Podcast Project 8

Time Toast Timeline

Blog Post 5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff Please?
In this opening assignment Dr. Mcleod explains all of the stuff that parents need to be afraid of in today's society. He talks about to not let your kids basically have any technology and to see who will come out better (your kids who have no technology, or his that do have it). He is really sarcastic about technology in the beginning, but takes an unexpected turn and changes the program.
The way I understood Dr. Mcleod's passage was extremely sarcastic in the beginning. I was completely in shock someone was that against technology, and then it took an unexpected turn by him saying that he was going to let his kids do all of those things and to see whose kids would come out ahead in the end.
The iSchool Initiative
The second assignment was the iSchool initiative. This was done by Travis Allen from Georgia and he is wanting to start this life changing initiative. He basically has a powerpoint of the iSchool and shows how we can use the iphone to our advantage in the classroom. We can use it from anything from scientific calculators to books, and it is just a tremendous piece of technology.
I think the iSchool initiative is a great idea because as a college student, it could be a lot cheaper to have this one thing instead of books and all of the other school supplies a student needs. I mean you have to have everything, and it definitely takes a toll on your wallet. I think its a great idea, but the application for the iSchool is $150 but how much would the service cost for your phone? and the phone itself? I do not know because I do not have the iphone so my question is would it really be cheaper?
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
In this assignment Whitacre sets up a choir from people all across the country and by using webcams they are able to make an amazing performance by never seeing each other and practicing, just by getting together online. This is an amazing tool the internet can be used for, and it is just amazing the technology that we have today.
All I can say about this is wow. That is just amazing they were able to sound like that without ever meeting one single time. It is even more impressive that it was done totally online!
Teaching in the 21st Century
This is a video that brings to light what it means to teach in the 21st century. It asks a lot of questions on how we can use technology to help teach our students. Basically, we should use technology to our advantage.
I feel that Roberts is on the right track and that we should use technology to our advantage. I mean as educators and inspiring educators it is a win win for us. The reason I say this is because as classroom teachers we have to be lifetime learners as well as teachers. So, why not use this to our advantage? Another important thing to remember is that Roberts shows us how to teach our students to use the internet. It is the perfect set up.

My Sentence Video

Blog Post 4

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom by Joe Dale
In this first video by Joe Dale it explains how podcasting can be beneficial in the classroom. The one thing that it points out is it not only can help the students, but also the teachers as well. By creating a podcast students who miss school with being sick or any other reason will now have no excuse to do poorly on tests or homework assignments. Another benefit to podcasting is that teachers will not have to figure out make-up work for their students because of the podcasts the student can watch the instructions anytime, anywhere.
The first thing I want to say about this video is that I never thought that I would agree that technology would play such an important role in education. I had a lot of "old school" teachers that never used technology in their classrooms and they were very effective. Now, I cant help but to think what if they used all of this technology? How different would my education be? This is a question that sticks in the back of my mind. I also never thought I would say this, but after seeing this video I do not know how I cannot use this technology in my classroom.
Langwithces
On this blog its a teacher who creates podcast through using first grade students. She does this for these students to learn their assignments and to learn how to create podcasts, and I know I have said this but they are in the first grade! She basically uses this as a learning activity for her students and the students parents as well. One thing I do like about this is that in the podcasts she uses the students to read the parts of the assignment, and what she says is that they really get into doing the project and want to do it right.
The main thing that really stuck out to me was that she actually uses the students to complete the projects. I do believe that we as teachers could use this to our advantage. We can get the students involved and I believe that would peak their interest to learn. I liked the fact that was the way she taught and she used all of the technology to her advantage and not let it go to waste.
The Judy Scharf Podcast Collection
On this blog Judy explains what a podcast is and why podcasts are effective. She explains a podcast is a "radio-style" talkshow that can also include music. She also goes on to say that podcasts convey information online. She also includes a list of reasons on why podcasts are effective. Some of the various reasons include that they are accessible 24/7, the parents can download the students work, its a cool way to learn, students can make up their classes, ect. So overall she explains on why we as teachers should use podcasts.
I thought this was a very helpful blog because it helps push inspiring teachers like myself who thought that we do not need technology in the classroom. These reasons just help push me to the side of technology. I mean it is such an effective tool, so why should'nt we take advantage of it as teachers. We are the ones who will be teaching the future leaders of our country and world for that matter.

