My EDM 310 Blog Assignments Are Now Complete

This class was an experience! We learned a lot of new things and struggled with a few of them. Hahaha We had some fun times, and i meet some great new friends. See ya Later

Things we covered in class!

The things i learned this semester:

1. Google documents, including spreadsheets, presentations, and documents
2. ITunes
3. Blogs, gadgets and how to post
4. Podcasts, we did them ourselves, very cool
5. Google, searching, email, igoogle
6. Foliotek

Project 7

Well i didn't exactly go to an ACCESS lab, because the teacher from MGM never emailed me back. I was planning on going Tuesday December 2, which was one of the days Dr. Strange gave us off to go to the lab, but i tired and it never went through. I emailed the teacher a week in advance to ask him if we could come, as first he email me back with in 30 min and was wondering if we could come in between 7:00-9:00 that morning, however i was planning it for a group of us and the earliest we could go was 11:00. So, i emailed him back saying that the eirliest we could come was 11:00 and if that wasn't a good time that was fine, but to just let me know, he never emailed me back. Below are my email proving that i tried, the girls that were suppose to come with me where Kimberly Dees, Keri Owens, and Brennan Gibson.

From:Jmn603@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
Sent: Tuesday Daecmeber 25,2008 12:24pm
To: "Rose, Roger A/MGM" rrose@mcpss.com
Sent:Tuesday, November 25, 2008 12:24 pm
Subject Re: RE: Access Lab visit
I appreciate you emailing me back but unfortunately the earliest time we can come is 11:00 if this isn't a good time thats fine, just let me know
Thank you
Johanna Nolan

From: "Rose, Roger A/MGM" Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 11:27 am Subject: RE: Access Lab visit

To: jmn603@jaguar1.usouthal.edu

I would prefer that you come in the morning if at all possible. If you could come between 7:30 and 10:30 it would be better for you to see that equipment.

From: jmn603@jaguar1.usouthal.edu [ > Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 10:42 AM>

To: Rose, Roger A/MGM> Subject: Access Lab visit

Mr. Rose

I am a student from the University of South Alabama and i have to visit an Access lab for one of my classes. I was wondering if another student and i could come and visit the lab around 12:00 noon next Tuesday December 2, 2008?

Thank you, Johanna Nolan

Project 6

For this project i wanted to see how other colleges used technology and if they used it at all, so i contacted my cousin who goes to Texas A&M. I started off by facebook messaging him and asking if he minded it i asked him some questions, and explained the assignment. When he messaged me back saying no problem i let the questions roll. I first asked him if they used technology and if they did what they used. Well, he never messaged me back so i decided to ask him in person over the thanksgiving break. He told me that they use the normal PowerPoint for every class, and that they have a system like our USA online. He said that it is their own system in which they can go and print out their PowerPoint slides for class, get grades that are posted, and email their teachers. It seems like they have everything we do, not that much, just the basics. However, that is just with his classes, so they could have more, its just a matter of what classes you take, just like here at South Alabama.

It was cool to see that they have the same stuff we do but at the same time i figured they would have more technology seeing that they have a larger student population.

Plusses and Minuses of blogs

Well everything comes with pros and cons and blogs are no exception. I reviewed Kimberly Dees blog for this assignment, even though she wasn't all the way done, i got an idea of what she thought about each assignment.

First comes First, the pros of blogs. Blogs are great because you can use them in so many ways for teaching. You can use them to post assignments for students, a way of communication to your students, and even have you students post their completed assignments on their blogs. Its great because it teaches the students how to use different ways of technology in school, and makes it fun at the same time, it changes it up a bit from the ordinary lecture class.

However, there are cons as well. The main con is that the Internet can be a scary place, you are taking a risk by getting your kids to write things on a public blog, even if it is just assignments, there are some creepy people in this world. Another thing is that if you do to much blogging it becomes a burden and no longer becomes a fun way of learning. You also have to make sure that all your students have access to a computer at night time, in order to get their assignments, or to post their assignment.

So, that is what i think about blogs and how they are good and bad. Overall though, i think it can be a good thing as long as you make sure what your doing is safe and productive for the students.

Documentary Studies

I listened to a talk under Dukes Documentary Studies titled "Poetry and Documentary Expression". This was introduction by Tom Rankin for Robert Pinsky's talk about "poetry and documentation", Pinsky is a poet and teacher of workshops at Boston College as well as the author of "Democracy, Culture, and the voice of poetry". Rankin mentioned that poetry and documentaries are similar in that they both include everything, connection to everyday life and they both try to fix the here and now. He really wanted the talk to be a conversation, so that people could give and take.

