Blog Post 15: Final Reflection

This is my final reflection for EDM 310. I had a lot of fun this semester. I have learned so much, and I am glad that I took this class when I did.

Final Project #16

For my groups' final project, we conducted a survey to see how classrooms in the real world are using technology. Our results can be found in the  following presentation. My group included Lisianna Emmett, Tracy Hunt, Jennifer Silcox, and myself.

Final Report on PLN

When I first started on this project, I was clueless as of where to start.  I thought that it was going to be a tedious job of working on it, but I was wrong.  Once I started working on it, I discovered many sites that I could use and use in my daily life.  As you can see from the picture, I have used symbaloo for my PLN.  I know that my PLN is similar to what it was earlier on in the semester, but I believe that this one will help me become more organized and it will be useful to me. 

By looking at the picture, you can see that my PLN is color coated.  I chose this as a way to tell which links were related and had a similar genre in common.   My colors are described by the following:

• Green represents blogs.  All of the blogs that I find interesting or pertaining to my life as an English major will be found under that color.  Currently I have Blogger, The Learning Network, The EDM 310 Class Blog, My class blog, and Lunacept- intercepting the Web as my websites in green.
• Blue represents Social Networks.  The main social networks that I use will be found on my PLN in this color.  So far, the only blue tiles that I have are Twitter and Facebook.
• Orange represents News Sources.  It is always a good thing to be informed about current news and stories that are important to the lives of people.  The news sources that I have are BBC, The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, The Mobile Press-Register, and The Daleville Sun-Courier.  These are the main news sources that I use in my life.
• White represents e-mail and Google resources. This is where I will keep links to my email resources and the main Google resources that I will be using.  
• Brown represents music resources.  I normally use these resources as a way to learn about new music.  I generally like to listen to music while I work on projects, and these websites are a great way for me to listen to what I want to.
• Red represents preset web-mixes.  Out of the many presets that were available to be used, the three red tiles are the only ones that I thought were pertaining for my constant use.  These tiles were Tech/Gadgets, Health, and News.
• Black represents Education and technology resources.  These sources are taken from the various education and technology websites that I like to be informed on what is new for me to know about as a future teacher.  

Overall, I had a great experience in creating my PLN.  It was hard at times to figure out what I found important enough to put on this PLN.  In the end, I believe that the way that I have it organized, I will be using and updating this source regularly.  

Special Metaphor Assignment (Blog Post #14)

1. I believe that I missed the metaphor, because I looked at the post from a literal standpoint.  I generally tend to look at things from a literal view than out of the box.  I’m someone who tries to stay within the rules and see things as what they actually say.  That is one of my faults that I am working on, and that is the reason on why I missed the metaphor.  

2. Since Dr. Strange had asked for us to keep a log of metaphors a few weeks ago, I have encountered many metaphors.  I did not realize right away that they were metaphors, but I later figured it out.  A few of my favorite metaphors that I have encountered are the following: wet blanket, spoil sport, and Debby downer.  These metaphors were the easiest for me to identify when I first heard them.  

3. Some things that we can do as educators are to introduce our students to a new metaphor every day and ask them to come up with their own.  Also, we could do what this assignment has asked us to do, and let our students keeping a log of all of the metaphors that they come in contact with.

4. We use metaphors to say something without coming straight out and saying it.  This is to avoid offending someone based on their beliefs and various other thoughts.  After working on this assignment, I have realized just how many metaphors are being used every day.   

C4T #4 Summary Post

For my last comments for teachers, I had the pleasure of being assigned to Jenny Luca’s blog entitled Lucacept – intercepting the Web. The first post that I commented on from her blog was called CCAEducause 2011 – The Game Has Changed. This post was very informative of the various types of technology that can be used for educational purposes. CCAEducause 2011 is an education conference that focused on higher education in Australia. This blog post talks about the many uses for technology in libraries, classrooms, and various higher education institutions. Overall, this post made me realize how many different uses there are for technology to be used in higher education.
In the next post called English teachers rejoice! Vocabulary.com is here, Ms. Luca spreads information about a new vocabulary resource. Vocabulary.com is exactly what is says, a vocabulary website. After I read her post on this site, I decided that I was going to visit it. When you first enter the site, it allows you either search for a word or take a vocabulary challenge. The vocabulary challenge tests you on your knowledge of words and their meanings. This is such a great tool for any English teacher and their students.

Project #16: What Technology Do You REALLY Use?

For our final project, my group is conducting a survey to see how real world classrooms are using technology. If you are an educator, plan on being an educator or are even a student in a classroom, please take a moment and complete our questionnaire.

Thank you in advance!

Lisianna Emmett, Michelle French, Tracy Hunt, and Jennifer Silcox

Blog Assignment 13

ALEX, which stands for Alabama Learning Exchange, is an online database and resource service that is available for students and teachers.  There are various sections on the site that are available.  Under the section called Web resources, there are many online sources that are available to learn more for specific subjects.  The sources are split up into categories such as teacher resources, administrator resources, and student resources.  This is helpful because it allows for the students and faculty of different schools to use the site effectively.  A way for teachers to use this site is that it has a database for different lesson plans that have been created for different subjects.  It also has a feature where teachers can create their own lesson plans to share with other teachers. 

