Project 12

Blog Assignment 9

Mr. McClung spoke about a few of the things he learned while teaching his first year at an elementary school. He said that teachers need to check for student comprehension rather than evaluate how they are delivering a lesson. He also said that it is important for teachers to be flexible with their lessons and need to communicate with both students and fellow teachers in order to resolve issues. Teachers shouldn’t have unreasonable expectations for their students, they should embrace technology and not be afraid of it, and teachers should listen to their students and never stop learning themselves. These are all things that Mr. McClung identified as being important for teachers to learn.

I love what Mr. McClung said about lessons not going as planned and that teachers should understand that they won’t always work out as they hoped. I wish more teachers would get this because it’s really not fair to the students when teachers rush through material just to meet a certain timeframe, and leave students struggling as a result. I liked the proposal of being flexible with the lessons. I think some of the best lessons in school are the ones that generate class discussions, even if they don’t exactly stay on the original topic. Also, when it comes to the teachers continuing to learn, I think it should be required. Students relate what they learn with current events and trends, so if someone has a question requiring that kind of information, a teacher should know what that student is talking about. When they say “I don’t know,” and leave it at that, it’s a little disappointing. That’s why I like Dr. Strange’s slogan of “I don’t know. Let’s find out.” If the teacher comes back later with a response to the student’s question, I think it shows how much that teacher both listens to and cares about the students. Overall, I think these issues that Mr. McClung discussed are great things for current and future teachers to learn sooner rather than later.

C4K Summary Post 2

C4K 4
Mary is a student at Pt. England School. She wrote in her blog post about her past year and the all the things she did. She talked about what she learned about technology and also about her trip to camp. She said she was excited to go to another camp with her Netball team this coming year. I told her that it’s a good thing she keeps up with her work and doesn’t get behind. I also wished her and her team good luck at camp and with the rest of her schoolwork.

C4K 5
Tuitalau is also a student at Pt. England School. In his post, he made a graph of the hair color of all the students in his class. Out of the 14 classmates, seven have black hair, three have brown, two have blond, one has purple, and one has another color. I asked Tuitalau what color the last column represented, and told him that in my classes, hair color is split pretty evenly.

C4K 6
I watched two videos made by students at Melville Intermediate School. The videos were made by groups five and six. Each video was slideshow of pictures taken of the group members throughout the day. They all looked like they were having a lot of fun with everything that they were doing. I told them that their videos are creative and they chose great music for them.

Blog Assignment 8

1. These videos were really great. Dr. Miller has a wonderful idea for using technology in the classrooms. Writing with multimedia would be very useful for teaching because it is more creative and appealing than regular text. Students can be more involved in their work and would be motivated to participate. This kind of technology in the classrooms would be so much better for the students because it would grab their attention and it would be easier to follow and focus.
I really liked what Dr. Miller had to say about writing with multimedia and I agree with him. Technology is a wonderful thing and allows people to do so much more. We can find out information on any topic instantly and it is all up-to-date. Also, the web lets you add all kinds of effects such as pictures, videos, and sound, which enhances the information and makes it better than text. Using technology, you can share ideas with everyone from anywhere in the world. I think the world would be better off if people shared their ideas and dreams with others instead of keeping it to themselves.
I don’t think that I’m prepared to write with multimedia completely just yet because I still have a lot to learn. However, I think that I am prepared to start incorporating some of it into my schoolwork. I think it will take a little while to get adjusted to it. I think that my students will be prepared to write with multimedia because for their generation, technology is becoming more and more important and widely used. People are being introduced to technology at younger ages these days, so I think writing with technology would be simple for my students and would come naturally.

2. I think these two videos were made very well. The main message of these videos is just that you need to learn how to do your own work and you can’t rely on others to hold your hand and walk you through everything. In the first video, Chipper quit school because she didn’t want to teach herself how to do the proper work for the class. The second video shows that once you stop complaining about the work and actually take the time to learn and understand what you have to do, you may end up enjoying the class. If I had to create a video for any reason, I think I would make one that is sort of like “The Chipper Series” because it has a plot and there is no talking directly into the camera. I think it’s easier to follow something that has a storyline because it will make you want to find out what happens next.

3. In the video “Learn to Change, Change to Learn,” the people express their belief that education needs to adjust to the times. They say that schools need to start including technology instead of keeping education as it has been over the years. We need to embrace the technology instead of banning from the classrooms and preventing the students from using it. I think the people in this video are absolutely correct that we need to use technology even more in schools, and we can’t stick to the same way of teaching that has been used forever. However, I don’t completely agree with them when they say that students are using their social networking sites to learn and research. More times than not, they are using those sites for entertainment. They may occasionally learn something from this kind of social networking, but not like they are implying in this video.

