K-5 Podcast!

I watched two podcast in the K-5 grade level. The first one I watched was about how Solar Eclipse occur. In the video a teacher gave examples and demonstrated how and why Solar Eclipse occur. There was a Video that explained why some people see a total solar eclipse and why other people see only a partial eclipse.
In the second Podcast I watched we learned about "A Night in the Coral Reef." There was a narrator who talked as the video showed different kinds of fish that live on the reef. This Podcast even caught my attention and it is at a K-5 Grade Level.
These Podcast, especially the second one could be used in the classroom to visual stimulate the children. Books are good for learning but I know a child would much rather see a video to learn about sea life than read about it in a book. These Podcast are free and would be a great way to integrate technology into the classroom with any subject. I am glad that I found these podcast and hope to use ones like them in my classroom.

The Edible Schoolyard and A Night in the Global Village

These podcast were amazing. I watched the Edible Classroom first and I was surprised to see such an elaborate garden at a school. Children will learn so much more by having their hands touching and feeling what they are doing. Learning the skills in the kitchen are not something that is taught as much as it should be in the home. Having a class where the students not only grow and pick from a garden but they learn how to cook with it is awesome. The garden would be a great way to integrate social studies, science, math, and much more into your classroom. The garden, which was originally started by Alice Waters in order to make the cafeteria more healthy has become apart of life at Martin Luther King School.
The second podcast that I watched was the Night in the global Village. This was a place where children went to stay for one night. While at the Global Village they were assigned a certain lifestyle from a certain part of the world. They were given limited resources and force to bargain with others for food and firewood. This Program is designed to show children what life it like outside the United States.
Both podcast were eye opening. The Global Village is something that I did not know existed and I wish that I had had that experience of staying the night at as a child, or even now! Children, and I, take what we have for granted so much these days and with a place like this it could really turn a child around.
The Edible Garden is something that I would like to have at my school. Maybe not as large as what this school had but possibly a classroom garden where the children would still be hands on. Children love to feel apart of their surroundings and by allowing them to take charge and have a garden I think that it would really help them to grow and develop.

iTunes University

iTunes U puts the power of the iTunes Store to work for colleges, universities, and other education organizations, so users can easily search, download, and play education content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows. Mobile Learning has never been so easy. With programs like iTunes U, students no longer have to be sitting at a desk to get information they need for their classes. The technology that is offered today allows students to gather information on the web, get their email, watch lectures, get directions, or pinpoint exactly where their friends are; anytime and anywhere! Using iTunes U in the classroom would give your students a better chance of "catching up" on work they may of missed by uploading a lecture or assignment to their iPod or Computer. iTunes U is a free program that can be used by anyone. Some Colleges do have their material closed off to the public and can be accessed by authorized users. This program is simple and is a tool that I hope to use in my classroom one way or another.

iPods in Education

As part of the University initiative to encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life, Duke University distributed 20Gb/ Apple iPod devices. These iPods were equipped with Belkin Voice Recorders and were distributed to over 1600 entering first year students in August 2004. These iPod were distributed with the main focuse being on audio playback but faculty and student interest made them more of a tool. iPods were starting to be used as field recording tool, classroom recording tool, and a study support tool. The iPods also reduces dependency on physical materials in the classroom and also engaged the students more in the classroom.
At other universities, such as York, iPods are being using in the same way. Lectures can be heard with out going to the classroom, however Diane Zorn of York U warns "students looking to use technology to avoid hitting the books will be disappointed." Even though the technology is the there, the course material is still the same and the classes are no easier, just different.

Dr. Alice Christie

Dr. Alice Christie's website has numerous amounts of information that can be used in the class room. She has been teaching for over 40 years and integrates technology into her classroom with GPS and Geocaching, Digital Photography, Podcasting, Online Researching Resources, and much more. The main topic that interest me is the Digital Photography.
Dr. Christie takes pictures of anything from vegetation and people to trains and flowers. The pictures she takes are usually in a natural environment and are beautiful just as they are. By using technology she enhances them to look abstract and bring out the colors in them. Using technology to enhance pictures could be a creative tool to use in the classroom. Teaching the children how to use a digital camera would be very effective in their lives outside of school and knowledge they would surely carry with them. Then having the children take pictures ,of their choosing, of the outside world after they have learned how to use a digital camera. Once these pictures have been taken I could have my class digitally enhance them on the computer. I think that this activity would be beneficial and a great learning experience for the children.

Wikipedia

Virgil Griffith of Cal Tech computation and neural-systems graduate student created the Wikipedia Scanner. This Scanner offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses.
Voting-machine company Diebold provides a good example of changes that are made to Wikipedia, with someone at the company's IP address apparently deleting long paragraphs detailing the security industry's concerns over the integrity of their voting machines, and information about the company's CEO's fund-raising for President Bush.
Someone with an IP address from Wal-Mart made this change:

From:

Wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores. Founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage.

To:

The average wage at Wal-Mart is almost double the federal minimum wage (Wal-Mart). However, founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage.

Also, politician's offices are heavy users of the system. Former Montana Sen. Conrad Burns' office, for example, apparently changed one critical paragraph headed "A controversial voice" to "A voice for farmers," with predictably image-friendly content following it.

