Serenity is the child I was assigned to learn about. Serenity's first post was an assignment she had been given. She was telling about a specific rock; she did an amazing job. As I told her, I honestly got educated in just 1 paragraph by a young student; amazing!
The second post I commented on she told a little about herself. She shared that she comes from a large family and that she isn't good at math. I shared with her that I come from a small family- compared to hers. I also shared that I am not good at math either, which is an understatement.
I enjoyed reading Serenity's posts. I think it's great that blog posts are being assigned starting at a younger age.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Blog post 6
Wendy Drexler: The Networked Student
Wow!! First off, I really liked the way the video was set up. What I mean is the way the camera was focused on a white surface, and all that was done was someone was moving the pictures back and forth to demonstrate what the narrator was saying. Something simple turned into something so wonderful.
What I personally got out of the video is the realization that students use so many other resources to do assignments, write papers, create blogs, and so on. A student could simply google the information to learn how to do almost anything. (Actually, I would venture to say that a student could google the information to learn how to do ANY and EVERYTHING.) So, why DOES a networked student need a teacher?
When I first thought of this question, I thought to myself; "Oh no, a networked student doesn't need a teacher". But he or she does need a teacher! Dr. Strange likes us to use the word "educators" instead of "teachers" and now I see why. Educators are there for guidance, learning, discernment between good and bad information, and to help with communication. I am well on my way to being an educator to a generation of amazing and very intelligent children. It's exciting!
Once again, I am amazed that a 7th grader has done all of this! When I was in 7th grade (which wasn't THAT long ago), I didn't know how to do ANY of this. I am almost embarrassed that I am a junior in college and I just now heard of google docs, and this student who is much younger than I has been using google docs. Wow.
This is great, though. She said at the end that she doesn't use paper or a pencil hardly ever. I really think that this is the direction that our education in schools is going. We all better get ready for the ride!
I actually liked this video, even though it was long. I was interested because he compared classrooms to American Idol auditions.. literally. It saddened me. It showed how much excitement goes into bad singing, and how NO excitement goes into learning. He talked about how the classroom is totally disengaged and what we can do to change it.
He then started talking about the "MTV generation". He described that generation as having short attention spans and being materialistic. Are all students described as this?
It really got interesting when he started talking about youtube. The statistics alone on youtube are mouth dropping. He insists that youtube isn't make up of only youngsters, there are oldies on youtube, too.. And then he played the "Charlie bit my finger" video, which is hilarious. He really proved his point.
All in all, I always enjoy his videos. He is an extremely intelligent man, and I know that his students learn so much from him. He always speaks very well, and I hope that other people take the time to listen to him.
Blog Post 5
"The Benefits of Podcasts in the Classroom" by Doug Saunders
This short video contained a good bit of information about podcasts. The first thing that jumped out at me was the statistics and numbers of children that use technology already. With the wii, ipods, iphones, and other technological items, children today already are ahead of most adults!
In addition to this, the video explained how podcasts deliver instruction that can be seen anywhere and at any time. Podcasts are a great way of interacting with students. Some children, believe it or not, do not learn best with someone right over them the whole time. Podcasts gives those particular students a way to learn from a distance.
Podcasts are simple to create and upload, so it is great for children in America today. Also Doug talks about how this is an interesting way for parents to see and hear just exactly what their children are learning in school each day.
Eagles Nest Radio Podcast
I automatically loved the background music from the very beginning! This is amazing; I'm so impressed. I like how each child says a paragraph or two each. This podcast really is extremely informational. Throughout the video, the music gets more intense, just as the information and the child's voices gets more intense. This is just another example of how awesome technology is. It also makes me wonder how different technology may be one I finally am able to be an educator myself. Hmm...
Podcast Collection
This site is pretty much a guide to podcasting. Anything a person needed to know is on this site. It starts out by defining what exactly a podcast is. It goes on to talk about how to make one and how to put one up. It explains how it is important to be familiar with items like 'audacity'.
After all of that is covered, it starts talking about how to instruct students to to a podcast. What topics are good topics? How should one direct students? All of these are important questions, and one can find the answers one this site.
After reading and watching these videos and blogs, I am more familiar with how to do a podcast and how NOT to do a podcast. In the future, I can surely see myself coming back for a review!
This short video contained a good bit of information about podcasts. The first thing that jumped out at me was the statistics and numbers of children that use technology already. With the wii, ipods, iphones, and other technological items, children today already are ahead of most adults!
In addition to this, the video explained how podcasts deliver instruction that can be seen anywhere and at any time. Podcasts are a great way of interacting with students. Some children, believe it or not, do not learn best with someone right over them the whole time. Podcasts gives those particular students a way to learn from a distance.