My Google Presentation

Blog Post #3

The first assignment was to read Paige Ellis' blog post assignment and watch some peer editing videos. Paige clearly explained on how to do give a quality review without hurting someone's feelings. Added to this was two videos, and they pretty much spell out to the viewer on how to give a quality peer review. They show how to do it by being nice, but also being truthful at the same time.
Paige Ellis' blog assignment was extremely beneficial to me because she showed an example of a conversation she had with Dr. Strange of how she went about giving her peer reviews in a nice, respectable way. The videos and powerpoint helped some with the peer review, and the main thing that I liked about it was that it showed how to help without being a "jerk".
The next assignment was "It's not about the Technology" by Kelly Hines. In this she explains that its not just about all of the technology in the classroom. The way I understood it is that she talks about all of the money that schools spend on the smart boards and how they are no good if teachers do not put them to good use. She also talks about how teachers have to be lifetime learners and they should never stop learning. Another thing she also points out is that teaching is different from learning.
The first thing I would like to say about Kelly Hines "It's not about the Technology" is that I could not agree more with what she had to say. She talks about how we have all these great tools to use in today's society, but that does not make a great teacher. One thing that it certainly does though is it aids a teacher to be that much more influential in a students academic life. Another subject that really reached out to me is how she mentioned that teachers must be lifetime learners, and as a future teacher I think that is very crucial because we cannot be stubborn and not learn the latest things. If we do learn, as educators we can reach out to the younger crowd and turn them on to learning.
The next assignment was Karl Fisch: "Is it okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?". In this award winning post Fisch talks about how it doesn't make any sense for a teacher today to be technologically illiterate. He points out with all of the technology we have in "exponential times" we as teachers would be dumb to not take advantage of what is laid out in front of us. He says that as time goes on we need to make computers more a part of everyones life because in todays society computers are needed in just about every single job.
The first thing that I would like to say about Fisch's post is that I agree with the fact that we as human beings need to be familiar with computers for the job market. When was the last time that you saw a place of business not using a computer? Exactly. We as a human race need computers for many things, to teach, learn, stay organized, ect. It has become a part of everyday life for the very strong majority of people in this country and as educators it only makes sense to use computers to use it to our advantage.
The next thing that was assigned is to view Gary Hayes Social Media Count. I literally was in shock when I opened the link to view this page. I was in shock at all of the the people that were using different types of social websites and things being purchased and downloads. I sat and stared at this page and watched the numbers skyrocket the entire time with no letting up.
It was shocking to me to see all of that, especially the tweets and facebook posts. Then I sat and thought about it and it really did not shock me at all. If you have some friends like mine that posts every two minutes it makes sense that all of those numbers are achievable. I guess what this really made me realize was that the world has really shifted to a more technologically savvy one, and we as humans must keep up.
The last assignment for this blog was "A Vision of Students Today" by Michael Wesch. In this eerie video it never speaks but it shows exactly how students today think. The main thing that stuck out to me was that if a student does everything needed of them then they will spend 26.5 hours a day doing the various tasks, and there is literally not enough hours in the day for all of that. Another thing that it mentions is that students today will probably have a job that doesn't even exist yet.
In this video Wesch does a good job of reeling the viewer in to really pay attention to the point he is trying to get across. The main thing that popped out at me is that there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be done, and as a student really stresses me out because that means I have to manage my time even better. That is a crucial part of being a student is time management. It also shows how technology is very important to everyday life and the fact that we need it in our everyday life.

