C4T

My latest C4T post was towards a teacher named Beth Knittle. She told about her experience with a digital communication game known as Second Life or SL. Apparently she eventually became friends with many other users of the site but became maybe somewhat indulged in the game to the point it took up enough time to affect her non digital life.

She then spotted using SL or severely limited her time spent on SL but as a side effect misses some of the friends she made. My comment was more of a suggestion since I do not know much about Second Life. But I stated that it is good to keep in touch with her friends and maybe try and set up a meeting to catch up with some of them in person. She did comment back and informed me that she is now able to keep in touch with some of her friends made using the game and that they do but rarely hold a SL conference now. But she says her best experience with SL is being able to connect with teachers over the world and she has become richer from the experience.

Blog #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate:

In Mr. Bloom’s short video he distinguishes the difference between teaching and educating. In his movie he defines an educator as someone who has the power to inspire drive people. A good educator must have good leadership qualities to make people aspire to be as motivated and driven to reach their goals much like you did. On the other hand he defines a teacher as one who just throws facts and information out in hopes that the listener soaks up as much as they can.

Of course everyone who is becoming a teacher wants to strive to become a good educator. We have all sat in a class at one point and found ourselves paying attention and actively participating in debates and talks just because we wanted to. When you find yourself in these situations pay attention to that teacher's teaching style because they are in fact doing their job to their potential of being a good educator. We have also all been in classrooms purely based on non enthusiastic lectures and find ourselves staring at the clock rather than attempting to indulge in the lesson just because of the torture of listening. Even at the time we tell ourselves that there is no way that we will end up like that so we need to make sure we retain our old motivation and strive to do our best.

Don’t Let Them Take The Pencils Home:

Tom Johnson made this post to educate us to not hinder our students learning potentials. Parents, teachers, and administrators alike can all put fear in a child that distracts them from their natural ability to learn. Johnson’s post also shows how a teacher, Gertrude, thinks that letting students take pencils will cause more problems than benefits. She thinks that the students will just use the pencils for unsuitable games or not at all. By Gertrude so focused on problems possible related to letting the students take the pencils home she is creating a problem herself. She is limiting the resources her students have which is limiting their potential. If you spend all of your time focusing on the bad you make it hard to notice all the good that comes from situations. Perhaps some of her students would maximize their potential with the opportunity.

The key to limiting problems is to anticipate them so you can put solutions out in advance. Addressing problems will just be part of being a teacher. So a good educator will show the guidelines and benefits to students before allowing students to do something. In other words just pave the road to allow students to correctly achieve their goals.

Blog #9

In Mr. McClung’s first post entitled “What I’ve Learned This Year 2008-2009”, I actually learned more about teaching. He shows how a new teacher basically has to start from scratch with no experience and learn their selves how to become a successful teacher. Communication is definitely a key to becoming a good teacher. You must be able to communicate in a way to where you can reach a student to be able to properly teach them. I believe a teacher should push a student to reach their maximum potential and to be the best teacher you can you should put yourself in the student’s shoes to see how they would learn best. It is not about how a teacher gives a lesson but rather how well they are able to make the students understand and comprehend it. But it is also important to encourage your students rather than scold them. If a student receives constant criticism then they might begin to lower their standards to avoid disappointing themselves.

In Mr. McClung’s second post “2009-2010”, he definitely learned more about teaching. He seemed to learn that by changing his ways of teaching he was able to reach his whole class since not all people learn efficiently the same way. He noticed that busy work was not the key for learning. I personally think if you can communicate and get the class interesting in a class debate then it will give the biggest impact to the students. It is always important to love what you teach or you may find it very difficult yourself to want to teach the material at a desired level every day. After all we are all able to learn more every day. Even teachers are still learning so it is important to keep an open mind set and be open to ideas from students and teachers alike. The more we learn will only improve us as a person and as an educator as well. Both of Mr. McClung’s post had a number of valuable points but equally as important it showed us what we should expect when we reach our goals and become teachers as well.

Blog 8

How We Dream:

In both parts of this video Richard Miller discusses human communication. He tells how communication has evolved over time. Richard says that his main goal in life was to become a published author. He finally accomplished his goal by publishing a book. Now we are able to buy and read his book whenever we want to. He then goes on to discuss hoe people are moving away from traditional books and moving towards digital copies. I would agree as well since a lot of classes at South now require you to purchase an ebook, or an electronic copy of a book. Now that we can get electronic copies it is impossible for a supply of traditional books to run out. There will always be copies available on line. Another benefit of electronic copies is that they are instantly available to people around the world.

Carly Pugh’s Blog:

I found Carly’s blog post to be pretty cool. Her video came together like an instructional map guiding people on how they should think and persevere in her own mind. Maybe an assignment similar to Carly’s should be added in the future to edm310. I think by doing this you will be able to get your students to be creative and think outside of the box. It could enable students to express their own beliefs rather than writing about videos and so on about other people’s view points. We might find it interesting how other people in our class think and maybe one or more can inspire the class.  

