Blog Post #15

Blog Post #14

In Jose Picardo's educational blog "Triptico is an excellent resource for teachers to use in conjunction with their interactive whiteboards that currently contains around 20 different interactive resources – all of which can be easily edited, adapted and saved for later use." You can also coustimize your own lesson plan to fit the students needs. Also he talks about how IPad's can be very useful in the classrooms because they show great promise, "not only being used in lesson, but also in allowing us to explore and develop different and innovative ways to provide our students with relevant content." The use of e books, comic life, and different apps available for different subjects will definitely help the students understand the materials better, due to the examples and models that are equip with an IPad. The third main topic on the educational blog is creating a blog video with quiz while use WordPress. The threee steps are; record the video, edit and upload the video, and quiz away. The system allows the student to see what questions they miss and the correct answer that goes along with it. This is a new way to get the results of your students accomplishments.

Jose Picardo created a video that included his Top ten tips for using technology in the classroom. Tip one, use streaming video in the classroom like youtube and other sources. Tip two, use music more often. Get to know what kind of music the student in your classroom like and use that to your advantage. Use sources like Itones. Tip three, use teleconferencing tools. Like Skype to communicate with other teacher and students around the world. Tip four, create your own interactive exercises. Since you should know what your students strength and weaknesses are, tailor the lesson plans to their needs. Tip five, use interactive whiteboards more effectively. Tip six, create your own podcast. Use sources like audacity to enhance performance. Podcast to me are a great way to get students involved with learning. Tip seven, start a blog or wiki. This will allow you to showcase your students work and achievement. Tip eight, use social media like facebook. Some people say that facebook is not a good way to learn but at the same time facebook allows you to create closed groups to let you communicate with the students privately. To me facebook is a good way of communication. Tip nine, use internet tools. Tip ten, make the most of your pupils' gadgets. I feel that these ten tips will definitely will help a teacher become a better teacher and succeed. "Technology can help motivate you and your pupil and make learning more relevant to them."
Jose Picardo also wrote Technology and Education or a list of resources for teachers. This website is a list of all of Jose Picardo's software he uses in his classrooms or just an exciting website to him. He list the names in alphabetical order form Acapela.tv which is a fun site to create text-to-speech animations to ZooBurst which is a digital storytelling tool that is designed to let anyone easily create their own customized 3D pop-up books. Also everything in between A to Z. these names are very useful in the education field, they will all come in handy one day to me as I become and educator.

PLN

A personal learning network of PLN "consist of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a Personal Learning Environment" My Personal learning network is comprised of all the information that we learned in EDM310 but is not limited to just that. I have over 70 people on my twitter account that could could reference to if I need assistance to a particular topic or if I just need advise. Also on Skype I have several educators on my Skype account who I could call and ask question. I have personal links on my symbaloo to get back back and forth from one sight to another. Everything I need for school is on my symbaloo such as; University of South Alabama homepage, University of South Alabama online, gmail, twitter, math applications, and links to some teachers blogs. I hope to continue adding people to my PLN to enhance my learning ability.

C4T #4 Summary

Mr. Kruse wrote a letter to Mr. Branstad expressing how he felt that the STEM council was made up less than 25% of educators. Also Mr. Kruse feels that Mr. Branstad's action speak louder than words, he said " Your actions speak louder than words. Your actions say you are more interested in pleasing business than helping kids." I really enjoyed what Mr. Kruse said about the buisness people. "If business leaders want to improve workplace efficiency, they bring in a workplace efficiency consultant. Yet, you’ve called in non-experts to “fix” something they know nothing about. If business leaders want a high quality workforce based on a high quality education, they should recognize that they are not the experts we need." To me this show that Mr. Kruse really cares about the students. In my comment to him, I stated that it was nice to know that he really cares about the students and how we need more educators like him in the education systems.

The Hype Cycle

Mr. Kruse is a very outspoken person, he likes to express his opinion in any way to get his point across. Mr. Kruse post on The Hype Cycle really got me to think about how some teachers only go so far to get a point across, but the outstanding teachers put more into it. I really liked what Mr. Kruse said about how "an effective teacher can’t then notice an anomaly and ask just the right question at just the right time to stimulate that child’s interest and push their thinking deeper than if the student simply followed the directions." Good teachers will teach with the new tools that are being offered, but a teacher who is stuck in the pass may not have the right skills to teach in this day and age. Like Mr. Kruse said, a good teacher will adjust and bad teacher will stick to the same old habits.

C4K Summary Post

Ashlee
Ashlee was very excited about the Rugby World Cup Game. He day go better once Ashlee's dad told her they were going to see the game. Ashlee's favorite part of the Rugby game was the fireworks because they were very colorful and cool to look at. I told Ashlee that fireworks are very cool to look because I like to look at them myself. I was glad that Ashlee had a wonderful time, and it was nice to see what she was talking about since she posted an amazing video
Nick

Nick took a trip to Spain and had a great time. He went to a Fiesta and told us about the bullfights. I told Nick that if I ever went to Spain I would love to go see a bullfight and go to a Fiesta. Also his blog was very colorful, and for each topic Nick brought up on his trip to Spain, he had a picture to go with it.

Project #16

Blog Post #13

Option #2

My Teacher Is An App

Online Education

Online schools are becoming the way of the future. Many jobs require the use of a computer in some way or another. Whether is recording, receiving or sending data, by hand held, laptop or desk top computers everyone at some point in their lives will have to become computer literate. What best way to prepare the future workers and leaders of tomorrow to becoming familiar with them than to require hands on training during their formative years. For many years the traditional classroom has prepared students for the real world and has provided students with the resources that will have to be used by them upon graduation. Requiring students to take at least one virtual class prior to graduation is a great way to introduce this technological dimension into their lives

Students and parents choose partial or full virtual classrooms for many reasons. Through personal experiences I have gained new appreciation for the ability to be able to learn through the virtual class curriculum. At age 5 after only 5 months of kindergarten my god-brother was stricken with a debilitating disease that caused him to miss almost 2 years of school. With the help of home bound teachers and virtual classrooms he was able to catch up with his peers and allowed to return to traditional school in his correct grade level.

