Goodbye EDM310

Well, it's the end of the semester and I've learned so much. Thank you, Dr. Strange and my fellow classmates, for teaching me all the great possibilities technology holds for my future and for the futures of my students. This class was interesting and useful and the things I've learned will stay with me for the rest of my life and career. I hope you all have a fantastic summer! God Bless!
~Deborah Snowden

PLN Update #2

My PLN is still a work in progress. I'm trying to keep tabs on the blogs of the Teachers I commented on for our Comments4Teachers. I've also become far more connected to my fellow students. I use Skype, Delicious, Twitter, Facebook, and blog posts to keep up with people, ideas, news and information. A PLN isn't something that is ever really complete. You have to keep looking and adding new dimensions to it. I can honestly say I've become more dependent on my PLN, which includes instructors, classmates and even people I've never met. As I graduate and begin my career, my PLN will grow. The possibilities are endless. One of my goals for the future of my PLN is that I will be able to Skype fellow professionals from my classroom so that we can hold class discussions with individuals, and maybe even other classrooms, outside of our school.

Project 15

Google Earth Project

Click here

Homework, May 2, 2010

What I Learned In EDM310
This was not what I'd call an easy class. It definitely wasn't what I expected when I signed up to take this course. Yet, I'm glad I took it and I'm glad that I've been challenged to work hard and learn new things. I learned so many things about technology and its uses as a tool in the classroom. This class has changed the way I view education. I now realize there's so much more to being a teacher than standing in front of a class full of students and lecturing.
Thanks to Dr. Strange, I discovered a lot of new things that I'll probably use in my daily life. Google Docs, for example, and Delicious. Both are great for my classes. I take and share notes using Google Docs and I like to bookmark different useful sights and share them on Delicious. I've also learned how useful blogging is. Even though I may never be a regular blogger, I understand the merit in blogging and I definitely plan on using a class blog in my future classroom.
I realized how connected my students will be. Technology is an excellent way to help them learn and share their work with the world. I think that will be the way to get their attention. My students are going to be very well networked. I'll always be their teacher and I will still give lectures, but I want to Skype in with other teachers and historians so that my students will have a chance to interact with professionals and I want them to be connected with students across the globe who are studying the same things that they are studying. The world is full of information and my students are going to have access to it.
I will never be done learning. It is my goal to learn alongside my students and I promise to keep up with technology for their benefit (and mine).
As I've said, I learned a lot. I'll use a great deal of it, though probably not all of it. Still, it's nice to have the knowledge. I cannot say that the class itself excited me but some of the things I learned did get me pumped for being a teacher. I'm excited to make a difference in the lives of my students. This class helped prepare me to become the teacher my students deserve.
There were many time-consuming assignments, but I wouldn't say any of them were particularly intellectually challenging. What was intellectually challenging was thinking outside of the general box of how I viewed education. Some of the things I read in the Comments4Teachers and other assignments challenged me to think and form my own opinions.
This class wasn't boring, really. I admit, sometimes I got irritated and bored when we had to watch long videos and tutorials. I think maybe there should be a little bit more instructional time spent in the classroom instead of students having to go home and watch videos about how to do something. The videos are good for reference, yes, but I think it would have made more sense at times if we were shown what to do in class. Overall, taking this course was a good experience. I don't feel that we were particularly overworked, though there were a lot of assignments and they became difficult to keep up with. There definitely was a lot of time involved in the course, but none of the assignments were difficult once I understood what needed to be done.
Am I technologically literate? Well, let's just say I'm a lot further along than I was a few months ago and I'm going to keep on trying to learn new technologies. I'm sure there's still a lot to learn out there. In order to improve my technological literacy I will have to keep at it and that's just what I aim to do.

Project 14 and Project 8

Skype

How I've Used Skype This Semester
I admit, I haven't used Skype all that much this semester, though I certainly understand how to use it and why it is a valuable tool. Most of my family members live close to me so I don't have much occasion to Skype them, especially considering that most of them wouldn't know how to use it. I am going to try to convince my cousin in Ireland to put Skype on her Mac so I can talk to her more often.
I've used Skype to talk to classmates and discuss assignments and exams in other classes. Recently, I convinced a few people to sign up for Skype so that we could communicate more easily. This makes studying for tests a lot easier because we can communicate face to face without having to go out of the way to meet up. With finals coming up next week, this is something of a godsend.
Skype's also useful for talking to friends. One friend showed me how to call him from my computer using Skype, even though we couldn't do a video-call. That was interesting, although I'd be more likely to just call him up on the phone if I wanted to talk to him. Unless my phone died, in which case that'd be pretty awesome.
When I become a teacher I will hopefully have occasion to contact my colleagues from the classroom and hold class discussions just like we do in this class. It's always interesting to get the input of other professionals. Because history is often viewed subjectively, different teachers will always bring something different to the table. Few historians agree completely with one another. I view Skype as a great way to bring these different points of view to history students.

Homework, April 25, 2010

A Seventh Grader's Personal Learning Environment
I was very impressed by this seventh graders PLN. It seems so much more advanced than mine is. Her's is so neatly organized and extensive. But when I think about it, mine consists of a lot of the same things. I use my blog to share information and ideas and to post class assignments. I also reference our classroom blog quite often to keep up with what we're supposed to be doing. I was already competent in using Google to search the web for information. I use Delicious to bookmark and share pages that I think are useful or important. I had never used Evernote, however. I think I may check that website out.
I also use Skype to contact some of my fellow students about assignments so we can work together without having to be in the same place. Of course, we've also used Skype in class to video-conference with professionals in the educational field. GoogleDocs is probably the largest part of my PLN just because I use it every single day to take notes in several classes. I've pretty much gone paperless and I can quickly and easily share my notes and receive other student's notes. This is really important for me because most of my classes are history courses and one of my classmates might catch something in the lecture I missed.

Two Questions That Can Change Your Life
This was a thought-provoking video, to say the least. It posed two very important questions. "What's my sentence?" At some point in time, every human-being will wonder what people will say about him/her when they look back through time. For example, if we were trying to think of one sentence about George Washington, we might say "He was a Revolutionary War Hero and the father of our country." Everyone will have a sentence, even those of us who aren't destined for the presidency. I hope that some day my students will remember me as a teacher who made learning interesting.
"Was I better today than yesterday?" We should always strive to grow and learn. There's no cut-off date. You're never too old to learn. I want to be better than the day before everyday.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Homework, April 18, 2010

The Epidemic of Standardized Testing

I graduated from Mary G. Montgomery High School in 2008 (Go Vikings!) so I can honestly say that I absolutely despise standardized testing. You see, every time I turned around in high school there was another test. From the time I was in Middle School until I graduated we had to take a minimum of four standardized tests every year. These were called the CRTs and they were, for lack of a better description, ridiculous. The School Board made these exams for the teachers to distribute. In this way they completely controlled what we learned. If a teacher strayed from the topics that would be on the CRT then we might easily fail the exam, which would mean we would probably fail the course.
Then there were the Alabama Graduation Exams, which I still don't really understand the purpose of. They were pretty stressful and took about a week out of every semester. So the school shut down for about seven days during which time we watched movies in home room classes while the other students worked on their exams for hours and hours...
On top of that, we had to take the ACT. I took it three times just to get a 27. The ACT was and is the mother of all standardized tests in Alabama. You see, you have to make a certain score on the ACT in order to get into most Universities and the score you accomplish determines how much scholarship money you receive. Two points can make a difference of several thousand dollars. The ACT is peculiar. The exams is expensive and strict and it, like most standardized tests, proves absolutely NOTHING!
Some students weren't as lucky as I was and they suffered for it. Now, these individuals I'm referring to are intelligent people who did well in school and understood the curriculum. But they just aren't good at testing. This is not an efficient method for measuring the intelligence of our students!
What purpose do these sorts of exams serve other than to restrict the creativity of the curriculum in the classroom? Are there any benefits to the students? If there are I certainly can't see it.

