Friday, December 18, 2009

Article 1- Gerardo Lopez

I found this article to be very interesting, especially after the project that we did with evaluating test scores. As I was reading I noticed that studies are showing that many immigrant parents are categorized as not involved at their child or children's school. Researchers have automatically decided that this is because they are immigrant families, which is partially true but it is not because they do not want to be involved, it is because they value teaching their children in a different way. They felt that by exposing their children to the kind of work that they are doing it will teach them some valuable life lessons and help them to see why education is so vital when it comes to being successful in the work place. The three main lessons that Padilla's, immigrant families, try t o teach their children are: first, becoming familiar with the type of work that they have to do, next, coming to the understanding that this work is difficult and you are without adequate compensation. Lastly, to help their children realize that without an education they will end up working the same type of job. After reading this article, I really feel like I am able to understand why immigrant parents use this tactic and approach with their children. It is an affective tactic that works well with the culture and lifestyle that they derive from and it helps them to show their children that they care and want to be involved in their own not so original and traditional way that we mayor may not understand.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Technology Resources

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Skype

For my third and final emerging technology blog I decided to use Skype. Skype is one of my new favorite online tools. I have really enjoyed using it becasue it has allowed me to keep in touch with my family that lives out of state and even out of the country. The only things that you need are a microphone and a webcam to use skype so it is very easy. Skype can be downloaded for free online. When using this program, there is no charge is you are using the chat or calling from Skype user to Skype user. You do also have the option to call from Skype to a land line of cell phone, but that does have a charge.

Another really neat thing that Skype is being used for is school purposes. This past semester I had a group project that I was assigned and it was very difficult for all of us to meet. We were able to use Skype to communicate and do our project. Using skype was helpful becasue we were able to see what the other person was talking about but not have to be in the same room as our group members.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009