Dear Kaia

I cant believe a child so young is already working on blogs, videos and taking pictures. That just really amazes me. I might have to take that quote from her dad when said "that sometimes if we look closely at things ,even if they are discarded and ugly, they can be beautiful. This is so true some people look at trash as trash and other people see art. I take it that Kaia and her dad spend a lot of time together.

If we get more students into the classrooms like Kaia i think the classroom would become very boring for them after a while. If they are learning by using computers at home then they get to the classroom and all we have is books i think this would be a very hard task for students to accomplish. As teachers we must show students how important education is and will be to them.

New Media Literacies

The new media skills coverd in the video I watch was judgement, negotiation, appropriation, play, transmedia navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, multitasking. I think these are most defintly some of the skills we will need in new media literacies. Yes, they are the skills atleast some of the skills we will need to be effective 21st century artist, citizens, and workers. I posses 8 of the 11 skills discussed in video which are judgement, negotiation, play, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, multitasking.



Watch this video for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/user/NMLstaff08#p/a

The Networked Student

The networked student was a interesting video and I learned a new from it called connectivism. Connectivism was a very interesting concept that I have never really heard of. I think it would be great for a class like the one I am in. It is basically what my professor is trying to teach us. By expanding our personal learning network it will help us get closer to connectivism.

The teacher who is thinking about introducing this concept to her middle school classroom in the fall I think is on the right track. They may not be where she wants them to be when the class is over, but if done right they will have learned something from the class that will make them want to know more. The student has to be willing and ready to learn this new concept of connectivism for it to work because the student does most of the work with this concept.

When the question was asked why does the networked student even need a teacher I was thinking the same thing. To me it seemed like the only role the teacher could play was to guide the student but the teacher can be so much more than that. The teacher can be a learning architect, modeler, network sherpa, synthesizer and so much more. I don't think I am quite ready to be a teacher of a networked student but I most defiantly think that I am on my way.

Check out this video at http://is.gd/2cgBb

This is How We Dream

Dr. Miller who is very different from myself , when it comes to books, starts off by telling us about his love for books and how books were always available to him. While myself on the other hand hates to read and I don't do it very often, I think it is boring, but maybe I feel that way is because through out school I was made to read books that I didn't really want or enjoy reading. He shows how once a book is out of print it is no longer available to us anymore, through technology the book will always be available to anyone who wants to read it.

He shows us how so much information is available to us without having to step foot into a library. The best thing about it is that the information is sometimes available as it happens or soon after the event has passed. We are most defiantly moving from a reading, writing culture to a listing, watching culture. Everywhere you turn there is somebody with something stuck in there ears walking or jogging or riding looking like robots.

Multimedia is very important and everyday I am amazed by something new in technology. Now you can become best friends online without actually seeing that person in real life but via web cam. I think have to learn how to use multimedia to keep the interest of student now because it is such a big part of how students learn today. Students are always using different types of media at home so when they come to school they want to use different kinds of media, and I think if we cant provide it in the classroom we are going to have a hard time keeping students attention.
Check this video out for yourself at http://techliterateteacher.blogspot.com/2009/07/dr-richard-e-miller-discusses-writing.html

Ipods in Instruction

Duke university was one of the first universities to do an ipod experiment where they game the incoming freshman a 20GB ipod for there classes it also came with a program on the ipod so that the students could record lectures in the classroom which I am sure came be very useful dealing with all the different ways professors teach at universities.

One classroom I found that using the ipod in the classroom was Miss Kathryn Stanton classroom she used the ipod to let her students record their stories using the ipod and once recorded they were instantly able to here there stories. This helped they with their reading practice as well as learning more about technology. She also made a slide show of the their work to see it check it out at http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/katstaton/2008/01/

iTunes U

As a student iTunes U could be useful to me because with it I can see what is being taught in certain subjects at some of the major universities in the United States. I can see and hear the way other professors are teaching the information that I also might be learning at my very own school. And because it is on iTunes I can simply download it to my ipod and listen to it on my way to work or while I am exercising.

As a teacher I could use iTunes U as a learning device for myself. I could see how other teachers are teaching the same information that I might be teaching. By doing this I may notice thing i may need to change in my lesson to help my students grasp the information better. One of the best thing about iTunes U is that it is free to download the videocasts and podcasts.

Download itunes for yourself at www.apple.com/itunes

Dr. Christie’s site

A part of the site that I found that could be useful for teachers was the photography section this part included picture of things she had taken, mostly nature. I think a teacher could have a site like this as part of their classroom website but instead of picture that the teacher has took it can be pictures that students have took. You could give the students a assignment to only take picture of all the different animals or plants, or vegetables they see.

