Advertising for Children

In 1983 children’s television was deregulated. This means children could appear in ads and more products could be marketed to children. How did this effect the children? What did this do to the economy? 

Technologies started to improve that this time as well which meant improvements in television, video games and overall graphics. With television more popular, companies thought of creative ways to promote their shows. Toys of children’s favorite characters were added to children’s meals at fast food restaurants, video games, school supplies and room decorations are also ways companies market their products. The economy improved once companies started doing these things. 

In 1979, McDonalds started promoting movies on their packaging. The movie was Star Trek. Happy meal boxes were designed with scene and characters from the movie. There was different boxes for different scene and characters which kept kids coming back. They wanted to complete the collection. That helped McDonalds and Star Trek. From 1988-2007 Disney characters and movies were on boxes. Toys also started at this time. Disney did not renew their contract with McDonalds because Disney wants their characters to promote healthier foods. 

So what does this mean for children? This influences children to be more like their favorite character because one of their favorite food places enjoys it too. This means they live in a world of advertisements. They constantly see new games, movies and toys. I don’t believe that this harms children. Parents still have control over their children’s actions. I think its up to the parents to decide when to draw the line when it comes too buying everything just because of who or what is on it. Some claim children are spending more time playing video games and watching TV then playing outside. Well parents have control over that. Yes, TV and video games can still be a part of the childs life and some are even educational. The world doesn’t need to revolve around the media but people can choose to make it that way. 

Creating an online portfolio

Starting a portfolio in high school can help students get scholarships, be prepared for the college setting and be more likely to get internships. I was forced to make a portfolio when I was a photographer for my high school. At the time, I thought I wouldn’t want or need it. I find myself regretting not to update it for the last two years. I wouldn’t have much to add but having a resume handy online will help me get internship. 

Websites like Wix, WordPress and Weebly Kent State suspends fraternity: are user friendly ways to create a portfolio. During an interview, a potential employer could easily pull up a portfolio. It should include a resume, about me and a few pieces of work. Quality over quantity. Today, it is better to have a wide variety of multimedia pieces. Videos, audio pieces and photos should be included. 

I used Weebly for mine. You can 100% customize what the pages look like and easily add multimedia pieces. Not to mention it is free! I would recommend starting early. Put whatever pieces you have on it and keep updating it as your work gets better! 

Check out my photography site at ashleybrophy.weebly.com

Coldstone Offers New S’mores Galore Menu Items

Paul Marek has worked at Coldstone for two months now. Besides ice cream Coldstone offers cakes, smoothies and shakes. The two for Tuesdays special has slowed down for the winter but they recently added new items to their menu. The S’mores galore items are made with marshmallow ice cream with chocolate shavings, graham crackers and chocolate syrup on top. Even with recent additions, some of the signature creations are still most popular. Marek said, “My personal favorite is peanut butter perfection that has chocolate ice cream with Peanut Butter, Reese’s and fudge.”

Paul Marek made a vanilla sundae with cookie dough on Nov. 4. Marek has only been working for two months but has already been trained to make cakes.

The S’mores Galore is the newest creation by Coldstone. It has marshmallow ice cream with the traditional S’mores ingredients added. They also offer a S’mores Galore with peanut butter cups mixed in.

Coldstone offers many flavones to choose from then a variety of mix ins. The employees hand make each mix in. Customers can watch their favorite candies, cookies and more getting put into their ice cream.

How Edmodo is used for education

Edmodo creates a social classroom for students. It’s free to register. It also gives an opportunity for teachers, students and parents to communicate about school. Teachers can post assignments, make polls and quizzes, embed videos and email parents directly.

It offers The Global Read Aloud program as well. This program allows adults to read books aloud for children around the world to listen.  Each reader picks a book for six weeks and the main goal is to connect the story with the world. Then they talk about the books and share ideas. It is targeted to kids between first and third grade. The program started 3 years ago and 30,000 connections have already been made. 

Parents can be more involved in their child’s work on this site. Parents and teachers can email or send messages through the site. Parents have access to grade, homework assignments and missing assignments. Parent involvement directly impacts the success of the child. 