Each summer during high school, I also took the opportunity to enroll in virtual school for several reasons: it allowed me to take additional classes that my hectic schedule wouldn’t allow during the school year, to make up grades in classes which I thought I could do better and to take classes that were not offered during the year due to class size restrictions. The ability to combine traditional and virtual schooling has not hindered us in any way, actually it has done just the opposite. Those who fail to take advantage of the opportunity do so are giving themselves a clear disadvantage in the workforce of the future. I sternly believe that all students whether full or partial should be encouraged to use the virtual schools that are being provided.

Special Assignment

According to Dr. Strange I missed the metaphor from the article Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home. Even though I clearly knew that Tom Johnson was not really talking about a pencils, I still used the word "pencil" in my comment. EDM310 is a class about learning the different kind of technology and how it could be used in the classroom to enhance the teaching process. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. In this case the pencil is a metaphor for a computer. The only reason I refereed to a pencil is because that was the term Mr. Tom Johnson used in the article. For example if a friend and I were talking about apples then why would I want to change it to oranges?

Next, metaphors are meant to disguise a hidden meaning or to be creative or funny. However, they are not meant to be taken seriously. Daniel Pink says that "you discover metaphors your world will become richer and more vivid and that you will be inspired to create your own metaphor in writing, thought, or other parts of your life" To help aware us from missing metaphors again, Dr. Strange gave us a special assignment.

Smartboard Part 2 Lesson Plan

C4K # 10

Ms. Yollis blog was very informative and descriptive because it displayed information and pictures on interesting topics. There was a wiki on fuel cells, and how fuel cells are used and how they work. As of November 13, 2011, Ms. Yollis has 75,679 visits on her class blog; and on the class blog for EDM310, there are about 51,308 visits. The visits are from all over the world. Ms.Yollis honored the Veterans by having a video up and a flag, she also had Halloween stories. Also there is maps, capital building pictures, animations, and how to video's for the students to look at. There is a link to all the kids blogs.
While looking at Ms. Yollis blog I saw a link to one of her students blog and I left a comment for Nick. Nick took a trip to Spain and had a great time. He went to a Fiesta and told us about the bullfights. I told Nick that if I ever went to Spain I would love to go see a bullfight and go to a Fiesta. On the front page of Ms. Yollis's blog there are several links to different places. For instance; there is a link to Meeting the Bloggers, Time Zones of Friends, and a Video: How to Comment. The most informative part to Ms. Yollis's blog for the students is the Welcome to Mrs. Yollis' blog. There is a link to the spelling words, math help, homework, reading, and much more. This blog is a way to enhance technology in the classroom.

Final Project Report

For our final project, my group members and I have been working on integrating all of the technology we worked on in class such as; Skype, smartbored, imovie, blogger ect, and come up with a movie. Also to help communicate throughout the group we have created a document spreadsheet, where we can leave each other comments and ideas by using Google Docs.

Blog Post # 12

1. Watch this Video: Productivity Future Vision (2011) 6:17
Write two paragraphs explaining how this video will effect education in the classroom.

Productivity Future Vision is a video that expresses the new world of technology, and how it could be used to become more organized. This relates to education because being an educator or a student causes for more organization. Meaning, one has to have time management and have discipline to do the assignments and finish the work. The video expresses how the new system pad can manage a days work with direct access to anything you want to know.
Since technology is becoming more advanced and is growing all over the world, technology should be a big part in the classrooms. A school should not be how it was 50 years ago when everything was done on paper and pencil. Sadly most of the schools still do have the same tendencies from back in the day. I feel that if everything around the school system is based of technology then the school system should be apart of the same transition. Also I feel that the reason school's are so behind in not having a lot of technology, is because of the money issue.

2. Watch this video: The Magical Classroom
Write how this video can change education.

This video expresses how powerful a smartboard can be and how useful it is in a classroom. When used right, the smart-bored can be used to teach any subject you want the students to learn. Smartboards bring a new error in teaching and can be change education as a whole. Most people think that during school you learn nothing that has to be toward what you want to do in life. And I feel that this is true. Education is behind in the new world of education and it needs to be fixed. Education should be very creative and express different personalities while learning the curriculum.

Skype Interview

Blog Post #11

The video Little Kids...Big Potential is an amazing video about first grade students in Ms. Cassidy class who want to learn. The students like to write in the our books, but they like to do blogs the most. One of the boys in the class said the reason he likes to do his blogs is because "people see it and they give us comments." I feel that that is a good way to get the students interested in writing. It gives them hope and freedom. The students want to become better writers and they want to learn. The students blogs are online portfolio's of their work. It shows how the students are doing and how much they grow each day just by writing and interacting with technology while incorporating that is the lesson plan. The way the students comment on the other students blog is to " never ever say bad stuff, only say nice stuff".
Next, the students use their webpage to find things on the internet. "You can click on the pictures and it will take you to the places you want to learn." The students really want to get involved with the activities because it is very fun to them. On the webpage the students can learn many different subjects from working on the alphabets to counting coins for math. I feel that the webpage is a great idea because it allows the child to learn on their own with the help of technology to guide them in the right direction. We are know in the age of time where technology is becoming the main source of learning. By starting the children out using the different technology in the classroom, you are automatically getting them familiar with the new idea of learning and with the world. Not only do the students do their work in the classroom, they can also go online at home and practice more to become better.
Next,the students also use wiki's in the classroom. The students use the wiki's when they want to learn about tradition and other things. The students asked other people around the world what traditions are such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, and people commented to give the students a better idea of what they are. The same concept went for what is a ritual. The students also make videos on the thing that they have learned. It helps them to understand the topic better and they are able to upload it on their blogs. Incorporating technology in the classroom is very important to me. Technology is a big part of our society and it is good to get the younger children involved at an early age just like Ms. Cassidy did with her first grade class.

