Comment4Kids- Mrs.Goerend's Class

For assignment, we had to write on a student's blog in Mrs.Goerend's Class. Students need all the positive feedback and encouragement as possible. Ms.Goerend's class is writing friendly letters this week. I had the pleasure of reading Kelli's letter about homecoming and the many activities that takes place. Kelli's letter was very descriptive and interesting. I told her I really like it and that the band marching in the hallway sounded neat as well.
It was a pleasure to read her blog and offer positive words.

ALEX & ACCESS

Alex- Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex has tabs addressing courses of study, web links, lesson plans, personal workspace, professional learning and podcast treasury. With my major being Secondary Health Education, I selected that particular link an started with 7th grade. Up comes a list of different lessons an topics to be discussed along with web links and lesson plans for each listed standard. Very helpful for teachers just starting out by providing a list of topics needed to be covered in each grade level.The web link option has links for teacher sources, administrator and student links as well. For example, when I click Health/Physical Ed tab, a long list of links ranging from k-12 offering tools, games an varying information to help me get the Health issues across to my future students in a better and updated approaches. The Professional Learning tab offers websites to find professional development opportunities, teaching and learning tool such as, English Language Learners, and Library Media.

I feel grateful for this assignment for bringing this website to my knowledge. Just scanning through, you can easily see how very helpful this site is. Having web links, lesson plans and podcast all related to your subject area at one website is great. I think for future teachers and those recently starting out, this can really be a good guide to help understand and learn ways to present your lesson in a more organized and adaptive way. I recommend all future/current teachers to use this site as often as possible. This is an excellent tool to helping students and teachers reach their full achievement goals. Learning never stops!! No matter the age!!

ACCESS

This stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide. The history of ACCESS was launched on November 1, 2004. According to ACCESS web page, its goal of the distance learning plan is to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students.

Accomplishments in the implementation of ACCESS
• Increased enrollments to over 9,000 per year in 174 participating high schools.
• Increased courses available to more than 50 different courses including 5 different foreign languages and 10 different AP courses
• More than 100 teachers have been trained in e-learning course delivery.

The Future of ACCESS

• Provide a 21st century distance learning classroom for every Alabama high school (schools serving grades 9 – 12).

• Have the capacity to serve 45,000 enrollments.

For more information here are the links for both
ALEX
ACCESS

Comment4kids Valley Wood Tech Class

This is another comment4kids post. For this week, my assignment is with the Valley Wood Tech Class.I have started to really enjoy this comment4kids program. I think is a great way to my fellow classmates enhance their blog/comments techniques while giving a kid good feedback and encouragement on his/her blog. If any one would like to comment or just view some the kids blogs, here is the link Valley Wood Tech. This time the student, Merred, blog was about Mario and Luigi new game that was just released. I told him how I remember playing SuperMario games when I was younger. I also said that the SuperMario game will probably be the best game I ever play.I ask Merred to continue to bring his audience the newly updates of Mario and Luigi and future games/software.

A Father's Guidance in Exploration with Technology lending a Helping Hand!!

Jabiz Qatar is a father who is helping his daughter explore nature with the help of technology. Its amazing how reading a book, an article or listening to a song can inspire someone to do good. To have happy and carefree feelings. Even though I am not a parent, I do applaud Mr. Qatar for introducing his daughter to ask questions and explore the positives of nature. I do think its scary that posting a picture and some quotes from your daughter can be turned into a video created by a someone you don't know.

Also, I sincerely hope that her teachers will be technological literate and will be able to continue helping her on this journey. I do agree that if we want our future students to feel comfortable and be cautious online, you must do the same with your own child or loved ones.

I liked the idea that this young girl is being taught that sometimes if we look at things, even if they are discarded and ugly, they can be beautiful, if we look at them right. I think it was really nice of Mr. Chamberlain to surprise Mr. Jabiz Qatar with a voice thread of his daughter. Being that Kaia is very young and can not read right now, this is even better than just making a video or audio of his students responses. This shows how helpful technology can be and how we can be connected with others around the world. Kaia's seems to be very smart and caring young girl that is looking for the good in everything she explores.
Feel free to check out the links below. They all are related to Kaia and her father.

Dear Kaia: Voicethread and Video

Dear Kaia

Intrepid Teacher: Singing Hearts

Personal Learning Network

What a difference it could make having PLN ?

This assignment required us to create a Personal Learning Network.This is basically how we could communicate with others world wide through blogs, facebook, twitter, and others networking outlets. You are learning new ideas, techniques, gaining other people's viewpoint on important topics to you. Follow people on their blogs, facebook and etc.. that talk about the similar topics of interest to you and then ask question and simply keep digging and digging.I am interested in variety of topics. Therefore, not everyone below comments would be on the same topics or discussion. As Dr.Strange would say in his handout, "we are lot like detectives".

