Comments4Kids 3

This week, I visited and commented on Kasey's blog post. She was assigned to write a letter to Mr. Goerend's class. Her letter was about her school's homecoming week. She talked about how she enjoyed the parade and dressing up like a pirate. She said that her team beat the Hawks, just as they had the previous year. She reminded me of how much I enjoyed homecoming in school, which I told her in my comment. I enjoyed reading Kasey's post.

ACCESS

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS) is a distance learning program that allows students to take web based courses. These courses are sometimes taught through Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) or are just simply web based. The program allows schools to offer more classes such as foreign language classes, AP courses, and many electives. Also, ACCESS allows a multitude of resources- internet sites- for teachers to use to supplement the web instruction. There are a lot of resources available like Alabama Virtual Library, ALEX, ChemLab, and more for students to use with their courses. The goal of ACCESS is to provide equal access to high quality learning through 21st century technology. There has been a lot of positive response to the program so far, and it is only 5 years old.

I think that ACCESS is a great program that really does connect educators and students statewide. I like that the students are using technology in their work because knowing about technology is going to be soon be a key component to success. Also, the program allows students to work at their own pace, in a way, and can provide a better learning opportunity through all of the internet resources available. I know that in my small home town, students are now starting to use this program and some of them enjoy it because they feel like they are on the same level as other students from bigger schools. I can see that a draw back of the program might be the little person-to-person contact between the student and the teacher, which I do not like. However, the e -mailing and Interactive Videoconferencing allow sufficient communication. I think that ACCESS is very beneficial to Alabama students, and I hope that the program will reach every state school soon so that all students will have the same great opportunities.

ALEX

The Alabama Learning Exchange is something that is new to me, but I am very glad that I am learning about it now. It is a very useful resource for everyone involved in education. There is information that is beneficial to teachers, students, and parents available on the ALEX website. While ALEX is a work in progress, there are already so many helpful resources available. There are lesson plans for any subject at any grade level, links to helpful websites for teachers and students, a variety of podcasts to access, a personal workspace for teachers, and an educational search engine. The ALEX Thinkfinity project gives teachers a search engine that will access lesson plans and students activities that are discipline specific and very helpful. Also, teachers can receive Thinkfinity training that will teach them all about ALEX and Thinkfinity so that they have a strong knowledge of the program that they can share with others near them. This allows better use of ALEX.

I think that ALEX is an excellent idea for Alabama teachers and students. I like it because it allows quick and easy access to material that will benefit me as the teacher, such as lesson plans and activities that pertain to the subjects I will be teaching. Also, there are materials, like podcasts and web links, available for students and parents, so it benefits everyone. I like the Thinkfinity search engine because it produces useful, educational material that I can use. The personal workspace for teachers is also a good idea for teachers to be able to save their lesson plans and web pages to this site. The main thing that I like about ALEX is that it is a collaborative project so teachers are working together and sharing information through this program, and it has potential for a lot of growth.

Comments4Kids 2

I visited and commented on Andy's blog. Andy talked about how much he likes video games. He has a Wii and likes to play a lot, and I have a Wii too which I really enjoy playing. He said that also enjoys games on the internet. I suggested that he check out some educational games because they are helpful and surprisingly fun.

Comments4Kids 1

I visited Mr. Goerend's class blog and I left comments for Shelby, Cassie, Matt, Ian, and Maddie. They had some very cute stories that I enjoyed reading. For the most part, their stories were well written and had lots of good details, which made them even better to read. Shelby talked about going to a horse camp in her post. She talked about riding horses, eating marshmallows, and seeing bats. It sounds like Shelby had lots of fun at the farm and she said that she will miss it. In Cassie's post, "The Moment", she described how she got her dog, Chester. She said that her parents surprised her and took her to the Animal Rescue League and told her just to look. When she found a cute little dog that was in need of much help, though, her parents let her have it.

