My Final Reflection

Project #13

Using Collaborative Tools Such as Skype, Google Docs, and Google +

For Project #15 and Final Project #16 my group used Google Docs, Google +, and Skype to effectively work on our projects. The past two and a half weeks we have used Google Docs to share script ideas and lines. For Final Project #16 we used Google Chat to discuss details about our video (music, photos, etc.). We used Skype to talk about the details of our Projects and to practice our lines for our projects. Making our projects was very enjoyable!

Final Project #16

Blog Assignment #13

Back to the Future

In this video Mr. Crosby is teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, most of whom are second language learners. The video shows how he uses collaborative learning inside and outside the classroom. He has one on one laptops for each student and all the students have their own blogs. They even sent a hot air ballon over a hundred thousand feet into the air. Through this activity his class met several history, language arts, and science objectives. They posted videos and wrote about the activity on their blogs and many views from other students and teachers that wanted to do the activities they were doing. This is a great way for students to start growing their learning network.

I loved this video, especially that he had a student that had leukemia and could not come to school and they still skyped with her and involved her in everything. I think it is so important that all students get the same collaborative learning experience and that technology can help that happen.

A Vision of Students Today

This video is about the students of today. It is about how they learn, what they should learn, what their lives are like, and what their lives will be like in the future. This is a video that every college student can relate to. How much will I be in debt when I graduate? Could my teacher be more boring? If you enter the average college classroom today you will see many students on their computers and phones, not even paying attention to the teacher. Technology can be such a distraction but why not use it in the classroom where it will be much more effective?

As a college student I completely relate to this video. Most classes are boring and the teachers are not enthusiastic with the material. The work I have to do, most of the time is pointless and not even for a grade. Society and the world are changing and teachers need to change the way they teach as well. As a future teacher, I hope to make my classroom fun, exciting, and as hands on as possible. I do not want my students to just merely memorize information and spit it back up on a test, I want them to understand, see, and relate with the material taught. Technology needs to be incorporated as much as possible too. Although I had teachers that bored me and did nothing to motivate me, I had some teachers that went above and beyond to be great teachers that made class interesting and a warm environment. I hope to be like those teachers that pushed me and helped me and effected my life a great deal. They are the very teachers that inspired me to be a teacher and I want to effect my students in the those teachers effected me.

Final Report on PLN

Through the duration of this class my PLN has grown a lot. I now use Symbaloo to keep my bookmarks as well as Internet Explorer. I never really noticed that I have always had a PLN until I was online one day and realized that Internet Explorer and Safari both keep a record of the websites you visit most often. I have used it a great deal in the past and I still do. I now use my Symbaloo page as my home page when I get online. It has all of the websites that I visit on a daily basis and then some that I use for other things like shopping and news. I am sure my PLN will continue to grow and it is really neat to be able to just look at all the sites I use on a daily basis and access them through one page.

C4Ks For November

Mckenzie

For this C4K I read and commented on Mckenzie's blog. Mckenzie is a grade four student from Canada. The post I read on her blog was a project done on the grassland. She included animals and what the grasslands are like and located. She did a great job. I commented on the post saying that she did a great job explaining all the details about the grasslands.

Megan

This week I was assigned Megan C. The post I read was called A Weird Wake Up. Megan talks about a dream she had and the crazy things that happened in her dream. It was cute and funny. I really enjoyed it. I commented on her post telling her that I enjoyed reading it and that it was very funny.

Mikayla

This week I was assigned to Mikayla. The post I read on her blog was called 10 Lies. In this post she made a list of ten things she considers lies, things like uniforms are enforced, high school is the best years of your life, etc. I commented on this post saying that I agreed with some of the things she listed as lies and when I was in high school I would have agreed with her on most of them.

C4T #4

Elizabeth Lawley: "Just Press Play" - Adding a Gaming Layer to the Undergraduate Experience

Howard Rheingold is a teacher at Stanford and at UC Berkley's School of Information. The first time I commented on Mr. Rheingold's blog his post was about Elizabeth Lawley and how she is experimenting with game mechanics in education. She is using gaming to enrich the learning experience for undergraduate students. To me this is such a neat idea. Students can learn through gaming and use it for social networking as well. It is a great way to incorporate technology into the learning environment.

Assessment: Turning a Blunt Instrument Into a Powerful Learning Tool

The second time I read and commented on Mr. Rheingold's blog, he was discussing assessment and how he is trying to veer away some from the traditional aspects of grading. He talks about how he gave a mid-term that was for no grade, where the students had to grade them themselves. This had great success in his classroom. I think it is good to keep some structure in grading so students can know where they stand in their classes, but I like the ideas of peer grading and keeping to focus on learning and the learning experience rather than the grade.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr. Rheingold's blog, he had some great ideas and insight.

Project 15

Progress Report on Project 16

For our Project 16, our group decided to choose option C, to make a 1-2 minute video that can be used for the fund raising efforts for the University of South Alabama 50th Anniversary. We have come up with a great way to reflect things "made at the USA." We have met several times to video and take pictures. It is coming along very nicely. We are very excited about this project!!