Comments4Kids

This week I was assigned the post of Hosanna, a Room 16 student at Pt. England School in Auckland, New Zealand. Her post was a very impressive video illustrating the arrival of the Maori and the Europeans to the area. It was a very well-animated picture and I enjoyed watching it!

Comments4Teachers Assignments 3

Dangerously Irrelevant

The blog I was assigned belongs to Scott McLeod, an Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University.He also co-created "Did you Know?" a video which I believe we watched earlier in the semester.

Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please?
I really enjoyed this post, which was actually a poem. Mostly the poem was seemingly a plea for parents, teachers, and administrators to avoid incorporating technology into the education of the children. It lists all sorts of perceived dangers that are presented by technology. But by the end you realize that it's more satirical in nature. The poem is actually showing how ridiculous it is to try and keep technology away from kids. The poem ends with "don't do any of it, please...because I'm doing it with my kids. Can't wait to see who has a leg up in a decade or two, can you?" I love it.
The poem, which you can read for yourself if you click here, truly shows the paranoia, the unreasonable fears of some parents and teachers.

Reappropriation of the Personal Sphere
This post was made up of three quotes Stefana Broadbent's TED Talk, on which I'm not entirely sure of my opinions.

"...every day, every single day, I read news that makes me cringe, like a 15-dollar fine to kids in Texas, for using, every time they take out their mobile phone in school. Immediate dismissal to bus drivers in New York, if seen with a mobile phone in a hand. Companies blocking access to IM or to Facebook. Behind issues of security and safety, which have always been the arguments for social control, in fact what is going on is that these institutions are trying to decide who, in fact, has a right to self determine their attention, to decide, whether they should, or not, be isolated. And they are actually trying to block, in a certain sense, this movement of a greater possibility of intimacy." - Stefana Broadbent

All I can really think in this case is that I wouldn't want my bus driver on the phone while driving the bus, so I can sort of understand that. I also think that there should be some limitations on cell phones in schools just because when I was in high school people would text and not pay attention, or just cheat. Then again, the kid who are going to do that will probably do that anyway. I had a phone, but I mostly kept it in my purse and didn't use it in class. It's really not fair to make students pay some sort of fine or take their phones away.

Our mental models are the biggest barrier to moving schools forward into a digital, global era


This post was very short and simply stated:

"What is the biggest barrier to moving schools forward into a technology-suffused, globally-interconnected era? Our mental models of what schooling should look like.

Unfortunately, most educators, parents, and policymakers have no idea what it truly means to prepare students for this kind of world.

Don’t believe me? Go ahead and ask ‘em."

It's true, most educators, parents and ESPECIALLY policy makers don't seem to understand what it means to prepare students for a globally-interconnected, technology-suffused world. If they did then our students would probably be better prepared, heck, I'd be better prepared. We barely ever used computers when I was in school...except for in a handful of classes that were designed to prove that our school did actually use technology. My main message to teachers is this: POWERPOINT IS NOT ENOUGH!

Experimenting with Cam Studio

Just trying to see if I can get this to work right

Timeline of World War One

Timetoast is My New Best Friend
I used timetoast.com to make this timeline of World War I events. It actually took me quite some time because it required a fair bit of research. I figured that maybe I would need this someday if I'm ever teaching a class about WWI so I don't mind putting the time into this assignment. Mostly, the timeline shows some select battles and events that altered the outcome of the war. There's also a little bit about the Russian Revolution(s) in 1917. If you've studied history as much as I have then you already know that it's all connected somehow. There are many who view WWII partially as a continuation of the First World War...so I suppose I could have continued the line all the way through the 1940s.
Anyway, I enjoyed making this so I hope you enjoy it, too.

World War I Timeline

Homework, April 11, 2010

Dr. Seuss - The Zax and Another PS 22 Video

Dr. Seuss illustrated how the world keeps changing even though there are those who refuse to change with it. This is true in the educational world as well. There are always going to be teachers who won't make an effort to keep up with the times. These individuals are too stubborn and stuck in their own ways to think of what will be best for the students.
The video of the PS 22 Elementary School Chorus in NYC singing "Landslide" was breathtaking. These students sang beautifully and with passion which made their rendition of the song something really special.
Though these two videos seem somewhat unrelated, they both go a long way in answering the question posed in our blog assignment, that is, "Why is it so important for students to post their work to blogs (or in other ways)?" The truth is, the world is a different place than it was 10 years ago. Technology has changed everything, including the ways in which children learn. Younger generations are more comfortable with technology. I think that one of the best ways to help them learn is to use technology in the classroom. Posting their class work and other accomplishments, such as the PS 22 video, in a blog is a great way to incorporate technology.

We've seen a lot of this during this semester in EDM 310. The best examples I can think of are the Comments4Kids assignments we've been doing over the last few months. In week 10 some of us were assigned to read various essays written by a 6th grade class and posted on their classroom blog. We could then give the students some feedback on what we thought about their writing styles and opinions. My assigned student's name is Chelsey and she wrote a persuasive essay on cruelty to animals, particularly puppies. If you'd like to check out Chelsey's essay click here.

A Comments4Kids assignment from week 8 is another great example of why posting student classwork on a blog can be a great educational tool. This time I was assigned a random post of a student name Roberto. It wasn't an essay this time, but a poem titled "Slavery, Slavery, What I Hate." Several people commented on Roberto's poem alongside myself and left him words of encouragement. It's wonderful that this boy's creativity can be expressed in this way. Once again, if you'd like to read Roberto's poem click here.

There's just one more class blog that I think you should take a look at if you have any remaining doubts as to whether or not class blogs are useful. This particular blog was a Comments4Kids assignment much earlier in the semester. This blog is called Endless Ocean, a year four marine biology class blog. It's definitely one of the coolest blogs I've seen. There are quite a few videos posted on the page showing things the students have learned in the classroom. Select this link to dive into the Endless Ocean.

Students can use their class blogs to receive useful feedback and opinions on class assignments, to express their personal opinions and to show their creativity. The blogs also help parents become more involved in the education of their children. Most of the posts have comments from the parents and they all seem very proud of what the kids have accomplished.

Comments4Kids 13
This week I commented on a video blog post titled "All About Jorja." She made an animated video of herself which I think is pretty awesome. I never had a chance to do anything like that when I was little. Another great expression of creativity!

Google Docs Survey

Musical Literacy



Click here to access my survey spreadsheet.

