project 15 interview

GoodBye!

I'm a big quote person and since I was listening to Tom Petty and the heartbreakers I will use this quote: “You and I will meet again, When we're least expecting it, One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye my friend, For you and I will meet again."

We will meet again....sometime soon I'm sure. And for all of you who haven't heard this song from Tom petty here is the video:

Professional Blog

MY PROFESSIONAL BLOG

Final Blog Post- May 2nd

We've used a lot of technological tools in this class, and this blog is a final declaration as to what we've learned and what we've learned from those tools.

Our first question involved us making a list of what we've learned by using all of the tools assigned to us. If you've been following this blog, you will realize that we have used tools like iTunes U, podcast, twitter, delicious, Google docs, Comments4teachers, Comments4kids, Google Earth, and other tools to make sure we are not technologically illiterate as we enter the field of education. I've learned that iTunes U is extremely helpful. It gives the students a more rounded view of the information you are teaching, and it can help you study for a test. Podcast are also helpful when teaching. It can give the students that learn with audio, a chance to understand the lectures better. Twitter, I honestly didn't find the significance in it. Granted, it makes it easier to follow certain people and to keep you networked, however, if you don't know what you are doing it can be complicated. Google Earth is a very helpful tool, especially if you're teaching the subject of history. They can look and see where everything is and what used to be. Google docs is an amazing tool. It can do everything Microsoft Office can do, except you don't have to pay for this. Comments4kids was helpful, because we saw how kids are getting more involved with technology. And comments4teachers helped us develop our PLN, which we will use when enter our teaching field.

The second question asked us if there was something that we should have learned in this class. My answer to this was no, I honestly believe that we have learned how to use everything out there. I would have liked to expand our knowledge of Google Docs a little more. I wanted to learn how to do a grade book using Google Docs.

Third question asked if we learned anything that we should have not. I think the tools that we studied thoroughly are the tools most used. I would have liked to have covered moodle. I saw that on one of the teacher's I commented on. I found it very interesting. It is a community online sharing site. That's all I know.

Fourth question asked us if we found this class useful. In all honesty, I found this class useful. Eventually we will have to use these tools, it may not be right now, but eventually the education system will convert. And I found most of the stuff useful and eye opening; especially everything you can with itunes...I thought that was great, that really excited me.

He then asked if we were bored by this class at anytime. I found some of the blogs boring. I mean I'd watch three blogs/videos with the same message. That to me is boring.


I found the professional blog to be intellectually challenging. It really made me sit down and think about why am I becoming a teacher.

I would only add going over evernote. That to me was incredible; it's so nice not having to remember everything, and to have it right there in front of you. I just wish I knew how to use it.

I think I would rate myself as a medium technologically literate teacher. I think I can do too much to be a low, however, I still have a lot to learn, so I'd say medium.

I plan to keep this up by keeping myself up to date with the latest technology out there. If there is one thing I've learned from all the videos we have watched: you better stay connected. It's kind of like social darwinism: if you don't learn to adapt you won't survive, and I want to survive, so I will stay up to date. How I plan to do this is simple: Follow certain blogs on technology and what is going on. Hopefully, this will help, but as long as I'm willing to learn, I think I'll be ok.

Skype

skype


Skype is a tool where a person can talk to someone over the internet. It was an interesting tool to use. Periodically throughout the semester, we had people skype in and we would talk to them and have them answer questions. I found that interesting because it gave us the emotion missing from text or phone call. So, for my skype project, I skyped my best friend who is also taking this class. I found it more convenient than finding my phone to text or call her about a question, when obviously she was online.

Teaching Someone Using Technology-project 8-

I taught someone how to embed their google earth project into their blog. They were having trouble, and did not know what to do, so I helped them do it. Here is what I did:


I also taught my uncle to use skype. He did not care for skype, and probably won't ever use it. But he was patient and listened to me while i showed and explained how to use it.

Voicethread Project

Audacity?

One of the projects required for this class is to use some form of voice thread option. I chose to use audacity because the rest of the options were not working...price you pay for using technology. Hopefully this works.

