C4K November Summary Post

Spencer at The Age of Exploration Blog

My first November C4K was on Spencer's blog. He was analyzing the role of bias on things that we read. He presented a very effective argument on how bias affects the interpretation specifically on the Reformation. He read two very different articles each with a skeptic's eye, pointing out the discrepancies and slippery slopes in each. I told Spencer he did a great job with his analysis and that his critical thinking skills will help him not only in college, but he will also have a "one up" when he gets into the career field he chooses.

Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog 365 Project Post 286
Mrs. Yollis' class is currently working on a project where they post 1 picture every day for 1 year. Today's photo was of a hawk perched in a tree outside their classroom. They started their day by seeing the hawk fly by, and they tried their best as a class to identify it but never could get a great look at the tail. My comment told them that I enjoyed their post and that they had an interesting start to the day. I also told them that I grew up on a State Park and so I enjoyed trying to identify birds as well. I asked the class if they knew that female hawks were almost always larger than male hawks.

Shalom at Pt England School

Shalom had a really fun post this week! He and his class in Room 13 got to make "alien snot!" He said that he was really not looking forward to the activity and that he thought it would be extremely disgusting. It ended up not being as bad as he thought and he actually had a good time. He gave the recipe for alien snot in his post. I told him that his instructions were very easy to understand and that since it wasn't as disgusting as he thought I might have to give it a try.

C4K # 10 - Special Assignment on Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog

Mrs. Yollis' third grade class are doing a great job over at their class blog. Mrs. Yollis has truly created an interactive learning environment that can be accessed at any place and any time by people all over the world. Her class demonstrates their great work to people all over. The blog is a great way to involve all of her students in various ways over the year in various special projects that really allow them to learn and have fun at the same time. Parents can stay involved by remaining up-to-date on what their students are learning in class. They can read what their children are writing, watch videos they have made, and leave comments on everything to give words of encouragement to their students. The blog brings parental involvement in the classroom to a whole new level!

Mrs. Yollis' class even interacts with students from all over the world! Recently, her class Skyped with classes from a school in Australia! They only way this is possible is when the US is leaving Daylight Savings Time and Australia is entering it. How neat is that? These students are learning about people from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures, which can help to one day eliminate stereotypes and foster more of a global community. She uses her blog as an instructional tool to expound on things her students are learning so that they make deeper connections with the material and it sticks with them longer, because they are learning by doing.

The class blog has been up and running for two days longer than the EDM310 class blog, yet has had about 21,000 more visitors! To me, this shows that people really are interesting in what our kids are learning in their elementary classrooms. While it's awesome that we are doing what we are doing in EDM310, our ultimate goal is to take this into real life classrooms in actual schools and implement what we have learned. While we have had a considerable number of visitors to our blog, I think a large number of the visitors to Mrs. Yollis' class blog were repeat visits from parents, grandparents, etc. of students who wanted to show their support for their student.

Project #13 - SMARTBoard Instruction Part 1

Blog Post #8

This is How We Dream

In the two parts of this video, Richard Miller discusses the evolution of human communication. He starts out by saying he grew up with a love of books, and decided that one of his goals when reaching adulthood would be to publish his own book. He succeeded at this goal, and now his book can be published on Amazon for 59 cents. He goes on to discuss how we are moving from a book bound culture to a digital culture. Now we can "check out" books from a vast digital library without ever exhausting the supply of books. You never have to wait for someone to return a book before you can get a copy. Not only are we publishing our ideas in words, but we can also use picture, video, and audio.

One of my favorite parts of this video was when Miller said "the only limits are those we place on ourselves." The way we get information is steadily changing, constantly updating yet we can always find history and older information. I also enjoyed the point Miller made about his lecture. Without the internet, it could have taken years to get his message out there, but because he has unlimited access to this tool, it was published within a matter of minutes AND reached a global audience.

