HW 1/31/2010 Week 3

Media Literacy in the First Grade

I think it is crazy how developed these kids are, while just being first graders. They know so much stuff about how to blog that I never knew about, until I stepped foot into edm 310 for the first time. The show people how to find their class blog, and also how to leave comments for people to see. It is outstanding the work that this teacher has put in with the children.

It is very scary that these are going to be our future students. They know so much now, that it could be a possibility that they could be showing me some stuff when they get in my class. I love how the kids know the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I didn't know the difference until about fifth grade which is horrible, but they already know. They tell one that they need to leave nice comments on somebody's blog if you are going to comment. All I can say is that this teacher deserves a lot of credit for what she has done.

Little Kids...Big Potential

First off, all I have to say is that Mrs. Cassidy deserves the teacher of the year award. What she does with these kids is just outstanding. They already know how to use so many different programs that many adults today have no clue about. The ideas she comes up with the kids playing problem solving games on the ds, which is a fun way for these kids to use their brains and learn how to share with one another.

One thing I do know is if I have these kids when they are in high school, I don't know what I am going to do. Just because they will know so much more than me on how to make a presentation and how to present it efficiently to them. I might just have to get them to show how they do all those things, which means I will have to be a learning teacher. Which, is the best one's any student could ever find.

iPhone used by 1 year old baby

What can you say to that, but how crazy is it that these kids now a days know how to work an iPhone at such a young age. He knew how to unlock using his fingers and how to find pictures and scroll through them and even how to zoom in. This young child has a very bright future ahead of him if he continues in his path of an intellectual technological journey.

Podcasts

The smart board lesson podcast was quite boring to be honest. The guy talking had way to many noises and distractions going on around him, which that would throw me off. It just had me wondering where he was at when he did this podcast. He had some cool ideas with the smart board, how one could just put what they needed on the computer and do their presentation using the board, whether the be in a foreign country or even in the northern states.

Kids cast is pretty interesting how it kicks off, with all the music that really gets your foot a tapping. And the guy who is talking doesn't just cut the music off immediately when he starts talking, he allows to fade away behind his voice. He has a rather interesting point on his outlook on how teachers should go about using podcast verses "vodcast", which is video podcast. He talks about how it is probably easier on teachers to do audio podcast, because it is easier on the teacher where they do not have to do a lot work, taking up their time, and they still get the point across. But, he does say that it is good for students and teachers to do the video podcast, because it helps both parties prepare themselves for just speaking in front of people.

The EdTech talk is the most boring podcast I have ever listened to in my entire life. All I hear is this one lady ramble on and on and on about nothing it sounds like. I mean the talk shows I hear on the radio are way for fascinating then this one could ever be. The lady that was talking to the main speaker just sounded like a know it all person. She tried to use words that just seemed made up through out the entire talk they had. There no was change in voices, but it wasn't exactly monotone. Just overall, I really didn't enjoy this podcast.

Mac Break Weekly is pretty cool. They are like a legitimately radio talk show, which you can tell by the commercials, the guest they bring in, and the announcers. They hook your attention quickly with the cool up beat music playing at the beginning. I think that the iPad presentation is a great device. Just hearing them talk makes me want to go out and buy one. It sounds so neat with the power and speed it has to allow one user to go about on it. The neatest thing about it, is it is, a touch pad and you things around with the touch of your hand.

TWIP (This Week In Photography) was the same as the Mac Break, as far as, they both had music playing at the beginning and faded it away as the people started talking, which I like that stuff. The main speaker at first was quite boring, but the people he had with him made it interesting. They had a funny talk about a sony camera I believe, not being able to take pictures of Asian people, because the camera thought that their eyes were shut. And the people were doing was just discussing the whole thing, and what they think sony should do.

1/24 Week 2

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

I think this video does an excellent job at portraying the normal college student lifestyle. I mean the teacher has put a lot of things we do down to the "t". Many students who normally bring their lab tops to class usually play games or facebook the entire time. Also, if I were to average how much I worked a week it would come out to be about three and a half hours a day, which is crazy considering the fact that I take 16 hours, and spend at least two hours maybe more per class. I do not spend over two hours eating a day, I believe that is way to long for anybody. One thing I would strongly agree with the most, is the fact that we take these standardized test to help further our knowledge, but we will not need to know all that stuff in the real world. What does it do to help further our skills, when we are on our own?

For the most part I would say that the video does a pretty good job at describing my college experience so far. I do spend majority of my time studying outside of school, such as working on projects, typing papers, reading books, and keeping up this blog, which is pretty interesting. I do not get much sleep while in school, most of the sleep goes to homework, hanging out with my friends, and working. Out of all my teachers that I have had only four can remember my name to this day. What this video does tell me though, is that I should focus more on school then anything else if I am wanting to succeed in this life. I think this video should be shown to high school seniors before they come to college to let them know what they are getting themselves into.

