Real Vs. Fake news

Just had to share this cartoon from the Post Bulletin.  I studied journalism in the late 70s.... who could have guessed where news reporting was headed?

How do we manage information technology in school and keep it "real"?

Class Four

Filtering the Internet In High Schools... are students learning what is news and what isn't?

Years ago, I started working for a school district on the same day their internet hookup was first turned on.  I watched the staff there move to accept the internet, then embrace it and now it is an integral part of the education process.

I have always advocated for less Internet filtering.  For example, I argued that students should be able to use facebook in school so they can properly learn how to use it.  I've argued that how can we teach kids about the Internet if we don't let them see it all.   Along the way this opinion has cost me a job, but I firmly believe that students need to see the Internet for what it is so they can learn.  Of course some filtering is needed (pornography is one good example).

So now the main stream media is reporting that students are having a hard time determining what online new is fake and what is real.  Here is on story on it:

Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds

I would love to see curriculum written that teaches students what to look for when reading online content.  Instead of shying away from some Internet content, we should use it as an example.  Stop filtering out fake news.

But things change slowly.  We will see.

Kim Cronin

Class Three

Class Three

Introduction to Blogging - Class two

Notes from Class Two

Introduction to Blogging - Class One -

The Semester's Blogging class has started.

Class Schedule

Class 1 - The Basics - Planning and Getting the blog Started

Class 2- Creating Posts, Blog rules - Content, tags, images

Class 3 - Generating traffic - Getting advertisements, making money

Class 4 - Taking it to the next level, Hosting your own blog, customizing

Your Homework for the first class is to go to Amazon and read a book on How to blog... the link is below in the lecture notes.

 Here are the lecture notes from the first class:

Information Technology Humor...sharing out stories

I've been supporting computers for a long time... Just for fun, I submitted one of my old humorous, computer support stories to ComputerWorld.  They printed it!

You can read it here.   It is fun to look back at the changes in technology.  I think I've had to forget a lot of information.  Computer support is learn, use, forget, relearn... It just keeps evolving.

Newspapers.com... who knows what you'll find

Newspapers.com is making a valiant attempt to digitize old newspapers and make them web searchable.  For those of us who remember looking through the "The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature", it is amazing how the technology works.

Of course, scanning in old publications comes at a cost, so searching Newspapers.com is not free.  For $80 a year is it well worth the expense.  My friend Audrey turned me onto the site.  To demonstrate how much information it contained, she searched my name - Kim Cronin.

Now we all have those moments that we remember from our past.  As you re-tell the memories, things may change and you start to wonder if it was really like you remember.

One of those pivotal moments for me was my sophomore year of high school.  I was a nerdy kid and struggled to fit in.  I even switched high schools between my Freshman and Sophomore year because I was bullied so badly at Wellsville High School.

A new student at Scio Central school, I was trying to fit in.  After being cut from the girls' basketball team in the fall, I decided to try track in the spring.  I didn't do that good in any of the races the coach put me in, so I ended up in the two mile run.  My first time running the two mile was at a track meet at Alfred-Almond High School.  Their track was in the front yard of the school.

 

The two mile run is eight laps around the track.  We had a team superstar, Mary Root, who won any distance race you put her in.  So when the race started, Mary took off in the lead.  I was just another runner in the pack and another sports superstar, Ellen Ann Coughlin was in second place.  Her dad was a coach at our school and Ellen Ann excelled at any sport she tried.

So I just kept running with the pack doing loop after loop in the race.  At around the 5th time around the track, as I ran by teammates Lynn and Jeanette, they started encouraging me..."Kim, you aren't even breathing hard..everyone ahead of you is struggling..run faster...you can do it".

I still remember their encouragement and I realized that maybe I was better than I thought and I could do it.  So I picked up the pace and ran harder.

I passed Ellen Ann.  She was a superstar and I didn't think I was good enough to pass her, but I did.  Newspapers.com stored that memory for me:

Reading it... it all came flooding back, my lack of confidence and how that day I realized to believe in yourself, that you have to try harder.  It is still one of my favorite memories from High School, being told by my teammates that I could...that I should try harder.  And then believing in myself that I could.

Thanks newspapers.com for storing that memory for me.  It's a good one!!

Blogging - Adult Ed class on the Riverhead Campus

I'm so excited that my Blogging class is running again this semester at Suffolk Community College.    We still have space in the class if you are interested.   Here is the link to the Course Catalog:  http://www.sunysuffolk.edu/gallery/Continuing_Ed_Spring_2016/

My class is on page 13.

Below I'm listing some of the blogs that my past students have created.   I love to see the blogs continue.  The last link is a blogger who changed from Google's Blogger to Google's Sites as a result of my class.

Past Students:

Not Afraid of the Scale

Natural Living

Criddicsblog

Schoolofmentalgymnastics

Mikeimprixis-writing

Nags and wags

Long Island Comfort Shoes

Make it relevant!

Great Article on linking Technology education into other disciplines: