C4T Summary

My C4T's for the last two were on Mr. Will Richardson again and I have really grown to enjoy his blog and the things he posts. He is truly all about the future of education and the educators. We are not alone in wanting the improvement of education.
                    The most recent post I commented on was when he had another guy's tweets compiled together on his blog. The tweets really opened your eyes because they talked about how he was at a conference of some sort I'm guessing and he was stating some of the comments from there. One of the comments said that if we just fired some of the teachers we would have more money to go towards technology. Another comment said that you have to have reform-minded leaders to attack teachers and their pensions. These are the type of things being discussed today in the world about education. Will spoke of how a grass roots rejection of these things were needed and I agreed with him in my comment and told him where I came from and that there was limited technologies in my school. I'm hoping that I am a teacher of the future that brings in these new technologies to help the kids.
               His first one that I posted on this time was a website his son was doing while he was 12 years old! That was completely cool that he was doing something at such a young age. The best part was that his son was learning and combining things he loved. He made a website for kids watch videos on different basketball pointers. He loved basketball and was pretty good at it and also wanted to learn more on the computer like his father. It's obvious Will is doing his part at home to educate his kids in the ever changing world and we need to do ours!



Will's Blog

Final Report on PLN

Final Report on PLN

                    My final report on the PLN is that it was extremely useful to anyone who uses their computer on a day to day basis. It has different options for networking and access that takes so much time off of things. It makes things that are time consuming go by so much faster by having the links all together that you can click on and go straight to. One of the best parts about it was that it was so easy to set up. You already had groups and categories that were pre-selected where you could choose from the different ones you use.
                     Another part about it that makes it super easy was that you had more space to add your own. So you can add blogger on there for class. You can also add your own personal blog along with the class blog. The bottom line is that a PLN is definitely worth making. I hope that I can bring this into my teaching career. I realize that some schools are a bit more old fashioned than others but, I hope I can break that pattern if need be. Maybe I can incorporate different things like PLN's, Smart Boards, and personal blogs.

Project 10 PLN

Project #15 Smart Board

Blog post #13

24 hour Electronic Fast!

                     Most of the time we or should I say I make fun of people who can't live without their phones or t.v. I like to think of myself as more of a country guy. I was raised in the woods with limited cell service and I loved the outdoors and what other people would probably call "Roughing" it. I grew up camping and being outside all day long only to go to sleep and do it all over again the next day.
                     These 24 hours were really hard to get adjusted to. I thought I would just be able to jump right into it and start it. I was wrong and found that out when I had everyone calling and texting me because I didn't let them know what I was doing. So after starting over and letting everyone know what I was doing it began to get really tough. My cell phone wasn't the biggest problem as much as my tv was. In Mobile where I live there's not much to do outside and I never knew how much time I spent inside until doing this. I knew the braves were playing and I just wanted to sit down and watch the game but, I couldn't.
                    I also couldn't get on my computer to do anything. Good thing I got a lot of my homework out of the way before starting this project because it was really hard not to get onto my computer. The thing that I learned was that I do use electronics way more than I thought I did. Even being the country guy I am I still use technology in almost all aspects of life. Which proves that the world is changing and is more technologically advanced. It will only continue to change for the better and I will use this to help me become a better teacher for the future. I actually would like to use this same project for my class and have them write to me and see the differences in my experience and theirs. This would help me get a better idea on how much the world has changed in their lives. I hope to be a teacher of the future and educate kids in new ways that I have learned in edm310 this semester. I completely agree that everyone going through education should be required to take this class because what you learn is extremely helpful!

C4K Summary April

April Summary

                 All of my summaries for the month of April except the last one were with one student whose name was Caroline who had a really cool blog. The last post she had was about her spring break and how she went skiing at three different places. Unlike spring break for most of us who take spring break in the sun and the water, she spent it in the snow. I thought this was really cool and I shared with her what I like to do on my spring break like wakeboarding. 

                The second post I commented on her blog was about the WWF which stands for World Wildlife Fund. This was neat because she had a video up that she made to show all of the different animals that this organization focuses on. The Panda is the animal that the federation chose to be on the cover of their things. I thought it was great that she made the video because it showed that they don't just try to help the pandas, there plenty of other animals that were on the video.
Her first post was about the different things she enjoyed such as skiing. It was a great blog post for me to start on because it was like a description of what she was like. So I commented and told her the things I liked to do in my spare time and how we had some similarities but also some differences. All in all Caroline had really great blog and it was really cool to see someone young involved in technology like this.
                The last post I commented on was for a little girl named Shelly in New Zealand talking about her visit to the camp.It was really great getting to see the young generations all over the world getting into this technology. I commented that she should keep it up and stay with making videos because she did a great job. All in all everyone of these comments that I left were on some great posts on some younger kids which was really great to see.

Caroline's Blog

Shelly's Video

Progress report on Final project

Team Procrastination

              My team is working on a video to combine a lot of different things of what we have learned in this class. Matthew Rodriguez, Joe Hunter, and myself plan to use things like green screen and editing of videos. We also want to use some different sounds and techniques we have learned. We still have more ideas we are brainstorming on to think about using for it but, I am certain that it will turn out great and be extremely unique. Hopefully we can make everybody laugh and still think it's a really cool project.

Blog Post 12

History of Alabama

1)For this blog post watch the history of Alabama video.


2)Write two or more paragraphs following the outline of a quality blog post. What are some things that you may have learned that you didn't know took place in Alabama? Where there other things you think should be added to the video?


               For me I thought the video was really cool for a number of different things. I thought it was cool how it started off with some local talents who have went on to make it in Hollywood and they still know what it's like down here. Like Ruben said one the greatest things about Alabama is the football. We don't really realize how important it really is to us until we look at it from an outsider's viewpoint. I also thought it was really neat that they had all of the stuff about Helen Keller in the video. I don't think you can watch a video on the History of Alabama and not have anything about her in it.
               The thing that shocked me the most was all of that about the music from Muscle Shoals and the impact it had on music. I had heard of Fame before but not the story that this video told. I had no idea that some of the biggest names in country, rock, and r&b recorded there. Names like Aretha Franklin and The Rolling Stones were among a few. That's really unbelievable to think about. This video had all kinds of cool things in it like one of the worlds first city wide elecrtic trolly system in Montgomery. Also one of America's first open heart surgeries were performed in Montgomery. All in all this was a great video that taught me some things about my own state that I didn't know before!

Blog Post 11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class

           

              Ms. Cassidy's class was doing some really great things as first graders! It's unbelievable to think that there are first graders that are working on blogs and wikis I'm working on them for the first time in college. I can remember doing different things on computers in early years in school but, I was never working on a blog or skyping with people. The advances in technology and the direction they are heading are truly amazing. 

            Just think about how much the education system will be different in a few years. Maybe this will happen down here in Alabama for us. I know this was not around here and they use different technologies than our students but, nothing is impossible. I can only hope that they will start doing blogs as young as first grade! That will make teaching high school that much more interesting when they get to my class and they already have a lot of experience with these different tools.
            I can't wait to become a teacher and use different things like this with my class. If i get a job back at the school I graduated at which I would like to do I will definitely be bringing something new to the table. They have a nice facility but they do not have a single smart board. There are a lot of old school teachers that teach there so it will be nice to bring something new to the table. I can't wait to use these tools that I have learned in this class. 

Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

              This video really made me think about my reasons for becoming an educator. I have always felt like there was a difference in just a teacher and an educator and I use two of my past teachers as examples. One of my teachers in high school was a math teacher and she was really passionate about math and she did everything she could to try to make it easier for me which is exactly what I needed for that subject. But, she is not the one that made me think about going into this profession. She was still a great teacher though and helped me a lot.
              I had a history teacher who was also one of my coaches who really made me think about doing this as my career. The way he taught was so different and he didn't try to do the same things as the other teachers. He enjoyed being the odd man out of the teachers because he pushed for the students to change education. He didn't want the same old normal history papers he wanted some different things. The thing that always stood out to me was he didn't teach just history. He wanted us to stand out outside of the classroom and learn life lessons. He talked to us about different cultures and how we needed to be respectful of them and how the world is changing and we need to learn as we go along. He often said that he was there to change our lives and he was in this for us. He would promise us that if at any point he became one of those bitter teachers who hated their job and took it out on the students he would quit because it wouldn't be fair to us.
             Things he used to do and say are the things that inspired me to become an educator. I want to instill something in the kids that they can carry for their whole life. I want them to come across a situation and say I remember when my teacher talked about this in high school and this is what I should do. I don't want to just educate them about history but, the world around them. I am really excited about being the new cool teacher with all of this different technologies I'm learning in this class. I just really feel like I can make a difference in these kid's lives as an educator and coach just as it happened to me.


Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home
             In this blog post it was a common case of teachers or administrators worrying more about test scores than the actual students and their situations or their home life. Gertrude was worried about the test scores and said that he shouldn't let the students take the pencils home because students who used took the pencils home had lower test scores. I see this is as a problem as well as  Mr.Spencer.
             He didn't think that you shouldn't take pencils home because he didn't feel that it was the reason for test scores being low. You can't blame test scores on the writing utensil that makes no sense. I like the point that Mr.Spencer made that said that the children see the pencils as toys and not something to write with. They see them as entertainment tools. He also speaks of how the parents of these children don't use pencils in their jobs and don't experience pencils in schoolwork.
           He then explains to Gertrude ways he plans to prevent this from happening. He created a parent pencil program to show parents and students different ways that pencils can be used for learning. I think this is a great idea because he was looking for a solution and not a problem too solve the way these students feel about pencils.
              The last thing that I noticed was that he was a different teacher who was OK with the kids going home and playing hangman. He said there may be more learning that we might not know about. That's exactly how the education of the future needs to be where teachers are OK with different things children do to learn. Things besides looking in their books. The world is changing and education needs to be as well.

C4K March

Kaitlyn's Third Quiz
                The first post that I commented on was this girl named Kaitlyn who loved to do unique things on her blog. The post that I was supposed to comment on was a quiz that Kaitlyn came up with. It was really interesting and had an actor and some bands in it and i believe a few tv shows. I left her a comment and told her it was really cool to see her generation doing things like this using technology. I also told her I couldn't really answer who any of the people were but, it was really interesting. She commented back and said she appreciated my comment and everything that I wrote.

Kaitlyn's Blog

Caroline's Blog
     
        My other comment was for this other girl named Caroline and her blog. First off I noticed that she put a lot of work into her blog because it is colorful and has different layouts where it looks like she has been doing this for a little while. She had a really cool post talking about how she liked to ski and take pictures. I left her a comment saying how I have never been skiing but, I do like to wakeboard. I also talked about how photography would be a good hobby to pick up because there is nothing like seeing the finished product and what you can do with a camera. She had a really cool blog, I just wish I could have done things like this at their age.

Project 14

C4T Summary

C4T Summaries

My C4t summaries came from a blog by Will Richardson. He put's very interesting blog posts up to open eyes about education here in America. All of his posts are interesting and they always receive a lot of feedback from all over the world. His points are different ones that most people wouldn't really go to which makes his posts very different.
       The first post that I commented on was a post where he spoke about Kony and the chaos that erupted with this video. He spoke about how great it would be if there was an Education 2012 video to show what education looks like in this day and time in a networked world. He made it clear that you can't just not be amazed by the Kony video no matter the reasoning behind it. He said that there should definitely be an Education 2012 video itching to be made that puts children front and center and get's people excited about the advancement of education.

The next post that I commented on was a really cool post that opens your eyes to some points that you may not think about. He speaks of how places like Singapore try to prepare their kids for a diverse world. They want to prepare their students for the test of life not just tests. He talks about how China's main priorities are thinking and problem solving and teaching them to live in a highly integrated global environment. He just talks about how these places are preparing kids for values and the actual real world outside of school. He said Someone gets it, Why aren't we? He really is kind of right because America and teachers around here focus on tests and students scores to make them look good.

Will's Blog

Blog post #9

What I've Learned This Year


  I chose to read Mr. McClung's post from May 27, 2009 because that is around the time that I graduated. I loved this post because he gives different tips and pointers about teaching because this is after his first year as a teacher. The picture that he had before the article looked like a piece of paper that he had written that said An important decision that I made this year is Stay Positive. He gave different pointers about things like Be flexible, Communicate, and give an audience based lesson.
  He said one of the more common things he did was worry about being assessed by his superiors and not giving an understandable lesson to fit the kids. I think this is something that all teachers need to realize whether they have been teaching for years or are just starting. You have to fit your lesson to the kids. Make it interesting and fun to keep them in tune and involved.
  Lastly he said two points at the end that really spoke to me. He said you should always listen to your students and never stop learning. I love these posts because they are something that I strive to do when I become a teacher. First of all to teach you should never stop learning whether it's material for your subject matter or technology. Always continue to learn, you can never know everything. Lastly, you should always listen to your students, that's one thing that I loved about some of the teachers I had. They would listen to us, ask us what we liked, and try to change things to better fit us. I always told myself I wanted to strive to do the same thing.

