Group Podcast on Online Storage

Blog Assignment #6

The Networked Student

This video was very real. Since EDM has started I have realized technology is taking over in a lot of ways. This video verifies that thought. It was interesting to see the different connections students can make with this type of learning. It seems as if this concept has already surfaced and it is beginning at full speed. Being a student in the 21st century won’t be easy but it will eventually become the norm.

The Networked Student was a very cute video and it did have a lot of good points toward becoming this type of student. Connection with classmates, professors, and others are very valuable tools for a students success. I like how it makes connections more accessible. Students also learn a lot of very important websites that they can use (most likely) forever. Delicious and Skype were on the video and I have to say I love those two sites!

“Why does the networked student need a teacher?” well that is simple, to help them learn. Teachers will hopefully always be needed but for now they are still needed for the networked student. The video said the teacher is a learning architect, modeler, connected learning incubator, network, Sherpa, learning concierge, synthesizer, and a change agent. So with that, teachers are very much still needed for many things. That makes me feel better about going to school to be a teacher!

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)

I really like that this student is so excited about her PLE. I need to take some of her enthusiasm to my PLN. Her PLE was very organized and interesting. I was trying to read all her little boxes and she had some things I didn’t know you could put on there. My PLN is a work in progress. Most of my boxes are filled but not all of them yet (I’m still learning!). She talked about a lot of things that I think would be fun to do like the poster she did on jellyfish. Overall, it was a very well done PLE.

The Machine is Changing Us

Dr. Wesch is completely right when he makes the comment school is not about the students. He showed a picture of an American Idol audition and a classroom and there is a big similarity. School sometimes does make you feel disconnected. I sometimes feel that way in my larger classes. You don’t get to know the teacher and you feel like just a face in the crowd. He is also right that you have to create your own identity because if you don’t you won’t have one. He had many good points about the mediums through which we communicate. While using these mediums we don’t necessarily know who we are talking to. He says it does bring up self awareness which I think could be true. The videos were so funny on this topic. These videos do give us a new understanding on who we are. The unmasked hero was very good it was very sweet. It was interesting as well. The hand videos were very neat and powerful.

My life follows his comments by the comment made about creating your own identity. At school or in college you have to make your own identity or teachers will never know you. I tend to stay in the back and be a good student, but I do wish sometimes I would let my teachers get to know me. As for the future of my teaching career all the things he stated will most likely have a huge impact on it.

C4K #1 Summary

For my first C4K, I had girl named Daisy Jacobo from Noel Elementary Class of 2011. My comment was on her about me. She is a very interesting girl! She’s a lot like me in the way that she has two well older siblings. I commented and said her blog was very good, and I loved her name. She has a really good head on her shoulders from her blog post. I told her it was great that she considers her family and friends to be very important because they are. Math has been easy for Daisy in the past but she is struggling a little with algebra. With that being said, I told her math does get harder but if she studies hard and ask questions it will become a lot easier.

My second post I commented on was Daisy’s manifesto blog post titled “Daisy Jacobo” . She promised in her post to be responsible, not to be tardy, behave, and get better grades. My response to Daisy said that she had set very good goals to try to accomplish. Trying to be responsible is great ,and not being tardy is good for her and her teacher. Also, behaving is a very important promise. Lastly , I told her trying to get better grades is a great goal to strive for and I hope she keeps these goals.

Project 9a "Nicole Kelley's Dance Life timeline"

Blog Assignment #5

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

This was a very educational video. After watching this video, it makes me want to one day do podcast with my future class. I think this is a fun experience for students. Making videos for kids is always fun even for the shy ones. Also listening to podcast seems like it would make learning more exciting. The upside to podcast mainly to me is if a student is out they can still get the notes. I’ve always been one to never miss a day of school because of the fear of missing something important, but with podcast if a student is sick or has a good reason to miss class they can still catch up.

I think from this video it makes me want to bring more creativity into my podcast. I am creative but hearing how students benefit from them makes me want to make this experience everything it should be. I want to get and put forth all I can into this podcast. That way, for my future students, I will be willing and excited to bring podcast into my classroom.

Eagle Nest Radio & Class Blog

These podcast by the elementary students were so cute. I couldn’t help but smile the whole time. The podcast was a really great thing to do with the young students. It sounded like it gave them confidence as well as learning experience. I will use this technique in my classroom hopefully one day. It seems like such a great learning experience.

