Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
c4k -1,2, 3 SUMMARY
My first student I was assigned to was from New Zealand. He had commented on what they considered a "Silly Sports Day". He talked about how his team won many of the events but also lost some. I responded to him by saying that I was glad that he had fun on that day. I also told him that sometimes it is okay to learn, that he can learn from his mistakes and do better the next time his school has another "Silly Sports Day". I also encouraged him to keep doing well in school and that I hope he has a great year.
My second student was a child in Mr. Wolfe's class. He left a post about how he had fun playing outside this summer and that he went hiking. I asked him in my reply what kind of activities or games he likes to do. I also told him about my little girl and how she enjoys playing outside as well. I also asked where he had gone hiking and that we enjoy that also.
The class at St. Elmos did a wonderful job on a video which described ways they (the students) were different and the same. Jenna was my assigned student this week. She is a girl. In her part of the clips she tells us that she is sensitive and energetic. Watching the video you could tell this group of students were very intelligent and worked hard in the classroom. I am looking forward to continuing following this group of students throughout the semester. Jenna also did a great job on her art work. I told her it is great to be a sensitive person and I always like to be around people that are energetic because it makes me feel happier too.
My second student was a child in Mr. Wolfe's class. He left a post about how he had fun playing outside this summer and that he went hiking. I asked him in my reply what kind of activities or games he likes to do. I also told him about my little girl and how she enjoys playing outside as well. I also asked where he had gone hiking and that we enjoy that also.
The class at St. Elmos did a wonderful job on a video which described ways they (the students) were different and the same. Jenna was my assigned student this week. She is a girl. In her part of the clips she tells us that she is sensitive and energetic. Watching the video you could tell this group of students were very intelligent and worked hard in the classroom. I am looking forward to continuing following this group of students throughout the semester. Jenna also did a great job on her art work. I told her it is great to be a sensitive person and I always like to be around people that are energetic because it makes me feel happier too.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Blog 5 - McLeod/ ischool/ virtual choir/ future of teaching
Dr. McLeod makes some great agruments about maintaining a distance from technology although I don't agree with the majority of his agrument. Children of today need to learn not only how to work with new technologies and computers but also how to safely surf the web and protect themselves from all the predators that are out there. I do agree with his opinion about keeping the pen and paper present in the classrooms. Students need to learn how to communicate with their peers without using the computer they also need to learn how to think for themselves without allowing computers to do all the thinking for them.
Scott McLeod is a professor at the University of Kentucky and also the founder of CASTLE which surprisingly is the nation’s only center that is directed at helping school administrators with current technology needs.
In Travis Allen's Utube video he talks about ischool. This is a very interesting approach on how to save money for our currently underfunded school systems. However, I would have to question how it would effect the teachers that might be replaced by this new technology. I know that teachers would still be required but would fewer teachers be needed? Also another argument I would have to say is that fewer and fewer of our children are already being affected by not having to talk with each other. they are not learning coping skills that would be required when they are older. In this case I would say technology might have gone one step to far. I understand that would save about $500 a student but what would really be the lost investement? The only way to truely know is to run trials cases at different levels in the different states to see if this new technology is truely beneficial.
The Virtual choir was awesome. As a life long choir member I thought it was amazing at how these people have never met face to face for a day of reherasal before recording this. I know that technology can really play a part of the recording of this however the video itself is amazing.
The last video of this assignment made me think really hard. How are we to teach if all the information is already out there. Here's the thing, it has always been out there just not always easily accessible. Robert says we are no longer the "teacher" but we are acting as a "filter". Which means we deteremine what information our students get to look up and research the internet for but only for school. In one of the slides he mentions who is to teach how to search the internet for the information. This is a very valid point. When I was in school we were taught how to reserach using books and enclyclopedias, now there is so much information out there we need to teach how to interpret all the data and make sure sources are reliable. While the information is ever present we must be able to teach how to use it correctly.
