Project #10

Finding the right tool

I will be teaching Social Sciences at the High school level. I found a great tool called Celly. It allows students to comment on a particular subject so the teacher can know if that comprehend the information or not. The great thing about celly is that the students don't know who is comment. It prevents the students from being shy or standoffish because the are fearful that other students will make fun of them. It also allows the teacher to talk to the students personally without the teacher giving out his/her number.

I will be using this technology in my class, so that I can give those students who need one on one time out side of the classroom the time they need. Thank you for assigning this Dr.Strange, without it I doubt I would've ever found this awesome tool.

Blog Post #6

The Network Student

In the movie The Networked Student we see a 21st century student. He goes to class three days a week and two days online. His teacher almost never lectures, She teaches connectivism. She in powers her students to go out and learn and connect through social networking cites. The student spends time setting up his own social networking cite and finding valid websites. He spends time doing his own research and posting it to sharing cites. The question is raised at the end of the move, "why does the student even need the teacher"? The narrator says that she offers guidance when he gets stuck, shows him how to properly communicate, how to determine if the information is accurate, and how to get excited when he finds good information.

I believe there are positives and negatives in this movie. First the positive. I think it is a great teaching tool to have students connect with other people through social networking cites. It is a creative way to get the student involved in learning and making them take some of the initiative in their education. I believe it makes the students feel empowered. Almost like "hey I found that information myself, I didn't need the teachers help"! It gives them a sense of independence.

The negative side to the film is the teacher. Yes I understand that the teacher is trying to show her students how to learn on their own, but I feel the teacher in the film isn't having to put much effort into teaching. In the video it says that "He goes to class three days a week and two days online. His teacher almost never lectures". So what does he do in class those three days out of the week? If he is doing the same thing in class as he is doing out of class online what is the point in even going to class. I think there should be a balance. I think the three days in class and the two days online are great, But on the days when the students are in class that's when lectures or discussions should be going on.

PLN

In the video A 7th Graders Personal Learning Environment, a 7th grade science student is sharing how her (PLE) is set up and what she uses it for. She seemed very excited to share how she finds her information and how she shares it with other people. She talks about how it benefits her in having all these different learning outlets. She also states that even though some social networking cites can be distracting it gives her the freedom to learn what she wants when she wants. Our (PLN) isn't much different. We are open to many cites in order to collect the best information. We are able to connect with other students and people who are interested in the same things. It gives us the opportunity to hear other ideas about a certain subject, that we might not hear other wise.

My Sentence Video

Blog Post #5

If I Built A school
In Krissy Venosdale's blog Venosdale's blog She writes a post about If I build a school. She states that this is a dream in the very begging so you know its going to be out there. In her post she talks about her school as if it is almost magical. A place where students can come to learn and that is the main priority. She embraces the idea of a comfy area that kids can go to in order to think and explore their creative side. The library would have a tree house with lights so that the kids can read in it, there would be a massive fish tank in the school with places for the kids to sit and feel surrounded by water. The biggest thing that stood out in her dream to me was when she said,"Curriculum would be a loose road map based on standards that’s traveled through". As crazy as her dream was its really not that far from what kids need. School is getting so main stream that the system is not taking the time to let kids learn. I hope to see her dream become reality.

If I Could Build A School

I never actually sat down to think about something like this before. If I could build a school, The school day would be split. The first part of the day the kids can choose to learn whatever they want. Then the second part we would go along with the curriculum, the curriculum would be more of a guide line then anything. Students will still be able to use their imagination and creativity. There would be no regulations on what kids should be learning. They would be provided with whatever type of technology they needed. The school would literally be theirs. If they wanted to build a giant rock wall because that is what they are passionate about then the school would provide it. No limitations.

Virtual Choir

Words cant describe how cool that was. That was all put together from different youtube video's. Its amazing how something so beautiful can be put together and sound so great when the singers have never met each other,and its all due to the fact that technology brought that amazing video together.

Teaching In The 21st Century

In Kevin Roberts Video , He Talks all about how technology is taking over. I completely agree with him, students are open to all sorts of technology and are practically learning how to use it on their own. We as teacher should help our students and push them to use technology more efficiently and show them how it can help them stay plugged in to learning and school. I believe students will enjoy it. They are growing up in a technology boom, and teaching them how to properly use technology to benefit them will give them a leg up as they move forward.

Flipping The Classroom

I could see myself using this in my classroom. Its a great idea that does exactly what they say. It allows slower students the time they need to learn the information and gives the more advanced students the opportunity to challenge their minds and move ahead. The best thing it creates is discussion time and actual learning in the class room.

