Final Blog Post

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C4K Summary November

The first C4K blog to comment on was the Noel Elementary class blog. For some reason this blog says it is currently unavailable. The second blog to comment on was the shooting stars blog. The post I commented on was called Oregon Trail. The students made videos where they would list what they thought would be needed  for the journey.  I responded by saying their ideas were well thought out and they spoke clearly in their videos. The third blog was Mrs. Conlin's Flat Stanely Project. This class did a project where they make a paper person and send it out into the word and record its  adventures. The post I commented on was Flat Sophie in Guangzhou. Flat Sophie traveled to the third largest city in China and saw the Asian games. I responded by pointing out how fun and informative this project seems. Also that it will be interesting to see all the places flat Sophie will go. The last C4K blog to comment on was Mrs. Haugen's Sixth Grade. I commented on Jessica's blog post called The Red Pyramid setting. She described the setting of a book she was reading. I responded to her by telling her how well she described the setting of the book as well as what the main plot is. I told her that the book sounded like a good read and that it was a great post. I think commenting on kids' blogs was a great learning experience and good practice for the future.

Final Progress on My PLN

This is a screen shot of my symbaloo. I have found this to be essential in creating my PLN. Here I can create tiles of all the web pages that I frequently use. I have links to different blogs of teachers we have had to comment on; my favorite being "At The Teacher's Desk". I also have links to all my email accounts. I have the link for the university homepage and the EDM 310 blog because I use these the most. I have the link for ALEX because I know it will be very useful in my college learning as well as my career. I have the link to glogster, youtube, and apple on my symbaloo, also my twitter and facebook account where I can see the teachers I am following and keep in touch with classmates. My PLN has changed the way I learn as well as the way I view the internet as an educational tool. I will be continuing to develop my PLN and use it to become a more technologically literate teacher someday.

C4T #4 Summary

My C4T #4 was Henrietta Miller and her blog was called classroom chronicles. She teaches 5th grade and lives in Sydney Australia. The two blog posts I commented on were "Thinking in the Classroom" and "A Year of Firsts". In the first post she brings up the topic of allowing mobile phones in the classroom. She asked her students and their parents opinions on whether or not this would benefit the students. Her responses were split pretty evenly. Some of the points that were raised were the idea that since not all students can afford the best devices, how could you make sure they all had equal access to use these devices for learning? Also some of the students worried that it might be too much of a distraction. But there were positives to it too like how the devices could be used to take pictures, used as stopwatches, and calculators. I responded by saying that this is a tough question to solve and if there was a way to make sure all students had equal devices and monitor their use so it doesn't become a distraction, then this might be a good idea for classrooms.
In the second blog post, "A Year of Firsts" Ms. Miller discusses all that she has done this year pertaining to technology and teaching. I think it is interesting that she started blogging in January and is now speaking at conferences and teaching her fellow staff members how to take advantage of technology when teaching. She explains how her class has has used skype and podcast among other things. This reminded me of EDM. I responded by saying that her post was inspiring to me since I am learning about these things and plan to use them in my classrooms. The fact that she had accomplished so much in one year is impressive.

Project 16

Additional Assignment #5

Just Teach Them to Solve for X
Mr. Spencer is really great at making his point using metaphorical and slightly sarcastic speaking. In this post he creates a conversation that seems to represent the way some people view teaching or learning. "Gertrude" is insisting that he shouldn't make the children understand and make sense of what they are doing. Mr. Spencer is arguing that there are metaphors all throughout life and students should be taught how to deal with them and think instead of just "copy processes".

Sketchy Portraits: 8th Grade Identity and Pencils
This post was confusing the first time I read it. But then I realized that he was talking about how misunderstood 8th graders can be. He shows that some teachers would rather just write them off as rude instead of considering what they are going through. I think this is a great post and Mr. Spencer really understands his students.

He Just Likes The Class For the Pencils
I really like this post. In this one you can really tell that he means computers when he says pencils. He is making the point that the way you treat your students will in turn effect the way they behave. Also I think he is hinting that a classroom should be a place of respect and purpose not shame and meaningless busy work.

