Blog Post #14

Project #13

Communicating in Multiple Ways!!!

Throughout the course of EDM 310, I have learned so many new ways of communicating. I always thought if you did not have someone's cell number it would be difficult to get up with them; however that is definitely not the case. As wee were placed in groups for EDM, I worried about being able to meet all the time with my group and if everyone would be capable of getting together at the same times or not. After learning ways of communicating such as google chrome, skype, Facebook, and many more I saw quickly that the communication would not be an issue. For the last project my group and I have had to create, we were instructed to perform a lecture using the smart board. Of course for this project all group members needed to be present and have a part in the project. Unfortunately, each group member had such busy schedules that it was almost impossible to meet collaboratively. With the help of global communication our group was able to pull the project off successfully. We SMS messaged one another throughout the entire project and emailed documents of our progress daily. Throughout the process of our presentation, we collaboratively used google docs in a successful way to pull our project together. We also each recorded video sessions of our individual parts and then emailed one another once again. I can honestly say, after this class I would be lost without the knowledge of all the many world wide communication tools.

Project 15 part b2

Final Report on PLN

Being that one should always be completely honest in their writings, I will say before this semester a PLN was absolutely foreign to me. I can honestly say that I have learned more in this summer course of EDM 310 than I have in any other college course. At this point in the semester I now know what a PLN is and am able to effectively use and add to my personal PLN. When I first learned of a "PLN" I chose to use Symbaloo as my base for creating my very first PLN. I am glad I chose this program because I have found it very easy to use and am excited about now having my own program to refer to as often as I need or want to. When I first started using my PLN, I only had a few webmix's such as facebook and google; however, since then I have added many more gadgets to my PLN. Several of the most used icons on my PLN are now twitter, google docs, edublog, edm blogger spot, and many more. I am pleased to say creating a PLN was very beneficial for me as an individual as well as a future teacher. Even though this may be my final report on my PLN, I plan to continue adding and updating my PLN as I grow as an educator and learner.

Blog Post #13

Brian Crosby's video Back to the Future started off with Brian stating how the majority of his students were 2nd language at risk and that many of them did not even know what city or state they currently lived in. Crosby continued his video stating that he felt he had to find a way to better engage his students in learning and felt that technology systems such as computers, blogging, and much more could help in his teaching. He was able to assist all of his students in creating their own individual blog pages, which in turn would become a tool in helping the students learn their basic knowledge like where they are from. The activities that Brian Crosby had his students participate in were so interesting because of the simple fact they excited the students to the point they wanted to complete the assignments. The students seemed to really enjoy the hot air balloon project. This project not only taught them many aspects within their science lessons, but also created a topic for the students to blog about on their individual blog posts. I felt that Crosby's video was another great illustration of how meaningful technology can be in teaching and helping students learn. The teachers that are unsure about technology engaging and teaching students should definitely watch Brian Crosby's video to see first hand the impact it all plays on students.


A Vision of Students Today is a video by Michael Wesch that illustrated the 21st century student. Michael started off his video by pointing out the dullness of an average college classroom and the fact that the majority of students are not learning what they should be by simply sitting in a desk listening to a teacher lecture. In most classrooms, the teacher expects all students to come in from their busy, multitasking world and set back and open their ears to everything the teacher has to say. As the video stated, the average 21st century student does not have a second to spare as they spend so many hours emailing, facebooking, blogging, texting, talking on their cell phones, and still try and fit 7 hours of sleep into their schedule.

I feel that teachers of the 21st century need to step up to the 21st century student way of thinking. With that being said, teachers need to realize just how much their present day students multitasks and take that factor into effect when planning their teaching methods. The way I see it is if an individuals' brain is trained to think and spin in a million different directions 24/7, as the students in Michael's video, then why should these brains be educated in such a dull, boring fashion? I feel that students of the 21st century that do multitask so much each day have a hard time learning by lecture due to the slow pace method. Michael's video layed out the everyday lives of the average student in today's society and he could not have did a better job and been more correct in doing so. Our present day world is surrounded by technology forums; therefore, the majority of students are captured each second of the day in some form of technology. With this being the case in our society, why are educators still attempting to educate in the old fashion way of teaching with chalk boards when their are smart boards! Why do we still have these boring classroom settings with nothing but rows and rows of desks and a long platform at the front of the room for the teacher to stand and lecture upon? This video by Michael Wesch should send a message out to all teachers whether grade level teachers or college professors that they need to evaluate their students of today and accept the fact that these students are huge multitask individuals; therefore, teachers need to accept new methods of teaching and be open to change!


How Will You Teach me in the 21st century? is an outstanding video by a graduate student at Full Sail University. I felt that this was a perfect follow up film to Michael Wesch video being that Michael illustrated a vision of 21st century students' everyday lives and now this video illustrates just what a 21st century student should be taught. This graduate student illustrated exactly what we as educators should be teaching the 21st century student. The video stated that this graduate student would teach his students the following: how to communicate effectively, understand impact of media, to live in an information era, to be creative, to interact in a global economy, and last but certainly not least to collaborate.

