What I learned

This class has been pretty cool. I was pretty knowledgable with the computer, but I was really excited to learn about how to make a website. Although I don't really feel comfortable posting information that can be linked to me without being VERY secured to JUST certain people, but I enjoyed making a website that I can share with people about my upcoming wedding.

Through the blog posts, I learned how to incorporate a blog for my classroom, and I really look forward to have a classroom blog and igoogle so my parents and students can keep up with their work, and class news.

Overall, I enjoyed this class! I reccomend this class for anyone who wants to learn more about the computer, not just elementary education majors :-).

Wikipidia... a great source?

I was shocked to find out that practically anyone can change information posted on Wikipidia.com. "Corporations like Diebold, Raytheon, Pfizer, Exxon Mobil and Wal-Mart. Not to mention the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, members of Congress, the CIA, the Church of Scientology and the Catholic Church. They all made changes of some kind to entries that included references or information about them". What amazed me even more is that "Wikipedia calls itself 'the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit,'" which I agree "is another way of saying it is not fact-checked. Or spin-checked, for that matter."

I have used Wikipidia for many school projects and research papers, and I don't think I will be using it anymore. Who knows where the information comes from, and who it has been changed by. I think someone needs to do something about it, so that the information can actually be trusted.

Growth vs fixed

In this video on iTunes, the topic was discussed of teaching students to develop their mind vs. their mind being already developed and they just have to use it how it is. In other words, some students think that their brain is already at the full capacity and when subjects are hard for them, they think that they are not smart enough to do it. However, the kids who believe their brain and mind is continually growing, and gaining information, they work harder and overcome the harder subjects. Professor of Psychology, Carol Dweck explains a scenario where they were able to take half of a class and teach them the "growth" method of learning. The classroom teacher had no knowledge of which kids were being taught the growth method and which were being left alone with the fixed knowledge. After a few weeks, the teacher could tell who was in the "growth" program, and could see a drastic improvement in test scores and learning ability.

In the classroom, if we encourage our children to expand their minds, and ensure them that the more they learn, the more their knowledge will expand. We need to re-assure students that they do not have a fixed mind. This video is just a reminder that we as teachers are mostly responsible for the future of todays children, and their outcome.

More on iTunes U

I wandered back onto iTunes U and went in the Teacher's Domain through the beyond campus, PBS section. There were a three sections for K-12 learning, by topic, by grade and by free public lecture. I looked at the video's in the "by topic" section.

My least favorite subject is engeneering, so I chose to watch some videos in that topic to see if it would get me interested. I was really impressed, I thought it was really interesting! I watched the video on Engineering for the Red Planet, which was all about how Ayanna Howard makes robots for NASA. She talked all about how she gets to be creative all day at work, coming up with ideas how to make a robot act like a human, so they can do human tasks on Mars. This video was only less than 2 minutes, but I thought this field was really cool, and made me want to learn more about engineering so I could make Robots for mars that act like humans!

Any teacher could use this in the classroom to get kids excited about subjects that they think are boring; I know it worked for me! I thought up of so many projects I could do with my kids after watching the video on the Robot! These are great teaching techniques!

iTunes U

iTunes U is a university through Apple. If you have a iTunes with your ipod or iphone, it is easy to explore all that iTunes U has to offer the student. If you do not, you can go to http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu_mobilelearning/itunesu.html and search information about iTunes U. This program can be a great help to the student who is not understanding the information learned in the classroom, or just wants to explore more on the subjects they are learning. It can be used as a study tool as well.

iTunes U provides video downloads that you can watch on your ipod or iphone. They range from a variety of subjects including women's history, creative performance and chemistry to name a few. At iTunes store, you can browse through Universities such as Duke, Central Washington U, and New York Law School. Once a school is selected, you can browse more easily the subjects areas, which have audio and video downloads.

I can see this being a big help for teachers who want their students to do some extra learning. It is easy for students to turn on their ipod and listen to the tracks anytime, doing most anything. However, some tracks are videos which would take a little more time to sit down and watch them.

