Podcast Project 8 Group E.M.S

Blog Post 5

Scott McLeod's "Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please?

Scott Mcleod is the co-founder of CASTLE(UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education) and an associate professor. I love the blog and the sarcasm he put in it. Everything he says not to do in the post he really means to do them. The internet and other technology and preparing the younger generation for what the future holds. Now a days businesses are searching for people that are computer literate. How much more are people going to have to know ten years down the road? Our children need the exposure of making videos and podcasts to help when they have to give speeches in front of people. Hopefully with the exposure they will be less likely to be nervous. If you do not teach your children the dangers of technology and how to correctly use it then they will do things that are not safe. I believe parents need to take the time to learn about technology and then the fears would lessen. Our country is behind other countries because we will not take the time to teach our children the positives and negatives of technology.

Travis Allen's "The iSchool Initiative"

Travis Allen explains that his high school is experiencing major budget cuts. These cuts resulted in pay cuts, teachers being let go, and classes getting larger. He proposes an idea to help called the iSchool. The iSchool will be done on an itouch. By doing this schools will be able to get rid of books, paper, copy machines, and pencils. He then explains how applications that are available today can be used. E-mail would be one of the most useful because students, parents, and teachers can keep track of assignments and due dates. Chemical touch is an app with a periodic table that explains things about each element just by touching it. US Constitution is an app with an easy to read Constitution. World Wiki would replace maps and globes in a classroom. USA Presidents app has interactive content for each president. Star Walk has information about the universe. Formulae is an app that provides all science and math formulas needed for a student to do problems. Recorder allows students to record lectures and be able to send to other students that might not have been in class. The scientific calculator allows students to use the itouch rather then spend money on an expensive graphing calculator. The notes app allows student and teachers to take, receive, and send notes. Classics is a book reader that is easy to pick a chapter and flip through pages. This app can be used for text books and library books. iHomework gives students and teachers a list of assignments and keep track of each subject and the due dates.

This video really got me interested in knowing more about how much has changed since the video. I would really like to use this in my class and think students would enjoy school more. Students always learn more when they are having fun and interested in the way they are being taught. I really think Travis has the right idea with how the iSchool would save schools a lot of money due to less paper being used.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
This video is absolutely amazing. I cannot imagine that the people in this video had never met before. Eric is an amazing person to be able to put something like this together. This video shows how technology can create some wonderful things. Think of what people can do with any in the world using technology.

Kevin Roberts's "Teaching in the 21st Century

Roberts believes that teaching in the 21st century is not by teaching facts. Facts can be found anywhere, anytime, anyplace. However, if you teach skills then the students have to learn from you. The way teachers can see if students are learning is by getting them to apply the skills you have taught through video, podcast, blogging,or presenting. He thinks students should publish work through video, audio, or wiki. We as teachers need to rethink the way we teach. He also mentions however you decide to teach you need to make it challenging, engaging, and relevant. I could not agree more with Travis. Our world is growing rapidly and it is time for a change. If we do not change our children will be behind the rest of the world. I plan on using the tools I am learning in this class to incorporate in my teaching methods when I get my own classroom.

Reading Rockets

I am studying to be an Elementary teacher and this website seems to be geared towards elementary. I have absolutely nothing to say negative about this site. I really want to teach somewhere between 1st-3rd grade. These are the years, I believe, that can make or break a child's enjoyment of reading. This site gives games that you can have your students play to strengthen their vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, phonics, and writing. I also really enjoyed how the site gave possibilities of reading lists and books to go along with certain things in history.

I think this website cannot only be used at school with a teacher, but also with parents at home. With technology growing rapidly, I would really use this website in my classroom. However, most children have a computer at home, so I would assign things to do with this website at home with the parents. I believe a child really wants to learn if they see their parents are behind them and support them as much as their teacher does. I think Anthony Capps is right the website is very valuable to education.

Project 9a Timetoast

Blog post 4

revised 1/4/12

Podcasting with First Graders

It amazes me that first graders want to be so involved with reading. In my experience with children just learning to read, it is sometimes a hassle to get them to engage in a book. This podcast not only shows these children reading a book, but the book is a chapter book. I think the idea of a podcast for reading is a great idea to use in a classroom. The great thing about the podcast is it can work for not only first grade but possibly all the way through elementary school.

Podcasting in the Classroom

This video describes the benefits of using a podcast in the classroom. This video offers good examples for why I should use podcasting in my classrooms. One of the examples given in the video is when a child is sick and does not go to school. If the teacher uploads the lessons through podcast then the student will not be behind when they return. Another example given that I would use would be for students to come up with a podcast for a project maybe to interview someone in history or something to do with English. I think to let children use a podcast the parents need to be involved and sometimes it will depend on the age of the child too.

