C4K Summary for February

Tyrone
I was assigned a student from Pt. England School in New Zealand, Tyrone S. Tyrone is a year 5 student in Mrs. Barks class. His class will frequently post assignments to the class blog. They have recently come back from their summer break so he had not posted recently. I reviewed his older posts and learned a lot about him. He had several video presentations of a mini cartoon that he drew. Tyrone was excited about returning to school and learning his times tables this year.
Hannah
Hannah is a student in 2KM at Leopold Primary School in Australia. Even at such a young age the kids in her class, as well as her, love to blog. Hannah's last post was a Halloween story that she wrote in class. The story itself showed a lot of creativity and promise in her writing. Unlike many of the children that we leave comments for, Hannah started her blog this past October and she is already blogging like a pro.
Jaehwan
Jaehwan is a young student in Ms. Eppele's class in Canada. From what I have gathered by reading his blog, is that he is originally from Korea. In many of his posts he will often refer to Korea and make comments about the bullying that is done or how he fines Canadian education easier than Korean education. His class often takes field trips and will later return to blog about them. Above all, Jaehwan enjoys writing creative stories but still needs to work on his spelling and grammar.

Amina, Charlene, and Jessica

Ferry Lane year 6's blog has collaborative blogs. I found this to be a great way for students to work together on projects and really learn team work. The three girls, Amina, Charlene and Jessica have several posts on creative stories that they have written. One particular story is their version of "The Three Little Pigs". In their story the wolf tries to blow down the pigs homes but in the end he climbs up to the roof and falls down the chimney into a pot of boiling water. Although simple, I found this to be a very creative twist to the original story. The girls have also included their own individual writings as well.

Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

Dr. Scott Mcleod, is very insightful on his post Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?. I feel as though he had a sarcastic attitude throughout the whole post. I loved it. I still feel as though we should keep the classic pen and paper in schools but at the same time, we need to focus on technology. As our students grow older more and more technology is going to be developed and it is our job to insure that they are prepared for this. Still learning to use paper and pencils for math is essential. Developing countries do not yet have the technology that we do and it is important for our students to learn "old fashion" methods as well.

The iSchool Initiative

Travis Allen, at the time of his YouTube video, was a young high school student. First of all I have to give him credit that, even though he was just short of graduation, he believes in providing this technology and way of learning to future high school students. Secondly, I love the idea. The more and more I become involved with EDM310, the more I want to learn about new technology that is available for students. But, I secretly don't want my students to know more about technology than I do. The iTouch seems like a great and resourceful tool, however, I feel as though the iPad might be sightly more useful due to the size.

Travis Allen, suggested removing paper, pencils, copy machines and textbooks. As I stated in the previous post, I still think that we should keep those items around, well maybe dispose of the copy machine but we need to have a back up method in case a student looses their iSchool or perhaps it breaks. 

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
The virtual choir by Eric Whitacre. All I can say at this point is "wow". The idea behind this blows my mind. Now to be fair I'm sure the recording and blending of voices and sounds over the internet has been done for many years now but seeing it in this format makes it feel completely different. This presentation was so simple yet completely complex. After I learned that the students had never met, made me appreciate this even more.

Teaching in the 21st Century

I agree with Kevin Roberts views in his video, Teaching in the 21st Century. Teachers are steadily becoming less of a source for information, and more of a "filter" for information. Wikipedia is a widely used source for students to gather information. Due to the fact that anyone can post anything on it, however, makes it to where it is not allowed to be used in a works cited page. That is where we come in. Our new role is to teach the children to take the "facts" and cross reference them with other sites to determine the validity of the information.
It used to be that we were the publishers for children's minds. They entered our classroom with little knowledge to no knowledge of what we were teaching them. Somewhat of a blank slate for us to imprint what we felt was important for them to know at a certain age. Now it seems as though we are taking on more of an editorial role in their lives. Proofing the information they have obtained via technological means.

Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets has a lot of resources that can be used by parents and educators. I have to small children that will begin preschool this coming school year, so I mostly looked at the preschool section. In my search I found several ways to teach preschoolers the fundamentals of reading. This website offers games, suggestions and books specialized for your child's specific area. I would highly recommend this site to parents and teachers; I know I will use it in the future.

