Reflecting back...

Not very often have I ever said that I would actually miss a class. This class was probably one of the most fun classes I have ever had. The information we learned will help me for the rest of my life, and overall has helped me to better myself as far as my other classes are concerned. The class introduced new technologies to me, and helped save me much headache this current semester and for future ones. This course was a relief from the tedious brain cramming that college courses generally are. I will miss this class mostly because it was so much fun

I loved learning about making podcasts, using google docs, and learning how to blog.

1)Podcasts: I believe that this had to be the best part of the course, and I thoughly enjoyed making them. I believe that we should have encouraged more group work, and that this gave me some fun during classes.

2)Google docs: These programs helped me to save alot of time and headache over jump drives and harddrive space on my computer. I have been using them for every assignment I have to turn in, since I learned about them. I guarentee you that after the next semesters I will have my project list on it overflowing.

3)Blogging: Until this class, I had never wanted to or knew how to blog about anything. Before this class, I always thought that blogging was well kinda...nerdy and such. Now I have a different perspective upon blogging, and thoughly enjoyed it. I hope to be able to use blog's in my classSPACE when I start my teaching.

Overall, this class has helped me to improve myself, and was quite enjoyable as well. I would recommend this class to everyone, and honestly think that it should be a General Studies for every major, not just education ones, because it teaches about technologies that will help everyone in the professional world, as well as in college. Professor Tashbin helped all of us to better ourselves through his teaching of this class.

Podcast listening

Podcasts can be useful tools for teaching, and I listened to a couple podcasts earlier that I think really helped me to better understand not only them, but the tools they talked about.

Can Teachertube be useful to teachers
The students talking during this podcast discussed the website teachertube.com. This website is a useful tool according to them because it shows videos for use in the classroom, and helps students that are visual learner's. This also helps to cut down on sensual overload during teaching. I believe that this tool will help me in the future because of videos about say... presidents or historical events.


Using Video Games as an Educational Tool
Contrary to what many people think, video games are actually good for children because they help children to work together and to learn better. Students enjoy video games in classroom because they are interactive and more fun than having a teacher sit there and tell you what to read or write about. Personally, I have played many video games and have actually benefited from them because they were competive against my friends or just random people, and because many of them challenge your mind to use skills that are useful in the classroom as well. Microsoft creates low-cost video games that are only sold to the schools themselves, not the public. However; teachers, parents, and school official's are mostly not on board with the idea of using video games as educational tools.

Response to "Txting away ur education"

Wow, it seems to me that some people just have to much time on their hands. I have personally never had any trouble keeping my attention on my studies while texting. Maybe instead of creating such mass hysteria over something so trivial they should focus on the real issue; that is teaching students to manage their lives more effectively and to maintain attention.

Multi-tasking is something I was taught at a young age, and should honestly be something taught in a classroom setting because once an individual is put out in the real world they will be expected to handle many different things at once. It seems to me that these people writing the article have their own personal biases (like us all) to deal with; however, they only look at the issue from one perspective. I happened to notice almost no reference to the good these technologies have brought forward. These devices are only distractions if you allow them to be; no one say's you have to answer immediately or in the middle of class. Have I done this before? Of course I have, although I also sometimes don't answer right away, and if they get annoyed by my lack of response I put my phone on airplane mode or I block their number temporarily. The way I see the "issue" of cell phones in schools is that this is just another ploy by the government to privy into our private lives. This is just another action similiar to what the FCC would do. Teach some self control, not communist control.

Optimism is important

Mr. McClung's blog post about being an Optimist is rather inspiring and truthful. I for one was labeled as a "trouble-maker" and "worthless trash" by some of my teachers, and yet I have succeeded on graduating highschool with a C average; however, I qualified and received a Bay Area Scholorship, got into South Alabama, and have made the Dean's list 3 semester's in a row. Despite what I was told about my future by some educators, I have overcame their expectations. This post goes back to what my previous teacher, Dr. Juarez, taught me about Education as a practice of freedom dreams. If we continue to fill in these simple roles of what a student can or cannot do; we continue a cycle of neglect, racism, and mistreatment of students that has been going on for many years.

