Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Blog #8- Exploratory Writing for Wikipedia Post

While browsing through the Wikipedia articles, I cam across an article entitled Education Technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology), and feel as though I might be able to contribute to that page. The page is broken down into a few different sub-headings, which all have a little bit of information. I think that I might be able to surf the internet and come across some information that will help me expand a few, if not all of the subtitles within the page.


Some resources and outside websites that I found, which may or may not be helpful are as follows:
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/res.cgi/Educational_Technology - This website provides links to other websites that offer technology that can be used in the classroom.

http://coe.sdsu.edu/EET/ - This website offers definitions to educational terms that may or may not have been heard before. It also provides ways in which to teach under specific areas.

Chris Dede, writes about different ways we can bring technology into the classrooms:
http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/ss_pdf/DedeJCS.pdf - These curricular approaches curricular approaches improve success for all types of learners and may differentially enhance the performance of at-risk students.

http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/ss_pdf/ETDL.pdf - This chapter depicts visions of how sophisticated information technologies may influence the nature of higher education over the next couple decades.

http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/SS_research/cdpapers/policy.pdf

http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/pdf/ASCD.pdf - This article talks about 6 challenges for educational technology

http://connect.educause.edu/blog/jcummings/chrisdedeonemergingtechno/16662?time=1235509800

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~dedech/

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Blog #7- Smart mobs response

Flash mobs have been around for a few years- in fact, since 2003 when it all started in Manhattan. So what is that gets thousands and thousands of people to gather in one agreed upon destination and do what seems to be unusual behaviors? How is print in any way connected to strange phenomena that is going on?

Flashmobs work when there is a large crowd of people who are all gathering in a central place. Additionally, think about the people who do street theater. That is a group of people who have a passion to act, and have no better place than to do it in the streets. There are different perspectives that one can look at flash mobs, but if you take an artistic approach, the arrangement of flash mobs began as a performance art (i.e. street theater). So how does the world of "print" help the foundation of flash mobs?

When thinking of the world of print, one has to think of the use of other methods besides pen to paper. For example, the rise of text messaging, has given flash mobbers a better chance at getting larger crowds. Think of what you can do with a cell phone and a contact list. Generally speaking, a person has a few dozen friends in their list of contacts, so, say I were to get a text message inviting me to be part of a flash mob, I send it out and it reaches all my friends and then they pass it along, as so on and so forth. Before you know it, there are thousands of people gathering.

Digital communications have helped change the communications that occur in the process of gathering a mob of people. As mentioned in my example above, with the click of a few buttons, there could be a gathering of a lot of people at a particular place and a particular time in a matter of minutes. The use of these digital communications have brought forth a lot of change to the world as we knew it, especially to flash mobbers.

With the use of digital technologies, more people can gather due to a more rapid exchange of information. Photos are also able to be sent now, so that people are clear as to where the mob is to meet. It is also more intimate, in the sense that each person goes through their list of contacts in their cell phones, and sends it off to their contact list and then they pass it on. The list of contacts is endless as long as each person passes it on. There is also the capabilities of a GPS device in cell phones that help you navigate your way to where the mobbers are. Having said that, digital technologies have significantly changed the world for flash mobbers as they once knew it back in 2003 when it first started.

What can happen in the future with the organization of flash mobs. This is still in the unknown. Technology keeps advancing at an outstanding rate, so there is no way of knowing what new things may come as soon as tomorrow. Personally, however, I think that if the advancements get too much further, there is a major risk of invading privacy.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Final draft of Literacy and Technology narrative

When reflecting back upon my experiences of when I first became a literate member of society, was quite challenging. For starters, I grew up in a very literate household with two well educated parents; in addition to having a brother who is almost three years older than me. Growing up, I would see my older brother (and role model at the time), Todd, doing something, and it made me want to do exactly the same thing as him. A major influence on how I became a literate member of the twenty-first century, is due to peer pressure from teachers and friends, as well as social conforms.