Scott McLeod is a professor at the University of Kentucky and also the founder of CASTLE which surprisingly is the nation’s only center that is directed at helping school administrators with current technology needs.
In Travis Allen's Utube video he talks about ischool. This is a very interesting approach on how to save money for our currently underfunded school systems. However, I would have to question how it would effect the teachers that might be replaced by this new technology. I know that teachers would still be required but would fewer teachers be needed? Also another argument I would have to say is that fewer and fewer of our children are already being affected by not having to talk with each other. they are not learning coping skills that would be required when they are older. In this case I would say technology might have gone one step to far. I understand that would save about $500 a student but what would really be the lost investement? The only way to truely know is to run trials cases at different levels in the different states to see if this new technology is truely beneficial.
The Virtual choir was awesome. As a life long choir member I thought it was amazing at how these people have never met face to face for a day of reherasal before recording this. I know that technology can really play a part of the recording of this however the video itself is amazing.
The last video of this assignment made me think really hard. How are we to teach if all the information is already out there. Here's the thing, it has always been out there just not always easily accessible. Robert says we are no longer the "teacher" but we are acting as a "filter". Which means we deteremine what information our students get to look up and research the internet for but only for school. In one of the slides he mentions who is to teach how to search the internet for the information. This is a very valid point. When I was in school we were taught how to reserach using books and enclyclopedias, now there is so much information out there we need to teach how to interpret all the data and make sure sources are reliable. While the information is ever present we must be able to teach how to use it correctly.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
blog 4- preparing for podcast
Eagles' Nest radio and class blog was very interesting and educational. For third graders, the podcast was exceptional. They were able to maintain focus and kept the listener wanting to listen. Their use of different children was brilliant. It allowed the listener a different sound and brought attention back to the podcast.
http://blog.woodward.edu/ps_edmison/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/roamininancientrome.jpg
Benefits of pod-casting in the classroom was not only informational but it made a great argument for why technologies such as pod-casting should be integrated within the classroom. It would allows kids who have to miss for one reason or another not to get too far behind, it also allows teachers to encourage a higher level of thinking that we strive for. This clip also gives links to help make your own, which was extremely beneficial to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL1bX1gepEc&feature=player_detailpage
The clip off Lanwitches was another interesting cast. It is yet another great way to argue how beneficial technologies can be in the classroom setting. Another great way of demonstrating how using this technology can allow the students to use a higher level of thinking.
http://langwitches.org/blog/category/podcasting/
http://blog.woodward.edu/ps_edmison/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/roamininancientrome.jpg
Benefits of pod-casting in the classroom was not only informational but it made a great argument for why technologies such as pod-casting should be integrated within the classroom. It would allows kids who have to miss for one reason or another not to get too far behind, it also allows teachers to encourage a higher level of thinking that we strive for. This clip also gives links to help make your own, which was extremely beneficial to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL1bX1gepEc&feature=player_detailpage
The clip off Lanwitches was another interesting cast. It is yet another great way to argue how beneficial technologies can be in the classroom setting. Another great way of demonstrating how using this technology can allow the students to use a higher level of thinking.
http://langwitches.org/blog/category/podcasting/
Monday, September 12, 2011
C4C 3
I agree with most of my assigned classmates opinion on her post. She had very strong arguments that she made when voicing her opinion. She agreed with most of what she read by Kelly Hines, Karl Fisch, Gary Hayes and Micheal Wesch,but there were several statements Karl Ficsh that she did not agree with and she backed up her reasons for her disagreement.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Blog 3 -technology
Kelly Hines
Ms. Hines seems like she is very current on the new technologies of today but also wants to do things that are best for her students. I agree with the first of the four things she listed that is a must for effectively impacting students of today's technological advances.