Ms. Cassidy's Skype Conversation
Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher who incorporates technology in her class. She lets the students blog, skype, do wiki's, and many other things that deals with technology as wee seem in Little Kids...Big Potential. Ms. Cassidy got involved in technology about 10 years ago because she was suddenly given five computers in her class room. She wanted to incorporated computer in her classroom so she did a little research and found different blogs. Ms. Cassidy also got a federal grant to work on her technology journey, which was very helpful to her. In order to make sure the students are protected with their identity, Ms. Cassidy never post last names, only first. Also she sends a letter home letting the parents know what they student will be doing in the class. The parents like to see their child's progress through their blogs and online website. Ms. Cassidy feels that technology is not going away. Blogs make a difference in students learning because it creates an audience. The students develops relationships with other student around the world through Skype.

The other teachers at Ms Cassidy school does not want to adjust to the change in teaching. Ms. Cassidy also thinks that all teachers should be technology literate. Students need to start developing their own online networks. Collaborating is very important when it comes to education and technology. Ms. Cassidy has really helped me to get idea's for my classroom. Her approaches in teaching is very useful and will go a long way in everyday life. I would really like to use as much technology in my classroom, that will help my students understand what is going on.

C4K October Summary

Jacey
Jacey is a 5 year old little girl who loves school and her family. Her project was to create a wiki, and she did an amazing job. Jacey's wiki was able to talk and look around. She is very talented and creative. I told Jacey to keep up the great work just like she is already doing know.

Mr. C's Art Class
On Mr. C's blog, he posted pictures of his 7th grade art class. The pictures I saw were very creative and descriptive. The students were able to draw a picture of anything they wanted. One boy drew a picture of a green dragon.

Charm
Charm's assignment on his blog was to give a logical and creative thinking challenge with using only five objects. Charm's topic was that He was stuck outside on an snowy day, how would you protect yourself? Although Charm and his partner failed the assignment, I still encouraged him to continue the hard because it will pay off one day.

Mr. McClung World
My assignment was to leave a comment on 10/26/11 Writing a Letter on Mr. McClung's World. The students are learning how to write professional letters, along with writing letters to the community and the local schools, and other places while using the same method they used for writing professional letters. Mr. McClung is doing an amazing job with his 8th grade class. I thanked him for his hard work and dedication to the students.

Blog Post # 10

Do you Teach or Do you Educate, was an eye opener video for teachers. It gives a reality check on who are the real "teachers" by explain what to teach and what to educate means. The video gave several descriptions on the definition to teach which are:" show or explain how to do something; give information about or instruction in; cause someone to learn or understand something; induce by example or punishment to do or not to do something." Then the video went on to say or are you an educator? An educator or to educate is to enlighten or empower. "One who gives intellectual moral and social instructions; mentor, experience, trusted, advisor, and guides a person and shows them the way."
As I become a teacher I would much rather educate my student than to teach. I feel that if we educate the students they will have the knowledge and the skills to do anything they set their minds to.
The quote in the video that really sticks out is by Peter Brougham, and he said "Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave." To me this means that with education anything is possible. You can't stop anybody from accomplishing their dreams and that is what "impossible to enslave" means to me. When you give a person education that is like giving someone freedom, and I really believe that.

The article Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home was a very good article by Tom Johnson. I feel that giving the student's the option to learn is good by allowing them to take pencil's home. It is sad to see the quote "It's not that, either. I have a journal article about how students who use pencils at home have lower standardized test scores. So, for the love of test-taking, we need to stop our students from taking home pencils." Most teachers only teach so far by only teaching the material that is required and that's it.
Yet "we" the student's miss all the important information in between and are left out on whats needed to know for the real world. It was good to see that a solution was made on how the pencils could help educate the students better. The author even wanted to work out a parent pencil program, so the parents could also educator their children while they were at home. I believe that if the parents got more involved in their child's education, then the child would succeed farther beyond the child who had no support. I am not saying this is going to be true for all the students, but theoretically it would work that way.

C4T #3 Summary

My teacher this week is Mr. John Mikulsi. He has a degree in secondary education for English and a master's degree. Mr. Mikulsi had to do a project for his EDU599 class. It was very interesting to watch because it was not a normal portfolio, he added his own style that made it stand out to me. The title of his video is called "My Split Personality" and indeed he achieved the name.

Making Connection with Blogger
Mr. Mikulski post was very enlightening on what exactly a Blogger can do. He said " Blogging is all about making connections, finding (and sharing) resources, and developing collegiality that extends far beyond the physical boundaries of geographical locations. Also Mr. Mikulski noticed that "blog subscriptions through Feedburner have risen nearly 30 percent since the beginning of September. I feel that, that is a wonderful thing especially if the majority of the 30 percent are educators. At the end of the post Mr. Mikulski posted a video created by Tim Holt. Tim Holt is the Director of Educational Technology.