Blog Post #4

Podcast

After reading and listening to Langwhiches' blog on her class podcast, I have suddenly fallen in love with the idea. By involving students in creating their own podcast, they will have a hands on way to learn the material. If students can upload their podcasts to their iPods, they can use them to review for tests later on. From a teachers stand point, you can share previous year's classes for your students to benefit from as well.

Blog Post #3

Technology in Special Education

In Stephanie Tyler's suggestion, Technology in Special Education, technology is viewed as a tool to assist in the teaching of special needs children.  I agree that modern conveniences of ipads, laptops, and projectors are great tools to help those with learning disabilities.  Growing up I can recall hearing, "reading, writing, arithmetic", however, now it seems as though we should change it to, "listening, typing, and Texas Instruments".  At what point does technology inhibit our learning ability?
Penmanship used to be something to be proud of, whereas now it's how many words per minute you can type. More recent advances in technology have made it so you don't even have to type.  You can speak to text.  Making carpal tunnel a thing of the past.  My husband won't even read novels.  Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code, and Twilight, he wouldn't think to read.  If someone recommends a "great" book to him, he responds with, "if it's that great of a book, then they will make a movie out of it and I'll watch it then".  Technology is fine and good, but let's not forget the basics.

How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism
After watching the video "How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism" and visiting apple.education.apps.com I have become very interested  by the process of special education teaching. While all of the apps are great, I think mathboard and math bingo would be my favorites. Math is one of my favorite subjects. I like the fact that mathboard has a chalkboard look as well which kinda gives it a retro feel. Some math equations require a lot of paper. With the children having the ability to write out the equations on the ipad, they save on supplies. With math bingo, math is turned into a game. The winner probably gets bells and whistles with confetti.
The majority of children these days seem to be diagnosed with one learning disability or another. The most popular being ADHD. The ipad allows for individual paced learning. With different programs to allow for different methods of capturing learner's attention. This is important because what works for one child may not work for the next one.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count



Gary Hayes has put together a social media count to show how much technology people are using worldwide every second of the day. Using these tools in a class room will benefit students by giving them the skills to build off of every year. As rapidly as technology changes it is important to keep up or it will be even more difficult to relearn technology and social media. As a teacher you will not only benefit yourself but your students by preparing them for their futures.

A Vision of Today's Students
After watching the video produced by Kansas State University "A Vision of Today's Students", it has made me view education in a different way. Previously, I was focused from a students point of view. Spending hundreds of dollars on books and never wanting to attend classes because there may have been something more interesting to do. From a teachers stand point, encouraging your students to come to class should not have to be difficult. If students are interested in searching the web, Facebook and twitter; then as teachers it will benefit our class and our societies future to adapt to this.

Google Presentation

C4T Post #1

After reading Ramsey Musallam's post on "Quick Tutorials"  he comments on two out of the five iPad whiteboard recording apps, include an online hosting service, where your video can be viewed online. There are several different sites that all support the same type of recording application. Mr. Musallam chose educreations.
This week Mr. Musallam posted a tutorial of educreations. Watching this screencast helped to explain several questions I had. Google allows you to create a webpage; this is different from our blog, but I suppose you could add this to the blog as well. Educreations is what I would consider a blend between paint and powerpoint. You have the opportunity to draw on each slide or add things to it, to create a demonstration of your choice. This would be an excellent way to demonstration a math problem.
Once you have finished your educreation, it will automatically post to wherever you have a link posted. i.e. Your blog or google webpage. This is where an ipad comes in handy. Teachers can use this program to demonstrate problems and it will automatically update for all students to see. At first I almost felt like this method takes away from the personal one on one with students but I now see the benefits. Students will have this example to look at later and it will save time on the teacher, 'if one student has a question, chances are that several students have the same question'.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis has produced a short video called "Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts". In this video she has showcased her classroom and teaching, which is all done on computers. Using trends and the newest technology for her class, she provides a modern and educational way of learning. The way of the world, now, is through blogging, software and even social networking.
When her classroom begins software that Ms. Davis is unfamiliar with, they teach themselves-a sense of accomplishment then fills these students. Steering away from the traditional setting, empowers her students. This in return, provides for a better classroom and learning environment.

