Podcasts
I have a lot of experience with listening to podcasts so this assignment was not that new to me! I’m a huge fan of all the Disney World podcasts as dorky as that sounds. I especially love the Disney podcasts with video of the parks and I’m subscribed to at least 5 or 6 of them. Now that we have that information out of the way, let us move on to educational podcasts. The education podcasts I dabbled in ranged from interesting to pretty helpful.
I loved the SmartBoard Lessons podcast. I thought that the podcast was fun to listen to and gave very helpful tips and resources. I liked the fact that the man was podcasting as he was going through a drive thru at a restaurant. The only problem I had with that podcast was the fact that he wanted that tomato and noodle soup. That’s just really gross. Overall, I will keep this on my subscriptions list. The KidCast podcast was really well put together and flowed as I listened to the audio. The guy really knew what he was talking about and gave great instructions. I will never say vodcast, I promise. He had some really good points on video podcasting. I enjoy video podcasting more that I do audio podcasting, but that is just my taste.
The music in front of the ConnectLearning episode 90 made me think of Napoleon Dynamite. I think David Warlick is a very smart, helpful person, but for me it was a little dry. Maybe that is the little kid in me, but I like something a little more upbeat to keep me interested. If there was something I really wanted to know more about, I would listen to this podcast. EdTechtalk was hard for me to listen to because of the audio. It was grating on my ears, but my ears are very sensitive so it may just be me. Just so you know which episode I had a problem listening to, it was episode 1 on the edtechtalk.com version of the podcast. I may have the wrong podcast, but I thought this podcast was boring. It was basically a question and answer session and I could have found that information from a better podcast.
Macbreak weekly is awesome! I have a macbook and I am a huge fan of Apple. I listened to the podcast about the iPad and I have to say, I really want one. The people in this podcast were fun to listen to and I’m keeping this podcast in my subscriptions list. I don’t even have a digital camera that works other than the one in my computer and on my phone, so listening to A Week in Photography was a little pointless. I will refer my sister to it though; she has her own super nice camera. I did enjoy the podcast even though the content really didn’t match any of my interests. I had already heard about the ‘racist’ digital camera that doesn’t detect some people’s eyes because of their race and the fact that their eyes are kind of closed in the first place. If I ever pick up photography, I’ll subscribe to this podcast.
Overall, I have decided that a great podcast needs to include clear audio, interesting and helpful facts, and a little bit of humor. I hope that when I record my podcast, it will be interesting enough for others to listen!
Mrs. Cassidy’s Class Videos and the Baby iPhone Genius
Mrs. Kathy Cassidy’s class videos were amazing! I was shocked at the technology-centered intelligence the children had. They were so young and precious, but so much more advanced than I was at six or seven years old. I didn’t know what a wiki was until I joined this class and I had no idea how to use Skype until I was 19. I can’t imagine how advanced those children will be in another year or two! I am going to have to brush up on media sources if I ever want to have a class like that. I didn’t know how to use a computer until I got the Muppet Treasure Island computer game in the third grade. Now I am a little ashamed.
Sadly those children can probably do more on the Internet than I know about. I just learned how to make blog entries and I am at least triple the age of those kids. The other video that shocked me was the one year old on the iPhone. That baby could barely even talk, yet he knew exactly what to do to navigate that phone. My dad has an iPhone and I didn’t even know you could zoom in on the pictures. It just shows that this next generation is moving into technology at a much more rapid pace than we could have moved. It is an intimidating thought that my students could run a computer or phone better than I could, but I hope to learn these new concepts quickly!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
January 24th Assignment
Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today
In the video about the modern student by Dr. Michael Wesch, a teacher at Kansas State University, the facts shown were true of most colleges across the United States. Today’s student is both great at multitasking and heavily involved in technology. Cell phones, laptops, iPods, and more are readily available every day. The video shows students that skip classes, do not read their assignments, never open their expensive textbooks, and use facebook or chat through class time. I know a lot of students that fly by the seat of their pants in that way, but I have never been able to take the risk. The 115-student classroom fact was overwhelming to me because I have just transferred to South Alabama from a smaller Christian university, the University of Mobile, this semester. The number of students in a class at the University of Mobile is about 30, sometimes even less, and every teacher knows your name unlike the 18% of teachers in the video. We were not even supposed to bring laptops to class at the private university. I know that I will be adjusting more to the facts of this video in upcoming semesters.