After the student have took the pictures and they are developed or saved on the computer then as a class everyone can learn more about the category they were assigned or they could learn more about some of the pictures they find interesting. Once they are put on the Internet the whole world can see what your classroom is learning about.

Visit this site at www.alicechristie.org

What I've Learned This Year" by Mr. McClung.

I think that the What I've Learned This Year post by Mr. McClung was a very good post for our class to read. It had a lot of things in it that most first year teachers will have to learn while teaching. He gave us students that have not started teaching a heads up about what we need to learn before we start teaching. I am pretty sure once I begin teaching I will have to learn how to read the crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, use technology, listen to my students and never stop learning. Doing all these things will help me become a better teacher and help my students achieve their dream. Mr. Mcclung just gave us some things to think about before we start teaching so we don't go into the classroom blinded.

Can You Trust Wikipedia

I think Wikipedia can be a trusted site for some information but not all. I think for something like a simple book report or the history of a person Wikipedia could be a very useful site. I would not trust Wikipedia with a big time project though. If I was using Wikipedia for a big project I would make sure I had other trusted sources backing it up. If I was assigning my students a project and they decided to use Wikipedia I would make sure to tell those students who are going to use Wikipedia to make sure they have another source.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture

Randy Pausch' last lecture started off with him telling the audience why it was going to be his last lecture, and it was because he has tumors in his liver. He didn't want to focus on his illness though and he didn't want anybody to fell sorry for him. He said you cannot help the cards you have been dealt but only play your hand. He then went to tell the audience the things he would not be talking about and the things he would be talking about.He had a great sense of humor throughout the video

The first thing he talked about was his childhood dreams. He talked about brick walls and brick walls make us prove how bad we want something. T he brick walls are not there to keep us out but to make us show how bad we want something. He then went on to talk fundamentals and hard work and how important they are. I love a quote that he had in his PowerPoint and it goes "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you want".

Next he talked about enabling the childhood dreams of others. He went on the CMU and created a course where you made your own VR world. His mentor gave him some great advice when he thought his students had did really well, and that was to tell them they did good but he know they can do better. He said he would be doing the students a disservice if he was to set the bar.

I really enjoyed watching the videos and the quotes he put at the end of the video. He talked about the lesson he has learned thought life. One of them were even you give someone long enough they will show you the good in them. Another one was don't complain work harder his example was when Jackie Robinson played baseball it was put in his contract that he couldn't complain even when people spit on him

Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

This post is about Karl Fisch, a teacher and technology education specialist at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado. He won an award form EduBlog Awards for his blog post "Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher ?" It was nominated as "The Most Influential Post of 2007". Fisch did not expect to win anything, he did not even expect to be nominated. He was just responding to a post written by someone else named Terry Freedman. Freedman wrote a post about 'is it acceptable for a teacher to be technology illiterate?'

Freedman also had proposed a set of standards for teacher which teachers need to follow. I liked reading the post it was very interesting. I also believe that teachers need to keep up with technology. Like he said "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." Teachers must know whats going on with technology just so they can relate to their students. I would think today that every 8 out of ten students today know about Myspace and Facebook and other cites like it. Teachers now can even use technology to communicate with their students outside of class.

Welcome To My World

It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines

Its not about the technology says Kelly Hines and I agree with her. Even if we do get all this technology what is the point if the technology tools are not being used to their fullest cabilites. Every student has that computer that they want but what good is it if the are only using Microsoft word and PowerPoint in the classroom. Like Hines said the teacher needs innovative tools and innovative tools but into a innovative teachers was can be very powerful.

I totally agree with her and every point that she made. There is technology that is being created everyday so if we the schools get caught up with whats going on today they are still behind. So instead of focusing on the technology lets focus on innovative tools that can be used in the classroom. The teacher has to be willing to learn and not be so closed minded that they can only teach and there is no more learning for them to do.

My Reaction to Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

After watching this video it does pretty much describe my college life in a nutshell. I enjoyed watching the video I found it very interesting. I found it interesting how they didn't say anything throughout the video and just used sheets of paper with words on them. I think that help keeps the attention of the watcher it made me wonder what are they going to hold up next. If they would have talked i could have simply opened up another web page and listened but they made you watch the video by not talking.

There are people entering college not knowing what they are in store for. They think it will be like what they see on television, hanging with their friends, going to parties, and not going to class, but then they get here and its totally different. I think watching a video like this will help capture a small part of college for students who have not entered yet. You do buy books that you don't use, you do sit in classroom and learn information that is totally useless, and you do have more stuff thrown at you than you can handle, but I guess thats just the way it goes.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

After watching this video I seen that using podcast in the classroom can be very useful. I also seen that the students seem to enjoy listing to the podcast and making the podcast. Some of the students listen to the podcast inside and outside of the classroom. I think its hard getting students to want to learn and I think using podcast effectively will help with that.