Carly Pugh's Blog Post #12

I absolutely loved Carly's post. The assignment she came up with makes me want to go and create my own version. The idea of incorporating an assortment of videos to meld together in my own teaching philosophy is exciting to me. In reading various things I find a sentence here or a song lyric there that portrays a thought I might have had in a way I hadn't thought of expressing it. Using videos from various sources to do this same thing really exemplifies what Richard Miller was talking about when he spoke of using multimedia in writing. The variation between videos breaks up the monotony of text and allows readers to stay more engaged in your post.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 For Dummies

Both of these videos were helpful to watch at the beginning of this class when I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. :-) The Chipper Series, while a bit long and exaggerated, was helpful because it reinforced the message that you get what you put in to something. If you work hard, the benefits are well worth it. If you put minimal effort in, you are just wasting time. As far as a video I would like to create, I think it would be helpful to have a video which thoroughly explains basic functions on a Mac. When I first came in to the lab, I had only used my iPod and my iPhone. I had never used a Mac and I had no idea how to do the simplest things on one. I couldn't even figure out how to close a window because the functions were so different than what I was used to on the PCs I have used growing up. Once I figured out the basics, I enjoy the simplicity but I was like a deer in headlights at first.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

Overall, I agree with the majority of things said in this video. I agree that the way we currently approach school needs to change dramatically, and I think we are on track to do this. We do need to place the student in the center of the motivation for the classroom, and understand that they do have experiences and opinions that they can bring to the table. They are not there for us to simply fill them with information and send them on their way. I think we can do this by creating more interesting assignments and teaching students to use a variety of tools and technologies aside from just pen and paper to do this.

One thing I did NOT agree with in the video was the lady who claims that if she were to redesign a school she is not sure she would use the traditional bricks and mortar school. I am assuming she means that she would go to using a strictly internet based learning system rather than a real classroom. I agree that we should be using technology in our classrooms, but I do not think that technology should replace our classrooms. There will always be, in my opinion, a value in coming together in person to discuss things face-to-face, and we can't let ourselves get carried away with social networking to the point that we no longer know how to interact with an actual person standing in a room with us. As much as schools are meant to teach facts and information, they are also there to help teach appropriate social behaviors.

Update- Project #10 My PLN

As you can see, I have chosen to use Symbaloo to organize my PLN. Over the course of the semester I have added a few things to my PLN that I have found interesting from blog assignments and other activities. I have found Symbaloo helpful because everything is neatly displayed and you can get to anything by clicking on an icon. To me, this is much more appealing than scrolling down through countless lists of things trying to find what I'm looking for. My PLN is definitely still a work in progress. I have not put as much effort into it as I probably should have at this point in the semester. At first, I was a little intimidated by the idea so I wasn't adding things as I came across them. Going forward, I will be sure to add things I stumble upon on Twitter, Facebook, news sites, etc. to my PLN so I have those resources available to me in the future.

Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch is truly someone I think everyone can learn from tremendously. His teaching strategies were all about not just providing students with the skills they needed to do whatever the assignment at hand was, but also providing them with invaluable life skills. His philosophy, in my opinion, can be summarized by the following quote from his Last Lecture: "It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you." It does not matter what you might be able to achieve of your own accord. What matters is how you treat the people around you, who help you achieve those dreams.

In his own way, he taught his students never to give up. One of my favorite quotes from the lecture is, "The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough." Determination and fortitude are two characteristics that are very important to me, because I had a great example of those traits early in my life - my grandmother. I learned from her that if you make up your mind that you truly want something, then you can overcome any obstacle that might get in your way.

He also taught that you should always put others before yourself, and "When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore that's a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care." Even though we might not appreciate "advice" and criticism at the time we are given it, we never want to come to a place where we realize no one is giving us feedback anymore because that means we have chased away the people who love us. Constructive criticism is a very valuable thing and we must learn to take it and use it to transform ourselves into a better version of ourselves.

Finally, perhaps the most important thing I got out of this lecture is summed up in the following two quotes: "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted," and "I probably got more from that dream and not accomplishing it than I got from any of the ones I did accomplish." It is important to keep a positive attitude even when we see ourselves as not achieving the things we set out to do. There are no failures - just lessons learned in an unexpected way. When something doesn't go as planned, we have to step back and look at the events from a distance to see what we can learn from what did happen and take that away with us to make the next attempt better.

C4K Summary Post, October

We are Kids with a View

For this week, I commented on the class' blog, but directed my comment to Mallika. We were supposed to give an interesting fact about the United States of America. I asked Mallika if she liked to watch movies, and then told her that Hollywood, California is the movie capital of the world, and that it is the place where cinema was born.

Mrs. Gregory's 6th Grade

For this class, I was assigned to comment on the 10th student down in Mrs. Gregory's 5th period class, who happened to be Michael F. Michael posted all about his two favorite video games, which were Smackdown VS Raw 2010 and Need4Speed, both for his psp. I told Michael that I wasn't a very big fan of wrestling (I think it's a boy thing and just don't "get it."), but that I did like to play racing games sometimes. I told him my favorite racing game is Project Gotham Racing, and that I also liked to play Wii Sports Resort sometimes. I am okay at bowling but for some reason I have gotten really good at golf.

