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.

Twitter

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!

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.

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.

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.

Edible School and Night in a Global Villiage

These videos were very interesting. I thought it so very neat that some schools were able to give their students such an up close and real life experience such as these did. Some students just truly cant imagine how hard it is for others in foreign countries. The edible school was very resourceful in creating a garden the way they did. In using the compost to make their soil that is a good way to teach kids a way to recycle. I did not understand them linking this to social studies however and not science. When they were talking about the different transformations water goes through and the different roles that effect the plants growth they had the children answering questions they had learned in class. The children even got to harvest and eat some of the fruits and vegetables from the class garden. The children seem to be more interested and more involved when they got to physically reap the benefits from their hard work. The film about the children pretending to be different tribes and bartering for food and water, that was very inventive. The children seemed to have really enjoyed the activity and learned alot from the trip. They understood what people have to go through sometimes in order to survive day to day. These teachers are doing a very good job to find new and inventive ways to get children motivated to learn and participate willingly in their education.

iTunes U.

I did some research on what exactly iTunes University was. I found that you can go to the iTunes store and go to iTunes U. Then to the side in a menu bar there are a list of schools who support this system currently. I experimentally clicked on MIT. When it pops up it gives to a brief summary about what opportunities are to be made available through this technology and what you can expect to grasp as a student.

Under the welcome message there are a range of subjects you can click on. Some examples are biology, foreign language, and Physics. Under each subject it tells you when the last time it was modified and how many tracks it contains. The ones I looked into were free. I broke apart into audio parts and it said you could watch some as a video. As you click on the subjects they break apart into individual smaller groups that are more specialized. Some I explored were molecular biology, genetics, and stem cells.

I personally thought this was very cool. I thought it would also be very beneficial to a teacher that had a concentration in a subject or was a high school teacher. I personally am an elementary education major and would most likely not use this as a resource. A high school teacher could find a lecture she liked and ask her students to listen to it as extra ideas or views. One might also use its videos as an extra resource if a teacher does not have the images to accompany a lecture.

Duke University and IPods.

I have read an article at http://www.macworld.com/article/44138/2005/04/duke.html about how Duke University has been giving some 1,600 incoming freshman 20GB IPods. The students use these IPods in many different forms. Some professors allow the students to download large programs and take them home to use for homework. I believe this is a very generous idea. Some professors also have some students gather in groups and report their collective thoughts on a topic rather than them all writing a paper together. He said the results and material were outstanding.

Other useful ways in which the IPods are being used is podcast lectures. When a student misses a lecture, that's it they miss it. So now many professors at Duke are recording their lectures and putting them out as podcast for those who miss class. Also not just for those who miss class, but, when they have time to kill such as riding the bus or driving to work they could be re-listening to the lecture. This could help students understanding tremendously!

Dr. Alice Christie's Educational Technology Guide.

There are many of ways in which teachers can infiltrate technology into their classrooms for both the students and teachers benefit. Dr. Christie's site has many ways for teachers K-12 to further their lessons with technology. In her website she has many different tools that her students used listed. Yo can click on them and they will give you a short description of what they are and how they are beneficial.

I looked at the Google earth site. I believe that this would be so interesting for kid when learning about underwater canyons, or what the planet earth looks like form space. It will also come in handy when researching volcanoes. While using this program you can go to Mt. Saint Helen's for example and you are right over the opening of the volcano. I think children would learn so much more when they can actually see what they are learning about rather than just trying to imagine it by what their textbooks say.

Another interesting tool was something called The digital Pencil. After reading a book the students can log onto this site. For example a picture of a lady bug will appear in the middle. The children will fill in question boxes about what they learned. Such as, what do lady bugs eat, who are their prey, and who do they fear?

Wikipedia Post

After reading the articles about the validity of Wikipedia, I still believe that Wikipedia should not be a reliable source of information. I have believed Wikipedia was an dishonest source of information since using facts from it in a high school paper. It resulted in mark offs because some of my facts did not match up. I have also always wondered how someone would or could properly cite facts from Wikipedia. How can one say its an encyclopedia if anyone can add or delete information. How do we know that what was replaced is accurate?

I don't think its okay for companies to change and reword or completely delete accurate information about them. If they don't want their dirty laundry aired then don't do things that will make society point fingers at you. All in all both sides of the story should be made available. The good facts and the bad.