For my Google Docs Form Project, I sent out a questionnaire about musical literacy which asked six questions. By the time I finished the survey, I had received responses from 21 fellow EDM310 students. I chose this topic for the questionnaire because I love music and I think it's an important part of a well-rounded education. All students should have access to sources of quality musical education and I set out to determine whether or not this was the case.

The first question I asked was "Can you read music?" Twelve people responded that they could not. Five said that they could read music while four others claimed to be able to read a little music. Reading music is kind of key to musical education. It's that first step. If you can't read music, then you really aren't musically literate.

Question two was "Have you ever played a musical instrument?" The responses varied because this was a text question. Twelve people claimed to be able to play some sort of instrument, including piano, drums, clarinet and guitar. This one doesn't really add up considering that only nine people claimed to be able to even remotely read music. For example, on particular subject said that he/she could not read music but could play the clarinet.

Next I asked if those surveyed had been involved in any musical programs while in high school. Eleven people responded with a yes. Six of those people were involved in choir and the other five said they were in band. Eight other people said they were uninvolved in any musical programs and two responded with "other".

My third question was "Do you feel that you were given equal opportunities and access to music and the arts in high school?" Eighteen participants felt that they had satisfactory access to musical education programs in high school. None complained that they had no access and three felt that they had only some access.

I then asked if the participants were involved in any musical programs at the University of South Alabama or elsewhere. No one surveyed participates at the University. Eighteen said they are completely uninvolved. Two are involved in music at their churches. One posed the question as to whether or not dance would be considered musical education. I'd say perhaps...to an extent. Then there was one other who said that while he/she was not involved in music, he/she enjoys and supports the arts.

The final question was "Is music education something you value?" Most people seemed to think music education is great and worthwhile with responses like, to quote a few, "Yes, it is good for students to be well-rounded" and "Yes, it teaches children to express themselves in unique and artistic ways." But I was disappointed to find that there were at least three people who don't think music education has any merit. I'm not entirely sure why because none of these individuals bothered to express why they feel that way. Several others said essentially that while they suppose music education can be useful for some people and purposes, they don't view it as useful for themselves.

Comments4Teachers Assignments 2

Meaning of Life or 42
I was assigned the blog of Anne-Marie Holmwood, a high school media arts and creative writing teacher in British Columbia in the Okanagan.

On the Road to Oz
The first post I commented on was titled "On the Road to Oz" and it dealt with the very real issue of the frustration of curriculum restrictions. Holmwood and many other educators feel suffocated by the confinements of determined curriculum and standardized testing. She pointed out that a lot of what she teaches is outside of the curriculum and I love how she is doing her own thing in the classroom. She also wrote what's known as a slam poem describing her frustration at these restrictions, which I think was pretty brave. The video's on the blog if you want to take a look.

Come on in, the water's fine
This, the second post I commented on, was about a workshop on digital and social media which she gave to a group of teacher-librarians. I say kudos for being open to the exploration of new ideas and concepts. Holmwood pointed out that technology challenges teachers to remain students themselves. I love this mindset because as educators and as individuals we are never really done learning and exploring new possibilities and ideas.

Adventures in ECI831
I went back to an earlier post for this comment. This one was actually a video which summed up Anne-Marie Holmwood's reflections on a course she took at the University of Regina called Social Media and Open Education. In this video she expressed a lot of things that I feel I'm learning in EDM310. The importance of PLNs, open-learning, social and educational changes due to technology, new and sometimes overwhelming ideas and the sharing of those ideas.

I've really enjoyed reading this blog in particular. It's interesting and I can relate to the views and ideas she's expressed therein.

Homework, April 4, 2010

Dear Kaia: This, This, That

I loved seeing the beautiful pictures that this little girl took with the help of her father. He's already teaching her at her tender age to find beauty in the world around her and it's a magnificent thing. He helped Kaia compile and narrate a photo essay of all the pictures she took and she sounded very excited to be sharing her discoveries. Mr. Chamberlain had his class contacted Kaia and her father sometime during the last semester. The class included pictures and a Voicethread and I'm sure that little Kaia really enjoyed hearing from all the students. It added such a nice personal touch.

Mr. Chamberlain's class in rural Missouri held a Skype session with Kaia's father in Doha, as well. This an exciting example of how connected our world has become. We're so much closer to people in different regions than we've ever been before. I guess that's part of globalization and the new international community. Our students have opportunities to learn new things in new ways that I never even imagined possible at that age.

It's a new age, that's for sure and I'm excited that I'm going to be teaching in it. Things are changing fast and our educational system is going to have to evolve to keep up with these changes. It's a little intimidating, going into this new world. But we have to face these new challenges head-on. Our students will thank us!

Click here to view Kaia's photo essay

Click here to view Kaia's father's blog post "Singing Hearts"

Comments4Kids

The blog I was assigned was a post by teacher for student. I was to comment on the video post made by a boy named Ronn. He was talking about a trip they made to a place called Ambury Farm where the children can see various farm animals like chickens and pigs. Ronn did a great job of describing his experience at the farm and I enjoyed watching his video. It was pretty cool hearing Ronn talk about all of the animals since I happen to live on a farm myself.

Homework, March 28, 2010

An Open Letter to Educators - Morgan Bayda

I have to say, the video mixed with Morgan Bayda's expression of her own experiences definitely made me pause and consider my education for a moment. Bayda and Dan Brown, the narrator of the video, both seemed to have similar educational experiences in college. They went to class and listened to the professor talk or read a powerpoint presentation to them for an hour or so, bought expensive books they never needed, and took various exams which determined their grades based on the number of facts they could memorize.

Thinking about my own experiences I realized that a lot of my classes are like this. Even if I find the information interesting I still discover that in many cases, I never actually needed to come to class or read the assigned reading to make a good solid A. For example, I'm in a class this semester that I really would NEVER go to if the professor didn't make us sign in. Why? Because the extent of her lecturing consists of her reading the powerpoint to us. It's really tempting to just play solitaire on my computer. When time for the test comes around I go look at the powerpoints, which are emailed to all students. We also get a study guide so I know exactly what I need to remember. I spend a few hours the night before the exam and I'm good to go. No challenge whatsoever.

A lot of our education is the memorization of facts, which, though I'm good at it and I like having that information without needing to Google it, is kind of a waste of money. See, I love history and I spend a lot of time making sure I know the information for exams in my history courses. But in the end, I could easily have typed "Act of Union of 1707" in the Google search engine and found pretty much the same information my professor gave us. That was for my British History class, in case you were wondering. I will say that the professor loves what he's teaching, is willing to stray from the topic in the name of discussion and encourages student participation and interaction in the classroom. So, in that case I think attending class actually is worth something.

Do I think we should get rid of institutionalized education? No, but somethings should change. I think mainly there should be more discussion and the formation of ideas in the classroom, instead of the professor constantly preaching facts and their own opinions. A professor of mine said something along these lines once: "I'll tell you what I think, but I'm more interested in what you think about this. So come on. Talk. It's okay to have different opinions."

