Blog Post #10

An Open Letter To Educators

Over the past three years I have spent at the University of South Alabama, I have experienced both types of classroom settings shown in the pictures I have provided.  I think that most of the classes I've taken where I was bored, the professor never really learned my name, or I felt like I was having facts "thrown" at me where my pre-requisite courses. The only stadium seating class I have taken was Geography 101 and 102. I was always bored. I wasn't interested in the material that was given to me on the printed out power point, which was the same power point the professor put on the screen and pretty much read word for word with the occasional addition to what was already given. Once I got in to my education and English courses, I was much more interested. The classroom settings have been small to regular size with professors, for the most part, who were interested in our input on what we were learning. Sometimes, my professor's views have changed after listening to how we interpreted the literature that we were learning. I think that it's true that information has become less and less valuable since it's free online. The only thing about the information given to us at universities that makes it more valuable than what we can read online is the medium it is given through. At universities, we are given this information from professors who have gone to school for many years and who have been teaching a lot of people about the same information. There is something about a good professor that a person can not get from reading information online. They have more insight on the subject being taught. Something that was said that kind of bothered me was about the student in this equation. Dan Brown was talking about how students just memorize that facts thrown at them to be able to pass the test. Well, that isn't the university's fault. We students have to be able to take the facts given to us and learn how they apply to what we are learning. We have to be able to show how something given to us as a definition applies to the material. Memorizing facts given is something students tend to do in a "crash study session" normally the night before the test. If we actually learn what the definitions are and how they apply to the material, it is a lot easier to pass the test. I don't think that universities are losing their value. For me, it is much easier to learn something in a classroom setting than an online setting.
My sentence: I am trying to learn how to inspire and encourage children to want to learn and to do their best in accomplishing their goals and dreams.

Project #11 Short Movie (A Discussion of My Favorite Teacher, Mrs. Vanrossum)

Project #9b Instructional Timetoast

Blog Post #8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream

This video was very nice. Richard Miller explained how media is changing and how we need to take advantage of it. I thought it was funny that he mentioned a book that he had written came to have the same fate as other educational books. It is available on Amazon's website for fifty-nine cents. A lot of people don't go to libraries anymore to find a book that they want to read. They simply go online to find the full text or to buy it. Also, I loved what he said about ideas. He said that ideas don't belong to us individually, rather they belong to us as a culture. We must be in the business of sharing ideas freely.

I liked how he pointed out the collaborative benefits the web gives us. It allows for us to have different people who specialize in different areas collaborating together to create a production. We don't have to be in the same building, or even country, to create a piece of work together. We also have new ways of viewing things, such as newspapers. We can view the media through print based or moving image based material. I think the moving image based material is fascinating. It's like watching an event live. We are able to keep up with something instantaneously instead of having to wait for the results on the news.

He also talked about how in the world we live in today, our limits are mostly ones that we place on ourselves. I think this is so true. I have never heard of composing using the web itself. Even though I had never heard of it, there is someone out there who is doing it. His composition searches blogs all over the world and determines an emotional profile of the world moment by moment. I think Richard Miller is right in saying that we need inspiring teachers of new media for students.

I don't know how hard it is to learn how to use these new media tools, but I think it's something worth learning. We will want our students to learn how to use these tools. If they do, then they will be better prepared for what comes next. I think that if we want our students to thrive, we need to arm them with all the tools we can to help them. After all, that is what we are trying to do. We are trying to prepare them for their futures. If we don't help them understand these new tools and how to use them, we aren't preparing them with what they need to know.


The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies



Though I can't think of any videos that I would like to produce or participate in, I do think these videos had good messages. In The Chipper Series video, the message that I got was that we have to work for the things we want. If we want to become teachers, we have to put in our time and effort. Not only do we need to do this, we also need to do this in the appropriate time given to us by our instructors. I think it did a good job  in showing us that the procrastinating and not showing up that a lot of us do in school is not accepted by our future bosses. We need to practice doing well in school, so we can do well in our future jobs. Just showing up doesn't mean that we deserve anything, such as a ribbon in Chipper's case. The message I got from the video EDM 310 for Dummies was that being prepared makes what we are trying to do much easier. We can't just expect to know how to use all the tools that we have to use for this class. If we did, there would be no reason to take the class. As the video showed, once we read the tutorials and understand how to use these tools it will be much easier and less stressful to do the work assigned in this class.