Mrs. Gregory has also created a random student selector for comments. When I visited the site, I got Brynne from period 4. Brynne's post was about fingernails, and what they are made of. She also wanted to know what she should blog about next. I told her the name of the stuff fingernails are made out of is Keratin, and asked if she knew that hair was made from the same stuff. I also told her that her next post should be teaching her readers how to do something. In a previous post she mentioned being a singer, so I told her maybe she could explain how to read music or what makes a good singer.

For the remainder of my C4K comments, I was very sick with pneumonia and was unable to access the links to my assignments once I got well. I e-mailed Dr. Strange and he said that he would mark me as being sick.

C4K Summary Post, September Comments

Ngaina at Pt England School

My first C4K for September was Ngaina's blog from Pt England School. The post I commented on was about Multiple Intelligences. Her class had been studying Multiple Intelligences and she posted her results from a quiz she had taken. I google'd and found an online version of the quiz and took it so I could share my results with Ngaina. My top three results were naturalistic, logical, and intrapersonal. Ngaina also got the result of naturalistic as well, so I told her we seemed to have that in common and asked her what the most interesting thing she had learned about Multiple Intelligences. She has not commented back.

Mubasshira at Pt England School

Mubasshira posted a lovely poem called "Favourites of All." Some of her favorites listed in the poem were laying in her comfortable bed, the color blue, roses, and her sister. I commented and told her that I also loved to lay in my comfortable bed. I told her my favorite thing to do on a rainy day was snuggle up in my bed with a good book, and I asked if she liked to read. She has not responded.

St. Elmo Elementary Class

For this post, the class posted a video about how they were different yet the same. The class had some really great adjectives to describe themselves. They all had some great self-portraits as well.

Santiago's Blog

My final C4K for September was Santiago's blog. His class had all made their own Avatars using this site. I commented on Santiago's avatar and told him that his instructions on how to make your own were very helpful. I told him I went to the website he suggested and created my own character, which was a lot of fun. I also commented on his "About Me" section of his blog, telling him I have a friend who also likes to skateboard, and that my husband really enjoys playing video games like him. I said that I have tried to play video games with my husband, but that I wasn't very good and was going to keep practicing to get better because practice makes perfect!

Blog Post #6

The Networked Student

This video, done by Wendy Drexler, is a story of a student at "21st Century High School." He attends class three days per week, two days online. He doesn't have a textbook and his teacher almost never lectures. Instad, she has accepted the theory of Connectivism. Connectivism is a theory that says learning occurs as part of a social network of many diverse connections and ties. Basically, students take control of their learning process and make connections with other student which will strengthen their learning process.

A common problem with the typical classroom structure of today is that you spend hundreds of dollars on a textbook one semester, and information is discovered within a short period of time that quickly makes this book obsolete. The idea of doing away with textbooks and using RSS to keep us up to date with current information seems to be a good one, in my opinion. Not only does it save money (especially if you can't sell your book back because the class the next semester won't be using that edition), but you would constantly be learning the most up-to-date information and stay on the cutting edge of whatever subject you are studying.

The concept of Connectivism is an interesting one to me. I once learned that you remember 10% of what you hear, 20% of what you see, 50% of what you hear and see, 70% of what you speak or write, and 90% of what you teach to someone else. In my opinion, Connectivism allows you to retain more of what you learn because you are connecting with other people and in essence teaching them what you have learned through your research.

So, with this being said, what is the role of the teacher now that the student is basically teaching him/herself? A teacher is there to guide a student in building their Personal Learning Environment and to point them in the right direction if they get stuck. A teacher instructs them how to communicate properly with and ask help respectfully from experts. A teacher more than ever is there to develop every student into a critical thinker so they can differentiate between good information and propaganda, preparing them for a future of being lifelong learners. I feel very prepared to be a teacher of a networked student, and this class has done a considerable amount of that preparation for me. I feel like I am currently in the position of my future networked students, and one of the most important qualities of a good teacher (or just a good person in general) in my opinion is to always remember where you came from.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

I really enjoyed this student's tour of her PLN. She seems very organized and the narration was excellent! As far as comparing it with my PLN, I have a lot of work ahead of me to get my PLN up to snuff! I have played around with Symbaloo and I think that is the tool I will use to organize my PLN as well, but I haven't gotten it all together just yet. Better get to working on that soon!

