Goodbye to All

At this point in time I have made new friends and have learned many new things. I would like to thank Mr. Sullivan for all that he has taught us this semester. I would also like to say goodbye to him and the rest of my classmates. It has been fun getting to know all of you and working with you. Dr. Strange I would also like to say goodbye to you. Your post,and video-cast were very helpful throughout the semester and without them I don't think that I could have passed. Thank you to all who have helped and good bye for now. I know that will see many of you in the future as teachers and colleagues.

Things I have learned this semester.

At the beginning of this semester I thought I was going to be severely overwhelmed after hearing what we would be doing in this course (EDM 310). However, once I began to get use to the idea of blogging everyday and learning the process of blogging, I began to like it. I now have three blogs, which I never thought possible, but I enjoyed doing it. There were many other things that I enjoyed doing throughout this course; such as Twitter, Google Earth, Google Docs, and other Google Apps. Each of these things will definitely remain with me as I continue throughout the course of my educational career, and teaching career. Furthermore, I enjoyed using Itunes, and the thought of possibly using these in my future classroom amazes me.

At this point in time, I do consider myself somewhat technologically literate. After the things I have learned I feel that I can compete successfully against many other teachers with innovative ways to motivate students. I also understand that I must remain vigilant to changes and/or new advances that may further expand my knowledge. I would currently rate myself a medium to good.

There is however one change that I think that should be made. Having been in the classroom many times as a substitute and as an aide. I feel that it would have been very helpful to understand such programs that we will use in the classroom. Not that nothing we have done hasn't helped. I feel that we should have learned some of the programs involved in online grade books, STI, and other similar programs that teachers use on a daily basis. I also feel that we should have gone over the Smart Board and how to use it. These are in almost every classroom I have been in and I think that these should be a priority to learn.

Beyond those thoughts, I have learned a great deal, and will appreciate the time Mr. Sullivan took to teach us these things. I plan on continuing my learning through the things I learned and apply them to new ones. Furthermore, I plan on learning new things from the processes I have already learned, building on them.

Three List; The Two from each I think are most imoprtant.

The first web post that we were required to look at today was from Doug Johnson, entitled Seven Stupid Mistakes, the second was another post from Mr. Johnson titled 7 Brilliant things a Teacher can do with Technology. From this list we were asked to pick two from each that were most important to us. On the first post, Seven Stupid Mistakes, the two I chose, or I that I thought were most important were;1)Not supervising children while they are using the computer. and 2) Teacher's teaching styles do not need to change. Here is the reason why I chose the first one. I feel that it is very important to supervise students while they are on the computer. Their skills on the computer are very advanced, and they can get into anything they need to while on a school computer. Therefore it is important that teachers not allow children to have free range on their own. The things they could find could not only harm them but you as well. The second one I chose, Teachers shouldn't change their teaching styles. Anyone who has this opinion should definitely pick a different career. Teachers must constantly change up the way they teach, not only to make sure that the children are understanding the information, but also so that the children will stay engaged in the learning process.
On to the things smart teachers do. The two things that I thought were the most important are Accepting the role of co-learner, and using the kids devices against them. I chose the first one because no one is perfect, and for a teacher or teachers to remain at the top of their game they must constantly strive to be life long learners. In order to get the latest information to them they must keep up themselves,teachers that is. Furthermore, the second rule I chose for smart teachers is to use the childrens' own devices against them. The teacher must use technology in the classroom, due to the fact that a majority of children are involved with some sort of technology. If a teacher were to use these devices then they are going to be prone to be more involved and apt to learn.
Finally, the last list we were required to read, New Rules of the Classroom, by Education Innovation. The two new rules that I thought were most important were Come to class everyday, unless you plan on going online. I chose this because, I think with the advancement of technology it is very easy to stay home and learn. I think that times are changing and the schools need to catch up, with today's fast paced society. The second most important rule that I thought was important was Use polite speech while in class, and on all online devices. As we have seen in the past many have observed the emergence of cyber bullying and other forms of rude communication. I think that it is very important to keep in mind that there is no need for this type of action from any party that would put down another. That is why I chose these different rules and suggestions as the most important in my eyes, feel free to comment and give me the reasons as to why you feel otherwise. Here are the sites to read the following information, check it out.
New Classroom Rules
Seven Stupid Things, and Seven Smart Things