The thing I learned that I would use in my podcast is the children’s confidence. They were so enthusiastic! I want to bring that enthusiasm to my podcast as if I were a wide eyed child not scared of the world. I want to make it as interesting as possible.

The Education Podcasting Network

The Education Podcast Network is a great thing to get started. It’s good to have resources available for teachers. This seems like a great network that they are starting. It will be nice for teachers to have one site to go to find the podcast they need for their lessons. It is also a good thing that the producers of these programs will be educators. This ,in my opinion, is great. If podcasting is going to be as big as it seems then teachers should have a network of safe podcast to let their students hear or see.

I’m not sure what to bring to my podcast from this site , but I will remember this site for the future. This will come in handy for teachers and us future teachers. I enjoyed seeing the involvement of teachers trying to get podcasting up and running.

Blog Assignment #4

#1 Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

This blog by Mr. McLeod was very direct in an indirect way. By putting the focus on not doing the things that should be going on with students, it makes you think about what if children didn’t have access to technology. He tells parents, teachers, administrators, and board members to not let kids do a lot of important things. The first two things are to not let them read or write, and with those two statements it automatically hits home. Everyone knows you have to know how to read and write, so that it is where you pick up the real message to this blog.

I thought this was a good blog and was very true. My position on his argument is I would probably be like him and teach my students all of the items he listed. If students aren’t taught anything they will be too far gone. All the points Mr. McLeod listed are things that should be going on in classrooms. Students should have to learn how to read, write, and connect. Kids aren’t always doing bad things on computers like parents worry about, and at school they have safety blocks for the children. It is true if students aren’t exposed to this they won’t have the leg up they need.

*Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor and Director at Iowa State University. He has been employed there since August 2007. His hometown is Reston, Virginia. McLeod has also worked at University of Minnesota and Cincinnati as an Assistant Professor. He attended The College of William and Mary, University of Iowa, and graduated high school from South Lakes High.

#2 The iSchool Initiative

All I can say is wow. The senior that made this is very intelligent. I never thought about stuff such as an iSchool in high school. The video was interesting and very go green. Which is good but it’s kind of crazy to think of school at the palm of your hands. It would be convenient , but I’m not all for throwing out all the paper and pencils. I may be old fashion for 19 but I enjoy writing and not just staring at a computer screen all day. The computer and it’s applications are important and I’m all for it, but I don’t think that’s all that should be going on.

If schools were to go to this I would hope the school would pay for it. I’m pretty sure they would it would only make sense in public schools. It sounds like an incredible idea, and with the way things are going I’m sure it will become a reality. The computerized world is coming at us fast, and it will be our children’s future. So I guess the iSchool would be a good way to go about it.

#3 Watch The Lost Generation.

I loved this video, end of story. This was very touching and it really got to me. It was sad to listen to the girl read the first time through, and when she read for the second time I smiled. We are not a lost generation and there is hope. Hope will be there when nothing else is and we are not a lost generation unless we give in to hopelessness.

This video shows we can let the world change for the worse or for the better but it is up to us. It is up to us to have hope in the future. I also loved the part where she says happiness comes from within. Which is true and with that statement it made me smile. The technique of this video was well thought out. With it being put the way it was it made you really think.

#4 Eric Whitaker’s Virtual Choir

The virtual choir was amazing. The sounds of the voices were so pretty and soothing. It was very incredible it didn’t even look real. As amazing as it was, I would hate for school to come to that. Yes, I know it probably will though. I would hate to think of band being taught in such a way and same goes for choir. If you were in band or choir you would know there is nothing like feeling music with a lot of people playing, and hearing the music after you played it is not the same as being there. I don’t think it would be fair to teach a musical class this way. As neat as it was, I would rather my children experience the real thing in person.

This video was good and I enjoyed it, but as I said before I just don’t think music should be taught this way. I’m kind of worried about the world after seeing this video. Are our future children and/or students going to ever experience real music in a real room. I surely hope they will.

Additional Assignment #1

A.) Google Squared is very educational. You can find so much out about a country. If they don’t have what you need you can type the word such as “population” into the chart and it comes up. I found out a lot about the Philippines which is where my aunt and uncle have been, so it was neat to see all the different facts about it!

