Blog Post #10

John Spencer's Blog Adventures in Pencil Integration puts an interesting spin on the use of technology in the classroom. His post titled Why are your kids playing games? is a conversation between him and the principal at his school. The principal is strongly opposed to using games, or simulations in the classroom to teach. At least that is what I took from the conversation. His focus is on state testing and teaching the students in a traditional manner to make sure they are prepared for the test. It is unfortunate that a lot of us will be faced with this. I will be teaching in the Mobile County Public School System and as far as I can see they are still utilizing burp back education. I see this because I am currently a substitute teacher for MCPSS.
After reading Mr. Spencer's Navigation points and several of his other post. I think I am confused about his views. He describes his principal as someone with an open mind about technology. This is not what I took away from the various conversations he post in his blog. His constant references to pencils has me confused too. I think and this is a guess that for him it isn't so much about the use of technology in the classroom, but the use of creativity and play to get your students learn. If this incorporates technology then that is okay too. His sarcasm and use of metaphors is confusing to me.
Scott Mcleod
Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., currently is serving as the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency 8 in Iowa. He is on leave from his position as an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. Dr. McLeod also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). He has received numerous national awards for his technology leadership work, including recognition from the cable industry, Phi Delta Kappa, the National School Boards Association, and the Center for Digital Education. In Spring 2011 he was a Visiting Canterbury Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Dr. McLeod blogs regularly about technology leadership issues at Dangerously Irrelevant and Education Recoded and occasionally at The Huffington Post. He also just completed his first book, What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media.
Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please? is a post that he made to his blog. It is a post directed to anyone who is opposed to the use of the internet in the classroom. It is nothing but sarcasm as he tries to squash the idea that we should not equip our children to use this tool to learn. He addresses things like porn,sexual predators, and cyberbullying. It pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to some of the fears I still have about students using the internet in the classroom. I am sure that these are things that with time we will have an answer to. It may or may not be a problem when it comes to our students using the internet in the classroom. If it is a problem I am sure it will be resolved with time. There is an answer and a fix to everything with technology. We can not and should not try to keep technology from our students.

Project #14 Smartboard Presentation Part 1

Project # 11 Green Screen Movie

Blog Post #9

Joe McClung

Joe McClung began teaching in 2009. Every year he has written a reflective blog post on what he has learned. His first year of teaching he learned to be flexible with his lesson plans. He states that the lesson you plan is never the one you teach. He stresses being a good communicator with your students and fellow educators. Also he says that we should be encouraging and not be so upset when students do not meet our high expectations. We have to remember we are dealing with children. Learning all we can about current technology is also important and we should push ourselves to just jump right in. We should listen to our students and develop good teacher-student relationships. Last of all we should be life long learners and soak up as much information as we can.
His most recent year he talks about how he had found a comfortable spot in teaching. He felt like he was becoming monotonous and rather than just sitting back and staying comfortable he saw his mistake a and decided to make a change. We should challenge ourselves to keep things interesting for our students and not get lazy.
All of what Mr. McClung had to say was relevant to being a great educator. I really liked that he has chosen to stay true to himself rather then worrying about what others think. He uses his own experiences with education (as a student himself) and tries to keep things interesting for his students. No one will learn if they do not like the class they are in. I think it is important that he keeps sight of that when he teaches.

Project #12 Book Trailer

Blog Post #8

Writing With Multimedia
Dr. Richard E. Miller is a professor in the Department of English at Rutgers University. Professor Miller is the author of As if Learning Mattered: Reforming Higher Education (1998) and Writing at the End of the World (2005). His published articles concern developing a philosophy of consciousness that promotes trans-formative teaching and writing practices. He has delivered over one hundred invited talks across the country and abroad on a range of topics related to literacy, technology, and higher education. His current research concerns "the end of privacy" and how education is being changed as a result of the proliferation of hand-held devices that enable instant publication and global distribution of anything that can be seen or heard. He now publishes exclusively on his website, text2cloud.
Dr. Miller's video This Is How We Dream talks about how we are moving away from a solely print based society. We are moving away from pencils, papers, and libraries to our desktop. He talks and shows how accessible information is on the web. He talks about the permanency of text, images and film that will be available forever vs paper documents. With added sound and music it is composed from information on the web and put together to make a suitable document. He talks about how he put together a complete article just with information from the web. We are no longer limited to our libraries for information. We can simply turn on our computers. We can collaborate with other people on the web to gather and share information. In This is How We Dream Part 2 he talks about how Johnathan Harris is composing using the web it self. He uses an aggregating bot to search the web for information. That part of the movie was completely over my head. did not really understand, or comprehend what exactly he was doing.
I believe that I could write with multi-media. I still do not know exactly how to verify if the information I am pulling from the web is accurate and true. We need a class just so I can learn how to verify that my sources of information are viable. I think that is the most important thing to know when it comes to web based learning. It will be one of the, if not the most important skill I can learn and teach my students.