The Medium Shapes the Learning
In this post Mr. Spencer is talking about mediums. Changing the medium can be tricky. He seems to be saying that you must pay attention to what new things you bring into the classroom because you may get a different result then you intended. Also that things must be added to our way of teaching but we should be fully aware of their purpose.

Project 15

Blog Assignment #13

The Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) is a website for teachers made by the Alabama Department of Education. Its purpose is to provide teachers as well as parents and students with web links and lesson plans and activities for each subject in each grade level. When you first arrive at the website you are on the home page and there are eight click able blocks, each taking you to a different type of help offered. The first four block contain links to the web links, lesson plans, a course of study menu, and a search option.
The next block is a personal workspace where you can create an account and store all your lesson plans and activities. Then there is a block called professional learning where there is information for furthering your knowledge of ALEX as well as links to other places to further learning. Then there is a Podcast treasury block where you can watch educational podcasts about different subjects. The last block is called Alexville. There you will find the Alex blog as well as other helpful links that contain more information about what ALEX has to offer.
I think that the ALEX site is a great tool to have for teachers. I can definitely see myself using this site to get lesson plan ideas as well as activities to improve the learning experience of my students. I think that this is a great site and will surely serve its purpose!

Google Form Summary

I made a survey of questions about college students choice of food and places to eat. I asked questions like where do you go grocery shopping and what is your favorite close to campus restaurant. I also asked some yes or no questions like do you have a meal plan and are you a vegetarian. For these two questions I had expected slightly different outcomes. For the meal plan I had expected a fair number of students to have one but only 1 out of my 18 participants claimed to have a meal plan on campus. Also I thought there would be at least one vegetarian out of the 18 people, but there were none.
By doing this survey I learned that 56% of participants eat three meals a day. Also I learned that 72% of the participants shop for groceries at Wal-Mart. When I asked the question, "What would you say is the basic college food?", I was not surprised by the answers. Although there were a few Strange responses such as lean cuisine, the most common answers were pizza and ramen noodles. The favorite close to campus restaurant among the voters was the Mellow Mushroom, with The Shed and Hungry Howie's tying for second. Overall I think that the eating habits and food choice of the students were pretty much what would be expected.

Progress on Final Project

My group which includes Nicole Kelley and Carly Dougherty are doing our project on Technology in Intercity Schools. We plan to make a video interviewing  teachers in  intercity schools in our area. The participants will answer questions about the use of technology in their schools or how they would use technology in their schools if they had access to technology. We have started planning out our interviews and deciding what schools we can interview. Our video will be an insight of how teachers would like to use technology given the chance.

Blog Assignment #12

Watch this video by coolcatteacher about the fear of technology. Write a two paragraph response on the context of the video as well as the visual tactics used.


Read this Blog post by Matthew Needleman. http://creatinglifelonglearners.com/?p=700
Write your response to this post and explain how reading it will help you as a future teacher.


Technology Fear Factor in Education
In this video the topic of fear of using technology in teaching is brought to light. They make the point that not using technology is holding back the students. Also that instead of fearing technology itself we should be fearing all the students who are technology illiterate going out into society. Also we should be teaching students about the positive and negative of the internet and blogging so that they are prepared and can use the technology in a positive way.
The way the visuals of this video are set up is very interesting. I really like the way that they make their statements at the beginning by pointing to letters and buttons on a key board. Its neat that they use what they are talking about (the computer) to ask their questions. It was also creative when they said the metaphor about "releasing the millions of students into shark infested waters of the internet,"  they showed a clip of a shark grabbing its prey. The visuals in this video were creative and interesting while still stressing their topic.

Six Ways Teachers Can Improve Education This Year
This blog post is a list of six things that teachers should do to improve the school year for them as well as their students. The first suggestion he makes seems simple but is actually very important when you think about it. He says to say hello to your students at the door. He says that this may be the only positive interaction the student has with an adult all day. It also lets the students know that someone cares about them and is on their side. The next suggestion he makes is to eat in the teacher cafeteria. Since I am not yet a teacher I cant exactly relate to this one but I like how he says that you can be the positive influence to your discouraged coworkers. The next two tips are teach authentic writing and incorporate multi-media into every lesson. These two tips are very important parts of improving education because writing will always play a part in our society and multi-media keeps learning interesting for the students. The last two suggestions are teach art as a discipline and teach test prep two minutes every day. I think that teaching art as a discipline is my favorite tip because I think it is extremely important to incorporate art into learning and keep creativity alive in the students. I think I will carry all of these tips into my career and I am very thankful to Mr. Needleman for posting his opinions.    