There are other sections on the site that are useful as well.  There is a category titled Podcast Treasury.  In this section, teachers and students can select a subject and find many podcasts for that subject and on many different topics within that subject.  When I become a teacher, I will mostly be using the English/Language Arts sections of this website.  This would be helpful because it would allow me to find ideas for activities and lessons for my students to participate in.  The resources section will be used to keep myself updated on all of the current materials that I will need in my classes.

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, & Students Statewide (ACCESS) is a program that allows for students to take classes online.  When I was in high school, I actually got a chance to use this specific program.  I used this system to take AP US History and German I.  This program gives students the chance to take various courses and work at a semi-decent pace.  When I was looking around the site, I noticed that they offer 14 different AP classes, 52 general classes, and graduation exam remediation modules.  This is a system where the students are doing mainly self-learning.  

C4K 7-10 Summary

In my seventh comment for kids, I commented on Mr. McClung’s class blog. The post is called Talent Show. I was assigned to comment on the 8th grader that played a song by Weezer. I did not really recognize the song, but it was played well. The student seemed to put a lot of effort into that song that they were playing. Overall, I believe they did a great job, and I would recommend listening to it.


For my eighth comment for kids, I got to comment on Charlotte’s blog. Her post was called Rocking around the clock. In this post, she tells of the time where she got to learn a dance routine to the song Rock around the Clock. In her post, Charlotte seemed to have fun while learning the routine, and was also excited about her upcoming performance. It is good to see a kid get so excited about learning new things.


My ninth comment for kids was to tour Mrs. Yollis’s class blog and comment on it. In the case of Mrs. Yollis, she uses her class blog to inform people on what her students are learning, and as a way to communicate with people outside of her class as well. She allows for her students to be involved by letting them comment on the blog, and she has a section on her blog that is dedicated to her student’s blogs. By showing what her students are learning, she is also involving the parents in that way. Another thing that I noticed was that Mrs. Yollis allows students from around the world to post on the class blog. For instance, there is a post called “Where is Nonnon – Dove e’ Nonno – Courmayeur, Italy.” This was posted by a student by the name of Nonno who lives in Italy.


Mrs. Yollis has many different instructional posts and videos on her class blog. There is the video on how to comment, a post on how to learn HTML code, a slide show on California, and a video on how to shoot great digital images. All of these are separated into sections at the top of her class blog. When I was watching the videos and reading the information, I was surprised at how informative it was. In the slide show about California, I did not know most of the information that was presented in it. In Mrs. Yollis’ section on HTML code, I learned some code for symbols that I did not know before. The video on commenting was very informative and it shows exactly what it expected of someone when they are posting on her blog.


Another part of my assignment for my ninth comment was to comment on Mrs. Yollis’s post entitled Quality Commenting During Family Blogging Month. This post is full of examples of quality comments that have been found on Mrs. Yollis’s class blog. It uses examples to show what kinds of comments are acceptable on her class blog. This in turn shows what you should not write as a comment on her class blog. I was just fascinated with how many comments there were from different places, and how well the comments were written. In the future, I hope to allow my students do something similar to this, and allow them to write comments as good as the ones that I read.


My last comment for kids was written to Grace from Mrs. Yollis’s class. Grace’s blog is called Grace on the Go! The post that I commented on was titled Quality Comments. Her blog post was very informative on what is an acceptable comment on a blog. She tells how you should make a connection, leave a question, and use proper grammar when writing a comment. Also, it is mentioned that if you receive a comment on your blog, you should reply back to them. I found her post to be informative and interesting. I was certainly surprised to see how well Grace had written her post, compared to the other kid’s blogs that I have seen this semester.

Blog Assignment 12

Watch Salman Khan's video called "Let's use video to reinvent education".  After you have watched this video, answer the following questions in a blog post.
1. Who exactly is Salman Khan?
2. How can Mr. Khan's program be used effectively in your future classroom?
3. What advantages and disadvantages do you see for using this type of program in the classroom?
4. At the rate that education is becoming more involved with technology around the world, do you believe that education will eventually turn into a "global, one world classroom"?

Salman Khan is the founder of "The Khan Academy."  The Khan Academy is a free education platform which contains over 2200 educational videos for different subjects but mainly focuses on mathematics and the sciences.  I believe that Khan's program can be used in classrooms to allow the students to think ahead of time about the topics that can be discussed in class.  As Khan was saying in the video, one teacher told him that his videos were being assigned the night before, and the teacher was taking the next day in class to work on the homework assignments that they would have given the kids.  I believe that it could be used effectively in my future classroom; by allowing my students to look over the information in the videos beforehand, that they would be prepared for the next day. 
There are advantages and disadvantages that can be seen in using this program.  There is the fact that students would be going at their own pace in this program.  In some ways that is a good thing, and some ways a bad thing.  It allows the students to fully grasp the subject before moving on, but it can also be seen as that the students do not really have to work on it at that current time, and they would proceed to procrastinate for as long as possible.  An advantage that I see to this program is that the teacher can check on each child's progress, and offer help to that student in that area.  In my opinion, I do not think it is even possible to comprehend a "global, one world classroom".  It seems that there would be many problems and questions that would arise from this situation.  Questions such as: Who would teach the students in a "global, one world classroom"?