April 25

The seventh graders PLE would put mine to shame. She was very organized seventh grader. Her PLE included: Facebook; evernote; her email, and her science class's blog. Here is a video link to the PLE. I was introduced to another tool called Symbaloo. I will be using it because I need to be more organized than I am now and this puts everything right in front of you. So thank you seventh grader.

Two Questions

I found this video to be very enlightening. Everyone should answer these two questions within their life time: what is my sentence (purpose) and was I better than yesterday. My sentence is simple: I'm living and learning. I do not know what my purpose in life is. I know I want to be an influential person and I want to help make a difference in this world. Whether or not that's what's in store for me, I will find out. So that is why my sentence is I'm living and learning. And in my opinion, I grow as person every day. So to me I'm better than what I was yesterday. Life is an experiment anyways.

Substansive Presentation

here is a link to our blog and presentation EDM Substantive Presentation

Google Earth Project

or if the embedded gadget doesn't work click here.

April 18th

Our assignment for this week was to blog about a certain topic or something that we have done in this class. The project I have chosen to blog about is google docs. Google docs is very easy to use and convenient since you don't have to open another program to get another task; everything is right in front of you. You can do a presentation, send a document, do a survey and collect its summary, write a document, create a folder, etc. It can basically do everything Microsoft office can do, but it's free so it's better.

April 11th

The Zax's

I enjoyed this assignment. The Zax's story was one of my favorites growing up, and it's cute. It's a great way to express how stubbornness never gets you anywhere. The Zax's never got to where they were going. We see this in every day life, especially in the education system. The world is changing all around it and we're still stuck to the same teaching paradigim. But maybe the system will get over its zax's ways and evolve into the future.

The Ps 22 video:
This video featured a chours class singing landslide, and they were outstanding. So the assignment this week was to answer the question is it important for students to post their work in their blogs? And the answer to this question is yes, it is important for students to post their work in their blogs. Using this as an example, yes it is important because these kids have a talent that should be shared with the world. And many of the kids that we have seen throughout his whole blogging assignment, for example The Dear Kia Blog, she shows the world her video essay. Another example would beThe little voices little scholars blog, it shows the kids learning and how great they're doing in their classes. And finally,Room 9's blog. This room shows how they know a dead language. Not only is blogging good for showing students talents, but it gives them a feedback, and this feedback allows them to know that they're doing a great job and this inspires them to succeed.

April 4,2010

I enjoyed watching Kaia's picture essay. It was really interesting to find a person at such a young age taught two things: technology and to look beyond society's normal definition of beauty. Her father is doing a great job of teaching her to look beyond something ugly and to see the beauty in everything, and using technology to connect her thoughts with everyone. It was also assigned to watch the video/voice thread presentation by Mr.C's class. It was really nice what he did for them.

It's amazing how technology can connect people on a level so many miles away.

My PLN

I will use twitter to follow history teachers look at their discussions or have discussions with them, use delicious to bookmark important sites about history or lesson plans, and when I become a teacher, have my students do timelines using timetoast. Google Earth will also be a fantastic tool to use. And to keep me updated with the latest technology in the classroom, I will follow the following blogs: Joe Dale

And Steven Anderson

I also plan to use Facebook to follow other history teachers as well.

ACCESS

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS)was created by Govenor Bob Riley and his task force for distant learning. The goal of this program is to give every student an opportunity for equal education. A goal education systems should share as a whole. In order to meet the goal, classroom courses and teachers are provided through technology. Equal access will be provided through high quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning. It is great because students can receive the highest quality education, no matter what school the student attends. The classes are taken online during regular school hours. The student is able to work at their own pace and has the opportunity to repeat a lesson if they are struggling. The student can take higher level classes that are not offered at all schools. It really gives the students who do not have the opportunity to take AP classes the equal chance at an education they deserve.

As a teacher this is a goal of mine, I believe it is very important to give each student the chance to excel in school and in life. And if this does what it says it will do, it will be very beneficial to the education system.