The first part of her list she says that Teachers need to be learners. In my opinion we never stop learning at any age. We always need to be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. At the same time the easy way is not always the best way to get something accomplished. The second item on her list is "Learning and teaching are not always the same". This is so true and the examples of pushing a rock and it doesn't move there is no work done was a great way of showing how this happens. Many times students do not learn something right off the bat. It is after teaching and reiterating the same information over a period of time the the students may finally learn it. One thing as teachers we must remember is that all students do not learn the same way or at the same speed. The third item on her list is "Technology is useless without good teaching". She mentions the whiteboards that are found more and more in today's classrooms and the fact that some teachers take advantage of the new technology and some do not. Technology itself is not what makes a teacher great it is the teacher him/herself that is great and utilizes the technology to its fullest. The fourth item on her list was "Be a 21st teacher without the technology". In today's society, people rely on computers to help them make decisions. If a teacher can teach a student to think critically and learn how to solve problems on their own than that student will be better off than the student who relies fully on technology.
Karl Fisch
It is not okay to be a technology illiterate teacher in today's world. Technology is there to help us improve our ways of teaching materials and giving the students new and different ways of learning the material we present.
Mr. Fisch makes several very strong statements about teachers that don't event take the time to learn the new technology and to actually use it in the classroom setting. I remember in I was in high school when things where really starting to move toward using technology more and more that some teachers loved using it and some had such a hard time with that they stopped in the middle of class and went back to the old way of teaching.
Gary Hayes
The counter that Mr. Hayes had on his website was astonishing. I new that the world used those items very frequently but I had no idea that that much information was being retreived and sent out in the vast amounts that was shown. It definitely shows how we have gone to a world of using and communicated with huge amounts of information very quickly.
A Vision of Students today
The clip featured here was extremely interesting. The video clip mentioned 26.5 hours which is already more hours then are in a day. When I was in Nursing School I calculated up how many hours I put in studying, sitting in class, and working: amazingly it was over 100 hours a week this did not include eating, sleeping, taking care of my child, housework or any other extra curricular that I was currently doing but still I kept my grades high. Towards the end of the clip it mentions how people don't pay attention in class and instead use those high tech toys for face-book or working on other things that don't pertain to the class they are in. This is so true in many cases I have seen people sitting in history or science classes chatting with the friends and distracting people that actually care about class. The last question the clip asks us is "writing on a chalkboard" and then asks what is it missing and list things such as animation, music, photos and other things. Education is about learning and while I like to have a little fun while I am learning new concepts the biggest and most important thing is that I (we) learn the information that is presented to us at all levels.
Ms. Hines seems like she is very current on the new technologies of today but also wants to do things that are best for her students. I agree with the first of the four things she listed that is a must for effectively impacting students of today's technological advances.
The first part of her list she says that Teachers need to be learners. In my opinion we never stop learning at any age. We always need to be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. At the same time the easy way is not always the best way to get something accomplished. The second item on her list is "Learning and teaching are not always the same". This is so true and the examples of pushing a rock and it doesn't move there is no work done was a great way of showing how this happens. Many times students do not learn something right off the bat. It is after teaching and reiterating the same information over a period of time the the students may finally learn it. One thing as teachers we must remember is that all students do not learn the same way or at the same speed. The third item on her list is "Technology is useless without good teaching". She mentions the whiteboards that are found more and more in today's classrooms and the fact that some teachers take advantage of the new technology and some do not. Technology itself is not what makes a teacher great it is the teacher him/herself that is great and utilizes the technology to its fullest. The fourth item on her list was "Be a 21st teacher without the technology". In today's society, people rely on computers to help them make decisions. If a teacher can teach a student to think critically and learn how to solve problems on their own than that student will be better off than the student who relies fully on technology.
Karl Fisch
It is not okay to be a technology illiterate teacher in today's world. Technology is there to help us improve our ways of teaching materials and giving the students new and different ways of learning the material we present.
Mr. Fisch makes several very strong statements about teachers that don't event take the time to learn the new technology and to actually use it in the classroom setting. I remember in I was in high school when things where really starting to move toward using technology more and more that some teachers loved using it and some had such a hard time with that they stopped in the middle of class and went back to the old way of teaching.