Project #16 Progress Report

As of now, the group I am in is formed. It is made up of Lisianna Emmett, Tracy Hunt, Jennifer Silcox, and myself. We are currently gathering ideas for what exactly we are doing for the project. We have a wiki which we will be using to discuss our ideas. The wiki says it is for project 15, but it is being reused for this project.

Project #15

For my groups Project 15, we worked on the USA First Gift video contest.  I am sorry to say that the video will not be available for viewing on Youtube until the contest is over.  Until then, it is located on the EDM310 Family computer in the lab.

Blog Assignment 11

By watching Ms. Cassidy’s video, and Skype interview, I now have an idea of how she uses technology in the classroom.  Ms. Cassidy teaches her first graders by letting them blog and comment on other’s blogs as well. They use wiki pages in class to learn different things.  Everything on Ms. Cassidy’s Class blog is there so that the students can learn.  Ms. Cassidy also teaches her students to talk to people through Skype, collaborate through the Internet, and has even allowed them to create videos to show what they are learning.  The uses for technology that is being used is letting the kids have fun while learning. 

Some of the things that I would like to implement in my class are the use of technology, and making it a fun experience for my students.  I find that creating videos, using Skype, and blogging are a good way to start using technology in the classroom.  Some benefits that I anticipate by using Ms. Cassidy’s approaches would be that it allows for the students to be excited about learning.  They way that she using technology in class shows that her students want to learn.  As a future-teacher, I want to see my students want to learn.  I do not want them to think that learning is a chore or boring subject.  I believe by using these approaches, it will make so that my students will look forward to learn each day.

Project # 14: Teach Someone Something

Special Assignment: Mr. McClung's World

1. By looking at all of the aspects of Mr. McClung's blog, I came to the conclusion that he is a very organized person.  Everything on his blog has a place that it belongs in.  The way that his blog is put together allows for the students and everyone else to interact with it better.  I may not be as organized as Mr. McClung, but I appreciate how easy it is to find things on this blog.

2. As an educator, Mr. McClung sounds to be an amazing teacher.  He seems to really be enthusiastic about his career, and wants to make school fun and exciting for his students.  In my opinion, he is exactly the kind of teacher that will go far in his field, and do it while having fun along the way.

3. Mr. McClung’s “rules” show how much he trusts his students to follow directions, and to think for themselves.  By looking at his rules, one can see that he expects them to be polite in the classroom by raising their hands to speak and to leave their seats.  Also, it seems to me that he wants his students to make the right decisions by themselves.  My initial reaction to these rules was, “That’s it?”  I was surprised that those were the only rules that he had set for his students.  As I sat and thought about it, those rules seemed to be the right rules.  As teachers, we should be able to trust our students to make right decisions, be polite, and follow directions.  If students can follow these rules properly it makes our life as teachers, and the lives of our students’, easier.

4. The first thing under “Everyone needs” was a Daily Planner.  I believe that this is the first requirement, because everyone needs to be organized.  By having a Daily Planner, students will learn to be organized and to write down assignments for future references.

5.  Mr. McClung’s penalties are each day that the assignment is late, it drops a letter grade.  Compared to Dr. Strange, it is the same basic principle.  Dr. Strange says that if you turn your work in late continuously, you are most likely guaranteed a failing grade in the class.

6. What he hopes to accomplish with his blog is encourage the use of technology and blogging in the classroom.  As a future-teacher, I see his blog as an inspiration.  I am greatly interested in implementing technology into the classroom.  Blogging is also a good way to approach the use of technology for learning in the classroom.  In the future, I wish that I could do as good of a job as Mr. McClung in using technology and blogs effectively in a classroom.

7.  The two sites that I reviewed in depth were “Plagiarism Checker” and “Convert PDF to Word.”  The link for “Convert PDF to Word” led to a converter for PDF files.  It is a free site, where the process is in three steps.  First you select the PDF file, decide if it is to be in .doc or .rtf format, and then provide an email where the word file should be sent.  This is a very useful tool in my opinion, because some people prefer to have a word document instead of a PDF file.  The link for “Plagiarism Checker” is self-explanatory.  This site is a free plagiarism checker.  It is simple as cutting and pasting the essay into the text box, then clicking the check button.  This is a good tool for teachers and students.  Students can use this to make sure that their papers are not plagiarized.  I think both of these links made his list, because they can serve a constant purpose.  It is very beneficial to have access to these two sites on a regular basis for different circumstances.

8. The rules that Mr. McClung sets forth for safely using the internet are very helpful in most cases.  It is better to not use a full name when commenting on other blogs, but in some cases one has no choice but to.  It is a good thing that for his students that he has a generic email for students to use.  The disadvantage of this is that not everyone has the advantage of having a generic email just for comments of outside blogs.  Overall, I do not see the need to add or take away any of the rules that Mr. McClung has for his students on internet safety.

9. When I looked under the category of Videos, I found some very interesting posts.  There were history lesson, news reports, and my others.  One of the posts was called “The End is in Sight.”  This post is talking about the class’ continued lesson on the Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation.  There were two videos in this post.  One was telling about the Emancipation Proclamation, and the other told about the impact the document had on slaves at the time.  This was a very interesting way of showing what the students were learning in the class.