Listening Comprehension used with Podcasting

This article talks about how a second grade class used podcasting to learn a different language and apply reading, comprehension skills. Each student in the classroom was given a sentence to record to use for the podcast. Then they were taught how to write the sentence in Hebrew. Finally the teacher scrambled the sentences so each student had to come up and put the sentences into order for the story. I think this podcast is a great idea because, as a teacher, I could really engage my students in a story by making it a type of game. I think when you make learning fun a student really comprehends the lesson being taught and applies himself/herself more to the lesson.

This Is My Sentence Project#6

Blog Post 3

Peer Editing

I am really glad Dr. Strange decided to put an assignment about how to correctly peer edit. The Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes video was great. It really gave me an insight to the type peer editor I am. I hate to admit it but I am a speedy sally. I have never really seen the point behind peer editing. I always thought the teacher was the one who knew what he/she was doing and should be the only one allowed to grade papers, so I just went through the steps quick to get the homework grade. I know now how helpful peer editing really is and I will spend the time on my classmates' blogs to help them make their blogs great. In my C4C this week I did not see any errors so I just complimented how well he wrote his blog and how great his thoughts were on the videos from last week.

Technology in Special Education

In this video Lace Cook, shows how important technology is for teaching students with special needs. I love the beginning of the video with the black and white video and crickets chirping in the background. This really shows how classrooms are when just books are available. There is not much interaction between students, and I think especially special needs students need to socialize to help with their learning.

The video then starts to show the difference technology has made in the special education classroom. Corbin is the first example showing him listening to an ipod. He used to need a teacher to read aloud to him outside the classroom and now he can stay in class and listen to the stories on his ipod. The next example is Kris who has a hard time seeing his work. They used to use come kind of wooden stand for books, but now he uses a computer which makes it easier for him to communicate to teachers and classmates and easier to do work on. Sherae is another example used that also uses a computer to help her talk. Using computers to teach the students in the video helps to keep them interested and eager to learn. This video really opened my eyes to all the good technology does. I had no idea that special education students would be able to use technology easier than a pencil and paper.

I went to the apple itunes store and looked at the apps available for education. I found a really good application that was created by a speech pathologist. I think the app could be used to help teach my special needs students how to put stories into order. I would use the app as an activity, then ask the student to come up with a story that goes with the pictures in correct sequence on the app. The app is called Speech with Milo: Sequencing and this app is only part of a group of apps made by this Speech Pathologist. I would also use her other Speech with Milo apps to target other problem areas depending on where each student is at.

Gary's Social Media Count

This website shows different parts of social networks and how much the count is changing in less than three seconds. I knew our world was changing through technology but I had no idea it was happening this fast. I never thought I would see the day when my grandparents started internet surfing, or the day my dad owned an iphone and knows more about the phone than I do. I am still trying to wrap my head around how much our world is changing through all this new technology.

I think technology taking off like it has is a good thing for my generation and younger, but our parent's generation and our grandparent's generation is having a hard time changing their ways. I think this rise in technology is a good thing for schools because it helps those students who do not do well with paper and pencil show their strengths through technology. However, I think this is going to require all old and new educators to keep very up to date on new technology and be willing to learn.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

This video was my favorite part of this blog post assignment. I have been in college three years and have spent more money on school and textbooks than I could ever imagine making in a year without a college degree. I think teachers and professors need to look at this video as a reality check. This video shows a professor and teacher that most students are coming to class but not paying attention. True that teachers try to tell you if you are on anything other than what has to do with class you will be asked to not bring your computer to class, however, very few students will actually care if they get caught.

I think in the future schools need to go to paperless books and maybe get rid of chalkboards and whiteboards. I believe students would pay more attention to a teacher and the lesson being taught if there was some type of interaction involved throughout the class time. I am excited to see how big of an impact this video will have on how we teach in schools in the future.

Project #5

Project 3 C4T #1

Comment 1

I was assigned Kelly Tenkely and the first blog I commented on was about speed booking. She talked of how this can be done either through computers or using paper if there are not enough computers available to the students. The blog talks of how this idea gets children interested in books and to help form reading groups in class. The way this speed booking works is each students is given a few minutes to read either a chapter in a book, look at the title of the chapters or read the introduction to the book. After time is up each student rates the book 1 of 4 ways: "I want to read more", "Interesting", "Not for me", or "I've already read".

I responded to her post by stating what a great idea the speed booking is. I explained how I am studying to teach elementary school and would love to use this in my class to help with vocabulary and get children more involved with reading. This idea really helps to teach children to not judge a book by its cover. Click here to go to the post.

Comment 2

Kelly Tenkely did not respong to my first comment so I found another post and commented on it. This Blog had to do with a website called Money Island This site allows students to learn about three different areas: saving and spending, earning and investing, and using credit wisely. The site takes the child on a journey throughout the world to learn and apply the three different areas along with other very important things they should now about our economy. The site also gives lesson plans and activities so teachers can incorporate the site into school. Ms. Tenkely also talks about how to integrate the site into a classroom. She suggests either having it as a center that students can rotate throughout the week or even use it as something to do at home.