Blog Assignment #12

For this blog assignment we were given the opportunity to come up with an assignment that has to do with our speciality and then do the assignment. My speciality is elementary education. The assignment I came up with is to have students read the article, Putting the iPad to Work in Elementary Classrooms, then write a summary of the article. The summary should be a minimum of two paragraphs and should include not only a summary but ways you would use an iPad in your own classroom.

Putting the iPad to Work in Elementary Classrooms

In this article Peter Levy is writing about how Camilla Gagliolo incorporated the use of iPads in her classroom. She started off by trying to use them with her special needs students. This had such great success that it expanded into the entire elementary school. She said she found that the phrase that is reaching the cliche status -"there is an app for that." She said she has found that there are a great deal of applications that apply to elementary school environment. These applications allow for the students to enhance their creativity and to think critically. Her students were now creating their own online books, photos, and videos.

Teachers are getting so excited about using technology in their classrooms and it is such an inspiration to get to do the same when I have a classroom of my own. In this article Mr. Levy mentioned Mrs. Cobb who was given two iPads to use in her classroom. I loved her idea to allow two students a trimester to use the iPads for all of their online assignments and learning. I think this would be a great way to see how each students develops with the use of a iPad and so that they can learn in more depth about technology. I would love to incorporate an idea such as this into my own classroom. I plan to use technology as much as possible in my own classroom but I liked how this article pointed out the iPad specifically. The iPad can act just as a regular desktop or PC but it has so many features to enhance learning and you cannot forget about all the applications that Apple has that can be downloaded onto the iPad to enhance learnig as well.

Blog Assignment #11

First Grade in Ms. Cassidy's Class:

In this video, Little Kids...Big Potential, we get to see a virtual tour of Ms. Cassidy's first grade classroom. In this class they use a wide range of technologies like Skype, Wiki, Nintendo DS, blogging, and so much more. In the video you can see how excited her students are to learn through all these different tools.

The students explain to us how they use their blogs and even give tips on how to use blogs properly. They said to never be mean about or to anyone, because it could hurt their feelings. The students seemed to love receiving comments from friends and family members on their blogs. I think this is a great age to begin to teach kids how to use these tools. Their skills can only grow from there. It is wonderful that teachers are starting to teach these skills are such a young age so that they can grow and keep up with technology and its advances. This younger generation is going to have so much to offer.

Skyping with Ms. Cassidy:
Click here to view the interview with Ms. Cassidy

In the interview Ms. Cassidy talks about how she got started with using technology in her classroom. She says that ten years ago she was given five computers for her class and it has grown from that. She says that the kids really enjoy it. She says technology is not going away.

I think that this class has opened my eyes more to the type of classroom environment I will need to create, when it comes to technology. It is extremely important that students learn to use technology to its fullest. I am truly inspired by Ms. Cassidy's class. She has turned receiving five computers in her class, to incorporating technology into her classroom as an everyday experience. I think I will definitely use Smart boards, have a class blog, and also use blogging as a tool for assignments and a way of communication with students. Having a class blog or website seems like it is very effective. Parents can see announcements, due dates, assignments, and even communicate with teachers. I love the idea of students blogging, even at a young age. Students need outlets to express themselves and blogging seems like a great way to do that. The students, I think, will love receiving comments from people other than their teachers. I think this video was great. Ms. Cassidy has a lot of ideas and she answered a lot of questions for me. I think that students will benefit a great deal from activities that are engaging. I loved the snow in her backyard!!

C4T #3

Miguel Guhlin

Mr. Guhlin is a veteran educator and Director of Technology Operations for a school district in Texas. The first post of his that I commented on was called Podcast on the iPad. He gives some helpful hints on making a podcast on the iPad. He also provides the links he uses to help him in his process of creating a podcast on his iPad.

The second time I commented on Mr. Guhlin's blog his post was about cafeteria software and what his role as Director of Technology Operations includes. This is part of a series as advice to those who are considering to become a director of technology operations. In this particular post is about cafeteria software. He lists approaches and pitfalls. I really enjoyed reading his blog. He writes about very helpful things and posts links to sites that go along with his posts.
Click here to read Mr. Guhlin's blog

C4Ks for October

Destiny

The blog to whom I was assigned was Destiny's. She is a student from Canada. In her blog she wrote about the quality of life. She talks about how she is reminded of how fortunate she is in her life. I commented on her blog saying that she did a great job writing her blog and that I agreed with her that we all have pretty good lives, we just do not always take the time to appreciate what we have.

Lily

The blog that I was assigned to was Lily's. Her blog is through her tenth grade modern world history class. I read her blog titled Globalization. She talks about her views on globalization and its effects in the United States. I commented on her post saying that I agreed with her for the most point, but that globalization has its negative and positive points.