After watching this video, I asked myself the simple question, "How will you teach me in the 21st century?" I have always thought that the majority of "stuff" that I learned or was suppose to learn throughout high school was useless information. I have never understood why we needed to be taught so much detailed history lessons or why did we have to take science and chemistry classes unless we were planning on becoming a scientist, doctor, or such. I believe in the technological savvy world we live in today we should worry about teaching our students more realist information that they will actually need for the future. With that being said, I would want my students to know how to work all of the future technological devices that they will have to use in everyday jobs such as computers, smart boards, documents within computers, and much more. I would hope to have my students be able to effectively communicate with others not only face to face communications, but also communicating via email thoroughly. By the time my students leave my classroom, I hope they will have experienced a new way of learning whether that be by creating their own blog page or just by simply learning how to navigate the web effectively. Reflecting on this video, I would love to create my own movie showing how, why, and what I would teach my future students of the 21st century.

The basic technology tool kit by Dorothy was very unique! . This video we were instructed to read over was very interesting in that it list exactly what teachers of the 21st century need to know. I think Dorothy's list of things teachers should know how to do in order to become a teacher is very fair and understandable. With the help of the class, EDM 310, I believe I have mastered each criteria Dorothy has listed to become a teacher! I hope that one day I can be in a position to create a list like Dorothy's to show future teachers! I really enjoyed looking her list over!


The next video I watched for this blog post was titled Exemplar of Students Work with Video by Miles Webb. In this video I believe Mr. Webb was simply trying to show the world an example of using the technology of videoing through showing individual students' work at school. He wanted to advocate videoing in a successful way throughout schools and catch special moments on film. When he struck out to begin this assignment, Webb simply chose two students that had a responsibility at the school and videoed them acting out their daily duties; however, I do not believe that Mr. Webb expected to get such great responses out of the video. It was a real inspirational video to me as I learned that one of the students were blind and just to think of how he carried out his duties in such a heroic way. I am glad we were assigned this video.

Progress Report on Final Project

As my group members and I have been working on our very first ibook presentation, we have found ourselves learning more and more new methods of using technology. We started out working on the ibook by individually collecting all of our material that would be needed to create our book. At our surprise, this first step of collecting data took a lot longer than expected. Nonetheless, we were able to successfully pull together all of the tools needed in order to further our presentation. After collecting all material, we collaboratively began navigating the ibook author wizard in order to connect all of our material into it successfully. We are currently finishing up with all the "plugging in" of material that will be needed to complete our very first ibook. I cannot wait to see our finished product!

C4T #4

For my C4T assignment, I was instructed to browse over Larry Ferlazzo's blog page at edublogs. Larry is a high school advanced English teacher at Sacromento, California in a school named Luther Burbank High. He had many interesting post on his blog page that I found quite intriguing. The first post that I decided to comment on was titled Research Studies of The Week and included many different links to sites Larry found beneficial enough to include on his own site. The links Larry included discussed ways that students should focus on to conquer their goals. Larry summed the sites he had found up by talking about teaching students to map out their short and long term goals in order to successfully fulfill them. He tells of different studies that deal with sticking to certain goals and the best approaches to success. One point Larry made that really stuck out to me was that we have a much better chance of succeeding in our goals if we focus on fewer of them at a time. As I commented on this post of Larry's, it really inspired me to think of new ways to encourage my future students to achieve their goals. I feel it is part of a teacher’s responsibility to instill the proper techniques of achieving goals in the lives of their students. As Larry stated in his blog, I think teachers should have their students decide on their short or long term goals and create a plan to work toward those goals. By teaching students at a young age how to manage their lives in order to meet their potential goals, we as teachers can instill better structure and guidance in our students. I love how Larry ended his post by stating that setting short term goals in order to achieve long term goals lead to a higher chance of success!

The second blog post of Larry Ferlazzo's that I chose to comment on was titled A Round Up of Recent Good Posts on Educational Policy. This posts also contained many separate posts that Larry had recently found in which he felt he should spread to others. He included a video link in this post that illustrated the U.S students vs the world in student performance. I found the video quite interesting in that it uplifted our students in the U.S and reminded me that the students here are not as bad as we all make them out to be. There was also a link included to a site detailing computers grading essays and the fact that it may be the faster way to grade but not the most effective way. In Larry's post he included a site that stated the top ten list of public education success. I thought it was nice of Larry to include this last link in his blog post because there is so much of an emphasis put on the negative aspects in public schools and not enough on the positive. This list Larry posted included the accomplishments of public schools and allowed there to become a "pat on the back" for public education. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to surf Larry Ferlazzo's blog page!