On twitter, I am following Kelly Hines and decided to check out her website.Kelly Hines is a 4th grade teacher in Washington,North Carolina. She provides staff development for teachers. She has a website keepingkidsfirst.wordpress.com. Two of Kelly's top blogs are relating to 10 reasons she loves teaching and if no textbooks, then what? I came across a blog Kelly wrote talking about how PLN is redefined. I was gee, this what my assignment is about. She goes on to say how she was thrilled to find other educators who thrived on conversations related to technology,teaching and learning.She firmly believes every one should have PLN. I ended up commenting on her and told her I was new to the PLN club and I feel that PLN is a good tool for helping teachers to be better.The name of Kelly Hines website is Keeping Kids First. If you would like to visit, just click on the name of the site.


Through my connection on twitter, I have the opportunity to look at interesting topics or ideas that William Chamberlain posts. I was able to ask him the question of How important do you think parents knowledge of technology affects their child's learning ability about technology? His response is that parents knowledge is helpful when they share that knowledge with their child. I don't think its necessary,though. He also say,"I think it is probably about access at home to computer's and how the students use them that really makes a difference. I thanked Mr. Chamberlain for answering my question.

Through my connection Facebook, I asked Kecia Lambert, a Teaching Aid Assistant who is pursuing her master's degree in Elementary Education, How do you feel technology should be implemented in the classroom? She responded saying, technology plays an important role in the student learning in the classroom today. Implementing technology in the classroom will help students acquire the skills they need to survive in a complex, highly technological knowledge setting. Technology changes the way teachers teach, to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. When it is effectively integrated into all subject areas, teachers grow into roles of advisor, content expert, and coach. I thanked Ms. Lambert for her taking the time to respond to my question.

On my EDM 310 Blog,my personal learning network person is Vicki A.Davis. We are also folowing each other on twitter. Vicki A. Davis is en educator in Camilla Georgia. She is a Tech Learning blogger and hasco-authored project such as the Flat Classroom Project and Digiteen Project. In my class we had an earlier assignment which entailed watching a video titled Harness Your Student's Digital Smartsby Vicki A.Davis. We also had to write on Ms. Davis' Blog letting her know I watched the video and that my thoughts would be publish on my blog. Ms. Davis wrote a comment on my blog about my comments about her video and has been following my EDM310every since then. I was surprised to see that she a interest in my blog enough to write a comment. She thanked me for sharing my thoughts about what she was doing in her class. She also mention a piece from blog post saying that she thought what mentioned in my last paragraph is very important.
"We must adapt the curriculum in a way that leads to an investigation of the mind to learn and not just using a test on paper with a pencil."
After reading my blog, Ms. Davis says she was inspired by my comment about her blog post and told me she was going write a blog post about me. You can read her blog post about me at her website Cool Cat Teacher .


Through my connection on Facebook, I asked Shanel Pruitt, a Grad student at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia,who is pursuing her Master's in Public Health. I asked her how important do you think parents knowledge of technology affects their child's learning ability about technology? Ms. Pruitt says that many parents are technologically challenged. they do not know the first thing about operating a computer, cell phone, or any other device. However, just because they don't know doesn't mean that their child doesn't know. Children learn a lot of their skills at school, either through a class or their peers. If a parent knows about the technology than they will most likely share it with their child and help to further develop their knowledge. I told Ms. Pruitt that she made some really good points. Everyone perspective is different.


Through my connection on Facebook, I asked Ms. Nikita Kelly how do you feel technology should be implemented in the classroom? Ms. Kelly is one the millions Americans currently unemployed and yet is still fiercely determined to come out of the other side a winner of this economy. Ms. Kelly seems to be a very opinionated person and I felt like she would be someone to have in my Personal Learning Network. In my opinion, you have to be diverse and open to a different range of people who also have different backgrounds and viewpoints from yours. So, Ms. Kelly says that a lot of family's do not have access to computer at home. Technology in the classroom is important because children should be able to learn the basic skills of how a computer is operated. Starting in elementary school, at least one computer should be in a classroom where children may have access & be able to research information. Having a computer or any kind of technology is asking a lot from a schools budget, especially in the urban communities. If instructors/teacher have access to one form of computer equipment in the classroom to individually show a student the basics of a computer literacy. Also, using a projection screen to show the whole classroom the procedure. I definitely appreciate Ms.Kelly's opinion and will continue to ask questions and watch out for her post and links.