I responded to here post by first stating what a great idea this site is. I also want to know her opinion on what is a good grade to start putting this in lessons about money. I then told her about when I was in school I was never really taught about what this site is hoping to teach children. I think it is definitely something children need to learn with how our economy is these days. I really hope I will be able to use this tool when I start teaching.

Blog Post #2

Did You Know? 3.0- A John Strange 2012 Version by: Dr. John Strange


In Dr. Strange's video a lot of statistics are shown to not only compare the United States to India and China but to also compare the way technology has changed from last semester to two years ago. It is amazing to think that English speaking Chinese will outnumber the entire world in English speaking. The video also makes you think what you can do once your an educator to make your students more tech savvy and hopefully bring numbers up across the board with being bilingual and raise IQs.

I enjoyed watching Dr. Strange's version, but I have to say the originalDid You Know? version had more facts I was interested in. The original also had several different ways of showing how technology has changed over the years. I had no idea that the population of India and China were so much greater than the United States. The information about how many babies were born during the span of the video is just extremely eye opening. How much has the data changed since the video was first made?

Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman

This video starts off with this old man who has been asleep for one hundred years finally waking up. He goes to explore the world and finds that a lot of things have changed since when he can remember. He sees big, tall buildings and goes in one. There he discovers the things that have changed with how businesses are run and the new inventions. He has no idea what a computer or printer is. He is amazed to see that the printer pops out a piece of paper with a picture on it. He also is bewildered by the fact that you can talk to a person through a computer and the person you are talking to be across the world.

He then ventures out to a nearby hospital to see if maybe he is sick. When he enters he again sees all these new machines. He sees people that are being kept alive by a machine that is making them breathe. He also notices the doctors using lazars and x-rays to perform surgeries on patients. He then leaves the hospital and walks till he finds a school and goes inside. Once inside he feels comfortable. He looks around and sees there are no changes.

This video really helps to show that several things have changed over the past one hundred years. Some of the things we are able to do now were not even thought possible a hundred years ago. However, I do disagree with the fact that the video thinks schools have not changed. I know going through middle and high school when teachers thought children were old enough to handle computers we did lessons and experiments on computers. A hundred years ago children were learning in classrooms with books and chalkboards.

The Importance of Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson

This video talks about the creativity of children in education. Mr. Robinson first starts off with how we as educators are here to educate children to be ready for the next five years when we ourselves do not know what will happen in those next five years. He believes that creativity is as important as literature now in education. He gives several examples of children and their own creative ways or looking at examples like God and the nativity story. He explains that these examples show children are not afraid of being wrong and that is a key thing is to not be afraid. However, by the time children grow up to become adults they somehow become frightened of being wrong. Mr. Robinson gives a reason why this is happening. He says that our schools are now being run to make it seem that a mistake is a bad thing which is leading to children losing their creativity.

After explaining a little about his topic he then goes into explain that every education system in the world has the same subjects and levels of importance for subjects. The subjects of most importance are math and languages, then humanities and the least important is the arts. Robinson believes the reason for public education is to produce university professors. I never knew that there was not a public education system till the 19th century. The one thing that worried me in the video is when he gave a statistic saying that in the next thirty years more people will graduate in education then ever recorded in history. We are already having a hard time with jobs, does this mean more types of teaching are going to become available?

A Vision for 21st Century Learning

The arguments made in this video have to do with changing the way children learn. The video suggests taking kids away from sitting passively in their chairs memorizing material from textbooks. The answer the video gives is to move to a technology that kids do not even realize is teaching them to help them feel empowered. I have to say i do not completely agree. I have learned over the years that everyone learns differently. Yes, some children might learn better through this new style of teaching, but what about the other children? I learn through hands on teaching. I also cannot watch a video or read something from a computer and truly learn something. I have to print out the text or stop a video throughout to write notes. I know I am not the only student that learns this way. I think the best thing would be to combine the two ways of learning. I think this would be the most beneficial to all children.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts by Vicki Davis

In this video Vicki Davis is seen as a teacher that has done something incredible with her students through technology. She has created a classroom where the students are teaching her and teaching the rest of the class. She is the cofounder of several different blogs. Digiteen is a blog where students from around the world come together and learn new things about digital citizenship. The Flat Classroom project is where students can study different technology trends with other students around the world and collaborate through videos and presentations.

My favorite part of the video is when she said a child cannot learn with just paper and just pencil. I could not agree more with her statement. I think there are certain students who thrive in the paper and pencil atmosphere, but there are students who would better thrive in the technology atmosphere. I think by joining the two students will not only become more diverse learners but also be better prepared for jobs after college.