Blog Post #9

What I've Learned This Year (2008-09)

After reading What I've Learned This Year by Mr. McClung, I realized that some good teachers still do exist. Mr. McClung is very inspirational in the teaching world to me, he shows leadership and other good morals. He made an important decision by staying positive for the year 2008-2009. While reading the post made by Mr. McClung, he highlighted seven main points in his blog. The first main point is How to Read the Crowd. Mr. McClung states that "I felt so worried about how I was being assessed by my superiors, that I lost touch with my audience when I delivered a lesson." What I got out of what he said was instead of worrying about what other people think, focus more on the students and their education. The most important aspect of teaching for Mr. McClung is checking for student comprehension. The second topic is Be Flexible because "No lesson is ever perfect. The lesson you teach and the one you plan are always different." When teaching a lesson that does not go how you planned, don't make a big deal out of it. It is the concept of learning something new. I feel that nothing happens perfectly anyways.
The third main topic is Communication. Mr. McClung said that communication is the best medicine. To me communication is the ultimate way get something across, weather it is from the internet document to an advertising commercial. Communication is the key to success. Mr. McClung "definition" to communication is the pathway to build that much desired rapport with fellow teachers. The fourth main point is Be Reasonable. Don't hold high standards for a student if it is not reasonable to pass. "Often we build our expectations to high for students and become upset when they do not meet the expectation." And I feel that he is right. I had a math teacher that though we should already know everything and not make any mistakes, well that is already setting me up for failure because I am not perfect. I could not possibly already know everything.
The fifth point is Don't be Afraid of Technology. Mr. McClung is right, technology should be our friend since the world we live in revolves around technology. Education can really be at a higher level with the right technology in play. Mr. McClung view on technology is that "technology is our friend and is essential to living in our microwave society of today." And I feel that he is right. The sixth main point is Listen to Your Students. I think that it is good to listen to your students because it makes the student feel comfortable in your prescience, I know I would. One student in Mr. McClung's class said that "I know my teacher cares about me as a person when he listens to what I say." That is so true, teachers should take more interest in a students life since how they are the ones teaching us. The last main point is Never Stop Learning. It is never too late to learn. We do work in an learning environment and I feel that it is a good thing to learn something new every day.

What I Learned This Year (2010-11)

This article is about what Mr. McClung learned in his third year of teaching. Mr. McClung has learned many new things is his years of teaching and it is good that he is taking his own advice on learning new things. The first think Mr. McClung talks about is Know Who Your Boss Is.
Mr. McClung said "If you are not careful you can become completely consume with trying to please many individuals, that sometimes your own students get left out of the picture". It is important to know that students come first because that is what education is all about, and how it is catered to the students. Also it is bad to let outside factors affect the students performance in the classroom. The second topic was Don't be Afraid to be an Outsider. In other words, don't be afraid to be yourself. I feel that it is good to bring your personality to the classroom because that show individuality, and individuality is what a teacher should want for a student.
Next is Don't touch the keyboard. Mr. Mclung said "this means that our students will struggle a little bit in the front end but it will help them excel in the end game." I would not want a teacher who did it all for me. I want a teacher like Dr. Strange who gives us a task and we figure a way to achieve it instead of babying us. Dr. Strange knows that we all have to grow up and figure things out, so I feel that he is preparing us for success. The last topic is Don't Get Comfortable. Mr. McClung feels that the biggest fear for a teacher is becoming comfortable. He said, "while routine are good in the sense they allow me to be more effective, they can also be bad because they can foster apathy." I feel that if you do the same thing over and over the exact same way, there is no room for growth and change. Change is good when it is for the better.

Project #13

Blog Post #8

While watching the video Richard Miller: This is How We Dream Part 1, I found it interesting to see how the world has changed with the use of technology. The writing in academy and culture has changed. Mr. Miller said that this is the greatest change in communication in human history" and he was right. New ways to communicate is one of the greatest change. You can skype, facebook, twitter, email, and so much more. Also the way to communicate is unlimited it is instantly global in the matter of seconds. One can also talk to some one in China and have business meetings with people from India without leaving their homes.
Also Mr. Miller talks about an incremental change where we can work at home from a computer. He also states how everything far as written documents are starting to disappear and how now in this day an age everything is appearing online through the form of web documents. This is the form of sharing knowledge infinitly. We collaborate know by networking and creating technology to compose the web base documents with images and films.
While watching the video Richard Miller: This is How We Dream Part 2, I learned that where we work is the distal environment. Material will change in front of our eyes instantly. Know a day we can compose and find anything on line from whale hunts to academic lectures. Mr Miller said that "Ideas don't belong to use individually, they belong to us as a culture", and I feel that he is right. Students know a days will compose not with word processor but with digital composing materials.
I like what Mr. Miller said about how educators must be in the business of sharing ideas freely, and he is right. There will be a point that teachers will have to come to the point where they can learn new ideas and teach with the use of technology. Not how they did it twenty years ago with paper and a pencil. We have to attempt to make sense of the world we live in, and make things better in the education aspects.

Carly's blog post was amazing, she came really close to what Mr. Miller was saying in This is How We Dream Part 1 and 2. I like how she included videos to demonstrate what she was saying. And the fact that she took the blog assignment to a whole new level. I like the video disability means possibility because it give a whole new meaning of having a disability. The guy in the video is just another person and we as people should STOP looking at other people as "if" they are different. Also it is good to have inclusion in the classroom, it make it easier to children to see that they can become anything they put their mind too. Carly was being very creative in her post and I think that it is good because it give an opportunity to show who she is. Not many teachers allow there students to be an individual so thank you Dr. Strange.

