My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete!

Fellow Classmates,

I hope you all have a wonderful summer and good luck with all of your future goals. I wish each and everyone of you much success!!

Final Blog

Well, this is my final blog for EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I really enjoyed every minute of this class because I have learned a lot of interesting things about technology and how I can incorporate it into my future career plans as an elementary teacher. I am really glad I learned power point, especially because I have always heard about it and how fun and useful it could be. I think out of every thing I learned, I enjoyed it the most!! Learning about podcasts and how to do it was also interesting and fun. It was like having my own mini radio show. I think knowing what a podcast is all about will help give me great ideas to use in my classroom for planning and to find out all sorts of educational information from other educators abroad. Learning spreadsheets was confusing at first for me because of the different formulas. But after doing it a couple of times, I think I've got it. Not only did I learn to use it as a budget tool, but being able to use it for data purposes, like using it to create a grade book, was interesting. Technology is forever changing and coming into this course, I only new the basic computer skills like searching on the web and using Microsoft Word. I only heard of blogs from having a myspace page, but I never used it. So blogging, I've learned, is a great way to communicate and share your ideas and opinions with everyone around the world on various topics. When we discussed Wikipedia, I knew it could be used for research purposes, but what I didn't know was anyone could alter the information. That's what I don't like about that site. Thanks Mr. Wakeman!!! You taught me that you can never be to sure if the information on this site is true or false. So that helped me learn not to rely just on that one site alone. Overall, I enjoyed this course and Professor Wakeman. I hope my classmates learned just as much information as I did and will be able to use them in their future endeavors.

The Edible Schoolyard and A Night in the Global Village

I really enjoyed this educational clip. The Edible Schoolyard , located in Berkley, California, along with the Martin Luther King Junior Middle School, has taken learning math, science, social skills, and social studies to a delightful new level. Not only was it interesting, but it makes you wonder how a teacher could incorporate different real life situations to help students learn. And learn in a different, but fun way. It's like the "head fake" that Randy Pausch talked about in his last lecture. Which simply means students learn in a fun way while unknowingly learning some type of educational objective.
Even though students at the Edible Schoolyard aren't in a classroom setting, they learn the same core subjects being taught in a public school. They learn math by calculating ingredients needed for cooking and using measurements. Science is learned by discussing things like water molecules and condensation. They also learn social life skills, for example, working as a team. And this style of learning just happened to be created by the wonderful mind of Alice Waters, who was only trying to improve the school lunches...Way To Go!!




The next video clip of the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning at the Heifer Ranch is amazing. You often hear about modern kids being spoiled or being born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Well, the kids from this learning school is learning how to live on the other side of that spectrum. On the ranch, the students are divided by numbers and placed in different styles of living conditions based on other poor, underdeveloped countries. They have to learn survival skills that are out of the norm. Skills like how to cook food without a stove, how to communicate without talking, how to negotiate with others, and teamwork. This style of learning not only teaches those skills, but it also teaches students to be thankful for what they have because there are those in the world who are less fortunate.

Both of these videos had a lot of educational value. Students will learn how to deal with real life situations. From growing their own food, to communicating, to working with others as a team. And even though the learning environment is different, they both still serve an educational purpose.

Both videos made me realize teachers can form ideas outside of the "box". And a fun, interactive, learning environment can teach students on many different levels on various subject matters, all at one time. There are so many resources educators can use now, teachers have no excuse for not being creative. And being creative like these two schools, will leave a long, lasting impression in the lives of their students. And that's what counts! To find out more, please visit this link for the Heifer Ranch or visit edutopia .

Itunes University

Itunes is a new way for educators at universities to stay connected to their students through the itunes website. Universities around the world, like Carnegie Mellon and Stanford University, are able to post lectures and assignments at Itunes University for students to download to their ipods or personal computers. Because of the advances of technology, students can study and learn no matter where they are.

And as a teacher, it is our duty to keep up with the changes our world is going through technologically. Students are increasingly bored with learning the "old fashion" way. So teachers have to come up with new ideas and ways to keep education interesting. And that was the goal of Duke University when they incorporated using ipods into their classrooms.

Itunes University has made information to be easily accessible for students. Itunes is a 24/7 website and it offers a variety of educational content from top colleges/universities and educational organizations. It is very helpful for those students who may have missed lectures to stay on track with the rest of the class by downloading the lectures or notes, video clips, and/or podcasts from their particular school. And it is a lot more interesting than sitting at a desk taking notes. So hopefully, more teachers and/or schools will become aware of this new technological epidemic because today's students are all about technology!