Comments4Kids 10

My assigned reading was an anti-animal abuse persuasive essay by a 6th grader named Chelsea. She was advocating for that protection of puppies in particular because, as she said, they are helpless and gentle. Even the young know when something's wrong and she is certainly correct. I suggested that she explore some ideas for alternatives to cruelty like SPCA programs and adoptions. Hopefully my feedback was helpful to her.

Illustration of Trench Warfare

I was making my timeline for EDM310, which happens to be a layout of important events during the First World War (1914-1918). While looking for pictures to add to the events, I stumbled upon this illustration. It just so happens to be a picture that my Warfare and Modern Society professor from last semester had used in one of his lectures. This particular picture shows a German trench layout in war-torn Europe.

Yes, I'm a history dork.

Anyway, I guess I just love what I'm going to do with my life, that is, I love history and teaching it, so I thought I'd share this. The people who fought in these trenches nearly a century ago were real people. I think that people tend to forget the human aspect of history and so they become alienated from events of the past to the point that these events seem almost surreal. There's so much we can learn from the past and it seems to me that if we forget what happened all those years ago then we're likely to make the very same mistakes again.

Homework, March 12, 2010

ALEX - Alabama Learning Exchange

The Alabama Learning Exchange is a website found at http://alex.state.al.us/index.php. From what I understand, it's a database of lesson plans that are posted by Alabama teachers. It seems like a very useful website, I can't wait to use it myself. The site can be searched by course of study and has lesson plans for basic courses such as math, english language arts, social studies and sciences, but it also has information for health and physical education, the arts, foreign languages, technology, driver education and career career education.

As I said earlier, ALEX can be searched by course, but it can also be searched by grade level from K-12. You can also use keywords to find the sort of less plan you're looking for. I, for example, decided to see what I could find on U.S Government at a 12th grade level. So I went to the search option on the left. Once there, I selected "Social Studies" and then under grade level I checked 12. An expansion appeared that said "Social Studies Grade 12 Lesson Plans and Resources". In that box there was an option for United States Government which I selected. Several great options appeared, including one I think would be a great idea. This option is titled "Court Reporters" and the description of it is "Students will research assigned Supreme Court cases and write a case summary. Students will create podcasts of their summaries". If you like this idea you can click on the title and it will take you to a page that describes the activity in full. ALEX is a great website and has a lot of excellent ideas. I would recommend it to any educator.

ACCESS - Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide

Access is a distance learning program. According to the website, the purpose of ACCESS is to provide equal access to high quality instruction to all Alabama students. It accomplishes this by providing interactive videoconferencing (IVC) courses with highly certified Alabama instructors, and delivers approved web-based courses while connecting IVC labs through a state network. The technology used in the ACCESS program classes includes cameras, computers, white boards (which I'm not particularly crazy about), codec, and wireless internet.

I like that the site allows students to take courses that they might not otherwise have an opportunity to take. For example, if a student wanted to take a foreign language course not provided at their school, like Japanese, they can now take it through the ACCESS program. We had one of these classes my senior year in high school. At the time, it was just developing and I wasn't particularly impressed with it. The Whiteboard was just kind of there and we didn't use it very much. That was bothersome because those things are awfully expensive.

If you want to know more about the ACCESS program, check out this link.

Comments4Kids

This week I was assigned the blog of Mrs. Yollis' third grade class in Los Angeles. I left a comment on her post "We've Joined an International Blogging Challenge". The blog was very well organized. Apparently the class blog won first runner up for the best blog of 2009. I found it very impressive.

Homework, March 7, 2010

Randy Paush's Last Lecture

It's such a shame that this excellent professor is no longer with us. He was such an inspirational speaker and I would have loved to be in his classroom. He was very brave and talented and I love that he wanted to help his students achieve their dreams. Just listening to him for an hour taught me a lot. I hope that I'll be an exciting teacher a lot like Randy Pausch in the future, for the sake of my students.
Something he said that was interesting and also very useful was that there are both good and bad ways to say things. I picked up on several lessons in his lecture like that which I think were important. Like the importance of following childhood dreams and trying to help students reach their own childhood dreams. I think sometimes we can be discouraging, for example, his student who said back in 1993 that he wanted to work on the next Star Wars movies and Professor Pausch said that they probably weren't going to make the next Star Wars movies. But the student was adamant in his belief that they would. He ultimately ended up working on all three movies.
Pausch made his class fun and interesting for his students. I loved his experiment with students making virtual reality worlds. The little bunny and the singing trees frightened me a little...almost as much as Ctrl+Alt+Del. Anyway, he made his computer science class fun and inventive. I think he kept that child-like wonder alive in himself and in his students. "I don't know how to not have fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun and I'm going to keep having fun every day that I have left." This man definitely stand on the Tigger side of the great Tigger/Eeyore debate.
He also said that "loyalty is a two-way street" which is so true. His story about his former student Dennis who he vouched for because he believed in him and who has been with him ever since was such an excellent example of loyalty. I just really liked a lot of things Pausch had to say. "Never give up," being one. Finally, he made a good point that you're going to need people to help you and there are ways to do that. 1.) Tell the truth. 2.) Be earnest. 3.) Apologize when you screw up. 4.) Focus on other, not yourself.
I could be depressed after watching this video, and I am sad largely because this man's gone and he had so many great things to say. But that would probably not be something he would want from the people who watch his last lecture. He was too much of a Tigger.

Comments4Kids

My student for this week's assignment was name Roberto in Mrs. Shetler's 7th grade class and he wrote a poem titled "Slavery Slavery What I Hate." His poem was very interesting and well-written. He's a gifted young writer. Let's hope he keeps up the good work and I wish him the best of luck.

Comments4Teachers Assignments

Post #1
My assigned blog was EduStange and I left a comment on the post titled "The Murgatroyd Blog: Making a Difference - Read Learning". It was a very interesting post which I think put into perspective the necessity of placing education in the hands of the educators. The point I think that hit home with me was the overuse of standardized testing. It made me reminisce of a time not too long ago when I was sitting in a high school classroom being subjected to mind-numbing standardized tests. The school board gave exams to all students each quarter which kept teachers tied down to what seemed to me to be a strict curriculum, making it nearly impossible to take a different route without consequences on grades. Teachers should be largely in control of student testing.

Post #2
The second post I commented on was "When does a young person own their learning?" I was a little confused about the subject. The teacher, Alan Stange, brought up the subject of just how much authority should teachers exert over a student's learning experience. I'm not completely sure what his personal opinion on this is. He asked the question "...what is our response when a student suggests they don’t want to do the math at all. Do we explore alternative learning outcomes or do we exert authority, influence or power to redirect the young person back to our selected outcome?"

I'd say that the students cannot, unfortunately, be allowed to really pick their curriculum. Math is necessary for success, just as reading and writing. In this scenario, authority would have to be exerted.

Post #3

The third post was titled, "Letters - One Country, One School Yardstick? - NYTimes.com" and it was rather short but purposeful. He quoted from NYTimes.com and the quote is one that I cannot agree more on. Teacher Alan Stange also connected the below statement with what he calls the assessment movement and the differentiated learning movement. As I said before, I highly dislike standardized testing because it's guilty of a "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" method of education that doesn't do any of us any favors.