As a young child, before entering preschool, my parents would have my brother or I select a book to read that night. As a baby and toddler, my mother made sure that there were always books surrounding my play area, and would encourage me to open the book, even if it was just to look at the pictures. Additionally, I received a lot of encouragement from my parents, relatives, and teachers to read and write. As a young child, I would always want to take crayons and ‘write.’ This ‘writing’ that I was doing, was more like scribbling lines on a paper, but to me, it was writing. My parents never forced reading or writing upon me, it was a desire that I picked up on my own after seeing my older brother doing it, and made me want to be just like him. If there was enforcement from my parents to read or write, I doubt that I would have had the passion to do so on my own, as often as I did.

When I began preschool, my interest in reading became stronger, as my teachers would read numerous books, daily. While writing this reflective piece, I couldn’t remember all of the details from my early childhood years, so I had to ask my parents, but mostly my mother for assistance. One story that my mother told me, was that when she would pick me up from preschool, I would tell her what story we read that day, and then she would take me to the library and we would rent the book for a week. Back in those days, what I called ‘reading’, was simply taking the book in my lap and sliding my finger along the words in the book, and then make up my own story (because I didn’t quite know how to read yet).

My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Vacchio, was a very animated individual, who would always dress up like the characters in the book she was reading us that day. I feel that her animation of the characters helped me gain interest in reading books. I began learning how to blend letters in order to make certain sounds. My literacy development was slowly rising. I knew the entire alphabet and the different sounds that each letter made. Another factor that I was coming to realize was the concept of writing. In the beginning of the school year, my teacher would give us a handout that we had to trace the letter with pencil. After tracing the letter by connecting the dots on the page, we then moved to lined paper, where we had to make the letters on our own. Print writing was something that I had to do, because it was valued in school.

By the time I got to first grade, I was able to recognize a lot of words and sound them out. They were mostly high frequency words, such as ‘the, it, he, she, me, I,” and so on. The motivation and desire to want to learn to read stemmed from my kindergarten teacher, but was encouraged by my first grade teacher, Ms. Schiller, as well. Story time was a regular occurrence in my classroom, and I remember all of the students sitting on the reading carpet and carefully listening to the stories. Both my kindergarten and first grade teachers had a strong passion for reading and writing, and getting their students literate, as best they could. They too were my role models at the time, and I wanted to please them, so I took the interest and began learning how to read and write.

For the remainder of my grade school, I had teachers who strived on getting their student’s writing to be better and help them improve. I have always been good at writing papers and assignments; however, I did struggle a little bit when it came to reading longer pieces of work, as I got older. My mother noticed that when I would be given a reading assignment, it would take me twice as long as it should. She would see me on the same page for a good twenty minutes. At one point, I believe in the summer in between third and fourth grade, my mom sat down with me and read a chapter in a book with me, and she noticed that something might be wrong.

Upon entering fourth grade, my mom talked with my teacher, Mrs. Forte. She told her that she thought I might have a learning disability. My teacher wanted to see for herself, before suggesting anything. She spent a few weeks watching closely over me, and finally came to the conclusion that she was going to recommend me to the child study team to get tested for a reading comprehension learning disability. Ultimately, after taking the tests and awaiting the results, it came back that I had a reading comprehension problem, and that is why it took my twice as long as my peers to get through a piece of work, and yet, still not understand it completely.

From fourth grade until approximately eighth grade, I received extra assistance. Prior to entering high school, I hated the stigmatism that went along with being ‘classified,’ so I didn’t make it known to my teachers. Fortunately for me, this type of learning style is one that people can grow out of; that is what I think happened to me. I was able to make my way through a reading assignment, just at a slower pace, and with the possibility of needing to re-read it for extra clarification. I have since grown out of my learning disability, yet at times I still need to read things over more than once to get a clear handle on what is being said.

Big changes happened while I was in fourth grade. Not only did I get classified, but my house got a new addition. My parents were pretty much on top of new trends and fads in society, which meant that when I was in fourth grade, my parents bought the first computer for the house. It was kept in the spare bedroom and my brother and I were allowed to go on it whenever we wanted to, as long as we asked. At this early stage of my technological life, the internet was not known to me.