It is very true that most of the things we learn in our education experience, we will never use in every day life. I know that most of my classes, other than my classes in the Education department, I memorize facts for a test and don’t even remember those facts the next week. Most of these classes will not solve our every day problems. They will not solve the problems that the world has in store for the future. I don’t think there is any point that I would add to the video as of now. Maybe once I get used to a larger college experience I will know more and be able to understand the points better.
Kelly Hines
In Kelly Hines’s post ‘It’s Not About the Technology’, she talks about how technology is not all learning in the 21st century is about. At first glance, I was very skeptical of what this blog post was going to say. My thoughts were that technology was what would really upgrade the classroom, but really the upgrade into the 21st century is an effective teacher that loves learning and wants his or her students to love learning. Sure, a teacher can teach and preach boring information all he or she wants to, but a student will never understand what he/she is being told unless the teacher is innovative with the learning experience. The teacher needs proper training in the use of new technology before that teacher can help his/her students will the technology.
Being a teacher these days means being up to date with current tools and technology is what Kelly Hines says in her first point. She says that the teacher cannot just attend mandated workshops and required readings, but must be willing to learn about all new things in the world. The teacher has to be a learner throughout his/her whole career! I think that teachers need to be willing to learn alongside the student. Students can actually teach us many things about technology that most of us don’t even know. Kids pick up things on the Internet or on programs just by exploring them and that is what teachers should be doing as well. Exploration and creativity is what makes learning so much fun. All in all, I think this blog makes the great point that teaching is not about drilling information about technology that we don’t even use. It is about learning about the technology and subjects ourselves and developing a love for learning and creativity.
Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
Karl Fisch made some bold statements in his blog, “Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” and I fully agree with those statements. I do not believe a teacher is a successful teacher when he/she is not teaching what the modern student needs to know for the future! I love how Mr. Fisch compared the early 20th century’s reading and writing need growth to the 21st century’s technology need growth. He states, “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.” Technology is used everyday in jobs around the world and new technology is available at a quick rate. Teachers need to get acquainted with what their students need to know, so they certainly need to be technology literate.
I am not saying that the use of technology is all that teachers need to focus on these days. That is far from the truth. Karl Fisch says, “Let me be clear, I'm not saying that technology is the end all and be all of education. As I think I've always tried to say, it's just a tool to help us teach and learn and grow - but an indispensable tool.” You can use a mix of modern technology and creativity to teach anything! It is all a matter of taking advantage of the computers and programs there are available. He makes a good point with the fact that technology has been available for years now. There is no good excuse for not learning how to use technology. You have to learn for your students and love the learning process. The students need to be successful in their own time, not successful 30 years ago.
Social Media Count
The Social Media Count created by Gary Hayes is pretty crazy. One thing that shocked me was the fact that people actually spend money on those weird little facebook gifts. I mean really? They are cartoons that your friends will see once or twice. That is just my opinion. None of the other facts about facebook or twitter really shock me that much. I know that a lot of people’s lives revolve around those websites. Facebook gets 600,000 members per day and Twitter gets 18 million new members per year! I really didn’t know that so many people were active on that Second Life game! I only knew about it because I saw it on an episode of ‘The Office’, but people must really spend a lot of time on that website.
Personally I love watching videos on YouTube and I know I spend far too much time on that website. I must not be the only one because it looks like a few thousand videos are being watched per second! According to the statistics underneath the counter, a ton of money is earned and spent on the web every day. All of these facts just show how much modern life is spent in front of some sort of screen.
In the video about the modern student by Dr. Michael Wesch, a teacher at Kansas State University, the facts shown were true of most colleges across the United States. Today’s student is both great at multitasking and heavily involved in technology. Cell phones, laptops, iPods, and more are readily available every day. The video shows students that skip classes, do not read their assignments, never open their expensive textbooks, and use facebook or chat through class time. I know a lot of students that fly by the seat of their pants in that way, but I have never been able to take the risk. The 115-student classroom fact was overwhelming to me because I have just transferred to South Alabama from a smaller Christian university, the University of Mobile, this semester. The number of students in a class at the University of Mobile is about 30, sometimes even less, and every teacher knows your name unlike the 18% of teachers in the video. We were not even supposed to bring laptops to class at the private university. I know that I will be adjusting more to the facts of this video in upcoming semesters.
