Project #8: Podcast

Blog Post #5

     The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom had some really great points. I have never seen or experienced a podcast in my educational career, so this was a good video for me to watch. It not only tells of the benefits, but along with this it tells some ways podcasts can be used in the classroom. The Learning Podcasting tutorial link was fantastic! This will be extremely beneficial when creating my own podcast. This tutorial literally tells you everything that you need to know about creating a podcast. The Judy Scharf Podcast Collection is a great tool because there is a file that you can download that has a list of benefits of podcasting in education! While this list is not very long, how many more benefits do you need written down for you before you are willing to try podcasting in your classroom?! I certainly do not need any more. I think that all of these resources will be very beneficial when creating my own podcast.

C4K #1 and #2 Summary

        I was assigned to comment on Ariana Vazquez's blog. She is an 8th grade student at Noel Elementary School. In her About Me blog I learned that she was born in Mexico and raised there until she was ten years old. Her favorite subject is science, but she likes P.E and art as well. She has four sisters, one of which is her twin. In my comment I told her briefly about my trip to Cozumel, Mexico and asked if she had ever been there. I also told her that science was my favorite subject as well and I told her about a few courses that I took in high school.

       I thought that Ariana's Manifesto blog was a very good start. Her manifesto consisted of: being respectful, being responsible, taking school more seriously, and not touching other students. My comment stated that respect and responsibility are very important in school, as well as in life. I also told her that school does take a lot of time and work, but every minute is worth it.

Blog Post #4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? :

     I loved this post! Dr. McLeod puts a rather humorous, obviously sarcastic, tone on a very important subject. I agree with this argument completely!Just as his kids are given the freedom to grow and become technologically literate, my children (in the future) will be given that same opportunity. Technology is not going anywhere but forward; don't put your children behind because you are personally afraid or unwilling to use technology or have your children use it. 

     Scott McLeod is the Associate Professor of Educational Administration at Iowa State University and the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). He is also the co-creator of the Did You Know? (Shift Happens) videos.

The iSchool Initiative:

     I personally do not have an iTouch, but my husband does- he loves it. Due to the fact that I do not have one myself, I had absolutely NO IDEA that hardly any of these tools are available to this technology's users. I think that the iSchool program sounds amazing. Not only would this program be easy and much more organized for both students and teachers, but as stated, it would be much more cost efficient. With our tiny budgets in schools today... what is the harm in trying this program?

     I read through a few of the comments that were posted on this video and I LOVED what he said to the skeptical person. This person stated that this program would not be possible, to think about all of the development money this would require, etc.  His response: It does work, and it is in many schools already. Buying a $1 Graphing Calculator App is much cheaper than a $100 real one. Overall, I loved this video. I think that this is a very innovative way of thinking about school and I think that more schools should at least give this program a shot!

The Lost Generation:

     Wow! This was a very powerful video. Short and sweet! I loved that everything she said, she was able to reverse and make it positive. I thought this technique was very eye catching and eye opening. I really enjoyed this video and I think that if it were shared with more people in my generation, people could actually see things for the way that they should, and can, be. 

Eric Whitacer's Virtual Choir:

     How incredible it would be to actually be apart of this! I found this amazing, and do not even enjoy classical music. The fact that every single one of these choir members was on their own computer, in their own home (or where ever they were) just completely blows my mind. Each member would have been watching the director on their own computer and this is a compilation of each member on their own. This is just amazing to me!

Additional Assignment #1

Students use the internet almost everyday for school work. I have had many assignments that required me to research specific things; these assignments could take days simply because I could not find everything that I needed. Google Squared and Wolfram Alpha would have been extremely helpful in many of these situations. These are both fantastic tools for students because it gives you the tools to find EVERYTHING that you need, and it is very simple to use. I unfortuneatly was not aware that either of these tools existed. I certainly would have saved a bunch of time if I had been!

I am not sure that I would change what I said about the Did You Know? project, however I can say that my view on statistics has been slightly altered. I am very quick to simply take a statistic exactly as it is stated and not think about it too much further. By completeing this excercise, I have learned that when I am given a statistic I need to actually think about what it really means rather than just taking it for what it is.

The Food for Thought article made me realize how EASY technology can be; we simply have to TRY it.

