Saturday, April 25, 2009
My EDM blog assingments are now complete.
Hey to all fellow classmates. I enjoyed having met you. Some of you I know I will be seeing again in presequence. Have a great summer to all. Remember theres always time for technology. lol.
EDM 310 Reflection.
We are here at the end of EDM 310, and it is time for reflections. We covered many things in this class since the beginning of the semester and some have been beneficial while others have been quite tedious. I have found a few new things I will carry with me into my education profession such as blogging, google earth, and my igoogle page. Others such as twitter the payout tables on the spread sheets,and some of the issues we were required to listen to through iTunes. I just don't see me taking these into my profession. Many things I feel I may have been more inclined to use, had we had more time to cover it and learn it in depth, are the spreadsheets. However I feel that having someone teach it in and out each year will eventually find it very boring and sometimes will breeze through it expecting their students to grab it fairly quickly. Some of us may have never used a spreadsheet and have definitely never used the formulas. So therefore I stress that more patience is needed with the students in this class.
I would have liked to learn a little more photography elements, such as the picasa. Maybe some new sites we should try. I also would not have minded doing some google earth more in depth. I have heard of the water world part of it but have not had the opportunity to use or even see it. On the other hand I could have done without twitter. I really did find this portion of the class a waste of time. This was just something outside of class mandatory that was taking up some of my time.
I would have liked to learn a little more photography elements, such as the picasa. Maybe some new sites we should try. I also would not have minded doing some google earth more in depth. I have heard of the water world part of it but have not had the opportunity to use or even see it. On the other hand I could have done without twitter. I really did find this portion of the class a waste of time. This was just something outside of class mandatory that was taking up some of my time.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
This semester I began using a program called twitter. This is a fairly new program in the grand scheme of things. I began using it about a month ago. I do use this program but not nearly as much as others. I will log on and see that some people manage to log on and make 15 to 20 post a day. This is outrageous to me. I have never been one that is that hooked on the Internet and the following of others. I do not revolve around my computer or the Internet as some of these individuals seem to do. I am all for staying in touch with each other and reading how others are functioning in their daily lives or even getting tips and answer to problems you may have but not around the clock.
I personally did not go to any lengths to learn about twitter outside of my EDM 310 classroom. I did not like it, I made an attempt to use it, and gave it a fair opportunity, yet still did not care for it. Each time I used twitter I would attempt to learn something new about it. I also followed many people on twitter. I would follow conversations between people and through this read an interesting article about a young student strip searched for ibuprofen. I got to read the opinions between the people responding to others comments on the article. I post many times a week. I see the comments others make specifically to my comments.
I don't really think twitter should be used as an educational tool by teachers. I know many teachers who use it, and I have noticed that they tweet all day long. How are they getting much done? This was bothersome to me as a future teacher. I see it as a benefit as a student but not as a teacher. I know as a teacher I will not be using it unless it is mandatory as it is now for me to use it. Overall my feedback on twitter is Negative!
I personally did not go to any lengths to learn about twitter outside of my EDM 310 classroom. I did not like it, I made an attempt to use it, and gave it a fair opportunity, yet still did not care for it. Each time I used twitter I would attempt to learn something new about it. I also followed many people on twitter. I would follow conversations between people and through this read an interesting article about a young student strip searched for ibuprofen. I got to read the opinions between the people responding to others comments on the article. I post many times a week. I see the comments others make specifically to my comments.
I don't really think twitter should be used as an educational tool by teachers. I know many teachers who use it, and I have noticed that they tweet all day long. How are they getting much done? This was bothersome to me as a future teacher. I see it as a benefit as a student but not as a teacher. I know as a teacher I will not be using it unless it is mandatory as it is now for me to use it. Overall my feedback on twitter is Negative!
Edm 310 podcast reviews
I listened to four different podcast completed by the EDM 310 spring semester class of 2009. I really enjoyed listening to them. However, I noticed some areas that could stand some improvement. I went back and re-listened to my own podcast and saw a few areas that my group could improve upon. One area i noticed was how many of us when moving from from statement to another used the word "Umm" quite a bit. This is known as an informal pause and I feel every time i heard it my mind got off track of what was being said.
Others I listned to were done well but I also noticed that many groups didnt have their ideas mapped out and were kind of in a way just going with it freely. This is good because it gives the listener a sence that the podcast was conducted in a very relaxed manner and it isnt a lecture of sorts. However when the podcast is done in ths manner the podcast tends to sound jumpy. When there seems to be no natural flow to the conversation people tend to just jump in with ideas whether or not they flow smoothly with what the previous person was talking about or not.