Students can take quizzes and polls and get instant results. This is useful for studying reasons. Students enjoy being able to look at the questions they got wrong then see the right answer. Instant feedback also help teachers with grading and students wont have to wait to get an assignment back. 

I think this is a great idea. I like being able to see grade, assignments and do my homework online. This will help younger students learn more about technology since more and more things are going digital. I like how its a learning tool and is incorporated into regular teaching. It does not take away from the traditional classroom procedures. 

Students Protest on Social Media

With budget cuts, more school programs are being lost. Art students at University of the Arts London protest using their personal Facebook accounts. Art programs around the world are being cut. Students in Canada destroyed their work in hopes for a change. The article claims another form of art is protesting. I do not think using Facebook for protesting is a productive way for students to get their ideas across.

Teachers and administrators see social media as a bad outlet. Overall, responses are negative when it comes to social media use and students. Administrators could easily take what the students are saying in the wrong way. With the stories I’ve read, most schools would take this offensively and get the students in trouble. I really don’t understand why destroying their work helps either. Ruining their work in hopes to what? Get the program funded? It doesn’t sound helpful to me. They could be selling their work to help pay for the program.

On the other hand, with schools in California now checking students social media this could be beneficial. At least the students would have hope that someone from the school would see it. Again, comes the risk of saying too much or something too bad. Using social media is a good way to reach out in the community though. Facebook was not the right choice for a protest. I think Twitter would be better. Then, with retweets and replies their message would get to a larger audience.

I still have my traditional ways on how to approach a situation and Facebook is not the answer. I think face to face communication is still the best ways to deal with problems. Social media should be used for personal accounts, school help, assignments or entertainment. Not selling your ideas and thoughts to others. In reality, society doesn’t like a news feed filled with all fundraisers or loss causes.

Does social media effect admissions?

I found these charts to be interesting. According to http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Few-colleges-check-applicants-social-media-posts-4893046.php admissions won’t check someones social media account before admitting them. Why? Why can employers do it and not colleges? I think this is right thing to do and universities are more understanding than employers. 

Only 29% of Admissions officers would check social media. Why don’t they? They say they don’t have time and that is their students private life. I thought universities would be more likely to check but it sounds like they actually focus on academies which is most important. I think there should be a space for people to voice their own opinion online without worrying about employers or colleges judging them based off what they see. 

I understand a business needs to hold up their reputation and that comes from their employes but the same thing can be said about an university. I f students act poorly that makes the university look poorly as well. especially if a bad situation happens at a school event or on campus. The school could even face a lawsuit if things get out of hand. Just because a student has good grades does not mean they make smart choices. 

I think employers shouldn’t check social media. Yes, there is a risk but people can be professional and still have a personal life. 

Does your school offer an app?

Without the Go Mizzou app on my iPhone I would be completely lost. The app offers dining hall menus, maps, a directory and events around campus. The app is for iPhone and Android. I would recommend this app to anyone who attends Mizzou, parents for frequent visitors. 

A unique feature is the directory. Here you can find the name, contact information and major of anyone at the University. Yes, it may sound a little weird but I use it often. It comes in handy during group projects and sources for information. It also offers a list of every course at the school. This is useful for creating semester schedules and finding classes around campus. 

Something that could be improved is the maps. I know my way around campus now but I still find it confusing. They use google maps which I think can be fixed. Someone should design a custom map for Mizzou with better directions. Things like off campus housing and greek houses should be included. 

Personally, I enjoy the app but I don’t think it gets the most use it could. The menus sometimes don’t work and its not constantly updated. With a few minor fixes I think more students would use the app. 

Social media get students scholarships

University of California is turning to social media to help send more students to school. Alum, students and even celebrities are getting on board and donating. Every dollar donated goes straight to aid. This will be scholarship money, not grants. The University of California already gives over 2 billion dollars in grants and scholarship money so why are they asking for more? Is all 2 billion really going to students? People like Jamie Foxx has offered to perform if $20,000 is raised in his names. Who is really going to get all this extra money and will people actually donate?