Just to get an idea of what iTunes U is like, I went to Stanford U through iTunes U and went to the Education subject area and downloaded some audio and video. I had some problems trying to download them, there was an error that kept popping up. Other than that, the downloads are free and mostly easy to get.

Ipods at Duke University

At http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf I found some interesting information about Ipods, and their different uses. I personally have an ipod that is just used for music and videos; that's all i thought it was good for! At Duke, they use the ipod as a course content dissemination tool, classroom recording tool, field recording tool, study support tool, and for file storage and transfer.
Though there are many amazing ways to use this tool, there are some benefits and problems while using the ipod for those things. Some benefits are convenience and how it is an effective, easy tool to use. The problems are mostly technology problems which include lack of recording quality, and challenges with storage and file sharing, accessing and distributing the files.
Basically, the ipod can be used as a really cool informative tool to help kids study, as it can repeat lectures, and instructions, and it seems like a good idea that has worked for Duke University in many ways.

180 Days?

From the fishbowl, April 2007 comes "180 Days?" In this blog, Mr. Fisch brings up the topic of creating change in the class room to keep up to date with the 21st century. He says some think it is a problem, and cannot accept change because there isn't enough time in the 180 days allotted to teach extra curriculum.
Mr. Fisch claims however that there are plenty of days, if used wisely. The link is as follows: http://plethoratech.blogspot.com/2007/04/180.html. It describes just how many of the 180 days are waisted, and could be put to good use in teaching things pertinent to the 21st century.

Image with Title and Alt Tags

Fischbowl-Is It Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

The question was posed in Karl Fisch's blog: Is It Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher? Though I had mixed emotinos through his argument, and he had many valid reasonings for it to be NOT okay to have a Technologically Illiterate Teacher, I have to dissagree with him, and say, yes. It is okay even in 2008 to be a technologically illiterate teacher.

He states: "... [A]fter immigrants have been in a country for a while, they become natives. We've had personal computers for 30 years, and I was using computers in my teaching back in 1975. How long does it take for someone to wake up to the fact that technology is part of life, not an add-on?" I agree that technology is a part of life, however, there is so much more to life than a computer, or technology. It is my personal experience that there are so many things that can go wrong with computers, or different kinds of technology, that if you use the equipment, and something goes wrong, there's no quick fix, and you would have been better off not using it in the first place.

Next, he talks about in parent teacher conferences how the parent would state: "'I was never any good at math either.'" He says to this: "While I don't doubt the truth of the statement, it was the fact that they said it and almost seemed proud of it that bothered me (and of course the message it sent to their student). I can't imagine a parent saying "Oh, yeah, I never learned how to read" and being proud of it. It seemed like there was a different standard for math - not knowing math was socially acceptable, not knowing how to read was very unacceptable." To me, math, reading and technology are so different, they are not worth compairing. What may be worth compairing are math, calculators and computers. Calculators are technology, but are we supposed to teach kids to stop thinking, and let the technology think for them? To me it is the same with computers. The basics to everything are: math, reading and writing. THESE building blocks made computers and other technology work, along with maybe some science.

I know that I am not good at math, and I am certainly NOT proud of that. However, I think it's good to atleast admit your weaknesses, because only when you recognize your weaknesses can you make them strengths. I believe it is different with technology though. Not every where you go do you need to know how to work a computer or a piece of high tech equipment. Math skills, reading, and writing are what we have surrounding us every day. Mr. Fisch stated something about having 2020 vision; looking to the year 2020 with the right perspective of technology. I do not believe in the year 2020 that computers and technology will take over so much that if we don't know anything about computers we will not be able to be successful. There are still so many careers that do not deal soley with computers and high tech equipment. I recognize that computers may be used, but used in a way that shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to do simple tasks a computer.

Mr. Fisch posts a statement: "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 disagree completely with this statement for reasons mostly stated above, which is that we still have to read to figure out things on a computer, we need to read to do our work, we need to read to be successful in life. It is my opinion that we don't need computers to live life. They may help us minutely, but they will not take over and be as major as reading. So I feel that it is not as important to be "technologically literate".

