iTunes U

Our second assignment for the 21st was to check out this video introducing the product iTunes U. This product is in iTunes, totally free, which includes tracks (lectures) from all of the top universities in this country. Our objective this week was to write two or more paragraphs about what we thought about it. And as a student, I found this tool to be very beneficial.

I found this to be beneficial because it gave the students different points of view on many topics---so that they can find their own understanding of the subject.

I'm a secondary education/social studies major and the topics that I found interesting had to do with history, however, they have many topics to appeal to everyone---and not just nerds.

GeoCoaching?

For the week of the 21st, our assignment was to read Dr.Christie's site and write the standard two or more paragraphs about the site. And the one thing that really caught my eye was the GPS and Geocoaching part of the site.

Lately, I've been hearing more and more about this event called Geocoaching. Previous to this assignment, I had no clue what is was, and honestly I still don't, however the run down is like this: Its a big treasure hunting game and they use GPS to help them guide their way.

So would I see this as being beneficial to the classroom? Absolutely. I believe it would get them involved and they would really absolve the information more than if they had a test on it.

"What I've Learned This Year." by Mr. McClung

For the week of the 14th, our second blog assignment was to read a blog by a teacher name Mr. McClung, our assignment was to read the blog and tell our audience about what we thought about the blog. Well, I found Mr. McClung's blog to be very inspiring. He tells the audience about his first year of teaching, and how he has grown up a lot, and I think that any future teacher should read this. He tells us how to read through the crowd; how to get to know our surroundings. He says we should be flexible, that nothing is perfect and that things are most likely not going to go our way, so do the best we can with a smile on our face. He then tells us the value of Communication---that communication is the ONLY way to resolve an issue. He then says to be reasonable, to not hold high expectation for any student, our job is to help them...not scold them. The blog then transitions into saying that we shouldn't be afraid of technology---that technology is our friend, and is also an essential to living. He closes the blog with the final two sections: to listen to our students and to never stop learning...This two were extremely important in my opinion. As a teacher, we should want to help and guide our students, we won't make a difference in their lives if we don't listen, and we can't teach if we close our minds off and stop learning.

Wired Story

For the week of the 14th one of our assignments was to read an article entitled "Wired Story." It is an article based on Wikipedia: a free internet encyclopedia, that can be changed by whomever. And the objective to this assignment is to answer the question: Will Wikipedia ever be a valid source? The answer to this is no.

The story was based on a Wikipedia page about an e-voting machine vendor called Diebold. The page had 15 deleted paragraphs, all of which were deleted by their own corporate office. For the fact that people can edit any information about the subject, causes this sources credibility to no longer exists. This in my opinion shows that Wikipedia will never be a valid source of information.

Benefits of Pod Casting in the Class Room.

Our assignment for the week of the 7th was to watch or read these videos or blogs about pod casting; something that we will be doing sometime in the near future. The link that I chose to do this blog about was Joe Dale's website. It is a 9 minute video, showing the benefits of pod casting in the classroom. It physically shows the audience how a pod cast can be effective in the class room.

I think that pod casting can be beneficial for the class room. It gets the kids interested, they're not bored, which promotes a higher learning.

Presentation