On www.promiseforeducation.org people make promises  then donors pick which campaign to donate too. This is a six week experiment and about $860,000 has already been raised. Yes, the idea seems fun but what happens when people do not hold up their end of the promise? That will mean people will stop donating. Why isn’t the government doing more for students if there isn’t enough aid?

Will this encourage the government to stop giving out money? It’s possible. If they notice more people are going to this then they will get more stingy with giving out money. That isn’t fair to me. If www.promiseforeducation.org fails then what? The government expects everyone to have higher education yet they cant help pay for everyone.

According to www.promiseforeducation.org the state has cut funding by about $900 million. What happened to all this money? The website should focus more on who was affected and their stories. The promise idea is fun but not effective. Many problems could arise if people don’t keep up their promise. I also think there is other way to raise money. All college students would like some extra scholarship money. So what students will benefit from this and how will the students still struggling get aid?

I’m not convinced that crowdsourcing is the best way to help students. I think this should be an issue between the government and the university. Higher education is mandatory and we shouldn’t be relying on the community to send students to school. The government needs to step and and help.

Related articles

• UC Turns To Social Media To Raise Student Aid (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
• UC goes social to raise scholarship funds (universityofcalifornia.edu)

Monitoring social media

A California school district has recently hired a team to monitor their students social media.  This stated last year due to conflicts with social media. The company claims to only look at public posts of students. If a monitor sees something that violates the school code of conduct then school officials are notified. I think this crosses the line. I think it violates privacy but I could see why schools are concerned. 

This is taking place in middle and high schools and it is expected to spread across 3000 school so in the next year. I don’t understand why middle school is a part of this. I feel like the main problem is in high schools. The school says this is because of suciedes. From experiences, I know more cyber bullying occurs in high school. Middle and high school is a time for students to find out who they are. They shouldn’t have someone watch their every move. It’s their time to learn. 

Going off that, I think students will be less willing to be themselves knowing someone is watching. They might be too scared to post something creative. This is limiting students. Also they might be scared to post their opinion especially if they dont agree with the majority. 

As a school official, I could see why this sounds like a good idea. With more teachers using social media more students will have communicate with each other. That does leave more room for conflicts. 

I think there is a better way to go about this. There should be a monitoring system only if a student reports a problem. Mainly I think this is a parents decision. A parent should decide wether or not to watch what their chips is posting. I think this will cause too much non needed law enforcement activity. Children this young shouldn’t feel pressured to always be perfect. If a problem arises then there are other ways to handle it. 

Automatic Grading

Going to a school with 33,000 students, I understand grading could become stressful. Most teachers that teach general education classes are students themselves. Last year, I was introduced to an online website called SAGrader. This website allows students to type essays online then have it automatically graded. It grades off key words and phrases that the professor types in. I found using SAGrader a struggle because it wouldn’t recognize my language, the grading system could be slow and there was a lack of communication and understanding. 

SAGrader only recognizes what the professor types in. It was hard not to type in directly what the book said. My professor only put the book definitions in as the right answer. Every time I would submit my assignment it said I got it wrong, but I put in my own definition. I found it hard to learn the material because I was just reading directly from the book. SAGrader does not grade accurately and it took me multiple tries to get the answer right. I would have to keep changing the word. 

Another problem with SAGrader is that the system is very slow. Students shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do assignments but it would take up to 10 minutes to have my essay graded. It took too much time in between and waiting for it too grade wasn’t worth it.  I had no motivation because the program wouldn’t grade right and it took too long to grade. 

Also, There was no way to communicate other ideas with students. My teacher never read or responded to what I was writing. I would get my grade and move on. The topics were never even discussed in class. I feel like those should have been important topics for the class to talk about. SAGrader doesn’t give students a chance to interact or let them work as a team. 

SAGrader makes grading easier for teachers but does nothing for students. The only advantage is getting direct feedback and being able to submit an assignment as many times as needed (if your professor allows.) I don’t think this is a good way to go about online learning. I felt like I was typing directly from the textbook. To check out SAGrader for yourself go too https://www.sagrader.com/