Keene

The blog that I was assigned to this week was Keene. In this post Keene is writing about a book he just read called Ponyboy, which is actually a book I have read before. I commented saying that I enjoyed reading the summary and that I had read the book before.

Vitulli and Santoli

This week I was assigned to comment on Dr. Santoli and Dr. Vituli's blog that they created together a blog for their trip to Ireland for Ireland International Conference on Education. This post was an Irish blessing they posted. It was not an Irish blessing I had heard before but I really liked it. It was very beautiful and encouraging.

Special Blog Assignment

USA Today article: "A World Where Grades Will Be Left Behind" By Mary Beth Marklein

In this USA Today article, A World Where Grades Will Be Left Behind, Mary Beth Marklein is writing about Sebastian Thrun, a Google Vice President who has founded an education company called Udacity. This is a company thats aim is to revolutionize education by making it as entertaining as possible and by making learning free. This is an interesting idea but how is this being funded if it is free? I do agree that learning should be fun so that students can effectively learn, but there still needs to be a sense of structure. This could be an effective way of learning for individualized learning but I feel like there are still many questions that should be addressed for this idea.

I do not agree with the idea that standardized tests are what we should structure our classes around. Students should be taught how to succeed in life and not how to just simply pass or score high enough on the standardized tests they are required to take. Students will fail and that is perfectly fine, we all fail at some point in life, but this idea of learning does not allow for failure. I know I have failed many times (even failed classes) and I have learned that failure is a part of the learning process. I think that students also benefit from having a teacher push them and seeing that teacher wanting them to succeed. With these classes being online and teachers having so many students to tend to I think students will not receive this kind of connection with their teachers. I do think that education needs to catch up with technology but I am not sure that this idea of education is quite what we need.

Blog Assignment #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga.

In John T. Spencer's blog, Adventures in Pencil Integration, he posts a cartoon called I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga.

The cartoon is mocking the I'm a PC, I'm a Mac commercials. Like the PC, Papermate is the more inexpensive of the two options and is still reliable; while like the Mac, the Ticonderoga is just as good, in some opinions better, and more expensive. I personally own a PC, my second PC to be exact. The ones I have owned are very reliable as long as you take care of them. I think that the Mac has great features and qualities that the PC does not but when I was purchasing my PC, looking at buying a Mac was not an option with my budget. The cartoon was funny and great mockery of the I'm a PC, I'm a Mac commercials.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games? By John T. Spencer

This blog post by John T. Spencer was called, Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?, was a set of dialogue about being called into the Principal's office. He gets in trouble for playing games with his students. The Principal scolds him saying that games cannot properly be used for educational purposes. This Principal believed in just feeding students information and have them focus on the memorization of that information and just spitting it out on the test and then moving on to the next topic.

I think that this Principal was wrong. Students need a way to connect what they learn to their own lives. They need hands on experiences, and yes even games, to bring the subject matter to life in a way that engages them. The fact of the matter is that at some point in our future teaching careers we are going to encounter teacher, administration, and principals that believe in this "Burp Back Education" (as Dr. Strange says). This is the method I was talking about previously about feeding students information and simply focusing on the memorization and then have the students burp it back up onto the test. This kind of teaching is not effective. This is not the form of teaching I will use when I start teaching. I plan to incorporate hands on learning in my classroom.

Avoid Social Networking By John T. Spencer

In this post by John T. Spencer called, Avoid Social Networking, is another dialogue but this one is written about an HR representative telling them that they cannot interact social with students outside of the classroom. Reading this made me laugh quite a bit. To a degree socializing with students outside of the classroom is appropriate. Students need to be given attention and shown that there is a sense of care from their teachers. The points made that were brought up by the teachers were outrageous, such as what if we see a student at the grocery store? and the response of the HR representative was to just smile and wave and don't speak to them. That just seems absurd to me. Parents even want to know that their kid's teacher is kind and caring.

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

This post by Scott McLeod, Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff?, is his sarcastic way of saying to go ahead and keep your kids away from new technologies but he is going to teach his students to use them and they will have a great advantage over yours. I love his way of putting that students need to stay up to date on the new technologies today. Technology is a gate way for students to learn, create, and communicate. It is a good idea for parents to monitor the sites and views of their children. The internet is a great place for learning but it also holds things that children do not need to see, so parents need to monitor that. To educate their kids about the internet, parents also need to be technology literate as well.

Project #11

Project #14 Smartboard

Blog Assignment #9

At The Teacher's Desk: What I've Learned This Year (2008-2009)

Mr. McClung has a blog where he writes about his years of teaching. At the end of every school year he makes a new blog post about what he has learned from teaching that year. In his blog post for the 2008-2009 school year, he is discussing what he has learned in his first year of teaching.