The video Chipper is a amazing video to watch. In the beginning Chipper thinks that she can tell the future by telling Dr. Strange that the future is the present and the present is the future. She says that even though she did not do her work now she can see that she did her work in the future by saying it was already done. Then Chipper come back to Dr. Strange and says that she will turn it in LATER. This is a form of procrastination. Also Chipper feels that Dr. Strange should teach instead of her teaching herself. I feel that it is good for us to learn individuality as well as dependently. Then Chipper tells Dr. Strange that she is going to drop out of school. She creates a school called Timeline Pilot school. One person named Amelia graduates but she is not allowed to fly and actual plan. The FAA shuts down Chipper's school, so know she wants to become a teacher. Dr. Strange refers her to Ms. Wright's. Ms. Wright is a Principal at the elementary school. Ms. Wright gives Chipper a job but four days later Chipper gets fired from never coming to work. Know Chipper becomes a waitress, and gets fired from that job. She becomes a nanny and never get hired, then she becomes a garbage collector and has a change of heart. Chipper decides to go back to school and not procrastinate anymore. Dr. Strange is very happy at Chipper's decision. I think if Chipper just watched the Video EDM310 for dummies, she would have never went through so many steps.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Learn to Change, Change to Learn was a great video, because it demonstrated the change society needs to have on education. Education was ranked 55 out of 55. It was below coal mining. To me this shows that many higher people don't take education seriously. Technology is not a choice it has created a new world. A world were more technology is put to use in the classrooms. Where a student can use the internet freely or use other technology to learn new things at school. Yet schools restrict the use of communication and technology in the classrooms. Cellphones and other devices are restricted. Technology will also provide the best quality in classrooms, it is a great way to learn. Also one of the guys in the video states that classes today are big on standardize test and other big test, but in the real world jobs don't require that. Jobs are more of an artistic ability and understanding new idea, not memorizing problems.

Think About This! Will we be ready?

Project #12

Project #11

Project #9b

For project 9b I have created a wiki. My Wiki

While creating my wiki wasn't easy I plan to build it up the best way possible. The purpose of a wiki is to organize information and data. Also it is a way to communicate to different people while planning something, or what ever it might be. Also wikis can be very informative.

Blog #7

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dream's

Randy Pausch was a wonderful Professor at Carnegie Mellon. He inspired so many as he gave "The Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon annual school lecture. He first began telling the audience how he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given three to six months to live. He didn't want the audience to feel sorry for him or to pity him because he had something more important to do, which we find out at the end of the video was for his children. The topic for the lecture was Achieving Your Childhood Dreams under three sub-topics which are;"My childhood dreams, Enabling the dreams of others, and lesson learned how you can achieve your dream or enable the dreams of others.
Randy Pausch was a happy little boy who always smiled. His first childhood dream on his list was to being at zero gravity. He was able to achieve this goal by having something to bring to the table. He was faced with a brick wall but overcame the obstacles by having determination. His second dream on the list was to play for the NFL. Although he did not accomplish this dream he got more stuff valuable then playing for the NFL. "Experiences is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted" He learned the power of enthusiasm and fundamentals. He also achieved another childhood dream by writing an article that was put in the encyclopedia. Randy wanted to be like Caption, but instead of being like him he actually got to meet him. Randy said "It's cool to meet your boyhood idols, it's even cooler to see him come to you." Randy won many stuffed animals throughout his time. The last childhood dream on the list was to become an imagineer. He was able to help create a virtual attraction ride named Aladdin for Walt Disney World. Through out this process he realized that brick walls are there for a reason. Randy learned several things from Jon Snoody, who later inspired him for other reasons.
The next main point in the video was helping others enable their childhood dream. Randy was able to help others because he used his profession as a professor to help. The first person Randy helped was a guy named Tommy in 1993. Tommy wanted to help write the next Star Wars movies and believe it or not he ended up accomplishing his dream with the help of Randy. Randy wanted to help more than just one person at a time so he created a course at Carnegie Mellon called building virtual worlds. The class was made up of 50 students and each project lasted for two weeks. The class was a big success. But this wasn't good enough for Randy he wanted something bigger, so he created this program called Alice, which is a novel way to teach computer programming. Where kids make video's and games; the "head fake" is that they are learning to program. Alice is a very successful program. There are over one million downloads, eight textbooks, and 10% of the U.S. colleges are using it right now. So millions of kids are having fun while learning something hard.
The last point made in the video lessons learned. What lets you get to achieve your dreams? The role of parents, mentors, and students are very important in lessons learned. Andy Von Dam is the person who influenced Randy to get his PH.D and become a professor. Loyalty is a two-way street because believing in someone is the most powerful thing that can really make a difference in someones life. Also never give up on any dreams or goals. Randy mentions how to get people to help. First you can't get there alone, tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you screw up, and focus on other people rather than on yourself. He also said that "Brick walls let us show our dedication, they separate those who don't really want to accomplish their childhood dreams." To get where you are going its good to not complain, instead work harder, find the best in everybody, know matter how you have to wait for them to show it. The important thing to remember about this lecture is how you lead your life.
In conclusion, Randy Pausch was a very successful man and had many people behind him to support anything he did. The important thing to remember is to never give up. Have faith in yourself and always believe. Randy Pausch has really inspired me in many different ways. He will always be remembered.

Project #10

My Personal Learning Network is a mixture of all of my school work and personal fun. I have inquired everything needed for my EDM310 class such as; blogger, twitter, EDM310 Blog, and many more. Also my Personal Learning Network is in a working progress. Each icon represents something I needed to help me with my everyday needs. As my networking grows so will my PLN.

C4T #2

While reading Watching the Red Flag by Mr. Bernia, realized it is very important for teachers to be in contact with their students and actually be concerned with their attendance records. Some students decide to drop out if school at an early age because they have no motivation or anyone telling them to go to school. Both the teacher and students should have equal responsibility within one another to stay on track if any class periods were missed. Mr. Bernia mentioned how it is important to motivate students to attend class. He also said how one of the students that dropped out of school dropped out because the teachers did not care if he even came to class. Alle he wanted was a hi or nice to see you today. The pricipal at Mr. Bernia's school organized a meeting for all the students who had attendence problems the following year. I felt that, that was a good idea because it showes how the pricipal and the teachers are interested in the students life.