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

This is the website of a fifth grade class from Noel Elementary. Http://www.mrcclassblog.blogspot.com/ This is a blog I believe meant for others to see what this particular teacher is doing with the students. There are post as to what they did in class. Important topics they cover. Off to the side it has the teachers full porfile information, other interesting articles that pertain to what is being taught in the classroom, and many ways the teacher can be contacted. This teacher also communicates with other student from other countries such as New Zealand. This was very interesting.

This classroom blog page is through Pendleton Public School in Oregon. The teacher of a fourth grade classroom has this blog. She uses this site so that she can post information to her students parents. I read some of the post and it were items such as homework, project notices, and parent teacher conferences. You can also access the schools homepage through the class blog. Along the side of the page you can acess months worth of old blog postings. Http://www.garybriggs.umesd.net/journal.php

Alabama connecting classroom is a service that is meant to allow schools to help one another out. When rural schools cannot offer students core classes, advanced level classes, or electives, this gives students an opportunity to achieve these class credits for their diploma. Many are able to experience this through videoconferencing. The school receives money to set up a lab with the capabilities. This allows the students to have web based courses at their finger tips. With the Connecting Classroom this would not only enhance students learning capabilities socially and educationally but also in technology.
I think this is a really great idea but I have some concerns. If a rural school student is taking a core class online through the Connecting Classroom, I feel there is a strong possibility that the schools student, will be unfamiliar with the technology needed to access this program. I also have questions as to the concern of, if the money is available for these labs to be set up for the students to use, then why can the money not be used for teachers to be brought in that are qualified to teach this material. The money could also be used to buy basic materials that might be needed to supply the students with. Although I realize there are benefits to both online and in the classroom courses, I believe this might hinder some experiences such as biology experiments. How does one do these online besides through videos or simulations. Sometimes doing is better than just watching.

ALEX is a website that was created as a tool so that teachers, students, or parents can access it and find links, resource ideas, or lesson plans that will benefit the searcher. ALEX means Alabama Learning Exchange. ALEX is also made available for those students who wish to possibly take AP classes but their school cannot accommodate them. The student can go through the distance learning and access them online.The website is always changing to better serve those who need it. ALEX is made possible by the generous resources of many people and companies.

When you enter ALEX you can choose your subject, then choose the specific field of that subject. For example if you click on Science it will then give you a list to chose from with biology, chemistry, and botany. Once you select one of those you can then see which grades it is meant for, objective ideas, how many links there are to accompany the lesson and how many lesson plans also come with it.

I personally really enjoyed the video. I wholly believe in what Albert Einstein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." I think this is the cause of so many of our problems we face today. We strive to constantly out do what was before yet, cannot seem to fix the problems we created by expanding. For example, building new homes to house families yet, we are having problems supplying the energy to these homes.

The ideas we seem to come up with such as the wind machines, these are helping our ecosystem problems, but would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build some that would only supply a small neighborhood. In order to do this we would have to clear lands and cut down trees. The more we try to push forward the deeper we sink. In the video I picked up on the message that maybe we are becoming to distracted by the technology we have created and are letting our knowledge intake fall dramatically. When it showed the statistics of the YouTube videos, MySpace, and Google, the numbers were on steep uphill drives.

Hello my name is Rachel Bradford. I have been a student here at south Alabama for three years. I am a Elementary Ed major. I am a Mcgill Toolen Alumni, class of 05'. I have a three year old son, his name is Christian. I hope to teach for enough years to achieve retirement and then open my own bakery shop. I love to bake and decorate cakes. I do wedding, anniversary, and birthday cakes. I have a chocolate lab. His name is Duke.

Lasagna Recipe

Lasagna Noodles
1 container of ricotta cheese
1 bag of mozzarella cheese
2lbs of ground turkey
1lb of ground Italian sausage
1 slightly beaten egg
2 tablespoons of sour cream
1 container of Parmesan cheese
1 lg container of marinara sauce

Bake at 375 covered for 1 hr, then uncovered for 15 minutes
Boil your noodles until tender. Layer pan with noodles, meat sauce, and ricotta spread. Then sprinkle two cheeses. Begin next layer. Finish with cheeses.