Blog Post # 5

In learning about podcasting I saw these videos which helped immensely when it came time to do my own podcast.

Eagle Nest Radio & Classic Blog

These are some exceptional 3rd graders and there podcast are amazing. You can hear them so clearly and they always pause between speakers and introducing each other. I learned a few things from these amazing podcasters. I have never heard of a voice podcast but always thought they were videos but these 3rd graders proved that theory wrong fast. These audio podcasts are done very well and severe as a great example of how to do an audio podcast right.


Langwitches

These are some amazing ideas that teachers have come up with. I would have never thought that you could use podcasting to help children to understand in an english class. Using english vocabulary and putting that vocabulary in to action is a creative way to use a podcast to tell a story and teach language at the same time. These students would create a plot for their podcast and then create a story line. These ways of using podcast excite me about implementing them in my future classroom.



The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

I think Mr. Dale showed some amazing ideas and on how podcasting could benefit students. His example of the teacher posting the study guide lecture in a podcast on the class website is a great way to help students be able to review and keep up if they are out sick. I did not know that podcast could be so helpful when it came to enacting them in to classroom activities. I know these podcast defiantly would have been a great asset when I was going through school.

Blog Post #4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? By Scott McLeod

        Scott Mcleod is a leading academic expert on showing students K-12 how to use technology and use it right and only for school and good social activities. He also wants students to excel while using technology and become technology leaders. He believes that technology is more of a good for children to learn and out weighs the bad that comes along with technology such as cyber predators.
        I agree with Dr. McLeod about his views of technology. I believe the good far out way the bad. I know that in this day and age it is so important for students to learn how to use technology because everything that most jobs require you do to now involves technological knowledge of some kind.

The iSchool Initiative 


       I absolutely love Mr. Travis Allen's idea of the iSchool. The concept absolutely mind blowing and I hope that this catches on. This would save so many parents a ton of money and would be great for Title 1 schools. I know that this would revolutionize schools, learning, and communication. Also it would improve studying if the students knew where to look and how to look.
     Also I had no idea that Apple had so many Apps already available and would work so great with iSchool. School would have been so much easier when I was going through if I had these great tools available. I hope that more people see this video and get behind the iSchool Initiative.


The Lost Generation 


     I would like for the whole world to see her video because I believe that this would wake up our generation to do something because it is never too late to start trying to change our future. I did not expect what happened after she got to the end of her speech because I did not like what I was hearing and actually got a little disheartened about what the first part said but the way she rewound it to make you see that we could change what was just said about made me burst with pride. The maker of this video should post this everywhere so that everyone can see this video and maybe even create some more exciting and motivating videos.


Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 


      I had no idea that this was even possible. This video was amazing and I think this would be a great use of the internet because you could use this to bring hundreds of people together for so many different causes. You could use this for meetings of all the countries, use it to communicate with whole classrooms or teach classes to students who are half way around the world, or use it as Eric did and bring people together through song. No matter the where you are music transcends all language barriers. I personally believe that music will bring even the most diverse people together because everyone can sing, just some sing better than others but that is why we have a joyful noise section.

Additional Assignment #1

a. Google Squared provides a way for students to gather information about a certain region or country such as finding the population, natural resources, and land mass of any country. This is very useful for students to do in-depth research in almost every subject. It helps with statistics can give you a look in to populations in the time period you are researching.
b. Wolfram Alpha provides students with a different way to find out about the regional and cultural aspects of a country. This search provides you maps and plenty of data about what ever part of the world you would like to look at.
c.No, I did not know about Google Squared before this assignment. I am glad I have found it now and wish I had this back in high school because this would have been an immense help with my research and papers I had to write.
d. No, I did not know about Wolfram Alpha before this assignment but wish I did because I know this would have helped a lot when I was having to do presentations for history class and it would take me hours to find pictures and information about the one place in the world that seemed not to be enough information on.
e. Yes, your comments did absolutely change my mind about the information presented in the video. I did not think about the scales that they were using and forgot I guess that people will present data the way that is most beneficial to their cause. I thought that our country was falling behind and thats China and India were so far a head of us in everything because it kept saying that they had way higher statistics than the U.S. I do believe that the U.S. still needs to step up its educational programs but I do not feel as far behind as I did after the video.
f. I learned form this video that I do not react well to data when it is presented in a way that makes me feel behind, especially when it pertains to my education. I feel a little taken back still that I did not think to look more in depth to the data presented and just believed the context in which it was presented.

Food for Thought: I think that technology is becoming more and more easy to use so much so that people with no education can use them with no instruction.

Project #5

C4T #1 Kim Cofino

     During the past two weeks I was assigned to follow and comment on Mrs. Kim Cofino's Blog and in doing so I read many exciting and informing posts that she wrote. One of them was entitled "Beginning With Blogging" which is about her getting her very own class of middle schoolers to teach about technology and blogging. She gave her plan of how and what she was going to teach the students to blog and how to make them their own. The method she uses sounds almost like teaching without letting the students know they are being taught because they are having so much fun learning and personalizing THEIR blog.
     I commented on her post and I said the her lessons sounded fun and very beneficial because the earlier students learn how to use and apply these life tools, then the better and more successful they will become.
      The next post that I read was "We Are All Technology Teachers", which discuses whether or not teachers should and could use technology to help and assist with teaching other subjects besides just a technology class. Also could what they learn in a technology class help them to do and complete their work for other classes. She gives many great ideas and examples to support her post.
     I commented that she is absolutely right when she says that technology is ever changing and apart of the new school. We as teachers need to use technology to help our students and show them how to use technology for things other than just computer class.

