Blog Assignment Five

Eagle Nest Radio and Class Blog

This was a great blog and podcast! Very nice for third grade work. I like how they used music playing while they were talking, I also enjoyed the class picture. This is a good way to add to a voice podcast. It allows the listeners to see who is doing the podcast. I enjoed the subject of the last podcast, Romans. From this podcast I would like to incorporate the use of music while talking and maybe a picture into my groups podcast.

Langwitches

I enjoyed this website. It had great tools to help with podcasts and great podcast examples! I liked how teachers used the blog to enable learning. They said it helped them to discuss current events and learn topics being covered in class. On thiss website I saw where in one school every class had blogs and podcasts! This is exciting to me! I beleive that this could be a great learning tool and I am pleased that it is already being used in schools. They also say this is a great way to indroduce young students to the internet and blogging.

Another thing I learned from this podcast is that picking a theme is a good way to entertain students! The Langwitches showed a cartoon of a witch at the beginning of podcasts and had a witch laugh and spooky music as the introduction to the podcast! I found this a great idea and I beleive that elementary school students would love this!

The Practical Principals

Again with this podcast I like the the introduction and I like the way they also used a picture for something visual for the listener. This podcast also had intro music which I also liked. I would really like to have music in my groups podcast! In this podcast it was more like a conversation than informational. I believe that this is because they were sharing information not summarizing what they were reviewing, like the third grade class above.

All three of these podcast websites were very informative. I really hope to take what I learned from these and involve them in my group podcast!

Blog Assignment Four

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

I found this to be a very interesting article. At first I was confused, as I continued reading I better understood Dr. McLeod's point. It is important to trust students, doing this will help allow us as teachers to give them more reponsibily and a better chance to learn. Dr. McLeod is a Professor at Iowa State University. He is an avid blogger, and does alot of technology leadership work.

iSchool Initiative

This was a very interesting video. Definately a great idea for schools willing to change! Not only will this provide a better learning situation for students it will also help teachers. It will allow teachers to connect with students instantly. This is also a great way to keep up with student work and even grades. This provides teachers and students a way of privately communicating without the student having to stay after class and be embarressed about it.

Another way this is a logical idea is that it will cut down the budget. In the video he states about $600.00 per student! That is alot of savings! Plus no text books, paper or other supplies that are costly and produce an excessive amount of waste. The iSchool idea is a very green way of learning. I hope that this project is a success, although I do see some sketicism from those unwilling to open their minds I believe that this will be a ultimate success.

The Lost Generation

This was another amazing video. When first viewing this video I became upset, I believe those things to be untrue. I believe that my generation does care and that work does not come first. When this video reversed I was shoked at the style of writing. Amazed that someone could have this make sense by simply reversing it. The technique was captivatingand it really pulled together to make sense.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

Wow! Yet again another impressive video! The whole idea and importance of technology is really starting to grow on me. I now realize that the possibilities are endless! Using the internet this way is something that I never would of thought of. Now that seems like a shame to me. The internet should be used for more and more things like this. The capability to connenct people who may have never met otherwise is astounding.

Additional Assignment #1

This was my first experience with Google Squared. I did not know of it before watching the video, google continues to amaze me! This allows students or any user to see information about different things all at once. It sorts it out for you to. It definately helped my search about most popular dog names. WolframAlpha was also interesting. It seems to be a very smart tool, through this I found that I share a birthday with Michele Obama and that I have been alive for 7,915 days. This information source is amazing! This tool will be able to help children with everyday school work and provide a vast amount of information. I did not know about either of these tools before the assignment.

My Did You Know comments were based on the pure astonishment of the statistics in the video. Through Dr. Strange's video and these new search tools I must say I was to quick to fall for the ststistics. Now I understand why India has more honor students. There population is much larger than ours. I have learned that the shock of statistics needs to be examined further. I need to be ready to research and see the whole numbers before they were statistics.

A little bit about Sarah Blankenship

Blog Assignment Three

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today
I would say that this movie is an accurate depection of most college classrooms. I have had quite a few classes where people are sleeping or facebooking or not even there. There are some exceptions to this boring one way style of teaching. I have had classes of both sorts but unfortunately they are mostly like that in the video.

Ways to add to the movie would be to show that although some students are sleeping or on the internet not paying attention that there are students there trying to learn. Another way would be to show a classroom where some technology is being used just, like in a powerpoint. These classes are not far above the level of the one shown in this movie. Although there is technology being used this does not mean that the class is interactive or even interesting.

