Instructional Videos

I think that the instructional videos were helpful. The only thing that I would recommend is that you do them from a windows computer because it is kind of hard to get to where we need to be when the screens don't look the same. The one on how to source the pictures helped me on my website because I definitely didn't know how to do that. Overall, I think that they were very helpful.

My EDM 310 blog assignments are Now Complete!

Well, this semester has went by extremely fast and I hope that you all have good luck in your next semesters at school. Have fun this summer too.

Last Blog Assigment

I learned a lot in this class. I learned how to make a website which could be very helpful in a classroom so that the parents can view it to see what is going on in the class. I also learned how to make a trifold brochure which could come in handy at the beginning of the year so that I could explain a little about myself and how I will run my classroom. I would have like to learn how to make a gradebook using excel. I did learn how to use the google spreadsheets which could come in handy when I buy a new car. I think that when making the powerpoints in the beginning we should have got to use powerpoint instead of using the google presentation thing. I also wish we could have used something different to make our websites so that we could have gotten a little more creative. Overall, learned a lot and it was a great experience.

Wikipedia

I don't think that Wikipedia is a very reliable source of information. But on some things they are correct about because, you can look it up at other websites. On the other hand though if someone doesn't like something that is said on there that may be the truth then they can change it to something else so that they don't look bad. For example in the article it said Wal-Mart change what was said about them on Wikipedia was changed by someone at Wal-Mart just because, they didn't like what was said about them. There are some things on there that are factual and some that are not. On there it shows you how many times something has been edited so if it has been edited once or more then you should know that something was either changed to make that particular story about them look good or it could have just been wrong in the beginning by whom ever wrote the story in the first place. I use it a lot to find things out about particular things but I would never use it to write a school paper or anything like that.

stanford university video

I think the video is helpful for us to understand the difference between the growth and fixed mind set. I think that it was very interesting to learn about the two different types of mind sets. I didn't really know about them before and this video was very informational. It as neat to see that this stayed with you even when you grow older. That if you have a growth mind set you will go far in life.

This will effect me as a teacher becuase, the children with the growth mind set will be easier to teach. The ones with the fixed mind set will be a little more difficult because, I will have to get them to leatn how to see things a little differently than what they do. They won't be as willing to learn because, they may think that they already know what is right and they don't want to expand on the idea. Whereas the others will be willing to learn new things and it will help them to grow throughout thier life.

Video from WGBH

I thought that the video was extremely helpful. I would definitely use this in my classroom. With this you can show the kids exactly what you are talking about. Instead of just explaining to them without any visual can be hard for them to absorb the information.

With these videos the children will enjoy them and they are learning about the subject that you are teaching about. They are also easy to access to. You just go to itunes and then download the videos that you want. This is very helpful for you and the student. You could have them to go home and watch the video if they have access to the internet. You could also go to the computer lab at the school to do this as a class.

I will use this in my classroom if I have the equipment to do so. This is a very useful tool and so easy to use. I like how itunes is doing this because, where else would you find videos like these to show the kids. The ones that you get from the school are usually boring and the kids don't want to watch them or they fall asleep. Overall I think that this is a very useful tool.

duke universities use of ipods

Duke University distributed ipods to 1600 entering students in 2004. The professosrs were able to provide portable access to course content, capture lectures given in class, capture field notes and interviews, study support tool, and file storage and transfer. The benefits of using this is the convenience for both the faculty and the students, flexible on location, and the it was effective and easy to use. This is a very good idea and think that all colleges should try it and see how it works.

75% of the first year students reported having using at least one ipod feature in a class for independant studies. The bad things about it is that they had difficulties finding commercial sources. They also problems with the limitations of the device and the recordings on the ipod were not very good quality. I think that this could all work great when they get all of the bugs out.

itunes university

Itunes University is designed to let help colleges, universities, and other organizations download educational content. This is very resourceful because a teacher can just tell you what they want you to find and you can go here to find it. You can download it to your ipod just like you would music or other things. The only problem with this would be that if someone doesn't have an ipod. I think that this is a very great idea for colleges and universities to use.

I think that this could be of good use to me as a teacher in the classroom I could tell the kids what to look for so that they could download it for the next day or for an assignment. As a student this could be helpful because I could download whatever the teacher wants me too and I could do it all with my ipod. I could replay it and listen to it whenever i wanted. It could be good because some children do better learning by hearing the material given rather than just reading it. Overall I think that this is a very great idea.

best of ....

I think that everything said in the blog is true. Because, you cant have a teacher who knows nothing about math teaching kids about it. It's not like computers just came about in the last few years they have been around and people should know how to use them by now. I think that some people use not knowing how to use a computer as an excuse because, they just don't want to learn how to. They don't want to except change and realize that they are going to have to know how to use a computer and other things that they don't want to.

They should have to go to some sort of workshop for computers. They make them go for other subjects why not have a workshop on how to use a computer. There are some children that can use a computer better than some adults. How does that look when you second grader shows you how to do something on the computer. How would that look in a math or english when the second grader corrects the teacher because she doesn't know what 2+2 is or she doesn't know the difference between a noun and a pronoun. Bottom line is that they need to learn how to use a computer because, they aren't going away tomorrow. They are going to be here a while.

