Week 9

ACCESS
To me the Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide, also known as ACCESS, is a great program! ACCESS is a distance learning program in which students and teacher can be in two different places and communicate through technology. Through this program students can take advanced diploma courses as well as numerous other courses not provided by other schools. Students are also offered advanced placement courses and remediation courses.

I believe that ACCESS can help students in great way by expanding their academic limits. This program will give students the chance to take any class they are interested in, even if it is not provided at their school. For example, my high school did not offer a German class. Through ACCESS students can now take German.

ALEX
The Alabama Learning Exchange, ALEX, is another great learning tool used in the state of Alabama through technology. ALEX is a part of the ACCESS program. It allows teachers to borrow, store and share lessons plans. When teachers store their lessons plans, people can then critique theses lesson plans. When they find something that they dislike about a lesson plan, they must then write why they do not like it and how they could improve it. This could be very helpful in making sure that the students in Alabama schools are offered the best education possible.

My PLN
This week I visited John R Sowash's blog at:
http://electriceducator.blogspot.com/.
I read his post about his MACUL conference. I haven't been able to find much information about it however, the topics being discussed seem very interesting and I would like to follow up on this conference.

Week 8

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Before watching this video, I was honestly not happy at all about this hour and a half long assignment. However, afterwards my feelings were completely different! Randy Pausch is so funny and such a great speaker. I have so much respect for him being able to keep such a strong, attitude in the midst of what is going on in his life.
I loved listening to him describe the different ways in which he had accomplished several of his childhood dreams. There were several boundaries he had to get through to accomplish some of these goals, but he never let them get in his way.
After talking about his childhood dreams, he talked about how he had helped others achieve theirs dreams. After completing his dreams, he dedicated his like to helping his students to achieve every dream that he could. This was truly inspiring!
I believe that everyone should watch this video. Randy Pausch is inspiration to me and I will keep this video on my mind daily trying to remember the importance of living your life and completing your dreams.


Comments4Kids
This week I commented on a 12 year boy named Chris's blog. He said that he enjoyed being outside and playing basketball. He has 3 brothers and 3 sisters and that he loves his life!

My PLN
For my personal learning network I have still been following Dr. Strange via Twitter, though I have not found very much information. I have also been following Matthew Needleman's blog at http://creatinglifelonglearners.com/. His blog is always updated with interesting new posts that are very helpful to aspiring educators. Go to his blog or look on my Comments4Teachers post to read about some of his posts.

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.

Week 3

The first Podcast I listened to was the Smartboard Lessons. They had a great idea on this one about how to use movies in math. This idea could be very helpful to students and teachers. Not only will it make lessons easier for teachers to teach, but it will also make it more fun and interesting for students.


In the Kid Cast podcast they evaluated the pros and cons of video and audio podcasts. While video podcasts are more ideal for visual learners, audio podcasts are perfect for people who want to listen while driving. I believe that it is a personal choice for the watcher/listener and that they both have positive and negative aspects.

In Connect Learning they talked aboiut the different ways that podcasting can be helpful in the classroom. If a child misses school one day, the teacher can communicate with the parents via podcast and let them know the assignments that need to be made up. Also, teachers can put homework and project assignments in podcasts to help parents to stay imformed about their children.

Macbreak was the most informative and professional of all the podcasts I watched. The different AT&T technologies were all very interesting. My favorite episode was about the iPad. I liked that this particular podcast used music also.

I did NOT enjoy the This Week in Photography podcast! I am very visual learner with a severe case of ADD haha and for me to keep my focus in an audio podcast is very difficult. I cound it to be very boring and poorly recorded. The audio was not all the same volume which made it very frustrating to listen to.

Overall I do not think that podcasting is for me. Yes, there are some very good aspects of podcasting and they can be very useful but, I don't think that I would voluntarily watch and/or listsen to them.

Week 2

A Vision of Students Today
I completely agree with the information used in this video! I can honestly say that half of my professors from college don't know my name, that I spend outrageous amounts of money on textbooks (most of which are not needed) and that I have had probably 300 classmates that have paid for class and never showed up. I agree with the conclusion that chalkboards have had little to no impact on the advancement of education. The Smart Boards used in classrooms today are a perfect example of how much technology has furthered the opportunity for education.

