Blog Assignment 13

For this weeks blog post we had a number of options to choose from.  I decided that I would read this rather lengthy article from the Wall Street Journal titled "My Teacher is an App."

Wow, what a great read.  The article talks about online learning in the public school system. Basically what is happening is there are these online schools that children can attend as opposed to going to a regular classroom.  There are also hybrid schools where learning is done online and infused with teacher contact in short lecture form and one on one communication.  Please read this, it's astounding.  Also watch the video in the article.

The article points out that while most school districts see benefit in online learning there is a cost.  Now cost here is used twice over.  1. It saves the school districts money by outsourcing.  Online learning is cheaper and with all of the budget cuts in our current economy it is an option that is unfortunately beneficial to the school system.  2.  It is costing the students by reflecting poorer test scores than those taught in a traditional classroom.  There are pros and cons to both sides of the argument.  On one side there is opportunity in online schooling to progress at your own rate whether it is faster or slower than one's peers. On the other side, online schooling is not for everyone.  It is not a model where all students can excel, it can hinder their learning.  The article goes on to show that a method that seems to work best is the more hybrid approach where students have teachers they can meet face to face with and they also do work online. Even though the children in the article from this school had only taken one standardized test, which they did excel at but just one test should not be the basis for saying that something is working well or not.

This article really perplexes me.  I mean I am pro technology in the classroom.  I also think that it is great for education.  But it does worry me.  Will I be replaced by a machine? The problem is technology, essentially, if you think about it.  Technology has replaced a number of jobs otherwise held by actual people. Unemployment is rampant. The middle class is disappearing.  I'm just worried to see where it will lead.  And where will I be in this equation? I think the article points out that the most effective use of online learning so far still envolves active relationships with teachers and other students.  It is important in our social development to develop relationships with peers and teachers in order to be accepted in society and make us marketable as future workers.  But, if a movement of hybrid online education does reveal as the best medium for the classroom of the future it's a good thing I took this class so I can make myself relevant in an environment where technology so heavily influences the daily goings-on.  To tell you the truth, we should have more classes like this.  It's essential.          
   

Project 15 - Smart Board 2

Update on Final Assignment

For our final assignment Team Gryffindor decided that we are going to make in instructional video for non-traditional students taking EDM310.  That is specifically students who are parents, have a fulltime job, or have responsibilities that make college not their primary focus.  It is going to consist of valuable tools we have found that help in the class and also advice on taking the course that we have found helpful.  It is going to be very fun for us.  My teammates in Team Gryffindor are Adrienne Babb, Ashley Cohen, and Pamela Boykin.  Looking forward to it! 

Also, I chose this picture for this blog because I thought it was hilarious and I couldn't really think of any other picture to use. We have to have a picture right? Hope you like it!

Blog Assignment 12

In this weeks blog assignment we were instructed to come up with our own assignment for the  EDM310 class and then do it.  We have talked a lot about podcasts and podcasting in EDM310, we have also been told about iTunes U.  But basically we were just told that it exists and we did not have an assignment that dealt directly with iTunes U.  I have found that it is one of the best things I have found to obtain more and new information.  iTunes U is a place where there are a multitude of strictly educational podcasts. Colleges from all over the world post lectures and podcasts to iTunes U.  Schools like Yale and Harvard post to iTunes U.  

The assignment I propose is to find a podcast that is relevant to you.  I.e. about one of the classes you are currently taking, or dealing with your specification. Like for me English, or education in general.  I am currently taking a sociology class(Dr. Marshall) that I am very interested in, it would be acceptable in the assignment for me to look up a podcast about sociology.  After finding said podcast subscribe and listen to the most recent submission from that podcast.  Then write a post about why you chose that particular podcast and what the most recent episode was about.

    

Instructions:

In order to use this you must first, if you don't already have it, download iTunes.  Very easy to do, just go to apple.com/itunes  and simply follow the downloading instructions.  You will also have to make an apple account, also very simple the instructions for that will be provided in iTunes.  All of Apple's interfaces and products are exceptionally user friendly.  