Podcasts are simple to create and upload, so it is great for children in America today. Also Doug talks about how this is an interesting way for parents to see and hear just exactly what their children are learning in school each day.
Eagles Nest Radio Podcast
I automatically loved the background music from the very beginning! This is amazing; I'm so impressed. I like how each child says a paragraph or two each. This podcast really is extremely informational. Throughout the video, the music gets more intense, just as the information and the child's voices gets more intense. This is just another example of how awesome technology is. It also makes me wonder how different technology may be one I finally am able to be an educator myself. Hmm...
Podcast Collection
This site is pretty much a guide to podcasting. Anything a person needed to know is on this site. It starts out by defining what exactly a podcast is. It goes on to talk about how to make one and how to put one up. It explains how it is important to be familiar with items like 'audacity'.
After all of that is covered, it starts talking about how to instruct students to to a podcast. What topics are good topics? How should one direct students? All of these are important questions, and one can find the answers one this site.
After reading and watching these videos and blogs, I am more familiar with how to do a podcast and how NOT to do a podcast. In the future, I can surely see myself coming back for a review!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Additional Assignment 1
a. Using google squared, one can find out all sorts of information about pretty much anything. As shown in Dr. Strange's youtube post, one can find the population of any given country.
b. Using wolframalpha, one can do the same as in google squared, but one may get different numbers. A person can use both of these sites and see if they get the same information; that would tell a person that the information was probably correct.
c & d: I am sad to say that I didn't know about google squared or worldramalpha before 20 minutes ago.
e. After re-reading my own comments to the "Did You Know" assignment, I still agree with everything that I said.
f. To be honest, the word "statistics" makes me nervous, normally. But after exploring and playing with these sites, I'm excited to find that I wasn't confused! It's a very useful tool to find out about things that are normally difficult to find information on.
b. Using wolframalpha, one can do the same as in google squared, but one may get different numbers. A person can use both of these sites and see if they get the same information; that would tell a person that the information was probably correct.
c & d: I am sad to say that I didn't know about google squared or worldramalpha before 20 minutes ago.
e. After re-reading my own comments to the "Did You Know" assignment, I still agree with everything that I said.
f. To be honest, the word "statistics" makes me nervous, normally. But after exploring and playing with these sites, I'm excited to find that I wasn't confused! It's a very useful tool to find out about things that are normally difficult to find information on.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Blog Post 4
http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2009/08/dont-teach-your-kids-this-stuff-please.html
"Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?" by Scott McLeod was actually very funny. I gathered from the first line that he was being extremely sarcastic. America has just come to a point where technology is the way to go. There is no turning back. I liked when he said that basically the technology-literate children were going to be a step up than the ones who aren't technology-literate. I think his sarcasm is what draws people in, rather than just hearing someone go on and on about technology. Short, sweet, and to the point- I like it.
This high school student from Georgia is obviously a very intelligent young man. He is weighing the pros and cons of schools going all technology. By going "all technology" the schools would do everything using the ipod extravaganzas. He literally demonstrates how everything needed to be done in school can be done on an ipod.
The student explains that while the expenses needed for books, calculators, pencils, back packs, etc. can be very high, the cost of an ipod is only $150. He uses a venn diagram to demonstrate just exactly how these savings take place. The first thing I thought was that kids would be using the internet for other reasons other than school, but just as soon as I thought it- he explained how the websites would be supervised!
I think this is interesting, and we shall see if/when it happens.
"The Lost Generation"
At first, I was concerned that this was going to be a depressing video, but about half way through, it really turned around. I wish that our ENTIRE generation thought that we could change the way our paths are taking us. I don't think that my generation believes that we can change anything. I liked the technique because it caught my attention. It wasn't boring. It was short, but powerful. Nicely done!
http://techliterateteacher.blogspot.com/2010/05/eric-whitakers-virtual-choir-lux.html
Eric Whitaker -Virtual Choir
Wow!!! First of all, I love how it sounds when people are singing and it sounds like there are instruments playing, but there aren't!! I got even more excited when it was ALL done over the internet. This guy went on the internet and pieced all this together; how cool is that! Very impressive and exciting!!
"Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?" by Scott McLeod was actually very funny. I gathered from the first line that he was being extremely sarcastic. America has just come to a point where technology is the way to go. There is no turning back. I liked when he said that basically the technology-literate children were going to be a step up than the ones who aren't technology-literate. I think his sarcasm is what draws people in, rather than just hearing someone go on and on about technology. Short, sweet, and to the point- I like it.
This high school student from Georgia is obviously a very intelligent young man. He is weighing the pros and cons of schools going all technology. By going "all technology" the schools would do everything using the ipod extravaganzas. He literally demonstrates how everything needed to be done in school can be done on an ipod.