Blog Assignment #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and Skype Interview
The video of Ms. Cassidy's first graders was so inspiring and motivating. The use of technology in her classroom by the students is great. The fact that the six year olds are blogging and using internet sources just like we are is proof that we have to become technology literate in order to teach them. I hope that the use of technology in the classroom will become just as frequent in our area.
The skype interview was interesting because we got to hear Ms. Cassidy's opinions and experiences with technology in the classroom. Hearing how she uses technology in her classroom gave me lots of examples of what I could do to use technology in my classroom in the future. I really like that she lets her students blog as a way of practicing their writing. That is very good experience for them because they get to share stories with many people and get comments that encourage them to keep at it. I think one problem that could arise from this is that maybe the parents would be uncomfortable with their students writing to be accessible to anyone. But Ms. Cassidy explains that you can protect their identity by not using last names and by not matching pictures with names. I think that what Ms. Cassidy is doing in her classroom is great and should be done in all classrooms.

Teach Someone Video

Summary C4T #3

I commented on the Cooperative Catalyst blog by John Spencer. He writes blogs about some of the different issues in education and his opinions and solutions. The first post I commented on was called The Real Cause of Burnout. In this post he explained the real reasons why teachers were leaving schools or giving up on the profession. He says that the reason is the lack of freedom from their superiors to teach in a way that students respond to. He says the pressure to prepare the students for all the standardized testing takes away the teachers freedom to really teach effectively. I responded by telling him that I agree that as a future teacher something has to be done about the constant pressure to drill information into a child's brain just long enough so they can pass a test that will make the school look like it's doing its job. I really hope this changes because the child's education and development as a part of society is more important than him memorizing a list of facts and spitting them onto an answer sheet.
The second blog post I commented on was called "What's the Purpose of Education?" In this post Mr. Spencer explains that he took part in a webinar where the purpose of education and how your life reflects that was discussed. He took a poll of all the people who attended and asked them to choose from 4 different explanations of their purpose for education. While #1 is the choice that you would expect to be most frequent( it includes achieving the American dream and "if you try you will succeed") it wasn't. the most frequent choice(79%) was #3. It included points such as finding ones own path and making meaning of the world. I responded by saying that it was very interesting to see the results of his poll. It is always good to see how the way we view the purpose of education is changing. It also made me consider my opinion on the subject. I really enjoyed his posts.

You can find his blog at http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/

Sumary C4K October

The first blog I commented on was MilliM's blog in GSandler's class blog. She wrote about her 100th post. She said her favorite thing about blogging is getting comments from people all over the world and then her class marks where it came from on a map. I told her that it was very inspiring for me that she was on her 100th post because I am new to blogging. I told her it was great that they mark the places on a map because that really helps them to become aware of places all over the world.

The next blog I commented on was Nya's blog from Ms. Naugle's class blog. She wrote about her class trip to the Washington parish fair. She described the animals they saw and what they did. I told her that she did a great job of describing the details of what she saw. I could imagine all the animals in my head. Both students did a good job on their posts.

Blog Assignment #10

An Open Letter to Educators
I thought that this post by Morgan Bayda was a very good way of saying that our education system needs to change. I really enjoyed Dan Browns video. He made some great points as to why the current way of teaching and learning at Universities has to change. We now have access to all these facts that we are told to memorize just by getting on the internet so we should be spending that time collaborating and thinking and learning. I definitely agree with Morgan about trying to stay awake sitting in a class listening to someone read off a power point. When she said how her computer class taught her ways of learning and collaborating that changed her way of doing research, I thought about how that sounds like EDM 310 for me. It is so different than most college courses and I think that all Professors need to start moving towards this type of teaching and learning.



Two Questions That Can Change Your Life
This video was really inspiring. I think that everyone should see this video before they graduate high school. It really makes you remember that everyone has a purpose and that we really can make a difference in this world. I love the idea of asking yourself "Was I better today than yesterday?" Because everyday should be an improvement of our lives.
My Sentence: I plan to create hope and inspiration for children who come from unstable home lives and to make sure all children know that they are capable of anything and that someone believes in them, by using education as my guiding light.