Project #5

Project #3 C4T #1

Summary Of Teachers Blog #1

Dylan Blain is the teacher that I was assigned to. In the first blog of his that I read he talks about Edmodocon. A type of conference that brings social media interfaces especially devised for educators. At the conference he learned about a app called coaches eye. It allows students or athletes to capture footage of whatever they are doing and get feedback on it from the coaches. He explains how to install and use the app effectively.

Summary of comment #1

You did a amazing job on explaining this. I think this is a great tool that can be used in any sport. It allows the kids to be able to see what they did and as coaches we are able to point out what was good and what was bad. Thank you for sharing about this.

Summary Of Teachers Blog #2

In his second post he talked about a cricket scoring app. He explains how you can keep score on it throughout the game then at the end it will crunch the players stats together, such as run rates,manhattans, wagon wheels, and Strike rates.

Summary of Comment #2

Great post. you gave clear information about the app. and what all it can do. It is so cool to see technology come over into the sport’s world to help keep scores and records of games.

Blog Post #4

Langwitches

What I learned From the three exerts is, making a pod cast will actually be really fun. When the first graders started doing theirs they wanted it to be perfect. The project really got them engaged. I found that putting little things in the audio helps people listening keep their place in the conversation or story. Also while making a pod cast we need to be aware of our voices the tone, pitch, and volume.

Special Blog Post #1

The population of the United States is 309 million people. The population of India is 1.21 billion people. The population of China is 1.35 billion people. These stats are from 2010 I am sure that the populations of these three countries have increased some what. I wasn't surprised by these stats because I knew that china would have the largest population. That explains why there are more English speaking chines then there are English speaking Americans, its due to China's massive population.
In the first search I compared Florida and Alabama. I found that Alabama joined the Union December 14, 1819, And Florida Joined the Union March 3, 1845. Florida has a population of 19.06 million people and Alabama has a population of 4.803 million people. Florida's population is steadily increasing. Florida also has more people per square mile then Alabama.
The second thing I compared was apples to oranges. I found that apples have 91 calories and oranges have 71 calories. So oranges would be better to eat if you are on a low calorie diet. They both have zero fat, but oranges have more protein in them then apples.
WolframeAlpha is a great tool that can be used in the classroom. It will allow my students to find statistical data on just about anything in the world. On certain projects my students will have to come up with numbers of populations and this will be a excelent source i can let them in on so they can find their data. It will benefit me as a teacher because it will help me with my lessons. If I dont have the answer to a question that a student ask or if I'm curious I can go to the website and look it up.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count
I was astonished at how fast the numbers grew in just the few second I had been on the site. Its kinda hard to comprehend how much technology is being used. For me as a teacher it once again drives home the point that if technology is being used this much now imagine what its going to be like for my students. In a way its kinda impossible to imagine it. It really shows me that if I am going to be a effective teacher I am going to have to stay up to speed with the latest forms of technology. If I choose not to stay up to date I might as well go ahead and shoot myself in the foot, Because I wont be doing myself any good and im surely not going to be doing my student any good.

Blog Post #3

peer editing

The classmate that I had did a amazing job. She was very clear with her grammar and ideas. For that reason I chose to comment publicly on her post. In the video and slide show that we were assigned to watch really explained what it meant to really peer edit someones paper. I got a huge kick out of watching the little kids, even though it was over exaggeration.
They bring to light a good point. You have to find that balance of being helpful but not to the extent of humiliating the persons or making them feel bad about themselves. I think the C4C is a good assignment because it gives us the practice to see and know when you should comment publicly or privately through email. As a teacher we will have to grade students papers and we have to know how to do that effectively without killing the students passion for trying and putting effort into their work.

Assistive Technologies

The mountbatten is a awesome machine that allows visually impaired or blind students participate in class assignments. Its very advanced in the fact that it can receive and transfer information to and from a computer. this allows the teacher to see how the student is doing and keep it on file. It also printed out what the student is typing so they are able the read their own work.
The main point I believe they were trying to make is that with technology it allows people with disabilities to stay right there with people without. technology has come so far and basically you could say it evens the playing field. I had no idea that my iPad had the voice over feature, i am sure i will be playing with that for a while. I would love to challenge my students to use it for a day.

Harness Your Students' Digital

In the video the teacher has a curriculum to teach but she is changing it to where her students get the most out of it. She is connecting her student to other students around the world. The principle on the film even stated that they are as rural as it gets. Im sure without their teacher they would never dream of doing the things the are doing.
I hope that I as a teacher can inspire and connect my students as well as she has.I plan on connecting my students with other student as a project and have them come together on something while they are worlds apart. I think it will be a amazing learning experience for them.