As I continued to listen I began to be able to distinguis between those who had prepared and were comfortable in front of the microphone and those who had not prepared and were nervous. You could hear it in their voices and the way they presented their material. Those who were comforatble tended to sound more natural and their voices confident. Those who were nervous and unprepared tended to stutter and have pauses in their sentences.
Others I listned to were done well but I also noticed that many groups didnt have their ideas mapped out and were kind of in a way just going with it freely. This is good because it gives the listener a sence that the podcast was conducted in a very relaxed manner and it isnt a lecture of sorts. However when the podcast is done in ths manner the podcast tends to sound jumpy. When there seems to be no natural flow to the conversation people tend to just jump in with ideas whether or not they flow smoothly with what the previous person was talking about or not.
As I continued to listen I began to be able to distinguis between those who had prepared and were comfortable in front of the microphone and those who had not prepared and were nervous. You could hear it in their voices and the way they presented their material. Those who were comforatble tended to sound more natural and their voices confident. Those who were nervous and unprepared tended to stutter and have pauses in their sentences.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Plusses and Minuses of Blogs.
This was my first time ever using a blog. Before this class I didn't even know what blogging was. As I became more familiar with it I began to see how it could be very beneficial to teachers. I as a future teacher immediately began to have ideas in which it could be used. I saw many inventive ways in which other teachers from different states were using it in their classrooms.
I chose a student from my own EDM 310 class and went through and with a critical eye analyzed their blog in comparison to mine. Of course there were some very good ones, there were also some very poor ones. I tried to keep in mind that if one is not into blogging their blog might reflect this. This I saw as a minus. Even if you don't like something always give it your best effort.
Especially as a teacher you will be setting this example to your students. Don't let your work reflect your dislike of a product. Another minus would be if someone does not like blogging when they give their opinion of something they may tend to have it leaning more negatively. You have to remember though if using blogs in a classroom where the children participate, each student can post his or her own opinion and it may cause some controversy between your students.
However I also saw some very interesting post and informative post. I enjoyed getting to read other peoples opinions about an issue i had written on. Some times this can be used as a notification tool. I saw how this would be exceptionally helpful in different situations. When others write on a topic it could help give you more insight on a subject rather than you having to research it again or more in depth.
I chose a student from my own EDM 310 class and went through and with a critical eye analyzed their blog in comparison to mine. Of course there were some very good ones, there were also some very poor ones. I tried to keep in mind that if one is not into blogging their blog might reflect this. This I saw as a minus. Even if you don't like something always give it your best effort.
Especially as a teacher you will be setting this example to your students. Don't let your work reflect your dislike of a product. Another minus would be if someone does not like blogging when they give their opinion of something they may tend to have it leaning more negatively. You have to remember though if using blogs in a classroom where the children participate, each student can post his or her own opinion and it may cause some controversy between your students.
However I also saw some very interesting post and informative post. I enjoyed getting to read other peoples opinions about an issue i had written on. Some times this can be used as a notification tool. I saw how this would be exceptionally helpful in different situations. When others write on a topic it could help give you more insight on a subject rather than you having to research it again or more in depth.
The Stanford Challenge
I watched the "Growth" vs "Fixed" minds on iTunes. I watched it twice to try and get a better understanding of what was being discussed. The author of the Mindset book was talking about the differences between Fixed and Growth and what her results were from her research. She explained how exactly the idea works. She also explains what is done to set up the research and how it is conducted. The class is divided into two groups. One group is the "Fixed" mindset and the other is the "Growth" mindset.
She found in her research that when the children were explained the idea behind the "growth" mindset they responded much better and grades soared. When the children were explained what would be introduced and what was expected the children reacted better and tried harder. The group from the "Fixed" mindset had very poor results. The group didn't have the concepts explained and were just given tools to better their grades. There was no motivation.
As a future teacher I found this video interesting. I didn't really understand that in order to help a child do better you needed to give them more than just the tools to improve and advance. You need to guide them with those tools and explain the manner in which they are to be used. These children who are guided will tend to do better and generally want to learn and look at things with a new curiosity. I believe all teachers are trying to find ways to get their students more interested.
She found in her research that when the children were explained the idea behind the "growth" mindset they responded much better and grades soared. When the children were explained what would be introduced and what was expected the children reacted better and tried harder. The group from the "Fixed" mindset had very poor results. The group didn't have the concepts explained and were just given tools to better their grades. There was no motivation.
As a future teacher I found this video interesting. I didn't really understand that in order to help a child do better you needed to give them more than just the tools to improve and advance. You need to guide them with those tools and explain the manner in which they are to be used. These children who are guided will tend to do better and generally want to learn and look at things with a new curiosity. I believe all teachers are trying to find ways to get their students more interested.
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