10. One thing that I liked about Mr. McClung’s blog is that there is a feature where you can talk with him.  I find this to be interesting, because it allows for direct contact with him where people can ask questions in regards to his blog.  I find that this would be something interesting to have in Blogger to allow for a faster information transaction to occur between the owner of the blog and the person questioning.

11. Mr. McClung makes his blog useful by allowing for people to look at see what his students are working on in the classes.  This blog shows that he is doing more than just teaching the students, but encouraging them to do their best in what they can do.  Parents, teacher, administrators, students, and others can use this blog as an example of teaching methods, and a source of information for 

12. His 8^th grade blog is different, because the students do not seem to post at all.  This is interesting; because of all the blogs that I have commented on, most kids have to post.  This blog is mainly set up as a way to keep up on information in the class. In the Arkansas History section of the blog, is full of resources that talk about the subject and tells of what is to be expected in class.  This blog reminds me of the EDM 310 class blog.  It is there as a way to pass information to his students and to remind them or certain topics that he may have forgotten to mention in class.

13. Overall, I enjoyed reading Mr. McClung’s blog.  It is a very useful tool for any educator, and the way that it is set up allows for efficient use of the blog.

Blog Assignment 10

In Morgan Bayda’s post An Open Letter to Educator’s, she tells of her experiences as a student. She recounts how that when she was in her education class for computers, they were encouraged to talk to people and to communicate with other students. While she was able to do this in this class, it seemed to her that they were not encouraged to talk to anyone but the professor in her other classes. In my opinion, it is better to talk and communicate with others in the class and even people outside of the class to be able to succeed in classes such as EDM 310. Morgan’s computer class seems to be similar to our EDM 310 class at South Alabama. After watching the video by Dan Brown, I seem to understand why Morgan found the video to be interesting. He surely had an interesting view of education and how it is applied. While I may not agree with him on all that he said, I can see where he is coming from. Information is easier to come by now than it used to be.

Tom Johnson’s post Don’t Let Them Take Pencil’s Home is very entertaining. Most of the arguments seem to make no sense. The argument that says, “I have a journal article about how students who use pencils at home have lower standardized test scores.” This makes no sense in my opinion. How does the fact of students using pencils at home relate to them having lower standardized test scores? For all we know, there could be an alternate reasoning as to why their test scores are lower. Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable article to read.

C4T #3 Summary Post

The third teacher’s blog that I was assigned to this semester was Lee Kolbert’s A GeekyMomma’s Blog. In her post Are You a Good Teacher, she asks what defines a good teacher. Since I do not have any experience in teaching, I do not know first had at what a good teacher is. From a student’s perspective, I believe that a good teacher is someone that can keep a class engaged and wanting to learn more. Other ways to define a good teacher would be their attitude and teaching styles.

In her second post Meetings: Who Owns The Problem? she tells of her concerns regarding meetings. When reading her post, I was amazed at how many distractions there are in meetings. Texting, grading papers, and laptops are just a few of the problems that were addressed in her post. In my opinion, people should not be doing any of those things during a meeting. It is very rude towards the person or people running the meeting. Ms. Kolbert mentions a post written by Chris Brogan. The ideas that were brought up in this post were interesting. Brogan mentions to schedule for brevity, keep agendas taut, and to table anything that doesn’t fit the format. These ideas allow for meetings to flow better and to make them not as bad as they could possibly be. It is better to keep to a schedule tight, not add irrelevant information to the meeting, and mention the purpose of the meeting beforehand.

Blog Assignment 9

In Mr. McClung's post What I Learned This Year, he tells how to read the crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology, listen to your students, and never stop learning. These are the multiple categories that he had written about in a reflection of his first year of teaching. When I read this post, I was not sure what I was going to expect. This post made me stop and think about everything that I knew what a teacher should be.


"How to Read the Crowd" pertained to how teachers teach in a classroom. He tells about that when he had been interning, the lessons were not particularly student centered. In "Be Flexible," he tells how you have to sometimes adjust lessons because there is no such thing as a "perfect" lesson. His section called "Be Reasonable" told that teachers have to expect that not all students are going to live up to the teachers' expectations. "Don't be Afraid of Technology" advises that people should not be afraid to deal with technology but to use it as a tool. Mr. McClung advises teachers to listen to their students. By doing this, the students will understand that the teacher truly care about teaching them. Also, Mr. McClung tells that teachers should never stop learning. Teachers have to constantly learn to keep up with different technologies, ways of teaching, etc.

Project #12 Recorded Skype Interview

C4K 4-6 Summary

My fourth comment for kids went to Serena, who is a year six student at Pt England School in Auckland, New Zealand. In her blog post Miss Slade Class, she tells about her day in class. In class they were asked to write about the Christchurch earthquake. At first, I did not know what she was talking about but I looked it up later. The earthquake was registered at a magnitude of 6.3 and it happened in the Canterbury region of New Zealand’s South Island. This earthquake had caused hundreds of casualties and a decent amount of damage to the area. Now that I know what this earthquake was, I understood why they had been writing about it in their class back then.