Blog Post #3

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today     
      This has been my experience almost to a T. I know that most students come to class and either play on their cell phones or facebook on their laptops but I believe that those are the students who do not have to pay or earn their way in to college because either mommy and daddy pay for it or they are on some kind of scholarship. The students who come to class are the ones going into debt for every class they fail.
     What if though, students were not allowed to bring these things into class and were actually kicked out when the teach caught them using them. I believe there would be a lot less class disruptions. I know technology is great and we need it and use it in a lot of our assignments and homework but until students do what they should with it in- class then maybe some necessary precautions should be taken to ensure that if students do need to use there computer in class then the teachers walk around and check to make sure they are doing their work and require that something be turned in by the end of the class so they can not facebook. The world is technology right now and we need it but we also need to be sure we are using it for what it was made for... bettering our education and sharing with the world what we have discovered.

"It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines
      Teachers everywhere should read this because I believe it would be a serious wake up call. It has never 
been true that the technology makes a better teacher and it is about time the school systems woke up and realized this. Like Ms. Hines says when referring to smart boards, "It is not about the board. It is about proper training and mindset of a teacher who is already willing and eager to do amazing things." It has always been the teachers place to make sure they do not get complacent and to always provide many different learning options because there is no way that even 32 students will all learn the same way.
       I know that teachers can and do teach somewhat better with the assistance of technology but it is the teacher who is teaching and not the technology controlling the teacher like a puppet. I am sorry but if you do not want to do the work then why are you wasting your time getting a degree just so you can sit there and let the smart board do the teaching for  you and you sit and press the clicker?


Karl Fisch: "Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?" 
       Yes I do believe that being a technology illiterate teacher now is the same as not being able to read and write back 30 years ago. In this day in age, technology is one of the driving forces in our country and although technology is not everything, it is a part of most of the world everyday life. I do not believe people should be proud either of not knowing how to do something. This does not make anyone look smart or funny but I believe this is merely a copout.
       As teachers we are here to give students the tools and every opportunity that we can so that they can go out in to the world and do great things and succeed. If we ourselves are not the most knowledgeable then what are we doing teaching the future of our country? They deserve to get the best and if we are pleading illiteracy when it comes to technology then we are teaching them to do the same. Imagine a world were we just think it is funny not to know something, I just don't want to. 


Gary Hayes Social Media Count 
        This is absolutely mind boggling. If things like how many people watch youtube and how many people join Facebook can change that fast and almost triple numbers in just 3 seconds, then the knowledge and education I obtain could and probably will be outdated by the time I even get in to a classroom to teach students. 
          Since this is going to be the case then as a technology literate teacher I need to continue staying up to date and current with the information and the technology helps that use to assist in teaching. If I am teaching my students on an outdated program and then they move on and another teacher is using something completely more advanced then I have just hurt my student and held them back for a year. This may be just a count but this is a counter that calls you not to fall behind because if you do the students are the ones who will pay for it.

Blog Post #2

Did You Know? 3.0

       This was an absolutely astounding video. This blew my my and made me feel left behind in the technology world. I could not believe that China and India were so far ahead of us and that even though we are one of the largest nations land wise, we are still not one of the most populated countries. It worries me that we are being out done by other countries and that more war is still in our future.
       Although this is not what I would have like to have heard, I am glad to know and hope that more Americans see this video and want to change this with me. The U.S. use to be one of the leading nations and now I come to find out that we are # 19 in how much internet and technology we have nation wide. This makes me as a student of South Alabama wonder what schools could do more to keep their students as current as possible to teach the future of this country the most current and up to date information.

Mr. Winkle Wakes  

        This was a very interesting video. I did not get the point of it at first and was ready to just lay into this Mathew Needleman, but as the video went on it began to make sense and I completely agree with Mr. Needleman.

     I do not know how teachers and principals can send students out in to the world and expect them to do well in a job or excel at college, if they do not give them the tools they need to succeed. I know from personal experience that I would have done a lot better in college if I had been offered the computer and technology classes that now keep me up at night trying to figure out. I had one computer class in high school and it was nothing like what I needed to learn to be a college student. These are life skills and to deny them to us is wrong and setting us up for failure.

The Importance of Creativity

     I loved this video and could not have said what he said any better. The arts are important and the way our education system is set up now, we will continue to fall behind as a nation if we do not give our kids the opportunity to flourish and and express themselves. I know that there have been so many talented people who over the years have been mocked and told they would fail if they did not do what they were told, and give up on their foolish fantasies of being a dancer, a painter, or a musician. These are the people who design our buildings, our bridges, and everything that brings us joy and culture.
     If we do not give young minds a chance to find their way, then all we have done is created a bunch of mindless robots who all know the same things and have no individuality. Creativity is the reason students do not just walk out of schools and give up. If the teachers and school faculty would give students who are artistic a chance to express themselves instead of just sending home notes they were bad or have ADHA, then maybe we could recognize these talents early on and give them what they need to be successful and not tear them down for not fitting in to the mold society has deemed normal and acceptable.

Harness Your Students Digital Smarts

     I think what Vicki Davis is doing with these kids is amazing. These are life skills and what she is teaching them now will in this day and age, help them for the rest of their lives. We are living in a technology based world and this not only teaching them how to use all different kinds of software and websites but  this program is also giving a different way to learn. I think we are so set in the old ways of teaching that it is setting our students back and our generation. These classes also are giving a different way for students to learn and excel.
     It is sad that most schools only offer students one pathway of learning. It would benefit students, the business of the world, and our generation if students were allowed to have different ways of learning than sitting in a classroom and being lectured all day. It gives them a creative outlet and could possibly give us the people we need to make this world a better place for all of us.

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