IPods In The Classroom

Over the past couple of years, ipods have become increasingly popular. Not only as a means for looking "cool", but now ipods are becoming more popular and useful as an educational gadget. Educators are using this tool to help students broaden their horizons on what all ipods could be used for. And seeing how almost all students from elementary to college own one, the change from the basic learning methods , to newly innovative, technological methods are inevitable.

Ipods are now being used to record lectures given by their teachers instead of the old method of using paper and pencils/pens, or by even using a tape recorder. This is so students can listen and review while doing day-to-day activities like driving, walking/running, or studying. Students could also use their ipod as a logging tool to help with completing assignments outside of the classroom.



Duke University first implemented this new "style" of educating in the Summer of 2004. Testing the ipod out for a year as an educational means, Duke hoped the outcome would encourage students to be creative with the use of technology and discovered that the experiment was successful. So hopefully, this will spark a light for other institutions to incorporate new digital, audio technology in their educational curriculum.

Dr. Alice Christie

Dr. Alice Christie is an experienced educator of 40 years. Her site is designed to help all present and future educators better develop and present educational technology in the classroom. Dr. Christie's homepage is very basic and easy to navigate through. On her site, you will find topics like: 1)Workshops, 2)GPS and Geocaching, 3)Google Earth, 4)Searching the Web, and 5)Web design, etc.

I looked through different parts of her site, but web design was interesting and informative to me because I don't know anything about web design. Each topic has a basic homepage with a brief summary of what you can find under that specific category. So under the topic web design, she explains to her readers that they could find web design resources, tutorials on how to create one along with examples. And there's also rubrics that would help guide you when creating a site.



Then Dr. Christie gives informative links to help teach you how to be successful at web designing. She discusses the principles and the tool kits for web designing. As well as how to edit pictures and the how to and when for implementing tables. She developed her own rubrics guide and broke it down into 2 parts, depending on what or who the site is for. And she post tips for web publishing, links that discusses copyright issues, and links for multimedia resources to discuss things like photography, cameras, and podcasting.

So I believe Dr. Christie's site would be helpful to me as a teacher because I don't have any experience with web designing. She basically uses her site as a teaching guide for educators by using a step-by-step means of explaining to those of us who aren't proficient with technology and using it in an educational manner. Each section of her site is easy to follow which I also think is very important for beginning teachers, like myself.

Can Wikipedia Ever Be Trusted?

I had never really used wikipedia but a few times. And I thought it was all legit. But now I really have mixed emotions about the web site. And not only because you don't know if the information is true but you also don't know the intentions of the individuals editing what kind of information is on there. I thought this was a web site that a research team does. And maybe only the research team could edit or update. But was I so wrong! But thanks to Virgil Griffith who was the genius who discovered a way to tell who is editing this site. So whether or not this site could ever be a "trusted" site for information is unknown. But if I was doing research on a topic, I wouldn't just rely on wikipedia itself. I would research and consider other sources of information as well.

"Best of the Fischbowl 2007"

I decided to do my blog on 180 Days? . This blog post was posted on April 13, 2007. I was surprised to actually see this topic because in the Mobile County School System, we just had the option of voting on the new school year calendar for next year. And of course all 3 options had to have included the 180 Instructional days stipulation. I honestly didn't realize we had that stipulation, until discussing our calendar options with another teacher.

As we were discussing our options for the new calendar year, we talked about the early dismissal days that we once had before the holidays. At one point in time before major holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, students were allowed to be dismissed 3 hours early. We also talked about when we were in school and how we would get out early after each quarters major exams. But not only do students NOT get out before major holidays now, they also do NOT get out after the end of the quarter exam test, like the CRT's. The main focus these days are on making sure students are in an instructional setting for 180 days and no less.

But the blog 180 Days? shed some serious light on how 180 days are used so quickly. When you take into account all the test days, absences from both teachers and students, days used to review for final exams or CRT's, final exam days, days used for holiday celebrations, field trips, etc., those 180 days used for instructional purposes deplete down to about 120-125, give or take. And after viewing the slide show, those other 60+ days aren't used for instructional purposes only. But teachers aren't to blame. Working in the school system, I noticed that we have some hard working, dedicated teachers. And they are great with students. But, there is soo much pressure being placed on them to teach and cover more material in a short period of time. And it's solely to get students prepared for those major end of the quarter test/exams. Teachers have to push, push, push for students to learn all this material so that the scores on their test, e.g. CRT's, are acceptable. Unfortunately, students become bored and burnt out with school.

