Smart-board Lesson on iTunes
I'm not sure how I feel about podcasts yet. I'm a very visual learner, so I like to see what is going on and who is talking on the other end of what I'm listening too. As I was listening to the Smart-board Lesson Plan podcast I found that there was a lot of valuable information that I will be using to further my education and will take that to the classroom with me. During the time that I listened they talked about a web site called dumdum.com. This web site is for expanding your education to other students and professionals using a skype kind of set up but modified to benefit teachers and students, and give them the opportunity to use a white board, or the smart-boards where you cannot use those things with skype. With all the great information, I found it very distracting that the gentleman talking was ordering lunch in the middle of his broadcast, and because of that, I was highly distracted and could not focus on all the information that he was giving. That was something I was not a big fan of. You could hear the hustle of drive through traffic and the employees talking also. I just found all of that unprofessional, and very distracting. This was my first podcast experience and so far, I don't like it. This was a very bad impression.
Kid Cast Podcast #62
Video podcasting versus audio podcasting, is something in my opinion that is about convenient and what you prefer. For my learning ability, video podcasting would probably be my preference, yet I understand both sides have a lot to offer. I completely agree with Dan, that audio podcasting forces those broadcasting to be very descriptive and detailed about what they are talking about. Description is something that I feel all educators should be great at doing, and audio podcasting I feel is a fantastic tool to help teach and expand your ability. Video on the other hand you can see what your describing, which to me, helps me remember what I'm learning. Video podcasting is a great way to get a message across if a person is not so expressive in voice, or they have a model or video that will help teach the topic of choice. Dan stated the quote, "If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video must be worth a million," and I have to agree with him. This podcast has left a better impression on me, but I'm still not sure I'm sold on them.
Macbreak Weekly
First I have to say that I shouldn't be surprised that there is a podcast dedicated solely to mac products, but I am. This podcast, which was podcast 177, has to be my favorite that I've listened to so far. I loved how there is more than one person talking, they had a fantastic introduction to the podcast, there is a lot of humor and good chemistry between the people speaking, and it was interesting to listen too. I loved how there was discussion of the naming of the ipad, it was humorous debate which I love! I think that if I can find an audio podcast that has this kind of humor and is on a topic that I highly enjoy listening too, I might just become a huge fan of podcasting!
This Week in Photography
All hope I had for podcasting was almost lost when I listened to this podcast. Yes there were more than one person speaking, but there was no energy, no chemistry, and poor humor attempts in this podcast. I love photograph it’s a huge hobby of mine and I spent two and a half years of my life learning all there is to know about cameras and all that goes with them. I love listening to people who are enthusiastic about photography talk about it. This podcast was not enjoyable to me at all. It was hard to hear all of the guests who were speaking; some were way louder than others. This podcast was podcast 126, and it was about face detection in cameras. They had a good time talking about this subject and had plenty of poor jokes when they finally got into the subject, but this again, is not a podcast I would listen too on a regular basis. I think podcasts need to have humor but it needs to be professional humor if the podcast is educational. The audio was of poor quality and so was the entire broadcast in my opinion.
In Summary
Overall my experience with podcasts, would be that they are extremely useful tools that are a great way to educate, learn, and share information. I think that there needs to be a sense of professionalism, humor, edict, clear audio, and enthusiasm to make a good podcast. Although I have yet to find a podcast that I find thoroughly enjoyable, I will continue to search and see what I can find!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
January 24, 2010
Social Media Count
I cannot believe how rapid the numbers grow within just a few seconds. The statistics on youtube downloads and facebook are unreal. I thought I had a small understanding of how much the internet and the tools it supplies were being utilized, but this just blew my mind. I mean sixty new blogs posted in five seconds! Thats just crazy to me. Two hundred and ninety eight iPhone apps were downloaded in those five seconds also. Technology is a great tool that is used at a wide range, this media count proves that.
It's OK to be Technology Illiterate
While, I don't fully understand the comparison made between math and reading, (I'm not any good at math, and no I'm not proud of it,) I do feel that knowing the basics of technology is something that everyone should know. Technology is growing at such a rapid speed in the world, and lets face it, technology rules our world, therefor you have to have some idea and understanding of how to use it. Any teacher, who is passionate about what they do, and truly has a desire to help children learn and excel, would and should be willing to gain as much knowledge as possible to help aid in a child's success, and to me this means learning all aspects of their desired teaching specialty and the basics of technology. Knowledge is power. Yes, teachers have a lot on their plate, but I would think that understanding how to use a computer would help calm down the stress level.
It's not the Technology
I agree with Ms Hines. Technology is an important part of our society, economy, and culture, but it's not the key ingredient to successful teaching or learning. The enthusiasm of the person teaching it and the ability to communicate the points needed to be learned in more then one way is the main ingredient to successful teaching. I think that for anything to be taught in a successful manner the person teaching has to have passion for what they are doing. Without passion what is the point? The world spins on technology, so I do think that it is important to be familiar and, "semi" up to date with the latest technology, but to teach successfully passion is more important the technological smarts.
A vision of Students Today
A vision of students today, is something that I can relate to completely. I'm not only a full time students, but I work full time also. I will be in debt up to my eyeballs from student loans, I pay hundreds of dollars for books that professors require, yet they never require us to open them, and half my teachers know I exist, but could never put "the name with the face." I also have to be a multi-tasker, or nothing will get accomplished in my life. Even though I have all of these stresses of life, I am a lucky one. I am lucky to have the opportunity to attend school and obtain a career of my choice. I am lucky to be able to voice my opinion when needed and come and go as I please. The stresses that are in my life, are stresses that I have chose to inflict upon my life, and I am lucky to have them.
