March 28, 2010 Week 10

On Morgan Bayda's Blog and Dan Brown's Video

It is amazing to me that college classes sound the same as they were in the 80's when I went to USA for my teaching degree. After reading Morgan Bayda's blog on "An Open Letter to Educators", it occurred to me not much has changed. I am only taking one class at USA after being out of college for several years, so I can't compare other college classes and experiences of today. I can only compare college classes from the late 80's and very early 90's. Interestingly, most classes sound very similar to the classes I had back then. I am very surprised to hear it's pretty much the same. It certainly brought back memories as I listened to Dan Brown's video where he spoke of "frantically scribbling facts" from lectures and then memorizing the facts to later be tested on. Sounds archaic, seeing as I was doing the same exact thing so many, many years ago.
As I commented on Morgan's blog, there is a difference from back then to now. The professors of today use Powerpoint to accompany their lectures. My professors used a chalkboard (or whiteboard in some classes) with the lectures in the late 80's and early 90's. If that's any indication of how technology is moving in education, then, we have a very long way to go in public and higher education. Isn't that sad?
You may hear my comment on Morgan's blog below.

Comments4Teachers Week 10, 11, 12

Comments4Teachers
I commented on Eric Langhorst's site Speaking of History. He had a wonderful video on the different programs on the internet. For example he demonstrated Wordle which gave me better insight on how it works and how easy it is. I commented on the video presentation he made and how helpful it was. I also commented that Dr. Strange should consider using his video in his EDM310 class as an introduction to some of these programs. I found it very useful.

A Dozen Ways to Incorporate Technology in the History Classroom

View more presentations from South Valley Jr. High School / Park University.

Comments4Kids Week 10

I commented on a student named Carly on Mrs. Kolbert's Class Blog. Carly's blog was a report on the country of Djibouti. I found it interesting. I let her know I had never heard of the country. I looked it up online to view a map of it's location and found more information on it. The information I found was on the CIA fact page. I passed this link on to Carly in my comment.
I only wish I knew what grade and where the school is located. I searched around on the blog and couldn't find any information. Maybe I just didn't look in the correct place. Would like to know what grade level this blog is on.

March 12, 2010

ALEX - Alabama Learning Exchange
ALEX is a wonderful resource for teachers, parents and students to find lesson plans and web links for all grade levels. All of the resources found on their website follow the Alabama Courses of Study. The main links on the homepage are simple to use and are broken down to Courses of Study, web links, lesson plans, search, personal workspace, professional learning, podcasts treasury and help.
Once you click on an icon on the homepage, it takes you to another page that allows you to break it down more. For instance, under web links you may click teacher, student or administrator weblinks, then it breaks it down further into subject areas. It's extremely simple to use. The courses of study are broken down into subjects then by grade level. From there one could click a link for a list of lesson plans for a particular course of study. There is a good lists of podcasts under the podcasts treasury link, but I can see their library needs to be built to have more selection, which I'm sure will happen over time. You can also search for lesson plans by subject, grade, author, title or school in the lesson plans link. The professional development area has links set up to send you to Alabama Department of Education websites to search further for professional development opportunities. The personal workspace is set to where you can login and submit your own lesson plans.
I have utilized Alex in the past in my own teaching career, especially for the Alabama Courses of Study and lesson plans. It's been a few years since I've used this site seeing as I haven't taught in a couple of years. I know it is a fantastic resource and plan on using it in the future. Now that they have added a podcasts link I will be searching in that area too. ALEX is definitely a site to bookmark for educators.

ACCESS

ACCESS is a site made especially for high school students. Students are able to take additional classes online. The classes range from remediation classes that are self paced to prepare for the graduation exam to advanced college board approved classes for advanced placement. ACCESS also offers your basic high school subjects, all taught online either web based or by video conferencing.
ACCESS looks to be an excellent online program for high school students to utilize. High school has come a long way. The student only has to have the will to further their learning. Learning is ACESSible to the student. High school students should, at the least, be required to research the site for what is offered so that they become familiar with it and know the options they have for their schooling.

Comments4Kids
I commented on Ms. Voigt's Kindergarten class. I've enjoyed reading their posts of their day to day classroom activities. I commented on their unit of transportation that they were learning about and I let them know that I, too have taught kindergarten and reading their posts reminds me of my own kindergarten classes I've taught.