Project #9a - TimeToast Timeline

Project 8: Podcast

Podcast Powered By Podbean

For my Podcast, I was in the group The Learning Leos along with Lana Brooks and Gina Phillips. We chose to do our project on chapters 1, 2, 4, and the epilogue from Rafe Esquith's book There Are No Shortcuts. You can find a copy of this book on Amazon, here.

Truthfully, at first I was dreading having to do the reading for our Podcast, but once I picked up the book I could not put it down. This was such an easy, inspiring read! I recommend every future teacher read it.

Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please?

Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor of Education Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He is also the lead developer of UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). According to their website, CASTLE is the nation's only center directed toward the technology needs of school administrators. They offer a graduate program in School Technology Leadership and are committed to helping prepare other educational leadership programs to produce tech-savvy school administration.

In the above blog post, Dr. McLeod offers a satirical/sarcastic letter to parents, teachers, school administrators seemingly begging them to avoid teaching children technology at all costs. Dr. McLeod makes his point by poking fun at the various arguments adults make in opposition to teaching our children to use technology appropriately to advance the learning process. As far as my position on the points Dr. McLeod makes, I summed up my feelings in the comment I left on his article. Sure, there are dangers out in “cyberspace,” but there are dangers in “real life” as well and we manage to teach children to avoid danger and survive just fine. What’s the difference?

I do have to say that I was embarrassed by some of the comments that my fellow classmates left on Dr. McLeod's post. There were quite a few that did not read the post closely and completely missed the sarcasm. Their comments made them look ignorant and unintelligent, simply because they were trying to rush through the assignment and complete in in a halfhearted manner.

The iSchool Initiative

In this video, Fayetteville Georgia high school student Travis Allen discusses a possibility that will revolutionize education as we know it today. Allen lists several iTouch applications that replace all the objects we typically associate with a classroom: books, pencils, paper, maps, etc. He claims that this is what education is moving toward in the near future. This video was recorded when he was 17 years old. Since then, he has posted this follow up video. He has gotten national recognition for his ideas from CNN, The Huffington Post, etc. He claims that in order to allow the children of today to thrive in the information age they have been born into, we must "rethink, retool, and rebuild" our education institutions.

Allen has been called the "Mark Zuckerberg" of Education by Larry Jacobs, the President of Education Talk Radio. Those are quite some shoes to fill, but I think the description might just be accurate. Allen has had quite a bit of success with the iSchool Initiative thus far. He has a team of 25 students who travel around the country spreading their ideas on the revolution that is sure to take place in education. I really believe that this is the future of education and that the benefits from moving to this type of system will create students who are more self-motivated quick learners. I do have to say that the idea is almost hard for me to grasp even though I think it is a good thing. It honestly sort of saddens me to think about classrooms with no pencils, as old-fashioned as that sounds. There's nothing quite like a freshly sharpened pencil! Well, except perhaps a shiny new iPad!

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

WOW. The idea that all 185 people from 12 different countries were able to blend their voices so harmoniously without ever rehearsing in person is amazing to me. I am interested to know more details of how Mr. Whitacre actually composed this. I noticed quite a few individuals with ear buds or various other headphones in their videos. This makes me wonder if they were sent their part with all the timing set up how Whitacre wanted, or if maybe he sent them the video of himself directing. Regardless, this is still pretty neat. Yet another example of how the internet can be used to connect people from all over the world nearly effortlessly to do some incredible things!

Teaching in the 21st Century

In this video, Kevin Roberts presents several ideas on teaching in the 21st century. From the video, I gather that Roberts thinks teaching in the 21st century no longer means just presenting children with facts, because they can use Google, Wikipedia, and various other online sources to get information in seconds. Teachers are no longer the only source of information.

We are moving from a Teacher-centered curriculum to a truly student-centered curriculum, which is incredible. Teachers' responsibilities are now going to be informing students how to responsibly use the technology that has been developed. It is our role to ensure students know how to share information that they find and discuss the information while giving credit to the person the ideas came from. Pirating and plagiarism are going to become ever-present issues we have to inform students of and encourage them against. Bloom's Taxonomy is sure to be adapted within the next few years to keep up with this change. We will be focusing less on facts and content and more on skills. It is no longer necessary to memorize and regurgitate the types of things that are typically taught in a classroom when you can use the technology literally at your fingertips to find the answers as long as you possess the appropriate skills to do so.

