checks weather forecast, play games, updates the Internet blog, watch TV and online shop (Starbucks, Dunkin, Pizza, even Underwear). Also, they can checks whether a book has arrived at the library. In addition to the Internet connection, it has function of the digital camera, a music player (MP3), Alarm and texting massage. People compressed hundreds of function into the cell phone.  Especially in Korea, they mark students attendance by the cell-phone instead the teachers call the students' name in the class for attendance. They are checked by their cell-phone. This is the function of ID. They don't need show or sweep their ID. More interestingly, they pay fare of bus, subways and even taxi. It is like credicard card. It is the novel of compressing multifunction.

However, there is not only advantage, but also disadvantage. If you leave your wallet at home, you can not notice for the whole day, but if you lost your cell-phone, your life will start crumbling

Korean Social Network(CYWORLD)

The President Obama said that the second important deal is the education, next to the health care. Concurrently, the Korean President Lee, Myung Bak also announced his desire to have to the Korean government focused more on developing and changing its education system. He obviously believe the power that education can exert in people's lives.

As a global era, my group members thought "Why don't we look up not only USA social networks, but also Korean social networks for teaching tools."

Now days, the most popular personal website in Korea is Cyworld. The prevalence of student subscribling to cyworld is over 90% in a given classroom. The way it is set up lets students use all of the functions that cyworld offers with ease. Surprisingly, Cyworld is very similar with FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE and TWITTWE. Ultimately, this novel means of connecting students with educators, even out of the classroom makes the delivering and sharing knowledge more dynamic and exciting. Here is some examples how they are using it.

EX1)One of my friends has Cyworld website. He is a teacher in a middle school. He created a few iconic folders and categorized them into a group and a year. He posted the video recording  of students performing. Another advantage of cyworld is that the subscriber has the control of disclosing his or her contents to only a certain group of visitors making privacy possible. The other friend who has Cyworld website posted the video recording of her students vocal ensemble competition.

EX2)There is a website board. Posting comment on the teacher's board is common for Korean students. Also, the teacher replies the comments. THe students can posted the message through the cll-phones. I think that some high-technically equipped cell-phones. which are also a form of social network medium, affect the quality of education.

EX3) There is published board. Some kindergarten teacher published the article about her life.

Let me translate little bit.

Some people are asking to her when they meet first time,

"What do you do?"

She answers, "I am a kindergarten teacher."

They say, "Wow, that would be great.  You would be fun with children. You need to just play with them."

And then, she just smiles.......

She published the article about what the educators are thinking and what they should be doing.

There is another page the same like that. It is about how we should start to teach children to play the piano. I think that it is really useful information for especially people who prepare to become one of the educators.

In brief, when I was young, i made the paperboard for a presentation and then hung it in front of the class. Now, using the computers and the Internet in the class are becoming more and more common in schools. It clearly shows that the advanced technology os such a convenient tool to educate students. Additionally, online social network website such as FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, TWITTER and CYWORlD is one of the most effective ways to connect between the educators and the students.   

 

The Team Project

Social Networks: Tools for Teaching

Connecting to students outside the classroom to make learning a more dynamic and exciting experience

We explored how social networking sites like facebook, twitter, youtube, etc could be applied to education as a tool for extending education outside of the classroom and into students' online lives.

The social networks we focused on are: 

Twitter

CyWorld (Korea)

      -CyWorld (US)

Facebook

      -Sarah's Mock Class Page

YouTube

It attracts me to read it, but still seems like little difficult for me.

However, I will definitely read it someday...  

My Chronicle Technology(1)

The first time I met a computer was almost 20 years ago. I was 11 years old. It was MS-DOS(Disk Operating System). 

I know English MS-DOS came out in 1981 first time, but, in Korea, people brought Korean DOS in 1985.  

I had to type every single code. To calculate "2+2=4", I had to make certain code like "A=2","B=2","A+B=C" and "C=?" and then typed it. It took long time. It was so annoying and inconvenient. Doing a sum in my head was much faster than using computer. 

So, I couldn't understand why I had to know the computer. I just stopped learning the computer. Many people said that the computer was a incredible invention in the world.

Also, many teachers told to student " You guys have to learn the computer!"; however, even they didn't know the reason why people had to learn the computer. 

I thought "why? to play a game? It is a so stupid machine bothering me." 

It was just 20 years ago..... We were just ordinary people, me and around me, and we  had NO IDEA WHAT THE COMPUTER WAS.

Five years later when I met MS-Windows, I realized I was stupid, not that computer.

COMING SOON "My Chronicle Technology(2)"

  

 

I found the great words that I like.

Music gives a soul to the universe, 

Wings to the mind,

Flight to the imagination....

and life to everything.

---Plato---

Technologial Language

Language is defined as the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. 

Like definition, we have learn another language, I want to say "another language", which is "html", for the last week. As we know, "html" is the computer language. 

However, technology is the language not only in the computer, but in the reality. Technology is one of the method of human communication as the definition indicates. Just thing that has to be changed in the definition is that we could change "spoken, written or typed, consisting of the use of words in,,,,". I believe that technology has been becoming the second language that we have to know these days. The second language is not like Spanish, French, or Chinese for us. It is technologial language. 

In Korea, learning English is mandatory in young generation. There is even English Kindergartens that all teachers are English native speakers. However, they would believe that the second language is not only English, but also technology language(skill) in the near future.I am not saying for only Korea. It is a phenomenon al the range.