Blog #3

A Vision of Students Today:

   I thought that this video was amazing. It really sums up the college experience and the stress that many students have throughout this experience. How do all of our activities add up to 26.5 hours a day, considering there are only 24 hours in a day? Some how, that is how it always seems in my life. While my college career may not be summed up completely by this video, many of the things stated were accurate. I will not be in debt, because I am fortunate enough to have a full scholarship that pays for my books. I will not be in a profession that does not exist today. I do not spend over three hours on facebook or even the internet every day. While my life may be different, I do understand many of the things in this video.
   As college students, it seems that there is never enough minutes in the day. Never enough time to eat; never enough time to sleep; never enough time to do homework, or Lord help us, even breathe. Technology certainly can speed up the day. Teachers can say what they need to say in a PowerPoint lecture probably 10 times faster than they can write that same lecture on a chalkboard. It is true to say that the phrase that was said in 1841 about the chalkboard, could very easily have been said about the internet.

It’s Not About the Technology:

   I completely agree that technology is important, but it is not where teaching begins. In order for technology to even be used in a useful way, teachers have to lay the ground work for learning. As Hines says, many teachers in the field have been teaching for years upon years and have not partaken in any “learning”. There are new theories and skills and tools that many teachers are not aware exist. I think that it is very important for teachers to be learners, not just while they are obtaining their degree, but throughout their entire career. If I had a dime for every time I have heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder”, I would certainly be a rich woman. I agree that this is a great philosophy for teachers to live by. I love the way Hines compares teaching with the physics principle of work: if an object does not move, no matter how much force has been applied, no work has been done. You can get up and lecture and “teach” all day long, but if no students have actually learned anything, then what good have you done? This concept reminded me a lot of the “burp-back teaching” that we dislike so much in this class!
   Technology will not be effective without a good teacher. Wow! This is beyond true! I had two classes my junior year of high school that used Smart Boards. In one class, we used this piece of technology everyday; the students got to experience more interactive learning and the teacher used this board to further learning. In the other class however, the teacher did not seem to know what they were doing and therefore simply ended up using it as a projector, projecting her notes for us to see on the board rather than a projector screen. It is so important for teachers to be willing and appreciative and excited about technology in schools! While technology CAN be very important and useful, learning can be done without it. Teachers who encourage their students to be creative and critical thinkers can also prepare their students to be successful, even without technology. As Hines says, a teacher who can do this and use technology in a productive, positive way… that leads to endless possibilities!

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher? :

   Hmm; this post certainly got me thinking. With technology playing such a huge role in our society, and this role grows every day, I would venture to say that yes, a technologically illiterate teachers is equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn’t know how to read and write. As stated in the blog, this assumption may be extreme, but I do believe that it is true. Now I do not believe that every teacher should be able to use every piece of technology available, but I do believe that they should be able to use every piece of technology that they ask their students to use. How can we teach something if we ourselves do not know, or are not willing to learn?
   As Terry Freedman says: “we have to stop being so nice… some educators are potentially jeopardizing the chances of our youngsters.” We as teachers and future teachers have to remember every day that we are preparing our students for their future… not tomorrow. It really put it in a new prospective when he said that the kindergartners who started school this year will be the graduating class of 2020 (obviously this was a few years back; they would be the class of 2023). It is very easy to forget that these students are going to be our future and we have a responsibility to teach them with every resource that we can. Technology plays a huge role in our society today, but imagine the role it will play in 2023.

Gary's Social Media Count:

   The rate at which these numbers increase is absolutely incredible. You would never think that technology has such a huge role in our society, but the numbers don't lie. As a future teacher, these numbers tell me that I have to do everything that I can to become technologically literate and do everything that I can to include technology in my classroom. With students using technology as much as they do at home, if it is not used in schools then students are going to begin getting bored.

C4T #1 Summary

I was assigned to comment on Bill Ferriter's blog. My first comment was made on August 25th. His post was pretty short and sweet, simply asking the question "what do teacher leaders need from administrators?" He asked that we please help him and answer the question in a blog comment. He decided to answer his own question as the first comment on the blog. He feels that teachers need mutual respect from administrators, because often times as teachers, we have just as much skill and knowledge as principals. He states that he often feels looked down upon when he in is a room full of principals. My comment basically agreed with his comment. I stated that teachers need respect just as principals do and that we both play very important roles in education. Teachers need to be heard and they need to be given more freedom in their classroom to actually teach their students other than from a textbook.
My second post was on September 11th. His blog talked about tips from growing your blog's audience. One of his main tips was that we have to be inventive when posting our blogs because people hear and read far too much as it is, so we have to stand out in order to make a difference. He also said that we have to be brave when posting our blogs. He simply states that we need to be willing to ask the tough questions that educators love to avoid. In my comment I agreed with both of these opinions. People read and hear so much these days that we have to be creative in order to draw positive attention to our blog. Blogs are about opinions. No one honestly wants to read exactly what they want to hear. We already have our opinions, so why would we want to read it when we already know it? I feel that people need to be able to post their opinions in a professional way, without changing their opinion to please others.