C4T #2

Post #1

For my second round of C4T, I was assigned to Tina Barseghian's blog. The blog post that I read was about a new tool to be used with Facebook, called Grockit. Grockit is an online social learning community that allows students to link together to form study groups for various tests, classes and exams. Grockit is now making it possible to link together via Facebook to study for things such as the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and even AP exams. With Grockit, you can collaborate with peers to study and even receive clarification on concepts by experts. Grockit also makes it possible to track your progress on studying for whatever big test you are about to take by completing practice exams, diagnostic quizzes, etc.

Ms. Barseghian referenced one of her previous posts during this one about a Facebook app of

sorts called Hoot.me. It was interesting to

me so I clicked the link and checked out that post as well. Evidently, Hoot.me allows you to remove the distraction from Facebook by opening the app and switching Facebook to study mode. You can do a "study update" rather than a status update to let your friends using Hoot.me know what you are working on. If someone else is working on the same thing, you can connect via video conference and work together. Hoot.me also makes it possible to share screens with your friends to make collaboration easier, and you can use the smart chat feature to type literal math equations which are then translated to look like they would if you wrote them out. SUPER cool stuff!

Comment #1

Now that I have geek'd over these awesome social learning developments, I'll sum up what I said in response to Ms. Borseghian's post. Basically, I thanked her for the post and told her that I loved the idea of Facebook being used as a social networking AND social learning site. The possibilities for this in the future are endless and it will truly revolutionize learning. I also told her that I am very excited about entering the field of education at such a revolutionary time.

Post #2

The second post I read from Tina Barseghian's blog was regarding college students and their majors. According to the post, even with the unemployment rate hovering steadily around 9 percent, a majority of people graduating from college are getting degrees in business. According to the post, business degrees are covering a wider range of fields than ever before - from accounting to advertising.

The post goes on to reinforce what I learned from the video we watched earlier this semester - Did You Know 4.0 , and how we are going to be preparing our students for jobs that didn't exist while we were teaching them. The post calls for a revamping of the American Education System, and for some people this means focusing solely on programs in science, technology, and medicine, leaving liberal arts and humanities in their dust. I think that while it is important to ensure these kids have the preparation they need in areas such as science and technology, it is crucial to continue to emphasize the importance of liberal arts and humanities.

Comment #2

In my comment, I said that while I do agree that it is time for the Education System to be revamped and revised to weed out what doesn't work, I think it is more important than ever to focus on liberal arts skills. While today's elementary students are being prepared to work in fields that might not exist until well into the future, they still need to be taught invaluable skills that only the liberal arts can provide. Without philosophy, what basis do we have to teach critical thinking and skepticism, for instance. As much as technology and its uses are key in today's education system, we also need to remember John Dewey's stance on preparing students socially.

Blog Post #4

Eagle's Nest Radio and Class Blog

I really enjoyed looking over the podcasts that this class has created. To me, for instance, history has never been the most exciting subject. I've always felt quite disconnected from it and was completely uninterested in simply memorizing names, dates, and important battles. I was so far removed from it I didn't see why it mattered. I love the idea of using podcasts to put life back into the history classroom (and all others). Students can learn so much more by doing! If they are simply required to memorize names and dates they will let that information fall out of their heads and onto a test paper never to remember it again. However, if they are actively engaged in a sort of recreation of past events through a podcast the information will stick with them for years to come.

Langwitches

I LOVE this idea! One of the things I have noticed among my peers as I have come up through the public education system is that the majority of people are terrible at reading aloud! Not only is this a great idea to introduce children to chapter books and make them less intimidating, but it allows the children to hear themselves reading and notice things that need to be changed with their tone and inflection. By following along, their listening comprehension skills are developed which will help them get more out of class lectures, seminars, and even business meetings when they are adults. Like the post said, students truly become engaged in reading and learn to experiment with fluency, pitch, emotion, volume, speed, etc. This will greatly benefit them all throughout school and even into their adult life. It will surely have a positive impact on things like public speaking. I can't wait to try something like this in my classroom!

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

I was pretty much sold on using podcasts as a learning tool in my future classroom after viewing the first two sites above, but this really cemented the idea for me. Not only do podcasts reinforce what is taught in the classroom and foster creativity among students while helping them retain more of what they are learning, but it also can foster a link between parents of students and what goes on in the classroom. By creating a class blog or other website, not only could I keep the parents up-to-date using text, but podcasts could be used to really let them experience what is going on in the classroom in a more "three dimensional" way. Parents could be aware of what their children are learning, but they could also align themselves with the teacher to really reinforce and encourage the learning process in their students. Podcasts would also be helpful for absent students. If they were motivated enough, even if they were out for some illness or another (or even if they were student athletes), they could remain on tract with their academic progress regardless of what situation kept them from class that particular day. Not only that, but if they didn't understand something in class that day they could review their podcast to help complete any homework assignments and to better understand the lesson.