So 180 "instructional" days to teach is very needed but I don't think it's being used in the proper way. It's hard to say schools shouldn't have days to celebrate holidays, or have pep rallies. But as much as the year's focus is on testing scores, those days are well needed and deserved. Personally, I believe those other 60 or so days aren't "Wasted on the Way" as the song implies by Crosby, Stills, and Nash . Especially when the teachers have been instructed to cover and push for more material to be covered in half the time. This is a questionable topic and I'm glad I was able to view this blog post.

Fall Podcasts Reviews

This blog is a review on last semesters podcasts done by USA students. The first podcast I listened to was titled Possibilities for Using Facebook in an Educational Setting . The podcasters are Allison Midgette and Shaundretta Bethel. As a beginning listener of podcasts, I didn't know exactly how to critique a podcast show. But because of a prior blog assignment where I had to listen to several podcasts, I knew that one thing you should have in a podcast is conversation among the podcasters. And even though this particular podcast was very well informing, there was a lack of conversation amongst the podcasters. I think they did exceptionally well as far as providing research information to their listeners, but that was basically it.

In this podcast, they discussed different tools that can be used on Facebook by both students and teachers/Administrators. This information was useful because as a user of Facebook, I didn't know it could be used in an educational way. I just basically use it as a social means of meeting new people and getting or keeping in contact with old friends. So the research that they did was great. But I would have liked to have heard more interaction between the two.




The next podcast I listened to was called Useful Internet Sites for Elementary Teachers . This podcast was done by Rosilynn Harris, Marlena Marsh, and Tomeka Washington. I also found this podcast to be very informative. This topic was based on web sites Elementary Teachers could use in their classroom for their professional use and for their students. Each person took turns telling listeners specific sites they found and what each site is used for. One site I thought was interesting was Edhelper . This site offers worksheets that teachers could use to assign homework on and its also useful for parents because they could use it to help their child with their homework. But they also didn't really converse on the topic. They basically sounded like they were reading their research.


So I received a lot of information that would be useful for me as a future Elementary Teacher while listening to these podcasts, but it was kinda boring. There wasn't any talking or laughing that I had listened to in those podcasts done by professional podcasters on itunes. So that's what I was looking for, but didn't get. So that's one technique I plan to implement in my groups podcast.

Professor Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"

This week blog topic was about Randy Pausch. A computer science professor who passed away from pancreatic cancer on the 25TH of July, 2008. Professor Pausch inspired many at Carnegie Mellon University when he delivered his last lecture, "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" . This lecture, come to find out, was a "head-fake" lesson, as Professor Pausch would say, for the real lesson on how to live your life the right way. Personally, I had never heard of Professor Pausch until now, but after watching his lecture, I wish I had.

In his lecture, Professor Pausch starts by telling his audience what his childhood dreams were. And after discussing them with some comical jokes, here and there, and telling how he achieved them, he begins to give pointers or teaching methods, on how others can achieve their dreams. His lessons learned pointers included things like: indirect learning, or "head-fake". This means teaching one way to "secretly" learn the hidden objective. But make learning whatever the objective is fun, which is another method. Students would be more eager to learn if they are engaged and having fun. Another method he discusses is to help students become more self-reflective. Even if they are doing well, push them to be better. And as a teacher, as his next method points out, don't think you know everything. Even teachers can still learn from their students. Professor Pausch also tells us to help others, be loyal, and never give up. No matter how long it may take, just hang in there and it will pay off in the end.

Towards the end of the lecture, Professor Randy Pausch tells his listeners that there are ways to get others to help you. And the first way is by Karma . And I truly agree with him on that. I've always heard the saying, "what goes around, comes around". And that has been true in all situations that I've seen. So you have to be careful with how you treat others and with the things you do. Professor Pausch also lectured on honesty, being earnest, apologizing when you have done wrong by someone, and focusing on others, not just on yourself. He showed a great and loving example of that by wishing his wife a happy birthday towards the end.

I believe we all can benefit from watching professor Pausch's lecture. The title is "Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" but it was to teach a more important lesson. That lesson is how we,as individuals, should be living our lives. This lecture is very inspirational. It's not only for students, or educators, but for all human beings who have or had a dream. I like a lot of the quotes Professor Pausch used, but the main point he was trying to get across to his listeners is "when you do the right thing in life, good things will happen, good things (dreams) will come to you"!

Podcasts

The first podcast: Smartboard Lessons not only has on objective of connecting with teachers, but with parents also.So teachers can work together with other teachers to storm up new educational ideas and get suggestions on problem solving ideas for students. And parents can connect with the students teacher to get a deeper understanding of what needs to be included in certain projects. Ben and Joan discusses two data collection sites that they thought would be of interest for teachers. They were The Feltron Report and Datum . These sites were given as idea "grabbers" for ways teachers could have students collect and manage data. For example, students can keep track of the number of books they may read in a certain period of time. And then they can conclude or analyze what the data information means to them.