I seen that if a student does miss class and you record whats going on in the classroom that day through a podcast the student will not have so much to catch up with the next day when they come back to school if they listen to the podcast. The podcast seem to be able to keep the attention of the student better than the teacher sitting in the classroom in a monotone voice teaching it. I think podcast can be a very useful tool inside classrooms if used correctly.

Students Podcast

I listened to a couple of the podcast from last semester and you could tell that some of the students were nervous because they have probably never done a podcast before and this was something new to them. In one of the podcast I listened to you could tell that they were reading about the subject word for word. They made good points but it just didn't sound natural. In other podcast it sounded as if they students were just having a casual conversation and you could not even tell it was for a class, and that how I want mines to sound.

I think some key thing I will have to do to get me and my group podcast to sound natural is to practice outside of the classroom. I don't want it to sound like we were forced against our will to do the podcast. Another i heard was the moving around of paper in some of the podcast to avoid this I think I will use index cards for my podcast. But, I think the most important thing to do is to practice and get familiar with the subject and the podcast will come out great.

Video Into The Classroom Introduction

I think that it is good that Mr.Needleman can get his students involved inside the classroom without using pen and paper. I think computers are becoming a very big part of education. Who knows maybe in about 5 years every student at every school will have access to their own computer.

Podcats Review

The First Podcast I listened to was SMARTBoard lessons episode 150. This podcast sounded very professional. It is done by two other teachers. It gave you different websites that you could use as a teacher. You could tell that they had done their research before they started the podcast. It didn't sound like it was read off of paper it just sounded like a casual conversation between two people. They also read some of the e-mails that they had received from their listeners.

The next podcast I listed to was Kidcast 58 "The Medium Is NOT The Message". It is done by Dan Schmit. He was saying that he was on the Internet listing to podcast and he noticed that a lot of the podcast done by students were done just because they were in a computer class. He says the podcast were done just to show how podcast were done not because the student wanted to do it. He was saying that the teacher should allow the students to do podcast on a subject they wanted to and maybe start doing one every week or every two months or whenever. This podcast was very interesting to me. His podcast sounded very professional also it didn't sound like it was read off of paper.

Third I listened to EdTech Talk number 94 it was done by Arvind Gover, Alex Ragone, and Vinnie Vrotny. It sounded like a sports radio conversation. They had a special guest on this episode named Carol Broos they sounded clear but she sounded like her mouth was on the microphone. She was talking about a DVD she made with other teacher who had won awards. It was pretty boring to me. She was just talking about some video she had did some organization called golden apple.Lastly I listened to

MacBreak Weekly episode 128. It is done by four different men this episode was called "I Cannot Confirm Nor Deny". It is usually done by five guys but one was gone off for a sonogram. This podcast also sounded like a sports radio station. One of the men off of this podcast also does the This Week in Photography. I also didn't find this one interesting. It seem like they were never going to get to the topic, they spent like this first ten minutes of the show talking about everything except what the podcast was about.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

I think what Vicki Davis is during with the classroom is wonderful. Like she said the teacher doesn't have to know it all I think it is perfectly OK for teachers to learn some things along with the students, or for the teacher to assign the student what something means and the student teaches it to the whole class. I think it is a good idea for you to introduce new vocabulary terms in the class and let students go home and look up the terms and find out what it means.

Vicki made a good point when she said if a classroom is only pencil and paper then it is only made for certain student to succeed. Now days all students don't learn the same way and we have to be able to provide different techniques of teaching things in the classroom. For some students it may be easier for them to learn by listing to the material instead of reading it from a sheet of paper.

If you would like to view this video clink on this link http://bit.ly/151RkU.

Sir Ken Robinson

This was a very good lecture by Kin Robinson, made you think about how much we are killing students creativity in the classroom. We should hold the arts as high as he hold the other core classes. I was in the elementary schools last year and the students don't even get art time. Like Robinson said all kids are artist is that we teach them out of their creativity.

I feel like Robinson that the arts should be just as important as the other classes like we do Math, English, Science, and History. I think his book epiphany would be a good book to read. Also in the school system we do encourage kids not to follow their dreams if they involve the arts. If you hear a student that wants to be a musician, painter, or photographer or something along those lines we tell them try to make sure they have a back up plan just in case that doesn't work out.

To view this video click on this link http://tinyurl.com/mluw5k.