To say that all students should receive a high-quality education is very different from saying all students should get the same kind of education. A one-size-fits-all approach to schooling doesn’t produce excellence, and it certainly doesn’t further the cause of equity.

Alfie Kohn
Belmont, Mass., March 15, 2010

PLN Update #1

So when we began this class I was pretty confused about what a personal learning network is. This was a problem, of course, considering that we had an assignment rapidly approaching which required me to share my thoughts and experiences with my PLN. As far as I can tell, personal learning take time to develop and grow but eventually they can be very useful in sharing information and learning new things. So far, I've used Facebook.com a lot to gather information, which is admittedly nothing out of the ordinary. I would argue that we all probably have the makings of a personal learning network forming even when we aren't aware of it. I've used Facebook mostly for keeping up with events and meetings. I've also had some interesting discussions with contacts that led to a lot of questions and searching for answers.

I've used Twitter a little bit to follow some news groups such as Fox News, which keeps me up-to-date on recent events and politics. I also use Delicious to bookmark things I think are pretty important. My Podcast partner and I have used some Delicious bookmarks to brainstorm websites that we can use for our project. That way we can keep up with each other's findings! I also use my class blog in my PLN. I like reading other people's thoughts on certain issues. Several of our assignments have given me a chance to build contacts all over the world. I'm particularly excited about the Comments4Teachers blog coming up because it'll give me a chance to learn from a more experienced teacher and hopefully I'll pick up a few ideas and tips.

Homework, February 28, 2010

Comments4Kids

This week my assignment was to comment on a post by Troy in Mrs. Kolbert's class. These students seem to be older than the blogs I've previously been asked to read so it was pretty interesting. Troy posted a really cool youtube video that showed a fountain in Japan that makes designs in the water as it's released. According to Troy, this is possible because the fountain has a memory chip in its hard drive that tells the water spouts the exact moment when it should allow the water to flow. It must be very precise to pull this off. It makes dolphins, Japanese characters and various other designs. Very impressive.

This Is How We Dream Parts 1-2

I suppose Dr. Richard E. Miller was mostly discussing the evolution of information from book sources to online documents, etc. I was honestly quite confused and am probably not fit to really say much one way or the other on this subject. I didn't get much from the video because it all sort of ran together, in spite of having watched it several times. The world is definitely moving from a reading/writing culture to a listening/watching culture, which is rather obvious. Educators do have to adjust to this.
Still, reading and writing is important. I love reading and by reading I mean opening up an actual book. Computers are great and technology is a valuable tool, but books are still excellent sources of information and entertainment. I also think that children should be taught how to write. Penmanship is still important and a student needs to be able to legibly write something out. That being said, typing is also important. I suppose my point is that old methods of education and recording information are still important and that there's a balance to it all.
I've always been a little disconcerted that people will become too fixated, too dependent on technology. It's just a thought, but if we quit recording things in books and only put information on computers from this day forth, how would we ever remember anything if we could no longer access that information.

The Networked Student

Wendy Drexler's video had some excellent points. Technology has opened doors to so many new ways of learning for students today. It's an exciting era that we live in where students are more involved in their own education. We have access to an unlimited information source and with the right knowledge of how to navigate through all of that information the possibilities are endless. The internet has granted us access to information from the best educators and specialists in their fields. As the video said, their are blogs from major universities and professors that can be accessed by just about anybody.
I still feel that teachers are needed, and the video did make that clear. It could be argued, however, that an educator might have more of a responsibility in their students' education than just guiding them in the proper ways to find information on the internet. Online sources are very important and students should know how to navigate and find their own answers, but in some subjects a teacher is irreplaceable. For example, a history teacher is probably always going to be needed to give lectures because history is always viewed at some angle. An online source you find on, say, Napoleonic warfare, could easily be influenced by opinion, as is all history.
History is something I think a teacher should always be present to relay. In my Civil War class the professor stresses that slavery was the main cause of the war. Another professor might stress that slavery was a factor but not the only cause, and another might go so far as to claim that it was, in fact, not a major factor. One never truly knows what the professor will expect and in the event of an exam it is best to know exactly what that individual historian's opinion is.

Michael Wesch: Toward a New Future of Whatever

"In the midst of a fabulous array of historically unprecedented and utterly mind-boggling stimuli...whatever."

I found Mr. Wesch's video to be very interesting. He had a lot of great points and he was also pretty entertaining, which, is apparently a requirement for people today. I definitely see the evidence of what he was talking about all around me. There's a certain narcissism in most Americans that, I would argue, is also covering up a sense of self-consciousness brought on by a shared feeling that we have lost our identities, that we have, in fact, become the machine. But if you'll stick with me, I'm not feeling that my comments are heading in the direction of a discussion of technology as much as individuality.
I do believe all people have an inborn need to be loved and accepted for who they are and to be given a sort of purpose through that. Now, since this is my blog, I feel that I have a right to express my views on certain things that I think have made a difference in the molding of my life and person. Mainly I'm referring to my faith and the Christian upbringing I've received. This is a liberal university and I've heard my belief system attacked a thousand times over, not necessarily directed at myself, but my God all the same. I welcome the fact that my education forces me to think more about what I believe and then strengthens my faith. Sometimes it is extremely difficult when faced with so much ugliness and hatred towards my faith in Christ. People are not always moderate and considerate. I think this ties into the growth of complete hatred people are expressing because we as humans have become more anonymous so no one really cares if they are offensive because "I'll do whatever I want and I don't care what you think."
Anyway, I guess I sympathize with this anonymous generation as a fellow human but at the same time I feel that I have something more in my life that doesn't make me feel anonymous, or worthless, or ignored, or hated, lonely, bored, lost, confused...you get the idea. And I don't really need other people to affirm that.
So technology is fun, but I'm not a machine. I'm Deborah, named for the Prophetess Judge who led Israel thousands of years ago. I'm a Snowden, originally of Wales, and there are mountains with my family's name on them. I go to church, I go to school, I learn, I live, I understand, I question, search, sympathize, read, sing, study, explore, experience. The human condition connects us all but we don't have to lose ourselves. We're all individuals, even if we do all get our coffee at Starbucks.

Homework, February 21, 2010

Dr. Alice Christie's Site

Dr. Christie's site was created for the purpose of helping teachers who want to use more technology in their classrooms achieve that goal. She's been an educator for about forty years and is highly experienced. The site includes a photography section, full of pictures she's taken and uploaded and a list of all her research publications and resources, many of which discuss technology and its uses in education. There's also a web design page that provides resources to help educators design websites that are targeted at students and a very useful section that acts as an educational technology guide.
I particularly liked the GPS and Geocaching portion of the site which has several links that give good information and advice concerning creating GPS/Geocaching lessons to help make learning an exploratory experience for students. I love this idea largely because I enjoy Geocaching sometimes with friends and the concept of taking this technology and turning it into a way to teach/learn is very interesting. The students will learn, of course, how to make use of GPS and also discover clues that can foster learning through discovery, raise curiosity and encourage discussion about the lesson. If properly applied and used in moderation, Geocaching could be a very exciting method for educators.

iTunes University

ITunes University is Apple's response to the needs of colleges, universities and various other educational organizations. It applies the iTunes store in the field of education, making searches so that users can search, download, and play educational resources. Teachers can use iTunes U to distribute digital lessons to students on their iPhones, iPods, iPads, computers, etc. A lot of students have taken to this method of learning because they can learn at their own pace, anytime, anywhere.
I found some sources that suggested that students who use iTunes University had better exam results than those who attended class lectures. Students can replay parts of podcasts that they didn't quite understand and take better notes. I would probably like to use iTunes U in some of my classes but not as a replacement for actually being in class. It's good to be in class with a teacher so that you can ask abstract questions or get valuable information that might have been left out of a podcast. Still, iTunes U can provide a great source for reviews. Plus, if I did happen to occasionally miss a class, I can still listen to the podcast for the lectures. Sounds great to me. When I start teaching at a high school, I'll probably use iTunes U and podcasts to help my students better understand the lectures. After all, comprehension is the key to learning.

