Blog Post # 6

The Networked Student Wendy Drexler
I loved the way this video was done. The irony of the very simple video to talk about the extremely advanced 21st century student made it interesting. The three days spent in the classroom with no book and no lecture were obviously used for instruction on how to build their own personal learning network. This will eventually be used in further research and post from the student that could help others on the same subject he or she may be studying.
It helped me to understand the actual technological tools are not as important as the connections that students are making. The 21st century student has a wide range of connections each one provides a new learning opportunity. New tools are emerging daily. These ultimately help the student to connect with new contacts and learn effectively from the contacts they already have.
The teachers role in this networked learning experience is to instruct. Without someone to instruct it would be like holding a computer in your hands but never turning on the power. All the ability is there but until the power is turned on it is not being utilized. Teachers are a guide,cheerleader, modeler,mediator, and much more. The teacher's main goal should be for their students to take what they have learned and continue to purse fresh knowledge using that to help better our world.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment. Welcome to My PLE

The student starts by telling about her personal learning environment. She tells how she has organized her personal page with her school work across the bottom. She uses this in her science class and daily she goes on science agenda to check out any videos or work that has been posted there. It makes for much more interesting projects when you can use technology. Everything is available to you at the click of the mouse. The resources are endless and the information is abundant. The world is condensed with technology. She talks about even sending her finding for one of her projects to a scientist in Australia. The freedom of how and when to do the assignment is what she most enjoyed. Although many would think this freedom would cause kids to abuse their rights to the internet, but in most cases it causes them to want to be responsible and take pride in their work. They are exercising self regulated learning. Being responsible enough to know how and when to do their work without being told exactly what and when. I think it is great preparation for the future. Self regulated learning will be used throughout the rest of their lives.

Podcast Project 8

C4K Summary

I really enjoyed reading all or the post from the kids. I found it interesting that these other countries are so far ahead of the USA in technology in the classroom. Especially for the elementary aged kids. My first assignment was Pt England School Tuitalau Their school had won first place in rugby in the 2011 Aims Games.They were very excited and had put together some clips of highlights from the week. I posted to them that I had a seven year old son that played football and baseball and loved all sports. I told them I was sure that if rugby was available at his school he would love it. I bragged on their sports and their blogs. I wanted to encourage them to keep on with learning technology and they would be very successful.
My next assignment was Point England School in Auckland, New Zealand Marven His post was also about sports. He blogged about a new game he and his classmates had learned called Aussie Rules. Differing from net ball by instead of passing you hit the ball when it comes to you. He was excited about the new game and even went as far to say it was the best day ever the day he learned to play. I also told him of my son and his love for sports. I also told him how proud and thankful he should feel to have the school and teachers that are giving them a gift of understanding technology in a deeper way than most children have the opportunity to do in school. I bragged on their efforts and encouraged them to keep on pursuing their dreams.

Next was Mariana from Cali Columbia. She was a part of the Student Blogging Challenge. The challenge is to get students to blog and have a worldwide audience instead of just their teacher and classmates. It is comprised of ten weekly task designed to help students with blogging and commenting while connecting to a worldwide audience. Kind of reminds me of a mini version of edm310. I was impressed with Mariana and her creation of an Avatar figure that represented herself and also a Voki. She designed her blog really cute and seemed to really enjoy being challenged and learning new things about technology. The whole thing was very impressive. I looked around the site and viewed some of the challenges from previous times and also all the kids registered for this one from all over the world. AMAZING!! It puts in to perspective just what opportunities are available to our students if we would only open the door.

Time Toast Project 9a

Blog Post #5

Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please? Scott McLeod.

Dr.McLeod is a Associate Professor of Education at the University of Kentucky. He is also the founding director of CASTEL an organization dedicated to the technological needs of school administration. He is widely recognized as one of the nations academic leading experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues.
I found this post very interesting. At first it was a little hard to follow just by the way it was written. But after reading it a few times I think that was done so we would read every word and really think about it. If that was the purpose it worked for me. I have been guilty of saying some of these very things before I started this class. I am thankful that my eyes have been open to a world full of endless opportunities for myself, my own children, and my future students. As I posted to Mr. McLeod I feel fear is what keeps us many times from things. Our lack of knowledge and understanding causes things to be taboo to us and those around us. With the issue of porn and sexual predators on the internet I know that is a real concern. I feel that our kids are targets everywhere. There are some really sick people but they are everywhere not just the internet. I think that is why you should be heavily involved with monitoring your child on or off the computer. Parental controls are great ways to make this a safe zone for our children. We are all students in this life class. I don't want to be the slacker!! I want my kids to see me embracing change, even if that means facing fears or failing at times. They need to see us vulnerable to situations it helps them to know it is okay to fall as long as we get back up.
iSchool Initiative Travis Allen