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

I love the way this essay starts catching your attention to the fact that "It's Not About the Technology". If you have the same thought as me when you first read it, you are like "what is this women thinking?". But I have to say this is pure genius on giving future teachers and today's teachers an idea on how to think of things to help make students learn. Kelly does a great job at singling out us teachers by telling us that we need to learn our students and how much they know before they even step foot into our classroom. I love her analogy on teaching and learning by equating it to a simple physics terminology. She also says something about working smarter and not harder. Is she meaning to say that we should let them all work on a computer, or should we get them involved even more?

The third idea she presents is great by my belief. She is telling me that I should not blame the whiteboard if these kids are not learning, because at the end of the day it comes down to the person who was teaching the class. Me! This just inspires me to use the tools I will have to my advantage, as well as being an advantage to the students. Just from personal experience, I would agree with Kelly that the teachers that actually make you use your brain and think are the ones that the students remember forever. Because, these teachers stepped out of the normalcy way of doing things and got us involved, so that we would know what is going on in the world around us. I will keep this in my mind as I teach, that I need to be a learning teacher till the day I retire.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Mr. Fisch has an awesome point even though it does seem pretty strict to those who do not know how to work a computer. But, I do agree with him 100%, because at the rate our world is changing technologically people are going to have to be able to work other programs. I think that teachers now should hold conferences, meetings, to where they could work on their computer skills and take it back to the classroom. I also agree with Karl that teachers should also work beside the students who are learning programs or systems, and learn with them.

His blog shows the importance of how us future teachers need to be technologically literate. It opens to my eyes to what is the possibility to the things that are going to come in 2020 when kindergartners are in college how much has change, how much have we taught them, and what are they going to do with the stuff that they have learned from us and on their own.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Wow, if everything in this continues to move at the pace it is going now, then there is no telling what it is going to be like when I am a teacher in a few years. There are going to be a lot of new things coming out within the next few years, that could possibly change the way we teach a little bit. But, people will be able to access anything from anywhere in the country and the world. It is just simply amazing how fast things change in just a short amount of time.

1/17 Homework Week 1

Mr. Winkle Wakes

This is a very interesting video in how demonstrates the changes that have occurred over the last 100 years. Matthew Needleman gives such perfect examples with business and health. Over the past one hundred years technology has expanded our business horizons to places we never thought possible. With the whole cisco networking system which allows us to speak with clients, share holders, and even investors that are located half-way around the world. The beauty of that program is one can see the person they are talking to even though they are miles away. Also the technology that hospitals have required nowadays can look at peoples brains without doing surgery, and they also have machines that help one breathe if one can not do it on their own.

I also agree with Mr. Needleman in the fact that not much has changed in our school system over the last century. Teachers still tend to teach at the front of the classroom and ramble on and on without giving any videos or pictures to help the students understand what is going on around the area of the subject they are talking about. Don't get me wrong there are some teachers that have made the move and it tends to be working well.

Did you know 3.0

Wow that was just a simply amazing video showing me facts that I never thought were even imaginable. Far as there are more english speaking people in China is remarkable it's beyond belief. Or also how about 25% of India's population with high IQ's is far beyond our population in the United States. What shocked me the most was how the top 10 jobs of 2010 in the U.S. didn't exist in 2004, that is so crazy how that works! I would have never thought that there was over 200 million people on myspace which could make up the fifth largest country. You know who would have ever thought that since 1992 text messaging would now exceed the population of the entire world.

There was somethings that I wasn't as shocked about as far as the working field is concerned. I knew that a lot of people do not stay with one job very long, just because they are always looking for new venues. Also, I have heard about many people meeting online, using chemistry or e-harmony websites.

Overall, this video is just so absolutely amazing! It has shown me how much technology has expanded over a short span of years and how it continues to get better as the years pass.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Sir Ken has a very interesting way of looking at things. He gave great stories through out his speech about how we should take a different look into the way we go about teaching and how we look at our students. He talked about just how young children think and how their minds are so open, like the little girl that drew God. He also pointed out that we need to spend time with them, in what they do, helping them to understand anything and everything. The thing I liked the most was how we should look at our students, for example Gillian, her teacher told her mom to come in, so that they could talk about her "illness". But, what he was doing, was pointing out to the mother that her child needed to be in a dance school. So, the mother listened to the teacher and Gillian made her mark down the road with the choreography of Cats.

The video overall was tremendous on how it makes one think outside the box when comes to dealing with the future leaders of tomorrow. On how we need to encourage them, not shut them down and force math and language down their throats all of their life. Sometimes we are going to have to step out of our comfort zone and tend to the kids, helping them figure out what they could possibly do in the future.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis has a great idea on how she teaches her students to work on computers. She teaches them by doing interaction with them and allowing other students on different days to teach the class. This in-turn helps the student leading the class to understand more of what he is doing, so that he may present what he has learned in front of the class. She is amazing on how she teaches and does all these other things around the globe, connecting students to one another from other countries.

The work that she has done with these kids and what she is going to do with these kids goes beyond the "typical teacher". She has introduced them to things that I myself am now learning for the first time. So, all she is doing is preparing these kids for a better life, by making them computer smart and not forcing them to guess at what they are doing many years down the road.