It is very true that most of the things we learn in our education experience, we will never use in every day life. I know that most of my classes, other than my classes in the Education department, I memorize facts for a test and don’t even remember those facts the next week. Most of these classes will not solve our every day problems. They will not solve the problems that the world has in store for the future. I don’t think there is any point that I would add to the video as of now. Maybe once I get used to a larger college experience I will know more and be able to understand the points better.
Kelly Hines
In Kelly Hines’s post ‘It’s Not About the Technology’, she talks about how technology is not all learning in the 21st century is about. At first glance, I was very skeptical of what this blog post was going to say. My thoughts were that technology was what would really upgrade the classroom, but really the upgrade into the 21st century is an effective teacher that loves learning and wants his or her students to love learning. Sure, a teacher can teach and preach boring information all he or she wants to, but a student will never understand what he/she is being told unless the teacher is innovative with the learning experience. The teacher needs proper training in the use of new technology before that teacher can help his/her students will the technology.
Being a teacher these days means being up to date with current tools and technology is what Kelly Hines says in her first point. She says that the teacher cannot just attend mandated workshops and required readings, but must be willing to learn about all new things in the world. The teacher has to be a learner throughout his/her whole career! I think that teachers need to be willing to learn alongside the student. Students can actually teach us many things about technology that most of us don’t even know. Kids pick up things on the Internet or on programs just by exploring them and that is what teachers should be doing as well. Exploration and creativity is what makes learning so much fun. All in all, I think this blog makes the great point that teaching is not about drilling information about technology that we don’t even use. It is about learning about the technology and subjects ourselves and developing a love for learning and creativity.
Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
Karl Fisch made some bold statements in his blog, “Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” and I fully agree with those statements. I do not believe a teacher is a successful teacher when he/she is not teaching what the modern student needs to know for the future! I love how Mr. Fisch compared the early 20th century’s reading and writing need growth to the 21st century’s technology need growth. He states, “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.” Technology is used everyday in jobs around the world and new technology is available at a quick rate. Teachers need to get acquainted with what their students need to know, so they certainly need to be technology literate.
I am not saying that the use of technology is all that teachers need to focus on these days. That is far from the truth. Karl Fisch says, “Let me be clear, I'm not saying that technology is the end all and be all of education. As I think I've always tried to say, it's just a tool to help us teach and learn and grow - but an indispensable tool.” You can use a mix of modern technology and creativity to teach anything! It is all a matter of taking advantage of the computers and programs there are available. He makes a good point with the fact that technology has been available for years now. There is no good excuse for not learning how to use technology. You have to learn for your students and love the learning process. The students need to be successful in their own time, not successful 30 years ago.
Social Media Count
The Social Media Count created by Gary Hayes is pretty crazy. One thing that shocked me was the fact that people actually spend money on those weird little facebook gifts. I mean really? They are cartoons that your friends will see once or twice. That is just my opinion. None of the other facts about facebook or twitter really shock me that much. I know that a lot of people’s lives revolve around those websites. Facebook gets 600,000 members per day and Twitter gets 18 million new members per year! I really didn’t know that so many people were active on that Second Life game! I only knew about it because I saw it on an episode of ‘The Office’, but people must really spend a lot of time on that website.
Personally I love watching videos on YouTube and I know I spend far too much time on that website. I must not be the only one because it looks like a few thousand videos are being watched per second! According to the statistics underneath the counter, a ton of money is earned and spent on the web every day. All of these facts just show how much modern life is spent in front of some sort of screen.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
January 17th Assignment
Did You Know? 3.0
The ‘Did You Know? 3.0’ video by Karl Fisch contained quite startling information. Before I watched the video, I did not realize how much technology use has grown in just the past two or three years. The thing that really shocked me was the fact that technology is doubling every two years and the fact that what I am learning now in my education courses will by outdated rapidly. In years to come, technology could be completely ruling our lives. The computers may become the teachers in every classroom instead of an actual human teacher. Knowing the facts in the video, I’m sure virtual teachers are quite possible. I don’t enjoy the idea that there may be a computer that can compute more information than my own brain.
I knew that the countries of India and China seemed vastly overpopulated, but the fact that in a few minutes only 67 babies are born in the United States while at the same time 274 babies were born in China and 395 were born in India is simply astounding. The fact that China will soon be the number one English speaking language in the world is also very odd. What is happening to the Chinese language and what is happening with our English language? I guess the fact that they have many more people than the United States living in their country makes it easy for them to out speak the smaller nation. India’s population is also much smarter than America’s population. It seems like the United States is slowly slipping away. I enjoyed all of the facts I learned in the video and I plan to keep up with the updated versions.