Internet Tools in EDM310 Survey

My Survey on Internet Tools in EDM310
Please click here to take the survey if you are in or have been in EDM310 and have not taken my survey. Thanks!
Click here for a summary of the results on my survey on internet tools in EDM310. Use your Gmail account to view.
My survey was specifically for EDM310 students. I was curious to know what tools were used before EDM310 and if students would continue to use these tools after EDM310. I had 29 responses as of this writing. My first question was which search engine was used the most. Just as I had expected the majority answered Google (83%). Sixty-nine percent (69%) answered no to using Gmail before EDM310, which surprised me, as I've been using Gmail for several years. Only 14% used Google Docs before EDM310. Of the 14% that used Google Docs, 33% created documents in Google Docs and 67% have created and uploaded documents in Google Docs. When searching for clipart and images 54% searched through Google and 36% used Google and Microsoft clip art, while 11% used some other search engine for images. YouTube is used rarely (52%), while 14% use it everyday and 28% use YouTube about once a week. The majority of YouTube videos viewed were music (59%) and comedy (55%), while 21% did not view YouTube videos (other than required EDM310 videos). Ten percent or less viewed documentaries, educational or other type videos. Only 14% have used Picassa before EDM310 and 41% say they will continue to use Picassa after EDM310. Lastly, 76% said they have definitely learned about new tools and programs in EDM310 that will be useful to them in the future.

Comments4Kids Week 8

I commented on Mrs. Voigt and Mrs. Farrington's Kindergarten class in North Carolina. I especially enjoyed viewing and reading this blog as I have taught Kindergarten myself for many years. Their blog basically summarizes each school day with writings, pictures and video. That was refreshing to see. What a fantastic way for parents to view what happens in their child's life at school and a great review for the student, too.

Summary of Comments4Teachers

Comments For Teachers
Aaron Eyler - Synthesizing Education

I commented on Aaron Eyler's blog, Synthesizing Education. Mr. Eyler is a high school History teacher with a masters in Educational Administration and Leadership.
I found Mr. Eyler's writing to be up front and honest on his feelings of the educational system and technology as a whole. It is refreshing to read his blog, as he doesn't hold back on his thoughts. He may apologize at times but he speaks his true feelings.
I first commented on his blog titled, "Implications of the Transition from a Backpack Culture to a Laptop Culture" where he wrote on advocating more field experiences rather than virtual trips replacing actual field trips. I agreed, although, I felt virtual trips would raise curiosity for the actual trip.
My second comment was on "School as a Facilitator to Success". Mr. Eyler wrote of placing more emphasis on students being entrepreneurs and "tinkering with business ideas of future professions" while still in school. I commented on, also, guiding students on making a budget, saving money and using real life skills so as to comprehend the usefulness of what they are learning.
"The Need It Now Generation" was my third comment on Mr. Eyler's blog. He wrote of kids being in the "need it now" society and how they are utilizing the tools available to them. He wrote we shouldn't blame the kids as adults created the tools they use such as Facebook, Twitter, email and other social networking sites. He stated that we should "find ways to utilize the tools effectively in education rather than try to resist." I totally agree with him. It is time educators climb on board and accept the inevitable. Technology is here to stay.

March 7, 2010

Randy Pausch Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

What an inspirational video! Randy Pausch had a wonderful outlook on life. It sounds as if he fulfilled his childhood dreams and lived a happy life even in his sickness. His teaching methods seem to reflect his outlook on life.

It’s evident he made learning fun. He demonstrated a virtual game made by students. It was actually pretty cute and amusing. A bunny asked the player to make him a world to live in, for which the player did. Then the player shut the program down with control/alt/delete. The rabbit’s world was virtually blown away while at the same time the rabbit is moaning. These students obviously learned by doing and had fun learning. Another example is a project he calls Alice where students are learning programming and don’t even realize it as they are making movies and games. His comment to this project was, “Millions of kids having fun while learning something hard”. He advised to allow students to be creative and compared this to his own childhood when his parents allowed him to paint pictures on his bedroom wall. I have to agree with his philosophy. I, too, was allowed to paint pictures on my bedroom wall as a young teenager.

He expects more from his students. He spoke of a two week assignment he assigned. The students performed very well. Instead of just giving all A’s he told the students how they could do better, even though they did a very good job. His point was to expect more from your students and they will give more.

He stated that the best gift an educator can give is to teach someone to be self reflective. He also stated we need to learn from our students, share information, show gratitude, help others and find the best in everybody. He gave an example of a student that he personally vouched for when the dean “had it in for him”. The student now is heading the Alice project. He made the point that loyalty was a two way street.

Basically, I saw his methodology on teaching as, make it fun and believe in your students. Learning should be fun and students will be willing to give more in return.