Comments for Kids Summary #1

The first blog that we were assigned to comment on was the manifesto, and I really enjoyed reading the one that my assigned student had written. In her manifesto, she pledged to make her eighth grade year a great one because she knew that the younger children in her school were probably looking up to her. I thought that this was such a nice thing to think about because she was aware that her actions were possibly going to influence others. One of the things that she promised that she was going to work hard towards this year was timeliness. She stated that she was going to do her best to get to school on time every day and that she would also try to turn all of her homework assignments in on time.

The next post that I commented on of this student's was one that talked about ways of staying safe while using the internet. I thought that the best thing that she included in this post was an acronym for remaining smart when you are on the internet. This was a great way to help others remember the rules of being safe on while working on the internet. She also stated that she has learned to never put personal information about yourself on the internet. This means to leave things such as your phone numbers and house address off of the internet.

I enjoyed reading and commenting on both of these posts. I feel like the student who I was assigned to comment on did very well with the posts that she made. It was good to see that both of the assignments given to her by her teacher were things that really made the students think and put their best foot forward in things that involved their academics and the internet. After these two assignments, all of the students in the class will now know what to do to stay away from possible dangers of the internet, and they will also have goals to keep up with throughout the rest of their school year. I thought that both of the assignments caused the students to think creatively, and that is always a wonderful thing in my opinion.

Blog Post assignment #5

The Eagle Nest Radio podcasts that were done by third graders were excellent! All of the podcasts that I watched on this website were done very nicely and they made me think more positively about doing future podcast assignments. When my group completed our project for project #8, I was very nervous and I think that it probably showed on the video. These third graders did not seem nervous at all, and they were making there own podcasts! I am really surprised to see that some elementary school children are doing things like this because when I was that age, I had never even heard of a podcast. Visiting websites like this one gives me so much more to look forward to when I become a teacher.

The Education Podcast Network website was incredibly educational and nice to read. Unfortunately, I had already completed my first podcast assignment when I read the information on this website, but it will definitely be helpful for me in the future. One of the things that i liked most about this website is that all of the information given on it was easy to read and understand. This website went from the most basic questions about podcasts and went right through things dealing with them that tend to be a bit more challenging. I was glad to read all of the information on this website because before taking EDM 310, I had never completed a podcast before. Now I will have a great resource to refer back to next time I need to make another podcast.

The final website that I visited for this blog post assignment had The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom video on it. It was neat to watch the video and to see the list of benefits that were posted below it. Although I am just now becoming familiar with podcasting, I definitely agree with all of the benefits that were mentioned during this video. I think that it is great for students who might miss class for an extended period of time, because all they will have to do to catch up on their missed work is watch the lessons on the podcasts. There are endless possibilities and benefits that podcasting can bring to our classrooms.

Podcast Project #6

Blog Post Assignment #4

I enjoyed reading Dr. McLeod's post because it made me think of technology for our students in a way that I had not thought of it before. He pointed out the potential dangers that children can face by using things such as the internet. While the dangers are present, he also made the point in his blog that our students pretty much need to be taught with technology. It is so true that students should be introduced to technology for he sake of their future, but as future teachers we must make sure that they are protected as possible from the dangers that they might face. In my opinion, it is also our responsibility to be sure that our students do not become entirely dependent on the use of technology. I really liked the way that Dr. McLeod a the Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University.

The The iSchool Initiative video was very interesting. I had never thought of having all of those programs available to us on a single device. Having all of those things so readily available seems both convenient and actually a lot of fun to use. I think that students might be more willing to do their school work if it involves technology. With the way that we are transforming so quickly, I would not be surprised if something like this were to actually happen in the near future.

The main benefit mentioned in this video was the fact that it would save money, and we all know that many of our schools are in desperate need of doing just that. The one thing that I would worry about is what would happen to those students who were unable to afford a device such as the iTouch. While I know that things such as graphing calculators in school are just as expensive, they are not always required because some people cannot afford them. If everything related to school was on a device such as this one, many people could potentially be left out.

I really liked The Lost Generation video. It was almost a little bit sad to me because I feel like many of the things that were said to begin with were so true. It sounds nice to say that we can reverse these things, but is it really possible? Our world is changing so much everyday that I don't think that we can change some of the things that were mentioned. We can try to change these things as individuals, but it won't truly fix anything unless everyone is on the same page. The technique used to make this film was amazing! I never would have guessed that it was going to turn out the way it did simply by reversing it!

The virtual choir was also quite astonishing! I had never seen anything like that and I thought that it was so neat! I am still amazed that we are actually living in times when things like this are possible. It all seems so surreal to me sometimes. I never would have guessed that these things would be changing my world right in front of my eyes. Sometimes it seems like I am watching a movie from the future and I have to remind myself that this is now! I cannot wait to see what technology brings us in the next few decades or so.

Additional Activity #1

Before doing this activity, I had never used Google Squared or WloframAlpha. I found both of these sites to be very helpful and informative. I wish that I would have known about them before now because I can think of so many times in the past that I could have benefited from these sites! Students might find these sites incredibly helpful when completing an assignment such as a Geography assignment because their searches will provide them with more than enough information about places around the world. While the sites are incredibly helpful for things like this, they can also be used to gather many other types of information. Another thing that I particulary liked was the set up of graphs and charts provided as a result of searches done on these sites.