Mr. Winkle Wakes
The video ‘Mr. Winkle Wakes’ by Matthew Needleman showed an interesting view of schools with few versions of technology. The video shows a cute Rip Van Winkle cartoon waking from his long slumber and getting lost in a city full of technology. He first stops at an office and is overwhelmed with all of the machines he heard and saw around the room. He didn’t like the change so he left and went to a hospital. The hospital overwhelmed Mr. Winkle even more with technology he never thought would exist. When Mr. Winkle arrived at the school building, he felt much more comfortable because it was more like he remembered it to be. There was only one of the ‘machines’ in the back of the room.
I think the video was trying to make the point that even though there is so much technology used in every day life, teachers and schools aren’t using that technology to teach kids what they will need to know in the future job market. Most schools do not use a lot of computers or technology to teach their children and that needs to be addressed. I did visit one school through observation hours that did access technology every day. The kids created power points with their teachers to learn history lessons and did reading and English lessons on a computer with their teachers along with many web-accessed games. The children seemed to really enjoy that kind of education and also seemed further ahead than other kids their age. If school boards would adopt those methods of learning for their own schools, maybe all children would progress on a great level and also be comfortable with the tools they will need in the future.
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
In the video ‘The Importance of Creativity’, Ken Robinson says that creativity is important in education as literacy and that we as teachers should treat it with the same status. He thinks that we are educating children into a world of being scared of being wrong which causes them to lose their creativity. I definitely agree with that statement. When a person is afraid of being wrong, the person will not want to say anything remotely close to the answer unless it is correct. As a child, you still have that free feeling of saying anything you would like to say, but as you grow older you are taught in the schools that you are only wrong or right.
Sir Robinson says that creative people don’t feel creative in school because they are not valued or they are stigmatized since they were not good at the right thing. I think that schools should offer more creative arts classes to make those children more comfortable. He says in his speech that mostly music and art classes are taught while drama and dance classes are pushed to the side. Dramatic arts and more creative outlets would be a great way for children to learn English and history lessons in different ways! The children would be developing their creativity and also learning the facts the school boards demand that they know.
I thought the story about the dancer was amazing. It is true that most people would tell the child with the adhd symptoms to go on medication and calm down, but the instructor showed her mother that she was in fact a dancer and the little girl grew up to be a world class dancer. That just shows that people need to focus more on creativity than academics. There are so many children with short attention spans and learning disabilities that would benefit greatly from creative activities. Sir Ken Robinson had so many great points and it was very entertaining to listen to his speech.
Harnessing Your Students’ Digital Smarts
The ‘Harnessing Your Students’ Digital Smarts’ video was very interesting. The way Vicki Davis teaches her students is so different from the average classroom you would enter. I love the way that she uses the flat classroom so that the students are able to communicate and learn with other students all over the world. Vicki’s students learn through using all of the forms of technology they possibly can. On the video I spotted computers, cell phones, and even social networking sites such as Twitter. I loved when she said that teachers do not have to know everything about what they are teaching. Students will probably learn more effectively if they have to help the teacher as well. Vicki Davis is a blogger at the Cool Cat Teacher blog. I checked it out after watching the video. It has such great information for teachers!
Vicki Davis’ students are able to show the whole class how to run certain programs so Vicki is able to watch her students blossom every day. She uses the Open Simulator to teach her students new concepts with Avatars and things like terraform. I had never even heard of these things. I wish that I could spend a day in a class like Vicki’s class. Her students will definitely have so many opportunities because of their experience with so much technology. The videos and chats with students from different countries build their knowledge of different cultures and different ways of learning. I hope to create a digital experience for my students in the future and I will be trying to use Digiteen and different sources in my classroom.
The ‘Did You Know? 3.0’ video by Karl Fisch contained quite startling information. Before I watched the video, I did not realize how much technology use has grown in just the past two or three years. The thing that really shocked me was the fact that technology is doubling every two years and the fact that what I am learning now in my education courses will by outdated rapidly. In years to come, technology could be completely ruling our lives. The computers may become the teachers in every classroom instead of an actual human teacher. Knowing the facts in the video, I’m sure virtual teachers are quite possible. I don’t enjoy the idea that there may be a computer that can compute more information than my own brain.