It's Not About Technology
This was a very interesting read. There were many valid points. When first reading the title I was mislead, but after reading the article I understood why she named it "It's Not About Technology". I agree when she states that "Learning and teaching are not the same thing". This is an excellent point, students must learn in order for us to be teaching. I also agree that teachers must still be learners. In order to be the best teacher one must keep up to date on ways and styles of teaching. Learning and using technology in the classroom is one way for teachers to be learners.

My favorite point from this post was that "Technology is useless without good teaching", I could not agree more. Imagine your in a classroom with all sorts of technology. New computers, new software, plus all sorts of other technology but your teacher does not utilize these tools to the best of their ability. They do not optimize learning for their students and are not being a good teacher.

Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
I enjoyed this post. I agree that technology is a tool for educators to use. It would be a shame not to, the possibilities are endless. As a student I have been a victom of classrooms that seem to be anti technology. There is not a lot of learning going on in those classes. Just memorization and then forgetting it after the test. Classes that include technology in learning are more interesting and I normally learn and retain more information.

I also agree with the statement, "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." In most other jobs the employee is responsible for keeping up with the changes that are taking place. Why should teaching be any different?

Gary Hayes Social Media Count
I believe that the astonishing numbers on this count show us that we are going to have to include technology in the classroom. There is really no way around it. Incorporating this into learning will be a way for students to stay interested. Using technology is also a way for teacheres to stay up to date in teaching.

Comments for Teachers #1

The first blog post that I commented on was on the subject of things that will become obsolete in the classroom in the next ten years. Some of the objects on the list would be great to leave in the past, while some others may stuck around for some time after ten years. In my comment on the blog I reviewed some of the items to become obsolete, number eight on the list were paperback books. This I can agree with. E books will probably have won by then,that is if the textbook companies allow it. Some that I did not agree with were homework and Algebra 1. I see these things making it through the next ten maybe twenty years. The second blog post I commented on was about fast changing technology. The blogger was able to look for and purchase a house from another country. She was also able to furnish it with online purchases. I thought that this was amazing! Technology absolutely amazes me! The constant growth allows for so much to be accomplished so much easier. Technology also provides many green opportunities.

Blog Assignment Two

Did You Know? 3.0

This movie was very informative to only be four minutes and fifty six seconds. The movie had facts that I found to be astonishing. For example that China will soon be the number one English speaking country in the world or that India has more honor kids than America has kids! I also found incredible how much technology has changed. I have never thought about the idea that more and more of everyday life revolves around technology. Internet dating, text messages, myspace, and google searches are part of everyday life. Another interesting fact is the amount of information in todays world. The tv, radio, newspaper, and internet provide almost any kind of information that could ever be wanted.

What really stood out in the movie was the fact that we will be teaching students and preparing them for jobs that do not yet exist. As the movie said the top ten in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004! This seems like alot of pressure to be amazing teachers. This also shows the importance of being technology literate. We are responsible for the future and technology will definately play a large roll.


Mr. Winkle Wakes

I beleive that if this were a true story that a classroom would be somewhat familiar to someone sleeping 100 years. Other than the obvious differences like air conditioning and more than a few rooms. Although computers and smartboards are a more common sight in classrooms there are not a large enough amount of change for a classroom to have a unfamilar feeling to someone after 100 years. Lectures and white boards are dominant in most schools. Hospitals, offices, and streets have had a significant change in the last 100 years so why haven't the way students are being taught.

In some cases I beleive that the fault does not lie on the teachers but maybe the school board or the lack of funds for the school. In other cases I do beleive that teachers lack the motivation to make learning exciting and do not make use of the technologies that hospitals and offices are using. As computers and technology advance I believe that the classroom also should. Using and teaching students technology is a very important part of the future.



Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

This video really explains the importance of allowing and encouraging creativity in students. He talks about how education focuses on math, science, history, english but not on the arts. That not in one school are the arts taught everyday like any other subject such as math. He also says that education was built around a hierarchy, the arts at the bottom. He also states that the worlds view of intelligence should change.

Creative capacitys in children should be strived for. This will allow for a better future. There is a large variety of creativeness which should be developed. Creativity is very important for education and it should be treated with such significance.


Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

This video was very informative in showing ways to empower students. The student assignments in this video are interesting and allow the students hands on activities. It also gives the students a chance to teach the class what they know. I find this inspirational because the students seemed to really enjoy this class and also to enjoy the teacher. The class was able to interact with others all over the world from inside their classroom.

I beleieve that by empowering students with the know how to succeed that they will. The skills that they are learning now they will be able to use for future jobs and assignments.I agree with her statement that not all students will succeed with just pencil and power. Her students seem to know and enjoy technology.