Matt's post was about his first tackle football game. He described how hot the day was and gave some pre-game details. He said that he plays for a team called the Giants and he plays on the line. He said that when his team scored, the crowd cheered loud and sounded "like an NFL game". Matt said that his team was up 13-0 at the half, then scored again in the last quarter to win the game. Ian's post was about his weekend bike rides with his dad. He described one ride where they rode on a path around the town. They saw birds and other wildlife as well as a lake and a bridge that was partially made of glass. He said that they rode all the way to the city water treatment plant. This reminded me of when I was young and used to ride my bike around town with my best friend. It is great to get out and explore any chance you get. Maddie's post was called "Cats Galore", which I thought was a cute title. She talked about going to pick up her two cats. She said that her favorite song was on the radio and that made her feel happy and excited, which I can totally relate to. She said that on the way to get them, she was trying to think of names for her cats and when she saw them, she decided to name them Sassy and Bingo. I enjoyed this week's Comments4Kids posts; I thought that these were some great stories.

My Peronal Learning Network

The Edurati Review- Kelly Hines

I have found that the Edurati Review site is one that has endless resources for me. There are so many great posts that I can read now and refer back to when I am teaching that will help me be successful. Kelly Hines is one of my favorite contributors to this blog because she has some very interesting points about technology in the classroom, and her thoughts about it are similar to mine. She made the point that technology is an important tool in the classroom, but it is not the most important thing. There are many factors that go into teaching and learning, and technology is a part of that list of factors, so we cannot focus too much on the technology and forget about the other skills that will help teachers be effective. However, we do need to emphasize technology in the classroom in order for the students to be successful. Confusing enough? There is a happy medium, I think, and I hope to find that in my classroom. Kelly Hines's posts and many others at the Edurati Review will be useful to me now and in my future teaching career. I am following this blog, and I am following Kelly Hines on Twitter.

At The Teacher's Desk

The blog site At The Teacher's Desk is full of useful tips and advice for teachers. There are posts that I have read that taught me things about technology, leadership, communication, and more. One post that I really enjoyed, and will definitely read again before my first year of teaching, is Mr. McClung's "What I've Learned This Year". The first thing I noticed was the picture at the top with the words "stay positive" written on the paper. That spoke volumes to me because I know that is going to be a struggle of mine when things do not go how I think they should. He had some very inspirational advice to give about things that he learned from his first year teaching. Another post that stuck out to me was the "Teachers Need To Become Social Networking Experts" post by Mr. Chamberlain. He made some very good points and used good examples to support them. I think that social networking is something that I need to work on myself, so I think that Mr. Chamberlain will be a useful contact to me presently and in the future. I am following Mr. Chamberlain on Twitter.

Jackie Gerstein

I am following Jackie Gerstein on Twitter. I love her quote, "I don't do teaching for a living, I live teaching as my doing, and technology has amplified my passion." That is a great way to look at teaching, and it inspired me to try and develop that attitude as well. She has a lot of useful links on her twitter and she is always giving ideas about technology tools in the classroom. She had posted a link about iPod use in the classroom, which is an interesting topic to me. One of my favorite things that I have gotten from her is the PowerPoint search engine site. I love PowerPoints because I find that the organization helps me understand the information. This made me so happy because it is a resource I can use and pass along to my students to use.

Mr. Byrne and Free Technology For Teachers

I am following Mr. Byrne on Twitter. Mr. Byrne contributes to the Free Technology For Teachers blog. He is always posting useful resources and technology ideas for teachers and it is all free. What I really like about the Free Technology For Teachers blog is that you can select a subject (like science) and it will show you resources for that subject. I saw a post from Mr. Byrne that included a list of educational games and game resources, which is always good to have because students sometimes need the interaction games can give them when writing gets to be too monotonous and boring. Also, I found that Mr Byrne uses cell phones in his classroom. On one of his Twitter posts, he said that he had his students text their parents Civics questions because it is a good way to get parents involved in the classroom. I thought this was a great idea. I know that Mr. Byrne's ideas are going to be useful to me as a teacher and the Free Technology For Teachers blog will be a helpful resource as well.

Edutopia

I am following Edutopia on Twitter and Facebook. I find that Edutopia has some great ideas about technology in the classroom and teaching in general. The Edutopia website always has many great stories on the front page to read. There is a section of the website that I found interesting that talks about Teacher Development, which includes things like community partnership and classroom management, to name a few. There is also a section labeled Technology Integration which includes things like social networks, interactive whiteboards, and simulations. The Edutopia blog, which can be accessed from the website, has some great ideas too. There were posts about tips for teaching new media and current events like President Obama's back-to-school speech. I have found interesting posts on a wide variety of topics. They are up-to-date on current technology in classrooms, and they have very good ideas and helpful advice. Edutopia's website and blog are things that are helpful to me now and will remain useful resources in the future.