Time Toast Time Line---Events that Led to the Civil War

Last lecture (March 7)

This video was amazing and one of my favorite videos of our blog assignments. The assingment for the 7th of March, was to watch a video entitled Randy Pausch's last lecture. To begin with, Randy introduced the fact that he has 6 tumors in his liver and does not have long to live (6 months). To me, I find this fascinating---he doesn't want to be secluded or to dwell in pity, but he wants to keep doing what he has been doing his whole life: inspiring people.

The lecture then transitions into childhood dreams. Pausch has lived up to almost all of his childhood dreams. The only one he didn't achieve was going into the NFL. He did however play football and that taught him the fundamentals to be successful in this life. I find it amazing that he kept his dreams alive and achieved most of them.

He then starts to talk about the childhood dreams of others. He taught a class at MIT where he used video gamming technology to teach his students about video programing. He used technology to teach kids; an idea that developed this class. But because of his techniques, the students that he taught had companies ready to hire them.

The lecture then closes with the subject lesson learned. He talks about how everyone has the potential to be successful, they just need someone to believe in them. He also talks about being loyal and truthful and how this is the best way to live your life. And I agree with him.

I found the lecture to be very uplifting and got out of it the obvious: we do not know how long we have left to live; so live it to the fullest. We should inspire, not hinder.

Feb. 7th blog

While we were doing our podcasts in the beginning of the semester, we were supposed to look at one of these tools and write two or more paragraphs about what we learned from the website that we picked, and while I was going over what I was missing for this class; this post was one of them. The website that I picked was the best article every day ( the website ).

I found this website extremely interesting, because not only was I told how to do a podcast, but how podcast can benefit my learning. I learned all types of tools for my ipod, for example, I can do lesson plans on my ipod. I clicked on the on of the how-to offers, they showed me how to do a pod cast, things I already knew.

Talkin' About My Generation

This by far has been the best video of the year. The Evolution of "Whatever" is a video by Michael Wesch, its 30 minutes long but definitely worth the time to watch it.

He starts with the two versions of 1984 and which theory has come to fruition. Obviously, Orwell's version has not come to fruition---big brother has not taken over fully, however, the Huxley version (A Brave New World) has come to fruition. People want to amuse themselves to death. Our generation today is a perfect example of this. Our generation or the MTV generation has short attention spans, and is extremely narcissistic---it's all about us. And then the author goes into the evolution of the word whatever to show how generations have evolved. In the 60's whatever meant i don't care to meh---indifference to whatever---I do what I want. He then cuts back to our generation's need to be narcissistic and that this whole social media is a product of us feeling this way.

I think that social media can be a good thing, I think that it helps people that lack certain social skills to open up and share with the world what the feel, or meet new people. I think it honestly does give a sense of identity to certain people, so in that case its a great thing. However, to me it seems like we're feeding our generation's need to be narcissistic, and shouldn't we be breaking that habbit? But....whatever we'll see how this turns out.

ALEX

The assignment for the week of March 12th was to write two or more paragraphs about two teaching tools ALEX and ACCESS. ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange), was the first tool examined by me. In my opinion, I found the tool to be extremely useful.

ALEX is a resource that helps benefits teachers, students, and other administrators. It's not hard to use, in fact it is very easy, all the info you need are right there in front of you. The site also offers course of study which is laid out by subject and grade level. Alabama's standards are on the site as well, a feature also extremely helpful for teachers. Helpful weblinks are offered as tools to help students and teachers. Teachers can also make lesson plans or view other lesson plans. Podcast are also offered on this site.

I found this website to be extremely useful. There are a lot of aids and helpful links for teachers to use for their students and themselves.

comments4teachers

February 28th- I posted a comment on Beth's blog (the nebraska change agent). Beth's blog for this day was about Moodle. Moodle is an online site for teachers and students. It is a source for "blended learning"----where people go to class and also have things to do online, kind of like this class. And I found Moodle to be very helpful and maybe one day, I'll use it.