A Vision For 21st Century Learning

Kenesha Brown's suggestion "A Vision for 21st Century Learning", is an ambitious goal for educators, but not an impossible one. Thanks to new developments in technology, formats for games have been made for us to experience life as a Roman or take a wagon ride along the Oregon trail. I remember when I was younger and my family had our first computer, a game called Where in the World is Carmen San Diego used a similar idea to teach. Carmen was a thief who traveled back in time and stole documents, inventions, etc. To receive clues, you would have to answer historical facts or perform mathematical equations. By having the information presented to me in a entertaining fashion, I was able to retain the knowledge.
I can even see technology being used still today to enhance learning. For Christmas, my one year old daughter got a leap frog laptop. She presses the letter p and it asks "what animal eats bamboo"; then she is instructed to press a paw and receives the answer and a celebratory noise when she does so. And this is just the beginning...

Time Management

Randy Pausch's lecture on "Time Management" had many valuable suggestions to better organize one's life. Among his suggestions were goals, priorities and planning. To me, these three things are at the top of my importance list. When setting goals, one sets them self up for life. By this I mean, you cannot plan or prioritize correctly unless you have set goals for you self. Once a goal is set, anything that will get you closer, makes the priorities list. If not, then that task moves directly to the bottom. Creating a plan and sticking to it will get you closer to your ultimate goal. Plans are designed to be changed. If they are, make sure it is changing for the better.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

In Matthew Needleman's YouTube video, Mr. Winkle Wakes, an old Mr. Winkle wakes after a hundred years of sleeping to an excitingly fast paced new world. Mr. Winkle doesn't like the new world because it is filled with many things in which he does not understand. After roaming through a business center and a hospital, Mr. Winkle ends up at a school, where not much has changed. In Mr. Winkle's revelatory journey, an instructor stills stands before a class dropping the knowledge, and technology is used very little. I have two issues with Needleman's portrayal of modern education.
First of all, his depiction is inaccurate. Technology is becoming a huge part of the learning process. If the modern conveniences used in the workplace were not taught to young learners, then there would be no hope for them in the working world after school. Some classes there is no physical interaction at all. Online courses have steadily increased in attendance in the last few years. For him to say that classes have remained the same, is false.
Secondly, Needleman gives the impression that if you can't conform to the modern conveniences, that you can find comfort in the world. Part of the high unemployment rate in our country is due to laborers being replaced by machines, and not having the training of new software. Computer skills are a requirement for jobs these days and if Mr. Winkle can't suffer through learning all the new advances in technology, then he will have come to terms to the realization that he may not make it.

The Importance of Creativity

 Sir Ken Robinson makes a compelling argument on "The Importance of Creativity". In today's society educators have become so focused on right vs. wrong, that children are not preparing themselves to be wrong. Being wrong not only allows one to develop problem solving strategies but is also an important factor in creativity. 
With the education structure designed to push the importance of math, english and humanities, any form of creative classes are then pushed to the bottom. Sir Ken Robinson makes a valuable point, "many highly talented, brilliant creative people think their not, because the thing that they were actually good at wasn't valued or was actually stigmatized." Adapting your teaching to individuals style of learning can be one of the best things to do for a child. Ways of learning can very in ways such as dancing, teaching others or just listening to a teacher lecture. I have found that public schools who crush creativity are setting the country up for life by the book. However, the future has not been written yet; we need creativity to write it.

Did you know?

Beginning with John Strange's video "Did you know? 3.0" and ending with the original version of "Did you know? 3.0" by  Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, both videos share many interesting facts about technology today. For example, China and India's K-12 students in honors program and who are English speaking, greatly outnumber those in the United States.
Websites such as Google, YouTube and Facebook are accessed by the millions per minute. Roughly two years ago 93% of the population had access to a computer in their home. Technology spreads further than just the computer. SMS text messages are sent daily, averaging around 150 messages sent daily by one person. Students preparing for careers are studying for technology and problems that do not even exist yet.