Apple Education - Learn how to access iTunes U on iPod/iPhone

NewScientist - Science in Society: iTunes University Better Than the Real Thing

Making Use of iPods in Education

I began searching for these examples of using iPods in colleges and the most prominent examples I could find were those from Duke University, which began incorporating iPods into their curriculum back in 2004. In August of that year they distributed 20 GB iPods to over 1600 students. They concluded after this first year experiment that iPods served several academic purposes. First of all, iPods provide portable access to course content. Students can listen to songs, lectures, historical speeches and foreign language content. An iPod can also be used to record lectures and class discussions. They can also be used as field recording tools, which would include capturing field notes, interviews, environmental sounds and data. I guess some people would probably need that more than others. iPods can come in very handy for studying because a student can play back data and recorded material. Other than that, an iPod is good for file storage and transfers.
I didn't really think about recording lectures on my iPod until now. That's actually a really great idea. I've always hate it when I miss important lecture information. I founds some interesting examples and ideas on the Learning in Hand link for iPod lesson plans. One example given was "After a discussion on what it means to be an American, students use an iPod and a voice recorder to interview a family member. They then combine the interview with old photos of that relative in iMovie, and create a short video history about that person." I thought this idea would be interesting and creative. There were other great ideas and examples like a teacher using an iPod and voice recorder to give instructions on how to do a science experiment, and students downloading and watching history videos on their iPods. There were a few more that are worth consideration, follow this link below for more great ideas.

Link to Learning in Hand - Ideas for Educational uses for Ipods

Duke University Using iPods

Comments4Kids

This week my assignment was to comment on the Endless Ocean blog. The video I was to watch and leave a comment on was called Tickling a Walrus. The class was playing with an animated walrus. They could click on it and make it do certain things. One student apparently tickled the walrus, which they didn't realize was possible. It was very cute and the students found it hysterical. These students seem to be learning a lot and really enjoying it as well!

Homework, February 14, 2010

The NPR News Blog: Whose Been Messing With My Wikipedia Entry?

I guess I've always kind of known that Wikipedia is a fairly unreliable source of information. Even when I was in high school my teachers would tell us not to use Wikipedia as a source for research. I didn't realize, however, that big names such as The New York Times, WorldNetDaily, Fox News, the Republican and Democratic Parties, The CIA, the Church of Scientology, and Exxon Mobil all make edits to Wikipedia entries about their organizations.
Now someone has created a new data mining service called Wikiscanner. The purpose of Wikiscanner is to let you see who has gone into Wikipedia to make edits, hints the list of organizations above. It's not really surprising that they would do this, I guess. I mean, any negative information could theoretically influence public opinion. I can't imagine the Democrats would want people to post negative comments about them. As for the CIA...well, you have to know that they will pretty much edit whatever they want. After all, they are the CIA.

NPR Article on Wikipedia: Scanner Tracks Who's Changing What on Wikipedia

This article gave more information about the Wikiscanner. One of the examples it gave of a change that Wal-Mart made to a Wikipedia article was very interesting. The original entry read: "Wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores. Founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage." According to the article, someone with an IP address from Wal-Mart changed it to this: "The average wage at Wal-Mart is almost double the federal minimum wage (Wal-Mart). However, founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage."
These groups are putting spins on information about themselves in order to make their policies sounds better. Someone at Dow Chemical Co. deleted some unflattering passages about environmental disasters that involved the company. Democrats added some impolite words such as idiot and racist to Rush Limbaugh's page. That's messed up. I think this new technology is probably a good thing. It definitely discredits Wikipedia as an information source which is also a good thing in my opinion. An encyclopedia that can be edited by just about anyone, whether they know what they're talking about or not, is completely unreliable. Hopefully these companies who doctor their images will be discouraged from repeating these offenses, although it would be easy enough to just use a computer not traceable to their company.

See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign
So obviously, this third article was related to the first two I've reviewed. Many of the changes were made to Wikipedia by companies and political interests groups in the name of self-interest and appearances. After reading all of this information, I just don't see how Wikipedia can be considered a reliable source of information. Everything on there has probably been corrupted or altered in some way. Even if you were going to look up information of a singer or something equally trivial, the information will probably have some sort of spin to put said individual in a better public light.
Quite frankly, I view Wikipedia as a joke. Too many people are editing the information and the online encyclopedia has too many mistakes in it. Too much of it is based on personal opinions or politics. There's too much room for error. Let's leave the encyclopedia entries to the professionals, shall we?

At the Teacher's Desk: What I've Learned This Year

I enjoyed reading Mr. McClung's blog about what he learned during his first year of teaching. First he talked about the importance of reading the audience and remaining in touch with the listeners. I couldn't agree more with Mr. McClung's statement that some teachers are so concerned with the delivery of the lecture that they forget to check for the most important aspect of the lecture, that is, student comprehension. After all, a teacher can talk until they're blue in the face but if the students don't understand the material it's a complete waste of time. His second point was on the being flexible during a lesson. Realistically, there is no such thing as a perfect lesson during which everything goes according to plan. Communication is another important factor in effective teaching. It can help build strong relationships with teachers and students.
Another issue Mr. McClung addressed was the high expectations that teachers sometimes set for their students and the need to be reasonable in respect to their expectations. Getting upset when students don't meet high expectations is a mistake. They are children, after all, and each one is different from the next. As he phrased it, "Our job as teachers is simply to pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again." It's also important that teachers should not be afraid of using technology. In today's society, technology is key. Teachers also need to listen to their students. Listening shows that we care about them and their lives. Mr. McClung's final advice was to never stop learning. We owe it to the students to learn as much as we can in order to be good educators ourselves.
This was an excellent post full of great advice. I really enjoyed reading it and I feel like I learned a lot from his experience. Hopefully I will remember all of this information for the future when I have my own students to teach.

Comments4Kids Week 5
This week my assigned kid was named Ken. He's in Ms. Cassidy's class, is six-years-old, and is learning to write. From what I read, he's going to Disney Land sometime soon and is very excited. I'm impressed with Ken and Ms. Cassidy's entire class. They are much better readers and writers than I was at that age!