Critiques of Smartboards

In "The Innovative Instructor" the focus was mainly on the teachers and the administrators. In "Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards" the focus was mainly on the teachers. In the first critique, Michael Stanton argues that the teachers are still doing the same thing as they have been. They are standing at the front controlling the content and managing a bunch of students. He also says that the smartboards are a way for administrators to say that they are spending money on thing that they can point to and count. He argues that they aren't using the money to experiment with ways to improve learning outcomes, because they wouldn't be able to get the money for something that's not concrete. In Bill Ferriter's "Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards", the argument is made that the smartboards do little to promote independent discovery and collaborative work. He also says that the smartboards are poorly aligned with the vision of instruction that most people claim to believe in.

On the other hand, Silvia Tolisano's blog "Interactive Whiteboards-Which? How? What?" showed another side of the smartboards. In her blog, she was trying to get as much information on smartbaords as she could, because her school was contemplating acquiring smartboards for the classrooms. She explained how she went to a school that had smartboards to see it being used in the classroom setting. She watched a 5th grade class and saw that all the students had their eyes on the smartboardsmartboard. The student then showed her and the others students how to complete the task that was asked.

I think the main difference in these critiques has to do with the teacher. The technology itself will not change anything. It has to be used by a teacher who is willing to change what he or she is used to doing things. If the teacher keeps doing what has always been done, there is no need for the smartboard. However, if he or she is willing to learn how to incorporate the smartboard and research new ways of using it, then there is a lot that can be gained from it.

Project #9a Timetoast

C4T Teacher #2 Summary

 
C4T #1
I first read Steven Anderson's post that talked about new teachers deciding the best applications and programs they should use. He tells about how the first year can be very overwhelming, and new teachers should focus on how to use one or two new tools until they get used to them and master them before adding on more. I commented on his post agreeing that I think it can be easy to fall into the trap of trying to do everything your first year. I explained how I believed that it doesn't help the students if we know a little bit about a variety of tools and programs. We wouldn't be able to teach them how to fully understand the tools if we didn't fully understand them first.

C4T #2
The second post of Steven Anderson's that I commented on was about a site called Dimensions. This site takes important events in history and current events and shows how big they are over a given area on a Google Map. The picture above is an example he posted on his blog of how Dimensions works. I commented on this post about how I thought it was a great way to show students a different perspective on just how big or small an event can be. It's good for the students to see how many people can be affected by different events.

Blog Post # 7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

I absolutely loved watching this video! Dr. Pausch made some excellent points on how to achieve your dreams while also entertaining his audience. His lecture was not all about how to achieve your dreams. Through his stories he was able to show us not only how to achieve our dreams, but he also showed us some very good teaching techniques. Furthermore, his lecture was about his legacy and how to live your life.

I definitely agree with him about playing sports at a young age. It helps in teaching children great life lessons. It teaches discipline, hard work, and fundamentals. I think one thing it teaches children that he did not mention is social skills. When the children are playing sports, they do not realize these lessons they are learning, because they are having fun at the same time. They are learning these important lessons of hard work and dedication, but they are just thinking of how much fun they are having, how much they love the sport they are playing, or how much they want to win a trophy or medal. This is a great example of the "head fake" that Dr. Pausch talks about.

Dr. Pausch's "head fake" is roughly defined as a way of learning indirectly. He said that most of what we learn, we learn indirectly. I agree that this is a great way to teach. If you try to tell a child how to do something that is hard and/or is something the child doesn't care about, it is very hard. On the other hand, if you play a game with a child that accomplishes the same goal, it's more than likely that the child will learn what you want him or her to learn. Another thing that he mentioned that I really liked was more about inspiring the students. We should show them what it feels like to make other people get excited and happy. We don't want to just "throw" facts and formulas at children. We want them to be inspired and want to learn more about what we are teaching.