He starts of by saying that he himself was more concerned about his superiors than the fact that the students were the real audience. He said, " In order to be effective you have to be able to let your audience drive your instruction." I could not agree more! While there may be nerves about being a first time teacher and there are guidelines that teachers must follow at any school, it is important to realize that the students are the ones in the classroom listening to you their teacher. He also says to stay flexible. Things do not always go the way we plan them out to. Mr. McClung goes on to say that, as in any workplace, communication is the best way to work out issues. Be reasonable, is another point he made. He said that not every student is going to meet your expectations and that is okay. Don't be afraid of technology! He said that "technology is our friend and is essential to living in our microwave society of today." I love that he mentions technology and that he urges to not be afraid of it as teachers. We are to embrace it. Listening to your students, he states, is also important. As a teachers we may be the only person to listen to a child. They need attention! Lastly, he says to never stop learning. We are bound to change over time, whether it be thinking, learning, or style. I think that we build our own teaching style over time and I agree with him that we should constantly be learning new things to being into our classroom.

What I Learned This Year-Volume 4 (2011-2012)

In this post, that I selected, we jump to Mr. McClung's blog post about his fourth year of teaching. He said that he didn't learn as much this year as he did in the previous years, but that there were still things that stuck out to him.

He said two things stuck out to him. First, is that he struggled with defining himself as a teacher. He said he had become too concerned with how his peers viewed him as an educator. He says that it is important to stay true to who you are, you can't change who you are. I think that he is right. Your teaching style comes from your personality. His other point was to challenge yourself. He said that this was his third year at the same school teaching the same subjects. He said that if you are not careful you can become lazy in your teaching and slip into a routine. He felt as though that he was not a good teacher. I feel he was right on the money when he said that his goal as an educator is to do everything he can do to ensure that students enjoy class and not resent school as he did when he was a child. As a child I also resented school, especially those classes that were very routine. Challenge yourself to bring life to the classroom.

Project #12 Book Trailer

PLN Project #10

This is my first progress update on creating my PLN. I am using Symbaloo as the tool to bookmark the pages I use most often, all on one page. It is set as my homepage, so when I first get online I have all my favorite and most used sites right in front of me. Symbaloo is a great tool and is easy to use. I have organized my tiles so that the ones I use for school assignments are along the bottom, the ones I use for shopping are at the top right, and my news resources are at the top left. Everything is easily accessible when ever I need to use it.

Blog Assignment #8

This is How We Dream:

In these two videos, This is How we Dream Parts 1 and 2, Dr. Miller is talking about the importance of writing and how writing greatly influences society today. He talks about incremental change being how we use our computer and the desktop is a "work area". We can read, research, and learn about anything without stepping into a library. He wrote a document about the Bush Doctrine entirely from his computer, without going to a library or using any physical books. His document is in print form and online form. The online form of the document is there indefinately, although the printed form can be thrown away.

There are perks to doing a document online, you can add video and audio to your documents. Even newspapers are changing over to online, instead of using print. Websites change over time and can be updated frequently. The internet and online resources give us another chance to share our ideas freely. As Dr. Miller said in the video, the only restrictions we have are the ones we place on ourselves.

Dr. Miller is basically saying to use a computer and multi media instead of using a paper and pencil. Things that are published on the web reach people faster and you can add things to make things you publish online for appealing and eye catching. Writing is a way to express ones self and with technology you can express yourself even more and in different ways. As a future educator, I plan to make sure that my students always express themselves and their ideas using technological resources.

Carly Pugh's Blog Post #12:

After reading Carly's Blog Post #12, I love how she expresses her creativity throughout and even in her fun colorful layout. Carly's assignment ideas was very creative yet simple. She came very close to Dr. Miller's theory. Her assignment allows for creativity and her ten options for the Youtube videos were thorough. Like she says in her post, that in a perfect classroom students need to think. She was very thorough in her work, she listed all the videos she selected and gave reasons why she chose each one. Her idea was great and it is very evident that she put a lot of work into this blog post.

EDM 310 for Dummies and The Chipper Series:

These two videos, Edm 310 for Dummies and The Chipper Series, were great. They both had me laughing the whole time.

Edm 310 for Dummies was a cute idea. Two students show their frustration towards Edm 310 and make a book called Edm 310 for Dummies. I am sure all students in Edm 310 can relate to this video and the frustration of learning the new things this class teaches us.

The Chipper series was such a funny video. It showed the importance of being on time and dedicated. The students that made this video had some great ideas. If I had the opportunity to participate in making a video like these, I think it would be fun to make a video as to why it is important to be the best teacher you can be. I would want to show two different situations, one with a good teacher and one with a bad teacher. It would show students and others why it is important to provide the best education for the students we are to teach. It is a blessing to be able to teach.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn:

The video, Learn to Change, Change to Learn, is an inspiring video. It opens the eyes of those watching to the idea that the classrooms today are inadequate. Students are learning more outside of the classroom, through the internet and social networking. These things are banned in most schools, when teachers could be using them as resources to enhance the education of their students. With technology being ever changing, it is important for students to grasp the knowledge they can, with all of the resources there are. The teachers in this video are encouraging us to grasp the transformation of technology in society today.

