My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

I really enjoyed this class! I have made some really good friends in this class. Thank you guys I have really enjoyed everything!

Week 16

I have learned so much in this class. I feel like I am so much more computer literate now. The project that I enjoyed the most was the trifold. I would love to use this when I get in a classroom and for other projects also. My brocure really came out nice and my brother in law actually printed a bunch of them and then kept them for himself. I also really enjoyed learning hoe\w to use a blog. I think it is a great idea to have a class blog. At first I thought it would be too complex for elementary school children to do it until I researched and saw many classrooms using it all over the world. The website was really difficult for me. Getting my pictures right and doing the alt tags really took a long time for me to do. The videos helped me out a lot though. If it were not for them I would not have been able to pass this class. One thing that we did that I think will be the most useful for me outside the classroom is the payout table. I know I will continue to use this because I have already used it on my house I bought and the new car I bought. Dr. Strange was right when he said those equations are great to take in when you are making a large purchase because I used it when I was buying my car and found $499 that they were not telling me about. In all I really enjoyed this class. I am really glad I chose to take Dr. Strange because he teaches all projects that can be used in everyday life.

Week 14

This weeks blog assignment is about some of the shady entries and amendments on wikipedia. I was completely unaware that anyone with a computer can edit, amend or change the sound of an entry. "Wired" magazine described Wikepedia as 100 times the information of an encyclopedia with about 90 percent the accuracy. The whole premise that this online database is founded upon is that it is a comprehensive collaboration of several different sources coming together to make for on very informative source. This same premise makes it very easily susceptible to people rearranging the words or deleting items to make themselves sound better.
Virgil Griffith a graduate student of Cal Tech is making it harder on these major companies making changes by either forcing them to sign their amendments or making them look very suspicious when the sign anonymous and it traces back to them. I think his system Wikipedia Scanner will make wikepedia better by trying to make people write good information. I still think wikipedia is a good source of information, but i think that you should double check some of the information for accuracy.

week 13

This weeks blog assignment was very "eye opening". Stanford's psychology department's research shows that students have two mindsets toward learning, a fixed and a growth mindset. The fixed mindset is very troubling to me, I really hate the thought that students can actually get it in their head that the only have so much intelligence and thats all they have to work with. I will do every thing in my power to instill the growth mindset in every student I teach.

I will teach my students that they can learn an infinite amount of information if they are open to it. I will show them their mind is like a muscle, the more you use it the more powerful it becomes. I really am glad I was exposed to this information so that I can pass it along to other teachers and teacher propects.

week 12

This weeks blog assignment really showed me how committed that apple is to making iTunes U common place in the classroom. There is an immense amount of media files available at no charge. The videos are of very high quality similar to those shown on "The Discovery Channel". I think they can and will be very useful in the classroom.
I watched the video entitled, "A Night in a Coral Reef". It was very colorful and exciting to me. I really enjoyed watching the reef change drastically from day to night. The different creatures who inhabit the reef change from day to night also which I found very interesting. This video was very well filmed and narrated I really don't know where a teacher can find a better source for classroom instructional videos.
When I become a teacher I will definitely use these videos in my classroom. It is wonderful to have free resources like this. I sincerely think that Apple is headed in the right direction with this resource. Keep up the good work Apple.

week 9

This weeks blog explores another technological advancement in teaching. The new technology is iTunes University by Apple. It provides a way to access loads of digital media for students in various courses. The student can search, download, and play course content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows. The student can actually access course content on their PC. They can also sync their iPod or iPhone with the information so they can have mobile access to the info so they can study anywhere.
Many large colleges are getting on board with this program. Texas A&M has a site for their students to enter in an online competition for the best musician on campus. Even some of the ivy league schools are getting into the action. Yale, Stanford and Berkley all have sites which allow their students to use iTunes U to access information for their course studies. This is a new and exciting wave of technology and I can't wait to see where it leads us.

week 8

This weeks blog is about iPod use in the classroom. On Apple's website, they list a variety of possible uses for the device which was previously mainly used as a mp3 music storage and playback device. One of the proposed uses involves using it a recording device to interview people about life experiences for a oral history report. Another of the uses is to use the device to record a conversation in the foreign language the students are learning in class.
Duke university is one of the flagship universities to jump on the use of this new technology. The freshman class of 2004 were all issued an iPod at registration at no charge. The program said to cost the school $500,000 includes the iPods themselves, an academic computing specialist and grants for the faculty members who participate. This device has turned out to be a very handy tool for the students. Students downloaded a specially created calendar of the athletic events on campus. Several students enabled the hard drive function of the iPod to back up their personal computers or to transport large files between computers. Even the rowing team got in on the action by using them to hear the calls of the captains during practice. This is a very interesting subject and i can't wait to see what comes of it.

week 7

For this week i have chosen to discuss "Why Wireless?", by Karl Fisch. In this blog he is explaining his schools decision to give wireless access to parents, teachers and students to the internet via personal devices. His school only provides this access Monday through Friday for security reasons. He first gives the straightforward explanation that there are so many resource available via the internet that a student or teacher need access to. A couple of the resources he names are the campus portal which provides the student and parent real time access to grades and assignments, teacher databases containing notes and other helpful information, and school paid electronic databases which contain a wealth of information.
Now comes the not so straightforward explanation. It goes into how the world is ever evolving and that for a student to be prepared for life he/she must be a continual learner and be able to teach him/herself. He says that by giving the students access to information other than what they get from the classroom gives them the opportunity to practice this self teaching, while still under the guidance of the school faculty. Fisch ends this entry with," Why wireless? Because their century demands it." I think this kind of sums it up well.