The elementary school that I attended also started to include ‘computers’ as a weekly special around the same time as when my parents purchased a computer. In this class, students learned how to type on the computer and the simple operating skills needed to maneuver my way through a computer. When first learning the computer, I was very slow and afraid that if I hit the wrong button, or clicked in the wrong spot, that I would break it. Digital writing allows me to keep in touch with family and friends that don’t live local to me. All of my extended family lives out of New Jersey; an aunt and uncle in Delaware, cousins in Maine, Upstate New York, California, Manhattan, Mexico, and even a brother who lives in Israel. There is no way that I would be able to communicate with them, if it weren’t for the advancements in technology, and creating an e-mail account at the age of ten. Once my school introduced the computers class, and my parents bought our first family computer, my life as I knew it was changed.

The foundation that I gained from my parents and teachers, early on, has shaped who I am as a writer and literate member of society. More often that not, I prefer using the digital technology of typing, rather than pen to paper. Once the computer world was brought to our culture, many things were done on the computer. You can now write using the computer, shop online, send and receive pictures and letters from friends and family, online banking, bill paying, and so much more. To this day, I prefer to type something, rather than handwrite it; however there are a few instances that I will pick up a pen and paper and write, especially during the brainstorming process. For example, if I am writing a letter or a thank you card of some sort, I hand write it rather than type it because it is more personable.

During my years at East Brunswick High School, other opportunities came my way. There was a lot of peer pressure that occurred at my school, so one had to be smart and make the right decisions. The biggest opportunity was the advancements with digital technology. I remember sitting at the lunch table in the cafeteria, my junior year of high school, and my friends talking about a website called, Myspace. I swore that I wasn’t going to let myself get into such absurdness, and that I was not going to make a Myspace page. At this point, I knew nothing of these social networking websites, but again, with peer pressure, I caved in and made a page. For me, I chose to ignore a lot of the other peer pressures, but chose to tune into the peer pressure of what computers can offer me.

Being able to go on AIM (AOL Instant messenger) and talk to my friends without having to pick up the telephone was a new and fun aspect of my life. After saying bye to them on the school bus, I would come home and a few minutes later, I was talking to them again, and it felt that they were face-to- face with me, even though it was through text that we were conversing. I have never been someone who likes to talk on the phone for a long time, and this instant messenger helped me stay true to myself and not have to be uncomfortable while talking to friends on the phone. The creation of my Myspace, Facebook, and Orkut pages allow me to keep in touch with all my old friends. We are all in college and in different parts of the world, so being able to use these websites, has given me the opportunity to keep in touch with friends. Additionally, these websites have also helped me to reconnect with former friends and acquaintances.

Now, almost five years later, wondering where I stand in the peer pressure pool. Well, I still have my Myspace page that I made in my junior year of high school in 2004, and now, I have a Facebook page and an Orkut page. Let it be known that I did not take the initiative to create either of these pages. At my first college, a friend of mine, named Ryan told me about Facebook and one day while we were waiting for our next class, he sat down with me in the computer lab, and made a Facebook page for me. As for Orkut, my boyfriend of one year has an Orkut page, and convinced me to make one. Social networking websites is what my generation has grown up with.

Peer pressure is definitely what has shaped my writing life. With the creation of these social networking websites that have features such as blogs, it is no wonder that my life has become that way it is, today; so needy of a computer. Print writing is a requirement that society puts on us and one that the educational system strongly values. Learning to print was something that I had to do, where as digital print is something I chose to do. The peer pressure that I received from my friends and older brother, forced me to conform to the way society was changing. In order to keep up with the crowds, I needed to take the step and make these social networking websites. With exploration of the blogging network, I am able to express myself more freely. I feel as though digital writing has allowed me to mature as a writer, more quickly then if everything was done in print writing.

I give the internet a lot of credit, because I don’t know what my life would be without it. I am able to write and let my writing be read by everyone, or just my friends. The way the culture is today, so many people have become computer literate, while others are feeling the need to do so, it is only a surprise what the future may present to us. From teachers who pushed me for great penmanship and a creative mind, to the digital technology that lets my voice be heard, my contribution to the 21st century on being a literate member of society is so clear.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Blog #5- Thoughts for Wikipedia article

While thinking about what I might want to do my Wikipedia and hypertext essay, I knew that I wanted to do something that related to the field that I am going into, which is teaching. There are so many possibilities that can come out of it, such as: aiding students in the process of finding credible sources while doing research papers, social networking websites (myspace and facebook), cyberbulleying, and so on. Those were just a few of the ideas that I thought of on my own. But then when I looked at some of the topics that last semester's students have done, it brought forth another topic, that is teachers having a profile on myspace and facebook.

