About Me Presentation

Feb 22- Randy Paush

Twitter

I have learned a lot about Twitter this semester. Before we were assigned Twitter as a requirement for this class I had heard a lot about it but was not that interested in it. I thought that it was something that a lot of celebrities had gotten into and it was something more for them than regular people. I am very glad that we were assigned to learn about Twitter because I think there are a lot of uses for it! I have learned about Twitter by actually getting on there and exploring the website and exploring other peoples pages and seeing what they have on there pages that I did not know about before. I also read the information that was on the class blog about Twitter that other students and teachers suggested to help learn more about Twitter. I also was in class on all the days that we learned about Twitter and Dr.Strange and my classmates have helped me learn some things about Twitter. I get on Twitter pretty much every day and will post my thoughts at that time to everyone in general. I also will comment on other people that I follow comments. I think that Twitter can be very useful in a classroom in that you can have discussions with your students for classroom assignments. I was also talking to the teacher I have been discussing things with and she suggested that since she is a kindergarten teacher and her students obviously can not use this that she wanted me to educate her more on what Twitter was because she wants to use it to communicate with her students parents. I think that this is such a great idea and I never would have thought about that. She wants to update the parents on what is going on and what she is thinking coming up and getting their opinions on that through Twitter. I think it is cool that I could actually teach her something:) I definitely think that I will use this in the future when I become a teacher!

-April 19

I listened to the podcasts and I think that there are definitely some things that need to be changed or improved on some and some things that are great. I listened to my groups podcast and thought that we had a lot of good information that we provided and that of course people could go look up and find more about on their own but I think that we could have gone a little more in depth with the topics and given a little more information. It was weird hearing myself recorded and talking about these things with my group. I think that one group talked about things that were not for free but they were still helpful websites. Although we were trying to keep everything free I think that some parents and teachers will pay money for something that is going to help their child or student learn. So the pro is that they are still great websites and the con is that is costs money. I also listened to a podcast that very short. Compared to the others I listened to it just seemed very short but it was to the point. I think that the group could have gone a little more in depth with their subject to take up time and to also give a little more information. They did give the information that was required though.

Other Posts-April 12

I was looking through my classmates blogs to find one and noticed a lot of them were like mine. The majority of the people were not up to date like myself but the posts we comparable to the ones that I have written. There were a few that were blocked and said that you had to be a invited reader to look at the blog. I did find one that was up to date and had completed their blog exercises. Her blogs looked very good they had just what they needed without being to lengthy and getting boring.
I think that blogs are a very good thing for a classroom! If you has asked me about this before I would have told you that I did not see the point and that students would not want to do it but I have changed my mind. I think that this is a great way to get children to communicate with you and other students about school. This is how kids today communicate with each other in everyday life so it is comfortable for them to do this for school. I really think that I will incorporate this into my classroom learning especially with older students. I really think that it is great as long as you can control it and keep it on task as fa a a learning environment only!
The only downfall with this is that all students may not have computer access at home so it needs to be something done while they are at school with access to a computer. This is not a major issue it is just something that you have to work around with the students. I also think that it could easily change from an educational thing if not monitored correctly.
I definitely feel like the good out weighs the bad though and I will definitely try to use this in the future with my students. I think that other teachers should educate themselves on this because I think you might get more out of a child this way than in a old traditional classroom envioment and ways of doing things.

April 5

itunes University-March 8

Itunes university is a very cool toll that itumes offer. This gives you a chance to listen to different universities and professors giving lectures and presentations. It is very cool you can step into a college classroom from the comfort of your own home and listen live to their lectures. I thnik that this great becauase it gives people a chance to learn things all the time it is also cool because if you are sick and missing class and you dont want to miss lecture or need to get information that you missed all you have to do igo back and find it and listen. I think that this is very cool also because grade school and high students can listen to different presentations to help them learn more about something that they are learning about in school or that they have to do a project on. I could use it asa teacher to teach my students from to give them more information about a topic or show them how to use for the future as a reference to help them.
I just went to itunes.com and clicked on the iuniversity link and it explains all about it. You could also just google it and lots of links come up to help you and explain what it is and link you to lectures. I think the easiest way is to google and avutally go to itunes because it is the most credible.