The expenses that were used a examples in this video (tuition, books, laptops, etc.) are a perfect display of why people are so in debt when they graduate college. I would love to make a survey of all the questions used in this video. If distributed evenly throughout different colleges in our university, I believe that our results would be frighteningly close to those at Kansas State University. I really enjoyed this video.

"It's Not About the Technology"
This text is 100% correct to me. I do believe that all successful teacher should be able to teach their students under any circumstances with using whatever tools are available. Smart boards and computers are only good tools for learning if they are put in the hands of innovative teachers. They should not only be able to use these sources of technology, but they should able to apply them in ways that are helpful to the furthering of a child's education.

Teachers have to commit to continuing their knowledge in accordance with the advances in technology. Also, they must be able to use these advances in a creative and innovative way that will grasp the attention of the their students. For teachers that do all of these things, technology can do amazing things. However, Kelly Hines is correct that the teachers who don't, technology is useless

Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
I believe that number one on Fisch's list is a much needed for all educators in today's society. Though I feel like teachers should be able to teach without the help of technology, I believe strongly that technology can make a huge impact on the way that children learn. Though technology is not a necessity in classrooms, it is part of our society today and teachers should not only know how to use technology, but they should be able to teach their students how to use it. I also agree completely with his statement in number two that "People who do not meet the criterion of #1 should be embarrassed, not proud, to say so in public."

"We should stop being so nice. After all, we've got our qualifications and jobs, and we don't have the moral right to sit placidly on the sidelines whilst some educators are potentially jeopardizing the chances of our youngsters." This statement is very true to me. The futures of the young people in our country are at risk when teachers are not preparing them for the technology that they will be faced with. Having little knowledge of technology today can affect their potential of job opportunities in the future.

Gary's Social Media Count
The rate that these numbers are moving at is mind blowing! Having a chance to look at how much email, SMS messaging, Facebook, Twitter and so many more technological products are used per second is absolutely fascinating! The plus side to this as a teacher is that while all of these people are using so much technology, it makes it easier for them to create new technology. The more technology that is created can only be used for the better in classrooms.

Week 1

Did You Know? 3.0

The Did You Know? 3.0 video was very interesting to me in several ways. The first thing that really caught my attention was the ever ascending population of the world. In the beginning of the video, when it stated that China has 1,300 times the population of the U.S., my attention was grabbed. It fascinated me that in a five minute span that 395 babies were born in India.

Another point that caught my eye, was that in the U.S. it has been found that most people have had 10-14 jobs by the age of 38 and that 25% of all workers will keep their current job for less than a year. My mind really got turning when I realized that most the information I learned my freshmen year in college, is now outdated.

The most interesting part of this video to me was the different ways in which technology has advanced in the past twenty years. The internet reached 50 million users 19 times faster than the radio, and 6.5 times faster than the TV. The internet is responsible for one eighth of all marriages today.

This video was very, very interesting to me and I can not wait to see how the world advances in the next few years.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

Matthew Needleman's use of still pictures to portray the image of the story of Mr. Winkle Wakes was perfect.

Through a mix of live photographs and animation, Needleman truly captured the meaning of this story.

Mr. Winkle Wakes confusion after his 100 year slumber truly shows us the ways in which the world has

advanced through technology and education. The reassuring part of this story is that no matter how much technology

and society change, the importance of education remains to be a vital part of the culture of the United States. That importance of education is the reason that these technological advances have been possible.

The Importance of Creativity

Your Students' Digital Smarts

I felt as though she truly wanted her students to learn how to successfully use the technology that has had such an

impact on our country as well as all countries throughout the world. She not only wanted them to know how to use this technology,

but she was very aware of the importance of the use of all forms of technology.

This video really made me want to be in Ms. Vicki Davis's class! While she was teaching the children about the uses and importance

of technology, she made it fun and enjoyable for her students. The Avatar project that the children were using in the video

First Post

This is my first post.