4. In the video “The Secret Powers of Time,” Mr. Zambardo talked about what kind of time people focus on. There are some people who focus on the past, some on the present, and some on the future. There are multiple factors that determine which you will focus on. Two factors are your religion and what region you live in. He also talked about how the times are changing and that kids are different now than kids from previous generations. Now, kids’ brains are being digitally rewired and they aren’t succeeding in school because school is passive and they can’t control anything about it. I think that with more technology, we can give students a better chance to succeed because technology is what they are used to and only teaching by lectures will bore the students. If we can change the way the students feel about school, then maybe the enormous numbers of kids who drop out of school will decline.
In the video “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” Mr. Pink explains the results of a study about what happens when money is offered as a reward for complicated cognitive tasks. The results prove over and over that people are not motivated by money when it comes to assignments that require critical thinking. When it comes to these types of things, people seem to be more self-motivated. They would rather do something to get better at it or because it is fun or satisfying. I really liked the one example Mr. Pink used about the company in Australia that allows their employees to meet once a quarter to work on anything they want. The employees are able to gather, collaborate on new products and designs, and have fun at the same time. I would much rather participate in this kind of work environment rather than one where I have to come up with something by myself for a cash prize. I think this was a great video that describes how people can be motivated, and shows that humans are not just persuaded by monetary rewards.

Project 13

Results Form

Project 11

PLN Progress Report

My PLN is coming along very well. I set it up on Symbaloo and I love it! Before I created it, I always went to the EDM 310 page through Google, and then clicked on all the assignment pages. Now, I just click on my icon I set up on Symbaloo and I get to cut out so many steps! My PLN on Symbaloo consists of all the websites I need to visit for my EDM 310 class work. These include the projects list, the blog assignments, my blog account, Google, Gmail and twitter. Also, I do have some other links to personal pages such as my facebook and email accounts. With my PLN, I am able to log in to my accounts by clicking on the logo I created, instead of opening multiple pages separately. My PLN connects me to my work very quickly.

Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In his last lecture, he spoke about achieving your childhood dreams. He talked about his career as a professor and some of the techniques he used in his classroom. At Carnegie Mellon, he taught a class called Building Virtual Worlds. Since it was the first class of its kind, the school gave him the power to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t have to report to any Deans or follow a certain curriculum. So, he didn’t use textbooks and instead had the students break into groups and create virtual worlds.

Furthermore, Dr. Pausch talked about head fakes. A head fake is when we learn something indirectly while doing something else. He used this method of teaching in his classes. He said his students thought they were just creating virtual worlds and having fun, but in reality, they were learning how to program. He also used an example of football and other sports. You’re not just learning how to play the sport, but you’re learning teamwork, sportsmanship, and perseverance.

Another thing Dr. Pausch did in his classes was he kept raising the bar for his students. When they surprised him with what they could do with the virtual world projects, instead of congratulating them, he told them that he knew they could do better. He said that was the best response he could give them because when you set a bar when you don’t know where it should be, you do the students a disservice. By pushing them to do better, they will impress you with how far they can go.

I really enjoyed listening to Randy Pausch’s lecture. I liked his expression that brick walls are only there to prove to us how badly we want something. I never thought of it that way, but it is true. He had plenty of good advice such as work hard, help others, tell the truth, and apologize when you screw up. This speech makes me feel like anything is possible. It was so inspiring and definitely worth the time to watch it.

C4T#2

I commented on a blog called “Tom Johnson’s Adventures in Pencil Integration.” The first post I commented on was a satirical post about social networking. An HR representative spoke at a teacher staff meeting and warned them not to get involved in social networking sites that would allow interaction with students. There were no exceptions. After some questioning, it eventually came down to the fact that the teachers were not allowed to even acknowledge students outside of school. In my comment on this post, I first said how much I liked reading it. I said that I think social networking sites are beneficial for both students and teachers. It’s a convenient way to get in touch with each other if necessary. It’s not realistic to keep teachers from acknowledging their students while they are not at school.

In the latest blog on “Tom Johnson’s Adventures in Pencil Integration,” John Spencer explained why he left a pencil conference a day early. He said that the presenters were all about trying to tell you how to fix your way of teaching. They all spoke as if they were experts and had nothing else to learn, and that their teaching methods were the best. I told him that he had exceptional reasons for leaving the conference early. It wouldn’t be interesting to just sit and listen to someone talk about how they think they know everything as well as the best way to teach.