March 2nd- Her titled blog this week was Rising Start Looking to Shine? The only Principal she has worked with is retiring, and she is looking for someone that can fill his shoes. She also starts to explain the programs in her school, for example, Valley Alternative Learning Transitioning School (VALTS)- An alternative school that serves somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 students who are simply square pegs in round holes. They are students who, for a variety of reasons, just don’t thrive in a traditional high school environment. Students attend class Monday through Thursday for a total of 12 hours per week in either the morning or afternoon. They are expected to work an average of 20 hours per week which count as elective credit. Friday’s are reserved for teacher planning and student make-up work. That's really it, I enjoyed learning about her school, and realized I'd like to teach at a school like that.

March 8th-"Backchannel gone right" was the title of her blog this week. She talked about how her students got to interact with Ted Talk via skype video. They got to interact with him and ask him question....this really impressed the kids and they got more involved. here is a link to ted's website...go check it outted talk

March 28th- Her last post for the month of March and it was title Presentation Sharing---WE NEED YOU. She started a wiki to help clean up her PLN...make it a little easier. A very interesting tool for when I develop my own PLN.


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Week 10 and 12- I found Blogging about the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom by Steven Anderson intriguing. His first post I commented on was back in February, and it was about how our kids do not find the relevance in the subjects they are learning. I fear I will have this problem when I become a teacher, especially since the subject I'm teaching is history. Kids don't appreciate the past because they can't relate to it.

His second post I commented on was his views on Google Earth. I commented on it because we are doing a Google Earth Project. And Google Earth is a very helpful tool when you're trying to explain where things are. You can even go back to see how bulidings and countries were shaped. To me, as a future history teacher, I found this extremely important because it can help me to excite them about history, and they can see how things were and get a better understanding for the subject material.
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Week 13 and 14- I commented on Joe Dale's blog titled Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom. The two post I comment on were his most recent ones. He started out talking about a tool calledRadio Lingua. It is a tool used enhance language learning. Learning a foriegn language is not my speciality, but this tool is extremely helpful...I encourage everyone who reads this to check it out.

His next post feautred skype and how to record calls using PrettyMay and Pamela (Tutorials.)Although an interesting tool, I found the fact that someone can record my conversation without telling me a little frightening.

My Survey

this is my survey

O.K. I had a total of 8 responses, however, 4 only showed up. I sent it in plenty of time to get results, however, they didn't come. Which is normal when you poll people. But here are my results.

Summary

Comments4Kids

Week 4- I commented on A.J's blog. It was a post about Paper Mario's World. I thought it was cool that he could post a game on his blog.

Week5- I was assigned to comment on Keeghan's blog. I commented on the he/she's favorite game and it is Modern Warfare 2. He/she talks about the fact that she cheats in the game. I tried to comment on it; whether or not it took is a different story.

Week 6- I posted a comment on Room 9's blog. Its a very interesting blog, I found the background to be very cool.

Week 7-I commented on Mrs. Quam's Student Writing's blog. I posted a comment on post 14 and 15. The first one summarized the Twilight book. She had everything in order, she did a great job. And the second was a poem about life...it was a really good poem, and a person having that perception at such a young age is very eye-opening.

Week 8- I posted a comment on Kindergarden Days 112. They accomplished a lot: had a tornado drill; had a reading group; used smartboards; made new sentences; made thermometers and used white boards.


My March 8th assignment for comments4kids included the blog of Mr.McClung. I found the blog extremely interesting, it included locating epicenters. An epicenter is where the earth quake originates. In order to do this, Mr. McClung had his students calculate the distance of a seismic station by using the arrival of seismic waves. After they were able to locate the epicenter from their three locations, he then had his students draw circles using a compass with the radius of the circle equal to the distance of the epicenter.


My March 22-28th assignment was a blog about St. Patrick's Day. He believed that St. Patrick's Day was all about green and Leprechauns, and then he asked if we knew anything about the day...I told him about who St. Patrick was and what he did in Ireland.

March 29th-April 4th was to comment on Uli's blog. It was about how he likes going to the beach the swim. I told him I too love to go to the beach and asked him if he's ever tried to skim board.

April 5th-April 11th was to comment on Heremaia's favorite thing to do at camp. She explained how she liked to climb the beanstalk, how she almost fell, and then she did fall...I told her that its ok if she fell, just as long as she had fun and tried in the process...I also told her she would conquer it at a later date.