Just from hearing the introduction i can tell how great of a writer Robert Pinsky really is, by his accomplishments, and the quotes Tom Rankin talked about. It's great that you are able to go onto i tunes and listen to these talks because it gives you a chance to listen to talks that you might have never had the chance to listen to, because its at another collage or that you had a conflict and couldn't attend.

Class Blogs

The podcsat's went over well for it being our first time, however, we could always improve. I think that is should have been set up better, so that everyone knew what to do and that Dr. Strange wasn't having to narrate the whole thing by asking someone to speak, they should have known who was to talk next. I think that people should have stuck to their subject, some students brought in more information, bringing them away from their specific topic. This brings me to the main problem of the topics, they were to overlapping, making information be repeated, the same things over and over. People seemed to talk a little fast in the beginning, probably due to nerves, but by the end they started to slow down. Overall, you could understand everyone clearly, and the volume was great.

I was so embarrassed to listen to my own podcast, i sounded so weird, but overall i think we did a good job. I think we were all very nervous and you could tell sometimes in our voices, and i talked a little to fast and a little loud. I think that we could have done better, as far as sounding nervous in our voices and the volume and speed of our voices, if we could have had the chance to practice before the final take. In the end i think we did better than i thought we were going to do, it really sounded like a conversation we would have in class and we had a lot of information on our topic.

Technology with lesson plans

I went to Itunes technology in lesson plans and found a great lesson plan called Pirate map. This was for grades k-2, it was to help student work together to accomplish a task. The subject matter of this lesson was geography,knowing North, South, East, and West, and learning to measure length and distance.

They started out by taking pictures of North, South, East, and West and making their own compasses. Then the teacher made a video introducing a pirate, he told the students that they needed to follow the map in order to find the treasure. Then the students were asked to hold on to a rope with a distance of 1 yard between each student. they did this as a group ad headed outside to find the treasure. They worked together to measure out distances from the map to find the treasure, making it a collaborative learning process. The teacher made sure that the students congratulated the other students in working together to complete a task.

I found this video cast to be great! It makes learning fun for students when you put an activity with the subject. It also helps them remember how to do things and that they can count on each other if they need help.

"Growth vs Fixed" Minds

Fixed, means having a trade, basing there activities on whether they will look smart, where as Growth, means that they are willing to learn through their life. This video cast is about a program developed to teach students about the growth mind set. They had 8 sessions in a workshop one half got study skills, and the other got growth mindset and study skills. The group that go the growth mindset was the only group that worked, and when they learned stuff they applied it to their school work. It worked so well because they learned how the mind worked and really got into learning how everything was being processed. Teachers were able to tell the difference with two groups even though they didn't know they were even taking a workshop.

The point of this was to help people be mentors and to help people admit mistakes and how to fix them. An example they gave was that of a race car driver, one with a growth mind will be able to get in the zone and stay in the zone even if a mistake is made. Some people really want to learn while others just go around acting like they know everything.

This was a great video cast, it really can benefit teachers, because you want your students to have a growth mindset. You always want your students to know they are smart and teach them that learning is fun, which in turn will give them a growth mind, instead of a fixed mind.

K-5 i-tunes U

I-tunes U is so cool, it gives you great information based on what grade level you pick. I for example went on and looked at three different video casts, "Observed clouds", "Why doesn't the moon fall down?", "Observed Precipitation", and "Solar Eclipse". I found great new ways to explain these subjects to my future students.

The first video cast was "Observing Clouds". On this video they showed how clouds moved and when they moves how they changes shapes. It really makes you want to step back and watch the clouds as they move, and see if you can see anything in the sky. This is a great thing to do with children, it sparks their imagination and gets them thinking. the video cast "Observe Precipitation" was kind of the same thing, but it showed different ways of precipitation. It showed a video of rain, hail , and snow. This would work well for young children, to help them understand when in precipitates, it gives them examples to put with the definition of precipitation.

I came across some really interesting videos, "why doesn't the moon fall down" and "Solar Eclipse". It the video about the moon it was really interesting to find out that in all actuality the moon is constantly falling, but if is falling so fast that it will never his the earth, and that the earth and moon are moving at the exact speed they need and if wither of them change at all it could be fatal. The video " the solar eclipse" was also really cool, i learned that the moon and the earth have to be the exact size and distance they are now in order for use to see a solar eclipse. People plan trips around seeing the solar eclipse, and some people will never see one in their life time.

These videos are just some of the videos on I-tunes U, there are tons more on different subjects, that can be used as great references for teachers.