This topic really caught my attention. I am going to be a teacher, and currently, I have both a Myspace and a Facebook page. There have been so many stories and rumors spread that principals look on the web to check your background before bringing you in for an interview or offering you a job. On both of these social networking websites, I have my profile set as private, so in order to request me, one has to know me. Although I won't be applying for a teaching job until sometime after September (because I am due to graduate Dec. 09), I plan on deleting my profiles on both of these websites over the summer. I feel that I am about to start my professional career, and it is best that I set a role model for my students and not 'advertise' myself on these websites. This topic choice is not set in stone, and I am not 100% sure this is the topic I'm going to write about, but it is one that I have serious interest in.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

When reflecting back upon my experiences of when I first became a literate member of society, was quite challenging. For starters, I grew up in a very literate household with two well educated parents; in addition to having a brother who is almost three years older than me. Growing up, I would see my older brother (and role model at the time), Todd, doing something, and it made me want to do exactly the same thing as him. A major influence on how I became at literate member of the twenty-first century, is due to peer pressure and social conforms.

As a young child, before entering preschool, my parents would have my brother or myself go to our ‘library’ at home, (which we kept in the basement, also known as our playroom), and select a book for that night to be read. We would take turns as to whose room the story would be read in; one night in my bedroom, the next night in his. As a baby and toddler, my mother made sure that there were always books surrounding my play area, and would encourage me to open the book, even if it was just to look at the pictures.

Another aspect of my childhood was the encouragement that I received from my parents, relatives, and teachers to read and write. As a young child, I would always want to take crayons and ‘write.’ This ‘writing’ that I was doing, was more like scribbling lines on a paper, but to me, it was writing. My parents never forced reading or writing upon me, it was a desire that I picked up on my own after seeing my older brother doing it, and made me want to be just like him. If there was enforcement from my parents to read or write, I doubt that I would have had the passion to do so on my own, as often as I did.

When I began preschool, my interest in reading became stronger, as my teachers would read numerous books, daily. While writing this reflective piece, I couldn’t remember all of the details from my early childhood years, so I had to ask my parents, but mostly my mother for assistance. One story that my mother told me, was that when she would pick me up from preschool, I would tell her what story we read that day, and then she would take me to the library and rent the book for a week. I went to preschool for two years, and for both years, my mom would do the same routine. Back in those days, what I called reading, was simply taking the book in my lap and sliding my finger along the words in the book, and then make up my own story (because I didn’t quite know how to read yet).

My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Vacchio, was a very animated individual, who would always dress up like the characters in the book she was reading us that day. I feel that her animation helped me gain interest in reading books. While in kindergarten, I was beginning to learn how to blend letters together to make certain sounds, and my literacy development was rising. I knew the entire alphabet and the different sounds that each letter made. Another factor that I was coming to realize was the concept of writing. In the beginning of the school year, my teacher would give us a handout that we had to trace the letter with pencil. After tracing the letter by connecting the dots on the page, we then moved to lined paper, where we had to make the letters on our own. Print writing was something that I had to do, because it was valued in school.

By the time I got to first grade, I was able to recognize a lot of words and sound them out. They were mostly high frequency words, such as ‘the, it, he, she, me, I,” and so on. The motivation and desire to want to learn to read stemmed from my kindergarten teacher, but was as encouraged by my first grade teacher, Ms. Schiller. Story time was a regular occurrence in my classroom, and I remember all of the students in my class, sitting on the reading carpet and intently listening to the stories. Both my kindergarten and first grade teachers had a strong passion for reading and writing, and getting their students literate, as best they could.

My second grade teacher, Mrs. Pechar, had a different approach. Her passion was seen when she taught social studies. It wasn’t that she disregarded literacy (reading and writing) as useless or not important, but her background was in history and that is where we spent a lot of our time. To make sure that she was meeting all of the state guidelines, she made sure to incorporate reading and writing in her history lessons. I remember when we would learn about a new famous person, she would have us do a small biography about that person, thus using our reading and writing skills. Likewise, my third grade teacher, Ms. Keroni was very much like my first grade teacher and had her students do a lot of reading and writing in her classroom.