Week-14- This week I commented on Mr. McClung's blog again...I'm not sure if it was a student making the post or the teacher...but it was a review of opitical terms...It was really neat how he or she did it.

Make up Blogs: Just in case.

April 1st- I commented on Lorenzo blog. I commented on his first video post, he told about his holiday. It was extremely cute. And I told him he was doing an excellent job, and to keep doing great work.

April 2nd- I commented on Layquitah's Mihi in Maori. I thought it was really intriguing how they spoke in a different a language.

April 8th- I commented on Mary V's blog. She climbed up the wall...I told her I would have been afraid to climb up the wall.

April 8th- I commented on Samuela's favorite thing to do at camp. She had a 20 second video video documenting her camp experience. She also liked to stay up late...haha.

Is it Really the Teacher's Fault?

The assignment for March 28th of 2010 was to write an essay in regards to the post by Morgan Bayda. Here is said essay:



The blog post "An Open letter to Educators" by Morgan Bayda was enlightening as to how education should be like today, and how students of America are being cheated out of an education. I agree with the author in some ways, however, in some I do not.

The author begins the post with an introduction to a video by Dan Brown---a student that recently dropped out of the University of Nebraska because "His schooling was interfering with his education"---meaning I guess he didn't agree with how he was being educated. The video was smart and he raised many good points, especially the last one: "...the world is changing and if you don't change with it, the world will decide it doesn't need you anymore. Validating the whole point of teaching this class.

The author then states how she agrees with Brown: she believes that she too was cheated out of a valuable education, and that the institutionalized education that she received was obviously boring and not relevant to her interests. Both Brown and Bayda agree that teachers are afraid of change and this is why nothing has been done about it. This is where I disagree with the post.

As a future educator, I have to take many education courses, one of which is telling me that I have a state regulated curriculum that I will have to teach my kids. And if we do not obey what the state says schools could lose funding. Secondly, after observing for most of the semester in an actual school I've come to realize that the teachers are not afraid of using the technology that is in front of them, but do not have access to them...funding for schools are not exactly great, especially in this day and age. Thirdly, we as a country are broke, and this form education is not cheap.

So to conclude, Brown and Bayda raised valid points. The post was intriguing. But I do not believe that we should blame the teachers for this. In my honest opinion, they are just trying to what they are told and do it with the best means that they have. You should blame the government for this...not the teachers.

Networking Students

I found this video to be very intriguing. It wasn't very long, and kept my intention and got to the point.

This video is based on the premise of Connectivism. Connectivis is a teaching method where the teacher uses networking as a way for students to learn---or better known as independent learners. The hypothetical student in high school attends school 3 days a week and uses tools such as: Delicious, blogs, twitter, podcasts etc. to understand his subject (the American Psyche.)

The point of the video was to show its audience that curriculums are becoming more and more like connectivism. And that the 21st century student needs the classroom aspect (having a teacher) and needs to be on their own.

The Future...

The assignment on February 28th of 2010 was to watch these two videos about writing with multi-media. The videos were presentations from an english professor at Rutgers University by Dr. Richard E. Miller. In my honest opinion I found the videos to be very interesting.


The two videos were a result of an epiphany that Mr. Miller kindly shared with the rest of the world. His epiphany was simple and to the point, technology is the future, and we have to adapt...this means writing with multi-media. In his first movie, he states how there are so many books out there, and now we can get them online and I believe the price he mentioned was 59 cents on the internet.

So to conclude, technology is the future. It is booming at an alarming rate, and that we should be literate if we want to teach...this theory adopted by Dr. Strange seems to be true. And yes, my future students will be literate as well in the this technological world and I will do my best as a teacher, to make them equipt with the tools they need to be successful, when this future gets here...I doubt it will be any time soon.

Honesty Required?

I'm not exactly sure if we're supposed to blog about this topic, however, since Dr. Strange has decided to throw students underneath a bus for not doing their assignments...I think it's better to be safe than sorry...