I could not agree more with this video and the message that it brings. It is our job to give students the best education we can offer them.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0:

This video, Teaching in the 21st Century, was made through a tool called Prezi. Prezi is a site where you can get more for your money, with prices at $4.92/month or $13.25/month. Prezi has many tools to help make presentations more interesting than it would be if your just the regular powerpoint. For educators or students, this is a great deal for a great tool.

Animoto, is a video tool that I have never used before. It has some great features. It allows you to upload photos from your computer, Facebook, Instagram, and other networking sites. It has its own music library, with hundreds of songs, that you can select for your videos. Animoto also makes it easy to share your video on practically any site such as: Youtube, Facebook, Pintrest, Twitter, and other sites as well. This video tool also allows you to pick the resolution you want your video to be in, even in high definition. Animoto also has an application that you can download onto your phone (iPhone or Android) to create videos.

Here is the poll I created using Poll Everywhere. I loved that it took less than a minute to create!!

C4T #2

Eva Buyuksimkesyan is an English teacher, she has been teaching for twenty years. The first time I read her blog, her post that I commented on was about a new tool that she had discovered called Edcanvas. Edcanvas is a tool where you can create online lessons using videos from Youtube, URLs, and your own documents. It looks like a really great tool to use and something that even students can use. After commenting on this blog post I received a follow from Edcanvas on Twitter, so awesome!

The second time that I commented on Mrs. Buyuksimkesyan's blog, her post was about another tool that she found. This one is called Smore. Smore is on online flyer creator. You can use it for many different things such as: an event, describe a product, and create a class newspaper. She explains that you can also embed your flyers on your blog. Seems really neat and I am definitely checking this out. I really enjoyed reading Mrs. Buyuksimkesyan's blog.

Blog Assignment #7

The Networked Student By Wendy Drexler:

The video, The Networked Student, that Wendy Drexler's high school students created is about the concept of connectivism. Connectivism is education through various networking sites. The video shows how a student that is studying a specific topic can share the information he finds on the topic through networking sites. It also shows how the student found reliable sources through networking sites as well.

The teacher in this video may seem obsolete; but as it shows at the end of the video the teacher is there to help the student with problems and questions, she provides a model of how her students should use the networking sites in their studies, and she is to help her students best organize the information they have found. The teachers in these settings are not the ordinary lecture based teachers.

It is important for teachers to incorporate the internet and social networking into their classes. With the advancement of technology teachers need to stay ahead and be able and ready to teach their students the proper way to use the internet and networking. Students need to see how networking can help enhance their learning process. As shown in the video, students can use sites to find sources and then post the sites they have found on a bookmarking site so that others can see them as well. I like the idea of connectivism and I think it is a great teaching method that all teachers should incorporate in their classrooms.

A 7th Grader's PLE:

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment(or PLN), was a great video. The seventh grade student showed how useful networking has been for her. She used a program called Symbaloo, which seems like a great tool. It looks like a tool I would like to try out. Her PLE seemed very organized and she seemed excited about using it. I think that this is a great way to get students more interactive with their school work.

Her PLE was similar to my PLN from EDM 310. Every week ours is becoming more detailed. I think that when people see our PLN they can see how much time and work we put into it. I am excited to see the outcome of my PLN at the end of the semester and continue to expand it even after the semester is over.

Project #8

Blog Assignment #6

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch is such an amazing speaker. This video of his last lecture, Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, was inspirational. I learned some valuable things from watching this video. At the beginning of his speech he gave a list of his childhood dreams and he told how, in some way or another, he achieved each one. I was amazed that he achieved them all, some were not easy to accomplish.

My favorite thing that Randy Paush said in this speech was that, "experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." I think that when we look at a list of things we want to do and we try to accomplish them, we do not always succeed. Although, when we take time and work hard at other tasks and obstacles we tend to find ourselves at the opportunity to achieve our dreams. We tend to not take time and look at the big picture, instead we focus on getting what we want as soon as we can get it. Dreams take time, dedication, and heart.

Randy Pausch also used the term "brick wall" often in his speech. He said, "brick walls are not there to keep us out, they are there to show us how badly we want something. Brick walls let us show our dedication." In life there are always obstacles ("brick walls") that may seem to push us further away from our goals, but when we work through those obstacles we can see that those "brick walls" were just another step to reach our goals. Life is full of "brick walls" and the only thing that matters is how we come out of that experience.

He used such a great sense of humor in his speech. You could tell, by the stories he incorporated into his speech, that he used humor and creativity in his teaching. I plan on using humor to help liven up my classroom once I graduate and have a classroom of my own. Randy Pausch seemed like a teacher who reached out to his students and made a great impact on their lives. He speech was very inspirational and I hope that the way I teach has an impact on my students like Randy Pausch had on his students.

Project #9a Time Toast Timeline

C4Ks for September

Paul

For this week I commented on Paul's blog. Paul is a year 5 student at Pt England School in Auckland, New Zealand. The post I commented on was a summary of a story called Ocktapodi. It was a story about two octopus that were in love. He did a really great job on his blog.

