Week 7

This is How We Dream

I really enjoyed this video! I can honestly say that since I received a laptop that my research experiences have been 110% faster and easier. The ways in which society have used technology are absolutely fascinating to me and have made life as a student much better! I am very intrigued by the idea of writing with multi media. I am a the president of the "Cram Club" and I am notorious for holding on to information strictly for testing purposes and leaving that information in the classroom with my test. I think that this new idea for writing with multi media will help my fellows crammers retain our information better.

Networked student

This video was very cute! They could have easily distributed this information via podcast but, the cute pictures made the video more fun and easier to sit through. However, I did find it a little difficult to follow because I was entranced in the pictures. In reference to the question "Do networked students need a teacher"? My opinion is no. These 'networked' students do not NEED a teacher. Teachers provide guidance and help if ever needed but all information that needs to be distributed can be done from the screen of your computer.

Toward a New Future of Whatever

I did not enjoy this video that much. I knew some of the people he referenced but I did not know many of them, so I found myself lost on several occasions. I do agree that we live in a time where peoples main focus is on themselves. People are very independent now and as a result, they are trying to find out who they really are. This longing for self recognition to me has led a great deal of our society to think about and focus on themselves. Michael Wesch is a great speaker, this video just did not reach me in an intriguing way.

Comments4Kids

This week I followed a student named Chris. I read his post about his favorite food. Ironically, we both feel that Chinese is our favorite food. The URL for his blog is http://mrsshetler.edublogs.org/category/students/chris/.

My PLN

For my Personal Learning Network thus far all I have done is simply try to find different people to follow via Twitter, Facebook and blogs. So far, I am following Dr. Strange on Twitter and facebook and through our class blog daily. I am also following Dr. Karl Fisch's blog at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/ . Dr. Fisch has had some very interesting posts that I really enjoyed reading

Comments4Teachers

Week 1

The first post i read was about color coding based on the performance level of the individual. For example, using green for good and red for bad. This seems like a great idea to me because color identification is fast and easy. Using this tactic, students will simply have to quickly glance at the table to know whether or not they are doing well in class.




Week 2
This week Mr. Needleman made a post about his presentation at CUE about using Apple Software for Response to Intervention programs. This post was very interesting to me because I just got done studying RTIs. I like his way of defining Response to Intervention:

"As I define it, rather than simply teaching everyone the same thing and assuming that if someone doesn’t “get it” that there’s something wrong with them, RTI assumes that there will be students who do not master a concept after whole group instruction and will need additional time and intensity (interventions) to master concepts."

He posted several graphs and links to pages that showed evidence o f how well Apple Software helped him in the classroom.

Here is a link to Matthew Needleman's blog: http://creatinglifelonglearners.com/

Week 3

This week I read Dr. Fisch's post about a math assignment for his daughter Abby. In this assignment she needed to gather data. He created a google docs form and posted it on his blog and on Twitter. In a matter of hours he had over 200 responses from 18 different countries! This was fascinating to me! His daughter truly got a wide range of answers and I'm sure she had some wonderful data for her project!

Dr. Fisch's daughter Abby playing the guitar for her grandmother via Skype.

Here is a link to Dr. Fisch's blog : http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/

Week 6

Dr. Alice Christie
I feel that I could get alot of use from the web design page on Dr. Alice Christie's website. In school (thus far) I have had no real introduction for how to create useful websites to aid my teaching. This page has a list of well designed sites that can be used as an example when creating your own site. I would use these listed sites and take note of the things they have in common. I would also look into different things that I like about each site and then possible use these different things to create a useful site of my own.

This site also has some examples of POORLY designed sites. I could use these sites to compare from the well designed. I would look at the differences and begin to notice what to do and what NOT to do when creating a website.

iTunesU
I feel that iTunesU is a GREAT idea! There have been many times that I could have used the resource for class or even just for personal interest in a subject. I have not been able to find a great deal of information so I am still trying to grasp the concept. However, if I have a correct understanding of this tool then it should be a fantastic source for everyone!

The video I watched to get an explanation was on this link (http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/). It was relatively helpful however, I still had many questions after watching it.From my own experience, I have often not been able to access online school lessons because of lack of internet access. This new tool could solve that problem. When you purchase a track from iTunesU, it stays on your iTunes and can be synced to your ipod, making it accessible to you at any location. I will absolutely look into iTunesU for my teaching as well as for my own education.

Duke on iTunes
I learned alot about iTunesU and how to access tracks. All aspects from the Duke are found on iTunes from athletics to featured speakers. I feel as though this would be a GREAT educational tool for those individuals who can not afford to attend college. Though they would not be receiving a degree, they would still be expanding their academic growth.

Week 5

Wikipedia and WIRED
I do not feel like Wikipedia is a reliable source! I have been told for years from professors NOT to use Wikipedia as a source of information because its information cannot always be trusted. However, I do feel that the new source for tracking Wikipedia editors makes this source much more reliable. By being able to track the changes made to this website, viewers can look into how the information has changed. To really decide how I feel about the reliability of Wikipedia, I need to research it further.

"What I've Learned This Year" By: Mr. MClung
This is a wonderful post! The different points that were brought up are all very valid and make perfect sense. Through my coaching job I have learned that all of these points are very, very important. The most important points to me are communication and knowing how to read your crowd. If you cannot communicate well with your students, you will not be able to effectively teach them to their fullest potential. By knowing how to read your students, you will be able to make lesson plans that suit your class best.

Week 4

Practicle Principles
I had to listen to this podcast 3 times before I actually understood what they were talking about. The quality of this podcast is TERRIBLE and it has really turned me off from podcasts. The volume changed several times and at some points I could not hear anything at all. However, at times I had to turn my volume down.

All I really got from this podcast was listening to the hosts ramble on and on about anything and everything. There seemed to be no real point for this podcast. They did discuss a few dates for events that they would be holding and where they would be located. They also mentioned that they would be meeting each other formally for the first very soon.

I DID NOT enjoy this podcast and really did not learn anything. I hope that other podcasts for this class get more interesting. If not, it's going to be a looooooooong semester.