The first podcast was the Edible Schoolyard and it is a program to educate children about the outdoors and where their food comes from. The students knew that their food came from the outside this just really educated them on the process. The second podcast was A Night in the Global Village and in this video children were separated into groups and had to live in different countries. The groups had some things at their disposal and some had none. They were expected to adapt to that environment. They were expected to do this by working with their groups and the other groups to accomplish this.
These were both very interesting and I think that children can learn from these types of podcasts. I think that this is helpful because children can learn about this stuff at home or at school. There are so many things for them to find information on it is endless. I also feel like teachers can learn so much from this because they can use this as a teaching device in their classroom and use it to get assigments accomlished.

Ipods-March 1

I googled how to use an ipod and went to apple.com and found out all the information I needed to know there about ipods and how to use them. I am actually really happy we happy we have this as an assigment because I have been wanting an ipod for 2 years now and have not gotten one because I did not know how yo use it and I did not want to waste my money on somethin that I would not use. The website sumerized the basics of the use of an ipod it takes you fom the beginning of I just got an ipod what do I do? To next uploading music to it, adding and deleting songs and about uploading itunes to youe computer.
Now that I knpw that I can buy an ipod and the website can tell me step by step how to use it and set it up I really want one. Before this class I did not thinky about getting on the internet to find out simple things like this and it makes me want to learn more and see what is out there. Now I really really want an ipod.I know that Duke University has given all incoming of their students. They want to encourage technology use with their students. Professors incorporated it into their classroom and in assigments. Their wee problems with it though but it was with the devices themselves and the information that they could hold. I think that it would be cool to get one but I dont really see the need for it.

Dr.Christie's Website-March 1

This was actually a really cool website to look at explore because this lady has a lot of really good information for teachers. She hasa section called Educational Technology. She is very informative and helpful on the things she has done and experienced. She gives you information of who can help you accomplish activities in classroom through technology. She has things for art, photography, articles, technology that is emerging that can be used in the classroom, just to give you ideas. She has spreadsheet, podcasts, researching tools, instant messaging, just everything that you could want to know and more about the internet and how you can use it in your classroom. This is also a personal website for her and what she is doing.
I would definitely use this website in the future I actually bookmarked it to my computer because although I think that I am pretty good with computers and what they have to offer She has some really good ideas that I know I could use and learn something from!

Wikipedia-Feb 29

I read the articles that were on here and while I think that is great for people to be able to share things and help others it is hard to trust. Anyone can go on here and comment and edit things on this website. I think that it is good so that people can help others and inform people of things in a manner that is for the most part and on there for the right reason but you also have to see that it can be edited. People can put up false and not credited information and it is hard to tell what is true and what is not if you do not know what you are looking for.
It discussed that someone had gotten on a messed with other peoples machines and that is not right people should not be able to do that and then change their information in hope of not getting caught for what they have done. I think that it is a very good source for quick information. I do not think that it is credible because it can be edited so it is always opened up for error. I think it can be credible only when a credible source is allowed to edit it and not just anyone.

Fischbowl- Why Wireless?-Feb 15

I read about November's Why Wireless and he talked about giving the students access to the internet while they are school. He discussed that it was a good idea because the internet has so much to offer to these students. Not only is the internet an important tool these days for students to communicate there is a wealth of information out there waiting for them to find. He defended himself by saying that the students had access to the teachers web pages that had assignments, notes, etc and online hosts such as EBSCO. He discussed their need to learn to multitask which they can do by having access to the internet and carrying on with a normal school day and all that it entails. I think that is a very good point that is made becasue he is right the most common reason for not wanting this in the classroom is that students will not pay attention to what they are supposed to be learning but I dont think that we give them enough credit because the kids this day and age can do lots of things while being on the internet and chatting with friends. They do it at home why not give them the oppotunity at school if they are learning and doing school related things?
Giving students access to the internet is giving them the opportunity to learn he says. Students these days are different than even 5 years ago they learn and communicate differently than older people do. I thin that he makes a very good argument and defends this very well.

Podcast From Fall- Feb 15

I listened to The podcast on the use of technology in the classroom and South Alabama in general and also the podcast on You Tube. The girls that talked about technology in the classroom I thought the girls did a good job of discussing what we use in the classroom and then gave specific examples of how it was used. The only critique I have about it is that they chose to talk about Foliotek which is a very controversial subject and confusing subject for a lot of students. They did not seem to know much more about it than anyone else so I feel like they could have left that part out!
The youtube podcast was good. I thought that the group did a good job explaining what it was and what it had to offer. nIthink they did a good job of explaining how it can be educational and just fun. The only thing was that it was very short and each person did not speak very long. In general I thought that they were both very good and I would not change a whole lot about them.