Class Questionnaire

1. We covered a lot in this class so I am just going to highlight the things that I felt were the most important to my technological development. I was very skeptical about using blogs and how they could effectively be used in a academic setting when I started this class. Through using blogs and exploring other educators blog I now feel that this is a very valuable resource for teachers. Another thing that I have started to use since starting this class is google docs. I use google docs for many things now. The idea of my files being accessible from the clouds is great. I am able to work on things from multiple computers and different locations without having to use a usb drive. Another up side to google docs is that it is FREE! The two biggest things that I have taken from this class though is podcast and Itunes U. I use Itunes U to download podcast and lectures that I listen to on my ipod when ever I want to. I also have become a fan of podcasting. I hope to use this when I become a teacher.

2. I would have liked to learned how to edit videos.

3. I think that everything that I learned in this class had relevance.

4. I'm not a easily excited person.

5. I thought that all of the projects in this class were fairly easy. Time consuming but easy.

6. I don't think that I ever got bored in this class. There was always something to work on.

7. I would add a project on doing videos and how to make them.

8. I believe that I am technologically literate. I am not an expert, but I think that I can figure out how to do things with minimal help.

9. I think the only way that I can maintain and improve my technological literacy is to keep practicing at it.

My Personal Learning Network

I have been developing my personal learning network through out this class. I have started to compile a list of websites that I feel will help with becoming a teacher and helping me teach once I graduate. My PLN is not very extensive at the moment but I plan to expand it as I go along. Below is a list of some of the sites that I have began to use in my PLN:

TeacherTube
YouTube
At The Teachers Desk
Classroom 2.0
Intrepid Teacher
Integrating ICT into the MFL Classroom
Itunes U
Google for Educators

Project 11

My Presentation

Comments 4 Kids

Comments 4 kids is a great program that I really enjoyed doing. It was cool to talk to kids around the country and some around the world. I commented on many different types of blogs, from a girl who was using blogs to help her learn English to a classrooms google maps project. This was a great experience for me.

New Classroom Rules

New Classroom Rules by Education Innovation

2. Come to class on time, or log into your online class anytime day or night, whenever it is most convenient to you.
This was the most appealing part of online classes for me. With my work schedule it is hard to find classes to take and being able to go to class at 2am is great for me.

13. Be quiet in lines, hallways, and restrooms, unless you are at home and logged into your on line classroom, in which case you can dance and play music.
This is my favorite rule because I listen to music all the time and I can't do that in class. I'm listening to music right now :)

7 Stupid Mistakes Teachers Make With Technology and 7 Brilliant Things Teachers Do With Technology

Seven Brilliant Things Teachers Do With Technology
1. Empower kids with technology. Technology is an amplifier of natural abilities. Brilliant teachers see that good writers become better writers, good debaters become better debaters, good French speakers become better French speakers, good mathematical problem-solvers become better mathematical problem-solvers, and so on. by helping their students harness technology. They do not see technology as a crutch, but as a propellant. Brilliant teachers have experienced the empowering power of technology themselves. Brilliant teachers use good assessment strategies to rigorously determine the quality of technology-enhanced projects.

I think that this is imperative for teachers. You have to empower your students with technology. Teach them how to use it, then watch them create.

5. Accept the role of co-leaner. One of the best signs of intelligent people is that they tend to willingly admit when they don't know something. Brilliant teachers not only accept the dismal fact that they will never know all there is to know about technology, they also turn that condition into a classroom advantage by having their brilliant children teach them how to do something techie now and then.

To be a good teacher I think that you have to learn along side of your students. You will never know everything but the pursuit of trying to know everything is what will make you a better teacher.





Seven Stupid Mistakes Teachers Make With Technology
3. Not supervising computer-using students. It is really stupid to believe Internet filters will keep kids out of trouble on the Internet. If they choose to do so, even the slow kids who can't get around the school's filter, can still exploit that 10 percent of porn sites the filter won't catch. They can still send cyberbullying e-mail -- maybe even using your e-mail address. Or they can just plain waste time.

I think that this is one of the things that teachers can do with technology that you can consider stupid. You can't leave a kid alone with anything without them figuring out some way to do something that they are not suppose to. It is way to easy to get around the filters on computers and they will find some way to do it.

