Blog Post 6

The Networked Student

This is a video created by Wendy Drexler; you can watch it here. This video talked about the idea of connectivism. Connectivism is a newer learning strategy in which the teacher is not just someone to read lessons out of a book, but acts as a change agent in her classroom. In this classroom a teacher acts more as guide and model to her students. She shows here students how to sort out good and bad information, teaches them how to research, guides them in making their PLN, and helps them to connect to others around them.
I like the idea of teacher being more of a model for their students. Give them guidence and direction and allow them the freedom to really discover and learn on their own. I know this is controversial and there are many arguments against it, but I think it's something that should really be explored. I mean parents are advised to teach their children what is right and wrong, but they know they have to allow them to ultimately decide on their own, they must be allowed to spread their wings, otherwise they'll never fly. Our students are the same way. We must be a model to them, a guide, and support. And we can only hope that when they jump they can fly.



A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment

This was a video tour of a 7th Graders PLE (or PLN). You can watch it here. It was great to look a her PLE it made me realize how useful they can be for a student's education. It also made me want to work on mine some more! This student could access a variety of information about her class from one symbaloo page. She could access her class blog to see information about what they would be doing in class that day. How cool is that? Students have the opportunity to know what class will be about before they even get there. That allows for students to be prepared and bring a ground knowledge of the subject matter into the classroom. I think that is every teachers dream. She also used her own blog to post reflections of the days class.
She also used her PLE as a useful research tool. She shared projects she created with others and was able to keep all her resources for a particular project in her Delicious page. She even emailed and skyped scientist regarding her project.
In summary, I strongly believe this could be an amazing tool for any student. Student could learn so much by having a PLE. But like most good things it requires work, but it will be work well done!

Critiques of Smartboards

Hmm...this one was interesting. For this assignment I read to articles: Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards by Bill Ferriter and Why Smartboards are a Dumb Initiative by Michael Staton. At first I was shocked by the fact that anyone could hate Smartboards, I've never had the pleasure of using one myself, but all the teachers seem to love them. And they are working towards the goal of a technologically advanced classroom, right?
As shocking as this may be to all of you I agree with some of the things these bloggers were saying. In a lot of ways the smartboard does seem to be a glorified whiteboard/projector. I mean it's cool and all, but what is it really changing? Has education gotten better because of their prescence? Well, we don't know as it seems no one really asks that question. As Mr. Staton pointed out, a smartboard doesn't change the way teachers teach. It is still the same old lecture and notetaking learning procedure. Yes, smartboards are cool, but as I've said time and time again technology won't change anything without a teacher willing to break the mold and think outside the box. Heck blow the stinking box up! Without changing our way of thinking smartboards will just be thousands of dollars flushed down the drain.

Comments for Kids Summary Post

C4K #1

My student for week one was Ayden who goes to a school in Comox Valley, Vancouver Island. Ayden really loves playing video games and the particular blog I commented on was about his favorite video game is World of Warcraft. I don't have much experience in the video game world, but I do have a Wii so I asked him for suggestions on games. His blog is also creatively titled "Ayden The Amazing Gamer" and you can visit it here.

C4K #2

My assigned student for C4K#2 was Gianna. Gianna is a year five student at Pt England School in Auckland, New Zealand. At the time Gianna had only one post posted for the year; it was a welcome post with a link to some of her posts from past years. Her post were mostly narrative. She had a great concept of grammer. She also had a video on there of her interpretation of a volcano, tsunami, and earthquake complete with sound effects. She seems to be a very creative little girl and the blog seems to have brought that out. You can visit Gianna's blog here.

C4K#3

My assigned student for this week was Eleva who also goes to Pt England School. She is a year six student and her teacher is Mr. Somerville. I got interested in this school, so I did a little research on it. The school requires every student to have a blog and you can easily access the student blogs from the schools website. This school was the judges' choice for best value in the 2006 Computerworld Excellence Awards. They also have a podcast that is produced by students from ages 9 to 11. You can visit their podcast blog here.

Timetoast Individual Project 9a

Creating a timeline was so much fun. Create yours now by visiting:

http://www.timetoast.com/

Blog Post 5

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

This video, which you can watch here, gives useful ideas one how podcasting can be used to benefit the classroom. First of all, as we all should know we are living in a technology driven society and our students have never lived without many technologies, such as the computer and world wide web. Using this form of technology in the classroom can really boost creativity, there are so many different things you can do with a podcast. For instance, podcast or vodcast. For those who don't know a vodcast is a podcast with video. It also requires the student to really learn the material because they may be teaching it in their podcast. They also gave an idea that teachers could record their lectures as a podcast so students can use them as study guides. It also provides a great way for parents to be proactive in their child's education. I love the idea of using podcast in the classroom and hope that I will one day be able to use it in mine.