For the remainder of my grade school, I had teachers who strived on getting their student’s writing to be better and help them improve. I have always been good at writing papers and assignments; however, I did struggle a little bit when it came to reading longer pieces of work, as I got older. My mother noticed that when I would be given a reading assignment, it would take me twice as long as it should. She would see me on the same page for a good twenty minutes. At one point, I believe in the summer in between third and fourth grade, my mom sat down with me and read a chapter in a book with me, and she noticed that something might be wrong.

Upon entering fourth grade, my mom talked with my teacher, Mrs. Forte. She told her that she thought I might have a learning disability. My teacher wanted to see for herself, before suggesting anything. She spent a few weeks watching closely over me, and finally came to the conclusion that she was going to recommend me to the child study team to get tested for a reading comprehension learning disability. Ultimately, after taking the tests and awaiting the results, it came back that I had a reading comprehension problem, and that is why it took my twice as long as my peers to get through a piece of work, and yet, still not understand it completely.

From fourth grade, until approximately eighth grade, I received extra assistance. Prior to entering high school, I hated the stigmatism that went along with being ‘classified,’ so I didn’t make it known to my teachers. Fortunately for me, this type of learning style is one that people can grow out of; that is what I think happened to me. I was able to make my way through a reading assignment, just at a slower pace, and with the possibility of needing to re-read it for extra clarification. Fortunately for me, I have since grown out of my learning disability, but at times, still need to read things over more than once to get a clear handle on what is being said.

My parents were pretty much on top of new trends and fads in society, which meant that when I was in fourth grade, my parents bought the first computer for the house. It was kept in the spare bedroom and my brother and I were allowed to go on it whenever we wanted to, as long as we asked. At this early stage of my technological life, the internet was not known to me. While in fourth grade, the elementary school that I attended also started to include ‘computers’ as a weekly special. In this class, students learned how to type on the computer and the simple operating skills needed to operate a computer. When first learning the computer, I was very slow and afraid that if I hit the wrong button, or clicked in the wrong spot, that I would mess up the entire computer. Digital writing allows me to keep in touch with family and friends that don’t live local to me. All of my extended family lives out of New Jersey; aunt and uncle in Delaware, cousins in Maine, Upstate New York, California, Manhattan, Mexico, and even a brother who lives in Israel. There is no way that I would be able to communicate with them, if it weren’t for the advancements in technology, and creating an e-mail account at the age of ten. Once my school introduced the computers class, and my parents bought our first family computer, my life as I knew it was changed.

The foundation that I gained from my parents and teachers, early on, has shaped who I am as a writer and literate member of society. More often that not, I prefer using the digital technology of typing, rather than pen to paper. Once the computer world was brought to our culture, many things were done on the computer. You can now write using the computer, shop online, send and receive pictures and letters from friends and family, and so much more. To this day, I prefer to type something, rather than handwrite it; however there are a few instances that I will pick up a pen and paper and write. For example, if I am writing a letter or a thank you card of some sort, it is more personable to hand write it, rather than type a letter.

During my years at East Brunswick High School, other opportunities with digital technology came my way. I remember sitting at the lunch table in the cafeteria, my junior year of high school, and my friends talking about a website called, Myspace. I swore that I wasn’t going to let myself get into such absurdness, and that I was not going to make a Myspace page. At this point, I knew nothing of these social networking websites, but again, with peer pressure, I caved in and made a page.

Now, almost five years later, wondering where I stand in the peer pressure pool. Well, I still have my Myspace page that I made in my junior year of high school in 2004, and now, I have a Facebook page and an Orkut page. Let it be known that I did not take the initiative to create either of these pages. At my first college, a friend of mine, named Ryan told me about Facebook and one day while we were waiting for our next class, he sat down with me in the computer lab, and made a Facebook page for me. As for Orkut, my boyfriend of one year has an Orkut page, and convinced me to make one. Social networking websites is what my generation has grown up with.

Peer pressure is definitely what has shaped my writing life. With the creation of these social networking websites that have features such as blogs, it is no wonder that my life has become that way it is, today; so needy of a computer. Print writing is a requirement that society puts on us and one that the educational system strongly values. Learning to print was something that I had to do, where as digital print is something I chose to do. The peer pressure that I received from my friends and older brother, forced me to conform to the way society was changing. In order to keep up with the crowds, I needed to take the step and make these social networking websites. With exploration of the blogging network, I am able to express myself more freely. I feel as though digital writing has allowed me to mature as a writer, more quickly then if everything was done in print writing.