Blog Post #12

There are so many ways to use digital/technology devices in teaching, even if your students are as young as seven! So many elementary school teachers struggle finding ways to teach their young students through the use of technology. They think their students are too young and incapable of learning through such smart devices as computers and i pads; however, teachers under the impression that elementary children cannot learn through 21st century technology have never been more wrong. What child wants to learn through a teacher standing and lecturing 8 hours a day? Through your own blog post, give your opinion on elementary grade levels learning through technology and also list ways you would teach young students their daily lessons through some form of technology. Watch this Video: First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class and include comments in your blog post about how Ms. Cassidy was able to correlate technology in her students' learning. Follow the requirements in Writing a Quality Blog Post.

Response

I am fascinated at the variety of ways such young children can learn through technology and cannot wait to be in a position where I can teach elementary students daily lessons through the use of computers, i pads, and much more. As I searched different teaching methods for using technology in early stage classrooms, I surprisingly found many opportunities to teach with technology. Your first-grader may use technology to complete activities in a range of subject areas, including language arts, science, social studies, and math. Through the use of a computer they can work in programs such as Microsoft Word to begin building their writing and text skills. Using draw and paint software programs on an i pad or computer, your students may illustrate a scene from a story. To learn about different artists, the teacher may show artwork online. In Ms. Cassidy's first grade class, she not only used many computers to help engage her students, but she also was able to use smart boards as well as i pads to better teach the skills a first grader should know. The possibilities to learn and teach through 21st century technology is endless for all ages!

Blog Post #11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class

The first graders in Ms. Cassidy's class absolutely amazed me! I could not help but to sit back and smile at the wonderful site of this classroom full of young children engaged in learning. When I entered EDM 310 I was scared to death at the fact of not knowing how to create a blog. Not only do Ms. Cassidy's first graders know how to blog, the striving 7 and 8 year old's use wiki on a daily basis and also have the knowledge to create and load videos onto their blogs. As these little kids blogged, they were able to view comments their family and friends were making on their personal post which was very exciting to them! I loved the fact that one child made the point in the video that all their comments were made of only "nice things". It is so refreshing to know that Ms. Cassidy instills the quality of always having positive comments to her students at such a young age. I pray that I will be lucky enough to have a classroom with smart boards, computers, and video accessibility in order to successfully engage my children in learning. Just as most of the other videos in this class have done, Ms. Cassidy's video on her little kids with big potential has really opened my eyes to advantages of teaching with technology. Watching the video on Ms. Cassidy's classroom, I was able to see first hand many techniques I will hopefully be able to use with my students such as the smart board and blogging assignments. These children are learning techniques that most kids do not get the chance to learn until college, which in return enables Ms. Cassidy's class to advance in learning. If I had to guess, I would bet every student of Ms. Cassidy's have an outstanding IQ and are always inspired to learn new things. I have to say, this video has thus far been my favorite video to blog about all semester! Love to see young children engaged in learning as Ms. Cassidy's were throughout her technology filled classroom!

Blog Post #10

As I sat and pondered the picture of the papermate and ticonderoga by John T. Spencer, I had to really think hard about the cartoon illustration. I, personally could not make out a metaphor with the picture alone; however, the text underneath the illustration said all to explain the picture. Spencer makes a valid point that papermate may be the lesser of the two price wise, but ticonderogo is more efficient. To me, this was Spencer's way of saying the cheaper method may not always be the best route to go. I believe he could be referring to the 21st century way of learning through his illustration of papermate being compared to the old way of learning with pencil and paper, and the ticonderoga could be equivalent to learning through technology such as computers and i pads. I thought Spencer's cartoon illustration was very unique.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games? is an important part of Spencer's blog where he illustrates examples of how not everyone agrees on teaching with technology over pencil and paper. I found all of Spencer's example conversations quite entertaining in that he made a great point on teaching with new methods. His illustrations could not have been more valid in stating the fact that there are so many people that do not see the importance or the reason behind teaching with technology. There are many just like the principle in the illustration that view technology as a teaching method as nothing but allowing your students to play games.
I felt that through the illustrations in this blog post, Spencer was able to relay the message of technology being more than efficient to teach with and also that most of the old teaching methods are not proficient at all. He states that by using new methods of teaching that the students are engaged in will allow the students to actually absorb the information they are learning instead of just memorizing material then forgetting it all after tests.

Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please?
Mr. McLeod demonstrates a great point in his blog post of don't teach your kids this stuff. please. As I read the entire post, I thought McLeod was actually being serious about not teaching your kids to use technology and then as I read his last line or two it hit me that he was being sarcastic! He states that everyone should not teach their kids this stuff; however, he is teaching his kids all about the technology which in fact will give his child the upper hand in the end. After reading the complete post and sitting back to really think about what McLeod is conveying to his audience, I concluded that he is in fact making a valid point that if we do choose to not teach our children this "stuff" then they unfortunately will be the ones to suffer in the digital world we live in.
Mr. Scott McLeod has his PH.D and is currently serving as a Director of Innovation at a facility in Iowa. Dr. McLeod also is the Founding Director of the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of a wildly popular video series. McLeod is a profound individual of bringing about technology in school systems and is well known for his school technology leadership issues.