Smart Board Video

Skype Interview

Blog Assignment #9

What I've Learned This Year
In this blog post Mr. McClung describes his first year as a teacher. He shares some of the problems he ran into as well as what he learned through the year. He makes some very good points about what it means to be a teacher and about how to avoid common mistakes and make it better for your students. He explains that through college we are so focused on being assessed by superiors that when we begin teaching sometimes we forget that the audience is the important part. Another good lesson he shared is to be flexible. He says that a lesson will never turn out exactly how you plan it and you should make the best of it instead of getting upset. He also says that communication and being reasonable with expectations of students are very important.
 My favorite quote from this post is, "Our job as teachers is to simply pick them [students] up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again." This is such a good way to look at teaching because it isn't about us but about the students and making sure they get a good education. The parts that most relate to this class are "Don't be afraid of technology," and "Never stop learning."  I thought this blog had great advice for future teachers and even teachers who are having trouble with some of these aspects of teaching. It was helpful of him to share his experience with us and he gave great advice. I am very happy that i got to read his blog and I will definitely use his advice. 

Short Movie

Short Movie

Blog Assignment #8

This is How We Dream
These two videos showed how different writing is now than in the past. It also shows how much different it may become in the future. Dr. Miller explains that the times of libraries and paper books that are printed and borrowed or bought is pretty much over. He shows how he wrote an entire speech without using anything but his resources on the computer, and how that same document is shared today.
I do not think that at this moment I am fully prepared to write with multimedia. There is constantly some new technique to learn when using it to do projects. But I do think that with every assignment I receive in my classes I get a little closer to being perfectly comfortable with using multimedia to produce a document. We really have no choice but to become prepared to write using multimedia, especially in the education field. It is definitely more convenient to be able to produce as well as access information all in one spot.
I think that my future students will be able to do this, maybe even better than me. This is because their generation is already being exposed to this sort of writing at a young age. By the time I am teaching I think that it is safe to say that multimedia writing will be the common way of producing a document. Its possible that the students may not even remember the days of going into a library and using paper books to do research.

Chipper and EDM For Dummies
If I were to create a video like  this I think it would be a good idea to make one about the benefits of going to college. Another idea would be to make a video about a technology illiterate person trying to keep up with our society. The chipper video was about a girl who was not devoted to school and did not think she should have to put any effort into anything she did. I thought the video was funny as well as a good example of why this class is important. The EDM for dummies video was showing EDM 310 students who were panicing about the class. Then they have the book EDM for dummies which contains tutorials for most of the tools we use in EDM. I think this book would have been very helpful!

Smartboards
The first two posts were against smartboards and they argued that they were just an expensive version of the same thing we already have. Both posts said that the schools should be focused on improving the style of learning for the students not a more technology savvy way of doing the same old thing. The third post was for teachers who were in favor of the smartboard and want to get  them in more classrooms. This post was representing smartboards as a good tool for teachers. I can see where the first two posts are coming from and also why the third post says smartboards are a good thing. Here is the link to the third post.
http://smartboardrevolution.ning.com/profiles/blogs/why-smart-boards-wallwisher

Additional Assignment #2

The Child-Driven Education

The children in this video are proof that if learners are motivated, then they can in fact teach themselves. I think that kids are just as capable if not more than adults to teach themselves. I do think however that the kids need motivation as well as support from each other to learn on their own. Its like Sugata Mitra said, if a child sits in front of a computer by himself, he wont learn as much as if there is a group discussing the topic. It is clear from this video that internet access is very important when the kids are teaching themselves. It gives them a place to search for information and helps  them use their creativity to the fullest. I don't think that a child or adult could teach themselves if there is no desire to learn.

  Problems and questions play an important role in self learning because it gives the learner something to search for or to solve. I am motivated to learn be being challenged and also be being told that I can or should know something. I think people are motivated by the idea that they have the power to better themselves or their life. I think that most everyone who is motivated can teach themselves to a certain extent, but of course there will be some people who can go further than others.