Henry

This week I commented on Henry's blog. Henry is in room 15 at Pt England School. The class is for eight and nine year olds. So, Henry is either eight or nine, his blog did not say specifically. The post that Henry wrote that I commented on was a story that he wrote called The Frozen Beach. The story was well written and very interesting. He included some good pictures along with the story. I commented on his post saying that he was doing a good job and that his story was good and the pictures helped make the story come to life.

Blog Assignment #5

The iSchool Initiative:

Travis Allen had some great points in his video, The iSchool Initiative. I loved that as a student he saw the needs of his school and the budget cuts that were being made. He took the time to come up with an a idea, that I agree, would be a great way to use technology in the classroom and cut back on spending. He produced the argument that applications can go above and beyond just video games and entertainment.

I think his idea is brilliant. Schools could really save money and resources by using the iSchool. Technology is making a huge impact on society as it is and it needs to be brought to the classroom in a way that will help educate students. Travis Allen showed in his video that all these different applications can take the place of the expensive essentials needed in the classroom. However, I do think that students may get caught up in the iSchool itself and not just simply remain focused on the educational things. That would be something that would have to be monitored. Also, I think that somethings in the curriculum should be a more hands on experience. Those are my only concerns for this idea. The iSchool seems like it would be a very resourceful addition to the education system. I also enjoyed watching Travis Allen's video Travis Allen's ZeitgeistYoungMinds entry. It is great to see that his idea has launched out worldwide. That just goes to show how worldwide technology is and that one person with an idea can spark change all over.

Erin Whitacre's Virtual Choir:

This video was amazing! Erin Whitacre pulls hundreds of people together, that have never sung together before or even met, to make a virtual choir. I remember seeing the video, Erin Whitacre's Virtual Choir, on the news months ago. The song itself is beautiful and the voices are so harmonious. It is incredible what people can do with technology these days.

Teaching in the 21st Century:

Dr. Strange's version of Kevin Roberts' video, Teaching in the 21st Century, was very insightful. I have been realizing more and more lately that with the progress of technology, the teacher's role in the classroom is more obsolete. I think that in our EDM310 class we learn how to use technology to its fullest advantages as a teaching aid. Our new role as educators is to teach students how to properly use the resources they have available to them through technology. We all retrieve most of our information from the internet or other technological resources and students need to know how to be utilize these resources.

Flipped Classroom:

Flipping the classroom is a wonderful idea!! I love the idea that students are able to get lecture information and a practice before the teacher has gone over that particular topic. After watching the videos: Flipping the Classroom-4th Grade STEM, Why I Flipped My Classroom, Dr. Lodge McCammon's FIZZ-Flipping the Classroom; I realized just how helpful it is to give students information ahead of time. Students can go back to previous lessons for remediation and review, while other students can work ahead.

I can see how this process can motivate students to be more involved, as they are encouraged to work at their own pace. I think that students will be much more engaged in the classroom by doing this, instead of just sitting in class listening to lectures. It seems like a great way for parents to also get more involved in what their children are learning in school. This will help the teachers more effective get the subject matter across to students and give them more time for application on what they have learned. I love this idea.

Project #6

Blog Assignment #4

Langwitches

I am not going to lie, I know very little about podcasts and until I started this Edm310 class, I had not heard much about podcasts. These posts about podcasting were very insightful.

Langwitches Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting was a great post. It is wonderful to see how far technology has come, and that a podcast can help students so much. I like how hands on it can be for students, to make a podcast. Podcasts can help students learn by listening and being able to comprehend studies better. It is a great tool for teachers, especially language teachers, as the post mentioned. Langwitches-Podcasting with 1st Grade is such a great post. I loved reading about how a teacher took the time to use technology as a way to get her first grade class to get involved. They used literature and technology to take the students thinking to different level. As mentioned in the post, the more the students worked on the podcast and their recordings, the more they wanted to help out with the editing of the podcast. Langwitches-Flat Stanley Podcast was about a class that read the book Flat Stanley and was inspired by their responses from a project they did that they wanted to make a podcast. Seeing how students love hands on work and a chance to work with technology, is so great. The students had to think about the script, senses, and sound effects to go along with what they had researched.

After reading the posts I feel a bit more educated about podcasts. I think that podcasts are something that I will try to use in my classroom when I become a teacher. I am excited to see how technology will continue to influence the classroom environment.

Project #5 Presentation

C4T #1

Doug Peterson is a sessional instructor at University of Windsor in Canada. The first time I read his blog, he was writing about a group of high school students that founded a program called Hallway. Hallway, as Mr. Peterson stated, is a social network where students from all over the world can ask questions pertaining to school work and receive help. The students can not also receive help on their studies but they can also help other students worldwide with their studies. It looks like a great way for students to interact.