I think a lot of what he talked about had to do with attitude. He mentioned that there is a good and a bad way of saying, "I don't know". He explained this through a story about how he wanted to take a sabbatical and work with Disney's Imagineers. He went to his boss to talk about it, and his boss said, "I don't know!" in a kind of rude manner. He then went to the Dean of Sponsored Research. The Dean said, "I don' know. I don't have any information. All I know is one of my star faculty members is here and he's all excited. I want to know more." They said the same thing, but the latter said it in a way that showed he was interested and not like it was a bother to him.

I think my favorite part of this video was when he was talking about the new course he designed. He said that the students first project just blew him away. He was so blown away that he didn't know where to go from there. So, he called his mentor for help. He told Dr. Pausch that he obviously didn't know where the bar should be for his class, but he would only be doing them a disservice by putting it anywhere. I think this is a very valid point. We have no idea what our students can truly accomplish. If we set the bar somewhere, we are indirectly telling them that this is as high as they can go, and once the students reach "the bar" they may be satisfied with staying there when they could sore way past it.

Blog Post #6

The Machine is Changing Us

I thought this was a great video on how media affects people in our society. I liked how he pointed out that, in general, we think that a person has to be on television to have a voice or be significant. So many people take advice from people on t.v. just because they are on t.v. People listen to people like Oprah about who they should vote to elect as President of the United States just because she is a t.v. icon. Another good point I think he made was how we know ourselves through our relations with others. When new media creates new ways of relating to others, it also creates new ways of knowing ourselves. What I loved the most was his evolution of how we use the word 'whatever'. I hope he is right about the future use of 'whatever'.

7th Grader's PLE

I thought this student had a great PLE. It was very organized and well put together. She mentioned how it helps her keep track of where she got her info. After looking through a lot of sites to find information, it can all kind of run together after a while, and it can be hard to remember where everything came from. I also liked how she pointed out that it allows her to choose not whether or not she will do the work, rather it lets her decide how when when to do the work. This video was helpful in planning my personal learning network.

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The Networked Student

This video was a good way of showing how a networked student learns using technology. It was a creative way of showing us how important technology is in today's society. This isn't just a good idea that might help students in the future. This video shows that this is no longer an idea for the future, rather it is happening in classrooms now and will only happen more and more. It's very important that we understand how to use this technology and, more importantly, how to teach this technology to our future students. Whether we like it or not, technology will only keep advancing, and we need to be able to keep up.

I think it's incredible that technology in the classroom has come this far since I graduated high school three years ago. The only class I had that needed a computer to complete my assignments was journalism, which was only offered to those of us on the newspaper staff. also, all of our classes met the usual five days a week. Now, not only does this student require a computer, he also meets with his class as a whole three times a week and twice online. He does not use a textbook, and the teacher almost never lectures. I think it's great that students such as this one is not only learning from what the teacher lectures, but he is also learning from the many diverse connections and ties through the social network. I liked how the video didn't focus mainly on the technology behind it all, instead it pointed out that the tools are not as important as the connections made possible by them. The student can take control of their learning and make new connections with others who will strengthen the learning process. It also gives them access, through iTunes U, to thousands of courses recorded by college professors. When he is done researching a topic, he posts it online to share his organization of this knowledge with the rest of the world.

I think this is a great advancement, but I still do not believe that this could take the place of a teacher. The student will not come to school already knowing how to do all of this. A teacher is still needed to teach the students how to build their social networks, communicate properly and respectfully, and differentiate between good information and propaganda. The students also need a teacher for guidance, support, and encouragement. Also, they need help in organizing the mounds of information they acquire. I can't wait to help guide students such as this one. With the help of EDM 310 and other education classes I will take, I will be prepared to be a teacher of a networked student. I think that if somehow I am not prepared, I probably won't find a very good teaching position. I don't know if classes such as this one will be the norm when I will be getting a teaching position, but I'm almost positive that it won't take too much longer until it is the norm.