I give the internet a lot of credit, because I don’t know what my life would be without it. I am able to write and let my writing be read by everyone, or just my friends. The way the culture is today, so many people have become computer literate, while others are feeling the need to do so, it is only a surprise what the future may present to us. From teachers who pushed me for great penmanship and a creative mind, to the digital technology that lets my voice be heard, my contribution to the 21st century on being a literate member of society is so clear.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Blog #3- Lankshear and Knobel article

The article entitled Sampling "the New" in New Literature was, for the most part an easy read. The article starts off with a sampling which talks about all the different technologies and ways that literature is being transformed as we speak. As we move into the first subtitle of the article, "A sociocultural approach to literature," we read about the contexts of reading and writing. The topic of Discourses is also brought up in this section. Discourses are "socially recognized ways of using language, gestures and other semiotics, as well as ways of thinking, such that we can be identified and recognized as being a member of a socially meaningful group, or as playing a socially meaningful role." (pg 3). Basically, no matter what it is that we are doing, we are using a discourse, because we are constantly thinking, talking, writing, reading, etc., and discourses tend to change over time.

In the section entitled, "Sociocultural Definitions of 'Literacies,'" talks mostly about the fact that literacy is a form of communication. When we talk and when we write, we are communicating with other people. "Without text there is no literacy," is a statement that is made in the text, which holds true to my own personal beliefs. Some people write for the entertainment of others, while some writers write as a means of self-expression and communicating what isn't possible to verbally communicate. Weblogging is an online form of communication. In simplest terms, it is a form of communication that is typed out and posted on the internet (sometimes for the public to see, and other times just for a select few people to view). Within this subtitle, there is a section that talks about ebay and how people auction off ridiculous stuff, but this is all a means of literacy. The art of being an ebay bidder and seller, comes into play with this era of "New Literacy" that the article is trying to talk about. (pg. 5).

Before reading this article, I considered literacy to be just reading books and stuff published on the internet, however this is so not the case. As mentioned in the article, "hence, our claim that literacies are 'socially recognized ways of generating, communicating, negotiating meaningful content throug the medium of encoding texts..." Additionally, such literacies can include the following, "blogging, fanfic writing, manga producting, meme-ing, photoshopping, anime music video (AMV) practicies, podcasting, vodcasting, and gaming are literacies, along with letter writing, keeping a diary, maintaining records, running a paper-based zine, reading literary novels and wordless picture books...." (pg 6). Literacy, in the modern day, is such a wide array of different materials.

The article also talked about two different mindsets, mindset 1 and mindset 2, and the differences that come along. There was a comment made on page 11, "schools, for example, have tradionally operated to regulate scarcity of credentialed achievement, including allocations of litercy 'success.'" This part became of interest to me, because as mentioned in the previous blog, I have intentions of being a teacher, and the minute anything is discussed about schools, teachers, and/or students, my mind goes to my future career. Then on page 14, the comment is made as follows: "From the standpoint of the first mindset, space is typically through of as enclosed, as having borders. In the educational context, learning space is bordered by the classroom walls, lesson space by the hour or 40-minute time signal, and curriculum and timetable space by the grid of subjects to be covered and the time and physical space allocations assigned to them." Again, my mind drifted to the classroom, and how true that saying is. There is only so much time alloted for everything to be covered and there just isnt enough time in a day, nor space in a classroom to do everything that needs to be done.

The final topic that I found interesting and that connects to our discussion that we had in class on Thursday about our own personal experience with technology and writing, is about the multi-tasking. In the article, it talks about wireless classrooms where students are half paying attention to the class, while surfing the internet, doing online shopping, or instant messaging with friends. The article also says that "even when they were 'drifting' on their screens, they demonstratably participated as much if not more in class discussions than their 'on task' peers." I don't sit in class on a laptop, to begin with, but I understand where the authors are coming from, and I have been in classes where people are doing just that!

Overall, this article was easy to read and Iwas able to connect to a few of the topics they were talking about. Anytime that you, as a reader, can connect with the writing, makes for a more pleasureable reading experience.