With the Wikipedia Scanner now in effect, maybe dire changes to Wikipedia will not be made as often. Wikipedia is open to so many people with so many different views. The whole point of the online encyclopedia is that it is collaborative and multi-sourced. Wikipedia calls itself "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit," which is another way of saying it is not fact-checked. Or spin-checked, for that matter. I would not trust it as a source for any paper that I am going to write. I do not think that Wikipedia can be trust as a honest source for anything.

Randy Pausch's: Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's Achieving Your Childhood Dreams is a great lecture. Randy makes many points during his lecture, but the ones that stuck out to me were first that; You have to be good at something: It make you valuable. In the world today there are not as many opportunities and will not be as many until the economy gets back on its feet. To be good at something makes you a better resource to the place that you work.
One other point that he makes is that you will encounter brick walls. When you reach the brick walls you can either stand there or find your way around them. "You can get more out of not achieving a dream than you can if you do achieve it." You learn more this way, it shows you what you want and maybe what you can not have and in the end you deal with defeat and maybe find a way to reach the goal next time. Not always getting what you want can be a learning process that some people need in order to progress in their own life.
My favorite point that he made was to have fun. In all things that are done in life, a person should have fun doing them; otherwise what is the point? Randy informs his audience in beginning of his lecture that he has 6 months to live. He is dying from cancer of the liver. Randy also goes to say that he does not want to talk about it, he is here to talk about childhood dreams, not cancer. During his whole presentation he never acts like a dying man. I forgot a few times of his situation and when it hit me again I sat there in amazement at his upbeat attitude.
This lecture was not something that I would of ever pick off of You Tube to watch but I am glad that I did. Seeing someone who has death standing at their back door, and yet they are so alive; makes me want to do the things that I have always want to do, that way when my time comes I will have no regrets. I hope that I am as good of a teacher as him and can use some of his advice in my classroom and life.

April - 180 Days?

This Blog talks about whether there is enough time in the school year to teach students what they need to know for the future with technology. Some argue that there is not enough time in the 180 day school year and that too much already being done. But the students do need to learn about technology and some students are already behind.
There is a PowerPoint on this blog that shows how the days of the 180 day school year are being used. When the slide shows ends, after going over what the days are used for, there ends up being only being 120 days that are used for teaching. What happened to the other days? They were used for State testing and other functions. This blog goes to show how time is being used in the schools. If time is made for technology it can be taught be other activities would have to be removed or minimized.

Last Semester's Podcasts!

February 15, 2009
1. Go to the blog for the Podcasts done by students in last semester’s EDM 310 classes. Listen to
at least two podcasts. As you listen to them, think about what would have made them better. You
will be doing a Podcast soon. It will also be available to the world. Think about how to make
your Podcast better than the first set of podcasts done in EDM 310. Write two or more
paragraphs identifying improvements that you will try and introduce into yoyr podcast. Be sure
you properly cite the 2 or more podcast to which you listened.

The Wonderul Life of Rachel Callahan!

Podcast!

SmartBoard Lessons Podcast KidCast ConnectLearning EdTechtalk

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

This Post is a little extreme. Yes, these days we are having to us computers more and it is a helpful tool, but if that is not what the teacher wants I see no reason to push it. Teachers that have been teaching for 30 years (and who are obviously NOT computer teachers or even deal with computers) have their own way of teaching. If the teachers can meet the curriculum then why should computers have to be involved?
On the other hand. I can see how not knowing how to work a computer could cause problems. There is no reason that the teachers should not at least try to learn how to do the basic computer functions. Most class rooms these days have computers in them and if the teacher can not work the computer, how are the students going to advance in what they should know? I guess I can see that knowing how to use a computer is mandatory these days. 2020 children are going to have so much more technology that is not even out today that if they do not know how to work today's computers they will be left behind in the future. So I guess that I do agree with the article!!

International Blogs!

Green School in Bali-Indonesia

Green School serves more than 100 students in Preschool and Kindergarten through Year Eight. Their innovative curriculum combines demanding academic content taught through a holistic approach that aims to inspire and enhance all of a child’s capacities. Their goal is to foster a spirit of inquiry and a love of learning that prepares children to thrive in the challenging, complex 21st-century world. The eight-hectare campus in Sibang Kaja is divided by the Ayung River, whose western bank supports classrooms, libraries, laboratories and kitchens, while the eastern bank serves as the setting for the School’s entrepreneurial enterprises, cultural centers, homes, and guest villas. Aquaculture ponds, organic vegetable gardens, edible mazes, and permacultural gardens are found throughout the vast campus of shaded walkways, elegantly curving bridges, and cool breezes that lift themselves off the rushing River. (According to the Blog) This blog has all the recent activities of the students ages K - 8. It has information for parents and the schools daily schedule.

Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog

Kathy Cassidy uses her classroom blog to help her children read more smoothly. She has a video on her classroom blog of a social studies assignment that has the children showing the difference in what they "want" and what they "need"! Mrs. Cassidy also uses her blog to show what her children are doing in the classroom. She has the children working online with a "buddy" from the University of Regina to work on their computer skills.