While reading Setting the Tone , I was really inspired at Mr. Bernia had to say. It is also nice to see how the principal actually cares about the students instead of just doing his job and nothing more. Mr. Bernia starts his day by reading a poem by Dr. Ginott. He also likes to work with the faculty and staff at the school to make sure everything is going good. The one thing that inspired me is how Mr. Bernia takes an interest in the students and how he really cares about them. In the comment I left him on his site, I told him how nice that was and how I wished I had teachers like that. I had a teacher once that was not very nice and that they didn't care if I understood the material or not. That to me can be very frustrating and hard. Also it was good to know that Mr. Bernia wants to create an environment where the staff can be creative. He feels that it shouldn't just be the way he wants it to be, he takes an interest in what everyone wants as well.

Blog Post #6

The Network Student
The Network Student by: Wendy Drexler is a video about a boy who does his work by using the internet. He learns through varies websites, podcast, skype, wiki's, and several other things. The author mentioned, since the boy learns from all of these different sites, what was the point of having a teacher? The point of having a teacher is for guidance and help. Without the teacher the boy wouldn't have known about the sites he visits.
This video reminds me of the class I am in know EDM310. Dr. Strange is there to guide me to the right path. He gives us varies sites to look at and to read about. I learned about podcats, twitter, and smart boards. Also the lab assistance are there to help as well. For example, if I need help uploading a picture the right way to my blog, they are there to walk me through the process. Just like the teacher was there for the boy when he needed help learning about the different sites and technology needed for the class.

A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
The 7th grade girl in the video learns and practices the personal learning environment in her 7th grade science class. She finds information from the internet and puts it on her PLE. The first row in her PLE is all the interesting things she has found, and the last row contains all of her school materials. Her PLE is a reflection on what she did in class and any other thing she has learned. The 7th grade girl like her science class because it gives her the freedom to learn the way she wants. She can find the information how every she wants to and when she wants to. This also teaches her responsibility. Also her science class deals with no paper and no books, they learn everything from the computer.
I think that this is a really cool and creative idea. It is interesting and gives the idea of being in control. Also the students would want to learn more and do more things.

C4K Summary

Cadan

Cadan is a 8 year old boy who loves his family. He has a dog that likes to be played with, and Cadan also likes to give the dog a walk. Also Cadan likes to jump on his trampoline and do flips. Cadan's school won in a championship game. He was so proud of the team because he thought that they would not win all of the games. He found out of the winning by one of his teacher, and when he heard that the team won everything, he said that they won because they played as a team. I told Cadan that I was very proud of him and to keep up the good work.

Daniel

Daniel created an avatar that resembled what he liked. Daniel gave his avatar a sword because he likes the Romans and he is interested in mythology. His avatar had on red shoes. I told Daniel that red was my favorite color. Also he learned about a site where he can use this calculator for math. It will help him with his multiplication, addition, and subtraction. I told Daniel how proud I was of him and to keep up the good work.

Project # 8 Podcast

Project 9a

Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff by: Scott McLeod is a very interesting video. The internet is a very powerful source that can be used wrong if it is in the wrong hands. The internet can be good for anybody to learn and to be creative and that is the most important thing to know. Yes there are bad people in the world who do crazy things, just be careful. Scott McLeod was being very sarcastic when he wrote the post. He didn't mean what he said seriously.

The iSchool initiative video is a well put video. As technology expands, it is good to look at other ways to teach. Travis Allen came up with a way to help the public education school system. He noticed that the public schools were having a tough time with the budget cuts and how there are to many students in the class rooms. The iSchool is a device that can be used to eliminate all of the problems. Using the iSchool app, one could do anything they wanted to for school purposes. There are apps for email, chemical touch, world wiki, formulate, and several more that will get students prepared for education. The good things that I see with this iSchool device is how it would save about 600 dollars per student. Also how it would eliminate the money issues the schools are having. The bad thing I see with this invention is how the students might not be too focused in the classrooms learning, but to busy facebooking and texting instead.

Teaching in the 21st Century by Kevin Roberts gives us examples to how teaching in the 21st century is done. The internet is a way students find out new things anytime, anyway, and anywhere. From being on facebook, twitter, blog, cell phones, ect. Then teachers are not the main source of knowledge. It allows us to explore new possibilities for how teaching has changed. Also Mr Roberts says that one needs to be engaged not entertain. I agree how Mr. Roberts said that teaching in the 21st century starts with you, by seeing whats out there.

Eric Whitacre's Vitural choir was a very good video. It is amazing to see how technology had been changing over time. Also how the members of the choir have never meet in person let alone sing together. This video makes me wonder what it would be like 20 years from now.

It makes me think because if putting a choir together while never meeting, then why would we ever have to leave the house? Since the technology is arising so fast new inventions are being created.

Blog Post #4

Langwitches
Podcast can be for teachers as well as students. It was cool to see how the students really enjoyed making the clips on Dinosaurs. The students enjoyed listening to their voices on the recording. Podcast is really good for teachers. It allows them to record materials from a book instead of reading it aloud. Recording a podcast and editing of the podcast is a great tool, especially for languages learners to play with the mechanics of the language. Podcast is a great tool to use in the classroom setting because it gets the kids interested in what they are doing. It is another way of teaching to make things exciting.

