Randy Paush Last Lecture

Randy Paush was born in the 1960's. He was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer and has numerous tumors in this pancreas. When he gave his "Last Lecture" speech he told the audience that he had 3 to 6 good months left. He looked extremely well and was in very good spirits. Randy has a wife, Jay, and children.

Randy had several childhood dreams. Unlike some people, he stuck with them and showed how one can achieve these. He met a few "brick walls" along the way. Unlike some who would have given up, randy pushed himself above and beyond the bar and drove himself even harder to accomplish his dreams. This showed how much he truly wanted his dreams and how he was willing to find other means to achieve them.

While using himself as an example he explains to us all how we too can achieve these dreams of ours if we put our minds to it and honestly try. Randy also shows us how we can enable others to accomplish their dreams too. We should not only congratulate them on accomplishing their task but push them to take it further. He makes a point to remind us that sometimes we cant get there on our own and that's okay. The most important thing is to be honest, earnest, and apologize when you are wrong.

I over all really enjoyed Randy's speech. It made me wonder how many people actually follow through with their childhood dreams. Or how many gave up when they hit that first brick wall? So many times that brick wall is people telling us we cant do something. We as the dreamer should have the confidence in ourselves to know our limits and that we can achieve what we really want.

Podcast Review

I listened to the podcast Blogging and Teaching by some students from Dr. Stranges EDM Fall 08 class. I noticed some spots were improvement could be made.I noticed that there seem to be a large amount of "umms" used. This is very bothersome when you are listening to a podcast and every other word is a informal pause. Its distracting from the words being spoken. There seems to be an unequal amount of opinions being voiced. I noticed the two females did a substantial amount of talking compared to the male.

I also listened to the Podcast called How technology is used in the classes at South Alabama. It was three females who all were an Education major. I noticed while listening to this podcast that over halfway through it was just two of the girls talking. The third speaker had yet to say anything. Each took a turn speaking, referencing back maybe once or twice to something said previously by one of the others. There was no conversation.

Fischbowl Post, May, Customer Service

I read the Customer Service blog entry under the month of May. I really enjoyed this and found the video quite amusing because I have had that happen so many times I just have to laugh about it now. This entry was about how sometimes we forget who our customers are and the quality of our service we should be giving. The author suggest we take a step back and reanalyze who our customers are and can we give them a better quality of service. He also suggest that good quality customer service is not just simply fixing the problem but helping them understand why it occurred.

I as a teacher will have customers that are students and their parents. It will be very important for me to give excellent customer service. If I don't I will definitely get back a negative feedback in the form of grades. I also have to know that when I am presented with the fact that I gave a poor quality of service, that it is my responsibility to change my ways and make an effort to serve my customers better. By finding a new way to approach the problem this will allow others to find the solution.

Fischbowl Response

In response to the post on the Fischbowl September Blog, "Is it okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher?", I am in complete agreement. I believe that it is a complete fact that teachers are now in a period where technology is a significant part of a students education. We are rapidly progressing into a time where professions and education are centered around technology. If our teachers now are technologically illiterate how will the future generations succeed? Present teaching students are required to take computer courses to graduate. Why should current teachers whose computer skills are under par be allowed to continue teaching?

I also have a problem with the fact that when new beneficial methods become available that will help a teacher in the classroom, they will host a workshop. Yet workshops cannot be provided for such a important educational resource such as computer skills? I think the schools administrators should be held responsible as well as the institute where the teacher graduated from. The course should have been offered at the institute and the administration should have this as a qualification requirement. These educators should be embarrassed about not being technologically literate. If they do not do something to help themselves,they will be found replaceable as technology makes its way even more into the classroom with the demand of someone knowledgeable in its use.

MacBreak Weekly

I tuned into a podcast called MacBreak Weekly and it was a podcast by a journalist covering apple and mac products. This podcast seemed to me like it was dedicated to how good mac and apple products are. The men spotlighted virus protection by Mac. Boasting how secure it is compared to others. The men would answer questions live and debate or discuss the topic brought up. They covered different topics each podcast based on a different pieces of technology and how they work, common problems, or updates available for the products being discussed.

This week in Photography

This was a podcast between some men talking who were photographers. Two of the men were at President Obamas Inauguration. They spoke of how confusing it was and how much they had to go through based on the color of their tickets. The men also talked about what type of lens they used to get their shots during the event. What they went through while attempting to take the photographs was discussed. They said it was very crowded, they were tired, it was hours of waiting, photographers fighting for shots, and security was an issue for their supplies.

Podcast Kidcast

I tuned into a podcast named Kidcast by Dan Schmit. The name of the podcast was "Questions Make the World Go Round". Dan emphasized how in an extended academic conversation by students a wonderful tool is questioning one another. He called it a form of the Socratic method, answering a question with a different question to provoke further thought. With each new set of questions the challenge level should rise, so that the types of questions are more analytical. This will encourage students to think beyond the norm and have new questions ready for the next class meeting.

Podcast SmartBoard.

I tuned into the Podcast called Smartboard by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger. These two logged on hoping to help teachers by making available tools such as a way for classroom collaboration, lesson plans, and White Board Challenges. They discussed the benefits of a tool called The Interactive White Board. This is a touch sensitive display that connects to the teachers computer or digital projector to show your computer image. The teacher can then control computer applications directly from the display, write notes in digital ink, and save the work and continue later. They mention a website where teachers can log in and communicate with other teachers and their classrooms. The website was Teachersconnecting.com

This is a picture from a Kindergarten class in the East. This school has a blog for their Pre K classes as well. Each day the teachers make post for the parents so they can see what their children are covering each day and how well they are working. The teachers also post pictures of the children doing various activities during class. Http://shurenschool.wordpress.com/

I found an elementary school in China who uses blogs. The blog is between the students and the teacher. It is kept regularly on a day to day basis. The teacher post the objectives of the subject material the student should have left school that day with. There is a comment section that I believe the students were supposed to make small informative post in regaurding the learned objectives. The teacher also post homework on the class blog. Towards the bottom of that days entry the teacher will also put the ideas and materials being covred the following day. Http://www.blog.ceres.k12.ca.us/djones/category/China.aspx