June 23, 2011

 This post was three years later after his first year teaching. He made some great points about knowing who you're boss is. Like most teachers do he said don't try to please the adults so much that you forget about the kids. He said the students should be our primary focus and how we serve them rather than serving administration 24/7. Another one he posted was don't be afraid to be an outsider. Which pretty much means stay true to yourself no matter what the other teachers do. He said he has never been one to fit in and he was ok with that.
  He always strives to be the different teacher which is something that I really think is cool. He's not afraid to be the one guy that stands up for the kids or what he believes. He puts the kids first and tries to make their learning experience the best it can be for them to learn the best. These things are things that I have always thought of how I would be as a teacher. A true student's teacher who understands them, listens to them, and makes school better for them. I plan to keep up wit these posts and use his tips and pointers as I become a teacher.

Blog post 8

This Is How We Dream part 1&2

In these videos Dr. Richard E. Miller talks about some of the great changes that have come with multimedia over the last few years. These changes have affected everything in our daily life. He talks about the changes in writing with multimedia and how the changes of communication are some of the most important in our life time. He also showed some really cool things in his videos like how they had updates on the election of president Obama and had interviews with different people. I thought how they showed that newspapers kept up with election as votes came in with both print based and moving image based photos was really interesting.

The two points he makes are the two main types of changes. There was Incremental change and Fundamental change that he spoke of in the videos. Incremental change was more or less saying things like our work space has changed from the library or writing with a pencil to our laptops. Research, writing, communication is all on your laptop and it cuts out the need for the trips to the library. He also used examples of collaborating through networking. Which meant that we didn't just have to have text anymore we can include movies and pictures to make learning better.

Fundamental change was what he said makes technology possible. Things like kids not using word processors in the future but using different technologies to compose things. I am looking forward to using things like these technologies in the future and learning more. He also spoke about in the second video that it is our duty to share ideas for our culture. He said that ideas don't belong to us individually but to us as a culture which I found to be really neat. Overall it's just really crazy to see all of the changes and technological advances taking place as we speak. There's no limit to what education can be like in the future.


Blog Post 12 by Carly Pugh

I really liked Carly's post and how she tried to challenge everyone to a point on what they had already learned. I liked what she said about how videos usually do help the learning process. I mean who doesn't want to watch videos and learn. I really liked how on the playlist she wanted people to find videos that described the kind of teacher they would like to be and show ways that they could motivate their students. That to me accomplished her goal at the beginning of the post of making the assignment seem like Dr. Strange came up with it himself. Overall it was a really cool post with a lot of great ideas in it.


The Chipper Series & EDM310 for Dummies

The chipper series was pretty funny and it cracked me up how she kept thinking all of those jobs and ideas were going to work. She went through all of that and in real like probably would have wasted years doing all of these other things because she thought it was a better road to take instead of sticking it out and finishing school. At the end she realized though and eventually came back to school. This is so true and so many people do this all the time but, this would be a good video for them to watch if they were having thoughts about quitting school.

Edm310 for dummies cracked me up when they were trying to break keyboards and screaming! But, I know what they mean with getting frustrated in this class and freaking out. I mean, I don't stand up and try to destroy school property but, I do get frustrated. Things have gotten a lot better though recently because I have managed my time better. I try to get up early on Tuesdays and Thursdays and come to the lab and work on things and that has really helped. I just try to have more fun with things instead of seeing it as a nuisance.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
I loved this video because it is so true. The world is completely changing from what we are used to. Technology is opening up so many doors for the future of education but it get's rejected in schools for old school teaching. One thing I have learned from this class and other education courses here at South is just how important networking can be for education. They really hit the nail on the head when they said that kid's are in more stimulating learning environments outside of school than in school. The very things that these kids are using outside of school are the things that are being banned inside of schools because they believe it hinders them. This video just makes me even more excited about bringing these tools to the table as a teacher.