He started with a interesting question"Does technology belong in our classroom?" That seems to be the question of the hour. His presentation about the ischool was very enlightening to me. I have never really considered the positive benefits for our environment. I also found it unbelievable all the things that can already be accessed on the ischool. One of the most interesting to me was having the text book and library book available at all times. Of course all the perks for parents interest me. I think it would be wonderful to be able to monitor my children anytime and keep up with school events and due dates for classes all at my fingertips. I think if this was to ever be teachers as well as students would have to step up their game so to speak. Imagine being able to record every word that comes out of a teachers mouth in the classroom. I am sure some of the tones and dialect would change in the classroom. I also think students would be held to a higher standard with no tolerance for missing assignments and no more excuses. Even if you are absent you have so much opportunity with this to get your assignment and even actually hear your teacher give the missed lecture. I liked what he said about our kids thriving in the 21st century. We will have to rethink, retool, and rebuild our educational institutions to better prepare our youth for the digital world. Zeltgeist Young Minds
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir Jennifer Chambers Post

WOW!! That was truly amazing. I have showed everyone who will watch this video. The ensemble of 185 people from 12 different countries was unreal. I did not know what to expect when I first started watching this but the more I watched the more engrossed I became in the beautiful harmonies of all the voices. It made me think just how fortunate we are to live in this age of technology. We must embrace it and put all these advantages we have to good use. For the betterment of our world and the people in it. Thank you Jennifer Chambers for sharing.

Teaching in the 21st Century Kevin Roberts
I think Mr. Roberts sees teachers as more of an assistant to students than a teacher. Students should not be viewed as blank slates with nothing to offer anymore. In the more teacher centered approach to teaching students were the empty buckets and the teachers were the only pitcher in which they could be filled by. Roberts sees the more student centered approach to teaching were students have their own unique traits and knowledge to contribute, and we should help them along in this journey. He has more of a progressivsm and constructivism points of view. He is to the 21st century what John Dewey was to the 19th century. I know many think these ideas toward education are all new because of technology but John Dewey had many of the same ideas and expressed them in his writings My Pedagogic Creed in 1897. Using a quote from this he says"I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself."(Dewey's Pedagogic Creed) This was 1897 and we are still fighting this fight now. Of course the stimulation of their day was much different than ours but the concept remains the same. Dewey also points out what he thinks the position of the teacher is he says "The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child,but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences."(Dewey's Pedagogic Creed)I wonder how Dewey would feel today looking at our educational system? It really has not changed much for some. Many schools and teachers still have the more traditional teacher centered approach to teaching. I hope Roberts is right and education does change to more of a student centered social institution with teachers cheering students on guiding them in the best possible way for their future endeavors.

Blog Post #4

I checked out all the websites listed and found a lot of helpful information. The following is a summary on the three that I found most interesting and helpful for my future podcast assignment.
Eagles Nest Radio and Class Blog

This was great, I was amazed at these third graders and their ability to broadcast the way they did. There were a few that have a good radio or television voice. They could really have a future in broadcasting. They basically summarized times, important people and events of ancient Rome.
I loved the way they tied it all together and threw a little humor in here and there to keep you wanting to listen. I learned a lot from listening. This was the first podcast I had ever listened to and I liked how they changed the music and the emotion in their voices to go along with what was being said. That could be something I would incorporate into my own podcast.
The Benefits of Podcasting in the classroom
Joe Dale