Teacher's Desk

After reading through many of the blogs on this site it amazed me how connected these teachers were. I have set up similar accounts (Twitter and Delicious) and have had many ideas brought to my attention that I plan on using in my future classroom. I hope that when I become a teacher I can also put in my two cents and help some of them the way they are helping me with ideas now,I am keeping a notebook for the good ideas. I also enjoyed reading about he idea of having students Skyping and talking to others from a different country allowing them to speak in the language that they are learning.I see this as being a very important aspect of future teachers as well as experienced ones. However, I see the difficulty in using some of these technologies, due to the time constraints.
If the teachers were allowed to schedule what they do and their time, I can see how worth while a lot of these technological advances would be. I hope that the school system will begin to allow the teachers this freedom to expand the minds of the children. Collaborative teaching is very beneficial because different aspects of subjects are brought to the attention of all, therefore expanding on topics and educatin the children further than what they normally may be exposed to. I appreciate the technology and hope that my accounts, such as twitter and delicious will help me the way that so many others have been helped.

Editorial comment on this weeks assignment.

I have to say that this video started off to be very boring, and I was asking myself what is the purpose and meaning behind what he was telling me. As the video approached the end, and he had gone over his research and his findings it became a little clearer and the video made a little bit more sense. It is very difficult to find myself as one of the makers of a video because I am just not the type of person to put myself out there, but I do find it interesting watching others, and the sociological implications that his study presented. The aspect of sociology, presented here in his blog video or vlog, was that each generation has a different perspective of "self", and as the generations passed it was more evident that the idea of "self" was or is changing to "we". Through the use of technology we can find ourselves put out there in cyber space and sometimes people need the anonymity (even if we can see them, they do not see us, as stated in the video), to discuss things that are not really discussed. So the implications of You-Tube and other technological outlets are expanding the ways to communicate messages to each other or masses in order to reveal, inform, or humor people. The only advantage I see for this information is its use in the classroom. As a teacher I can see myself using You-Tube and other sites to inform children and expand their little minds of the world around them and not just the biases of the news or other outlets. However the schools of today are going to have to a little more lenient when it comes to technology, otherwise the children are going to miss out on what we teachers have learned to present to them, and the different ways we are capable of presenting said material.

Blogging Importance

There are many reasons as to why a teacher should allow students to post their work and achievements to the web. The students can recieve feedback from a variety of sources to build up their self esteem and know that their work is worthwhile. Here is a link to a great site that provided one little girl the opportunity to show her creativity to the world. It further allowed her to communicate with individuals that she may have never spoken to in her life time.
Click here To view a link to see how published blogs and post are effective to this little girl and others around the world.

Furthermore, if you look at this video you can see at what a amazing job this chorus did in singing the cover song.



Here is a great website where the little children of this classroom read a story, and publish drawings of their artwork for the world to see. The little boy that I was assigned to was Jonson. I have also submitted his artwork to show what a wonderful job he did. There is also a link to listen to him tell the story of Hansel and Gretel.

Link to Little Voices Little Scholars











The most important thing to remember is that we as teachers would connect students that would not normally be connected. Furthermore we would offer more positive feedback to the children, encouraging them, knowing if they work hard, present well, and educate others, that the praise they get as feedback is very rewarding to them. Another aspect that I just realized is that the more you do post and attachments and pictures the easier it becomes. If a child can aster these skills at an earlier age then he/she will be a step ahead of others when the world has become technology dependent.

Class Questionnaire

Technology and the Outdoors

As I began scrolling through all of the material this week, I was wondering if it were going to be some more stuff about technology and why we should learn it. I was surprised to see that of course it was about technology, but it was about the outdoors as well. This father and little girl Kaia, had created a video of photos that Kaia had taken, and then put into a video format where she had explained all of the pictures.

Here is the great part, the father didn't expect to get all of the responses that he had gotten, therefore opening a world of opportunities for him and his daughter.
The two of them started conversing with people all across the world about this little girl's photos, which were good by the way. I really appreciate the way that this family has reintroduced the importance of going outside and exploring your world. I hate to say this but I think it is something that today's youth are missing, spending all of their time either online or engaged in video games. Combining the past time of going outside and exploring, to creating learning environments around the world is amazing.

Some points were brought up however in the videos and comments about privacy, and the rapid growth of video technology. I tend to agree that it is very scary broadcasting yourself out to the world with no idea what or who is watching. I tend to find myself in the, scared of publishing my life, category. I also see myself slowly opening up to the new technology. Like one of the posters said, "If we do not open our self up how are we to learn together?"