Scavenger Hunt

Locate a tool similar to Facebook/twitter

On the web2.0 I went to community tools and chose the first link to a website called Emodo.com which was really cool and I have never heard of it. It is like facebook as far as the networking goes but the cool thing is it's like for teachers and students. They have different things like events and different communities that you can find and join. They also have sections for practices for teachers and students which I thought was really neat. These kind of tools are what the education of the future needs.

Locate the tool that most likely created this presentation
I believe that the tool that created this presentation was Animoto. It gives you te opportunity to bring ina whole new world of lessons for your students with videos. The pricing had three different categories. The first category was free which had unlimited 3o second videos which really is not a bad deal. The second was $30 a year or $5 amonth which gave you unlimited feature length videos and 600+ music tracks from a wide variety of genres. The third option $249 a year which comes with everything pretty much. Unlimited music, featured videos. HD upgrades, and downloads. This is pretty expensive but, when you think about everything that you get with it I think it's not a bad deal at all.

Video Feature
A video feature that I have never used before would be Animoto. I have never even heard of it before now but, it seems to be really cool. It syncs with so many different things such as facebook, flickr, and photobucket to let you upload images. It also lets you use music. The coolest part about the music is you can use your own mp3s that you may already have stored on your computer. Or you have the other option which is to look through some of their music and search through plenty of genres. Lastly you can watch your finished product in HD or upload it to youtube or even put it on a DVD. There's no limit to what you can do while composing a video using Animoto.

Project 12 Book Trailer

Short Story Video

Time Toast 9b

Blog Post 7

The Networked Student

This video by Wendy Drexler was really interesting and it really showed you how education is changing. Networking is becoming more and more a part of education and it will only continue to grow as the future progresses. It gives you a better understanding of virtual networking and learning where someone may have not had it before. It also explains some more tools that you could use besides a book. Me personally I am all for technological advancements in education but, I don't want them to ever completely do away with books. They are such a good fallback tool to go to.
I thought it was really cool how they explained what the theory of connectivism means. Connectivism is that says the learning occurs as part of a social network with many diverse connections and ties. I never knew what this meant before now so that was really good to have that broken down to have a better understanding so maybe if I have a co-worker who believes in connectivism I can relate to them in a sense.
When it got to the point where it asked why a networked student even needed a teacher it was because she helped them on so many levels. Yes she hardly lectured but, when they needed help the teacher was there to explain things. Things like guidance, proper communication, differentiate information, and helps them stay organized. This teacher is still a big part of this class because they would have never gotten some of these assignments finished on time without her. I also believed she opened up many doors for their future while introducing them to connectivism.

2. A seventh Graders PLE(personal Learning Environment)

I thought this video was really cool because there was so much that was going on for a seventh grader. I would have never dreamed of being able to do all of that as a seventh grader. She had page that had her school work, social networking, and different web pages. She could get on before school and see what she is going to have to work on for school. I really want to use this type of things for my future as a teacher.

Blog post 6

First off this video that Randy Pausch made of this lecture called Last Lecture was very inspirational. It was a great thing to hear that someone talks about all of their dreams and how all of the dreams and goals whether they reached them or not made them who they were. I would recommend this video to anyone to watch to maybe get some inspiration or some motivation no need your career choice.
He talks about different dreams throughout his life and they were really all amazing. He had dreams like be in zero gravity, play in the NFL, and become a Disney imagineere. It was really cool to see how he speaks of all of his dreams, the ones he reached and didn't reach. One of my favorite things he said was that Brick walls are built not to stop us but to see how bad we want something. Brick walls are meant to stop the people that don't want it bad enough. That is truly motivational and inspirational.
He talks about his tumors and how he only has a few months to live but he just says that's not what he's there to talk about and moved on. He says how he was in better shape than most people there and he got down and did like twenty push ups! This was just a truly inspirational video and I am so glad that I got to see it. He shows how he got his dream of going into Zero gravity on the plain called the "Vomit Comet".
That was a really cool part of the video to see then he said that he wanted to play in the NFL but he didn't get to. But, he said that was all ok but football still made him who he was . He speaks of his old head coach and how he was old school and stayed on him pretty hard when he messed up which is what he needed. The last one was where he became a Disney imagineere after trying so hard to. He eventually became a consultant for them for ten years! He truly lived his life to the fullest and he inspired everyone in that room to keep them motivated. It was just an all around great video.