He basically summarized some benefits of podcasting in the classroom. Some of the benefits for students were that if they are absent they could still get their assignments or hear a lecture they may have missed that day. Also it gives the students a chance to explore their own creative ability, and a higher order of thinking. They have the chance to role play and make the characters they are portraying more interesting. The opportunity to learn how to do these podcast are also beneficial to the student the ability to process, create and upload audio files is part of what they learn to do. The advantages for parents are that they are able to monitor what their child is doing at school by hearing or seeing the information. The benefits for the teacher would be that it is an effective way to communicate with students outside of the classroom. It allows teachers to use a form of learning that is familiar to the student. At the end he listed a helpful link to How to Podcast This will be helpful to me in my own podcast not only by using his helpful material but also by accessing the links he provided to help better understand the process of creating a podcast.
The Educational Podcast Network
This website was informative and easy to follow. It basically walks you through the steps to creating your podcast. It had easily accessible tabs labeled "What is a Podcast?" and “How Do I?" I enjoyed listening to the class podcast. I especially enjoyed the elementary school age kid’s ones. It is so amazing how kids soak up information and knowledge and apply it. They have no fear of failure they just jump right in. I LOVE IT!!! I also loved the slogan posted on the website "We are a multicast society of speakers and listeners, listeners and speakers, teaching and learning, in a life and a time of change." So true we must realize there will be opportunity to speak and to listen to teach and to learn. I think we must be sensitive to this time we live in so that we may never miss an opportunity to do any of these things.

My Sentence Video Project #6

Blog Assignment #3

It's Not About the Technology Kelly Hines
In this blog Kelly Hines talks about 4 things every teacher must recognize.(In her opinion)
The first thing she says which I wholeheartedly agree with, is teachers must be learners. We must all be lifelong learners. I feel for kids to respect us and learn from us they have to see us learning from others. We cant be afraid to learn. Her second point was learning and teaching are not the same thing. Her philosophy for the 21st century teacher was working smarter not harder. She made a good point that if no one learns no matter how much effort has been exerted no teaching has been done. It makes you think maybe sometimes we go about teaching in the wrong way. I know for myself I've always felt the more I "Do" the better I am. Not always so.Sometimes all our efforts are in vain if we cant get our point across. If no one has learned anything when we are done what has all our effort been for?
Her third point was technology is useless without good teaching.I can see what she means here. I have witnessed this in the classroom. What good does it do any of us to have smart boards and computers if the educators don't know how to use them properly. We need to make the ost of what we have been given. You have to have a willingness to learn. The last point was how could you be a 21st century teacher without the technology? I loved what she said "teachers teach with learning in mind." If we all took the time to think on this we would change our approach to our students. How do they learn? How do I reach them? Most kids sit in front of a game system,t.v., or a computer in their time away from school, and then we cant understand when we doing our lesson on the chalkboard why student attention span is so short? Their senses are intrigued by technology they need more to learn, do they have to have it. I think that is the question.

Is It Okay to be Technologically Illiterate Teacher? Karl Fisch
Mr. Fisch brought to light many issues facing our teachers, schools, and families today. His thoughts were basically that all educators should have a basic knowledge of technology and if you did not you and your superiors should be embarrassed and they should be held accountable for those under them being educated in theses areas. I totally agreed with some portions of the blog but I like many others that left comments did not see eye to eye on some of the issues. I understand his take on a lot of issues and it all sounds good but when you start bringing it home to your own reality it changes somewhat. Here is my situation. My son is 7 yrs old he has the same second grade teacher that I had 23 year ago (mind you in a public school). My thing is should she be embarrassed or ashamed because she can't blog, tweet, or access certain materials on the internet? Should her legacy of giving of herself to see the enrichment of children's lives be taken from her because she is not willing to move with the times? Should I be concerned as a parent that my child is being shorted in his education because he has a veteran teacher rather than a new recruit? Isn't it funny how things change? When I was young your parents always wanted you to have the old teacher that was full of wisdom, now parents are almost disappointed when they are told that their child has an older teacher. Parents are wanting the new teachers who have had the training and know the newest technology to give their child the best learning experience possible. Have we lost respect and honor for the veteran teachers who paved the way for us? Their were many obstacles and hard times these have endured when I am certain that the last thing on their minds at the end of those hard days was blogging about it when they got home.I am not trying to sound unconcerned with new technology I think it is a vital part of learning. I am just not sure exactly where I stand on all the issues that surround it in the classroom.I do agree that all schools and universities should be producing technologically literate students. Without that it is almost impossible these days to achieve good employment.I certainly think he made some valid points. Many that I will ponder and analyze in my own life. I will also say that I think any new teachers being hired should meet these requirements of being technologically literate, I just dont know exactly how I feel about others being forced to become technologically literate.