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better

This was a very helpful and informative article. I really wish that I had stumbled upon in earlier in my college career. I will definitely be adding this page to my PLN. I am particularly interested in The Education Podcast Network and iPod Lesson Plans. I also think it's quite funny that this article includes Podtender 3.0 as a learning tool - it teaches you how to make cocktails... I suppose to some people that is an important part of college?

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection

While I have listened to various podcasts for several years now, I have never created one myself. I think that Judy Scharf's collection will be a valuable resource as my group and I create our podcast assignment this semester.

Project #6 This is My Sentence

Project #5 - Google Presentation

Blog Post #3

Paige Ellis's Blog Assignment #12

For this assignment, I elected to leave a comment on the blog post that I was reviewing for C4C. I elected to complete the assignment this way because I felt overall the post I was commenting on was a quality post content-wise with just a few grammatical issues. If I felt the post needed more in-depth constructive criticism, I would have sent the blogger an e-mail so that I did not embarrass him/her and so I did not take up too much room in the comments section.

It's Not About the Technology

In this blog post, Kelly Hines makes a "blasphemous" statement about technology and 21st century education. She daringly claims that the key to education in the 21st century is not necessarily to have the most cutting edge technologies in the classroom, but to teach children to use critical thinking and creativity to approach the world around them.

The first point that Ms. Hines makes is that all teachers must be learners. "Teachers today must be perpetual learners who are invested in their professions. We must be up to date on current trends, research and tools. We must know what our students are doing and where they are coming from when they enter our classrooms. This learning cannot just include mandated workshops and occasional required readings. Teachers who want to be truly successful must be voracious and self-motivated in their pursuit of evoloving understanding." This quote really sums up the point she is making and my stance on this topic as well. It is important to learn from teachers who have been in the field a while because they have a plethora of practical experiences that can truly teach new educators some valuable things. These same teachers, though, must be willing to combine the aspects of teaching they have always used that are tried, tested, and true with new methods being taught today. This includes not only what they are required to learn through professional development seminars, but they must also go out in search of this new information and self-teach these methods.

The next point made is that learning is not equivalent to teaching. Just because you have "taught something over and over again" does not mean that this particular group of students understands the method you used to teach it. Every student learns differently and things we have taught a certain way thousands of times might need to be reevaluated and taught differently to help other students grasp the concept. As teachers, we must be willing to rethink our methods and constantly assess our performance.

Perhaps the point I most identify with is that technology is useless without good teaching. I have had the opportunity to be in several classes here at USA which were equipped with SMART Boards or other such technology which are being treated like expensive projector screens. With the limited experience I have personally using SMART Boards, I know they can do some pretty amazing things. It frustrates me to no end to have professors use the excuse of being "technologically illiterate" as to why they don't use this equipment. As was stated earlier, in order to be effective teachers, we have to be lifelong learners. These professors (one specifically in the College of Education) make me want to whack them in the head! They are in essence telling us that it is ok to be lazy and indifferent once we get our degrees, because we can still get a job.

Is It Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

In short: NOOOO!!!! Mr. Fisch discusses his frustrations on technological indifference. He likens it to his discussions with parents during his experience as a math teacher. He would have parent-teacher conferences with parents of students who were performing poorly in his class. The parents' would dismiss the lack of success their students were achieving by saying "Oh, yeah, I was never good at math either." He said this bothered him immensely because they almost seemed proud of this fact. He went on to say that the message they were sending to their student was just because they didn't understand something meant they didn't have to take the time to try. They could just smirk and claim genetic incompetence or some other tomfoolery. To Mr. Fisch, this was as unacceptable as boasting that you didn't know how to read. Somehow, not knowing how to read was extremely socially unacceptable but being "bad" at math was perfectly fine.

Similarly, in today's time, people are boasting that they "never really got computers," and seem to be proud of this fact. To Mr. Fisch, this was equivalent to not knowing how to read some years back. Given that technology is ever present in daily life and is quickly becoming the basis of all interpersonal communication, not knowing how to use it is the same as not being able to communicate due to illiteracy. Mr. Fisch goes so far as to claim "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. " He recognizes that this might be an extreme statement, but I really don't think he is that far off the mark. Technology is so prevalent in society today and is in most cases so easily accessible that there is truly no excuse not to have a knowledge of how to avail oneself of the most basic functions at minimum.