The student explains that while the expenses needed for books, calculators, pencils, back packs, etc. can be very high, the cost of an ipod is only $150. He uses a venn diagram to demonstrate just exactly how these savings take place. The first thing I thought was that kids would be using the internet for other reasons other than school, but just as soon as I thought it- he explained how the websites would be supervised!
I think this is interesting, and we shall see if/when it happens.
"The Lost Generation"
At first, I was concerned that this was going to be a depressing video, but about half way through, it really turned around. I wish that our ENTIRE generation thought that we could change the way our paths are taking us. I don't think that my generation believes that we can change anything. I liked the technique because it caught my attention. It wasn't boring. It was short, but powerful. Nicely done!
http://techliterateteacher.blogspot.com/2010/05/eric-whitakers-virtual-choir-lux.html
Eric Whitaker -Virtual Choir
Wow!!! First of all, I love how it sounds when people are singing and it sounds like there are instruments playing, but there aren't!! I got even more excited when it was ALL done over the internet. This guy went on the internet and pieced all this together; how cool is that! Very impressive and exciting!!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Summary Post Teacher #1
Mrs. Cofino has one of the most positive attitudes that I have seen while blogging. She is very interesting, and I enjoyed reading her posts. She had 7 core points in her post. They were: build relationships, be approachable, be available, be proactive, be positive, be appreciative, and build community. She wrote a paragraph on each of these topics, and did a wonderful job. She pointed out that relationships and attitude are important among co-workers. She thinks that being approachable to your fellow employees or to your boss helps the situation of working together and makes it easier. She talked about how being positive and appreciative of others' work made people respect and like you more. As a teacher all of these things will be important to me. I already feel that, as a preschool teacher, all of these things are important already,even though I am not someone's boss.
In the second blog post that I read, Mrs. Cofino was concerned about online classes. She expressed concern that in classes where everything was online that students weren't getting the one-on-one that he or she needed. I completely agree. I expressed to her that I felt that in my previous online classes, my teacher didn't know me at all, and we didn't have any one to one contact. I feel it is extremely important, especially in the lives of children and in Elementary Education.
In the second blog post that I read, Mrs. Cofino was concerned about online classes. She expressed concern that in classes where everything was online that students weren't getting the one-on-one that he or she needed. I completely agree. I expressed to her that I felt that in my previous online classes, my teacher didn't know me at all, and we didn't have any one to one contact. I feel it is extremely important, especially in the lives of children and in Elementary Education.
Blog Assignment 3
"A Vision of Students Today" by Michael Welsh
Wow!! I liked this video! I totally feel that way. I feel that we pay all this money to have professors (not all, of course) not even care to know our names. I feel like we pay hundreds of dollars for school books, but yet in most of my classes, we're told to not even bring it to class. I realize that we, as students ,will read more facebook posts than we do actual books. This is sad, but I still understand exactly the point of the video.
http://eduratireview.com/2009/04/its-not-about-technology.html/
This person has a very strong opinion, and I like that! The writer obviously cares strongly for this, and that says something. I have been told alot lately that technology is all we need in classrooms, and after reading this, I'm beginning to question that. Not that technology isn't needed, but that a teacher must have other tactics, too.
When the writer talks about how all teachers have a degree, every teacher achieved it differently. Some teachers graduated college 30 years ago when there wasn't alot of technology, where as some teachers graduated last year and technology has changed even since then (which we learned from our previous blog assignment).
So, where I see where technology is needed, I can also see where one must have the ability to teach before one can dive in and expect us all to use brilliant technology. I think it's necessary to still teach AND use technology all at the same time.
Latest Headlines
"Is It Okay to Be a Technology Illiterate Teacher? by Karl Fisch
Wow! This writer feels very strongly about technology, and I am excited about that! As I said in the paragraph before this, I realize that technology is important, but I know that not everyone does. I have caught myself saying "Yeah, don't worry, I was never really good at math, either." How embarrassing!!! I don't know that I would go so far as to say that a teacher who is technology illiterate should have his or her license removed. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that classes should be offered to him or her so that they have a change to better themselves. As I've said before, some teachers graduated with technology WAS NOT as important as it is in 2010.
http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/
Again, all I can say is WOW! I couldn't help but notice that the lowest number on the list was the number of ipads being sold. Anyway, this is just another way of showing us how FAST technology is forming and how quickly everyone is jumping on the band wagon. It amazes me that just 5 years ago, cell phones had no where near the amount of technology involved as they do now. I'm kind of scared to know what's the world is going to be like in 5 more years! We shall see....
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