 I feel like I do teach myself sometimes, especially in online classes or if I miss a certain section of one of my classes. In my learning teachers play the role of motivating me as well as giving base knowledge if it is a subject I am not familiar with. The most important question that I take from this video is that if this much success in self teaching is being found in these conditions, how long is it going to be before teachers are no longer a significant part of learning? We as aspiring teachers should be considering how we can fit into this cycle of learning and still be an important contribution to education.

My PLN Summary

I use symbaloo to create and keep up my PLN. I am still working on developing it. I use youtube for viewing video assignments as well as looking for ideas. I use gmail and facebook for contacting and communicating with classmates and group members. Blogger has helped me to get lots of great advice from other teachers and educators. I am still growing my PLN and hope to get lots more!

C4T #2 Summary

Post #1

This post was called "6 Ways Teachers Can Improve Education This Year". Matthew Needleman gave great suggestions on how to make the year more successful for students and yourself. Some examples of these are say hello at the door, eat in the teacher cafeteria, and teach art as a disipline. In my comment I told him that i felt that these were great suggestions for all teachers and I would definitely use these in my teaching career. I also told him that I like his idea of doing things that are more beneficial for the students.

Post #2

This post is called "The Right Way to Show Movies in Class". In this video Mr. Needleman explains things you can do to to make showing a movie much more productive for the students learning. He also explains things that you can require from the students to keep them focused and interested. In my comment I told him I especially like this post because I can remember in school when teachers would put a movie in and people would go to sleep or do other things. These were good tips that show that showing a movie doesnt have to just be a "friday fun activity".

Timetoast Timeline

Blog Assignment #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
This video was inspiring and educational about life and success. Randy Pausch is a very positive and inspiring person and its easy to tell that he really cares about making people happy and helping them to become successful. He did many amazing things and changed many lives by his actions as well as his personality. I really enjoyed his lecture because I thought it was so great and inspiring that some one in his condition was standing up there talking about having fun and how you can achieve your childhood dreams. His story and all the things he achieved were very inspiring.
I think that Randy gave very good advice for aspiring teachers. One of the techniques he explained is to make it fun. He used humor all through his lecture, whether it was to make a point or to keep it interesting. This shows that he feels it is important not to treat things like the cant be enjoyable. He was very good at explaining things to where they were relate able to everyone.
Another technique that Randy used was listening to others and their criticism. He gave many examples of how he did this. One example was his coach in football when he was a kid telling him that when people stop criticizing you that means they stop caring. Another example was Andy Van Dam and how he helped him. He also explained how he had his class use peer evaluation to tell people how easy they were to work with.
Another important piece of advice Randy gave about reaching your dreams is not giving up the first time and also believing in karma. He gave examples of his own life and how he didnt get into the schools he wanted the first time. His successes are very inspiring for anyone who feels discouraged. One quote he used that I really liked was, "Brick walls let us show our dedication." He also stressed the idea that if you live your life a certain way then your dreams will sometimes come to you. He also said that if you focus on other people first then the favor would be returned. I think that his life story is very inspirational and I am so glad he chose to do this lecture and that I was able to see it.

C4K Summary #1

My student was Kyle from Noel Elementary. I commented on his about me and his learning manifesto. His about me was about his family and his hobbies. He also included that he has a learning disability and that his favorite subject is math. I responded by telling him that my favorite is also math and encouraged him to keep trying hard.
His learning manifesto was about how he was going to try to be more focused and how he was going to try to do his work on time. I told him that his goals are very similar to mine and that he would do great.

Blog Assignment #6

Networked Student
In this video Wendy Drexler shows what a PLN is and how a student uses it. This was very helpful for to to understand what a pln is and how to develop and use my own. I thought that the narration and paper visuals were very creative and interesting. I liked the fact that she listed so many examples of helpful things on the internet that students have access to.
This video was very well thought out and is a good tool for anyone who needs to know how technology can help their learning. I think that the teacher she shows in her video is in our near future, and may be us. I like the idea of going from a book and a lecture to making connections that will better benefit your education. I think that we can learn more from each other than  from a book.
I hope she does try this type of learning with her middle school students. They will benefit greatly from having a PLN that early in their education. Maybe she will make another video about how it went. Her video was very informative and I will probably reference back when creating my PLN. I am glad I got to see this video.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment
This video was a 7th grade girl showing her PLE and explaining why it was helpful and how she used it. I think it is great that she has so many resources to choose from when doin work. I also like the fact that her science class is paperless. I think that more classes need to be paperless and more middle school students should be developing PLEs. Her PLE is much like my PLN in the way that I use my sources to find out information that I am interested in as well as to do the work I have to do.