Gary Hayes' Social Media Count

The number of interactions each second using various social media is astounding. I knew there was a dramatic change in interpersonal communications over the past few decades, but to put the data out there in real time is almost unreal. The impact this has on every field is substantial, education included.

I started college in the Fall of 2006. I went for a few semesters and then decided I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to major in so I took some time off. The changes that have occurred at the higher education level in just three years were incredible. With almost incessant developments in the field of technology, the way we approach all aspects of education is changed forever. Between Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, Google, Flickr, (and the list goes on... and on... and on...), knowledge is literally at our fingertips. Just in EDM310, the Student Aggregator on Facebook allows all of us to be connected with someone who can answer our questions on assignments almost instantaneously. If we truly harness all the technological resources at our disposal, education can only become more unceasing. We will always be able to learn something new, regardless of the time of day, our location, or anything else.

A Vision of Students Today

I felt like this provided a very accurate depiction of the average college student today. When my parents were in college, their parents paid for it. It was not necessary for them to take out student loans or get part time jobs to pay for their education. They had considerably more time to spend studying, working on projects, writing papers and so on than the average college student does today. It sometimes feels impossible to get everything accomplished all at once and so you make a decision on what takes priority, completing that task and seeing what time is left. One of the points made in the video was "I buy hundred dollar text books and never open them. My neighbor paid for this class but never comes." So many of us learn not by sitting and being talked at, but by engaging in different activities and learning from our experiences.

Books, newsprint, magazines, etc. are all becoming antiquated things of the past. They are bulky and heavy to carry around and can be streamlined when replaced with iPads, Kindles, and other devices. The challenge for teachers, professors, and university personnel is to create a dynamic classroom experience that is never static. Our attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter due to the availability of constant entertainment. We need a classroom environment that is constantly changing and keeping our interest peaked. A typical lecture based class just doesn't cut it anymore.

Blog Post #2

Did You Know?

I found this video fascinating! I love cool facts, and it definitely had some very interesting ones. What I found most interesting/disturbing was predictions made that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the ENTIRE human species. That is just insane, and much closer than you think at first glance. I do feel better about it when I think that though this computer might exceed our capacity for computation, it can not exceed our capacity to show emotion. It might be "smarter" than we are, but it really cannot choose to use its intelligence for good/bad/other. The thing that unnerves me, though, it people are always capable of using technology for evil just as much as we are able to use it for good. For some reason, the movie Iron Man comes to mind.

The other thing I found interesting about this video is that it says the top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004. In merely six years, we made so much technological advance that the entire industry changed. This fact alone should motivate us to guide our students in the direction of being life long learners! If we adequately prepare them on how to teach themselves, no new technology will intimidate them. They will be equipped to jump right in and learn whatever it might be.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

While this video was an exaggeration to some degree, it was very effective in making its intended point clear. Mr. Winkle has slept for 100 years and woke up to find that almost everything has changed that he encounters in daily life. Everything is highly technical and there are advancements in nearly every field. Naturally, he is uncomfortable with the advances because they are hitting him all of the sudden. He goes on a search to find something familiar and comfortable, and is only able to find this in schools, because they have not kept up with the technological advances.

This is very sad, but true in most cases. Going back to the statement made in Did You Know?, it is crucial for educators to stay up on the most current technology so that we can truly prepare our students for the future. It is inevitable that they will encounter this stuff, and children learn so much more eagerly and easily than adults. It only makes sense to have schools as well equipped, if not more equipped than industries like health care. All doctors, after all, started out in an elementary school somewhere!

Importance of Creativity

Ken Robinson, the speaker in this video, is clearly very passionate about school children. The statement in this video that had the most impact on me was that we educate children from the waist up and then focus on their heads. Our society has focused so intently on science and math, that we have forgotten about the arts. Our education system seems to think that if you can't clearly define something on paper, you don't need to learn it. Robinson says that intelligence is dynamic, and that creativity comes about through interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things. This could not be more true! All of us learn differently, and we should expose our children to multiple ways to learn the same thing. Included with this is Mr. Robinson's theory that schools develop in children a fear of having the "wrong" answer, which leads to a dissolution of their natural creative instincts. We are afraid to be creative because we are afraid of being wrong, or worse - "different."