Dear Kaia...

My first reaction to all of this was astonishment. I just got started with blogging, and I do not know much about it other than how to post. Then, I see that this three-year-old, Kaia, has her own blog. That shows me just how fast the technology world is changing, and communication is effected majorly by that change. Kaia's dad explained that her blog started out as a way to share photos with family and has become way to document her life. Kaia's pictures were wonderful, especially for such a small child to have taken them. I thought that it was just awesome that her dad is teaching her to explore her surroundings and look for the good in all of it. Then, they made the video of Kaia explaining the pictures that she had taken. I think that it is a very good thing that her dad is introducing her to this technology at a young age because she will need to be familiar with technology such as this throughout her life.

I went on to find that Kaia's dad communicated with Mr. Chamberlain's class via Skype and suggested that they make a video for Kaia with their comments because she can't yet read. The class's video with the voicethread was great! The class from Missouri communicated with a child and her father across the world in Qatar. Kaia's father posted the story to his blog and brought up some good points about parents' negative feelings toward their children's availability on the internet. Many parents, I am sure, are skeptical about their children having a blog on the internet for anyone to see. Like Mr. Jabiz Raisdana said, we have to trust that the good will outweigh the bad. I totally agree because we have to be willing to take chances in order to learn and grow. I think that Kaia's story will help people see that the risk is worth taking. To think that in a matter of minutes, we can share ideas with, and learn from, people all over the world, is empowering to me because I can see how useful that could be especially in education. Also, I could see how videos could be helpful as well to communicate and even use as presentations for reports or projects. I could connect my students with the world and help them gain the experience with technology that they need to succeed; the sky is literally the limit... for now.

New Media Literacies Project

Project New Media Literacies began in 2006 as a research project to find out ways that technology is changing students' learning, socializing, and participating in life. They hope for the outcome to be better educational and social institutions that can meet the needs of the present and future generations. Today's youth are actively participating in their learning, socializing, and culture in ways that past generations never thought of. They are creating media designs and sharing them with the world. They are connecting themselves to the world through affiliations like Facebook and Myspace. They are making videos and putting them on sites such as YouTube for anyone and everyone to see and comment on. They are working together to create new knowledge and posting their ideas to things like Wikipedia. They are influencing media through blogging and podcasts. There are many good things about this participatory culture, such as peer-to-peer communication and learning as well as skill development that is admired in the work place. These skills are part of the New Media Literacies and are ones that can be used in the classroom and in day to day life.

The New Media Literacies are skills that are needed to participate in this world of new technology. It is the educators' job to make sure that students are gaining these skills. There are some problems with this because some students do not have personal computers, but there are ways for teachers to help those students gain those skills at school. These skills are vital in students' success in the technology culture of today. Using those skills, most of the youth today have created some form of media such as a Facebook profile or YouTube video, so they are considered media creators. By creating their own works, students are in control of their learning and social development to some extent. By participating in creating things like this, they are learning to become more involved with others and less involved in just themselves while still being able to incorporate some form of individual expression.

The New Media Literacies Project hopes to solve some problems such as the participation gap and the transparency problem. The participation gap is the unequal access to experiences, skills, and knowledge that prepare youth for the new participatory culture that has developed. In order for all youth to gain the skills needed to succeed, they need to be taught how to participate in media creativity as well as the New Media Literacies skills. The transparency problem is young people's inability to see how media shapes the perceptions of the world. They need to understand how media, including their own creations, are affecting the world. The New Media Literacies skills, such as judgement, negotiation, play, transmedia navigation, performance, visualization, and multitasking, are all skills that will help students succeed in school as well as in their future work place. These skills will not only help with participating in a media dominated culture, but also help with day to day life.

You can visit the New Media Literacies Project website and find out more!

New Media Literacies Video

The New Media Literacies Staff's video covered many different skills that are important to acquire and maintain in today's society. These skills, as mentioned, are needed for basically all areas of life. They can be used in the classroom, in the work place, and in social activities. I think that these are skills that teachers definitely need to have and make sure to pass on to their students. Judgement is one of the skills mentioned and I agree that it is important to know if information you find is reliable or not. Also, negotiation was mentioned, which is a skill that helps a person work in groups of different types. Appropriation is a good one for teachers because teachers need to be able to explain content in a meaningful way so students can understand better and learn easier. I really like that they mentioned play as a skill, saying that it is the "capacity to experiment with our surroundings". I think that it is important to be willing to explore and try things and learn. There will certainly be a lot of playing in my classroom because science is a subject that requires experiments and exploration and lots of learning.