Comments 4 Kids!!! Mr. Goerend's Classroom

For this project, I had to participate in Comment4Kids by posting at least 5 comments on blog sites of kids throughout the world. For my class, we were assigned to Mr. Goerend's Classroom. Therefore, below is five of the student's blogs I selected and a very brief summary of what the students blogs were about. All of the student's blogs were very interesting and with great descriptive story telling. Every one did a great job!!

How embarrassment turned into an international holiday was my first post by a student. This student talked about how a guy who dyed his hair and how it did not turn out so well. The next day the guy was sprinting and his hat fell off. of course he was embarrassed and his friend decided to call this day, International Sprint Like a Cheeta Day. His friend did his best to dispel lessen the embarrassment. I think this was a nice short story of how friends help each other out.

For Ashley's blog post,International Act Like a Monkey Day was very interesting and imaginative. Her blog was about a group of friends watching a movie and once it was over, one friend started acting like a monkey. So they went outside and decided to get the neighborhood involved with monkey ways. This is how International Act like a Monkey day was established.I told Ashley to keep up the good work.

For Mason's blog post, The Waukee White Ravens was very likable and interesting. His blog post was the great plays of football game and the different ways the main person in the story helped the team win the game. He goes step by step, listing his the different pieces of his uniform and having pride in his leading of the warm up stretches before the game. I told him to coming with the game details and keep up the good work.

For Zach's blog post, The Waukee Ankney Game was about what's its like to be a fan watching the excitement of the Ankney Hawks win the game. I told Zach that his story was very descriptive and he should always proofread his work.

For Sara's blog post, she talked about the battle scene from Harry Potter's The Deathly Hallows. I told her I am fan of Harry Potter yet, I do not read the books. I also said her good sneak peeks into the book has encouraged me to take a second glance at reading the book.

For anyone who would like to take a look at Mr. Goerend's Classroom Blog, here is the link
Mr. Goerend's Classroom

New Media Literacies

The new media literacy's is a set of skills we as individuals and collectively as a group of people need to function today, versus may be not so twenty years ago.Children are now considered consumer and future developer of media literacy's. Yes, I do think visualization, multitasking, judgement and collective intelligence are needed to better equip individuals today in the media world. Such as mention in the video, if you are doing a research project and you need to make a judgement call as to rather or not some material is reliable or not. Also ask other students and use your PLN to collect intelligence about sites you should stay away from. I think these are some of the skills needed but not all needed to be artists, citizens and workers of the 21st Century.

Our culture of this media environment is changing every week, so we need to catch up and be tune in as much as possible. Of the skills listed, I think a about four of them, I currently possess. The skills specifically, I think I possess are judgement, multitasking, collective intelligence and maybe performance. I think growing up with a computer in the home and having a parent that was technologically literate allowed me to experiment with these skills at a much younger age and enhance these skills as I went on. I have become enthralled with making videos and slide shows for my family which mostly includes taking and using old pictures and videoing at special functions. I would not mind doing a project that included the color images displayed in this video. I just think it would be cool and neat to do such a video as this was. That's the thing about technology and media literacy's, you can not be afraid to learn and explore them. You have to be open minded and know you are going to make some mistakes along the way.


New Media Literacies by NML Staff

The Networked Student by: Wendy Drexler

This video was packed with valuable information about establishing and maintaining a Personal Learning Network(PLN). I think this is another tool used for online learning classes. Just another way to establish without the teacher being present in a classroom and lecturing. This way the student is actually really searching to find the information and dissecting it along the way as he collects.

This was a short and likable video to present this information to us from. The student used the guidance of a teacher to help formulate a curriculum. this student revolved around searching for everything on the Internet. Through PLN, the student made connections with other individuals who had thoughts on his topic and he was able to have a discussion with them through writing on their blogs and so forth.

I am not quite sure, If I am ready to be a networked student. I am so used to having that student-teacher relationship face to face. I think listening and creating podcast would be a good avenue for the student to use in his PLN. Of course using blogging, twitter and facebook also would be beneficial for staying connected for socially and educational purposes as well.


The Networked Student

Richard Miller's This Is How We Dream

At first, I really was not able to follow his talk. The video definitely could have been better and also little more personal by showing his face instead of just hearing his voice. I think Multimedia is fascinating and important in helping students grow and learn. Reading and writing are still important for students to develop the fundamentals of learning effectively. Even though I am fascinated by Multimedia, I do not think educators or parents should ease up on the importance of reading and writing. I think many of us, not purposely have made reading boring, and least relevant based on educators and parents would only enforce reading through a book in a child's face just for academic reasoning, such as for standardized testing.
Reading takes you places that makes dreams exciting, adventurous and even scary at times. Learning to properly place your thoughts in an organized fashion is essential with and without this fast paced technology we face each and every day.
At this point, I do not necessary consider myself prepared to write multimedia. Yet, I will do my best to research and take necessary workshops/classes to prepare myself and introduce it to my students to it as well.