The Machine is Changing Us
This speech by Dr. Wesch was entertaining and eye opening about the cultures of the past and the options we have for the culture of our future. This can relate to my personal life because I agree that media has made us unattached and careless. I also found his history of whatever very interesting. When he was talking about his college class and the lack of interaction and public debate I can relate because in larger classed I sometimes feel detached and uninterested. As far as my future as a teacher I think the end of his speech is very important because he gives a new definition of whatever that says, "I care. Lets do whatever it takes... by whatever means necessary." It will be our responsibility as future educators to carry this definition and encourage the next generation to keep it true.

Blog Assignment #5

The Benefits of Podcasts in the Classroom
This podcast talks about how podcasts can help students with class work and learning. I really like that it can make it possible for a student who is sick to still get what happened in class that day. Also it's good that it allows the students to be creative, and allows parents to see what their children are doing in class. 


The Practical Principals
This podcast is an audio type podcast where the two people discuss their life as principals. I think that the casual manner of speaking is good for a podcast because it is easy to listen to and understand. I learned from this podcast that it is better to have some sort of visual whether it be a still picture or slide show.


100 Ways to Use Your iPod
This article was very informative and useful for anyone with access to an iPod( which is almost everyone). I am one of those people who still considers an iPod to be "music only" so I had no idea it was capable of so many helpful things! I think that I will definitely be using some of these applications for school related purposes. 

Blog Assignment #4

Scott McLeod:
He is an associate professor at Iowa State University, and the director of CASTLE which is a center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. He has a passion for combining technology and learning.
I enjoyed his post about the fears that some people have about using the internet and technology in general for learning purposes. I agree with the point he is trying to make about how important being technologically aware will be to the students future. Sure there are bad aspects of the internet but if we start educating the students on the good and evil at an early age then maybe they will make the right decision.


iSchool Initiative:
This idea makes sense and seems like a plausible solution for the economic situation of school systems. How great would it be to have one small device that had the capabilities of anything you ever need for school? It would be like high school in your pocket! Its hard to believe that the iTouch already has almost  all the apps that you would need to have an iSchool.
Of course this would be a drastic change in our school systems as well as learning as we know it. There would definitely be people who would refuse or be very hesitant to such a big change. It would take a good amount of time to transition to this greener and technologically savvy way of having school. But if people would cooperate then it may be a very big step towards the future of education. 


Lost Generation:
In this short video a monologue is read that is arguing that we are in control of how our generation views and lives life. I absolutely loved this video and how creative and inspiring it was. I hope that many young people view this video and realize that it is up to us to make sure that the first reading does not become a reality.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir- 'Lux Aurumque:
This performance was very unique and impressive. It is amazing how he was able to put together the music and everyones individual voices to make a beautiful song. It just shows that there is no limit to the possibilities that internet can bring to our lives.

Additional Assignment #1

A. The educational implications that search engines such as google squared provide are easier and more access to information that may be needed for projects, papers, etc. Also these search engines allow you to compare statistics and facts in the form of a table so you can see the differences in the information.

B. The educational implications of search engines such as Wolfram Alpha are that it gives you plenty of information and statistics, it is easy to understand, and has data for almost anything you need to know.

C. I did not know of google squared before this assignment.

D. I did not know of Wofram Alpha before this assignment.

E. The part of Did You Know that your comments changed my opinion on is the part of America's comparison to other countries in the aspect of size as well as of honor students. I wasn't considering the vast difference in population and size.

F. I learned from this exercise to always be sure and compare statistics before you make an assumption about information. The information may seem shocking but if you don't have something to compare it to then you can't know that for sure.