Another skill mentioned was transmedia navigation, which will aid in finding resources of different types and gaining large amounts of information. Simulation could be useful to teachers because by using this, they could help their students visualize what they are explaining. Visualization will help with this as well. Multitasking is very important on a day to day basis. Multi tasking saves time and can be very helpful in relieving stress by checking off multiple things on your To Do list at the same time. Performance was another skill mentioned. I think that you should always do your best in whatever you do, and make sure that you are satisfied with your performance at the end of each day. There is not time for What ifs in education. Teachers need to put their best foot forward every day in order for their students to be able to succeed and put their best foot forward in the future. Some other skills mentioned were collective intelligence and distributed cognition, which were not explained in detail. I think that these are skills that would aid in gaining and retaining information, and are important. I think that I possess quite a few of these skills, though I need to work on acquiring others such as better appropriation, simulation, collective intelligence, and distributed cognition. I think that it is important for me as a future teacher to acquire the new media literacy skills that I do not have and work to improve those that I do possess.

Networked Student

Wendy Drexler's video, The Networked Student ,was interesting to me. I found some very good points about student networking. I agree that it is important for students to get connected to the rest of the world. There is a vast amount of information available and people to communicate with, whether they are experts in the field or students interested in the subject. I think that it makes for a more informed and well rounded student if the student can gain insight from people with different ideas and points of view. Also, I think that it is important for students to be able to share their knowledge and ideas with others. It makes learning more exciting and rewarding to be able to share the information with others and communicate with people about the things that interest them.

I liked that Ms. Drexler's video mentioned that networked students take control of their learning. I think students who are actively involved in their learning process may learn better because they can learn as much as they can and are not limited to only the information in a text book and they can learn at their own pace. Several things were mentioned that would aid the networked student in learning. A social bookmarking site is where the student posts his or her findings and can view links to other resources related to their topic of interest. Blogs could be found that discuss the student's topic, and he or she can post comments to these blogs to share ideas. Then, the student can create his or her own blog to share what he or she has learned. Others can comment on the student's blog posts which can be useful information and ideas for the student to consider. Also, iTunes U was mentioned in the video, which gives students access to a lot of information, which sometimes comes from some of the best experts in the field from some of the finest universities.

I think that student networking is a vital part of education in the 21st century. I think that students should be more active in their learning. Networking can help students learn efficient researching, open mindedness, creativity, and can help them learn beyond the restrictions of a text book. Students do need teachers, though, for guidance and help. I think that I need to be willing to teach a networked student. I think that there is so much information out there just waiting to be discovered and I do not want to hold students back from that. However, I see where some responsibility issues and computer availability may create problems for some students, so I think that I would rather incorporate networking into my class rather than have the entire class dominated by networking.

"This Is How We Dream"

After watching Richard Miller's videos, This Is How We Dream, I realize that there are possibilities out there for education and all other areas of life that I cannot even fathom. At first, I was not really following his talk, but I began to see what he was explaining. His idea is a very creative one, which I think is good. People need to think outside the box more often and push the boundaries. Like Mr. Miller said, "The limits and restrictions are largely ones we place on ourselves." This statement stuck out to me because I agree that we are sometimes lazy and do not try hard enough to be creative and come up with useful ideas. Instead, we wait for someone else to do it or just don't think about the possibilities at all.

Richard Miller mentions that we are living in a time where we can communicate instantly and globally. I agree that now is a good time to bring in some new ideas for that communication. His idea of writing with multimedia is a transforming idea for the education field. For students to be able to be "authors" themselves and actively contribute to the projects is great. Also, the collaboration that would take place is a great skill that many students need to practice. What I really liked about this was that it incorporates text, audio, images, and even video. There is a huge range of possibilities when working with so many different media, and the information that you could supply when creating these compositions is endless.