For Richard Miller says"we live in a time that has communication at the speed of a bullet going on every hour around the world. to better prepare our students, stems back to whether or no teachers want to be technologically literate or just stay illiterate. If we as educators are not willing to learn, then we are doing an injustice to our students. Multimedia is something that will need a lot of support from educators and students, yet we all must work together.

Richard Miller's This Is How We Dream

Duke University and Allison Papke's use of ipods in the classroom

This assignment asked us to look for web suggestions or experiences in using iPods in instruction. I first, searched out Duke University's growth in classroom using the iPods, which was a hint given to us to start out with. According to the article, Duke expects 1,200 students to use iPods to enhance classroom materials, lectures or assignments back in 2006. I was very surprised to read that in 2004,Duke distributed free iPods to all first year students for the current academic year and modified it to provide the iPods to undergraduate taking classes that required use of the device. Duke University has said that is goal is to integrate technology broadly into the teaching and learning process. An example, from an economics professor uses the audio component to record her lectures, which students can access and review on their computers or iPods. The instructor calls the iPod "an accessory to the learning process".

My second look at iPods in the class takes from an article about Allison Papke a student in her level 3 practicum stage.The project was based to show how iPods can be used to create an individualized testing experience for students. Papke's says the inspiration for her project was the innovative work done by educators at Louisa-Muscatine Elementary in Letts, Iowa. Basically she put test questions on the iPod and had a voice interaction that would read the questions to the students as many times as needed. This limited the need for pulling the students out of the classroom and allowed them to take the test along with their classmates. Oh, I forgot to mention that this a Special Education student that found a way to make education more enjoyable for special education children without that since of abandonment of being pulled out of the classroom. I think this student came up with a really neat and technological idea to help out her students. This is indeed one the benefits of using iPods and technology in the classroom to help our future students to solve the future problems of tomorrow.

COEDU Spotlight

iTunes University

What is iTunes University purpose? It offers its users the advantage of listening, downloading to the computer and a mobile device. This advantage could be useful in the classroom by the use of science lab demos or the carrying out of an experiment.Now gaining access and listening to some podcast available is free to all. Just simply go the link, www.iTunes.com and download the software.Such universities listed that use iTunes U are Oxford University, Harvard Extension School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Okay, with iTunes U, you could use podcasting or videocasting for viewing or listening to the news, researching topics for class and even conducting an interview.

iTunes U also a range of information that comes from famous museums, universities and other historical and influential organizations around the world. As a student, I use iTunes to listen to different podcast related to helping me understand podcasting, videocasting, and search for audio links about topics discussed in class. Now for the future teacher in me that is yet to come, I can use podcasting for making assignments and helping students that are unable to attend the classrooms a way to still hear my voice and get the daily assignments just like he/she was in the classroom.This just another one of those really technology resources that can help students and teachers bring learning and interest to a higher level for all

iTunesU University
iTunes

Google Earth - Christie Alice

The Google Earth tour was pretty amazing. A picture is indeed worth a thousand words. I encouraged all to check out Dr. Christe's Google Earth tour. A view of the top of St.Petersburg Rome was beautiful. Touring amazing places around the world is definitely a experience we all should take, especially bringing the joy to students in the classroom. Their are a few levels of Google Earth in regards to how much it cost. The first level-Google Earth is a free version, Google Earth Plus cos 20 dollars annually and Google Earth Pro which for commercial use, costs 400 dollars annually as well.

Reading Dr. Christie's site, she says that using google earth in the classroom will open students interest in exploring the world,help visualize and share what they have learned with others and also help enhance map reading and navigation skills.The site also can help the students become creative in how to help the earth's natural resources from being evaporated. Also exposing the students to different environments and visualizing the harmful affects of choices we as a people make, that are not good for our planet.The Google Earth basically could be a good tool for promoting tips and affects of going green and making better decisions.The Google Earth site offers tutorials for teachers and students and a discovery channel link with Google Earth.I really feel this site could offer the students a visual to the phrase many of use, "its whole new world out their waiting to be explore". As we know, keeping students attention and interest is really hard to maintain and Google Earth enhance in succeeding at that, while also being educational developmental for the students.

Dr. Alice Christie