Blog Assignment 10

I completely agree with Morgan Bayda's view after reviewing the following video. I have attended class after class of lectures where the teacher doesn't even attempt to learn his/her students' names. Some instructors seem to think that education doesn't have to change even when the world is changing drastically for students to be fully prepared to step out into the world. Without knowing how to use today's technologies where are our students going to be? What are the going to be able to accomplish? I don't think there is much they will be equipped to do without a thorough understanding of the uses of technology in the work force. Society itself is changing and if methods of schooling doesn't, our future generations will be jobless.

My experiences are the same as Ms. Bayda's and Mr. Brown's experiences. Sometimes I think instructors have forgotten what education is really about. It's about broadening your horizons and looking past facts to see something that nobody has ever seen before. There used to be a time, a long time ago that is, when students didn't attend a school, but they were considered scholars. They would speak with intellectuals such as Aristotle and others and never receive credit for this course or that. They didn't go to these discussions because they had to, they went because they WANTED to. They wanted to broaden their views and see how far their minds could stretch, what they could learn. I wish sometimes that classrooms today were like this. Not structured to the point of stifling any and all creativity but, rather, to where students are free to speak amongst themselves and to the teacher as a peer. We need to incorporate new technologies and findings into our classroom. We need to keep up with the times. And we need to broaden our horizons.

I took a look at Tom Johnson's post and was astounded actually that somebody would be upset about children having pencils at home because test scores might be a little lower. I don't really know what to say aside from 'Wow'. I'm still unsure, actually, if I maybe misunderstood the post and maybe there was something more there because I was just lost at what the lady's point was behind screaming at a teacher because his students had pencils. Sorry, but if I missed something please let me know.

I also watched the video Two Questions That Can Change Your Life. My sentence is "I will continue daily to strive to become the best teacher I can, always keeping our future generations in my priorities, and hoping to give back to them what my teachers gave to me and helped me keep: support, comfort, strength, ambition, values, and a desire to do better because I could."

Skype Interview Recorded Project #12

Project 13: Smartboard Instruction

Blog Assignment 9

In this post, Mr. McClung writes about a lot of things that he has learned from teaching this year. I believe that everything he wrote can be useful for teachers of any age and with any type of degree. I agree with everything that he said and I find it all very important. The topics he discussed are to read the crowd, be flexible, communicate, be reasonable, don't be afraid of technology, listen to your students, and never stop learning. All of these are important in the occupational area of teachers. I posted a comment to Mr. McClung saying that his focus on creating a relationship with our students by listening to them is one of the most important things that a teacher can do. These children need to know that their teacher is more concerned about their educational growth than what the other teachers think of them.

Timetoast Instruction Timeline- Priject #9B

Short Movie Project # 11

Blog Assignment 8

This Is How We Dream, Parts One and Two is a speech given by Dr. Richard Miller. He speaks of restrictions we place on ourselves with technology, the possibilities therewith, and the ways in which we can utilize technology to better our creative output and writing. Dr. Miller talks about how he is currently learning about new technologies.
He states in the beginning of part one that books are rarely used now. He has written a book and even realizes that it can be bought for less than a dollar on amazon. The goal of learning how all these technologies work can give voice to students' dreams. The technology allows us to articulate dreams and share them. These idea driven web documents can show the world what the university is for. It's there for ideas.
Once, a long time ago, there were scholars. These students paid nothing to learn and teachers got paid nothing to teach. Rather, in days such as I speak people wanted to pass on new ideas and innovations as a gift, a pleasure, to themselves and each other. I wish today monetary feedback wasn't so important. I wish we could learn these technologies because we were driven by an internal desire to know it ourselves and not because we simply had to for an assignment. The university is there for people who want to learn, it shouldn't be used by people simply because they think the have to learn.

In The Chipper Series I saw something I've realized is quite common among college dropouts. They typically shuffle from job to job after dropping out and finally realize they should have never quit college to begin with. The main character, Chipper, is a procrastinator and doesn't seem to want to show up for class or do her work on time. After she drops out, these characteristics stick with her on the job. She gets fired from several of her jobs and finally decides she'd like to put forth the effort to get her master's degree.
The EDM 310 for Dummies video was interesting. I think the way the characters acted is probably very similar to the way I felt the first couple of weeks of class before I fully understood where I went for my assignments and where to post them and other basic needs of the class. I think the idea of a book for the class might be a good idea for those people who feel overwhelmed and I think the video was cute.
If I were to do a video about EDM 310 it would, obviously, be about where to look for your assignments and where you post about them. My video would focus more on how you get started. That was the hardest part for me. Another thing I would include in the video is managing time. I must admit, I'm a big procrastinator, but every Sunday I devote simply to church and homework. I know at the end of every weekend what hasn't been completed prior has to have time set aside for it. I would definitely tell incoming EDM students to set aside a day like this where they get their homework done no matter what.

