Blog Post #5

The iSchool Initiative

This video by Travis Allen, 17, was a good presentation on iSchool initiative. Travis talks about how the iSchool Initiative is trying to get schools involved with iTouch hand held devices. Many of the devices will be like iPhones, iPads, and mostly iTouch technology. He believe, and so do I, that with this new way of learning money can be saved. Apple Store has a third party app for all assignments, which can be very helpful for the teacher and students. It would save a great amount of money for students, teachers, schools, and even the country. It will help many schools save money on books and other sources, so they can focus on the main problem, helping kids learn and achieve. By the time I become a teacher, it would be nice for the iSchool Initiative to be put in effect because it will not only save money, but it will also help our students get ready for the future ahead. I think what Travis and his organization is doing is a great thing. When students learn through a different method other then paper and pencil, they have fun and learn more. Using technology in the classroom will be a great way of teaching.



I fell in love with this video. It must had took a long time for each person to get on each note. For all these people to have never met in person and made a amazing piece like this just through a webcam is awesome. This just make you look at technology a whole different way. I sing in a choir and sometimes it can be hard trying to get on key. For Eric Whitacre to put this together was a work of art. I will most definitely show this to my future classroom. I feel its something everybody should see, amazing.

Teaching in the 21st Century

I think Kevin Roberts believe that students should be taught skills and not facts and information. He states that we should not be entertainment to our students, but we should be there to engage with the students. In other words, interact with the students because teacher can learn from their students as well as the students can learn from the teachers. I agree that teaching the students to memorize the information and then testing them on it is very pointless. Teaching them the skills to obtain and use the information will be more effective.

I think teacher should be able to teach both facts and skills. I feel they should be taught not only the basics but also things that can prepare them for life as well. If teachers can teach them now, it will help them out in life what their parents or guardians do not teach them at home. I was not prepared for a lot of things in this world, which I rather had to learn on my own or my grandmother and mother taught me much as they can. There are some teachers that will help their students in anyway. I want to be one of those teachers in the future.

Flipping the Classrooms

Katie Gimbar Why I Flipped My Classroom and Ms. Munafo Flipping the Classroom-4th Grade STEM was good sources of information on flipping the classrooms. They both made good points about lecturing in front of the classroom is boring. It's not inefficient, not engaging and the students do not be focus. Dr. Lodge McCammon's idea of FIZZ is a great idea. I like how the students can view a video at home or before class, for the next day letting them know what they will be covering in class and they can practice and review a head of time. So when the students get in class there is more time for them to have one-on-one with the teachers. The videos are very efficient, can be viewed multiple of times and creates a lot of classroom time. I can see myself flipping my future classroom because I want more time helping my students then lecturing them. I do not want them to think I'm boring by talking them to death instead of helping them learn and have fun. I think FIZZ is a great idea.

Project # 6: This is My Sentence

Blog Post #4

Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting

This was a good and very interesting blog post. It was very interesting how the students introduced podcasting to the other students by allowing them to take part of the activity. It is a good idea to integrate technology into schools at such a young age, but also a good thing to let the students to participate in creating the podcast, instead of letting the teacher do all the work. I like how the teacher let the students mix up each part of the story so that it was in a different order and in their own voices. It was also a good idea to let them hooked the computer up to the smart board, and let the students make correction of their parts by listening to each part over and over. I think I can use this technique in my future classroom with podcasting to help my students in many ways. It helps the students understand what they are doing and it also help them to work and correct each other. It also can be a great way for them to get involved in the classroom and more involve with each other. Because there is always that one child who feels left out.

First Graders Create Their Own Read Along Book

This blog post was on of my favorites. It was about this first grade teacher who decided that she was going to do a podcast with her students. She made them a booklet to follow along with which was also a great idea. I think that this integrates technology into schools at a very age and helps they to become creative. I feel that creativity is what we need more into the schools today. I feel that we did not have much creativity when I was growing up. So knowing that my son will have much creativity in the future to help him learn is a plus for him. It keeps the students focus and also gives them a fun way of making things to help them learn. I can use this technique in my future classroom to keep my students creative and interested in learning.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

I loved this video and how helpful it can be when it comes to using podcasting. It shows how podcasting can be very useful working in or outside the classroom. It is a good thing for students to have more project based learning. I like how the little girl was sick and she did not want to go to school because she did not want to make the other students sick. So the mother was able to pulled up the information the teacher had on a podcast for students who missed class. I also like when the principal said that it gives the parents a link into the classroom. Podcasting gives the parents to see what their children and teacher is doing in the classroom. Especially for the parents who have a major career that cannot always help and see what they child is doing in the classroom. I just love how podcasting can be good for the parents and not just for the students, teachers, and principals.

C4T #1: Jenny’s Learning

iPad in My Classroom

In Ms. Jenny blog, she talked about how they are using a new technology in the classroom. The iPad became an interesting tool for her and her students. The students love having the iPad in the classroom that they behave just to get to use it. She use the iPad for reading and math activities. They have fun and learn at the same time. I feel that something new in the classrooms that the students can learn from is always a good idea. I just love how she is bring technology in her classroom. Something I will be doing in my future classroom as well.

Having a Go at Photography

I love this blog Ms. Jenny wrote. She talked about taking a picture with her iPhone. She made a good point about how you do not have to have the finest things to make things work. She took lovely picture of flowers just with her phone and not with a expensive camera. I feel that many people for get to realize before all this high tech tools, things was done a much simple way. I may not have an iPad or Mac but the tools I do have works just fine. Like Ms. Jenny said, "The happiest people don’t have everything, they just make the best of everything.".