The Education Pod-casting Network, helps connect teachers all over the world. Also "The Education Podcast Network is an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century." My question is why is podcast becoming so popular in this day in age? podcast was around for a while and it is just now starting to become more and more popular in the world. Podcast is world wide, so many more people have access to it.

In the video Pod-casting In the Classroom, Joe Dale talks about why podcasting is helpful and useful in the classroom. He starts off with talking about kids that were born after 1980. He calls them “Millenial”. He states how these kids have never experienced a world that didn’t have personal computers and other technology. He believes that since innovative technology is a part of the children life, podcast is a form of learning that they are familiar with, and that they can adapt to better. Students can record role plays in character while making their learning more memorable, while parents can see and hear what their children are doing in school. The parents can also help their children become familiar with the system.

Project #6 My Sentence Video

Blog Post # 3

Peer Editing can be very useful if the peer editor knows exactly what they are doing. The three steps on evaluating a paper is first start with positive comments. Then give good suggestions like word choice, details, organization, sentences, topic. The third thing to remember is make corrections. Watching the video make it easier to understand some of the possible problems that might happen when you peer edit a persons work like getting distracted or being to harsh.
The main thing in the video that sticks out is really keep the positive image when you read someone else work. Even if the author did a bad job and had a lot of errors, still be positive. Also don't be mean to the author either, that will just make things worse as we seem in the video.

In the post "It's Not About the Technology" I agree with Kelly Hines. Technology to me is not everything and we as a society should stop depending on technology. Technology will help, but only if you are familiar with it. Mrs. Hines said some really good things like teacher must be learners. This way teachers will be more open to new ideas and to new things. Teachers who truly want to be successful must be voracious and self-motivated in their pursuit of evolving understanding. Also learning and teaching are not the same thing. As I was telling Mrs. Hines in a post to her, I said that I had a teacher once who asked why wasn't I understanding the problem the teacher done about 10 time. Well it was because I did not learn it because of the way it was explained.
Technology is useless without good teaching, because if someone has a smart board but does not know how to use it, then there is not point of having it. A teacher must be perpetual learners who are invested in their professions. Lastly be a 21st century teacher without the technology. If a teacher can prepare the student to be creative and innovative, those students will be prepared in the future. It should just be about technology, because some times technology wont help.

I disagree with Mr Fisch on how he thinks that all teachers should be Technological Savvy. Technology should not be the main thing teachers or any body to rely in. What would happen if all the technology just disappeared on day? Then the world would be one messed up place, and only a few people would know what to do. It is good for teachers to know how to use the technology when it is necessary, but other than that I feel it might be a waist of time. Why have a smart board in the class room if the teacher does not know how to use it? Or why try and make peoples life difficult if it is not even called for.
One of the biggest misconceptions we have today, is how the society is backwards. India has the smartest people in the country, not because of the technology they have but for other purposes. The kids their are way smarter than the children in the United States. To me, that really says a lot.

Gary Hayes Social Media
is very scary to think about sometimes. It is a shame to see how many people use facebook and twitter instead of learning knowledgeable things and ideas. It is also amazing at the same time to see how many people use technology every single day.I would say, if learning was as simple as writing a post on facebook, then the world would be really smart. Technology use is easy for some people to learn, but what about for the others? Teaching is the same way, some students are hands on learners, and others might be more visual.
If we rely on technology, then when something happens to all the technology, where would we be? It is good to learn how to use facebook, twitter, and skype, but only if you want to reconnect with people and maybe even family member. Other than that, these sites are useless. All I can say is be more independent.

I really enjoyed watching the video A vision of Students Today by: Michael Wesch. I like the question at the end of the video that said can technology save us? My response was no, if we use technology for all the wrong reasons. To me technology for the bad reasons are starting to corrupt peoples lives. Why would someone even want to be on facebook for over 5 hours or tweet every second of the day? I feel it to be a waist of time. Even while a student is in class, they might be paying attention to their smart phone than paying attention to their professor.
I believe that technology for the good is a good step in direction. It brings positive messages to those in hope of something new. Such as technology that might help locate a missing person, or technology that saves someones life. I all all for the good use of technology, even if it is in a class room.

Project #5

C4T

Switching off the Interactive White Boards for Good by Kevin McLaughlin was very interesting. The author feel that IWB's are not very useful in the classroom setting based off his experience using them. He feels as if they are too expensive, which I agree with, and how hard it would be to remove them from all the classroom settings since the hype is so big. Mr. McLaughlin did a survey with the students in his class and the students also agreed with his idea that IWB's are a waist of time to use. Mr. McLaughlin feels that it would also be a waist of time to have expo's with the headteachers, because within the next few months the training has been forgotten and many return back to their original way of teaching.

Mr McLaughlin would rather use teaching devices that are mobile like ipads, ipod, and netbooks, but my defense was; what if people started to take the devices, then you would be stuck having to replace them or eventually having to go without them. The price to keep up with the mobile devices would far more exceed the price of an IWB. Also I went on to say that IWB's are not for every class setting. I find it necessary  to only have them in classrooms that would really need them such as the class I am in now EDM 310.


After reading the comment to my post I left for Mr. McLaughlin on , I realized it isn't just about the technology it self, it is about how well you can teach the materials to the students. If the IWB works, then use what ever is best for the educator to enhance performance in the class rooms. Since the budget is low in public schools it is hard to get funding for the new gadgets available.

I agreed with what Mr. McLaughlin about how hard it is to keep up with the development in technology since there will always be something new. And as long as one teaches the curriculum and the students are learning, then that is all that should matter.