After this task is accomplished open iTunes and go to the iTunes store located along the left had side of the window.  Then once in the iTunes store follow the link along the top of the screen titled "iTunes U" then have fun searching around the store and finding a podcast relevant to you.  Now, you may be thinking, "Store?!? Am I going to have to buy something?" The answer is no, all of the podcasts I know of are totally free. 

After listening to the most recent episode of the podcast you selected write a post about why you selected that particular podcast and what the episode was about.

My take on the assignment:

For this assignment the podcast I chose was "60-Second Adventures in Thought."  I thought this would be a good podcast to use in my future classroom as some type of bell-ringer type activity where the students would watch an episode(only 60 seconds right?) and then write a paragraph of reflection about the ideas in the video.  

The episode I watched was called "The Grandfather Paradox" which was about time travel.  It suggests that if a man were to go back in time before his parents were born and kill his grandfather what would happen?  If he did kill his grandfather then one of his parents would have never come into existence thus he wouldn't come into existence.  It was very fun to watch and also thought provoking.  Great podcast, lots of fun! Check it out!       

C4K 10 - Part 1

Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog 

In the first part of this week's C4K assignment we are supposed to have a thorough look at the workings of Mrs. Yollis' classroom blog.  Mrs. Yollis' is a third grade teacher for a school in a suburb of Los Angeles, CA.  One of the best features of Mrs. Yollis' blog is that it serves two purposes.  Not only is it used by her students to learn about blogging, but it can be used by other educators as a guide for how to use blogging in the classroom.  On the homepage of Mrs. Yollis' blog there are links at the top that provide information for others on how to comment, write HTML code, and shooting digital images.  She also has links provided to her personal website.  Which is a very helpful website for the parents of students in her class and also a great site for other educators.  Her personal website has all kinds of links to other educational blogs and also links for parents to activities to engage in with their children.

Some of the other tabs/links on Mrs. Yollis' blog include a link to her "Time Zone Friends." Which is a page containing clocks telling what time it is for her friends with other blogs and friends of the blog.  You can also follow a link to learn about California and there is another link where you can meet the students in her third grade class which is comprised of twenty-two students, eleven boys and eleven girls.  She also has a ticker that tracks where and how many visitors the blog has had.  It's a world map that is lit up from visitors all around the world.

Mrs. Yollis' blog is very impressive.  She has deservingly received a number of accolades for her work with the blog.   Like I said earlier one of the most impressive things about her blog is that she teaches with it two-fold.  It is an invariable "classroom blogging for dummies" guide.  I find all of the information on her blog very helpful.  Not only have a favorited the classroom blog, but also her personal blog for me to use in my PLN.  I implore you to have a look see at her blog, you can follow the link at the top of this post, or use this lazy link here. 

Project 14- Skype Interview

Blog Assignment 11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class 

The first part of this assignment was a video posted by Ms. Cassidy on YouTube.  The video is titled, if you haven't already guessed, is "Little Kids... Big Potential." Ms. Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Moose Jaw, Canada.  In the video she shows all of the things that the children in her classroom are doing with technology.  She has done a great job integrating technology into her classroom.  Her students use all kinds of things like, wiki's, skype, Nintendo DS, and blogging.  She shows the children using all of these technological tools effectively.

The second part of this assignment was for us to watch a Skype interview between Dr. Strange, some of his students, and Ms. Cassidy.  In the first part of the interview Dr. Strange interviews Ms. Cassidy about what she is doing in her classroom and what role technology plays in her classroom.  In the second half of the interview some former EDM310 ask Ms. Cassidy a number of questions dealing with how she manages her classroom and the technology she uses there.  At the last of the interview she shows her backyard, which is covered in snow.  Not something we are used to down here on the gulf coast.  The interview is about 35 mins long and you can check it out using this lazy link here.