Project #5: All About Me

Blog Post #3

Peer Editing

Viewing Peer Editing, Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, and Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes has made me aware that it is really helpful for peer editing. Helping others on their grammar, writing skills, or any of their work is very important. I feel that any feed back that I get on my blog assignments will be helpful to me and making better decision on my writing errors. I have learn so much from these videos and slidshow. I feel that teachers starting kids off young in peer editing is a good way for helping each other in their educational experience. It helps them to communicate with each other and help them to know they are not alone in making mistakes. Its better to have feedback from a peer then a teacher. Peer editing will become a major tool in my future classroom.

Technology in Special Education

This video was very interesting to me. Special need kids have a special place in the world today. They touch many teachers hearts who works with them and they try so hard to make a difference because they do not want to feel left out. The use of technology helps them out a whole lot more then people think. This video taught me how to deal with special need children that I may encounter with in the teaching field. Computers can be a handy tool for someone who have multiple disabilities. They can see their work on hand, they can listen to the computer as it read the work out loud for them, it can also be voice command, and also can be a touch screen,such as ipads, for those who can not write. Technology is a very help tool in a child's life who is special need leaner.

How the iPad Works with Academics for Autism

This video is about a little boy name Braden who is autistic and his parents helps him learn by using the iPad. The use of the iPad and its tools helps Braden to learn how to count, spell, read and write words. The use of this technology changed this little boy life forever. Using the tools and the downloaded apps to help him, had made learning more fun for him. I do not have a iPad but I do have a the Samsung Galaxy 2 tablet and I have downloaded many apps for my three year old son. I love the kids shape, alphabets, and numbers apps he use. He likes them because its teaching him his shapes, alphabets, and number in a fun way but he is still learning. Any child with a disabilities can learn and have fun learning with the technology we use today, such as the iPad.There are many different apps that can be downloaded for each grade level or age group. A new way of learning through the iPad.

Harness Your Students Digital Smarts By: Vicki Davis

I agree with everything Ms. Vicki was talking about in this video. There are so many kids that cannot learn because they are not a pencil and paper learner. There are a lot of student who are hands on and visual learners. When a teacher just lecture to their students their tension span does not last long and they get bored. When students having fun learning they intend to be more focus. Ms. Vicki has stepped up and taught her students things about technology they didn't know. In return, she learn things from her students that she did not know. It was a cycle of learning. I believe with the way society is going, technology is basically going to be our only way of teaching our students. As rapidly as technology is evolving, paper and pencils will be extinct and out of the question eventually.

Blog Post #2

Did You Know? By John Strange
This video was very interesting because it told many different facts about what is going on in our society today versus what was going on in the past. According to this video, English is becoming a universal language and the United States is the "smartest" country. According to the video, over 25% of the population of India with the highest IQ's out numbers the entire population of the United States. As a future educator I find this quite alarming. It makes me wonder what we are doing that is so wrong. Are we not pushing our children hard enough, are we pushing them too hard, or do we just expecting them to teach themselves? It is estimated that 18 million Chinese speak English now and 300 million are "learners", according to the video, so that means that if the "learners" do speak Chinese fluently, there will be more Chinese who speak English than the entire population of the United States.The video also stated that YouTube and Google are used quite extensively. More so than what we know. Every day millions of videos are uploaded and watched. We shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that we are the only ones using YouTube. Millions of searches are also made on Google every minute. In the past years this type of technology was not even here yet. Children did not have cell phones or computers. Now 93% of 8-18 year olds have computers, including minorities. Technology has become more and more advanced over the past few years and only has more room to grow. Most of the jobs that are created over the next few years will be using new technology, technology that we don't even know how to use yet. As educators we will be responsible for teaching these students how to use these technologies effectively.

Mr. Winkle Wakes By: Matthew Needleman
This video was quite interesting. It starts out with a man named Mr. Winkle who slept for 100 years and awoke to find that the world had changed so much. He couldn't get over the fact that people used computers, printers, and face time to communicate. It was strange to him. He decided since he was feeling so bad that he would go to a hospital, but once there, he realized that the hospital was just the same as everywhere else. People were kept alive by machines that breathed air into his lungs and Doctors looked at x-rays and used lasers to help make people better. Mr. Winkle was not used to this at all. After walking down the road a bit, he finds a school and decides to step inside. Once inside he decides he likes what he sees because there are no computers, only teachers who lecture the kids and they take notes. He liked the fact that after 100 years at least schools had not changed by adding technology to the curriculum. I like how the creator of this video brought up the fact that technology has not been brought into the schools like it should be. In our society today technology is widely used by children and instead of educators embracing this, it seems like they have pushed it farther away. These children need to be taught how to use technology because of the fact that our society is going to be strictly a technology based society, we are well on our way there, if we're not there already.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
This video was great. I have really never known for a long time that we are completely ignoring the creativity that children have. Instead of embracing it, we are pushing it away and trying to teach them to mask it because they should act a certain way in schools. In this video he brings about many different valid points. He compares education to religion and money, these are two very touch subjects, but when it comes to education, people get fired up as well because they believe that things should be done a certain way, but only a select few will actually take the steps to achieve their goals. I agree with what he said about the fact that society today squanders the talents of children instead of accepting them. There are so many talented people who don't use their talents because they are taught from a young age that they will never get a job doing something such as being an artist, or a singer, or a dancer. So they just steer clear of doing those things.

A Day Made of Glass 2
I think it would be amazing to have such technology such as glass in the future learning fields. I loved the classroom atmosphere in the video. The students can bring their glass tables to class and it connects to the main board in the classroom. A technology like that in the future classrooms would be very helpful. The teacher can send each student their work and it can be saved with a click of a button. Plus using a technology such as glass will keep the students more focus and more eager to learn. It can make learning more fun and understanding. The future will look brighter. If I ever get a chance to experience something like this in my classroom or in the future it will be a great advantage to me and my classroom. It will be a great advantage to the world.