Ways of learning

In the video cast " A night in the Global Village" was so cool to watch. This was a video of students from the Rocky Mountains who went on a trip to the Heifer ranch, in Arizona. This is a program designed to help students learn about hunger and poverty. It was amazing to see how many young kids wanted to experiance how others live in different parts of the world.Each group represented a different country, and on the ranch there were all teh different types of living, as far as housing, and each group had to stay at their country's living quarters.They were deffinatly out of their comfort zones, especcially the students who had to be the refugeses, they were not able to speek and they had no supplies, like the others did, forcing them to beg from the others. While they were at the ranch, they had to sleep, cook, eat and problem solve like the people of their assigned countries do.

The Second video cast was " The edible schoolyard", which took place at Martin Luther King jr middle school in California. At this school, gardening is the center of the classroom. They teach the students how to garden, harvest and eat organic foods. The gardent realtes to all subjects, socail studies, where the foods come from, Math,measurements for cooking, science,how they grow, and life in general.

Both of these podcast can be useful in the classroom, to teach students about science, and socail studies. They both can show kids that they dont have to be older to realize how people live and where our food comes from, becasue they will see kids their age doing things to learn about them. You can also use this as an intro into doing somthing like this yourself, you can have your class build a garden and teach them about science, and then when somthing grows you can talk about math, by cooking what they grew.

Podcasts

This assignment has really opened up my eyes to what pod casting really is, its like a radio show.This will definitely help me with my podcast project,by knowing how it sounds and to remember to to speak clearly and loudly.

In the podcast titled "Connect Learning" they had people talking in the background, i found that to be distracting, it mad it hard to pay attention to the people who were actually giving the presentation. When you listen to other peoples podcast you really learn a lot,like what you like and don't like and how to really present yourself while on the air. You really need to be prepared and know what you are talking about, but at the same time you don't want to just read your notes, you need to be enthusiastic and grab the audiences attention.

Pod casting can be very beneficial in teaching, like "kidcast", where the school offers a week long camp for teachers to learn new ways of teaching. Pod casts can be used for online lectures, for elementary school kids who miss school or for their parents to listen too, or even for a college course. This is beneficial because you will be able to get a more well rounded education by getting actual notes instead of reading on your own, which everyone knows students don't.

So in conclusion by watching these pod casts before having to do our own was a great idea, you learn how it all works and it gets you thinking of how you want your podcast to sound.

"I Like To Eat"

"The last Lecture"

Wow, that was amazing! He was such an inspiration, he really made learning something fun and he made you want to keep coming back for more. His childhood dreams became reality, not by luck, but by his own determination to do everything he set his mind to. Even though he didn't accomplish all, he at least learned a lesson trying for those dreams. although he was dying from cancer he lived life to the fullest, as he said " we can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."

He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon, where he taught the students to follow their dreams. He did this by showing them how he followed his dreams and even including them in his. One of his dreams was "being in zero gravity", so he crated a team for a NASA project, where if they won they would be able to fly, even though they said teachers couldn't fly he was determined to find a way. So he realized that they could have journalist, so he made himself a journalist, and set up a way for the teachers to fly.

He didn't get to accomplish all his childhood dreams but he did at least learn something from trying. This is important because sometimes it just isn't meant to be, like the old saying "everything happens for a reason". Paushe stated that "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted",as he learned through football.

Paushe learned through his own experience that teachers made a great impact on their students, he learned this from Andy van Dam. Andy van Dam was Paushe's professor at Brown University, He encouraged Paushe to go to graduate school and to become a teacher. He told him he had a sales attitude and that he should at least sell education. Of course Paushe listened and he loved it and thank Andy for ever thing he did for him. As Andy helped him in following his dreams, Paushe made it his mission to help his students follow their dreams.

With many other people he created a program called Alice. This program teaches students to learn how to do computer programing,by making movie and games.

Paushe helped so many students throughout his years of teaching, by encouraging them and giving them hope. From his zero gravity project to ALICE, he helped people enjoy school while learning something hard.

Itunes University

Itunes University is part of i tunes, it contains different lectures form different universities, some in videos and some through audio. The Universities that use this are Stanford, Duke, MIT, Arizona State, and more. At learn out loud .com you can choose from hundreds of different lectures from many of the Universities that use Itunes Universities, they are broken down into lists under the name of the university.

This is helpful to students because if u are at a university and don't understand something in class, than they can listen to a lecture form another university, pertaining to the same class, and maybe get a better understanding of that subject. Another advantage is that if you school uses Itunes University and you miss class, than you can just download the lecture.