Brave things; why I love teaching; and why my school is unique

After reading these articles, I feel more excited to graduate and get out in the schools. I know that there will be some low spots and then some of the greatest high spots; however, As the teacher who wrote the 10 reasons as a reminder of why she loved teaching, so shall I. The closer I get, the more anxious I get to hurry up and do what I want to do. As such I have decided to add my own spin to these articles.

Brave #6: I would push for every student to have a computer provided by the school while they are in attendance at class. Technology is a rapidly important tool that needs to be used in everyone's daily life; however, not all children are fortunate enough to have access to these advancements. I would want everyone to have an opportunity to advance further.

Reason I love teaching: The love and care I receive from my students because of all I do to help further them. Throughout my life, just the look of appreciation I receive from anyone I help makes it all worth it in the end.

One thing that would be unique about my classroom is that all of my classes would be interlinked; I would have them keep blogs and respond to other students from other classes. All of my students would gain the opportunity to communicate with those from other classes

Response to Dr.Stranges "From the 3R's to the 6C's"

All I have to say is about darn time. Finally, someone who breaks away from that simplistic approach to American education. Even while I was in school, I hated teachers that only cared about what you had to know to pass the tests. Not very often would I have an instructor that would incorporate other classrooms, or one that would challenge you to be creative. It was always "Do this or do that or you can just fail." At times it made school seem like a prison almost. Many of the teacher's I had flipped out when you "wasted" class time with "unimportant" questions; instead of using them as a tool to teach from. Technology is always changing, and so is it's usefulness. Much of it is still Greek to me, but I am gaining more and more knowledge as I advance.

Response to "No "Burp Back" Education"

Wow, just wow. Dr. Strange hit one of the most annoying things a lot of teacher's do on the head. I have no idea just how many times teacher's have assigned me this section of reading, and then never used it after the next class period. I have always found that group work, discussions/debate's, and activities that actually make me and the other students think about why it is important, rather than just writting it down as a side note of the lecture, are the things I remember and understand the most.

I have to agree completely with Dr. Strange on this subject matter. Part of the reason I want to become a teacher is so that I can give my students the kind of education they deserve, and not so much of the "schooling" that we all recieve. Most of all though I have always thought we need more dedicated educators that do just what Dr. Strange said.

Blog's being used in Scotland

Sandaig Primary School uses school wide blogging in the classroom. The website has tons of different blogs and assignments that the students and clubs have done at the school. It has pictures and posts about all the gardening work it's students have done around the school to improve it. It has blog posts about the use of laptops for each of its students. Overall it is a wonderful use of blogs as an interactive tool for all students. The link i used was http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/pivot/index.php

Teacher in Missouri uses blogs in science class

Mr. C, a teacher at Noel Elementary in Missouri uses class blogs as part of his Science class. He has his class use the blog to discuss their science projects. He uses it as a forum to discuss the experiments they did in class. His students make videos of their comments about the assignments and reports. He even had them each make their own cartoon characters, and other fun projects. The Link i read this blog story at was http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Teacher in Colorado using blog's in classroom

The teacher I read about; Mr. Miller effectively uses blogging as part of his English 10 curriculum. He has his students post blog posts about there readings and writing assignment's for the class. He uses them as a discussion forum for the class, and allows the students to converse about the subjects. Mr. Miller gives the students writing assignments and has them blog about them, similiar to the Journals my teachers made me keep. The website I read this on was http://millersenglish10.blogspot.com/search/label/english%2010

"HP Reveals Memristor, The Fourth Passive Circuit Element"

HP recently released information about their perfection of the theorized fourth circuitry element. Up until this discovery, the three primary elements were resistors, capacitors, and inductors. This Memristor as it is called, would allow information to be stored and picked right back up where you left it when the computer is turned off. It stores the current in it and by changing its resistance maintains memory of data. What this means is much less lost data because it is stored in exactly the same place as when power was lost.