Let me explain the blog post to all of you actually reading this and paying attention: the blog post consisted of a student who lied about their reflection...and we were asked as fellow students to judge him or her with the following questions: 1. Does ZZZ think I am asking for information about how much work ZZZ has done? No. I already have that. All of it. And most of those data I get automatically. I want ZZZ to think about what ZZZ is or is not doing!
2. Does ZZZ really think that ZZZ has done all of the work that I cannot find or see?
3. Is this an attempt to hustle me?
4. If ZZZ is so inaccurate with ZZZ's own evaluation, what will ZZZ's evaluations of ZZZ's students be like?
5. Would you like to have ZZZ as a colleague?
6. Would I want my children or grandchildren to be in ZZZ's class?
7. Would you want your children or grandchildren to be in ZZZ's class?
Click here to see the comments and actual blog, so that you can come to the right conclusion on your own.

Now...before I say anything that can further jeopardize my academic carrer (because I too am behind on my blog) let me leave you with questions: Is this right of Dr. Strange? Is this what we're supposed to do to our students when they do something like wrong like this? Does he actually care and has tried to help out classmate ZZZ?

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

Gary's Social Media Counts

I found this little bit of information to be interesting and probably truthful. This assignment is a blog that counts the people using these social media apps, for example, twitter, facebook, Myspace; how many people are on the internet; the amount of revenue made off advertising on facebook, etc. It's amazing how much society is starting to rely on technology. And it is evident that we as future teachers need to learn this every evolving technology.

podcast

The first podcast that I listened to for this assignment was the Smartboard Lesson Podcast. I was not sure how the podcast process was going to work. This podcasting thing is new to me and I didn't know if there was going to be a video stream or if it was going to be a radio show. This particular cast is in the form of a radio show. This particular episode includes the friendly banter of hosts: Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger. The two have a fairly good chemistry between them, they ramble for the first 7 minutes of the cast and then go into the subject matter at hand. The two also take ideas via twitter and incoperate it into their radio show. The subject matter of today's cast was how to wrap up a school year and how to get your students interested in math through a medium such as movies. I found this podcast to be too scattered and not very organized.

The second podcast that I listened to for this assignment was Kidcast episode 62 with Dan Schmit. I found the structure of this cast to be much better than the previous cast. It's like a radio show, however, he doesn't go off task and goes right into the subject matter he proclaimed at the beginning of the cast. The subject matter discussed is the difference between video cast and podcasting. He believes that video podcasting is not necessarily the next step in being a podcaster, you don't have to have a video podcast in order to evolve into an exceptional podcaster. He also believes that video podcasting is more difficult for students than audio. Like he states in his cast "...audio cast challenges the students' to give descriptive language and learn how to articulate well." Audio is also easier to edit, you don't have to worry about lighting, and you don't have to worry about teachers being a gatekeeper. But he also states that there is a time and a place for a video podcasting, for example, if the students are learning about the importance of body language. To conclude, a video podcast is not an essential and could be very complex project for students.


The third podcast that I listened to for this assignment was ConnectLearning with David Warlick. This podcast starts out with snappy jazz intro and a vocal introduction for the episode at hand. In this particular episode he talked to many librarians from North Carolina and asked them how they feel about podcasting and how it helps them do their job. They agree that it can make their job better and get people more interested in reading, for example, having a book of the day--having a book talk. To conclude, they all believe that the kids are more comfortable with video and audio instead of writing. They also believe that the kids can learn from audio means and that would help them with their writing.

The fourth and final podcast that I listened to was Edtechtalk with a group of women( didn't give the names.) I particularly didn't care for this podcast at all. The quality was not very good---i had a hard time of hearing it clearly. Their show was about how to grow as a professional and they don't stay on topic a lot of the time. They start out with cash for clunkers with a refrigerator. They then talk about a kayak and how that's helping them grow as a professional. It wasn't very narrow, and not organized, I didn't like it.

The other two, basically had the same format with the same message of technology.
I found this assignment to be interesting because I'm not too familiar with the whole process, and I think this somewhat helped. I don't want to be boring, i don't want to be too funny as well...we shall see how this goes.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

I found this assignment to be rather confusing--I didn't know if we were supposed to comment on a post on the blog, or the blog itself. The blog was a bunch of post on whether it is okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher.

