The Student News Site of Rock Bridge High School

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The Student News Site of Rock Bridge High School

Bearing News

The Student News Site of Rock Bridge High School

Bearing News

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[heading size=”15″]Technology permits new dimensions of learning[/heading]
arty by Maddy Mueller
arty by Maddy Mueller
[dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]C[/dropcap]ombined freedom, technology and an emphasis on self-learning create an atmosphere completely new to junior Michele Yang, who feels that the learning style at RBHS is different from what she has experienced at any other school. In her first year at RBHS, Yang received a personal iPad and participated in a flipped classroom, which is where students listen to lectures at home and discuss the information in class. She feels that she spends more time on her iPad than she spends listening to lectures in class.
“I find that teachers guide you and tell you what you need to know, but technological resources are great if you’re looking for specific information,” Yang said. “I think the iPad helps me learn but hurts my focus. Because I’m so easily distracted, it’s sometimes hard to get work done. But overall, being able to access textbooks and online resources is so helpful that I would miss it if it were taken away.”
Yang, like many other students, uses her iPad and laptop to complete the newly implemented online math homework. Math teacher Angel Renick said she uses MyMathLab along with other programs and tools to provide instantaneous feedback to students so they see whether they understand the math or not. Renick uses Senteo clickers, QR codes and Google Forms to create surveys and reviews for her classes and said students most often ask for Senteo clicker quizzes to review for upcoming tests.
“I know a lot of teachers use [Senteo clickers] for assessment purposes, but I use mine on a daily basis to do problems quickly and to allow students to see right away ‘do I understand or do I not understand,’ and then it opens up conversations for areas of struggle and questions,” Renick said. Technology “is only a tool, but if you were able to check your answers immediately and to know whether you are doing it right, that is huge. When I was a student I might not know I was doing it right unless I handed it in and got back a grade.”
Renick said the online math homework allows a student to get a problem wrong, view an example and retry, which wasn’t an option with homework previously. While Renick uses technology as a tool to generate feedback and personalized instruction, Laura Estabrooks, teacher of Geospatial Technology and Analysis, Information Technology 1 and 2 and A+ IT Essentials at the Columbia Area Career Center, uses the Vision program to demonstrate lessons for students on their computers.
The Vision program is in 90 percent of CACC classes, including in Estabrooks’ classroom. She said it allows her to see each of her students’ screens on her monitor and gives her the ability to project her screen onto the students’ monitors. While this program could be used to keep tabs on what her students do, Estabrooks said her purpose for using the program is to provide instruction.
“I need to be able to display information to each one of the computers. This projector isn’t fine enough … if you’re displaying really intricate mapping, that just looks like a big blur up there,” Estabrooks said. “We do Vision all the time in my classrooms. I can actually let [students] demo to me, which is pretty cool. You can really put them on the spot and say ‘Okay, you teach this part of the class.’”
For both Renick and Estabrooks, technological problems could slow down lessons. When technology glitches and stops working during class, Renick said, it could take much longer to show an example and, if the Smart Board broke she wouldn’t be able to put lesson notes on Angel. Similarly, Estabrooks finds difficulty explaining a lesson to students without Vision because they can’t follow her example.
“I’ve tried to do without it and just walk the students through just talking to them and my kids will go, ‘can you turn on Vision, Mrs. Estabrooks? We’re lost,’” Estabrooks said. “If I didn’t have it I think that it would be a lot more difficult for me to do what I do here in class … I [use] Vision [with] my kids just to show them ‘this is how you do it’ and then they do it.”
While technologies used in classes can aid in instruction by engaging students and providing feedback, Renick worries distractions caused by devices can detract from lessons. Renick said when students check their phones, they get distracted and they lose learning, but there are potential solutions to distraction.
I try “teaching a student when technology is appropriate, or even [when technology is] the quicker solution, versus a student learning how to regulate [it on their own],” Renick said. “If I’m on my phone or iPad … will I hear all the notes and understand it while doing homework? Learning when technology can make your life easier or when it will actually take longer [can prevent distraction].”
By Emily Franke
How are you using technology in your classroom?
[heading size=”15″]Social sites promote screen-to-screen friendships, allow for multiple personalities[/heading]
infographic by Trisha Chaudhary
infographic by Trisha Chaudhary
[dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]W[/dropcap]hen it comes to social media, junior Kristen Tarr is a veteran. Using several social media accounts, she connects with friends from near and far, builds new relationships with people she meets online and fine-tunes her personality to be more expressive of who she really is. Tarr likes the idea of being able to express the fun parts of her personality to others and appear to be a different person online.
“I have a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I use Twitter the most,” Tarr said. “All the time, no, but every time I say something funny I always tweet it so people think I’m funny.”