Carly Pugh
Carly Pugh is a former student from EDM310. In her blog post number twelve she shows what I would consider to be part of her PLN. I guess it also qualifies as writing using multi-media. She has created a playlist on YouTube. Her videos focus on things she wants to teach her students. This includes respect for exceptional people, and being an individual.She made her own video, but she also includes other inspirational videos promoting thinking outside the box. She poses some difficult questions, that I believe I would have a hard time answering. 1). describe the kind of teacher you would like to be 2).show ways you can motivate your students 3). offer tips on classroom management. 4). offer tutorials on programs you have learned about in this class that you like so much you would like to use (podcast, iPods, PLN's, etc.) 5). are on topics related to your field of study; for example, if you are going to be an English Teacher, include videos about Shakespeare, poetry, novels, things of that nature. 6). describe what a good teacher is and what a bad teacher is 7). ways to improve modern education as we know it 8). have been used in other blog posts from this semester. It could be a video you had to write about or one posted on the blog of a fellow classmate, teacher, or classroom's blog. 9). center around creativity. 10). advocate challenging, motivating, encouraging, and supporting students (but still maintaining professionalism) Some of these I believe we will only learn by experience. Am I really supposed to know the answers to all of these questions now? If so, I have to wonder if I should be going into the teaching field. I believe you only become highly skilled at something once you are actually doing it, which should sound really familiar, since that is what this class is based off of.

EDM 310 is Different

The Chipper Series is a video put together to help EDM 310 students to take the class seriously and do the work on time and to the best of their ability. It shows that no matter what, whether it be a class, or an occupation, we have to give it our best. EDM310 is Different is a document of guidelines for this class. It pretty much covers what the Chipper Series talks about. It also talks about the importance of being a professional, being a life long learner, using correct spelling and grammar, and being technologically literate. It also stresses having a positive attitude, organizing your time wisely, and asking questions when necessary. It is unfortunate we had this post to do for our blog this week, because mine is late. :( As for videos I can't really think of anything specific. I know, very creative on my part. I can say that I am game for participating in videos. It would be great to be involved in something that would help future students excel in this class.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
This video is more promotion for online learning vs. burp back education.It is a plea for a change to be made in the way that we think as a society when it comes to learning. Because of the technological advances we have made in the world, we need to change the way we are educating our children. I believe that this makes sense, but not everyone is going to move at the same pace to make these changes. I think it will eventually happen everywhere, because it is happening in some areas. It's more than a little intimidating to think of the changes that are coming and the adjustments that will need to be made. Especially for older people like myself, who are still learning. It will be so much easier for newly graduated seniors who are planning to be teachers. The exposure they are getting (maybe not in the classroom) just from cell phones, iPads, iPods, and other sources are going to put them in a much better position then someone like myself. Children learn things much more easily then someone like myself who is busting at the seams with other responsibilities, like kids and a husband. Despite what I may be learning in college, I know I will be learning from my students too.

Project #9 Progress Report 1

My progress on my PLN is slow. I have watched most of the videos that were provided to us. I really like Symbaloo, because of the way it is set up and it looks pretty user friendly. I am still a bit confused by Twitter, but I think I just need to spend more time using it. I do not know how much my PLN will grow this semester, but I am sure it will get bigger and more organized as I progress in school.