Populations looked up using Google Squared: United States- 298,213,000
Europe- 731,000,000
Philippines- 83,054,000

B.) WolframAlpha is also a great educational site. If you want to look up one certain country or other things you can get to it with just a few clicks! It tells you basic information, location, demographics, and a lot more. I will definitely use this from now on if I need to know something.

Populations looked up using WolframAlpha: Singapore- 3547809
Africa- 986,000,000

C.) I didn’t know about Google Squared before this assignment but I wish I had.

D.)I didn’t know about WolframAlpha before this assignment.

E.) My response to Did You Know is still the same. Dr. Strange didn’t really alter my thoughts. I just know that populations are crazy. I never guessed that the United States were so small! We’re big to others but most of the country’s we talk about regularly are way bigger.

F.) Statistics fascinate and scare me all at the same time. When I looked at all the numbers during this activity it was absolutely scary to think about the US being so small compared to India and China. At the same time, it really blew my mine to think about that many people in the world. That I’m just one tiny speck in this huge world. It was really neat to compare the statistics and I’m glad we had this activity. I will definitely be using this two websites from now on!

~*~Food for thought was great! It is magical that a 6 year old can work a computer without any instructions and being completely illiterate about it.

Blog Assignment #3

#1 Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

A Vision of Students Today was a very good video. I like the beginning with the sentences written on different things in the class room to make you notice them. The survey’s that the students had done in this video had results that were very true. Most students have to deal with all the stuff that was presented in this video. For example, where it said they would pay so much money for books and never open them. That’s true for some, and it has happened to me as well.

The one thing that didn’t apply to me was the average of students in a class being 115. I’ve only had one class so far that was over 100 people, but besides that most of it applied. I wouldn’t really change anything about this video except maybe holding the camera on the student’s papers a little longer. That kind of went with the feel of the video though so maybe not. I do have to say I do like chalkboards though when you have an interesting teacher to bring what they write to life.

#2 "It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines

“It’s Not about the Technology” by Kelly Hines was a great blog! I am still processing everything and that’s good. I loved that she thinks 21st century teaching is not about the technology. I completely agree with her on that if teachers are creative and willing to learn as well they are doing justice for their students. A lot of teachers do misuse technology; they sit back and let technology teach things for them. Students still need that human connection to make things click. Maybe not all students but a lot of them do.

This was, again, a wonderful blog. I agree teachers should be willing to learn just as they are willing to teach. Hines did a great job with this topic. I hope that a lot of people read it , and get a little insight on how 21st century teachers should teach (in Kelly Hines opinion). She did have a list of core outcomes for students from The Partnership for 21st Century Skills which has published framework for learning for the 21st century, and if you have not read this you should!

#3 Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
Karl Fisch’s blogs and videos always amaze me. He’s so one of a kind. I enjoyed this blog. He is right to ask the question is it okay to be a technology illiterate teacher. Even though he had a bad day when he first wrote part of this, he is still right. Teachers should at least have a basic knowledge of technology. If they don’t they are holding their students back from something that will be very valuable to them in the future. Considering the future is scary, but we have to put our fears aside of staying in the past/present and look toward the future.

I loved his quote “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 is daring but a great thing to think about. It certainly left me thinking, and I will probably carry this thought with me. I want to one day be a great teacher ,and for my students I hope to be able to teach them what they need to know to help them be successful in the years to come. If that means learning more about technology them I’m on it!

#4 Gary Hayes Social Media Count

The numbers on the media count were crazy! I was going to put one of the numbers and seconds on here that amazed me but the numbers changed so fast I couldn’t keep up! It’s crazy to think of the world and think that I’m sitting here doing this blog while there are all kinds of stuff happening. Like things being bought, sold, made, sent, or etc.

The world is a crazy place, and I know I keep referring to it all as crazy but it stuns me. With everything always changing and adding up I can’t imagine what the future holds. It will probably look like a lot more numbers than on the social media count right now! For me as a teacher , I’m not quite sure what this all will mean for me in the future. I know it means technology will be used a lot! This social media count really opened my eyes to what is going on, even right this very second!

Google Presentation : Frances Nicole Photography

Blog Summary for C4T #1

#1 My first blog to read by Karl Fisch was "Math on the Rocks: Skyping with Professor Garibaldi". This post was about Mr. Fisch getting in touch with Professor Garibaldi about skyping with his class. Professor Garibaldi uses math for out in the world things such as rock climbing. Mr.Fisch thought it would be a good idea to have Professor Garibaldi skype with his class about using math/learning in the real world. Mr. Fisch came up with questions to ask the professor, and he had a few very good points on why he wanted to do this with his students. The points were to show students when they will actually have to use math, have someone who is passionate about math/learning to get them more excited about it, and to expose the students to professionals with a variety of different backgrounds.