Gary Hayes
The counter that Mr. Hayes had on his website was astonishing. I new that the world used those items very frequently but I had no idea that that much information was being retreived and sent out in the vast amounts that was shown. It definitely shows how we have gone to a world of using and communicated with huge amounts of information very quickly.
A Vision of Students today
The clip featured here was extremely interesting. The video clip mentioned 26.5 hours which is already more hours then are in a day. When I was in Nursing School I calculated up how many hours I put in studying, sitting in class, and working: amazingly it was over 100 hours a week this did not include eating, sleeping, taking care of my child, housework or any other extra curricular that I was currently doing but still I kept my grades high. Towards the end of the clip it mentions how people don't pay attention in class and instead use those high tech toys for face-book or working on other things that don't pertain to the class they are in. This is so true in many cases I have seen people sitting in history or science classes chatting with the friends and distracting people that actually care about class. The last question the clip asks us is "writing on a chalkboard" and then asks what is it missing and list things such as animation, music, photos and other things. Education is about learning and while I like to have a little fun while I am learning new concepts the biggest and most important thing is that I (we) learn the information that is presented to us at all levels.
peer editing
I choose to leave a comment on my assigned student. Her post was enjoyable to look over. I believe that we are learning to become teachers and we need to be able to take criticism to help up become better teachers. I did make a few suggestions for her to think about the next time she makes another post that is similar.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Blog 2 (video clips)
Did You Know
All of the information given in this clip was extremely interesting. It is amazing to see how far technology has come in such a short amount of time. One of the statements on the clip states that we are preparing kids for jobs that do not even exist yet, which is strange but so true to a point. Another interesting tidbit was the fact that by the age of 38 most kids will have 10-14 jobs which is ridiculous. If you start at 18 years old that is only 20 years of working, that is changing job every two years or even more frequently. It only took four years for internet to reach a market of 50 million people! This clip was very informative.
Mr. Winkles
This little clip was very true in a comical way. The world around is becoming more and more technological savvy and schools are so many times being left out of the picture. When kids graduate school and then enter the work force some have a hard time dealing with not only the new pressures of a new job but also learning new equipment.
The Importance of Creativity
Picasso stated many years ago "that we are all born artist but the problem is to stay an artist as we grow older." (May not be stated word for word.) There was no true public education systems until the 19th century and when it became established it was for industrialism, which in many ways is outdated now. Children are encourage to work more on Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic instead of what they are good and have natural talents in. In fact many children are lectured and stigmatized for being creative. Ken defines creativity as a the process of having original ideas that are worth value. I agree with his statement.
His opinion matches mine in that schools are getting rid of valuable classrooms such as art and music. Mostly because of the money problems. It should be the opposite, every person is put on this Earth to do something. Sometimes that something is not necessarily academics but could be dance, as he gave the example of the woman who choreographed "Cats" the Broadway production along with "Phantom of the Opera". Some people are just made to move. In order to think they have to move. In today's time most of these kids would be labeled ADH/ADD and put on medicine and told to behave and these children many times never rise to what they could have been.
Finland Interview
Ken would like to balance academic and the arts. They also talk about the three myths of creativity which include: only certain people are creative, creativity is about certain things, and that there is nothing you can do about it. The big question that I see on her blog is asked "Can the U.S. Compete?" I think that the US has a long way to go when it comes to comparing with Finland. I firmly believe with much hard work and dedication to the students that we could compete with any country.
Digital Smarts
This was a very interesting clip, mainly because I am from south Georgia, only about an hour from where this school is. The fact the students are connecting with so many different people and learning how to work the new technologies on site with the teacher helping them through but also allowing them to do most of the work for themselves is an awesome thing. When these children get out of school they will be able to go directly in to a job setting using all kinds of these new technologies. Every school, in my opinion should be going to this, utilizing every technology that is available to us.
