My Blogging Experience

Mt first thoughts on this class when I signed up for it, were that it was going to be like the computer classes that I took in high school. A class centered around Word, Excel, and Power Point. I was glad that it didn't because frankly I do not enjoy that stuff very much. The more stuff that we were taught in this class the more I realized the options that a teacher in a traditional class room setting would have to integrate all the technology out there into their curriculum.

When I found out we were going to be blogging I felt like a dork a little bit. My previous thoughts on blogs were ones that centered around someone with no life who had nothing better to do that to sit on a computer and type out all the problems in their life for the whole world to see. Luckily, my perception was quickly changed. The whole concept is great. it is a great way to communicate your ideas, thoughts, and opinions to the world or your target audience. I definitely learned how this can be a great asset to a teacher who wants to have an open communication line with the parents of their class.

The classmates blog that I chose to look is Taylor Irvin's. The reason I chose hers is that we are both Physical Education majors and will not be in a traditional classroom setting. I enjoyed reading her blogs, having the opportunity to get to Taylor better during this class, I noticed that she is very opinionated and she makes for a great read. She states her mind, what she likes and does not like about the topics we were given. She did a good job of incorporating pictures in her blogs. I know a lot of the stuff was new to me as it was to her. I can tell that it definitely opened her eyes to a lot of things to which she did not previously know. I think the topics were ones that challenged everyone to research.

Going forth in my teaching career, I will be interested in seeing whether or not I utilize blogs into my curriculum. I think that Taylor will agree with me me on the fact that to this point, I just do not know how I could utilize it. I think the upside to blogging for those who do use it, is that is a great way to keep people informed. One drawback is that it is on the internet and therefore there are alot of privacy issues. Those issues are ones that should not be taken lightly, especially when your blog contains information about your students, because lets face it, there are a lot of screwed up people in this world with sick minds. You have to be careful.

Duke University Center for Documentary Studies

This weeks podcast assignment was one done by Duke University. I have a strong emotion still towards the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, and so i chose to listen to "Looking Back: 9/11 Across America". The podcast contained interviews in which Americans were asked questions about events pertaining to that history changing day.



A few of the questions they were asked were what were their reactions when they either saw the attacks or heard about them and what impact the news had on them. The majority of the people interviewed were in shock. Some could not believe that what was being shown was actually real. When asked about the impact on their lives, most comments had to do with the war that followed. Some said we were right and others wrong, a debate that is still going on today.

Some felt the incident caused racism and stereotyping towards Muslims and other people of Middle Eastern decent. Some talked about the unity that came about after the events. Both of these assessments are very true of society following 9/11.

Many Americans lost their lives on that tragic day. Many Americans have the memories of where they were the exact moment that the planes hit. I still remember everything about that day and the events that followed. A lot f people don't think about the events of that very often anymore. We need to remember those who died that day and the men and women who have given their lives for our country.

Electronic Contact

For my electronic contact assignment I contacted a teacher named Jane Nicholls. She started teaching in Perth, Western Australia and eventually moved to Dudenin, New Zealand. Actually, she no longer teaches, but she now works for the New Zealand Ministry of Education. The branch within the Ministry she works for is Information and Communication Technology. Her duties are to help teachers facilitate technology into the class room.

Ms. Nicholls said that her interest in technology was peaked in 1999 when she found a computer in the back of the classroom that was not being used. The first way she used it her classroom of middle school students was using it in math lessons. From math lessons she took her exploration to using it to enhance the students love and enjoyment of reading.

She discovered podcasting and starting integrating that into her curriculum. She would have students write a story and then record it as a podcast. She said that this was a major success. After podcasting she began experimenting with movie making. She said the students made movies using still images, moving images, and handwritten images to tell their stories just like in the podcasts.

Ms. Nicholls said that she discovered a contest called Netguide WebChallenge. She got her kids to enter their stories into the contest through website design. In the third year of entering the contest one of her students won second place. The girl who won created a website about endangered wildlife in New Zealand. She said through the process from podcasts to website design her students became extraordinary story tellers of both fiction and non-fiction narratives.

She said that she stopped teaching in the classroom to help other teachers learn to use technology as well in their classrooms. She says that technology allows students to extend themselves in ways that they never could before. Ms. Nicholls said that technology amplifies a students voice. I really like one of her statements, "Remember technology amplifies! You want the product that technology amplifies to be a worthwhile product. That means the learning has to be the focus".

EDM310 Podcasts

1)"Burp Back Education"
This podcast was conducted by Patricia Robbins, Meghan St. Amant, and Courtney Morris. The topic of the podcast is very relevant to Academia today. They did a very good job of giving opinions and personal experiences. They included humor and some statistics. Considering they have never done this before they did a very good job. Some things they all could work on are talking louder, clearer, and a little slower. As a group, the transitioning between person to person was okay, but could definitely improve.