The second time that I commented on his blog, he had written a post on a product called mural.ly. It seems like a great product that can help enhance the connection between blogging and twitter. He gave a description of how fast it is for a blog or tweet about a blog to move throughout the network. It was a terrific post and I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mr. Peterson's blog.

Click here to view Mr. Peterson's blog

Blog Assignment #3

Thoughts on Peer Editing:
The videos: What is Peer Editing?, Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes and the tutorial: Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, were very helpful and offered a different outlook on peer editing. The videos and the tutorial were helpful in explaining how to edit when it comes to peer editing. I agree that it is important to stay positive when editing a peer's blog. Being too harsh on your peer could cause them to become discouraged. However, it is important to be specific about mistakes made so that they can know exactly what you mean and it is also good to give helpful suggestions on how to correct their mistakes.

The video on the top ten mistakes when peer editing showed me how not to act when editing a classmate's blog. Overall, the videos and the tutorials showed that being positive and giving helpful critiques is the best way to edit a peer's blog. We should not be a Picky Patty or a Mean Margaret when we edit, simply because we would not want some one to edit our blogs in a negative. Staying positive and helpful is the key.

Technology in Special Education:
The video Technology in Special Education, was so amazing!! It shows how important it is to stay up to date with technology, as it can impact our classrooms in incredibly ways. The video allows us an insight on a day in a special education classroom where they use technology as an aid. It showed that technology makes it easier for special education children and adults to accomplish classwork and homework. Technology, as shown in the video, makes it easier for the student and teacher to communicate. Technology helps these students to be able to help themselves learn and that is so important. Without technology these students require a more one on one environment.

Being able to have special education students in my classroom when I become a teacher will be such a great experience and blessing. I plan to use technology to help my students learn and actually enjoy the classroom setting; and I am excited to use technology to help students with special needs. They are just like other students, they just need extra assistance and technology helps so much with being able to give them the assistance they deserve. I plan to have as much technology in my classroom as possible.

Special Education and the IPad:
It is truly amazing to see how something like an IPad can help a special needs child learn. Technology is a great wonder. The IPad makes learning fun and entertaining to special needs students. I chose Proloquo2Go as an app to help special needs children.

Proloquo2Go is a great way for special needs children to work on their speech and communication. This app shows them pictures of tasks they can do and when they click on the pictures it speaks for them. This app becomes a voice for those who need help with communication and speech. It is an amazing tool, just like the IPad itself, they are helpful to special needs children in so many ways.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts:
Vicki Davis's video Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts, shows how students can self-teach through technology. It is much easier for students to learn when they are hands-on, doing it themselves, instead of listening to a teacher lecture an entire class period. By doing things on their own through technology, students can find a sense of empowerment by learning to do things on their own.

This video also shows how peers can teach other and even their teachers by using technology. It showed how students can interact and create with other students all over the world. Vicki had great advice on using technology in the classroom. Students, in even rural towns like Vicki's, should be given the opportunities to learn, create, discover, and interact just like the students in her classroom. It is amazing to see how she has transformed her classroom into a technology based learning experience.

Project #2

Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know
After watching the two videos, Did You Know? 3.0 A John Strange 2012 Version and Did You Know? 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, I was completely taken back by the surprising information in both videos.

The first video I watched was the one by Dr. Strange. The statistics were eye opening and extremely unsettling. As I watched the video I realized that we as Americans tend to rank ourselves among the top when it comes to things such as: education, technology, and social media. In reality we are not among the top nations in these areas. I think back to my mother, who is from Germany, and that on top of taking German as a class she was also required to take English. That requirement has not changed, as my cousin(who lives in Germany) is also required to take English courses. Yes, our schools require us to take a foriegn language in high school but in other countries learning a foriegn language is being taught at a younger age and progressing them to be fluent in those languages. Most other countries, as mentioned in the statistics shown, are far better educated that America. It is devastating to realize that, unknown to many, our nation is being surpassed by other countries in almost every aspect. Yet, as Americans, we are still in the mind set that we are far better than any foriegners.

While watching the second video I became even more unsettled. I had not realized that in 2004 the top jobs of today were nonexisitent; and that the methods, that students are studying trades in their first year of trade schools, will be outdated by their third year of trade school. Technology is certainly progressing. The video even stated that in 2016 they are forseeing the production of a computer that will work like the human brain(with its capabilities and information). I am impressed that technology is constantly progressing and its vast capabilities.

Mr. Winkle Wakes By Matthew Needleman
I thoroughly enjoyed the video Mr. Winkle Wakes By Matthew Needleman. It was cleaver to use a child-like story to portray a simple yet important message. This video shows the importance of technology and its impact on the world, and how the use of technology has not made its needed impact in the classroom.

I agree with the video, that technology needs to make a greater impact in the classroom. However, I see nothing wrong with leactures and note taking. Technology should be used as an aid in the classroom to accompany leactures. Students should be shown how to use the resources that technology offers, in order for them to keep up with fast and ever changing technological world. Students can be taught skills through technology that will help them in the job market in their years to come. Technology is all around us and this video helps enlighten, those like Mr. Winkle, on this topic. I hope that more people see this video and realize the importance of technology in our classrooms today.