For my fifth comment, I commented on Tevita’s Blog. Tevita is a year eight student at Pt England School in Auckland, New Zealand. In his blog post My Graphs, he tells about his experience with learning how to create graphs. They were learning about statistics in school and using graphs to show their findings. In his blog, he included a picture of a graph that was created to show classmates favorite colors. When I was reading this, I was surprised. I did not start learning statistics till I had come to college. My middle and high school did not offer a statistics class. Statistics is a very good thing to learn. If someone is conducting a study, they will need statistics to organize their information so that it makes sense.


My latest comment was on Savannah’s Blog. Savannah is a student in Mrs. Phares’ fourth period class at Edgewood Middle School. In her blog post Bullies, she expresses her concern for bullying in her school. This can be a problem in some schools. Some students that are bullied rarely put up a fight, and some just snap after a long time of being picked on. When I looked at the comments for her post, she had mentioned that it’s not as much as a problem anymore. As someone who had been picked on in middle school, this is a good thing that it is becoming less of a problem.

Blog Assignment 8

Richard Miller: This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
This video shows that people advancing to a point where books are rarely needed to be printed. In regards to the book, As if Learning Mattered: Reforming Higher Education, Richard E. Miller says, “It has now gone the fate of virtually all academic books. It’s out of print, and you can get it on amazon for 59 cents.” It is amazing to how much information you can find online. Most research can now be done without having to set foot in a library.

To be honest, I’m not sure if I am fully prepared to write with multimedia. I believe with enough time, I will be ready. There is also the fact that multimedia changes, and as soon as you learn one another is created. Teachers will always be learning how to write with multimedia. There is no one person who is not learning new things every day. I hope that as time goes by, I will become more capable of writing with different types of multimedia so as to convey my findings to others.

I believe that my students will be able to do this if given the chance. They would be more than capable of learning the various ways to write with multimedia. They can create videos to tell about history, or work on other projects such as audio clips. As a future teacher, I believe that they will be able to learn more if they are able to write with multimedia. Writing with multimedia allows the students to take time to learn about the different topics that are being covered through sound and visual aids.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies

I believe that the messages that are being expressed in these videos are that just because something seems hard, you should not give up. In the Chipper Series, Chipper gave up on college because Dr. Strange’s class was “not working”. In the end, she got a degree, got fired from different jobs, and then decided to go back to school for her masters. This shows that she might have made a bad decision by dropping out. In EDM310 for Dummies, this video shows that as long as you know the main programs that are being used, it can be fun and enjoyable class experience. The characters had given up at the beginning because they felt confused about what they needed to do, but they had not really tried to learn.

Some projects that I would like to do myself are something along the lines of testimonials. I think it would be a good idea to create a video that compared the experiences of the students in EDM310. I would like to show people that that have had bad experiences versus people that are greatly benefiting from the course.


Learn to Change, Change to Learn

I feel that most of these arguments are accurate. Most learning is done outside the classroom through communication. The means of communication outside school is what most kids participate in. School is becoming more of just a place that partially helps with the building of classroom communities. It is better to prepare students for college and life by helping them have a greater academic experience.


The Secret Powers of Time by Philip Zambardo and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by David Pink

In “The Secret Powers of Time”, Philip Zambardo tells that there are six main time zones. There are two main views of the past, present, and future. It mainly talks about being future oriented. He later tells of the Pace of Life, which is an idea by Robert Levine. This tells of the sense of time duration in ordinary life occurrences. Cities and countries are now able to be told by the pace of life. Boys are more likely to drop out of high school than girls. This is apparently because in a study it was found that by the time boys are 21, they have spent 10,000 hours playing video games alone. This is shocking to me. I have friends that play video games, but I could not see how anyone can play that many hours of games. This also talks about family values and how they have changed. About twenty years ago, there was a study which had results of 60% of families had sit down dinners. They redid the study and the results were that 20% of families had sit down dinners. Zambardo brings a good point that there cannot be family values if they do not have sit down dinners. It is better for people to realize their time perspective and others perspectives as well.

In “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us”, Dan Pink tells about different types of motivation through incentives. He tells that people found out that as long as the task only incorporated mechanical skill, the bonuses worked as was to be expected. This was not the same when it came to cognitive skill. Apparently, once you get above rudimentary skills, the performance declines. They replicated this in India and found that the higher the incentives, the performance decreases significantly. In the video it says, “One day of autonomy produces things that never emerge.” This was told as an example that is opposite of incentives.

In my opinion, what is described in the videos is very important in the great scheme of things. Education is changing rapidly and it is being left behind. As it was said in “The Secret Powers of Time,” kids are seeing school as something boring and not wanting to be there. The education is becoming lost to the digital advances. People’s drive for success is incredible. Some people are over achievers and want to work hard to become the best that they can. In the middle of that, they sometimes slack off and have poor performance. Dan Pink tells about how in a study it has been shown that when someone is asked to perform a task above rudimentary skills, the performance just plummets. This has an effect, because it can cause work in a company to be slowed down, and cause problems.