This is also helpful to teachers because they can use other teachers lectures as resources, maybe learning something they didn't. They can also use it as a way to give students missed notes if they were not in class for that lecture. I think this is a great! it really makes learning easier for all, you can just download all kinds of information.

My Presentation

i pod's

Duke University has been using i pods in the classroom for years.They have created a program called the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI), which is experimenting the use of technology in teaching.The incoming freshman who are signed up for an i pod enhanced class receive a free i pod as part of their required materials, and have to keep up with them as long as they are taking an enhanced course. They are using these i pods to download information for that class, such as lecture notes ,pictures, and diagrams. The students seem to like this was of teaching, it is teaching them to also use a new form of technology.

I think this is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom, it is small enough to carry around and it lets you store tones of information. This also allows teachers to use the internet in class without having to take the whole class to a computer lab.
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2005/12/ipodupdate.html

Dr. Alice Christie

This is an awesome wed site, it shows many ways in which you can take teaching to a new level, from GPS satellite and the Internet. She also has workshops that you can attend, all having different topics, so that you can learn all types on new and exciting things. If you have any questions you can e-mail her and talk to her about anything that she presents on her website.

I chose the photography part of the website to focus on because she has wonderful pictures from flowers to animals. This shows how you can take a photo and manipulate it however you choose. She gives many resources for teachers to look at in order to learn how to use some of the photo shops that she uses, giving the students a fun way to learn how to use the computer. It think this site is great, it gives teachers new and exciting ways to teach, while giving them the resource they need in order to teach their students.

Wikipedia

Where do i start i mean its crazy how much information on the Internet is not true. This just proves it! So can wikipedia be a trusted resource? I guess it can be only if when you go to wikipedia scanner and see that it has been edited by a reliable source. For example if you are looking something up about the catholic church and it has been edited by the catholic church than yeah i would say that it is a reliable source. However, others might not find a person or group to be a reliable source because they might be biased. Also keep in mind that people are also taking information out, not giving you the whole story. So, i think that it can be but i would try to use it as a last resource and take it with a grain of salt.

Why Wireless?

The second fischbowl article that i chose was November's Best, titled "Why wireless?". This blog started off as an article in a school newsletter, in which it was informing the schools parents about why the school had recently gotten wireless Internet installed for the use of personal devices.

In this article he gives obvious reasons of why wireless Internet was a good choice and why they found it to be beneficial. He said that it gives children great resources, teachers can use it to post class information, via their home pages, etc. However, he went a little deeper by adding quotes from philosophers stating that people need to learn and grow with change. He simple was saying that times have changed and we are now in a world of technology and we need to embrace it and learn from it, its not the world it use to be. This is how he made his argument for wireless Internet in the school. I think he did a great job and that he is totally right , we might as well start early and learn how to use technology because it will be all around us in the working world.

"The Best of"

This post is titled "Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?", this is a blog that a teacher wrote about how teachers should know how to use computers. she gives a list of 7 things teachers should know how to do with computers. She says quote "We should finally drop the myth of digital natives and digital immigrants", meaning that there is no excuse to not know how to use computers, since they have been around for years. Teachers should embrace new technology, such as computers, and know how to use them, she compares is to "teachers 30 years ago not being able to read or write". I think this is kind of extreme but that is my opinion, i think teachers should know how to use computers but they don't have to know how to do everything but they do need to know how to use the basic functions of a computer. This includes word processing, excel, PowerPoint, and how to use the Internet.

U.S school Blogs

The First U.S blog i found was from a 6th grade English teacher in Georgia. The 6th Graders come to this site and answer questions pertaining to things they read, like the first assignment to write about there summer reading books. Their teacher Mrs. Osteen helps other teachers incorporate technology into their schooling as well, seeing that she has been a teacher for 21 years i think she knows whether using blogs works or not. She uses this blog to help improve student communication skills with other students and help them collaborate with others.
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=17192

The second example of blogs used in the classroom i found was in Wayne Illinois. This blog is a class blog in which the teacher uploads pictures ans messages from the whole class. She has uploaded a slide show of her class for viewers to see. this is another way in which you can show students about computers, by example. She has mad a class blog that they can go onto as a class and the teacher she them how to create one and upload picture. This is safer for a second grade class because they are still a little to young to be able to use a computer on their own.