In my comment, to Mr. Fisch, I told him that I thought this was an excellent idea. I think this would help a lot of students to have a real world example by a real world person. It would be very beneficial for students to have this experience with teachers,such as Professor Garibaldi, and I think more teachers should think this way about reaching out to their students.

#2 Dear Denver Post - You're the Disappointment by Karl Fisch was an excellent blog post! The Denver Post wrote an article called “Back In Action”. The article had an awful comment about school.

Summer is almost over, and the disappointment about returning to class . . .

With that being said, Mr. Fisch wrote about his opinion on this horrible article. He said that many of us are excited about school and that is very true. For most of us school has already started; students and teachers alike are ready to get back to school. Though a lot of students won’t admit it and they may not be ready for everything about school, but they are excited for school in general. Fisch said in his town they have a great community, great teachers, great students and they are doing important things with everyone. For example, football season is here and everyone comes together for that. With all that said the Denver Post still writes an article about school being a disappointment!! Fisch was very upset about the article.

My comment to Fisch was that I completely agreed! He has the right to be angry with such an awful article. When I was in high school I always looked forward to going back to school. The Denver Post apparently doesn’t remember what is like to be apart of a school. They need to wake up and realize that the article they posted needs to reevaluated!

Blog Assignment #2

1.) My reaction to Did You Know 3.0 by Karl Fisch was wow. I had no clue about all the incredible things that go on in seconds that most of us never know about. It was scary in a way to think of a computer being made to be a supercomputer. Knowing that an object is compatible to the human brain scares me. Technology is great but I think it is a little much to have a supercomputer.
When I watched the video and saw how the numbers of technology has changed and it was amazing! To know that hundreds of babies are being born in the very few minutes it took to watch the video is crazy. Also, you know, none of us really think of a life without things like google.com ,and it took a minute for me to realize there was a time without such things. Text messages are another one of the things we can’t live without ,and the number of texts that go out each day are insane! Life was much simpler before technology took over, but in some ways it is a very good thing and in others possibly not good.
2.) Mr. Winkle Wakes was a cute video on the change of the world. I can see after Mr. Winkle’s 100 year sleep he would be startled at all these changes. The computer probably would be a very scary thing if you had never seen or heard of it before like Mr. Winkle. All the workplaces and offices with these machines that print pictures and words would be overwhelming! Mr. Winkle will have to get used to all these changes.
I did really like how it showed that school stays the same. That is one of the comfort qualities of school that it never really changes. Classes may change or subjects but the roll of the student stays the same. But in a world of changing technology, Mr. Winkle will eventually have to except this new scary world. The sooner he does the easier it will be for him in this busy body universe.
3.) The Importance of Creativity video by Sir Ken Robinson was amazing. He is so right about creativity. Educators do push children to do better in academics rather than the arts. This is wrong when there are some children that will never be proficient in academics even if they try very hard, and some children won’t ever be proficient in the arts but parents and teachers need to consider this. They need to consider that their children could be smart in academics, creativity, or even both.
Sir Robinson was amazing and his points about creativity were outstanding. His speech really hit home with me because I love to dance. Dance is important like he said. We all have legs and arms so we can all dance. When he talked about children sometimes being diagnosed with things that didn’t even exist years ago it made me think about how true that is. People today see problems when if they opened their eyes they would see maybe their children aren’t meant to be the worlds next scientist, but maybe just maybe they were meant to be the next Broadway star or Picasso. Creativity needs to be looked at the same way academics are.
4.) Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts was a great video. The kids in Georgia are very lucky to have Vicki Davis as a teacher. She not only teaches her students, she also lets them teach her as well. Davis seems to be very in touch with her teen students , and the students on the video seemed to be having fun learning about technology. Which ,in my opinion, is very good in this day and age.
The programs of technology are very tricky if you don’t have an instructor there to help. In my high school we had a computer class but it wasn’t recommended. After watching this video, I think students should have a mandatory class on the world of technology. Not only should it be basic for students to learn to type but they should learn how to work with the computer as well. This was a very good video and a very good website. If you haven’t watched it yet check it out!