Blog #2

Did You Know? :

   This video was extremely eye opening for me to watch. I think that we all subconsciously realize that all of these things are happening, we just do not think about it because it seems so normal for our world to be changing. It is apparent from this video that the United States needs to step it up when it comes to teaching and learning technology. It amazed me, and rather scared me, when they stated that China will soon be the number one speaking English country. I could go into a whole rant about the United States and our lack of other cultures, but that is a whole separate subject. It fascinates me that we, as a nation, go around thinking that we are the best country and that we have so much going for us, and then come to find out that India has more honors children than we even have children. It blows my mind that we can think so highly of ourselves and belittle other countries to such an extreme without even realizing the facts.

   Technology is advancing at such a high pace and it is obvious that we are failing to stay caught up. Technology, especially the internet, has become such a huge part of our daily lives that we fail to really see the importance. I think that we take for granter all of the things that the internet has to offer. In a matter of years, we will have a computer that is smarter and more capable than any human being on this planet... While that is a very fascinating realization, it is also a little scary in my opinion. I may be the only one thinking this, but technology makes me feel very incompetent. After watching this video, it certainly makes me want to learn as much as I can about technology.

Mr. Winkle Wakes:



   I found Mr. Winkle Wakes to be rather entertaining. At first I did not understand what the video was trying to get across, but as soon as he went into the school I understood. This video portrays the fact that schools are seriously lacking intrusion from the "outside world". Mr. Winkle was comforted by the school because it was just as he remember it from 100 years ago: nothing had changed. Many people do not view this as a problem, but it certainly is not a good thing. You see it everyday, teachers at the front of the room lecturing students of all ages. You also see students getting bored and acting out, or simply not reacting at all. It is important to let the "outside world" into our schools in order to enhance learning.

   In the classroom the Mr. Winkle walked into there was only one computer and it was obvious that it was not put to use very often. There are so many schools that do not have the funding for technology, but even the schools that do have this funding do not utilize technology to the extent that they should. I am 20 years old, and I do not remember using a computer in school until I was in high school. That is a problem. Students can learn so much from technology. Technology is obviously becoming a large part of our world and it is so important that we begin teaching children at a young age. Otherwise they will be in a technology class in college with no idea of what they are doing - just like me.

The Importance of Creativity:
 
   I have actually seen this video before in a Math for Elementary Teachers course. I think that this is a video that every education major should have to watch before they graduate. I love that he points out that we are educating students for a world that not only can we not understand, but we have no clue what it will entail. While I may not feel as strongly that creativity is as important as literacy, I do feel that it is a very important aspect of education. I think that we, as an entire nation, are so afraid of being wrong that we fail to even try. I think that Mr. Robinson is absolutely right when he states that we are "educated out of creativity". Creativity is natural in all of us, however some of us simply set it aside when we are basically told to do so.


   What did you want to be when you grew up? Well, me personally, I wanted to play softball for the United States team. That was always my dream. However, just as Mr. Robinson said in his lecture, we are taught from a very young age to basically let go of our dreams because we will never get a job doing that. But, the fact is... some people do. What if Brett Favre, Micheal Angelo, or Micheal Jackson had all let go of their dreams? We as future educators have to make sure that we inspire students and create an atmosphere where learning AND creativity can play equal roles.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts:

   I enjoyed this video because it was a great example in my opinion. This teacher did not know everything there is to know about technology. It is great that she is learning along with her students.Often times students feel intimidated when they feel that there teacher is so far above them in certain subjects. On the other hand, many teachers who do not know technology very well, often times simply do not utilize it in their classroom.

   The students in this video were able to learn things in an unconventional way... the teacher did not teach them. When students learn something on their own they tend to feel more accomplished and capable. Students can broaden their education when they are given the technology to do so. Not all children can learn just given pencil and paper and I think that was a great point in this video.