http://secondgradersreport.blogspot.com/

International schools using Blogs

The first school i found that is incorporating blogging is Joseph H. Kerr School in the Canadian town of Snow Lake, Manitoba. This is a combination of seventh and eighth graders who go onto their blogs and talk about school assignments and their social lives. This has created not only a way of communication between students for school but it gives them a way to communicate socially, which keeps their interest. The teacher who is setting this up is Clarence Fisher, who says "he thinks the online journals will spark students' enthusiasm for computers, writing and opining". He goes on to say that he loves that it gives the students a voice, they are learning that their opinions matter. I think this is great because it prepares them for the real world, where you will meet all kinds of people, some with the same views and some who have different views.
.http://news.cnet.com/Blogging-101--Web-logs-go-to-school/2100-1032_3-5895779.hml

The second wed-site i found was about a teacher named Mrs. Robertson, who is an English teacher in Ontario. Her blog is for her seventh grade class, in which they can discuss novels. Once again it gives students a voice, She really has a great point when saying "“The beauty of it is that my really shy or my weak readers get to respond to the novel discussion with as much power as my mouthy or my ‘great’ readers,”. Her blog consists of questions about novels they are reading in class, not only questions they can answer themselves, but doing things like interviews and having them post their conversations and answers on the blog.
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/06/using_blogs_as_a_novel_approac.html

fish bowl video

Wow that is all i can say! It is amazing how much technology has changed over the years. I was most impressed with the amount of years it took for computers to reach 50,000 people, compared to TV or radio. The video shows all kinds of stats, like how many college graduates form India speak English, 100%, that's amazing, college graduates in the U.S. definitely cant say they can all speak a foreign language. I think you should watch this video and pass it on, it will really show you how much technology, especillay the internet, has changed over the years.

ACCESS

Hola! If you go to the website http://accessdl.state.al.us/ you will find all the information you need for the Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and students statewide. This is a program designed to give high school students the chance to take AP class that they might not other wise have the opportunity to take. These classes are offered via Internet, with videoconferencing and uses all kinds of computer programs. This program will help upgrade computer labs to H. 323 standards, making them able to accommodate the ACCESS students. This program comes with pros and cons, some benefits are, expands the reach of education and, increase in student responsibility for eduction. Some of the cons are, no one-on-one contact between students and teachers, and teachers have to be able to use and understand all equipment and programs used for the course. However, the pros out weigh the cons because students are learning things they might not have ever learned and they are learning about computers at the same time.

I strongly agree with the ACCESS program, i think it gives students a chance to learn new things. In the world today everything revolves around computers, this program will help them learn about computers and how to use many of the programs on the computer. Courses like these are also helpful when it comes to preparing students for college, many universities offer online classes which some people find difficult, but with this program they will already have the knowledge and responsibility to know how to take an online class.
-Hanna

ALEX

Hey Everyone! I have recently looked at the website for ALEX, which stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. This website is very useful to teachers, it gives you all the state course of study standards that you have to teach your children for all grade levels and for every subject. You can also log in and crate your own lesson plans and it saves them for you, this is under the tab labeled personal workspace. You can also look at other peoples lesson plans and get ideas from them for your own classes. If you are ever looking for new and fun ways to teach you can find them here, by going under the professional learning tab. This tab will bring you to all kinds of resources. This website also gives links to all kinds of websites whether for students, teachers, or administrators. You look these sites up based on what you are trying to look up like art, English, foreign language,etc. Finally they have a search engine that you can use a keyword and it will search the ALEX database to see if they have any information pertaining to what you are looking for.

The ALEX website is great! It is great especially for teachers, it gives them a place to store lesson plans along with getting ideas for new ones. This website will help you answer tons of questions you have, because it has so many links to commonly used websites. It is also a big help because it is a quick way to look up all the state course of study standards, making sure you get everything completed for all the subject you teach. I highly recommend this website to other people, it will definitely come in handy. ttyl
- Hanna

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*About Me*

Hi my name is Hanna Nolan and i am an Elementary Education major. I am a junior at the University of south Alabama, i chose USA because i wanted to stay home. I currently work as a pharmacy Technician at a home infusion company, where i mix IV medications. I didn't intend to be a pharmacy technician, i started as a driver for them and they asked me if i wanted to become one and so i did, they trained me and i have been doing it for almost 2 years now. I have a boyfriend of 3 years, who attends Spring Hill College. I have 2 dogs, a golden retriever named Rudy (my dog at home ) and a beagle named Noah (which lives at my boyfriends house). That's all i can think to write about myself so i will talk to y'all later!
-Hanna

hey! Im Hanna

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my blog! I'm so excited to start blogging, this is whole new thing to me so i hope I'm doing everything right. Talk to y'all later.

-Hanna