Blog Post # 7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
There are so many things that I took away from this lecture. It would be difficult to fit them into four paragraphs. I could apply them all to my own life and use them to enrich the lives of my own children and future students. Randy talks about his childhood dreams. He tells how they came to be reality, even though some were altered slightly. He talks about the importance of enabling others dreams and life lessons he learned.
This lecture was a little over an hour long and by the time it was over I had several pages of notes. I tried to include my favorite things that he said, although there are many that I did not include. i His lecture made me look hard at myself and what I have accomplished in my own life. Here are a few words of advice from him, which should help anyone. Have Fun. You have to decide if you are going to live your life as a Tigger, or an Eeyore. Never lose your child like wonder. I could picture these three and many others posted in my classroom for my students.
Some of his advice I really took to heart and it made me think about what my future students may need to hear from me. I know, if as a child I needed to hear it, my students do too. I will have students are looking to me for advice and encouragement, because they do not get it at home. Some of the advice I would use from this lecture is: Brick walls are there to let us prove how badly we want things; Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want; There are moments that change your life, and the most important thing is to be able to identify them when they are happening; If you do something that is pioneering, expect the arrows in the back.
I really could go on and on about this lecture. He was truly a gifted unique individual. I hope I can teach my students to learn self reflection, to respect authority without questioning it, never give up, and to focus on others and not themselves. The most important advice I took away from this lecture was "Live your life and when you do the right thing good things will happen.

Project #8 Podcasts Video Lighting Their Fires

C4K

C4K #4 Mrs. Miller Baldwin County High (Reece)
My student had written a post on teenage suicide. This is what he had to say. There could be may reasons why a teenager would want to kill themselves. There could only be one reason. And no one really can tell for sure why someone would kill themselves. Only the dead person would be able to answer that question. One possible reason is depression. Maybe the teenager in question has druggie parents who don't give a crap about them. that would emotionally damage the teen and he or she may be driven to thinking suicide and death would be preferable over continuing to live with the drug addicted parents.
Hello, my name is Heather Heiskell. I am a student at University of South Alabama. Your topic is a very interesting one to consider. An untreated mental illness, such as depression could lead to suicide. Teenagers are under so much pressure to conform to what their peers thinks is "normal". The teenage years can be difficult ones, because teens are struggling to find out who they are. It can be difficult to figure out where they fit in. This time in a persons life can be a lot of fun, but they can also be very stressful. Thank-you for allowing me to read your blog. Have a great day.
C4K #3
My student this week had posted an illustration of a dog and talked about her dogs at home. She describes her dogs as bitzers, which means they have a bit of this and a bit of that in them. She called the illustration Maramas dog. I did try to google that and I questioned her as well, because I wanted to know what it was. I have not received a response.
My name is Heather Heiskell. I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I love the picture of your dog. I have two dogs. They are both bitzers. Is Maramas Dog a book, or someone you know? I tried to Google it, because I thought it was a book. I enjoyed reading your blog. Have a wonderful week at school.
C4K #2 Baldwin County High 10th grade (Corey)
Corey had a newsletter for his post that week. It was a difficult to read. I think maybe when he used the snipping tool, he may have used it incorrectly.
Hello, my name is Heather Heiskell. I am a student at University of South Alabama. It is very nice to meet you, Cory. I had some trouble reading your newsletter post, but I could see enough to realize that it is about Edgar Allan Poe. I have read a few of his stories, but I have actually watched most of them performed on the stage. What do you think of him? Did you enjoy his story The Masque of the Red Death? Thank-you for letting me view your blog.
C4K #1 Ms. Balestrin 2nd grade West Nissouri Public School Ontario Canada (original assigned person was Kevin, but I commented on Laura W instead)
I am going to a birthday party. It is a sleep over party. It will be fun. My friends and me are going to have so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much fun.I wish it was my birthday.I am so happy and so are my friends.
Hello, my name is Heather Heiskell. I am a student at University of South Alabama. I have never been to Canada. Were you born in Ontario? I hope you have a wonderful time at your friends birthday party. Thank-you for letting me read your blog.

C4T #2 (Project #3 Part 2)

That Time My Network Didn't Become Trolls
My C4T was a bit complicated this week. William Chamberlain had posted a comment on his blog regarding a comment from a student in EDM 310 here at University of South Alabama. Don Brookover stated his opinion on his blog and it threw a lot of people into an uproar. This ended up on Twitter. I wish I could have actually found the comments on Twitter, but I could not. Don Brookover wants to know why reading  and commenting on other peoples blogs is going to help him be a better teacher. I guess everyone that is taking this class may be thinking that sometimes. I really commend Mr. Brookover for putting his true feelings on his blog. As future teachers we are all different. We think different and we will all have our own teaching styles.

The Lunch Project Day One: Beginning the Project
This week William Chamberlain's students are working on a math project. They are analyzing lunch data collected over the past month. They are looking at what food the students eat most often and on what days it is served on. Mr. Chamberlain picked this over working problems in the textbook. The Students are engaged enough to be thinking of other ways they can use the information to address issues with the lunch program. I think this is so much better then just sitting in a classroom learning problems from a textbook, or from the board.