This product will also speed up computer even further because this technology actually improves as it scales down. Unlike transistors there is no extra heat when scaled down in size. Also HP has tested the amount of memory these can store, which was roughly 100 gbits on a single die, while currently used flash memory chips is around 16 gbits.

I was amazed when i found this article about this new technology. I am impressed and can not wait til this technology goes mainstream. This will revolutionize the memory systems for computers. I can not see any faults so far in this technology. I have got to hand it to HP for this ground-breaking discovery of theres.

Response to "Google plans to make PCs history"

This article I read is centered upon the GDrive that is being developed by Google. This program would allow anyone to access their personal information from any computer in the world. Instead of using the microsoft windows operating system, all information would be saved on a huge server owned by Google. This could be both good and bad for consumers, and as such is the object of much debate.

Behind this idea lies two schools of thought toward it. GDrive could be beneficial because of the ease of access, less hassle involved in it, and overall would help to prevent data loss due to computer errors or crashes. GDrive could also be bad because everything is stored by Google, and if anything happened to that server then all of our information would be lost as well. Also, there is a certain amount of privacy lost because everything would be ran under Google's nose. Anything could be turned over to the government to be used as seen fit.

I personally like the idea of being able to access my computer from any computer; however, I also see some of the disadvantages to this approach. Not only would it give the multinational corporation more power, it would be most likely a violation of our rights. Ultimately, I believe that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Response to "Changing the way we think"

This article is intriguing because it asks the question of whether current technologies, like Google and other search engines, are causing us to actually lose intelligence. Information falls upon both sides of the fence in this debate. Use of modern day search engines causes us to not have to look through major lists of sources, and allows us to find major sources rather easily. Irronically, because of this benefit our brains actually lose connections over time because we are not using it as much.

Today, many people use the internet simply for online sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.; instead of reading other materials. Onliine reading does not encourage reading off of pages, however different forms of literacy are bound to show up as technology and people advance's forward. Today's online social networks are being equated as a defining part of our culture.

Overall, I felt that this article was interesting because it challenges your own way of thinking. Before reading this article, I never even thought about how use of technologies and search engines could affect your brains compacity. I happen to fall on the side that argues for these programs because I happen to believe they helped maintain brain cells for me. The ease of finding sources they brought around allows me to easily gather books and articles.

ACCESS

I recently reviewed an online program titled ACCESS which is an online learning program for both students and teachers. It offers many advantages to teachers in each program. I was rather impressed with alot of the programs it offers. It also includes funding for many different technologies. Overall, I found it to be very professional in its approach to combining online sources with actual classroom learning.

Teachers will find this helpful because it provides much support for teachers, and statistically it has benefited students greatly. It will teach both students and teachers 21st century skills, and provides grants for schools to incorporate these programs. The program seems like it could only benefit schools, while not diminishing any aspect of the school.

I see that this program could ultimately help me to better educate my students. Teachers in general need to be able to use current technologies to their greatest ability.

ALEX

After reviewing the resources available to teachers through this website, I have came to a conclusion about the usefullness of this website. Many resources are available online from this program, including entire lesson plans and links to useful media for classrooms. I started by searching under the courses of study link, and then used it to find many potentional lesson plans for each of the standards in Alabama.

Also, this website is readily available to anyone who needs help with lesson plans. Students tend to learn more when they get to use computers and online technologies in the classrooms. This website also includes item for special education, learning english as a second languague, and many other professional learnings. If you make your own account, you gain a personal workspace.

Ultimately, I believe this website would be very useful overall when I become a teacher. It could provide me with sample lesson plans for each of the standards; as well as contributing me with tons of links to online resources. I think that using some of the tried and true methods in its lesson plans will ultimately help me to achieve my goal as a teacher.

First posting

Whats up everyone? Welcome to my blog for my Summer Education Class over at the University of South Alabama. So far this seems like an interesting class. Stay tuned for more exciting updates