C4T project

I was assigned to Frank Noschese and he has a blog about action-reaction teaching and how we as teachers can improve our teaching habits through physics. In the first post I commented on he talks about action and reaction of students and why they are sometimes afraid to answer certain questions that they are unsure of the answer. What makes them this way?
I replied, "I believe that a lot of students freeze up on answering questions for Physics because they are scared of rejection. It’s kind of like a guy asking a girl out on a date when he isn’t sure she will say yes. One way that we could show students that its okay just to go with their gut instinct is by making them feel comfortable in the classroom. I know from personal experience that a lot of students scared not only of rejection, but also afraid of being thought of as “dumb”. I know that students do not like to be made fun of and they might be afraid to answer because of getting the answer wrong and being made fun of. Something teachers can do is just to reinforce the fact that its okay to get then answer wrong, but you just got to keep trying and never give up."
The second post was by Daniel Taylor, and he talks about how he goes on about physics experiments and how he just doesn't involve his local students, but also students across the globe. He also mentions that he can better get a hold of the results by this because different places have better equipment than others and it helps to see the differences.
I replied, "I found this blog from Daniel Taylor very interesting because of how he has a passion to help his students learn about physics. I thought the blood spatter project was thoroughly interesting because I am a fan of the show “Dexter” and in that he is a blood spatter expert, and just the fact that your doing projects with students on that was a really awesome idea. I also like the fact that he gets involved with not only his local students but students across the country as well as the world. It is a great idea because he can take all the different approaches and combine it into one to get the most data available just like he said."

Blog Post 2

Did You Know? 3.0
This is a very eye opening video that points out how far technology has come in the existence of man. It also sets out to predict how far technology will go in our lifetime. Another thing that it shows is that since technology as well as the world is constantly changing, we as a human race struggle to keep up.
Like I said before Did You Know? 3.0 is a very eye opening video. I was shocked at how much we as a human race depend on technology, but then I started thinking about it and I am not really shocked at all. I know for one I use google every single day to look up something that I do not know and obviously other people do as well. I also couldn't believe about the super computer that would be capable of being smarter than the human brain, that really blew my mind.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
Mr. Winkle Wakes is a story about a character named Mr. Winkles who has a 100 year slumber and awakens to find that the world is completely different from how it used to be. He went everywhere to try to find comfort away from all the machines that could do so much, so he went to a local school after being at a business building and a hospital. Once arriving at the school he immediately felt at home, because all of the rows were in order and all of the students would listen to the lecture and write down their notes instead of using the machines.
I think Mr. Winkle wakes is a fairly accurate video. A lot of times the machines he referred to are important in our daily lives. If you are a businessman you might have to use those "machines" for your job. Another thing I wanted to point out is, the classroom is changing as well. More and more teachers are becoming computer literate and starting to use technology in the classroom, and I know by the time that I become one I will have to be doing the same.

The Importance of Creativity
Sir Ken Robinson makes plenty of interesting points throughout the entire video. He begins with telling jokes about how he moved from England to get the audience interested, because he is a funny guy. Then he goes on to talk about the public school system and how it kills creativity, or how he put it educates us out of creativity. He makes a point how the public school system molds us to be like college professors because they only teaches reading, writing, math, ect. He also says that people that are creative need music, art, and dance classes because they are important to those people, and everyone for that matter. The reason for this is he explains that everyone is creative at one point in their life, they just get educated out of it by the time they are an adult.
I thought this video was very interesting, mainly because I have never thought about education in the way that he explained it. I never thought about music, art, and dance being important in school. Then I got to thinking, what if these subjects were taught along with all of the other "core" classes? Would I still be a history major? Well, I guess I will never know, but it definitely got me thinking about what might have been.

Cecilia Gault interviews Sir Ken Robinson
In this video Cecilia Gault, a student from Finland performing arts school interviews Sir Ken Robinson on how creativity can be important in a child's life. She asks him the three myths of technology and he explains in one of the myths that everyone is born creative, it is just the fact that the person has to decide to use the creativeness.
I believe through this video that the schools in the U.S. need to do more to make sure that we have a more balanced approach to school with putting the arts in our curriculum just as Sir Ken Robinson said. I also think its important to take advantage of all of the technology made available to us.

Harness Your Students Digital Thoughts
In this video Vicki Davis teaches students how to harness their digital thoughts by teaching them how to do different things on the internet. She teaches them how to connect to social networks, such as digiteen so they can be made available across the world. Another thing she uses is digisimms.
Vicki Davis really said something that meant something to me, because I thought it was something important before I became a teacher. She said that you do not have to know every subject before you teach it. That really "hit home" to me because I felt like a teacher does need to know that until now. I know I have had some bad teachers that did not know what they were talking about and I did not want to become them, but she explains that it is okay to learn from your students.