All of the information given in this clip was extremely interesting. It is amazing to see how far technology has come in such a short amount of time. One of the statements on the clip states that we are preparing kids for jobs that do not even exist yet, which is strange but so true to a point. Another interesting tidbit was the fact that by the age of 38 most kids will have 10-14 jobs which is ridiculous. If you start at 18 years old that is only 20 years of working, that is changing job every two years or even more frequently. It only took four years for internet to reach a market of 50 million people! This clip was very informative.
Mr. Winkles
This little clip was very true in a comical way. The world around is becoming more and more technological savvy and schools are so many times being left out of the picture. When kids graduate school and then enter the work force some have a hard time dealing with not only the new pressures of a new job but also learning new equipment.
The Importance of Creativity
Picasso stated many years ago "that we are all born artist but the problem is to stay an artist as we grow older." (May not be stated word for word.) There was no true public education systems until the 19th century and when it became established it was for industrialism, which in many ways is outdated now. Children are encourage to work more on Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic instead of what they are good and have natural talents in. In fact many children are lectured and stigmatized for being creative. Ken defines creativity as a the process of having original ideas that are worth value. I agree with his statement.
His opinion matches mine in that schools are getting rid of valuable classrooms such as art and music. Mostly because of the money problems. It should be the opposite, every person is put on this Earth to do something. Sometimes that something is not necessarily academics but could be dance, as he gave the example of the woman who choreographed "Cats" the Broadway production along with "Phantom of the Opera". Some people are just made to move. In order to think they have to move. In today's time most of these kids would be labeled ADH/ADD and put on medicine and told to behave and these children many times never rise to what they could have been.
Finland Interview
Ken would like to balance academic and the arts. They also talk about the three myths of creativity which include: only certain people are creative, creativity is about certain things, and that there is nothing you can do about it. The big question that I see on her blog is asked "Can the U.S. Compete?" I think that the US has a long way to go when it comes to comparing with Finland. I firmly believe with much hard work and dedication to the students that we could compete with any country.
Digital Smarts
This was a very interesting clip, mainly because I am from south Georgia, only about an hour from where this school is. The fact the students are connecting with so many different people and learning how to work the new technologies on site with the teacher helping them through but also allowing them to do most of the work for themselves is an awesome thing. When these children get out of school they will be able to go directly in to a job setting using all kinds of these new technologies. Every school, in my opinion should be going to this, utilizing every technology that is available to us.
C4T 1
My assignment for the C4T 1 was a teacher from Boston, MA. She is the director for Academic Technology. Her blog was about an article she had read out of the New York Times. This article had listed what they considered statistical data on technologies improvement of scores on test. Ms. Liz Davis did not agree with the article at all. She seemed disappointed in her blog that a professional paper such as The New York Times would even consider this statistical data when in fact the article considered only one school in one state. I agreed with Ms. Davis saying that statistical data could not truly be collaborated due to that single fact. You must take at multiple school in different states of all scoring levels on these exams to be considered a true statistical piece of data to be looked at by different school trying to decide whether or not to improve their technological advances for their own students.
Ms. Davis' second blog was about a book that she required all of faculty to read and then she presented a presentation to that same faculty on how she wanted to improve in her school. She called it the "Plus One Challenge". Basically she wants to to encourage the faculty to add one technology project, wants to keep up with peer schools, and will be meeting with each individual faculty member to see how and what they are doing and to offer a helping hand. I replied with my comment on how I honestly thing that this is an awesome idea and that I hope that it works for her.
Ms. Davis' second blog was about a book that she required all of faculty to read and then she presented a presentation to that same faculty on how she wanted to improve in her school. She called it the "Plus One Challenge". Basically she wants to to encourage the faculty to add one technology project, wants to keep up with peer schools, and will be meeting with each individual faculty member to see how and what they are doing and to offer a helping hand. I replied with my comment on how I honestly thing that this is an awesome idea and that I hope that it works for her.
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