My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

Hello fellow classmates!! I really don't know any of you but I wish y'all luck on your finals and have a great Christmas holiday!!

What I've Learned in This Class

I have learned so many new things in this class. One of my brothers has a BA in computer info so he's always kept me pretty up-to-date on a lot of things dealing with computers but he never taught me how to make a website or do spreadsheets or make my own blog like I learned to do in here. The website assignment was a lot of fun and I might even add to it when the class is over. I enjoyed this class and feel I've gained some knowledge that will help me later on in my career.

Blog Contest/ June

My birthday month is June so the blog I am to write about is the sixth contest blog which is about Alexander Russo's, Edweek.org. Russo's blogs are completely dedicated to informing educators and students of the worldly news that involves education. The blog also includes articles from several different education based magazines from around the globe.
I think this blog would be useful to obviously anyone in the teaching field but also to those who are just interested in what is going on in regards to education. Edweek.org is completely non-profit which I think is very respectable. there really isn't one main idea in this blog that I can point out because it is a jumble of different issues all dealing with education and all equally important and interesting.
This is the blog that I visited.

iTunes University

iTunes University is a new site created by Apple. It is a site that allows college and university faculty to upload classroom and lecture material to their school's assigned iTunes site. Registered students can then use their iPods to download the audio and then they have that information to use as a guide when studying for exams or doing homework. It is basically a more modern version of using taperecorders in class.
If I were a teacher I do think this would be a pretty helpful teaching tool. It would save a lot of lecture time and ensure that every student would have access to the classroom material even if they missed a lecture or two.

iTune U website

Ipods/ Duke University

Ipods, believe it or not, are quickly becoming an important tool for higher learning. Duke University has recently been allowing their students to use their Ipods and are calling it their Fall 07 iPod project. According to the Duke Digital Initiative webpage, "Handheld devices can be used to record student discussion sessions or tutoring sessions, and use podcasts to share comments and summaries to discussions. This function can be used for various subjects, e.g. Education, Writing, Philosophy, Information Science, etc."
The Duke website also states, "Duke University provides recordings of textbook materials, journals, songs, music, vocabulary, novels, stories, poems, radio programs, subscribed podcasts distributed by media source, oral history interviews, authentic speeches by notable figures, congressional debates, etc. These listening materials can be widely used for subjects such as Foreign Languages, History, Politics, Writing, Arts, Music." Students have written comments that the new iPod policy has greatly helped in their studies.
As for me personally I don't know if I'm such a big fan of the iPod in the classroom idea. I'm sure it is a great tool for recording audio and lecture but at the same time I think it could become a big distraction to the students. Students could become tempted to just listen to music or play games rather than listen to lecture. I'm not sure if I would be thrilled with the idea if I had my own classroom.

Seymour Papert

Seymour Papert is a man who has contributed so much in the ways of online learning and teaching. He studied under Jean Piaget and is a research associate and director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. He is one of the main creators of Logo which is an online learning agent. Papert also co-founded the Logo Foundation which sets out to increase knowledge and learning in children.

Papert wrote two books, "Mindstorms:Children Computers and Powerful Ideas" and "The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer" which are all about children using technology to aid learning. Besides these two books, Papert has also written many articles and journals in his many different fields. The most helpful website that I found was: http://www.papert.org/

International Blogging

The first school I found is Westhoughton High School in the UK. Both the students and teachers at Westhoughton use blogs to communicate with eachother and also to keep their work organized. There is a master blog and the students and teachers each one.
http://www.westhoughton-high.bolton.sch.uk/departments/designtechnology/designtechnology.php#links



The next school I found that regularly uses blogs is Hope CE Primary School in Shropshire. This school uses the blog as more of a communication tool rather than for educational purposes, although they do use it for that too. The master blog has blogging rules displayed that when followed will protect those who blog. This is their website:
http://hopeblog.ethink.org.uk/our-blog-rules/

Disney World

Profile Picture Changed to Black & White

Profile Picture Changed to Sepia

Blogs in the Classroom

Technology is changing everyday and as it does teachers are given new options in the classroom. More and more schools are involving blogs in their classrooms because of the many benefits it has for the students. One of the benefits of using blogs in the classroom is that it significantly increases communication between teachers and their students. Students who are tend to be quiet in class will feel more comfortable asking questions or speaking up in discussions through their blogs. Also, because it is done on a computer, some students will be more willing to do their assignments and might even be more thorough.
Blogs provide students an easier way to manage their school work and stay organized. Teachers can post assignments so that students will always have a way to find out what they should be working on for class.

ACCESS

ACCESS, which stands for Alabama Connecting Classroom Educators and Students Statewide, is a new online tool that will improve distance learning for both teachers and students all over Alabama. It provides many different courses such as AP courses, courses for students who are dually enrolled, "Advanced Diploma" and many other state approved courses, even electives. ACCESS is approved and supported by many of the head officials in the state of Alabama. For public school students, there is no fee to use ACCESS and it will be a great form of communication between different schools, teachers, students, and parents. There will be actual trained and educated E-teachers to provide lessons and offer help to the students. This is a great new technology and I can foresee it becoming a commonly used program in the years ahead.

ALEX in the classroom

As an education major I can definitely see ALEX as being a great help in the classroom. It is full of suggestions and material for teachers to use with their students. In the past, teachers had to go to workshops and read professional journals to get the most recent ideas in teaching. Now, with programs like ALEX, teachers learn all of the same things with the click of a mouse. Not only does ALEX help teachers with lesson plans but it also has a "Personal Workspace" option. It has links to different websites for the Alabama Department of Education that teachers can access to read up on the latest teaching strategies. Overall, I think ALEX is going to become very important to the world of teaching very soon.

Adding Links and Pictures

First we will review the methods for creating a link. Our link will be to The Fischbowl , a blog for technology training used at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, CO.

Here is a picture from Arapahoe High School

YouTube Video

I just watched the You Tube video about the future and all I have to say is....WOW. I never realised how much and how fast everything is changing these days. The fact that a lot of what we are learning in college right now will be obsolete by the time we are juniors really hit home for me, considering I AM a junior. It's just so crazy to think that one day there will be technology that is more capable than the human race. The whole video just gave me a new perspective on things, for sure.

ALEX

The Alabama Learning Exchange, also known as ALEX, is an online learning/teaching resource for teachers, parents, and students provided by the Alabama Department of Education. When you first go to the ALEX website you are presented with eight boxed options: Courses of Study, Web Links, Lessons Plans, Search, Personal Workplace, Professional Learning, Distance Learning, and Help.
All of these links are useful to new teachers in need of ideas and also to parents to find ways to help their child in school by better understanding what they are learning in the classroom. Educators from all around are able to access the page and give their own opinions on how to improve the site. This is a great help to Alabama teachers because it provides new fresh ideas on things to incorporate in the classroom.

Raining

As you can tell by my title, it is raining outside and has been ever since I woke up this morning. This and some other factors have led to this being a pretty crappy day. The main crappy thing that happened today is that after my first class in the UCOM I had 15 minutes to get to my next class in the HUM building. Well, because USA decided to let too many students join the university this semester, I had to once again drive around for 20 minutes looking for somewhere to park. My class had already started as I was searching and finally after having been cut off twice and still not seeing any spots I decided to just come home.

Sitting in Class

Today is Monday and I am sitting in my computer class typing this blog. I'm really tired because I was up until five o'clock this morning reading for another class. I think when I go home I will take a shower and go straight to bed.