With 315 followers and over 3,000 tweets, Tarr’s impressive Twitter account has helped her stay connected with her many friends. However, her participation in social media has taught her valuable lessons on how to deal with keeping relationships online. At one point, she was operating two separate accounts to deal with those relationships, before finally switching over to her current account and mostly staying connected to her best friends.
“I don’t use the first [account] anymore. What happened was I tweeted too much at my favorite celebrity so everyone would always complain,” Tarr said. “I made a second fan account. I realized the people who complained weren’t my real friends. Eventually my fan account turned into my only account and now only my close friends follow it.”
One of the perks of being active on Twitter and other social media sites is the vast number of potential friends, Tarr said. Although some of her classmates would be wary of meeting unknown people online, she thinks online relationships can turn out to be long-lasting friendships. Through social media, she has already made friends all over the globe.
“I’ve met friends online from different parts of the world who like the same music as me. A couple of them I ended up meeting in person and it was awesome,” Tarr said. “They both live in St. Louis, so we met at a Lights concert in Columbia.”
Junior Sumayyah Firozi agrees with Tarr, because she finds social media to be a good way to expand one’s connections. Although she said there are some dangers associated with it, being able to communicate from behind a computer screen can be a good thing.
“The real question is, do we let our judgment of what we perceive as the real person online … interfere with a possible hello or a start of a friendship?” Firozi said. “I think being a ‘different’ person online … to some extent can be good or bad, but I think as long as it doesn’t become harmful to you or others, it can be a positive thing. Venting is good for everyone. Maybe hiding behind a monitor or a phone screen gives you the confidence you need to show people the kind of person you are, and to tweet what you really think.”
Elizabeth Ellcessor, an assistant professor at Indiana University’s Department of Communication and Culture, studied social media extensively. She said building relationships online and meeting new people through social media, just as Tarr did, is no riskier than meeting new people in real life. She believes the risks are the same, but people must use the same common sense when interacting with strangers online and offline.
“The dangers of meeting people and forming relationships online are roughly the same as doing so offline. The difference is just in the degree to which you may be able to confirm details about someone’s identity, or the duration of time needed to build a trusting relationship,” Ellcessor said. “Generally, it’s advisable to move slower and be more cautious in online relationships, because it can be easy for others to deceive you. However, most of the time, most people are not deceptive.”
Along with believing that few people are deceptive and manipulative online, Ellcessor believes that the people who do change their personalities do not do it with bad intentions. She said she thinks most people choose to highlight certain parts of their personalities and accentuate those areas more than they could in real life, like Tarr establishing a funny personality through her Twitter.
“Most people don’t craft entirely new identities online. More often, people highlight certain parts of their own identity. For instance, some people might be known as athletes to their peers at schools, but have an interest in Japanese anime online. They may participate in sites and conversations that touch on only one of those interests. Thus, they might seem like two different people, but really both are authentic parts of their personalities,” Ellcessor said. “Over the years, some people have suggested that this is a good way for social media to let us experiment with different identities before taking them into our offline lives. Others, though, worry that these identities may not be psychologically useful and may reinforce stereotypes.”
Along with Tarr, junior Saja Necibi is also well connected in the social media world. With a GroupMe, an Instagram and a Facebook, she enjoys connecting with her friends and joining in on group conversations from the comfort of her home. However, she also notices some people treating her differently online than in person.
A “time I’ve seen someone who acts completely different online,” Necibi said, “is with a girl I know from school who likes and comments on almost every single one of my posts but looks the other way when we pass each other in the hallway.”
While Necibi often doesn’t think much of it when someone behaves differently online, she has gotten accustomed to the notion that social media can change the way people interact with each other in person. Over the years, she noticed that people, including her classmates, are prone to expressing themselves in ways that deviate from their true personalities.
“I think social networking sites give people more courage and bravery to say what they normally wouldn’t say in real life, since they’re behind a screen,” Necibi said. “People are more likely to let loose and reveal personal information because there isn’t a set in stone audience. When you’re in front of people, you know exactly who is nearby and listening, so people tend to be more careful about what they say. But online, it’s so easy to rant and say whatever is on your mind, since there is nobody specifically in front of you.”
Along with Necibi, Tarr believes the additional courage to speak one’s mind online comes with the responsibility to care about others just as one should in face-to-face situations. She thinks there is a certain line people must never cross online and tries her hardest to avoid crossing that line herself.
“I hate seeing negative tweets at others. I think when that point is reached, that’s when social media is abused,” Tarr said. “I definitely am careful with getting to know people online. I have my Instagram on private and don’t ever share personal information.”