Robinson also speaks of the woman who went on to become the choreographer for the musical CATS. When she was in school, she was always wiggling and squirming and couldn't seem to learn as easily as other students. The teacher told her parents she had some sort of learning problem and sent her to a specialist. The specialist turned on the radio and left the room and she started dancing. She did not have a learning disability- she merely expressed herself differently. I think it is so important to incorporate music, dancing, art, etc. into the everyday classroom, especially at the elementary level. There are countless children who are being medicated for ADD and ADHD when the only thing "wrong" with them is that they are children and we expect them to sit still at their desks and behave all day long while we talk "at" them. They are going to absorb so much more when they are given an outlet for their natural excess energy! If we focus less on what we are trying to pack into their heads and more about teaching them to use their entire bodies to learn, they will learn and retain so much more.

Cecelia Gault

In this video, three false statements about creativity are revealed:

1. Only certain people are creative.

2. Creativity is only relative to design and advertising.

3. There is nothing you can do about your "lack" of creativity.

I am glad that these myths were dispelled! Blame it on my grandmother, but I am a firm believer that "can't never could." If you keep a positive attitude about a project, you can make it extraordinary. If you tell yourself you are not creative, then the only thing undermining your creativity is your bad attitude. As I have said already in this blog posts about other videos, we desperately need to address the issue of using the arts in the everyday classroom.

As far as what you can do about your "lack" of creativity, I think that just like we can exercise our bodies, we can exercise our brains to strengthen our creativity. If you engage in any sort of artistic activity at least a few times per week, you can keep ideas flowing.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

In this video, a teacher from a very rural school is battling the stigma that technology is only found in more developed schools. She challenges her students every day to learn some new technology and she says that she is constantly learning something new from them. She is working to break the cycle of people from rural areas having to take on the same vocation that their parents do because nothing else is available to them.

Project #3 C4T#1

For this project, I was assigned to Jennifer Brokofsky's blog, A Work in Progress.

Post #1

The first post I read and commented on was My 10 Favorite Math Picture Books : #PB10for10. In this post, Jennifer talks about participating in a blogging event that evidently occurs in August where educators share their top 10 must-have children's picture books. Because Jennifer is an educator who is specifically interested in mathematics education, she chose to adapt the list to include her must-have math children's books. Of the 10 books she chose, some of them were specifically geared to help teach mathematical concepts, but several were "just plain old" children's books that she had adapted for use in the math classroom setting.

I love the idea of using children's books to help with classroom learning. I think that any method of keeping children engaged in the learning process and potentially relating concepts they are learning to real world experiences is key. If we isolate classroom experiences from real life, we are doing a disservice to children. This is why so many people in society today are not lifelong learners. They associate "learning" only with the stuffy class they had to take at some point in their academic career where they are force fed information and asked to recall it on a test at a later time. If we can keep learning engaging and fun, we would all be better off.

I also love that Jennifer was creative and flexible enough to adapt non-mathematical books for use in math class to teach certain concepts. In my opinion, one of the most important qualities a teacher can have is resourcefulness. The fact that Jennifer was able to delve more deeply into the subject matter of these books shows her creativity and willingness to work hard to instill a passion for learning in children.

Comment #1

In my comment, I told Jennifer how excited I was to use these books in my own classroom someday, and thanked her for the resources. I also told her of a book I encountered when having to "teach" a lesson to my classmates in my Math for Elementary Teachers course last Spring called The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book by Jerry Pallotta. I found it helpful to go beyond the norm of writing a lesson on the board for the class to copy down.

Post #2

The second post I read on Jennifer's blog was Creating Mathland, and it was on the following video that Jennifer found on David Wees' blog.

In this video, the way that math and science are typically taught in the classroom is addressed. Specifically, Jennifer compared it to living in France but only interacting with people who spoke English - we are missing out on the whole experience. She went on to muse that teaching math should be more attuned to the way a French teacher instructs her students to speak the new language. Just as a French teacher uses full immersion to get her students to truly grasp these new concepts, we should teach our students to view everything with a mathematical lens.

She goes on to ask several questions about how to most effectively create a "mathland" for students, and how to foster connections between math and all other subject areas.

Comment #2

For my comment, I told Jennifer that I loved the idea of creating a "Mathland" environment in the classroom, and that I think it is very important to create a curriculum that is constantly relating lessons back to other subjects. One comment left ahead of me referenced the idea that regardless of subject taught, all teachers are to be language teachers, and the commenter pondered that if we took on the role of math AND language teachers, if that message would get diluted. I said that I did not think the message would get diluted in this case, but rather it would be reinforced. I also think that ideally all curriculum should be revolving and relate back to lessons learned previously in the day or weeks past, regardless of subject.

Project #2 - Wordle