The Chipper:

I believe that the overall message of these videos is that you only get out what you put into something. This is true not only in edm310 but in all walks of life. I can almost guarantee that Babe Ruth didn’t set records by being lazy nor did the Auburn tigers win a football championship last year by playing video games. We all aspire to do great things but aspiring is only half of it, you have to put the effort forth. But on top of putting the effort forth we have to do it on time because Auburn wouldn’t have won that championship if they were ready the day after it.

EDM310 for Dummies:

The Edm310 for Dummies video was pretty funny. But the point was that if you put an effort forth and stay on track you will be able to excel. Everyone gets stressed at times but it is important to not give up and push through it. Plus, there are always people to help you in our EDM labs open almost everyday.

I believe I would like to make a video showing people how to push through stresses and aspire. I think a lot to do with this is keeping a positive attitude and being encouraged by someone how as been in your shoes and excelled.

Learn to Change, Change to learn

I thought this video was very interesting. It showed how kids are more inspired by technology such as social networks and so on which are banned in many classrooms. The video quotes “we must develop a narrative that sustains 21^st century learning.”  In my opinion this is true. The video also shows how standardized test are foolish since students will not be called to use these in their careers but their abilities to work in teams and find information to synthesis it. The dawn of learning depends on teaching students how to accomplish these goals by keeping them active and encouraged in the classroom. I believe if how we educate students now changes we will be able to influence them to aspire and give them a drive to be better and what the education system offers now.

Project 13

C4T

My first comment for C4T went to a teacher named Beth Still. Her post was about how she wanted to keep her time dedicated to work minimal. She stated how she was balancing the time and I let her know how important I thought this was. I even tried to give her new ideas such as planning family game nights in her schedule. I never received a notification back but hoped she had seen mine and took on to heart.

My second comment was towards a teacher named Arvid Grover. They had set up a memorial page for Steve Jobs who had recently passed away. They talked about his legacy in technology and how he founded it. My post simply said how great he was and how far he pushed technology. He really did refine education and the world we live in. many products from his company, Apple, we are using in our class now.

Short Movie

Project 10 PLN

Before I enrolled into EDM310 I had no idea what a PLN was. After learning what a learning network was I became hooked. It is a much easier way to process and organise information. My personal favorite is symbaloo. This allows me to surf the web easier rather than bookmarking or adding websites to my "favorites". I think everyone should consider looking into symbaloo.

Timeline 2

Blog #7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture:

It was clear after viewing the video that Mr. Pausch was definitely a very inspirational person. I say this because he even inspired me. While I watched his video I noticed what a great speaker he was. He had an upbeat tempo and illustrated his points very clearly. He had a way too lively up his lectures with humor too. I believe these are some of the key attributes to becoming a great teacher is learning how to become a great speaker. We have all heard long drawn out lectures we find ourselves yawning in the middle of due to the teacher sounding like the guy off the “clear eyes” commercials but this should be a thing of the past. Being able to grasp people’s attention is the first step needed to mold their minds. When you do you can start debates between fellow peers and encourage then to learn rather than drilling information in their heard. I believe the grasp you have on a student’s attention is ultimately what you are going to be able to teach them so strive to be a good speaker and set the bar high like Randy was able to.

I also liked Randy’s views on teaching. He encouraged group projects rather than numerous individual assignments. Within group assignments the other members of the group will even encourage students beyond the teacher’s control. Other members of the group will take a step necessary to make sure all others are correctly completing the assignment since it is a reflection of all of them but students will also be able to pick up learning tricks by watching how other people in the group work as well. Randy also states how many people will be working in groups as they evolve into their careers. Mr. Pausch definitely has keen thoughts and a great attitude. I couldn’t agree more on many of his points even as teachers like we are striving to be we will be forced to communicate in groups. I do believe there is good in doing individual assignments but I will try to focus my attention on encouraging students to work in groups together as well in the future.

Blog 6

Networked student:

It was interesting to see how many similarities there were between our class and those of the students in the video. It also showed how their blogs are posted up for everyone to see like ours. I would be interested to see how well my future students will be able to learn using methods like these too.

The video stated why are teachers even needed to learn. In my opinion teachers are needed to aid learning. All students need to be guided through the learning process and with proper guidance a good student will be able to reach his or her potential quickly instead of working aimlessly on their own.

A 7^th grader

I was astonished after watching this video on how intelligent this student was. I remember myself in the seventh grade and can honestly say that I was not even a fraction of the student as she was. But for as much work she did on computers I can see how she was better organized as well. Books and papers can easily turn into a clutter if you are not careful. But with the independence she showed at the 7^th grade level she will excel. I would even say she is more organized than most college students. Although I have not set up a PLN I do plan to do so after seeing how helpful it can be.