As I am still hesitant to broadcast myself, I am interested in learning more and more things. I often find my self tinkering with all of the technology I have learned, to see what I am capable of doing, without being required. Regardless, I see this one post (Kaia's) as being one that has started a chain reaction of teaching and learning. The connections that people make through the use of technology will only enhance the learning process as well as society in general. The more we learn about other cultures, through the use of technology, the more our stereotypes diminish. And don't forget all the other stuff one can learn as well.

New Media Literacies

Well this video cast presented a lot of information in a short amount of time. I think that the skills that were presented are something that we as business people already use. However, with today's technology the way information is presented is the difference. As previously stated, I do not necessarily see these ideas as 21st century ideas, just ideas that are being presented differently do to the ever changing technology. Obviously, others will have to master and successfully use this information to succeed in their field.

I see myself as knowing a majority of these skills. However using them in the context of social networking, I am still in the process of learning. I continue to make strives to succeed in the field of education, therefore I will continue to learn as much as possible to help my students. Also, with the help of my PLN, Personal Learning Network, I will be able to find my answers faster than before. As the pace of life changes, and it seems to be going faster and faster these days, it is important to find information as soon as possible. Furthermore, we as consumers, are encouraged to look at the information of others to see if our purchases will be worthwhile.

Two words that stuck out in my mind as I viewed the video was the word play and negotiations. We as individuals start off learning by the form of play. If students learn the ideas in this video early on, it is inevitable that they will only go further, and expand their minds even further. The other word was negotiations. Once a child learns to negotiate, they become more socially aware.

As they also said in the video, "Collective Intelligence is important for the World," and I couldn't agree more. Working together as a group to solve the problems, is a good idea. My only hope, is that this and other sites remain politically neutral. I have seen many sites that begin to stray to one side of the political spectrum or the other cutting off many of the former listeners or readers. Other than that, interaction between individuals, through the words described in the video are important for not only students, but also the world.

Wendy Drexler

I actually love the idea of students having their own PLN, Personal Learning Network. I think that this will take a huge burden off of teachers. Not that the teacher will do any less, but can you imagine that one day students will possibly be able to go online and search and collaborate with other students to come up with answers on their own. Also they will be able to elaborate on subjects that their teachers were unable to expand on due to time constraints. The idea of connectivism between students thrills me, something that is informative and not socially tied, like FaceBook. Please understand that I too am a FaceBook user, but only to the extent to keep up with friends and family, and games.

Obviously the sooner that students learn this form of information out there, it will give them an advantage that others do not have. I am unfortunately learning this later in life, but fortunately I am still learning this in its somewhat of an infancy stage. The PLN connects teachers with teachers, classes with classes, and information to individuals and others who are having a hard time finding it.

So is it necessary to have teachers? The answer is, Of course it is still necessary for teachers and instructors. Just because the students may have the information at their fingertips, it would be the job of the teacher to teach the student how to learn how to use the information provided. They must also teach the student how to use the PLN. The teacher must also maintain the network, and like she said creatively, working together people can solve problems. This technology, is in my opinion, some of the better ideas to come along.

Richard Miller's This is How We Dream, Part 1 and 2

After listening to the Youtube broadcast, I tend to agree that the world is changing and so is learning. Mr. Miller's dream is coming true slowly, but inevitably faster then what I think he even dreams. Over the past few decades I have seen technology advance at such exponential rates that I can not even imaging what the children of tomorrow will be doing. He is correct in saying that it is going to be a financial burden for the school system to implement these ideas, but it is something that I feel will be done eventually. I am not saying that I want all children to become graphic designers and computer engineers, but to influence them with hands on computer skills will only enhance their knowledge of the subject being presented.

Am I prepared to write with multimedia? Not yet but it is the intention of this student to learn all that is out there, not for mastery but for the sake of just using this technology to positively influence my future students. Like I previously stated, technology is rapidly growing and who knows what is going to be coming down the pipeline next, but with the basic understanding of other versions and current technology, it is possible to proceed and pass on to the younger generation.

I am sure that by the time I graduate, the students of tomorrow will have already mastered a new skill in technology, if it is given to them in the form of a game, such as Wii or Nintendo, unfortunately. Children tend to focus on these items, and are learning new skills without them even knowing.It will be up to us as teachers to use this knowledge and build on it, to present the technology in a form that will be useful in life not only academically, but socially as well.