Places I've Traveled

Homework, February 7, 2010

Langwitches Blog

I think that the author of this blog had a good point in her post "It's Not About the Tools, It's About the Skills" and her earlier blog which tied in with it, "We Podcasted Today, So Did You Learn Anything?" Sometimes people don't realize how important technology is in teaching. I'm not a personal fan of Podcasts, but they really can be very useful in instructing. If, as the writer pointed out in her blog, a child goes home and tells his/her parents that in class today they made a Podcast, the parents may or may not realize how many skills that experience will develop in their children. I didn't even realize the advantages fully until reading this post. Making a podcast can exercise collaboration (working in groups) and writing skills, as well as speaking and presentation skills. Other advantages are that the students are practicing oral fluency, auditory skills, storytelling skills, media and information literacy, and general technology skills. That made me look at podcasts in a new light. While I don't particularly enjoy listening to them, for educational purposes they are really quite advantageous.

Comments4Kids

My kid's name is Savannah from Ms. Deyenberg's 5th grade class. It was really interesting reading about her school and how they use technology to advance their learning. The particular post I read was about a week she spent in school last week and how they use a smartboard in their classroom. I left her a message asking about smartboards and how they use them in the class room and I'm pretty excited to hear more about them. How awesome is it that these children are getting so many wonderful opportunities to learn how to properly use new technologies?

Homework, January 31, 2010

Little Kids, Big Potential

I was really impressed by the children in this video, as well as by their teacher. They reminded me of my little cousins, one of which is in the picture to the left. They're only about seven, but they already know so much about technology. It really goes to show you just how much things have changed since I was that age a little over a decade ago. We didn't really use computers for much back then except for playing a few primitive games. To my second grade class, the Oregon Trail was the coolest thing ever. Now we have digital cameras, as opposed to the dinosaur camera my mom had. You know, with film. What is film? Do people still have cameras with film?
Back on subject. These first-graders make wikis, surf the internet, and create blog posts. They use Skype to talk to people in other places. It's awesome that they have access to experts, like geologist, Dr. Gregg, and can ask them questions. That's an excellent way to learn about different things. With all of the new innovations in technology, teaching can now go far beyond a typical classroom. I love how they are learning through a hands-on and creative method.

Media Literacy

"This is a fiction book because ducks don't really ride bikes".
This video is yet another example of Ms. Cassidy's excellent job of educating her students in the technological tools they will need for their futures. I expect these children could teach me a thing or two about technology. It'll be a while before their class reaches the age group that I'll be teaching, maybe ten years or so. I hope that as a teacher, I will be well-prepared for this new generation of students who have grown up using computers. Especially considering the fact that this is the first blog I've ever written in my life and they will have been blogging since they were in the first grade.
Technology has made great strides since I was their age and it will keep on evolving. The things I'm learning right now will probably be out of date by the time this age groups gets to my history class, so it's important for we as educators to stay up-to-date on ever-changing technology.

IPhone Used By One-Year-Old Baby

Wow, I can't believe that baby can already use an iPhone. I've seen a five-year-old use one but that's a little bit different. In reality, they aren't that hard to use. I think I'll be ready to teach this generation when they get to my class. I don't have an iPhone (sad) but I know pretty well how to use one.
By the time this kid reaches the 1oth grade, there will be some fantastic new cell phone that completely outshines the iPhone. People will ask "what's an iPhone?" Technology is constantly changing and improving. It's about keeping up with these changes.


Podcasts

Okay, I'm not going to lie, I really don't enjoy listening to Podcasts. I'd pretty much rather gauge my eyes out or, you know, read a book. I get sick of listening to people talk. So, while I'm sure Podcasts supply some great information, there are better ways for me to get information in most cases. It reminded me of listening to the radio, which I also don't do often. You can't skip ahead to get to the meat of the discussion. Let me add a disclaimer. I understand that other people probably like Podcasts and learn a lot from them. That is excellent... for them. I'm simply expressing my own personal preferences.
The SmartBoard Lessons podcast I listened to was really short and kind of strange. Now I know Podcasts are originally recorded live. Apparently, this guy was in his car, ordering coffee while recording this particular episode. He was talking about using DimmDim.com. I barely understood what he was talking about because it was very brief and muffled.
EdTechtalk was just a little bit boring. They went on about spam for a while. Then they started talking about iPhones, which are admittedly awesome and I thought it was interesting that the teachers who did this particular cast were making the podcast while using Skype to talk to each other.
Kidcast Podcast 62 was, in my opinion, better executed than the ones I listened to before it. Dan talked about video podcasting, or "vodcasting". He explained how it is sometimes better to create audio podcasts, and at other times, it's better to make video podcasts. Audio is better for listeners who are driving, for example. Video Podcasting is better for, say, in conducting an interview with someone whose face is more expressive than their words, or for using a model in a video to better explain something.
David Warlick episode 96 was recorded in a workshop during which teachers discussed various issues. One guy pointed out that Podcasting and blogging would be really exciting for his students as opposed to sitting down and writing essays. They wouldn't even know they're learning because it's actually enjoyable to the students. Another teacher also pointed out that using technology to make the curriculum more engaging encourages students to want to come to class. Also, students try harder in their schoolwork because they know that their papers can be read by their classmates in their blogs.
Macbreak Weekly: The iPad. The new category from Apple. So, it's a big iPod Touch. Why? I thought that technology was supposed to become smaller as it improves. Apple really should have picked a better name. It's apparently amazing, but is it worth the cost? I don't really think I'd buy one, my Ipod Nano is good enough for me. I think that they're right about it not being a mainstream item. If I can do the same things with a cheaper net-book, then I'm probably not going to spend an extra $200 on an iPad.
Listening to the This Week In Photography episode was pretty boring. I really can't say this subject interested me at all. Is face detection racist? What? I got really sick of waiting for them to get to the point! When they finally got to the issue, it was about the fact that some cameras say that Asian people are blinking in pictures. Mistake, yes. Racist, no. Test the cameras a little better before the technology hits the market. Problem solved.

Link to the University of South Alabama Homepage

Homework, January 24, 2010

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

The college experience is diverse. I was sitting in my Civil War and Reconstruction class today and I was thinking about this video. I recalled that one of the signs a girl in the video held up said, "I spend most of my class time on Facebook". So I started observing what the people around me were doing during class and I was impressed to find that most of them were paying attention, taking notes, and generally trying not to waste all that tuition money. A few people had their laptops out but, surprisingly enough, they were taking notes. The class size in that particular course is reasonable, no where near 115 students. The professor may take a few weeks, but he'll probably learn most everyone's names. As far as assigned readings go, I nearly laughed out loud when I read the "Only 26% of my assigned reading is relevant to my life" sign. Let's think about that for a moment. From where I'm standing, all of your assigned reading is relevant in that it is assigned so that you can do well in the course, graduate, get a job, and make money.
It's really just not that bad; no where near as unpleasant as the video depicted a college classroom to be. Most of my classes have been reasonable. I go to class, I listen, I take notes and learn what I need to know. Then I move on. There are a few classes that have been overcrowded, but it's never really bothered me. College just isn't that bad. As with any institution, there are flaws and things that could stand some alteration. I guess my main response to this video is that if you are worried about people who only make $1 an hour in other countries (and yes, that's a terrible thing), then get off of Facebook, pay attention in class, do well in college, then go do something with your life.