Blog Post # 2

            The video clip "Did You Know?”Did You Know was very informative on how technology is increasing over the years. Google searches increases from 2.7 billion in 2006 to 31 billion in 2008. Bermuda is the number one ranked country in broadband internet pention.  Also how facebook only took two years to market an audience of 50 million people, versus a radio which took 38 years. The author stated that 25 percent of India’s population has the largest I.Q. which is greater than the total population in the United States.

             I feel as an American that this is true; I primarily believe this has to do with how rapid technology is evolving and with all the new gadgets being created. Children and young adults rather play with a video game and watch YouTube videos then study and do work. I’m not saying that people in India don't play video games as well; I feel maybe they have better study habits. With all of this said the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years, creating more job opportunities to jobs that aren’t even created yet.

The video clip "Mr. Winkle Wakes”Mr. Winkle Wakes is about a man who sleeps for a hundred years and then finally he woke up. He left his house and traveled the streets and saw big buildings and new things. He went to an office where there was these strange machines that did anything you asked it to do. One could have meetings over the computer as well, but Mr. Winkle did not like that, he started to feel sick so he left. He went to the hospital and saw the same similar machines. Mr. Winkle was amazed how people could stay alive off of machines and other medical devices. He knew then he had to leave.

The sad thing about this story is how Mr. Winkle went to a school, and he remembered it the same way it was 100 years ago, with the exception of the dusty machine box in the back of the room. This really tells us something about the education system and how it needs to be improved. All the technology is improving and getting better as I learned from watching "Did You Know", and from personal experiences. So if technical information is doubling every two years, then what happen to the education system?

Sir Ken Robinson in the video "The Importance of Creativity"The Importance of Creativity made a really good point to why the education system lacks creativity and any self reflection on an individual. One had to fit "in", if not you were consider different. Sir. Robinson said how a child takes chances and is not afraid of the outcome. If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original, and I agree with him 100 percent. Being creative is part of growing up, it's part of life. Sir Robinson also said that mistakes are the worst thing you can make in an education system, I feel this is because the education system is designed to do something only one way which is their way; and if you cannot do it like them, then you are wrong.

            In society, we think that art and dance is not more important than science and math, simply because of the originality and creativity one needs to become a dancer, it just comes natural. Sir. Robinson also said how degrees are not really worth anything these days because as the years go by one will need to father there education and get a PH. D or doctorate degree. We also grow out of creativity making it harder for "humans" to be open minded about life. I agree with Sir Robinson on how the gift of human imagination should not be wasted. It’s a gift, imagination has a purpose and it is very useful.

In the video interview,Cecelia Gault's Interview Cecelia Gault was very enthused and energetic about what she was doing. Her task was to give Sir. Robinson an interview about his lecture on the Importance of Creativity. Even though Cecelia Gault is very young, she still knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up; and would be an educator of some sort. One of the main person or persons depending on the classroom environment was the teacher. The teacher keeps the students enthused on becoming educators as we can tell from Cecelia Gault’s interview. Cecelia asked Sir. Robinson what was the three facts he demonstrated in the lecture about creativity, and Sir. Robinson was able to answer them because he knew exactly what Cecelia wanted. Sir Robinson said that everyone is creative, you can be creative with anything, and you can teach people to be more creative.

For me to keep my class educated as Cecelia’s teacher did, I would have to work hard to keep my class energetic and excited about leaning. I would also have to keep in mind that being creative and having imagination is just as important as a math problem or reading a story. I would have to learn what each student is good at doing and build from there. I would also have to demonstrate a positive atmosphere and positive leadership to keep the class flowing just right. And also to inspire the students that they can do and become anything they put their mind to.

In the video Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students Digital SmartsHarness Your Digital Smarts by Vicki Davis, was very inspiring because I am getting connected to the world in EDM 310. Vicki said the every student can learn, but only certain students succeed with pen and paper; meaning that every student does not learn the same. Using technology can be used as another form of teaching and it is very hand on. Vicki teaches the students to learn new software and also how to use technology. She wants he students to be very independent and do some learning on their own, for example; if she gives the students a new word and they don’t know what it means, and then Vicki expects the students to look it up.

I find Vicki’s teachings very helpful because it demonstrates independence and gives the students some freedom to learn on their own. Most teachers feel that it is important to know the topic that is going to be taught, buy Vicki feels that yes it’s true for some things but at the same time, it’s also good to learn new things as you go along. Vicki gave the students inspiration to what is out in the world and enhanced there knowledge to what to expect. Also if you empower the students then you will have a better classroom.

Wordle Project # 2

Blog Post # 1

Born to the parents of Emanuel and Kimberly Jackson on March 11, 1991; in Irving, California; I was the youngest of three children: Jolene, Celina, and then me Alyssa Jackson. When I was two years of age my family moved to Okinawa Japan since my father was in the Marines. When I was six we moved to Texas, and a year later to Florida where I lived for thirteen year.
Throughout middle and high school in Florida I began a new hobby playing the clarinet in band. In high school I joined the marching band. Also in high school I devolved a skill that soon turned into a passion, which is my love for math. I also enjoy music and looking at the moon and stars. This is where I got the idea of my first tattoo, music notes, stars, and the moon.
At my first college, I became a very exceptional student in math, receiving the highest math award as a freshman. I tutored for the local high school and for my college. I then relieved I wanted to pursue my career as a Secondary Math teacher. Next, to father my education to become a math teacher, I knew that I could not stay at my first school, so this is how I happen to attend University of South Alabama.
In watching the clip Randy Pausch on Time Management, I learned that planning is very important. You can always change your plans, but only once you have one. Also failing to plan, is planning to fail. It is also good to have a to do list. A to do list keeps life organized and helps maintain effective time management skills. Randy Pausch stated that in a to do list, it is best to do the ugliest thing first, in other words, it is good to do the toughest job instead of keep coming back to it.

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testing blogger