IPods in the Classroom?

I really do not know how I feel about this, is this the first step for replacing teachers? Just kidding but in a way it does seem possible now. Regardless of the last comment, I do feel that Ipods are an excellent way to enhance learning. Students can download lectures or other information such as spelling words (dictated by the teacher so pronunciation would be accurate for lower grades). One site that I thought was helpful was from Education World, http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites070.shtml, this site goes over how Ipods can be a useful tool in the classroom. This site gives instructions on how to, and why to use Ipods in the classroom. This site also references Duke University and how it is pioneering this new teaching tool.

Duke University specifically goes over how and when Ipods are used and how the students feel about it on their website, http://cit.duke.edu/tools/digital_media/ipod.html. As more and more schools catch onto this educational aide, the more students will flourish. Missing class will no longer be an excuse, students can simply download the specific material and not miss a beat. What once was banned as a nuisance in the classroom, has now become a requirement in some places. As long as people keep coming up with these interesting techniques students will never get bored. School will no longer be looked at as a burden.

My only concern is the financial aspect of this new development. There are still many families and students that are on fixed incomes. It will be these students that are going to be left out. Before this becomes the norm, one must look at what students are paying for books (which are astronomical to begin with), other mechanical devices that are used only for quizzes, and other not mentioned expenses, and that is just college students. K-12 students have it a lot worse, those students are subject to parent discretion, what is more important power bill or IPod for one of my three kids. I really like the idea of the concept of having IPods as an aide to the teacher but realistically the responsibility needs to be the schools to provide these items.

Ipod

Dr. Christie

Dr Christie has put a lot of helpful information available to anyone willing to learn, and her site covers almost everything she has accumulated over her long 40 year teaching career. From classes to workshops, Dr. Christie covers it all. I specifically like the fact that she posted reliable sites for children to search with. This sites filter out bad imagery and content that should not be seen by children. Also, her workshops cover a vast majority of topics to help teachers utilize the information available to them via the web.
Another part of her site that I enjoyed was the information regarding geocahing and GPS. These two things have become highly popular over the past few years, really changing the game hide and seek. However, I appreciate this due to the fact that last year the teacher that I worked under incorporated GPS in her PE classroom, to have the children run around and exercise without them really knowing it. It was an excellent way to incorporate technology in the PE classroom.
Apart from that, Dr Christie, focuses on constantly educating yourself to make yourself and the classroom better. This way the children are positively influenced to constantly strive to continue their education, and use "fun, technological advances that we may not have had.

iTunes University

Looking into iTunes University has peaked my interest even more. As a future educator I can see how this site could be very useful in the classroom. The search engine provides links to different universities that may help provide further knowledge to pass along to students in the classroom. Teachers can see specific sites, series of instruction, or programs, to help them expand or teach a lesson.

The easiest way to search for something is to go to the iTunes website, find the search button in the top right corner. Once you type in what your looking for, your results will be displayed. Simply click on one of the chosen search items and pull up that page. After you have done this click on the tracks button to play specific tracks. You can choose any university that participates, other institutes will soon post more.

With a majority of the classrooms now having smart boards, a teacher can easily pull them up without the need of television sets from the library. The students could listen and watch all information with the simple touch of a mouse. To find iTunes University simply go to this link www.apple.com/education/guidedtours/itunesu.html. This will help you get started with tours and download information.

What I've Learned this Year, by Mr. McClung

I really liked this blog post. To summarize, a teacher must learn a lot of things in his or her first year, and reading his experiences made my anxiety relax a little bit. He emphasizes the of the classroom being more student centered, rather than teacher centered. Mr. McClung also spoke of his lesson plans and how he struggled over writing the perfect lesson. It was only later that he realized that he didn't have to be perfect, and that one must just go with the flow, because things do go wrong no matter how much you prepare.

Furthermore, Mr. McClung, spoke of the importance of being reasonable, knowing that you are working with children is the important thing. He stated that teachers usually lose sight of what is being taught instead of what is being learned. Finally, Mr. McClung spoke of four more important things for a teacher; learn to communicate, listen, learn, and do not be afraid of technology. In each case, being reasonable is the most important lesson.

This was a very interesting blog post. I like the fact that he uses his classroom blog to promote this information. His thoughts on being reasonable, expect the unexpected, keep learning, and listen, have to be at the top of my list as the most important things. As a future teacher one would be wise to listen to words of wisdom from others that have been through what you are about to go through.