Image With TItle and Alt Tags

Week 6

The assigned reading for this week was very eye opening and interesting to me. This problem of technological illiterate teachers is very real and something that i think does need to be addressed. Children go to school to learn the skills they will need to be successful in their future. There is no question that a teacher must know and be able to teach reading, writing, and math to a student. Why should technological subjects be any different?
I do understand that a lot of today's technology was not around when many the older teachers were learning, but if a teacher doesn't possess the skills and knowledge themselves how can they teach them to their pupils? I think Karl Fisch hit the nail on the head when said, " If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write". I feel like a teacher must play two roles, that of a teacher and that of a student. A teacher by passing along his/her knowledge to their students, but a student by continuing to learn so they can be an effective teacher.

week 5

Mrs. Marit's fourth grade class composed a blog for their Canadian classroom. This blog is very nicely composed the teacher writes an overview of what the class is doing and the progress they are making at least once a week. There are several photos and videos so the students can show their parents and friends what they have been doing exciting in class. Each student in the class also has their own page within the blog so they can do different activities and post things that are important to them which probably gives them a great sense of importance to and inclusion in the classroom blog. The last post to the blog was on February 10, 2008 and it shows the students going the the"Prairie Villa", a nursing home, where they took Valentines cards to the residents there. This teacher and her students really made this blog interesting for the reader, I'm sure they are proud to show it off!

Link to Mrs.Marit's class blog



Another classroom far away in New Zealand, lead my a Mrs Allanah K, is using a classroom blog for many of the same reasons. They are also a fourth grade class using this page to show what they are doing in the classroom. This blog has a lot of interaction from the children, they are even adding to the blog from their homes. Many of the children share their summer and vacation experiences with the class on this site. The most remarkable thing is that the children actually make comments to each other and seem to be very close and in touch with each other through this blog. These blogs do great things to keep these classmates, parents and teachers close and in the loop on what is going on in these children's lives at school and at home.

Link to Mrs.Allanah's class blog

week 4

The first site i found was about a Kinderkid's classroom in deerfield, NH. The first grade classroom led by Mrs. Shepard. The blog leads you through the school year with this class. It starts in October with the children in a writing exercise and with them decorating their hallway. The blog goes through their Valentines Day celebration, them leaving for thanksgiving and Christmas and even has a Mother's day slide show. It ends with an entry on January 24th wishing all a happy new year.

Week 3 January 27

ACCESS is a wonderful education resource for teachers and students alike. This program will provide easy access to various learning tools that would otherwise only be a dream. It will provide advanced level courses as well as remedial course to impact the advanced as well as the lagging student. Students will be able to access advanced placement and dual enrollment courses with ease. Teachers will have access to new technology and multimedia programs to aide in their teaching.
This program is not far fetched either. There is a very reasonable time line for which this program will be carried out. The plan is for it to be accessible in every Alabama public school by 2010. This should be ample time for the state to get the needed materials to implement this plan. By 2010 it should and will be possible for every Alabama high school student to take a distance course using this program.

Adding a Picture

This is a picture of a man running. This is how i look at 8am trying to get to class.

Week 1 January 20 ALEX

When i become a teacher i will definitely use the ALEX website in my classroom. As a new teacher i will use the course of study to find new and interesting topics for my class to learn about and use their ready made lesson plans as a guide for teaching it. I will also be looking and the lesson plans section for advice on how fast and what to teach on a specific topic. Also, it will be very interesting to me to look at websites that other teachers have recommended for the topics that i will teach in class. I'm sure there will be useful information on these sites for me to use.
It will also be very comforting to me to know that i have that much information readily available to me if i need direction and additional information on subjects. I feel sure that i will spend many nights and weekends browsing this site and becoming a better teacher from it. I am very thankful that this site was introduced to me; i know it will help me in the future.

week 2 january 20, 2008 ALEX blog

The ALEX website is awesome. This website has almost anything a teacher new or seasoned could ever hope for. It could best be described as a wealth of knowledge at its users fingertips. The thing that surprises me about this website is how easy it is to use. It only takes a few clicks of the mouse to get to anything on this enormous site.
This website has several different teacher sections including courses of study, web links, lesson plans and just a general search. The course of study tab is for the teacher looking for information and lesson planning advise on a specific subject. The web links tab provides access to web sites that were recommended by other teachers and administrators from schools all around. The lesson plans tab gives detailed lesson plans for various different subjects for a teacher to use in their own classroom. This site also provides the possibility for advanced students to further their learning abilities by taking advanced placement courses over the internet. This site is a must for all teachers it has an enormous amount of information readily available for use.

Week 1 Jan 13th

The video made me think about how fast technology has spread throughout the world in the last century. It completely amazes me that technological conveniences that were once very rare and not easily attained are now readily available to the average joe. My next thought is what will come in the future. I guess we are not really ready for what is ahead.

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