Smart Board Project #13

The results of this presentation are as follows:

1. What state was not in the original 13 colonies? Oregon (All answers were correct.)
2. Which was the first of the 13 colonies? Virginia (All were answered correctly.)
3. Which of the following states is located in the western part of the country? California (Everyone answered correctly.)
4. Between what two states is the capital of the United States located? Maryland and Virginia (This surprised me. No one answered this correctly even though we told the answer in the presentation.)
5. The capital of New York is New York. False (Everyone got it right.)
6. The capital of Virginia is Richmond. True (All answered correctly.)
7. Virginia was founded in 1629. False (This was shocking to me. One person answered this incorrect and it had been covered in the presentation.)
8. Where is Montana located? West (One person answered incorrect and everyone else was correct.)
9. Where is New Jersey located? East (Everyone answered this correctly.)
10. Where is Nebraska located? Central (All participants answered this correctly.)
11. As a bonus we asked: What is the capital of Alabama? Montgomery (Everyone answered this correctly. If someone had answered incorrectly, I would have been shocked.)


Overall, I really enjoyed working with the Smart Board and giving a presentation using it. The results were good, but it shows that we need to find other ways so that the students retain the information better. From the information that I have provided, it is mainly the location of the states and dates that people did not remember as well.  I will take this information, and find a way so that students remember the information given to them better.  I would gladly use the Smart Board for another presentation.

PLN Project #10 Progress Report

This is currently my PLN, Personal Learning Network, on Symbaloo. It is not finished yet, and I will be adding more things to it as I continue on in the semester. I plan to add more research sites that will help me with my papers that I will want to write. I will also try to find more blogs that contain information about the education world and the technology used to teach. I can't wait to see what else I will come across while I am furthering my education and my PLN.

Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was in charge of the virtual reality program. His last lecture was given September 18th, 2007, and the very next year on July 25th, 2008 he died of pancreatic cancer. In the last lecture, he talks about how to achieve your childhood dreams and how he achieved his. He also tells that there are always “brick walls” that will be there to get in your way, and you need to find a way to get around them. “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.”

Throughout the lecture he provides stories from his childhood, which has inspired him and his teaching. When he played football as a kid, he learned that you have to learn the fundamentals and work hard at getting them right before you start with the more complicated problems. “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” This is a good quote to follow. In my opinion, if you always get what you want, you do not learn anything from your failures and how to correct it in the future. 

Randy Pausch motivated his students to work hard to go above and beyond in class, and encouraged them to achieve their dreams. In his class “Building Virtual Worlds,” Pausch encourages his students to do better by telling them that they did well, but he knows that they could do better. According to Pausch, this was the right words to say because the students came up with better and more interesting projects as the semesters went on. This allowed for his students to set the bar on what they thought was good enough. One thing that Pausch says in the lecture is that people learn from their students. He has learned a lot from his students, and he takes all of the lessons from them and puts it to work in his teaching and life.
The Last Lecture has many good messages in it about how to teach, how to live, and how to have fun doing it. 

The first time that I saw this lecture was my senior year of high school. My English teacher showed the lecture at the end of the semester, and we read the book every day of the semester. I was moved by the lecture and his story that he had told. To be able to speak about his life and what he has accomplished during that time shows that anybody can achieve their dreams, and that you should live your life to the fullest. “If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”

Short Movie Project #11

C4T #2 Summary Post

For my second teacher, I was assigned to Brian Crosby's blog called Learning is Messy.
In the first post that I read titled Transparency, he mentions a quote from the show "The West Wing." This quote is based on a real life occurrence. I enjoyed reading the quote in his post. It shows that people make mistakes, even professionals. One thing about mistakes is that you can always take that mistake and use it as an example of what not to do the next time. Kids believe that they make a lot of mistakes, but they are only just beginning. They are expected to make mistakes when they are starting. This quote made me think about learning math versus real world application of math. Math seems hard while you are learning, but it becomes more complicated in the real world when it is applied to the different sciences.
The next article I read by Brian Crosby was How did you begin your technology journey?. This post told of his first experiences in his technological journey. According to his post, the first computer that he worked with in education was 25 years ago, when his school had gotten four Apple II-E computers. I don't know much about the history of computers, but I do know that I had never heard of this computer until it was mentioned in Mr. Crosby's post. In comparison to how much experience Mr. Crosby has, I feel inexperienced in the world of computers. My goals now will to educate myself more on computers and the different software that is available.

Blog Assignment 6

The Networked Student By: Wendy Drexler
I didn't know what to expect when I first read the title of the post. I was shocked to say the least. The fact of how well the presentation was put together amazes me. It is such a simple design with paper and hand-drawn pictures. The fact that even though it was a simple design, I could still follow it and understand what they were talking about. The design allowed for images to tell the story.
Other than just the presentation, the information that they are providing in the presentation is helpful. I was not really sure what a PLN was until it was explained in the video. I also now understand why it is so important to build connections through peers and other like minded people through the internet. Another thing is the way that the student is learning allows them to learn how to expand their knowledge. One thing that I noticed about the video, is that it is describing many different forms of technology that allows for learning. It includes podcasts, blogs, interviews online, and other technologies.
The teacher's purpose to a networked student is to show them where to start, give guidance if they get lost, teach them how to create connections, how to differentiate between good and bad information, and how to organize information in a way that it makes sense. These are all different things that are useful in the 21st century. Being able to do all of the things that are talked about in the video, allows for people to be well informed of what they are doing. In my opinion, without the teacher, the networked student might not know where to start without the teacher's guidance. I would be prepared to take on any challenge and even if I am not prepared to be a teacher to a networked student right now, I am determined to be able to teach them in the near future.