I think that Ms. Cassidy is doing great work.  It is great to see what we are learning in this class in action.  In the second part of this assignment, the interview with Ms. Cassidy,  she says that technology and children go hand in hand.  I agree with this thought.  It is without a doubt, in my mind, the most relatable way to reach out to children on their level.  It makes learning fun.  Also in the interview Ms. Cassidy says that the children don't have to "power down" when they come to school.  I think that the sooner this concept is widely accepted the better.  I am definitely going to have a blog for my classroom and I will have my students create blogs to practice their writing skills.      

Additional Post 1

Metaphors: What They Are and Why We Use Them 

In this blog post Dr. Strange alerts the EDM310 community about some of the things we missed in "Tom Johnson's" blog post "Pencil Integration."  Here's where I messed up.  I did not realize that Tom Johnson was a pseudonym for John Spencer.  Dr. Strange goes on to point out several of the metaphors in Mr. Johnson's post.  First off the title of the blog "Pencil Integration" is a metaphor because we already use pencils in class rooms there is no need for them to be integrated. Conversely there is a need for technolog to be integrated in the classroom.  Dr. Strange points out that the metaphor here is to replace "pencils" in Mr. Johnson's post with "computers."  Dr. Strange goes on to provide for use many common metaphors that we can relate to in order to better understand the ones used in Mr. Johnson's post.  Dr. Strange also gives us links to why we should use metaphors and what the advantages can be.  If you follow the link in the title of this post you can find them too.  Or, if you're lazy just click here. 

It was really awesome to see that John Spencer, author of Pencil me In: A Journey in the Fight for Graphite, acknowledged Dr. Strange and the efforts of the EDM310 class in his book.  Showing that the work we are doing in this class is not just busy work, but it is effective and the activities do make a difference.  Very inspiring.

So, I totally missed on this one.  I did not realize the pseudonym.  I did however, realize that it was a completely made up situation.  I should have expressed more of my thoughts about that in my initial post.  It was good for me to do this assignment.  I do have a much better understanding of things now and I know to pay more attention to detail.

C4K post 2 - October

The first blog I was assigned for this post was a blog for a class room at the Bailey Road School in New Zealand titled "Kids with a View."  I was also assigned to comment on the eighth blog from the top.  The post I landed on was a post prompting me to vote on the New Zealand flag debate.  Looks like New Zealand is considering changing their flag from their traditional blue with Union flag and four red stars to a black flag with a white silver fern(picture below).   My comment below the picture explains which I voted for and why.

My comment: "Hi, I am one of the many students in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama.  I voted for the black flag because it distinguishes your country from others.  It's different and that Union stamp is on a number of other flags.  I'll be keeping up with the news to see if the black flag wins out.  Thanks for the post."

The second kid I was assigned to comment on was Blake in Mrs. C's class blog.  His blog posts are short so there isn't much for me to say about them.  But I just encouraged him and gave him a little correction he needed to make. If you click on Blake's name you can go to his blog.

My comment:  "Hey Blake! I am a student at the University of South Alabama.  I was just looking at your blog.  It looks like you are really enjoying it.  I too love writing.  It is a great skill to have.  You may need to take a look at the title of this post.  It looks like you just switched a couple of letters around.  No big deal buddy.  Keep up the good work!"

The third assignment for C4K was for me to comment on Sohel's post in the Room 9@Pt England School blog.  She had made an animation about the Eiffel Tower and Paris using and animation software.  He post is about 15 posts down on the blog, but it is really well done and impressive considering her age.

My Comment: "Hey Sohel,  My name is Taylor and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in the United States.  I think you did a great job with your animation.  I can tell you worked very hard.  Good luck with school this year!"

For the fourth C4K assignment for this month I am innovating a little bit.  For some reason I lost my C4K comment from the second week of the month.  So I doubled up in week four.  I went to a different blog but from what looks like the same school in New Zealand as my previous post.  Here's a link to DJ's animation about Canadian beavers. You can tell he worked hard on the video.  Check it out!

My Comment: "Hey DJ, My name is Taylor Lane and I am also a student at the University of South Alabama.  I really enjoyed your animation and information about beavers in Canada.  I can tell that you worked very hard on it.  Good luck with school this year."