2)"Technology Use in University of South Alabama Classes"
The participants of this podcast were Mandy Sullivan, Lisa Burke, and Scarlett Moore. They did a wonderful job of giving specific examples of the ways they like technology use in the class and the types of technology they don't like. They did a good job of speaking loudly and clearly. One thing they could work on like the previous group is just the transitioning from one to another. Nothing they did wrong, just a lack of experience doing this. There really are not any glaring negatives to me about this group.


3)"Facebook As An Educational Tool"
They did a great job providing a background for the history of Facebook and the pros and cons of the site. One thing that is missing to me is emotion about the topic. It is a little mono toned to me. They all did great giving their opinions and the ways they use it to further their education. I liked how they contacted USA faculty to ask their opinions. Jalissa Mobley, Stephanie Ellis, and Danielle Tasker were the ones who did this podcast.


4)"Last Lecture of Randy Pausch"
This was my podcast group. The other members were Taylor Irvin, Bree Smith, and Jenny Mosely. First of all I sound like robot, my voice sounds ridiculously deep.
We did the worse job transitioning than anyone else. One person stopped so another stated talking. We weren't very organized with our thoughts as a group. We did have some content knowledge, we just did not pull it together well as a group. I think we could have done this a lot better if we had coordinated together some before we did it.

Math and Technology

The podcasts assigned this week were narrated by Judy Chandler. She is a math teacher and a member of the Maine Learning Teaching Initiative. She is a firm advocate of technology in the classroom. She comes across a lot teachers that think technology is an added bonus feature and is not necessary. A lot of teachers teach the book for the material that is going to be on the test, and those that feel like math and technology just do not go together. Ms. Chandler feels that teaching straight from the book leads to disengagement or disconnection by the students, or that that they memorize the information and formulas just long enough to take the test but fail to actually learn the material.

Ms. Chandler's feeling is that technology can be integrated into the math curriculum and that it can be very successful. She says that use of technology to teach math in the classroom enhances student learning by engaging the student, manipulative experiences with immediate feedback opportunities, exploring math concepts, providing visual representatives, enhances communication and that it also offers alternative ways to demonstrate learning. She also feels that asking questions is another important thing that helps engage students.

The ideas presented by Ms. Chandler are great. They are wonderful ideas that would be very succesful in getting students more involved and would help them learn better. I think it takes a special type of teacher that loves technology for all of her initiatives to work. Some teachers are more old school and do not want to take the time or make the effort to learn how to use technology even though it might benefit their students.

As for me and the field I am going into, I am still unsure of all the ways that technology could be integrated. There will be a lot of technology used in equipment and so forth, but I am not sure how it will relate to the actual learning process of my students. I feel that it can be very beneficial if used in the right ways, and that is why I am still in college, trying to learn those right ways.

ACCESS Lab Visit

One of the requirements for our class was to visit a school's ACCESS lab. There is a lab in every public high school in Alabama. The lab is used for distance learning classes. The school that I visited was Baker high school. I visited the lab with a friend and class mate, Bree Smith, The people there were very helpful and took time ti show us around and explain to us how everything worked and the uses that they have for it at Baker.

The whole concept of the lab is neat. To be able to take a class that is offered by a school 300 miles away is mind boggling. Students are able to see and hear the teacher and other students, and they are also able to communicate with the teacher and students in that classroom. The room at Baker had two huge flat screens, a condensing mic, two cameras, and a control station. We were told by the technology teacher that showed us around that the equipment was worth over $60,000.

There has to be at least one class taught in the room at least per semester to keep receiving funding. They said they do not fully utilize their lab due to lack of interest. They don't have many students interested in taking the classes. It is a shame because it is an awesome opportunity. I would like to see a schools lab that does utilize theirs fully.

"Growth vs. Fixed Minds"

The video cast we were assigned to listen to this week was call "Growth vs. Fixed". The video cast was produced by The Stanford Institute of Technology. The video cast is about a study conducted by Carol Dweck who is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Dweck was interested in mindset of learning, she said that some people base heir activities on whether their intelligence is going to be noticed or not, while others want to learn. The study was composed of of two groups of students. One group were taught study skills, and the other group were taught study skills and growth mindset lessons. None of the participants were aware that there were two groups and two different teachings.

The study showed that students who were taught study skills only did not show improvement. She said that they lacked the motivation to do well. On the other hand the growth mindset group showed significant improvements and were even noticed by their teachers. She also stated that growth mindset is related to dealing with mistakes, accepting them and moving on. Dweck had conversation with a well renowned raqcong coach named Ross Bentley about the growth mindset.

This video was neat. It was cool to see the professor talk about her study and what she found. I think this is a great tool for situations like that, as far as telling of studies and similar things. I wish they would have shown some statistics as far as how much difference they lessons actually made. I really like the versatility of these video casts as far as the many uses that they have in the world of academia.