*Please note my spell check is not working for blogger so I am not able to check my spelling. Yet another reason I do not like computers: they do not work how they are supposed to every time.

International School Blogs

At http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337 I found Mrs. Cassidy's classroom blog in Canada. Something I liked a lot about this blog is she made a post about how her kids use blogs to talk with their buddies at the University of Regina. With each post about what her class is doing, she either uses a slide show, or a single picture of her children. I enjoyed this site.


At http://edubloggerdir.blogspot.com/ I found a site that talked about teachers in England. This blog is used as information to show you who the teacher is, and tells you about each teacher. Included is a picture and what they teach.

Blogging in Schools

One blog I found was for Grandview Elementary's library. You can find their blog at http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/default.aspx. This blog is really cool because it seems centered towards the parents of k-3 graders. This site gives ideas on reading projects, what books to have children read at their level, and also gives advice to parents to read more chalanging literature to their young children to help expand their minds. I love that Grandview's blog links grades to projects and to the different teachers as well.



Another blog I found was for an Elementary teacher in Oregon. This site can be found at http://elementaryteacherblog.blogspot.com/. This site is also directed towards the parents and informs them of the things happening in the classroom, and also about the teacher. Personally, I feel the teacher disclosed too much personal information about herself that made her seem like she wouldn't be that great of a teacher. But, maybe it makes the parents feel like they know her on a personal level, and trust her more with their children.

ACCESS

ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) is an education initiative of the Alabama Department of Education. It provides opportunities and options for Alabama public high school students to engage in Advanced Placement (AP), elective, and other courses to which they may not otherwise have access.

The ACCESS plan provides access to high quality instruction and coursework by providing a technical infrastructure to deliver pedagogically sound courses via the Internet and a catalogue of approved Internet-based courses using the latest interactive instructional models, and blending online/Internet-based coursework with Alabama certified teachers as E-teachers from delivery school sites to receive school sites that otherwise would not have an Alabama certified teacher to instruct the course.

There are many resources available to teachers through ACCESS, including much funding for school needs. Computers, white boards, and cameras are just a few things that funding helps with.

Adding a picture to my blog

This is an amazing picture I took of the Eifel Tower in June 2004!

ALEX in your classroom

ALEX is a very useful resource to use in the classroom. First of all, it is a great aid to teachers in finding grade appropriate lessons for any subject matter from music and drama to math and science. It is packed full of new ideas for brand new teachers who may not have too many ideas on how to teach many subject matters.

ALEX is also very useful to kids, as it acts as a search engine to find information on classroom subjects. ALEX has a student web links so that the student may find out more information that way.

Overall, ALEX is a great resource for both teacher and student.

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)

ALEX is an exchange of a wide variety of lesson plans for teachers. The website http://alex.state.al.us was very helpful, as it guides you to different subject areas, grade levels, then finally the appropriate lesson plans. The cool thing is, it's not just a couple ideas for lessons, there are pages of ideas from teachers giving great detail of the lesson. The plans range from math to art, drama to science, and even music; all for different grade levels and experience level for music.

I was also amazed that part of ALEX is a distant learning program. ACCESS Distance Learning is the Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide. It provides education to schools with limited funding for books, materials, and other resources for learning, so that everyone has the opportunity for education.

Movie Reflection

This video, though short, had a startling message about technology and the world that I was not aware of. Not only did the message about technology startle me, but also the messages about how much other countries are advancing such the high number of college graduates, especially the fact that every graduate in India speaks English. I was also shocked at the great number of different jobs people will have before they reach the age of 38.
It didn't occur to me that most of the jobs today didn't exist 10 years ago, and that the way we are technologically advancing, in another 10 years there will be even more jobs that we don't have even today. This shows that education today needs to prepare young people for the opportunity to be able to be educated to handle these such jobs in years to come.

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