homework for 3/12/10

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)
When you first go to the website you have eight different topics you can click on like course study, lesson plans, and podcast treasury are just some of them. When clicking on lesson plans I was given an option to create my own lesson plan or I could search ALEX for lesson plans. To search you can use the author's name, school, Title, or they give you the option to search by the subject material. The other link I clicked on to view was the podcast treasury I found this to be very interesting. It contained subjects like arts, mathematics, social studies, teacher created, and much more. It also gives you other links other than ALEX to find podcast.
Until now I had never heard of this site but I think it is a very useful site and I will be sure to remember this when I become a teacher and even before then while I am going through my teaching courses.


Alabama Connecting Classroom Educators and Students Statewide (ACCESS)
This site is full of links and resources that can be useful for students and teachers. One thing I liked about this site is the fact that it offers online courses your school might not offer and the students are able to enroll in them and take them and also recieve credit for taking them.
I think this site will come in very useful like ALEX when I become a teacher and I will also be telling my students about ACCESS so that they can go and explore this site. I think it will be important for them to start looking early since I will be teaching elementary school children I will be introducing them to this site early.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

This lecture starts out by Randy Pausch introducing himself. He has been told he has liver cancer and will only live for a few more months. For this reason he decided to give what is titled "Last Lecture". In this lecture he gives advice and also inspiration to everyone I think who was there for that lecture but not only to them now this is a lecture that is very well known and I think that anyone who reads this will be inspired.
When he starts his lecture he talks about some of his childhood dreams and then he tells how he accomplished them. The way I felt while listening to his lecture was that he was a very persistant person who tried to accomplish everything he set out to do. That inspired me to not give up on anything that I can accomplish it if I just set forth an effort and do not give up.
He is an amazing man and I think that everyone should watch this video because everyone could learn something from him. After watching his video I was in a state of shock to think that this man could have done all of this and that I sit here and complain about little things in life that I am having issues with. I now have decided that I am going to buy his book and read it. I want to learn more about him because he made such an impact on me and I think that his book will be just as amazing as his lecture. I hope that I can have at least some impact like he did on everyone who has heard him speak.

homework 2/28

This is How We Dream Part 1 and Part 2
Dr. Miller talks about how things have changed so much since when he was growing up. He talks about how people do not really go to the library anymore or read books. Almost everything can be found online and can be made more interesting by the use of videos or by adding audio. He even gives tips on how to do perform these functions.
He talks about how everything is being shared one example was itunes U and if you think about it that isn't a bad idea because of the fact that we are getting ideas from everyone and being able to compare ideas with sharing. I think it is a good idea to have everything available at one click if you think about it when you look around in a college classroom almost every student has a computer and always on it whether it be taking notes or making notation in a calender of upcoming assignments.
The one thing I did not agree with was Dr. Miller said that one day we will not be using word processors. I think that is something that we will contiue to need but I do think they will enhance it so much that it will be able to do almost everything and will eventually be completely online. I am not sure if I am prepared for all of this but I do think my students will be able to do this and I also think that they will probably be more advanced in technology because of how things advance.





The Networked Student
This video probably got my attention more than most. I really thought it was very informative and helped me understand a lot more about PLN's and other forms of networking before watching this video I really didn't understand the point of networking besides facebook and myspace and other things like that but now I can see that there are other forms of networking and that they can be really helpful in the classroom. Networking can be used to connect with other students in other areas who are studying the same material you are and comparing information it can also be used to find links for topics you are doing research on. There are so many possiblities that networking can be used for.
I liked how this video really explained how to use PLN's and why they are important. The way the video does this in a way that makes it easy to understand how to use them and also why they are so useful and important.
I must say at the end of the video when the question was asked then "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" I was kind of taken back because I am an Elementary Education major and this would mean that there is no need for any teachers if the answer was there is no need for them. The answer was though to help the student when they came to a problem or if they needed help with anything else so this means even though it is all dont online teachers are still needed. As a future teacher I think with a little practice I will be able to help students with PLN's and any other type of networking.


Michael Wesch
It was really hard to get into this video and he was not a bad speaker and he was funny I just found it hard to get into. He talks about how in the past what they thought the MTV boom. He talks about the different words that moved from show to show and how it caught on so easily. This still goes on now and is very noticable and he talks about that as well.

homework for 2/21/2010

Part one of the assignemnt for this week was to go to Dr. Alice Christie's website and find something that I think would be helpful to me as a teacher. I found the GPS and geocoaching to be very informative and interesting and think that I would be able to use that in my classroom.
This is an idea that gets kids involved in the lesson and takes it from being a teacher centered environment to an environment that focus' on the children. This site also shows you how to incorporate it for each level of children like your elementary school, middle school, and high school. This is helpful because it isn't just one level of children that can use it but instead it is made for every level.


The second assignment was to discover iTunes University and learn all about it. This was a podcast on itunes that is totally free and includes universities from all over the country. I found this tool to be very helpful for when I become a teacher.
This tool gives students another method of learning plus lets them see different points of views on different topics. It allows them to expand their views of thinking.

What I have learned this year

This blog is by Mr. McClung and is called What I have learned this year. This blog is about a teacher entering his firs year of teaching and the new things he expierenced and learned over the year. He learned that to be an effective teacher you have to learn to let the crowd drive your instruction. He also learned that you have to be flexible in making your lesson plans and that you are going to make mistakes it does not have to be perfect. He also talks about using technology and that you should not be afraid of it. You need to be able to communicate well with others because it will be the building block of the future.
I think that he is very wise in what he says and I think I could use his first year of expierence to help me learn more before I begin teaching so that I am a little better prepared for when it comes time for me to be a first year teacher.

Wikipedia 2/14/2010

For this assignment we were told to read the NPR blog on Wikipedia and also listen to the podcast about this blog. This article is about using Wikipedia and whether it is a useful. The problem with using Wikipedia which is an online encyclopedia that can be changed by anyone. So that means that the information you are hoping to find on that website is not always accurate.
This particular article was about an e-voting machine vendor called Diebold, the page had fifteen deleted paragraphs. For the fact that anyone can go and edit the articles at anytime shows that Wikipedia could not ever be a completely credible source.

The benefits of podcasting in the classroom assignment 2/7/10

For this assignment we were supposed to watch podcast that informed us on how they are useful the one I chose was done by Mr. Dale he talks about podcasting in the classroom. This podcast was almost ten minutes long and talked about the benefits of using them in the classroom by showing the audience how it can be used and how it can benefit the class as a whole.
I think that podcasting can be helpful in a classroom to a certain extent because yes it can show the children how things work and also keep their attention which is something that can be hard to do sometimes. Podcasting can also help encourage students to become more active in the lesson for class.

Social Media Counts

Gary's Social media counts I found to be interesting in some ways because it shows how many people actually use technology for so many different reasons. At the same time I am not completely sure I understand the importance of this blog since I do not think the numbers are completely accurate.