Ubiquitous - 3:2

Ubiquitous – 3:2

Monday, September 24, 2012

When & Where: I came across this word, ubiquitous, while reading  Fisher and Frey’s (2009) beliefs on comprehension and what critical piece is missing in reading instruction (background knowledge).  In context it appeared as “Although ubiquitous in the educational world, terms like reading comprehension, inference, and cognitive ability represent the type 0f academic language unique to our profession” (Fisher & Frey, 2009, p.12).

Definition: As defined by dictionary.com, ubiquitous means “existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time.”  

Level of Familiarity: : Although I know I have had exposure to this word in other texts, I really had no idea what it meant. My comfort with the word is minimal even in terms of pronouncing it. Despite me looking up the definition, I still really didn’t have a grasp on what “ubiquitous” really represented. What helped me to grasp the word meaning was searching through the wide of array of ubiquitous images.  

Reflective Commentary: Now that I have some level of meaning with the word ubiquitous, I will definitely use when trying to describe a concept or idea that is widespread or appears everywhere. I particularly like the picture displayed above because it really speaks to the definition of ubiquitous. When searching for images to represent this word, I found a variety of images all illustrating this word meaning. More interestingly, I found that this word could be used or seen in a variety of content disciplines. While undergoing my search (through the google search engine)for the perfect image, I found diverse disciplines using the word “ubiquitous” to describe an area of their field. This word really speaks to Fisher and Frey’s (2008) category of Tier 2 words, “those high-utility words that often change meaning in different contexts” (p.12).