6. Ignoring the intrinsic interest of tech use in today's kids. Kids like technology. Not using it as a hook to motivate and interest them in their education is stupid.

This is probably the stupidest mistake you can make as a teacher. Technology is changing and expanding at a pace that most people can not keep up with. Children grasp this technology much faster and embrace it more than we do. If you do not embrace it as well and use it then you are doing yourself and your students an injustice.

At The Teachers Desk

At The Teachers Desk is a blog for teachers to collaborate and discuss different topics. Reading over some of the post and viewing the comments give's you an appreciation for the process of blogging. The interaction between the bloggers in the comment section was very cool. I think that this type of collaborative blog has an importance in exchanging ideas.

Michael Wesch

This was a very entertaining video and I think that Dr. Wesch's lecture was great. My favorite line in the video was that "we are amusing ourselves to death". The funny thing about this is that this was a quote from over 25 years ago. This is very true with some people today. Dr. Wesch's study on youtube was interesting. The amount of videos that are uploaded daily are amazing and 99.99% of them do not affect me. I can not really relate to what he was saying about the people who use youtube because I do not really use it for anything other than school. I did like how he summed up American Idol from a quote from 1926. People are searching for an identity and I think that leads to the American Idol phenomenon and the amount of video's posted on youtube.

Why is it important for students to Post Blogs?

Why is it important for students to post their work to blogs or other ways? I think that the biggest reason for students to post their work is to be able to interface with other students and teachers. I think that this helps in the creative process of our children. I have thought of things many different ways that I had never thought of before from reading other people's opinions on their blogs. Getting another persons opinion will help a student to grow. There is also the added bonus of getting to perform at Madison Square Garden for posting your work as the children of the PS22 chorus got to do.

This is PS22's performing FleetWood Mac's song Landslide

ACCESS

ACCESS stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom Educators and Students Statewide. This is set up to help students with distance learning and taking classes that would not other wise be offered at their school. This is accomplished by "Rigorous Web-based and Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) courses taught by Alabama certified and highly qualified teachers". This is a wonderful idea in my opinion for students to be able to interface with other students and teachers from around the state. I think that this is a great program but the website needs a serious overhaul. I think that the site is poorly set up and scattered which makes it hard to navigate.

A.L.E.X.

ALEX stands for the Alabama Learning Exchange which is a database for teachers to utilize. The real strength of the site in my opinion is the Lessons Plans section where it offers lesson plans for teachers on different subjects. I think that this would be a very valuable resource for a new teacher. This would give a new teacher some guidance in setting up a lesson plan for the first time. There is also a Courses of Study section that lets you know what you are suppose to be integrating into your lesson plans. The podcast section on ALEX is not very developed, but there is a few podcast worth listening to. There is a search engine to help navigate the site and a professional learning section to help with a teachers life long learning. Over all this looks to be a very helpful site for teachers. I think that some of the sections could use a little work and the podcast section needs to be added onto, but it is a great step for Alabama for making their teachers technologically literate.

Dear Kaia

This whole thing started from a father just wanting to get his daughter outdoors and traveled around the globe and turned into a learning experience for many people. It is amazing how far a simple blog can go. Even though he was taking his daughter outside he also incorporated technology. I think that this is one thing we need to take from all of this. We need to make our kids technologically advanced but we also need to get them outside and active. When you can do this together it is even better. I also think that this was able to take off because of the amount of social networking that there is available for us to use today. This story stretched across many different mediums from twitter, skype, and blogger. Using all of these together is a way that teacher will be able to develop their students learning outside of the classroom. I also share the concerns he had with putting his daughter on the internet. That is another teaching point for teachers is to teach their students how to safely navigate the internet and to be aware of people they encounter on the internet.

To follow along look at some of these links:
Dear Kaia
Mr. Chamberlain's Dear Kaia Blog
Intrepid Teacher: Singing Hearts

What is the New Media Literacies Project

"Project New Media Literacies (NML), a research initiative based within MIT's Comparative Media Studies program, explores how we might best equip young people with the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world." This is what the website says about New Media Literacies. This is a collaborative site where you can post videos and other media. There is also a library and a blog section on the site.