ALL ABOUT ME

International Blogs In The Classroom

Julie Lindsay is a teacher in Doha Qatar. She is head of information technology at Qatar Academy. This is a teacher who uses blogs as a means of communication around the world. She explains how you can use them to participate in things going on when you cant physically be there. For instance they were having a educational conference in Philadelphia and she couldn't attend so she used her blog site to watch what was going on and to share some of her ideas too. I think that this is really neat that she could be at a conference around the world but still be in her classroom or home while doing so. With this I think that it could help out students a lot to learn and get to experience new things.






Jo Mcleay is a teacher in Melbourne, Australia and she teaches English at a secondary school and she is completing her masters of education degree. She uses blogs in the classroom to have the students post drafts that she has had the write. She explains in her blog how to use a blog and things of this sort. She also has the kids to watch different podcast and write what they think about them. She has them to discuss stories that they have read and to post their discussions. She had them to do a discussion on hurricane Katrina. I like all these ideas of using blogs in the classroom because, you don't have to worry about all those papers to bring home with you.

Classroom Blogs in the United States

I found an eight grade American history teacher who uses blogs in his classroom to have the students turn in book reports. He uses what he calls his web classroom to interact with the students. He also explains what a blog is and he also uses podcasts in his classroom. He has different links to go and see what the children have been doing. The parents can go in and get a weekly newsletter and see what is happening that week at the school. He uses his blog to put up podcasts about history so that people can listen to different things that occurred. It is really neat blog site.



There is a teacher Mr.Gates who uses a blog in the second grade class. He had the students to discuss butterfly's, gardens, and studied plants. He had the children to help a pre-k class in the greenhouse and they made gardens. Then he had the kids to talk about the gardens. He also had them write about what they know about seeds. Some children even added a picture of seeds to their blog. He uses his blog in a horticulture type class. He has the children discuss what they have learned about a particular subject. I think it's awesome to have second graders participating in this.

ACCESS

ACCESS provides the students with classes that they normally wouldnt have at their school. For instance they dont offer any advanced placement classes ACCESS helps the student to be able to take these classes. ACCESS provides high quality classroom courses and teachers via technology. They have what they call videoconferencing which is where you have a audio/visual link between two or more geographical remote sites. Which is very helpful for the students who need to take these classes.There are some great advantages to videoconferencing such as they will be taught by a highly qualified certified Alabama teacher, they will be able to interact with kids from other schools, and increased responsibility for learning. It also provides the school with more teachers, allows the teacher to grow professionaly, and allows the teacher to be apart of another school culture. The students will be able to take the course at school during the school day. Overall this is a great program for the benifit for teachers, schools, and the students.

How I would use ALEX

I would use ALEX a lot because, it is very helpful to the teachers as well as the students. You can go and get everything that you need all in one website. I would use it to get the course of study for my lesson plans. I can also go there to get lesson plans to use in the classroom. I really like the we blinks page because you can go there and get different websites to go and look at to get ideas for your classroom and it will help you with projects and other things that you need to teach a lesson. Also I would use it because, its just so easy to use. If I wanted a lesson plan on rainbows I can just go to ALEX and click lesson plans and pick a subject, grade level and type in the word rainbow and it would show me all the lesson plans about rainbows. I like the website and I would definitely use it all the time in my classroom.

ALEX

ALEX is a project of the Alabama Department of Education. ALEX gets funding from the office of Technology Initiatives, and the Federal Government. They have an executive council, a steering committee, and an advisory council. You can go to there website and click on course of study and then you can choose your course of study that goes with your lesson plan or you can go to course of study and click one of their lesson plans. They have everything from your basic courses to foreign language to health education. You can go to the lesson plans page and specify which subject such as history, english or whatever you are looking for. You can put a specific grade level you can narrow your search down by doing this so that you don't get a million lesson plans that you don't need at that moment. They have educational web links for teachers, principals, and students. These could come in handy because say you need a project for the kids to do in science but you aren't sure what to have them do then you just do to the weblinks and click on the one for teachers and then choose a subject and it gives you all the websites related to science.

They have a link called personal workspace and you can create an account and store and submit your own lesson plans or web links. Another link on their page is a place called professional learning you can go here and find proffessional development opportunities, teaching and learning tools and the latest news. They also have links for you to enhance your proffessional growth and communication. They also have what they call the distant learning program which is for students who don't have certain courses offered at their school they can use this to take them.It also provides opportunities for students statewide to engage in Advanced Placement (AP), elective, and other courses to which they may not otherwise have access to.Overall I think this is a great website.

Did You Know Video

The video was very interesting and informing. When it asks what the world will be like for the children born today how would we ever know. Look how far we have came today from what the world was like in the 1950's they had no idea what the internet was and probably couldn't have predicted we would have such a thing. Who is to say what the world might be like in 2050 people could be driving around in flying cars. The world may not even be here, they might find life on Mars by then who knows. The video shows how far we have come since the older days. Some may think that these new things are useless but they just don't want to except change. The world has to progress.

Second Post

Yay the first week of school is almost over!

My First Post!!

This is my first post ever. You are welcome to read more posts.