Mr. Miller is correct that we cannot teach this mulitmedia writing yet. Many people, including myself, do not fully understand the process of creating this type of composition. However, if enough teachers are willing to learn, we could see this being introduced into education soon. I think that even though it would benefit English and writing classes more, I could use it in the Scince classes for research and some projects. Also, I think it is possible that if it gains enough support, students shouls be learning to create mulitmeda compostions because it could possibly replace today's word processing compositions. I think that the multimedia writing is challenging, but I agree with Richard Miller that it can and should be done.

iPods in Instruction

I was surprised to find how many ways iPods could be used in the classroom. Being from a very small town and school, I have never heard of iPods being used in the classroom. However, I found that several instructors use them for various reasons. The Education World website had a list of links that contained information about iPods in the classroom. From this site, I found that it is better if the iPods (or iPhones) that the students use have access to the internet because there are many more classroom uses for the iPod. Also, I found a website called Learning In Hand, which lists several uses for iPods in the classroom, including ways to help students with math and reading. From the School CIO website, I found that iPods can really enhance the information you give students through images, audio, and video. In Orange County, California, one way teachers are using iPods is they are having the students record a podcast of what they learned during the week and using that for review throughout the year.

I was surprised to learn that in 2004, Duke University handed out free iPods to entering Freshmen. Several classes incorporated the iPods into the classroom to enhance the students' learning and allow them access to the information outside of the classroom. This test run became the Duke Digital Initiative that aims to put emerging technology into the classroom for academic enhancement. The Duke Digital Inititiative website has a lot of information to offer about the uses of iPods and other technology in the classroom. Though I am not going to teach elementary school, I found a very good website, Pre-K Pages, that gives many good ideas for iPod uses in the classroom. This teacher uses music from the iPod to help the children learn numbers, letters, and shapes. She also mentioned a listening center, which is used for homework. The teacher can record his/her own voice, so the students can listen to a story he/she read. Those were some pretty neat ideas for younger students, so just thought I would share.

iTunes U

I think that iTunes U, or iTunes University, can be useful to me both as a current students and a future teacher. As a student, I can search for a certain topic and there will be multiple resources available to help me learn. I was surprised to find just how many things were available because prior to this class, no one had ever mentioned iTunes U to me. I am going to be taking many science classes, so I clicked on the Science topic tab and found that there were are videos and podcasts available for me to download that cover a variety of concentrations of science. There are have downloadable lectures, called "tracks"that can assist me in studying as well. There are many more subjects and topics available as well, so if I want to learn something new and not necessarily just for school, I certainly can using this program. I have an iPod, so I could download things and view them at any time on my iPod or computer.

iTunes U could also be helpful to me as a teacher in the future. There are podcasts that discuss teaching and some have helpful ideas that I can later use. There are a few episodes, which I liked, that give an overview of blogs in the classroom as well as classroom blog features. There are also episodes that show how to use certain programs such as Microsoft Excel in the classroom. The information on iTunes U is updated, so by using iTunes U, I will be able to keep up-to-date on developing technological tools in the classroom. I am glad to know about iTunes University because it is going to be a useful tool for me as a current student as well as a teacher in the future.

Google Earth From Dr. Alice Christie

I viewed Dr. Alice Christie's Google Earth tutorial. Google Earth will be a very useful tool for me in my classroom because I am teaching science. By using Google Earth, my students will be able to explore the world from the classroom for free. Dr. Alice Christie's explanation of Google Earth was very helpful to me and easy to understand. I learned that though all images are copyrighted, Google allows educational use of the images, which I am glad to know. I also appreciated the list of layers provided. This helped me see what I might be interested in looking for and will help me direct my students in the right direction when they are searching for sites. The Gallery list included some things that caught my attention such as NASA, Earthquakes, and Volcanoes because these are things that my Earth science students will be learning about.

Dr. Alice Christie has some very good points as to why Google Earth should be used in the classroom. I agree with her that it is a good way to get the students involved in and excited about learning about the world in which they live. I know that students find technology more appealing that paper and pencil work. This means they are more likely to pay better attention to the information and retain it easier since they are more involved in the lesson. I also agree with her in that it helps connect the students to their world. They can virtually tour any place in the world, which makes it seem as if they are visiting the place instead of just seeing a couple of pictures in their textbooks. I loved the example lesson she had about measuring as well as the list of other possible lessons a teacher could use. I also saw that there is a Google Earth Blog, which may be helpful to me in the future. I enjoyed learning about Google Earth from Dr. Alice Christie, and I will most likely use her site as a future reference when I am using Google Earth in my classroom.