New Media Literacies

I think that the New Media Skills are a good guideline to use with many different things. I think that you could call them 21st century skills, but if you really think about it they are skills that have been used for a long time. They have just been adjusted to using computers and online media. I believe that I posses many of these skills. Judgment, negotiation, play, performance to name a few.

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler

Students will become their own teachers. They will search out and find information on their own. This sounds like a great idea to me for college students but I do not really see this being effective with High School or younger students. In my personal experience children are not self motivated enough or have enough interest in the subject matter to go out and research topics on their own.

For a college level I could see where this would have great value. It would help students with research and computer skills which I think is imperative for when they graduate.

"Why does the networked student need a teacher?" I think that the networked student needs a teacher for added support in their learning and to help them when they get stuck. A networked student also needs some structure to their learning so that they are not just looking at any random thing that pops to mind.

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream

This was a very thought provoking video on the way that technology has made books almost obsolete. We have talked in many of my classes but I never really gave it any thought until last Friday when I was in the library and no one was looking at books. Instead everyone was using the computers in the library as opposed to looking through the books for the information. Also some of the books that I was thumbing through had not been checked out in a couple of years. This makes me ask the question why do we have books in our library any more. Why not just have a very large computer lab devoted to research.

Back to the topic though. Writing with multimedia sounds very interesting to me. The examples that Mr. Miller used in his video were very cool. I am not sure yet how to go about doing some of what he did but I think that I could see myself using this in the future.

iPods in the Classroom

There is many things that an iPod can be used for in a classroom setting. From listening to podcast, watching videos, and storing documents. iPods are small and portable so a student can take it anywhere with them and have that study aid with them at all times.

Duke University gave iPods to all incoming freshman. The main benefit that they found was the ability to be able to record audio and to listen to it later. This gave the students a way to revisit the lectures and study outside of class. Duke published a review of their findings that was very interesting.

I Tunes U

Since we were assigned to look at iTunes University earlier in the semester I have been downloading podcast and lectures on many different subjects. I am studying to become a history teacher and I love history but I am not the biggest fan of reading. So as you can imagine iTunes university is right up my alley. I have been listening to a series dedicated to Napoleon over the past few weeks and they are amazing. The podcast are just like sitting in class (without having to go). I think that this could be very helpful for students who want to go outside of their class and learn very easily. There was also a few that I found where the teachers had recorded their class and posted them to iTunes. This would be very nice if you had missed that class and your teacher had done this. I am positive that I will continue to use iTunes U after I finish this class. I enjoy the simplicity of downloading and listening rather than reading.

Dr. Alice Christie

At first all I could say about this site was wow. There is a ton of information on this site. I do not know how she had time to teach putting all of this together. The section that I decided to write about was the educational technologies section. I found a link that related to the using wikipedia assignment about how to check the site for validity. The section that I spent the most time in was the podcasting section because I am very interested in using podcast in the classroom. There is a a lot of resources for podcasting and how to use it in the classroom. Overall this was a very informative website. I hope to explore this site in more depth when I have some free time.

Mr. McClung: What I've Learned This Year

This was a very helpful blog post from Mr. McClung. My first year is one of the things that I am anticipating the most about becoming a teacher. I think that the first year is probably one of the biggest learning experiences that you will have in becoming a teacher.

My favorite part of his blog was about being flexible. "NO LESSON IS EVER PERFECT. THE LESSON YOU TEACH AND THE ONE YOU PLAN ARE ALWAYS DIFFERENT." This is very true. We have to be able to adapt and form ourselves and our lessons to the way our students learn.

Wikipedia

After reading the wired story about wikipedia it makes you look at the site in a different light. Being a site that anyone is able to change things makes it open for interest groups and businesses to put forth their own view points and delete others. With the format of the site there is really nothing you can do about it.

I have used wikipedia for some time now and find it valuable when searching for something really quick. I do not think that wikipedia should be abandoned but should be looked at with skepticism as you should with many things on the internet. As far as using wikipedia for a paper or report I think you should look somewhere else. I have been told by my teachers since high school not to use wikipedia for anything other than getting ideas. As far as trusting wikipedia for reliable information I do not think you can do that.