It's Not About the Technology

I suppose I do agree with what Kelly Hines has asserted. Teaching isn't about technology. I view technology as a tool that can aide in teaching but is not the key to teaching. When it comes down to it, computers cannot and should not teach. I think it's important for students to have a human instructor, someone tangible that explains and discusses issues, topics, and assignments with them. Today's teachers should remain up to date on new and innovative teaching methods and technologies, but the responsibility of teaching and making sure that the students understand still belongs to the instructor. I'm going to be a history teacher, hopefully, at some point in the future. Right now, I have no real teaching experience but I've always enjoyed learning and I've always enjoyed helping other students understand things that we are learning. I want to make learning interesting and available to all of my future students, so I intend to make use of new technologies, but not as a substitute for my own interaction with them.
I feel like I'm being unclear and maybe even a little off topic. Let me try to explain my point. Let's say I spend however many hundreds of dollars signing up for a course at the university. On the first day of class, the professor informs us that he/she will be sending us the PowerPoint slides to our email accounts and that we will not need to meet for class very often. Any assignments can be sent over email and the only attendance needed is on a handful of test days. What in the world did I just pay for? That's a pretty dramatic representation, but the point of it was to illustrate the need for teachers who actually do stand up and communicate with students. I think technology is a wonderful tool, but it is not a substitute for a living breathing instructor who is capable of answering abstract questions.

Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Not only is it not okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher, it's shameful. Our students are going to need technological skills in order to succeed in the workforce. It's a teacher's job, no, sworn duty to educate and prepare students in the skills they are going to need in the future. How can someone possibly aspire to introduce new technologies and train students in the use of those technologies if they don't know how to use them or even understand what they are for? A week ago I thought I was technologically literate but then I realized that I have so much left to learn before I can truly call myself that. Sure, I have a Facebook. I upload pictures, send emails, and find just about anything I want using Google. But I'm starting to think that there's way more to it than that. But instead of giving up and deciding that I can't do this and that I'll never figure this stuff out, I'm going to go for it!
It also brought my attention to the fact that I never learned the tools I need just to pass my EDM 310 class in high school. I graduated it 2008 and I'm pretty sure the curriculum hasn't altered overly much since that time. If I don't know what I need to know, then future students also aren't getting the training and information that they need. Why aren't we learning these things in high school? Isn't high school supposed to prepare us for college or the workforce? Yet our high schools are failing to give us the tools we need to succeed. I learned history, math, science, and literature but not how to properly use a computer. That's a shame, an embarrassment, a stain. Most sickening of all is that there are people out there who are proud of their lack of innovation and knowledge.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

In the last 100 seconds, there have been 1000 new blog posts.

Well, I guess all I can do is state the obvious. The world I will be teaching to in two or three years will be even more technologically inclined than it is now. Though this particular social media count doesn't represent the number of text messages sent in a minute's time, I can only imagine the exponential number it would come to. To me, that means that there are probably going to be a lot of high school kids who can't listen long enough to stop texting. Getting our students' attention is going to be difficult, to say the least. Cellphones are not allowed in class but there's no way to catch everybody. Trust me, it hasn't been that long since I was in high school. Kids are clever.
It also means that there are more opportunities for students to learn and grow. We are quickly becoming more internationally minded and more interconnected through the use of technology. I can talk to my cousin living in Ireland just about anytime I choose. Just about any information can be found by way of Google. I can see Aunt Betty by using Skype, even though she's in Texas. I can get news and weather updates twenty-four hours a day. All of these things mean a world of easy-access. It could be a good thing in some cases, it could be a bad thing in others. But it's a reality and as teachers, we have to learn to cope with it.

In the last 1,300 seconds there have been 13,500 new blog posts

Homework, January 17, 2010

Mr. Winkle Wakes

This video was certainly short and to the point. Why is it that even though we have made great technological strides, our students are still being taught in the same archaic ways that their grandparents were taught? We apply these advances in nearly every other aspect of life. The medical and business fields both benefit from new technology, but students are still sitting in classes all day, bored to tears, listening to endless lectures on things that they could not care much less about. Shouldn't we take advantage of new technology and help students to learn in new and creative ways that keep them interested in the subject matter?
I would not, however, go so far as to say that lectures should be cut out completely. I have had several instructors over the years who taught by lecture and who also managed to make learning interesting and involved. No one ever made history quite as amusing as my 10th grade American History teacher, Mr. Fillingim. But the times are changing and as educators, it is our responsibility to educate in whatever way is best. Students deserve the very best that we can give them and they just aren't getting that. It's time for educators to step up, get with the times and incorporate new teaching methods into the curriculum.

Did You Know? 3.0

"Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony." -Morpheus from The Matrix (1999)

I feel like I'm in the Matrix right now. Some of the information provided by Mr. Fisch is somewhat disturbing. Something about the possibility of a computer that can exceed a human being is unnerving. Some of the information was really interesting, though. For example, if you're one in a million in China then there are 1,300 people just like you, India has more honors kids than America has kids, and there were 2.7 billion Google searches per month in 2006, a number which has increased to 31 billion searches per month.
What's most impressive is that rate at which technology has spread. Text-messaging was developed in 1992, and today the total number of texts sent in a single day exceeds the world's population. It took 38 years for the radio to reach an audience of 50 million, 13 years for the television, 4 years for internet, 3 years for iPod, and 2 years for Facebook. Granted, that has a great deal to do with the extreme increase in population worldwide. It's fascinating, but also a little frightening to think of how dependent on technology the human race has become. Think the computers will really try to take over?

The Importance of Creativity

I noticed a long time ago that the arts always suffered for the sake of every other subject. Including football. Our football team wasn't even good. But if funding had to be cut for any reason, it always came out of the arts budget. Need to hire a new coach? No problem, take it our of the choir fund. Creativity is so undervalued in our society that it is ranked at the bottom of the hierarchy of education, as Mr. Ken Robinson stated. It's nearly reached a point at which being creative is a bad thing in modern American culture. My generation has grown up being told that playing the piano and drawing won't get us anywhere in life. "It's a waste of time," they said. Forget dreams and aspirations; be a lawyer or doctor.
Lawyers and doctors are important, no doubt. But must we stifle a child's creativity? Yes, there's no way around teaching mathematics, reading, and writing. That does not mean we can't also provide students with a creative outlet. Music and art programs should be flourishing. There is a happy medium and students should be taught both tradition and creative studies. This is the path to a well-rounded, healthy individual. We would probably find that the world would be a better place if this were allowed to happen. It's a nice thought, at least.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

I love how this video ties in with the earlier videos I've discussed on this blog. Mr. Winkle may have discovered a world in which schools didn't harness technological advances, but the teacher and students in this video proved that there's always an exception to the rule. It's comforting to know that someone out there is taking advantage of new technology and using it to creatively educate students. I wish more students had the same opportunities. I even wish that I had the same opportunities in high school. So many of the country's youth are being cheated of technological literacy.
It's also important that students be given the skills to be capable of finding information and learning on their own. Education should be more hands-on so that a wider number of children can succeed both in school and later on in life. There's an entire world of information available if you know how to access it.