A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment
This is a very organized way of having people learn. I did not know that you could do all of those things from one place. I cannot wait until my PLN, Personal Learning Network, is completed. I now have so many ideas for what I could do, and what I can learn. Just thinking about it all is making me really excited for what I will find.

Smart Board Compare and Contrast
When I read the two critiques of Smartboards, I was not really surprised that they would think that way. Both Michael Staton and Bill Ferriter make good arguments against Smartboards. They are expensive and it is possible for you to do most of the lessons on other mediums. Both of these educators have strong oppositions about Smartboards. Staton mainly argues that they are the "least cost-effective way to improve learning." Ferriter's argument is that "they do little more than reinforce a teacher-centric model of learning." Overall, these are just some of the opinions that teachers have in regards to Smartboard technology.
To look at a different opinion, I found a blog by Alexa Mitchell. In her post Week 5- Smartboards, she touches on the positives and the negatives of Smartboards. The negatives that she mentions are the same as Staton and Ferriter's arguments, but she touches on the positives equally. The positives that are mentioned are that many of the Smartboards are portable, they can accommodate different types of learning skills, and they are engaging to the students. These are all good points. When I was a senior in high school, my school had invested in two Smartboards. I was fascinated by them and enjoyed using them in my learning experience. If a senior in high school can have fun with Smartboards, then what will younger kids think about them?

Project #9b Timetoast

C4K #1-3 Summary

1. Aimee
The first student that I was assigned to was Aimee S. from Ms. White's fourth grade class in Virginia. Her post was titled Riddles. She provided a few examples of riddles. One of them was: "There is a plane. It’s crashing. It’s crashing exactly between the USA and Canada. The plane crashed. So where did they bury the survivors?" Can you figure out the answer?


2. Nicholas
The next student's blog that I commented on was Nicholas's. Nicholas is a fifth grader in Mr. St. Claire's class at Terryville Elementary School in the Comsewogue School District of New York. In his post 18/39 Baseball Cards, he tells of his collection of baseball cards. He describes how they are old and that they gather dust, but they are worth a lot of money. This is completely true. The older and rarer the cards are the more they are worth.


3. James
The third student that I was assigned to was James. James is a fifth year student in Mr. Marks class at Pt England School in Auckland, NZ. In his post Untitled, it includes a picture of himself. I am surprised that fifth years are already learning how to blog. When I was that young, I do not think I even knew what blogging was. To see someone that young blogging shows just how much the world has changed since then.

Blog Assignment 5

Eagle Nest Radio & Class Blog By: Third graders
I listened to the “Roamin’ with the Ancient Romans” podcast that was created by a group of third graders and was surprised at how good it was. This was a good way to approach learning about the romans. I wouldn’t have thought about having it set up like a news report would make it so interesting. This is a good way to have the information organized and put in a specific order. For my group’s podcast, we are doing commercials about our class and interviews on technologies that we are learning about.


The Benefits of Podcasting in the classroom By: Joe Dale
The video on this site was helpful. I didn’t know there were that many uses for podcasting in the classroom. One such benefit that I did not know about was that “students can access the higher order thinking skills in Bloom’s taxonomy.” This site also provided tutorials for podcasting. These were helpful to me by introducing me to how to create a podcast.


100 Ways to Use your iPod to learn and Study Better
I was not sure what I was expecting when I saw the title of this website, but I was just shocked at how many different programs for the iPod are available. Just in the podcasting section, there are 14 websites, which tell of uses for ways to create and use podcasts to learn. By looking at some of the sites mentioned, I learned what a podcast was, and how to create a basic podcast.


Judy Scharf’s Podcast Collection
The information on this site really helped me when I was working on the podcast project with my group. It gives tips to succeed, the benefits to podcasting in Education, and examples of podcasts. I am a beginner at podcasting, so the various lists that Judy Scharf includes on this site was very helpful to me.

Project #9a Timetoast

Project #8 Group Podcast

Blog Assignment 4

Don’t teach your kids this stuff. Please? By: Scott McLeod
Dr. Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor at Iowa State University in the Educational Administration program. Also, he is the Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). He is also recognized as one of the leading academic experts in the nation on K-12 school technology leadership issues. In his blog post, he makes good arguments about how students are learning to read and write differently than how it was taught before there were more advances in technology. What he says about pen and paper is true; it’s not going anywhere. He assumes a lot about what the kids will do, but he does not provide any valid sources of if this occurs with the majority of kids. It also seems as if he is completely against any form of technology from the way he speaks about the different formats of it. Another thing is that he says to not let the parents and educators teach them all of the different things on the internet, but he is going against what he said by allowing his kids to do this themselves.

The iSchool Initiative
At the beginning of the video, the student starts off by introducing the problem of budget cuts at his high school, and then says that he has a solution to the problem. He argues that the iSchool program, which will be held on the iTouch platform, is a better option to sitting in a classroom and having teachers. He gives different examples of applications on the iTouch that could be used such as Chemical Touch, World Wiki, Star Walk, Classics and Formulae. He argues that these different applications could easily replace texts in school and save natural resources.
He provides mainly positives that help his argument of the iSchool being a better alternative. He appeals to the going green movement and encourages people that this will be much better overall. My main reactions to this are that he has obviously done his research. To know about what the entire program would ensue, and the possibilities of making it easier can easily appeal to a general audience. Overall, I believe that this sounds like a great program, but it all seems too impersonal. There would barely be any interaction to a teacher, and in some cases it is better to have a teacher to explain specific situations.