The Importance of Creativity By Sir Ken Robinson
The video The Importance of Creativity By Sir Ken Robinson was insightful. I completely agree with his views on the importance of creativity and how the school systems are killing the creativity in students. In his speech he gives many examples of how education is shunning the arts in the schools. He explains how education is focused on the hierarchy of subjects that society deems important; including mathamatics, sciences, and literature. This excludes fields such as dance, music, and art.

I myself have seen this happen, as I was heavily involved in the music department throughout grade school. The basic subjects of math, science, history, and literature were said to be the most important; and the art programs feel to the bottom of the list. Education has taught us that creativity is not important or necessary in the educational environment. Creative topics like dance and music can lead to extraodinary talents and yes, there are promising careers in those fields. It is disheartening to see kids with vast creativity get medicated and ignored and told that it is ADD or ADHD. It has become an excuse for people. It is important for students to have the ability to express their creativity, as well as be taught the necessary basic subjects.

Mr. Robinson has some great thoughts on the importance of creativity and I strongly agree with his thoughts. When I become a teacher I plan on encoraging creativity with my students.

Think About the Future: A Day Made of Glass 2, A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning's Vision, Project Glass: Live Demo at Google and In Light of Mr. Winkle Wakes
After watching these videos I am in complete awe of technology advances. A Day Made of Glass 2 I was completely amazed at the technology that Corning has access too and that this company is trying to make this accessable worldwide. After watching A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning's Vision, it was shocking to hear that for automobiles glass is already accessable, although it is at unrealistic price. Technology is a wonderful thing and it is important that we all know how to use it, because in the future our lives are going to be more and more technology based. I like how the videos showed how glass would be used in the classrooms and how it would be a very hands on experience. I appreciated how Project Glass: Live Demo at Google showed how mobile glass can be. It seems to be a great product and a significant advance in technology. However, I was a little uneasy about the idea of glass at a park. Nature is one thing that should be experienced without technology. Call me old-fashioned on that part, but that is simply my thought on that one.

In light of Mr. Winkle Wakes, if I were to awake after one hundred years of sleep to see glass walls, like Corning's product, I am not sure what I would think. It is mind boggling to realize how far technology has progressed and the unfathomable future that technology will hold. It will be interesting to see where technology will take us.

Blog Assignment #1

About Me:
/ Hello everyone. My name is Leslie Jo Curd, but i prefer to be called Jo. I am a twenty two year old junior at the University of South Alabama, entering into my fifth year of college. I belong to a family of four; it is just me, my older brother, my mom, and my dad. My family is my support system; along with my best friend Lindsay, who is constantly by my side through everything and my boyfriend Michael, who is proudly serving our country as a medic in the army.
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/ I have lived in Mobile since I was almost two years old. My dad was in the army when he and my mom married and when I was born my dad was stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington; which is where I was born. My dad grew up here in Mobile, which is why we moved down here once his time in the army was up. My mom, on the other hand, is from Germany. So, I am half German, although I know very little of the german language.
/ I just recently changed my major to elementary education, but I am not new to the University of South Alabama. When I started college at the University of South Alabama in the fall of 2008, my major was nursing; after many tries of applying to the nursing program at South I finally transferred to Faulkner State Community College. I spent a year at Faulkner, just to spend one semester in their nursing program and to find out that nursing was not my calling. My heart has always been with working with children, as I have always enjoyed working vacation bible school at my church and doing other mission outreaches with children. So, here I am back at the University of South Alabama and extremely excited to dive into my new major and become a teacher, as to teach children and hopefully touch their lives.
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/ On another note, I am a part time waitress at a local restaurant here in Mobile. I spend most of my spare time working, but when I am not working I am hanging out with my friends and spending time with my family. I enjoy going to church every sunday and embracing the passion I have for my savior. When I really have time I could easily be found out on the boat fishing with my family or at the shooting range with my uncle. I suppose you could say I am far from being a girly girl, as I love fishing and guns. I always keeping myself busy and being back in school may be a change, but a change for the better.
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/ Thought's On Randy Pausch Time Management:
/ The video on time management had some helpful hints. I agree with Randy Pausch, when he said that not having a plan is planning to fail. I hate to admit that that is one of my down falls, as I have a issue with not having a plan or just having a poorly developed plan. It is better to have a plan, than to not have one and procrastinate all the time.
/ Thoughts on Penn State Time Management:
/ The methods on how best to manage time that the pages that Penn State offered were very helpful. The one that would work best for me would be keeping a calendar or multiple calendars that I could carry in with me at all times and use to keep tract of things, such as assignments, tests, deadlines,appointments, and work schedules. I always carry calendars or planners with me in my purse and in my book bag, but I do not take advantage of their entire usefulness.

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