Kidcast is a podcast where Mr. Dan Schmit is trying to get teachers to see that most podcasts that are done by students is basically following the "how to do a podcast" format. After searching the web, he was disappointed to find most of the podcast didn't have much learning behind it. It was merely the point of getting a podcast done. Intelligenic is the link he gives to offer ideas and/or comments on ways teachers can help students become more creative with podcasting.










On the podcast Connect Learning #96 with David Warlick, he was at a educators conference and they discussed how technology is making more students put more effort into their work. When we grew up, we only had books, pens, and paper to be creative, along with our imagination. At those times learning was dull and boring. Now, students can use the computer to take responsibilities for their own creativity and it helps keep them focused and interested in what they're learning. You can visit the site ConnectLearning .


The next podcast is Edtechtalk . They featured a guest speaker named Carol Broos. She is a music teacher for 4Th thru 8Th grade students and has taught for 31 years. She was 1 out of a group off 11 people choosen to make an educational DVD with Golden Apple. She talks about how 2 main issues that were discussed at the round table was 1) the high drop-out rate and 2)how to keep students engaged in their everyday schooling. Teacher preparation was also discussed but the "No Child Left Behind" issue wasn't really an important topic. She also made a point that really caught my attention with the educational systems being in debt. She stated that a mad said on the taxes form where you can check a box to donate a $1 to politicians, it should be changed to give a $1 to education. I think that's a wonderful suggestion!!





This podcast is designed and entertaining to those listeners who are familiar with McIntosh and apple. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people. But, the caster provided the latest news, like what the top social technology gadgets are. The apple Iphone ranked in at #1. These guys are actually pretty funny but to get an understanding of what they are talking about you have to pay close attention. They almost sound as if they have their own radio show.





In the last podcast This Week In Photography , the casters talked about photography and videos and how to use videos to promote businesses. Guest speaker Vui Bui talks about his workshops and how they kelp people with creating videos or pictures by choosing the best selection of cameras and video cameras, and the pros and cons of each. You can find plenty of information on photography at cameradojo if you're interested in that type of work or as a hobby.

How Blogs Are Being Used Internationally!

Australian Educators are using blogs just as Americans do. . .to inform, to instruct, and to connect with others around the world. Concetta Gotlieb is an Australian school teacher who likes using the latest in technology to create a fun learning environment. She offers links to other Australian bloggers who use blogging to help inform and enforce education and technology. A site called me.edu.au is used to set up a profile for bloggers to share information, photos, etc., and connect with other online educational teachers who have similar ideas.







Jim Hall "Jimbo" is an English teacher who lives and teaches in Japan. He uses blogs for his students to become proficient in speaking and reading the English language. On the link class blog , he provides group or individual projects for students who want to become English teachers. He posts their assignments and due dates to have projects completed. Students have the opportunity to not only have contacts with English teachers in Japan, but from around the world. And they post blogs about their learning/teaching experiences.

How American Educators Use Blogs!

In Mrs. Cassidy's 1ST Grade class in Moose Jaw, Canada, they are using blogs to not only provide parents a way to stay informed about what their children are doing, but they also use blogs to help students learn to read smoothly. On their classroom blog at Mrs. Cassidy's Class Blog , students read sentences as they are being recorded using a tool called vocaroo . Then they post it to their blog under their name so that they can monitor themselves on reading smoothly. This is a wonderful idea that I think will be useful to all beginning readers. The class also post video's to display what they are learning in different subjects and their learning creativity that's used to understand what's being taught. I really liked how this class uses blogs.







Jennifer Gringerich of Hubbard, Oregon is a former elementary school teacher of 9 years who now is a trainer/consultant in educational technology. She uses blogs to educate teachers on ways technology can be implemented in the classrooms. On her blog, Jennifer Gringerich , she uses a normal black background with white text and colorful photos to catch her readers attention. One post that caught my eye was of this years inauguration. Once you select that post to view, she discusses having a live chat with any classroom who wants to share their views. For the chat she had integrated a link called stinto that the teachers would use to participate. This blog page is very informative on ways technology can be used to make learning fun and challenging.

January 25, 2009

The movie titled “Did You Know” that’s featured on the website: the fischbowl , is one that will open our eyes to how fast the world, as we know it, is changing. It was very informative about things that are happening in the technological world. But it also made me realize the world couldn’t function properly without technology.
I remember going to school and looking up information that I needed in books or on VHS tapes. Now you can find any and everything not in books alone, but on the computer, on the world wide web. And back then, if you owned a computer, it was a big deal. Now owning a computer is like owning a bike…everyone has one, and not just at home, but now it’s on the phones.
So the only thing I wonder after watching the movie is will we, as humans be able to keep up with all these advances and will it or will it not hinder people of the world from finding out their full potential!