Eagle Nest Radio

This is a class blog in which radio shows or podcasts are used to show what these students are learning. They have a podcast about the Ancient Romans where even I learned some interesting facts, like the meaning behind the saying "All roads lead to Rome." They have many other interesting podcast, such as one on sharks and one on explorers. Oh yeah, did i mention these are third graders?
What a wonderful and creative learning experience these third graders are having. no doubt they have soaked up some knowledge about the topics they are podcasting about. Each student has the opportunity to share their knowledge and furthermore just think about the public speaking practice they are getting. What they learned in their third grade class will no doubt benefit them for years to come.

You can visit their class blog here.

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better

This webpage has literally a hundred resources to enhance your education experience all on your iPod. But for this week we'll focus on the resources for podcasts.
One of the resources lisited was "The Philosophy Talk". Their slogan is "a program that questions everythink, except your intelligence. They deal with a variety of topics such as, procrastination, racial issues, abortion, disagreement, and the power of thought. This is a great podcast to really get your juices flowing.
Another resource is "The Education Podcast Network". This webpage is especially for teachers and strives to bring together podcast to benefit teachers in the 21st century. It sorts podcast by topics such as grade level and subject matter. It even has fourteen podcasts that focus on math! I think this is a great resource for teachers to explore. It is another way to for teachers to connect and share ideas.

iSchool Comes to Life

So I got a reply on twitter from @iSchoolAdvocate to a tweet I recently posted about their video iSchool Initiative, which you can watch here. This was the reply:


iSchoolAdvocate Travis Allen
@hillaryrolin Glad you liked our video. You may also be interested in our latest video: http://bit.ly/gTtnzd


This video is from a Digital Learning Revolution tour at Kearns High School. This high school, in Salt Lake City, Utah, gave each of their 1700 students an iPod touch as a step towards the ultimate iSchool. I can't wait to see how this will effect their school and will be following closely to see how they incorporate the iPods into the classroom.

You can follow along to by visiting Kearns High School's web page:

http://kearnshigh.wikispaces.com/

Or you can visit their iPod Touch Program page:

http://icougars-khs.wikispaces.com/

This is My Sentence

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

This is my book trailer for "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor. I hope you enjoy.

Blog Post 4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?


Click the picture to see Mr. McLeod's Blog.

This is my reponse to a post from Scott McLeod. Mr. McLeod is an Associate Professor at Iowa State University. He works in the Educational Administration Program. He is also Director of UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE) which targets the technology needs of School Administrators. He is also co-creator of the famous (Did You Know? Shift Happens)

In this post Mr. McLeod sarcastically talks about how dangerous technology is and how you should never let your children use it. At first I was in shock, "how could this man think this", but after further reading I realized that he was using his scarcasm to make a point. By taking arguements against technology and proving them unimportant he shows how important technology really is. We can choose not to allow our children or students to use technology, but who are we really hurting in the long run? I think Mr. McLeod would agree with me in saying we are hurting them. Technology is at the forefront of our world and that dependence on technology will only continue to grow.

The iSchool Initiative

I just got done watching this wonderful video on YouTube created by Travis Allen who was at the time a 17 year-old high school student. This student is clearly wise beyond his years and I think we would be smart to listen to some of his ideas.
He talked about what he called the "iSchool". This is using iTouch technology to improve our schools. He talked about how we can use iTouch to reduce school cost. For example, you can now buy textbooks for your iTouch at a much lower cost and it doesn't use paper. So this is a win for students and our planet. You can also buy graphing and scientific calculators for your iTouch.
He also talked about making apps that will have classroom assignments and will be an easy way for the teachers to communicate with their students. It will also open up a way that parents can better communicate with their child's teachers.
From what I can tell the iSchool is a win-win for everyone, well maybe not the paper companies!



Lost Generation

Wow is all I can say. If you haven't seen this video yet I strongly suggest you watch it. At first you may be shocked at some of the things the narrator is saying, but trust me; watch it all the way through. It is a call for this generation to take a stand for the things that matter most. To realize it's not all about the money, fame, or fortune. It is a call to rebuild families. It is a call for change. Will you take it?



Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir

This is a video of 185 singers performing 'Lux Aurumque'. Normally you might say, so what, but these singers have never met and are from 12 different countries. The whole this is virtual. It was absolutely beautiful to watch and amazed me that they were able to sing in complete syncronization. It just goes to show what wonderful things can come about with our friend, technology.

Teaching in the 21st Century

This is a video originally created as a summary of the ASB Unplugged Conference in Mumbai, India 2010. You can watch it here. The fact of the matter is that teachers are no longer the main source of information in a student's life. They can simply turn to the internet and find anything they want to know. So what are teachers necessary for? I believe we are, like the video said, a filter. We're to steer them in the right direction. Open up a world where they can be their own teachers. We are not called to dump a ton of facts on them, we are called to give them the SKILLS necessary in order to have a sucessful life!

Project 5

Summary Post C4T#1

My assignment was to an excellent blog called Learning is Life by Russ Goerend. Mr. Goerend is a 6th grade Language arts teacher in Iowa; you can find the link to his blog here.