Why do you think no one RSVP'D?? Too Busy Maybe??
Social Media Count Gary Hayes
The facts and numbers he gives on this blog were astounding.When you really sit and think about all the time and energy taken toward these things it is mind blowing. Ninety million tweets per day, come on do you realize how much is ninety million??? That is unreal!! One hundred seven trillion emails sent in the year 2010. That is a lot of computer time. Our life is basically spent on some kind of device our computer, i phone, i pad, or something equivalent to those. I know people who cant go a day without texting or emailing someone. My parents have a house on the river and you cant get any phone service there. I love it!! We actually go and TALK to each other. We laugh and play games like cards (with actual cards), or sit around the fire and listen to my dad tell old stories or my whole family sing. I don't want my kids to loose that tradition because they cant get cell phone service. My brother is so addicted to his phone when we go every so often he has to drive back out to the main highway to check his messages. Not because work may be calling or something legit like that just because he cant live without texting for one day. UGH!! It makes me really mad to see people like this. Sorry if you are one of those people but I am happy to turn off my phone for a day and enjoy my family.For me technology is a part of my life that I am thankful for, but is not my life. I would survive without it.

A Vision of Students
Michael Wesh
His video was of a college classroom with the help of the students from Kansas State University they captured a students point of view. They told some honest truths to what students really do in class, how much they really retain, and how some don't really care. Some shared their hopes and dreams of what they would become, others were not engaged in the classroom often using their laptops for social networking instead of an educational tool during the class time. The pen and paper generation is slowly fading. I guess I was oblivious to this before I started back to school. I thought I was socially aware of the times but I was far from it. This class along with all the resources we have already been introduced to has shown me where we are and where we are headed in the future. Like the students in the film a lot of things will follow me when I am done, debt from student loans being one of the big ones on my mind. I am married with a family some of my reasoning for returning to school was so I could contribute more financially. I like many others will have to pay back my student loans before I feel like I am able to truly do that. Some of the interesting information was how much time they spent on the phone or listening to music or on face book. I don't have time for any of those things. I think since I have started this class this is the most time I have ever spent on the computer. In these past few weeks I have spent more time on the computer for this class than I have spent in my whole total life. The student today is different from the student yesterday. That is why it is important that teachers be ever increasing in knowledge so we can be ready for the student of tomorrow.

Project #5

C4T Summary #1

My assigned teacher was Jenny Luca from Melbourne, Austraila. At the begging of her blog she had a short video http://www.youtube.com/ImprovEverywhere called Say Something Nice. A megaphone was set up on a podium with a name plate that simply said say something nice. The video showed random people stopping to say something or sing something. In my comment I left to Mrs. Luca I talked about how we never know what ear a nice word may fall on. It could be meaningless to us but crucial to another. That's one thing that wont cost you a thing, just say something nice.

In the body of her blog she wrote about writing a post for VLFR blog http://plpnetwork.com/2011/08/26/5-reasons-why-our-students-are-writing-blogs-and-creating-eportfolios/. I followed the link and read the article. She covered five to six reasons why writing blogs and creating portfolios were important to students. She wrote of leaving positive digital footprints for their future. She also told of how the students were learning to communicate with digital tools, helping them to understand the language of the internet. As I commented to her one of the most interesting to me was her comments on the transparency for parents and families. I had never thought of it in this way almost a digital scrapbook. Students can look back over there academic years and times in their lives at their comments and the comments of their friends and family. She also talked about schooling her students on effective digital citizenship and how to conduct themselves in digital space. I feel this is much needed since many children take advantage of the social networking and use it for harm rather than good. As I parent I hope these technological advancements will be available for my kids when the time comes. I want for them what every parent wants for them to be able to experience life to the fullest.
In the second blog post I commented on she was explaining why there school was paying for Ning. Ning is a social networking site that the school had used previously with their students for free, but had stopped using in the past few years because they started charging. She blogged that they had tried other sites with unsatisfactory results and decided for this year they would spend the $239 dollars to use the Ning.They used this with 8th grade students over a weeks time with the subject of triumphing over adversity. The students are able to form groups and chat after school hours,and they could also communicate and archive evidence of their research. She excitedly reported that after giving the students their first assignment to be posted on the site most of them immediately completed the assignment and started receiving feedback from other students and teachers to help them along with their topics. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for these students and makes learning more interesting. The Ning may have cost $239 but what they are giving to these students is priceless.

Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know? 3.0, Carl Fisch & Scott McLeod, Did You Know 3.0

This video gave staggering information about technology and its effects on societies and people all over the world. I was shocked to see that the U.S. was #19 on the ranked list of broadband internet penetration. There was a lot of interesting information like the total number of text message sent and received everyday exceeds the population of the planet. WOW, I just hope people aren't driving while sending these. There are over 31 billion searches on google every month and in 2006 it was only 2.7 billion. What a difference 5 years can make in the technology scope of things. It spoke of students pursuing a 4 year technology degree, and because of the technical information doubling every 2 yrs the information learned in their first year would already be outdated before they could earn their degree.
Although all the information was very interesting I would have to say the information about the super computer being built by 2013 that will exceed the computation of the human brain really shook me. Then in the next frame the prediction of the computer that that will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species. I cant fathom it my grandparents were alive when you walked to school and it wasn't because they were going green it was there only mode of transport because there daddy had the horse. They are still alive and what do they think of our world today? Is it really a good thing that technology will exceed all human capabilities,I don't really know the answer to that.
Mr.Winkle Wakes, Matthew Needelman, Mr. Winkle Wakes
This video was an interesting look at how people and our surrounding change in a 100 year period. Mr. Winkle saw and heard things that were different and new to him. How things around us change even more so now than before with our technology.
The disheartening thing for me was Mr. Winkle feeling comfortable in the school. He saw familiar things. The methods of teaching had not changed. This tells me that our educators need to be taught and trained in technology more. They are teaching our children our future how to ultimately be successful in life. Without knowledge of our technologically increasing world reaching that goal may be only a dream. Maybe some explanation for this would be some educators are reluctant to try something new. Never stop learning should be what we live to do. We are always learning new things so they can learn new thing. We cant let fear can keep us from advancement.
Importance of Creativity , Sir Ken Robinson, The Importance Of Creativity
I loved this guy. His speech was humorous and informative. I love someone who can laugh at their own jokes, and this guy cracked himself up. The speech made me think about creativity on a whole new level. The story of the choreographer who was labeled by the school as having a learning disability but when put in the right setting flourished was thought provoking. I started thinking a whole generation of children has been medicated rather than evaluated.
I agree with Sir Robinson when he said all kids have tremendous talent and they are not afraid to be wrong. The educational system is telling them a mistake is the worse thing you can do. We live and learn. Mistakes are apart of finding your way in life, some mistakes turn out to be blessings. I think we all make mistakes and maybe one big one is how our educational system defines academic ability to equal intelligence. There are all kinds of ways to express intelligence book smarts is just one of many. I think an interesting study would be to take one classroom full of students and really evaluate each child. Find out what works for them and try to accommodate those needs. I am sure that class would thrive. With the way school is set up now there is no time even in elementary grades to incorporate creative activity. All the time is focused on academics.Creativity is a big part of our lives. He said imagination was a gift. Maybe we should reopen that gift and rediscover that fearless child within.
Cecelia Gault Interviews Sir Ken Robinson, Recommended by Laura Scott, ,Laura's Blog Post, Scholastic Article
I thought the young girls interview with Sir Robinson was interesting and thought provoking. When asked about what needed to change in education I was glad to hear him say there needed to be a stronger link between school and community. I certainly think that community could help to enhance children's creative abilities even if the school never steps up in these areas. Examples of what I mean would be things such as community theater or free art or dance classes. Recreation centers that are available to kids of all ages with more than just sports offered. As he broke down myths of creativity I found myself breaking down stereotypes that were in my mind about only a select few having creative talents and abilities.
I think we were all created with wonderful creative abilities, attributes and talents. What we do with those things is completely up to us.
Harness Your Students Digital Smarts, Vicki Davis, Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
I thought it was great to see a teacher who was willing to put herself out there to teach students thins she was not even totally sure how to do. That shows a vulnerable side to a teacher that students aren't allowed to see always, but sometimes need to see. I think it proves that we are all lifelong learners and technology is ever changing so we couldn't possibly know everything about it.Her students are having opportunities to experience and learn new things with people all over the world. It helps for a small town like she lives in to see a broader scope of the world and gives students a look at endless possibilities to life. Technology empowers them to think outside the box and experience life in a new way.