ACCESS

The Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, & Students Statewide or(ACCESS), is a educational program that is designed to give students more opportunity to take subjects that are not usually available at their home school, either by utilizing the web, and/or by video conferencing. It gives students a chance to not only broaden their learning experience, but it also enables them to earn an advanced diploma and enroll in AP, or Advanced Placement courses. ACCESS also teaches organizational skills and responsibilities of independent, time management skills. The website access website provides a table parents can use to determine where their local educational site is located in their local community. ACCESS also provides the deadlines for registration to be completed by.

ACCESS offers a variety of course subjects for parents and students to choose from. They can enroll in anything from Math, like Geometry, to learning a Foreign Language, like German. AP courses are offered in just about every subject also. If parents want their child to have an opportunity to advance outside of the normal-style classroom setting, technology advances now makes that possible. The course material is still structured, but students from around the world can learn not only the core subject, but they have to be able to work independently, know how to use their time wisely, and stay organized enough to keep up with their assignments. As far as getting questions answered or help from their teacher, that teacher is readily available.

I believe this is a wonderful program for students in this technological world. Technology wasn't this advanced when I was in school and I don't believe I would have been as fortunate to learn about different cultures and how to speak a different language if it weren't for my father being in the military. Not only did I take the foreign language class, but I got to personally experience the German culture from living there for 4 yrs. Not all students are as fortunate to experience other cultures the same way so this is another way to "bridge" that eduacational gap. If a student wants to graduate with more than just a regular diploma, technology offers them a way to recieve an advanced diploma. And if they are so advanced that they want to get a jump start on college courses, ACCESS is exactly what they need.

ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange)

ALEX, which stands for Alabama Learning Exchange, is a website designed to help teachers with developing lesson plans by giving exmples and different ideas to implement ways to help students master each course objectives. This site is broken down into the many course subjects taught from K-12 grades. Teachers can sign up for their individual work place to develop and keep lesson plans or teachers can view lesson plans that have been posted by other teachers from many different schools around the world.

Once you are on the ALEX website, click on the specific subject you may need extra ideas from. Then, select the proper grade level. Once you're on that grade level, it gives the many objectives that are used for that course. You can choose to view various lesson plans or take a look at the different website links that are recommended to help students learn those course objectives.

ALEX is a useful website, especially for beginning teachers. It is useful because not only does it give explicit examples on how to develop lesson plans, but it also gives other various website links that can be used in the classroom. It contains information to help suppport teachers by giving opportunities for professional developmet and information on the most updated educational news.

I feel this site is a good resource tool that I will be using once I start teaching. I even recognized some of the website links that the students use at my elementary school. And when it comes to lesson plans and ideas to help students learn the objectives for that day, I can use ALEX as a back up reinforcement tool to keep me on the right track.

Introduction Blog #1

Hello fellow classmates,

My name is Crystal Sumrall and I am a Junior, majoring in Elementary Education. I would love to teach 2ND grade once I graduate. I am a 31 yr. old, single mother of 4 beautiful children. Their ages are 8,6,2,and 1. Currently, I am employed with the Mobile County Public School System, working full time as a paraprofessional with the Special Ed. Department at Anna F. Booth Elementary School in Irvington, Al. This is my second school year working with them.

I have traveled the world, thanks to my father being in the military. I have lived in Texas, Korea, Germany, Virgingia, and Mobile. And even though I was born here in Mobile, Alabama, I claim Virginia as my home. I attended Thomas Dale High School, located in Chester, VA, where I took part in many clubs, and organizations. For example, I was in the FBLA and Drama Clubs just to name a few. I was also a starter on the Varsity basketball team all 4 years until I graduated in 1995.

There are many things that I enjoy doing, but I mostly like watching movies, listening to music and doing things with my kids. My favorite color is blue and my favorie food is Alaskan king crab legs. I also enjoy watching football and basketball. Basically, I like to laugh, have fun, and enjoy life.

I hope this helps you all know a little more about me, and I can't wait to learn more about each and every one of you. I hope we all will have more knowledge about this course once we finish the semester. So good luck and have a good Spring Semester.

First Post

Hello Professor Wakeman,

This is a new experience for me and the experience was ok. I believe this class will be enlightning, useful, and fun at the same time. I just hope it's not that confusing, and I hope I will be able to keep up.

Ms. Sumrall