I cannot believe how rapid the numbers grow within just a few seconds. The statistics on youtube downloads and facebook are unreal. I thought I had a small understanding of how much the internet and the tools it supplies were being utilized, but this just blew my mind. I mean sixty new blogs posted in five seconds! Thats just crazy to me. Two hundred and ninety eight iPhone apps were downloaded in those five seconds also. Technology is a great tool that is used at a wide range, this media count proves that.
It's OK to be Technology Illiterate
While, I don't fully understand the comparison made between math and reading, (I'm not any good at math, and no I'm not proud of it,) I do feel that knowing the basics of technology is something that everyone should know. Technology is growing at such a rapid speed in the world, and lets face it, technology rules our world, therefor you have to have some idea and understanding of how to use it. Any teacher, who is passionate about what they do, and truly has a desire to help children learn and excel, would and should be willing to gain as much knowledge as possible to help aid in a child's success, and to me this means learning all aspects of their desired teaching specialty and the basics of technology. Knowledge is power. Yes, teachers have a lot on their plate, but I would think that understanding how to use a computer would help calm down the stress level.
It's not the Technology
I agree with Ms Hines. Technology is an important part of our society, economy, and culture, but it's not the key ingredient to successful teaching or learning. The enthusiasm of the person teaching it and the ability to communicate the points needed to be learned in more then one way is the main ingredient to successful teaching. I think that for anything to be taught in a successful manner the person teaching has to have passion for what they are doing. Without passion what is the point? The world spins on technology, so I do think that it is important to be familiar and, "semi" up to date with the latest technology, but to teach successfully passion is more important the technological smarts.
A vision of Students Today
A vision of students today, is something that I can relate to completely. I'm not only a full time students, but I work full time also. I will be in debt up to my eyeballs from student loans, I pay hundreds of dollars for books that professors require, yet they never require us to open them, and half my teachers know I exist, but could never put "the name with the face." I also have to be a multi-tasker, or nothing will get accomplished in my life. Even though I have all of these stresses of life, I am a lucky one. I am lucky to have the opportunity to attend school and obtain a career of my choice. I am lucky to be able to voice my opinion when needed and come and go as I please. The stresses that are in my life, are stresses that I have chose to inflict upon my life, and I am lucky to have them.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
January 17, 2010 We "don't grow into creativity we grow out of it." -Ken Robinson
Digital Students
It's refreshing to see teachers finding creative ways to teach students. I've always felt that creativity is a way of empowerment. By giving students the control of learning in ways that they enjoy is going to teach them life long lessons that they will never forget. Step by step guides does not teach a student, but giving them material to research and and brainstorm ways of figuring a problem out teaches those students for life. It gives students a sense of pride when they can take ownership and teach others what they have learned. To often students are forced to memorized things that they could careless about, and as soon as they do not need that information anymore, they forget it. How is that really teaching? In my opinion, this teacher from Georgia has successful teaching figured out. Giving students the ability to learn the way that they enjoy will teach students material that they will never forget, and that is what education is about.
Ken Robinson
I feel that it would be a safe bet to say, that up till this point in my life, the speech given my Ken Robinson is the most inspirational speech I have heard involving children and their creativity. Children are our future, by taking away the arts and the creativity that these children posses is criminal in my opinion. Face it, when it's time for me to retire, they are going to be the ones telling me whether or not this will be a possibility. Creativity is something that children enjoy, it gives them the power to use their imagination, to teach us adults something highly important which is the way that they think, the way they learn, and the way they can educate others. I feel if we focus on allowing children to be more creative, and less computerized, the world would take an enjoyable change for the better. Creativity is empowerment!
Did you know..3.0?
Oh, how the world changes! Did you know 3.0, blew my mind with facts about technology.. I'm ashamed to admit that I do not read the news paper except for approximately five times a year. I do pride myself in the fact that I watch the morning news, and because of this I always felt like I was an up to date person, understanding the advances that are being made around the world. I always knew that some other countries were more advanced in education then America was, and that the economy is terrible trouble, but I did not know that 25% of India's highest IQ's is greater then America's, or that we are preparing students for jobs that do not even exist. How about the 2010 dictionary has five times as many words then in Shakespeare time. The scariest part of this is that new technology doubles every two years and by 2050, there will be a computer smarter then the human brain! I'm starting to wonder why a college education is so important when in forty to fifty years, there will be no need to have human labor when computers will be doing everything for us. Don't get me wrong, I am so very grateful for the technology that we have today, and I do feel it is necessary to continue to make advances, but maybe we should slow it down a little. The final question in the video was, "What does all this mean?" To me, simply put, it means technology is going to erase then entire human race from ever needing to work again. How great can that really be? Through all of the facts, I cannot help to wonder, how unrealistic can my huge opinion be, does anyone person really know what the future is to hold?
Mr. Winkle is a short video that emphasizes how important education has been throughout the years. Although technology has changed the way we learn so much, the underlying principles are the same. Education is the basis of life, and the growth of world. It may have taken a long time to conduct a trade hundreds of years ago and only a short period of time now days, but the principle remains the same, technology is what have changed. Technology offers many different advances that make life simpler, but education is something that societies have always valued. K
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