While reading Why Smartboards Are a Dumb Initiative I don't think I could agree more. In high school my teachers were all getting these 'Smartboards' as they call them. But what, really, was the purpose of them? It caught half the class' attention simply because it was technology and they wanted to write on the screen without using ink. Set that aside though, and how is it different from a whiteboard? (This is excluding, of course, the price tag.) I, personally, never got hyped up over the idea of walking up to the board and getting drawn into the curriculum because of it. Sure, if it helps the students learn, then I say 'Go for it', but in my experience this wasn't really the case. Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards seems to carry the exact same views on the matter as did Why Smartboards Are a Dumb Initiative. I found a different view of smartboards online at: http://www.ehow.com/about_6635274_can-board-beneficial-students_-learning_.html Here it is basically explaining that smartboards are useful in the classrooms because children are technology savvy and can figure them out and because it allows students to participate more in the lesson. I must say I still agree more with the two arguments given by Dr. Strange. What do teachers today do with a smartboard that cannot be done with a projector or whiteboard. Nothing worth a few thousand more dollars, I can assure you.

PLN Progress Report #1

I started playing around with my Symbaloo today. I actually got rather excited about my Symbaloo. I put new programs on it and took some off that I didn't need. I made my twitter button to where it will automatically sign me in and also synced my Myspace and email accounts to it so I can receive messages all together. All in all, I'm excited about starting my PLN.

Timetoast Outline

One of my assignments for EDM 310 is a Timetoast timeline. It had to be about us or our families. Here is mine.

C4T # 2

My teacher for C4T#2 was Mr. John Spencer. His post was about people looking back upon our pictures and questioning what type of person we might be. He states that one of his students asked him if people would think we were all very serious and never smiled from serious photos taken of people. I responded that this is a good point. All our future generations will have are our stories and photographs, our videos. But will they only see the serious side of us? I think so. That is if the only side we portray in these technological advancements is our serious side. My teacher did not post back to me in response.

Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture is an extraordinary video. I enjoyed it a lot. It is not the first time I've seen the video but I didn't quite remember everything from the first time I watched it. Mr. Pausch gave an exceptional speech for somebody who had ten tumors in his liver and knew he was dying. I appreciated the way he was honest and spoke to the audience as though he already knew them. Mr. Pausch hit many of what he calls 'brick walls' throughout his life. He states that these walls are not there to stop people, but rather to see who wants something bad enough to work for it.

He overcomes many obstacles. Some of these are being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals at the fair, and being a Disney imagineer. He never did get to play in the National Football League but Mr. Pausch states that he probably learned more from not reaching this goal than he did from all the accomplishments he did achieve.

Mr. Pausch teaching methods could be termed 'hands-on'. He allows his students to do things using the technology they have access to. He says they will not read a single book in his class. People learn through experience and his methods prove this. Students in his class were allowed to make their own programs and test them. Everything they did in his classes were hands on and allowed the students to explore their realms of creativity. Too few teachers use this method of teaching. I wish there were more.

Randy Pausch is an exceptional speaker in this video. He maintains a professional demeanor while in a time in his life that most people would be more morose over. I enjoyed the way he made you think he's talking to the audience until the very end when he says the second 'head fake' is that the speech is actually for his children. He seems to be an exceptional person, teacher, father, husband, and coworker. I wish there were more people like him today.

Blog Assignment 6

Ms. Wendy Drexler's post The Networked Student talks about students today. These students are encouraged to take learning into their own hands by utilizing technology. Their teacher is a student of connectivism. Connectivism means that the learning is done through social connections and ties. The twenty-first century student first builds ties. Through the internet, he finds facts, opinions, blogs, some of the best professors in the world, and much more to help him attain the connections and information he needs.
His mp3 player can also be useful. Through iTunes, the student can get subscriptions to any number of audio and video files that can assist him with his learning. The student is meanwhile making ties online with people who have the same interests as him. This could help him possibly meet someone important and/or very valuable to his learning process. Then we ask why he still needs a teacher.
He still needs a teacher to show him HOW to do these things. He needs someone to tell him where to find useful blogs, to show him how to form these ties, to let him know how to act politely online, and much more. This teacher hands him the tools that he will need when he is out of his/her classroom. His job is simply to learn how to use them here. Once he leaves the classroom it is his responsibility to broaden his horizons and expand these connections, to continue wanting to learn. And ideally the student will.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment talks about a seventh grade student's PLE (Personal Learning Environment), which is basically the same thing as what we call a Personal Learning Network in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 course. This also allows the student to utilize the internet as a learning tool. The students blogs, watches videos, completes assignments, and much more though the use of the internet to increase her learning experience. We as students at South Alabama are involved in the very same type learning process.

The Machine is Changing Us is also a video. This is done by Dr. Michael Wesch, of whom we've already seen videos. I found this to be mainly true of people today. I thought the inserts from YouTube enhanced it a bit to show how we broadcast ourselves to millions of people who we don't even know. I found the number of uploads to YouTube is rather enormous. College students today utilize YouTube on a regular basis. I actually recently asked a friend for help with something and when they didn't know, the first thing they typed into their browser was 'youtube'. Since we didn't know how to do what we needed to, we simply typed in 'how to...' and automatically videos popped up. College students, including myself, utilize these resources on a daily basis. As a teacher, I'm sure YouTube will probably come in handy when doing podcasts or such. Technology is at our hands. We just have to learn to use it.

Interview with Richard Hayes About Technology in the Classroom