The Lost Generation
I was surprised when I first saw this video. It brought about a good point. There are many people that doubt what will happen in the current era will stay true in the next. The way that this video was set up, was to show that even if you say something, it you go back and say what you meant backwards, it has a different and possibly more promising future than what it was forward. Basically, you want to think of what things will be said in the future about the past, then about what is said in the past about the future.


Jennifer Chambers and Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
My first reaction to the video was “Wow.” I really could not believe that none of the people in the virtual choir had ever met before. Their voices just blended so well together, that I thought they had to at least know each other before hand. It’s just astonishing that you can take people that have never met, put them together, and make such a beautiful song. This is an amazing way to get people to interact with others that share the same interest as them somewhere else in the world.

Teaching in the 21st Century
I feel that some of the arguments that are made in the video show how the roles of teachers have changed from givers of information to something different. According to the video, they are merely “filters” for information. I do not believe that is necessarily true. With the way that technology is advancing so fast, there will always be something new that the students will not know what to do with it. In the way that I see it, there will always be something for a teacher to inform their students about. Another thing is that students don’t know everything. They will need teachers to inform them of what they do not know about which they will need later on in life. What it means to teach in the 21st Century is to provide information and skills to our students that they will carry with them throughout their life.

My Sentence Movie

Presentation Project #5

C4T #1 Summary Post

The first teacher that I was assigned to was Mrs. Ann Carnevale and her blog Bit’s ‘n Bytes.


In her post titled "Exciting News and New Resources," Mrs. Carnevale tells of the Write on project.  She informs about the program and what the details about it are.  The Write on project is used to "expand writing skills while utilizing 21st Century learning tools for communication and collaboration."  This project involves fifteen classes of third, fourth, and fifth grade students. There are three groups of five classes that work together through a wiki to write and illustrate a story.  This program is an amazing idea because it allows the students to get to know about different places, and to meet new people. 


Another program that is mentioned in Mrs. Carnevale's post is a website called CarrotSticks.  This program is created as a way for students to have fun learning math.  On CarrotSticks, there are 25 levels of math games where they can play by themselves or with a friend.  There are many pros and cons listed on her post. Some of the pros and cons are that the challenges are not very long, and you can create your own avatar.  I have looked into CarrotSticks, and it seems like a good website that kids could definitely learn from.

In her second post "How Did You Do That?," Mrs. Carnevale mentions some shortcut keys for anyone that owns a mac.  I personally do not own a mac computer, but I feel that anyone who does have one will benefit from knowing these shortcuts.  I use shortcut keys on my PC on a daily basis, so I like to say that I understand how convenient they are to use.  Also, she includes a video on how mac users can use the trackpad effectively.  I watched the video and it was very informative and gave many examples for how the trackpad can be used.

Blog Assignment 3

Michael Wesh: A Vision of Students Today
My college experience is very similar to what they have put forth in this video. The facts about facebook, and the time spent online have been very true with me. It is surprising to me that most students bring their laptops to class and do not work on class assignments during the time that they have available. I am just shocked at how much time we spend doing so many other things in life that when we look back on it all; we realize how much time we have wasted.
In my opinion, there is not really anything to add to this video. It covers about every topic and technology that is mainly used today. When I first started college, I thought that I would do nothing but study, go to class, and do the best that I could do. Within my first semester, I realized that what I had hoped for would not come to be so easily. Some students in college today cannot balance their free time with school, and it is such a shame how time is wasted.


"It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines
Mrs. Hines makes some good points in her article. If the teachers are not teaching the students in a way that they can understand what is being told to them, then the students have not been taught anything. Unless teachers are interested in learning about the different technologies and programs available, what is the point of standing up in front of a classroom and not understanding their students? If teachers walk into their classroom with an open mind, they can learn so much from their students.
“Teachers who customize the learning experiences of their students to involve critical thinking and problem solving are doing their students a greater favor than those who misuse technology as a means of facilitating learning.” This quote shows that technology can be used to our advantage, but unless we understand how to use it, it is useless. Different technologies can be used in classrooms, and can be used as a way for both student and teacher to learn how it is to be used.


Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
“If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write.” This quote gives a good point on if teachers should be technologically literate. In my opinion, it is better to at least have some technology literacy then none. Technologies such as computers that have internet are useful, and it is beneficial to learn how to use this source to the best of our ability.
Fisch brings up a good point about if we are not literate ourselves, how can we go in front of a class and teach them how to use those technologies. What he says makes sense. It makes no sense to go in front of a class and teach something that you know nothing about. The more technologically literate a teacher is, the easier it is for the teacher to instruct their students on how to use that technology.


Gary Hayes Social Media Count
Just seeing all of the numbers increasing as such a rate shocked me when I first saw the counter. This makes me think about how many people are using technology and the internet every day and every second. We are advancing so much in the development of different technologies, and it makes it easier for us. If we are advancing this fast, this makes me wonder how am I going to be able to teach my students. Will I not know all of the information that I need to teach them, or will I be able to keep up with the changing of the technology advances?