C4T #1 Summary

1 C4T#1

This post was about whether or not the idea of PLE/VLE is something that should be brought into our school systems. The author of this post considers that since students have to have these when they are in higher education, wouldn't it make sense to begin their virtual learning knowledge when they are much younger? He also added that there would be some issues that would have to be worked out such as getting having limitations on what the kids could access from school.
I agreed with him that it makes sense to start this learning environment at an early age because the students will already have a base to build on later in life as the continue learning.

1 C4T#2

This post was about the internet being nominated for the nobel peace prize. The author's argument was that the people who thought this was absurd were wrong because it wasn't the internet itself being nominated, but rather all the people who have ever had anything to do with it. He made the point that we take for granted how much the internet has done for our society from communication to learning.
In my comment I told him how this post opened my eyes and made me appreciate the internet as a serious attribute to our life. I agreed with his point that there are so many people that take part in making the internet what it is and that the nomination was for them as well.

Google Presentation

Wordle

Response To Films

Did You Know? By Karl Fisch
This video was very shocking to me. The statistics on how long Americans have been at their current jobs was a surprise because it seems like most people used to find jobs and stay at them until they retire. But that has apparently changed with the growth of our society's job options. Also the statistics on how America's population compares to other countries in the world was new information to me. I feel that we sometimes think that America is on top in the world just because of stereotypes, but I think we should all be aware of what is happening in the world around us.
The information in this video about technology really opened my eyes. It seems that our society is based on technology and uses it for everything. The question in the video, "To whom were these questions addressed before Google?", catches my attention. We depend so greatly on technology that it doesn't seem possible to function normally in this society and be technologically illiterate. Another fact that shocked me was that in 2013 there will be a super computer that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain. This means that in the very near future there could possibly be something that could fulfill many of the jobs that humans depend on for a living. Overall this video made me see how important it is for me to become more technologically inclined.

Mr. Winkle Wakes By: Mathew Needleman
This video was an entertaining way of saying that every other area of society has advanced and progressed technologically except our school systems. This fact is becoming more of a problem everyday. Since technology is a large part of higher education as well as most careers today, how much sense does it make not to incorporate technology into learning at an earlier age? If we make our public classrooms more techno-friendly, then this could increase the students' success in the future.
Bringing the school system up to date would not be an easy task. Probably the biggest problem we would run into is the money that it would take and where it would come from. Also there would have to be a transition for the students who are older and haven't been exposed to this type of learning. Finally, all the teachers who are not up to par in technological education would have to learn things before they could successfully teach students.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
I really enjoyed this video. I agree with Ken totally that children are being taught to be afraid of being wrong, which is resulting in their loss of creativity. The idea that education in the school systems only focuses on educating children from the neck up is true. It takes more than just knowledge in math and science to become a well rounded person.
I think we should be incorporating creativity in the education process of children. While I don't think they should be forced to be artists or dancers, I do think they should have the option to explore their creative side while learning the core subjects as well. This also relates to the idea of bringing technology in to the classroom. We have to be careful not to let technology replace what little bit of creativity that already exists in our school systems.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
This video shows a teacher of a class for improving students' knowledge of technology. This class is a very good start for incorporating technology in the school systems. The students will benefit greatly from learning all these things. They are also interacting with students around the world which will make them more aware of the rest of the world.
The class she is teaching seems a lot like our edm 310 class because they are making blogs and learning to use computers to learn rather than pencils and paper. I think that if there were classes like this available in my high school it would have been very helpful for me in my higher education. I think classes like this should exist and multiply all over our country.

About Me

My name is Haley Riviere. I am a sophomore at The University of South Alabama. I graduated in 2009 from Alma Bryant High School and I am from Grand Bay Alabama. I have two younger brothers who are in the 7th and 9th grade. I live with my parents and my brothers and our three dogs. I enjoy reading, cooking, and swimming. I am a full time student as well as a server at Cracker Barrel.
I am majoring in elementary education and I hope to teach upper elementary. I chose to pursue a career in teaching when I was very young. This was partly because of the positive influence and inspiration to succeed that I received from my elementary teachers. Also because I feel that education is a very important aspect in developing as a person and every child should receive an exceptional education. I chose Elementary as opposed to secondary education because I feel that I connect better with younger students and would prefer to teach an elementary class.