Wikipedia; Fact or Fiction?

After listening to the NPR website and reading their post I have come to the conclusion that this site is not a very reliable website for any type of research. According to the blog/site, that anyone can go into the site and make changes regardless of intentions (good or bad). Also, they stated that individuals can go into a business and log into their wireless internet and post comments with the business' IP address. Therefore, businesses can have information altered by anyone trying to ruin the reputation of the business or individual for that matter. According to the NPR site, Wikipedia is trying to eliminate the problem of fraudulent postings, by teaming up with a student, from CAL TECH, that had designed a program that tie edits to the sources.

Hopefully, this new program can fix or eliminate the problems with Wikipedia. Unfortunately, however I do not find this site to be very informative. Its reliability is zero. Without definite, visible, sources I think that this really is a waste of space and time. Why not just search with Google and its application for scholar searches, at least there you have reliable sources and documented research.

Randy Pausch; Last Lecture

To begin I must say that it is a shame that we had to lose someone so inspirational and talented at such a young age. Randy's use of humor and his love of life showed in everything he set out to do ( I can only assume without reading his work). The projects he has worked on and the advancements that will come from his work, will inspire many and teach others to further his creations.

Where to begin to choose from his words of wisdom; brick walls, head fakes, having FUN,loyalty, and never losing the childlike wonder. Each one more inspiring than the other. If I were to choose just one it would be his brick wall analogy, that brick walls are there for a reason, not to stop you but to stop other individuals that do not want it bad enough. The second thing that Randy said that really stuck with me was that if someone makes you mad or you are unimpressed, give them enough time and the will end up impressing you later down the line. I can only state that as close to the actually saying as possible because Randy himself was paraphrasing from "Snoddy" a friend of his that told him the same thing.

I also liked his ideas on indirect learning. The presentation was letting individuals know that there are other methods of teaching. That it doesn't have to be about book learning. Different individuals learn differently. To show that you can teach someone something through an indirect path encourages prospective teachers to think outside the box, and to try new techniques to help their students succeed. As he stated in his seminar, " It is all about the Fundamentals." I can also appreciate how he threw in failure is a part of life as well, meaning that you may not always get what you want in life, but it will lead you on a different path, there again the brick wall. If you practice at something long enough you can succeed.

Finally, I can say that Randy threw me for a loop, when he told the audience that the entire presentation/lecture was a "head fake". I can see how important these things are. The presentation was to his children, and for his family. He made us believe we were there for something else and then he taught us about his family. The best "head fake" there was. His dedication and loyalty are proven by his actions here on earth, and many have and will benefit from his life's work.

Mr. Fisch

Okay, here goes, I do not completely agree with this man or his thoughts. Do I think it is important to know how to work a computer yes. Do I think it is important to know how to create your own programs and create software, well no, if we could all do this then what would all of the computer technicians do. If we all knew how to fix all our own problems or products then why would we need anyone else? I know that is a little extreme, but that is how I feel after reading Mr. Fisch's post. Comparing this to illiteracy, is completely amazing. We still have many people in this world who are illiterate, so why move on to another issue when we haven't even fixed the first one yet. I guess those problems should be expunged from the software, with the use of CCleaner or RegCure. I understand that everyone must have their soap box for one issue or another. I am glad to know that he is worried about 2020, when the world is all technological, and its advances in computers.

Here is where I agree. I do think that it is important to learn how to use the computer and its components. It is important for this basic understanding when going into the business world. However, one point, most places will train you on some of the more complex computer programs that that company has or uses. Computers are a part of our world now, and have made life easier, I will agree with that. As to how the world will run in twenty more years, after many more advances, and probably a thousand more upgrades later(and that number is probably very short of what the actual number will be) I have no clue. However, teachers should take this time to instruct students on how to use the computer and what they will need to know for it. Computers should also help in the classroom as instructional aides. Therefore, teachers should keep up to date with the relevant software as it becomes available.

Technology by Mrs. Hines

When it comes to technology, I am also on the fence, somewhat like Mrs. Hines. I also feel that the new technology is very helpful in the classroom as an instructional aide. The basics should be taught and mastered before new information is introduced. I have seen many students in the classroom, that can not read or write properly, but yet they can do more on the computer than I can. This astounds me, students rely to heavily on spell check and other tools to help them write because they cannot do it themselves. Technology is advancing at such an exponential rate that these skills are something that is outdated as soon most people have mastered them.

