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.