I knew that the countries of India and China seemed vastly overpopulated, but the fact that in a few minutes only 67 babies are born in the United States while at the same time 274 babies were born in China and 395 were born in India is simply astounding. The fact that China will soon be the number one English speaking language in the world is also very odd. What is happening to the Chinese language and what is happening with our English language? I guess the fact that they have many more people than the United States living in their country makes it easy for them to out speak the smaller nation. India’s population is also much smarter than America’s population. It seems like the United States is slowly slipping away. I enjoyed all of the facts I learned in the video and I plan to keep up with the updated versions.
Mr. Winkle Wakes
The video ‘Mr. Winkle Wakes’ by Matthew Needleman showed an interesting view of schools with few versions of technology. The video shows a cute Rip Van Winkle cartoon waking from his long slumber and getting lost in a city full of technology. He first stops at an office and is overwhelmed with all of the machines he heard and saw around the room. He didn’t like the change so he left and went to a hospital. The hospital overwhelmed Mr. Winkle even more with technology he never thought would exist. When Mr. Winkle arrived at the school building, he felt much more comfortable because it was more like he remembered it to be. There was only one of the ‘machines’ in the back of the room.
I think the video was trying to make the point that even though there is so much technology used in every day life, teachers and schools aren’t using that technology to teach kids what they will need to know in the future job market. Most schools do not use a lot of computers or technology to teach their children and that needs to be addressed. I did visit one school through observation hours that did access technology every day. The kids created power points with their teachers to learn history lessons and did reading and English lessons on a computer with their teachers along with many web-accessed games. The children seemed to really enjoy that kind of education and also seemed further ahead than other kids their age. If school boards would adopt those methods of learning for their own schools, maybe all children would progress on a great level and also be comfortable with the tools they will need in the future.
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
In the video ‘The Importance of Creativity’, Ken Robinson says that creativity is important in education as literacy and that we as teachers should treat it with the same status. He thinks that we are educating children into a world of being scared of being wrong which causes them to lose their creativity. I definitely agree with that statement. When a person is afraid of being wrong, the person will not want to say anything remotely close to the answer unless it is correct. As a child, you still have that free feeling of saying anything you would like to say, but as you grow older you are taught in the schools that you are only wrong or right.
Sir Robinson says that creative people don’t feel creative in school because they are not valued or they are stigmatized since they were not good at the right thing. I think that schools should offer more creative arts classes to make those children more comfortable. He says in his speech that mostly music and art classes are taught while drama and dance classes are pushed to the side. Dramatic arts and more creative outlets would be a great way for children to learn English and history lessons in different ways! The children would be developing their creativity and also learning the facts the school boards demand that they know.
I thought the story about the dancer was amazing. It is true that most people would tell the child with the adhd symptoms to go on medication and calm down, but the instructor showed her mother that she was in fact a dancer and the little girl grew up to be a world class dancer. That just shows that people need to focus more on creativity than academics. There are so many children with short attention spans and learning disabilities that would benefit greatly from creative activities. Sir Ken Robinson had so many great points and it was very entertaining to listen to his speech.
Harnessing Your Students’ Digital Smarts
The ‘Harnessing Your Students’ Digital Smarts’ video was very interesting. The way Vicki Davis teaches her students is so different from the average classroom you would enter. I love the way that she uses the flat classroom so that the students are able to communicate and learn with other students all over the world. Vicki’s students learn through using all of the forms of technology they possibly can. On the video I spotted computers, cell phones, and even social networking sites such as Twitter. I loved when she said that teachers do not have to know everything about what they are teaching. Students will probably learn more effectively if they have to help the teacher as well. Vicki Davis is a blogger at the Cool Cat Teacher blog. I checked it out after watching the video. It has such great information for teachers!
Vicki Davis’ students are able to show the whole class how to run certain programs so Vicki is able to watch her students blossom every day. She uses the Open Simulator to teach her students new concepts with Avatars and things like terraform. I had never even heard of these things. I wish that I could spend a day in a class like Vicki’s class. Her students will definitely have so many opportunities because of their experience with so much technology. The videos and chats with students from different countries build their knowledge of different cultures and different ways of learning. I hope to create a digital experience for my students in the future and I will be trying to use Digiteen and different sources in my classroom.
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