In my opinion, no it is not okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher. It is our jobs as teachers to give our students the best education so that they can advance economically and have a great life. So with that philosophy, if the technological world is changing; we must keep up with it, so our students have the best chance to make it in this world.

It's not all about technology

Our assignment for the 24th of January was to read a blog by Kelly Hines about technology in the classrooms, that it's not all that its not the only thing in the classroom that needs to change. I enjoyed reading the blog and also believe that she is right, our whole attitude towards our future students has to change and that should be top priority, not technology.

I agree with this view. Teaching should be top priority and technology should come second. however technology shouldn't be omitted completely, we need both in order to give someone an adequate education.

Karl Wesh's video " A vision of students today" was an eye opener. A day in the life of a student is extremely busy and technology could possibly be a solution to today's worries. However, with technology there are both positives and negatives, and some of the students that use the negatives hurt themselves instead of helping and fall further behind. An example of this: a student in the classroom staying on Facebook or myspace the entire class period and not taking notes.

The message I gathered from the video was this: That our students are suffering greatly. That everything is evolving and our poor teaching methods are causing our students to become lazy.

Harness Your Digital Smarts

I found the video "Harness your students' digital smarts" to be very engaging. The video highlights the effort of one teacher(Vicky Davis) and her methods of getting her kids involved with today's new technology. She wants to reach out to her students through technology, instead of the conservative pencil and paper. She believes that through hands on experience they will be ready to adapt to the future and hopefully be able to excel in this world.

I agree with her theory. It is obvious that our technology is advancing at an alarming rate, and we as future educators have to keep up with it. We have to reach out to them. And it is obvious that the pencil and paper method is about to be no more.

Schools Kill Creativity

I found the Sir Ken Roberts talk: the importance of creativity, to be very interesting. He talked about how schools have pretty much crushed our kids creativity. The kids who excel in certain areas like drama and art, are seen as not acceptable in this society, and that educators worry too much about mathematics and language instead of the arts when it should be equally taught; everyone is different.

I agree with his theory. I believe that everyone has a different perception, because of how they are hardwired. Mr. Roberts gives an example of a girl who was very fidgety and wouldn't calm down--today, they would think that she was ADHD. So she goes to the doctor and the doctor speaks with her. Come to find out, she learns through movement. I also believe that he wanted to say that everyone is different and we as future educators should pay attention to our students, and help flourish their talents instead of crush them--especially if they are different.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

The video "Mr. Winkle Wakes" is about Mr. Winkle, a man who wakes up after one-hundred years have passed and everything ( buildings, technology, hospitals, etc...) have changed around him. Buildings are higher and filled with technology that overwhelms him greatly. He falls ill and goes to the hospital where he finds "machines that breathed life into lungs...and things that he never thought could happen." That didn't make him feel any better, so he goes to a school where he finds comfort; where nothing has changed.

I believe the creator of the video wanted to convey the fact that schools are still not using technology to the fullest and our kids are bored and suffering. They are bored because teachers have lost connection with their kids--they're still using the same teaching techniques that are outdated and can not reach out to the kids today, therefore kids are not learning. And because they don't use the technology that is in front of them, the kids therefore suffer because they won't learn how to use it. And if they are not careful, they will turn into Mr. Winkle; a person who is afraid of change and can not adapt to this ever changing world.

Did You Know 3.0?

Did You Know 3.0 is a video by Karl Fisch was entertaining,truthful, and probably needs to be updated. He uses the song " Right here, Right now" by Fatboy Slim to grab the audience's attention. The video is filed with random facts about how technology has transformed the world in a short period of time.


The video's message to me states this: the world is changing. As one of the slides states our technology is becoming so advanced that we don't even have jobs for this technology. So as a future teacher it is up to me to learn and use this new technology so that my students and me can make it in this ever evolving world.

Welcome Blog

Hello! My name is Jessica Pierce. I attend the University of South Alabama where I'm majoring in Secondary Education minoring in History. Periodically, I will be blogging about certain topics about education and how I(when I enter the field of education) can better the education system via technology.