Although Necibi does not embody a different personality online, she acknowledges that there are several people who fabricate a different identity. While she said she says “the same type of stuff and cracks the same type of jokes” to the same people online and in person, she said her generation uses technology to expand their social circles by presenting themselves differently.
“Technology makes it easy for people to develop a type of ‘alter-ego’ since they can take great care with how they word something. In real life conversations, a response is usually expected within a few seconds, but online, people can spend long minutes rearranging a comment or post in order to seem like a different person,” Necibi said. “Social media almost makes it easy to try out new personalities because it essentially gives people any desired amount of time to come off a certain way.”
Ellcessor agrees that it is easier to develop an alternate identity while sitting safely behind a computer screen. She said there are several physical aspects to a personality that do not interfere when dealing with social media, so it is easy to pull off pretending to be a different person.
“Any technology that allows us to communicate without being physically present offers easy opportunities for taking on different personalities or highlighting certain elements of a personality,” Ellcessor said. “Generally, this is easier because we don’t have our bodies to ‘give it away’; being a different age, race, or gender is much harder in physical settings. Similarly, our facial expressions, body language, or other social cues can often indicate lying or other insincere actions. Online, these may be more difficult to spot, making it easier for a different personality to go undetected.”
Although it is easier to create a different personality through social media, Ellcessor also pointed out that it is not uncommon for online personality traits to slowly leak into one’s offline persona, and it can become hard to keep both egos separate.
“Creating an alter-ego may allow someone to explore parts of their own personality, and that may lead them to recognize it more in their offline life,” Ellcessor said. “So, if you create a mean persona, you may find yourself becoming meaner in everyday life; that’s not the fault of the alter-ego, but is a result of spending more time in that space of your own personality.”
Firozi also believes social media can serve as a good extension of one’s personality and strengthen relationships, both close and long-distance. However, she considers the Internet a risky place to express her own opinions liberally, because she fears she might get carried away. She said it is necessary to think of others before posting comments or opinions online, which is harder to do while sitting safely behind a monitor.
“Personally, I already have a blunt personality, so it’s rare for there to be something I wouldn’t communicate in person that I say online. But I can definitely say I feel a lot more comfortable elaborating online. I add those details that I might not say in person,” Firozi said. “But I honestly have tried to stay away from getting addicted to a ton of social media, because I’m scared of exactly this. I know this sounds cliché, but everything you say literally stays there forever. It’s hard to wrap your brain around [the idea, and it’s] also a scary thought.”
Firozi said it is easier to change one’s personality from behind a computer screen, but there are still advantages to having the ability to connect with others. Necibi believes social media websites, if users handle them responsibly, can help one stay in touch with friends and maintain a healthy social lifestyle.
“I think the ability for people to change their personality online isn’t always a bad thing,” Necibi said. “Some people are really shy in real life, but social media gives them the opportunity to comfortably open up to new friends and strengthen relationships. Having a different personality online, as long as it’s just an extension of your current personality … is generally a positive thing.”
Firozi agrees that social media is an excellent way to stay connected and informed about important happenings around the world, but she also said navigating through social media can be a slippery slope. She knows it is easy to get carried away with an online persona and thinks it is a big risk to try and balance the two personalities in everyday life.
“If you use this freedom of expression to express things that you might be afraid to express in person, or … if you’re one of those people who couldn’t dare say they have this amazing, artistic side to them, you now have an option to share your work to the world and get feedback, comments and likes,” Firozi said. “You can make an Instagram account and have your art displayed to the world [at] your fingertips without anybody knowing it’s you. At the same time, on another note, if you do try to change yourself, sometimes that person who you’re trying to be starts being you [and] you start showing the same bullying aspects that before you were only comfortable doing behind a keyboard. But slowly personality characteristics start slipping, and you end up with a bully walking down the halls, who used to only do it under their twitter user name.”
While clearly seeing the effects of social media around her, Firozi knows that relationships and personalities can change because of the Internet and accepts this as just another effect of technology on the minds of her generation.
“I have met people who seem like very aggressive, rude, non-mannered people, who end up being the sweetest, nicest people on earth,” Firozi said. “And you know, I couldn’t tell you how that works. I don’t know if they think people aren’t reading their ranting, raging, rude tweets, or what. But they are two different people. It’s not one person I’m talking about. This is just a type of person you desk with in the 21st century, it’s our reality.”
By Afsah Khan
What effects do you see from social media?

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