Kelly Gallagher's Pillars of Writing Success
The first post I read from Mr. Goerend was about an exert from Kelly Gallagher's book Teaching Adolescent Writers. In the post he lists Gallagher's six student needs that must be met in order for effective teenage writers to emerge. These were:
1. Students need a lot more writing practice.
2. Students need teachers who model good writing.
3. Students need the opportunity to read and study other writers.
4. Students need choice when it comes to writing topics.
5. Students need to write for authentic purposes and for authentic audiences.
6. Students need meaningful feedback from both the teacher and their peers.
Goerend goes on to evaluate his own strengths and weaknesses regarding these six needs. He gives an honest account of what he is doing in his classroom and what he needs to do to create effective writers.
My response to this post was positive, as a high school student I never really enjoyed writing, so it's always nice to see an educator excited and dedicated to learning more about their profession. I also commented about how I feel feedback from their teacher is very important to foster students' hunger for writing.

Defend Yourself Fridays
In another post from Mr. Goerend's blog he shares a fun and creative idea for getting students excited about writing. The idea is that every Friday the students would have a Defend Yourself Friday writing assignment. The students were given a topic for which they would spend 5 minutes defending, arguing, and supporting a topic. After their time is up the students have two minutes to look over what they had written and summarize it in one sentence.
After seeing the excitement this created Mr. Goerend decided to give the topic out a week early and provide links relevant to the topic on the class blog. He did this to try and fuel the students interest in the topics and so they could come up with firm opinions on them.
I love Mr. Goerend's DYF idea and believe it is such a creative way to get students writing. After reading the comments one reader suggested that he keep the suprise element regarding the topics and in response Mr. Goerend said maybe they would have a suprise topic once a month. I also think it would be a good idea to throw in a debate after the assignment is completed. This would give students more motivation into researching the topic, would allow them to strengthen their public speaking skills, and would cause them to look at different points of view regarding the topic.

Blog Post 3

A Vison of Students Today

This video was created by Michael Wesch and over 200 students from Kansas State University. You can find the link to it here.
Unfortunately, most of my college experience has been like the students in this video described. As I look back and ask myself the question, "What have I actually learned?", I'm troubled by my lack of knowledge. Now that I have gotten into my core studies it has gotten better, but in my general studies what I learned in class left me as soon as I was finished with the final exam.
From my collective college experience there have been many textbooks I haven't used and a lot of "burp back" education. Fortunately, I haven't had to take out student loans and have been blessed with a scholarship to pay for college. I think education needs to change and I hope and pray it does for future students.

It’s Not About the Technology

This is my response to a blog from Kelly Hines.

First of all, I’m not sure if this will be a popular response, but I agree with Ms. Hines for the most part. Don’t get me wrong I believe that technology is a very useful tool in education and one that should be taken advantage of. However, I do not believe that a teacher can be successful in a classroom with technology if he or she is not an effective teacher without the technology. She gives a list of four things teachers must do in order to impact their students.
Her first point is that teachers must be learners. This is simply saying that teachers must be dedicated to learning more and more about teaching everyday. Learning cannot end on graduation day in order to be an effective teacher. We must be constantly coming up with new methods in teaching. Saying that I believe that teachers should also be learners with technology and should be constantly learning how we can incorporate it in the classroom to help our students learn in creative ways.
Another one of her points is that technology is useless without good teaching. On this I completely agree. The teacher must already be a creative and innovative teacher who requires critical thinking in her classroom before technology is presented.
It is when teachers embrace Ms. Hines’ for points on teaching and then technology is presented that possibilities in the classroom become endless.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

This is my response to Karl Fisch's blog:

Mr. Fisch's post intimidated me at first, I mean it won the 2007 individual post of the year for edublog, so I knew it had to be good. I strongly believe that ALL teachers must be technologically literate. It is almost impossible for teachers not to be as many schools are incorporating teacher e-mails, websites, and online gradebooks. So beyond a doubt teachers should be literate in these areas, but I suggest it should go even further than that. None of my previous examples were dealing directly with using technology in the classroom. I believe teachers should be literate in this area as well. Let's face it we are living in a day where technology is a huge part of our world and also a very important part of almost any career requiring a college degree and a large chunk of careers not requiring a degree. If technology is such a huge part of the world today, just think about how big it will be by the time our future students graduate and enter the job field.
Saying that what do we do with the teachers who are presently not technologically literate. My opinion on this is not quite as extreme as Mr. Fisch's or Mr. Freedman's. I believe these teachers should be offered an opportunity to learn by being offered a class like EDM310 that would last a semester. After that the teacher should be given a term to incorporate what he or she has learned in the classroom. If after this time frame the teacher still has not become literate or if the teacher refuses to even try to become literate I feel they should be let go.
Learning how to use technology is not about giving someone a headache, it's about our future and more importantly the students we have the honor of teaching's future.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

I believe this count is an undeniable example about how technology is a huge part of our world. The fact of the matter is that the growth in technology is exponetial, this means that it will continue to grow at a bigger and bigger rate. If technology is such a relevant part to our lives today just imagine how relevant it will be years from now when our future students graduate. I think we need to use this amazing tool in our classrooms today.