It is true that teachers must keep up to date with these new technological tools. They must be used as instructional aides though, to show children the relevancy of the information being presented. How it relates to the topic, and how it could give more information, beyond basic instruction. Without the basics though these technologies are pointless. I understand that times are changing. but we can't lose site that those inventors were once students in the classroom, and without their basic understanding of math , English (or whatever language), science, and history they would not have succeeded. I don't know who originally said it, but "if you don't know your history you are damned to repeat it." Well here is my point, if not learned what will the future hold, technology can not save us from the same mistakes over and over. I guess I am still a little old school.

Michael Wesch

A Vision Of Students Today?

I really related to this video, coming from a larger school, there were all of these types of students in my classroom. There were the individuals that never showed up, and those that showed up but were doing something else. The classes were so large it was impossible for the instructors to focus on the students. Their goal was to discuss the topic, and it was up to the student, which was paying for it, to make the decision whether or not to do the right thing and go to class to learn. I have to admit that I was one of the students that didn't really go to every class. My general idea was the same as the professors, if I wanted to learn I should go to class and listen, if not it was my money I was wasting, cause the professor still gets paid.

One thing that I might change about the video would be to put some people in there that had their face covered with a black spot to indicate, that they are there but not participating, or give the general impression of someone being there but not seen. Some of the classes are so large there would be no way to notice everyone in the class. Indicating the absent, or the here but not here group. I would also add some of the professors, I know that many of them would not want to do it, but a lot of what students like and dislike about college are the professors. If there were some of them holding up signs saying something like, "I make class so boring many students fall asleep", or "I make the test more difficult by tricking you with one word differences on answers, thus making you miss the question, and failing the test". This would be some of the additions that I think every student could relate to.

Power Point About Me

Next Generation Learning

I just have to start out by saying that it was amazing what that school is doing. If you don't know what I am talking about visit this site to see what technology is doing to enhance the minds of children, http://is.gd/2bYd6. After you reach this site just click on the link next generation learning to watch the video. OK now to tell you a little bit about what I thought of it. I have to say that I wish things like this ere done in our local school system. I know we are teaching certain things in school, technology wise, but nothing as extreme as this. I can only see positive things, that children actually look forward to doing.

Another thing that I was particularly interested in was that the children got to play with the Wii. I have always thought this is a good way to try and not necessarily trick children, but a good way to get them to do exercises without really thinking that they are exercising. Further more the way that children could upload/ download homework could do wonders. Especially now with the swine flu hitting the school system, children that are absent will not miss any instruction. I think this technology is very important and should be implemented in all schools.

Preparing For the Podcast.

After viewing several links, I found that the first link (http://langwitcheeeees.org/blog/category/podcasting/) to be very informative. I actually found information that I could print out and save on the proper steps to produce a podcast. Listening to some of the examples from Kindergarten and Third Grade, shows me that energy is required, as in energetic voices, to make the podcast exciting and entertaining.

The second site I went to was the Education Podcasting Network (http://epnweb.org/index.php?openpod=16). Now this site had some very interesting things to use in the classroom. It covered topics in all areas such as science , math, language arts, and many others. The few I looked had were not in a video cast, rather just voices. I have learned from this site that there are options available to teachers and others to use this site to enhance a topic in the classroom. I look forward to using this site in the future, as well as exploring the others to better help in instructing the students in my classroom.

Podcasts

Recently I watched the podcast from last years class. They were discussing technologically illiterate teachers. There are a few changes that I would make to the presentation. To begin with I would change the setting in which the podcast was filmed. I believe that if you are talking about the specific topic you should at least have some computers or some technology in the shot. I would also like to invite a variety of individuals from the computer expert to someone who is not so familiar with computers. (However, I know that this is just a discussion between classmates.)

Another thing that I would change would be to instruct our guest to look into the camera. I see where this may be difficult due in part to the microphone not picking up the voices. Other than that, it seemed to go pretty well, and the topic was interesting. I really do not have any other suggestions or thoughts on how to improve the video.

Podcasting

Here goes, to be honest with you, I am, in no way familiar with pod-casting or podcast. But this is a process of learning so here goes nothing. I did watch four podcast, Blogger lesson, I-tunes, Twitter Lesson, and Smart-board Lessons #11.