After completing some searches on Google Squared and WolframAlpha, my views on the video Did You Know? have changed a little bit. It makes a huge difference when you realize the population differences between China, India, and the United States. At first I felt like these countries were sort of racing past us in education, but now I do not feel that way so much. Of course they have more honor students and english speaking students, because they have more students period. I now realize how important it is to analyze information when you are given a statistic before jumping to conclusion about the facts that you have been given. Even if the things that you have been told are true, they might not be what you think they are.... do research before being totally amazed is the lesson that I got out if this!

Presentation Project #5

Comments for Teachers Summary #1

The teacher that I was assigned to comment on for the first time was Mrs. Kathy Cassidy. The first post that I commented on was one that explained what her ideas for her classroom setup were for this year. In this post, she stated that she was changing the setup of her classroom for many reasons. For instance, she wanted to provide a comfortable place for her students to curl up with a book, so she was going to be bringing in a love seat to add to her classroom. Her post also stated that she had changed the plans for her room many times and she still was not quite sure exactly what she was going to decide on yet. My favorite part of this post was the way that she came up with to view her different ideas without having to actually move the furniture and things around each time she changed her mind. The way she did this was by creating a paper model of her classroom. This way, she was able to move things around easily and she could still get the effect of each new plan that she came up with. I think that I will definitely be using her paper model idea the first time I decorate and set up my classroom because it seemed so convenient!

Mrs. Cassidy's second post that I commented on was about using videos in the classroom to help you to teach. In this post, she put short films up that showed teachers how to make movies and what advantages they could have in the classroom for your students. The post stated that she found videos to be very helpful in her teaching and she explained the reasons for this. Mrs. Cassidy says that children will love to watch the videos over and over again if they are featured in the film. It is clear from this post that the students enjoy seeing themselves on camera, and that gives them an incentive to want to see the video many times. By viewing the video regularly, the children are continuously being exposed to and learning about  the topic that was being covered when the film was made. Another one of Mrs. Cassidy's valid points made in this post was  that videos are a very effective way of teaching because children learn largely by visual senses.

I enjoyed reading both of these posts and agreed with the points that Mrs. Cassidy had in both of them. Both posts were very helpful to me and gave me new tools to use as a future teacher. When I commented on these posts, I made sure that I told Mrs. Cassidy how much I agreed with what she had said and that they were definitely going to help me when I become a teacher. In conclusion, I was very glad that I was able to gain knowledge about ways to set up my future classroom and also how to keep my students interested in the ways that they are learning what I teach. Reading these posts was incredibly helpful to me! These posts and my comments can be found on Mrs. Kathy Cassidy's blog.

Blog Post Assignment #3

The video A Vision of Students Today was very interesting and reminded me a lot of the things that I have experienced in my college career so far. It is very true that many people who take their laptops to class with them are not working on school work during class, and I have seen this happening in some of my classes at South. While most people probably simply laugh this off, we have to remember that some of our classmates who are doing this are future educators. One of the other things that really caught my attention in this film was the point that was made about even though some people pay for the class, they never bother to show up for it. What will they do when they are teachers? Just stay at home whenever they don't feel like going to work? It's really something to think about!

If I were to add something to this movie to make it more accurately represent my experiences, I would have it include people texting during class. I know that technology is a great thing in the future of our classrooms, but it can also cause problems for some teachers and students. A great example of this is students texting in class while the teacher is giving a lecture. I have seen this happening many times since I began college, and it can be very distracting for all of the people in the classroom. Like everything, technology will bring its ups and downs into our classrooms.

Mrs. Kelly Hines' post was also very nice. It was refreshing to see a teacher who appreciates technology but also realizes that we as teachers should be able to function without it also. I thought that it was great for her to say that we should continue to do some teaching without the use of all of the new technologies, even though they are available to us. It is so true that technology is useless without a good teacher behind it. No matter how much new technology classrooms might have, our children are still in need of having great teachers.

One thing that I have thought about after reading her post is that parents might not be able to help their children as much as they used to because they might not be familiar with what their child is doing at school if it involves new technology. For example, if a student is given homework on a computer, their parent might not help them as readily as they would if they were doing homework by hand. I worry that the parents might become intimidated by the new technologies used by their children's teachers because they were not ever introduced to them when they were in school. It would be a shame if something like this were to keep a parent from being involved in their child's schoolwork.

I definitely enjoyed exploring Mr. Karl Fisch's blog. I really like the things that he says in many of his blogs and I am becoming a big fan of his through seeing his work through this class. For me, the answer to his question, is it okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher, seems incredibly complicated. The first answer that comes to my mind when hearing this question is of course it is! Why should we have to use technology to teach our students if they can understand what we are teaching and are successful without the use of technology?

After I thought about my initial reaction to this question, I became a little bit puzzled by my own thoughts. While I do not think that it matters how you teach as long as your students understand you, in today's world it might actually not be okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher. There are many things these days that are required of teachers that force them to use technology. For example, all grades are now kept on the computer instead of on paper- this is not an option for teachers as far as I know. Secondly, our job as teachers is to prepare our students for a prosperous future. If a student is going to be successful throughout his or her life, they will almost certainly need to be familiar with technology, so they might be at a disadvantage if they are not introduced to it at a young age in schools and at home.

The changes that I saw happening on the social media count really impressed me. It is so amazing to actually see the numbers of things changing every second! It is obvious that technology truly is taking over our world. This to me means that we as teachers have the responsibilities to learn it and become familiar with it if we want to or not. When I first saw the statistic about how what we are learning now will be outdated in a few years, I could not believe it. Now, after seeing things like this, that fact is becoming more and more real to me. People, the world, and our classrooms are all changing at an alarming rate and we have to commit ourselves to keeping up with all of it!










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