The purpose of pod-casting, in my opinion, is an excellent way to learn through visual aides. The three podcast that were on the professor's blog site were very enlightening, in helping to learn the different aspects of each site mentioned ( i.e. Twitter, I-tunes, and Blogger Lessons. These pod-casts walked me through the activities with out a problem. This also allows me to go back and listen again if I missed something.

The only way I assume, and I am sure I am going to look very stupid when I say this, but is that Dr. Strange videoed the computer screen while discussing the different things you could do on each site. This way the person could see what he was doing on his computer while listening to him. In the last podcast however that I listened to , Smart Board Lessons, there was no visual aide. There were two people discussing different things that teachers could do in the math class. They did however mention that other podcast discuss different options for every subject.

I look forward to learning how podcast work in the future. Understanding this will help in the classroom, to bring in outside insight to the students. I know that they easily get bored, and with student's technical knowledge, their interest will be peaked. I also think that if more products come with podcast instructions, it would be easier to assemble or learn the proper technique to be successful.

My First Pictures

My First Link

Click Here To go to the home page of my university

Vicki Davis, a gifted teacher, moving students and teachers into the future.

Vicki Davis is a teacher, in a southern city of Georgia, that is an IT instructor. She has worked with students and teachers alike to create a website, DigiTeen and edutopia.org, that has won an award for its featured blog site. This site connects children across the globe to work together on projects, where collaborative learning is nurtured. Not only do the students learn, but the teachers learn as well.

Vicki Davis's belief is that with limited tools there is only limited achievement. Therefore, she has work diligently to create a site that teaches cooperative learning. Students and teachers work together to learn and master skills that will be necessary in the future. According to other sites, from previous post, technology is moving faster than we are, so in this writer's opinion, this is an excellent first step in a process that unites children of the world to a common goal.

Vicki Davis should be commended on her efforts, and I hope that teachers of tomorrow and today, for that matter, take lessons, and incorporate some of her ideas and designs to help students conquer the technological future, or at least give them the basic building blocks to help them with a stronger base for unknown future endeavors.

Ken Robinson speaks the truth.

I don't know how many people have seen this video, but I recommend it to everyone. Simply go to http://tinyurl.com/mluw5k . Ken Robinson's insights on education are, in my opinion, absolutely right. Schools today are focused solely on math and science, that children have lost their imagination and creativity. Ken also uses humor to help get the his message across, with not only personal stories, but stories of friends as well.

Ken's focus was that we as educators should not diminish a child's creativity and place equal focus on the arts as well as math and science. One particular point he made was that as little children we are told that we cannot find a job in things that interest us, but he continued by saying that a number of people today have emerged in these abstract fields and not only succeeded personally but financially as well. Ken Robinson has three main principles of education; He says, " It should be diverse, dynamic, and distinct."

Finally, Mr. Robinson states that the future is unknown and unpredictable, and it is going to be in the hands of children to facilitate the changes needed, with their creativity. In conclusion he says that we should use the gift of human imagination wisely, and that children's talents should not be squandered. No truer words have ever been spoken.

The numbers don't lie.

After viewing the Did You Know video, I was astonished at the information contained in it. I have personally been amazed at what has happened technologically since I was born, and am amazed even further knowing what is to come. If the facts and figures in that video are correct, then we as a society need to really evaluate our lives, and re-exam the way we learn. Students of the future are going to have it a lot tougher then we did as children. Furthermore, the adults of tomorrow will find it even more difficult to maintain knowledge of ever expanding technologies, just to keep up.

My only fear from watching this video, and hopefully everyone else as well, should be that will the education system be able to afford to keep up with the changing technology, and can they afford not to? According to the video currently we are already behind India in higher I.Q.s, and China has the technology to provide more services with their fiber optic cables. If you haven't viewed this video or would like to be amazed at the facts and figures visit this site, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8. My hope is that we can learn from this video and strive for a successful future.

A little about me.

I am currently working on my second degree. My first degree was from Auburn University, in Criminology. I worked as a Probation Officer for 6 years and decided it wasn't something I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So I quit, signed up for school, and got a job with the Mobile County Public School System as a Physical Education Aid. After learning that it would difficult to obtain a job as a Physical Education Teacher, I decided to get an Elementary Education Degree. After I receive my degree, I plan on going back to get my Masters in Physical Education.

Starting out in Microcomputing for Teachers.

Welcome to my blog site. Here you will find information pertaining to me and the education field. I hope you enjoy.