Additional Assignment #3

RSA ANIMATE: SIR KEN ROBINSON-CHANGING PARIDIGMS
I really liked the way this video was made. Very creative and easy to follow and everything he said was written down and developed into a picture, which made it easier to process.I have never seen an RSA animate presentation before. It was genius.
So, basically what the presentation was about was how the school system needs to change and how the current education system is actually doing more harm to our students, than good. I was trying to find something that I disagreed with in this video, but found nothing. He makes so many valid points and I completely agree with every single one of them. What stood out to me the most, if I have to pick just one, was how ADHD is a fictitious epidemic. He says that we are living in the most stimulating period in history and our children are being buried in a world of unnecessary, harmful medicine which dulls them from the world in which they live, which is supposed to be making them focus more in school, but in all reality it is shutting them off from the world around them; that instead of putting them to sleep, we should be waking up what is buried deep inside of them. Also, the longitudinal study he mentioned done on the kindergarten students. 1500 students were tested on the basis of divergent thinking, 98% of the kindergartners placed into the genius level and over time, those numbers decreased, showing that what they are being taught and told in school is diminishing one's creative capacity.
What can we do to ensure that this doesn't happen with our students? Well, I believe a new generation of educators is on the rise. The problem is out there and I think a lot is being done to solve it. Personally, I plan to incorporate as much as the arts in my teaching styles as I possibly can. And I plan on opening my students to a world of collaboration, as Sir Robinson states. I think working with others is a great way to learn and can open you up to so many different ideas and aspects of a topic. And even more so, expanding the learning network beyond the classroom and classmates, over the web, into different cultures will broaden a child's awareness of the world and of their own learning capacities.
If I were to do a presentation this way, I would most definitely want to be either the idea generator or narrator, because Lord knows that I could not draw a picture to save my life.
This was probably, by far, the best video I watched so far in this class. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I have taken quite a liking to Sir Ken Robinson's mind and what he is bringing to the table, in the education world.
RSAnimate-Changing Education Paridigms

Project # 13- SMARTBOARD INSTRUCTION

BLOG POST #10

MORGAN BAYDA & DAN BROWN- AN OPEN LETTER TO EDUCATORS
Morgan Bayda is a recent graduate in the education field. In her article, Morgan Bayda: An Open Letter to Educators, she elaborates on the point that the institutionalized education system needs to change, because the world around us is changing. Sitting in a classroom, with anywhere between 50-200 students is interfering with our learning. It is impersonal and non-interactive. The instructors do not know your names and do not encourage intercommunication with others during class time. The information given is limited to the textbook, which itself is confined. More times than not, better information can be found via the internet. While some more "in depth", hands on classes do require class time, information based classes do not. Most of the work can be done on your own time with a more expansive world of knowledge beyond the textbook, not to mention the resources available in one's personal learning environment. So, she posts this video by Dan Brown, Dan Brown, An Open Letter to Educators, which basically sums up the fact that every aspect of the world is changing with the times, besides the education world and how sitting in classroom has personally interfered with his education, so much so that he drops out of school. In my opinion, that is a little extreme, but to each his own. I agree with a lot of the points he makes in the video and encourage you to check it out.

2 QUESTIONS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
Positive message and encouraging, I love positive messages. I enjoyed it. It really makes you stop and think about what your impact is going to be in the world, and how everyday you can be better than you were yesterday..encouraging you to be the very best person that you can be. What is my sentence? "She is a hard worker with a great sense of integrity and puts 100% into everything she does!" What is YOURS??

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

SKYPE INTERVIEW

I interviewed Lachandra Lett on her thoughts about EDM310.

Record your screencast online

Blog Post # 9

 WHAT I LEARNED THIS YEAR by Mr. McClung

This post was inspiring to me. In this post Mr. McClung shares experiences from his first year of teaching with us. Let me begin by saying this. So many people have said to me "Your first year of teaching is going to be so hard", "You are going to be so lost and feel out of control with your students during your first year of teaching"...and so on.. I actually get a little nervous about it. But if so many others before me have survived and lived to tell, I think I can too. In this post, Mr. McClung gave some really sound advice that I think I will carry with me during my beginning stages as an educator. The examples that really spoke to me were, " listen to your students because you might be the only one that does." It is important to take interest in your student's lives. How will you teach them to strive if you don't know who they are. Also he says to never stop learning. And with this, I couldn't agree more. There is always room to grow and things to be learned. Be open to them and never stop. Teach your students everything you can and let them teach you as well. I am sure as an educator you get discouraged when lessons plans don't go the way you want them to, or a child is not learning at the same rate as the others. But like Mr. McClung said in his post, it is important to stay positive and do it with a smile on your face. I will end with a stimulating quote from the text.."Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up, dust them off, and encourage them to try again."
"What I learned this year" by Mr. McClung

Short Movie Project: "The Way I Feel"

Blog Post #8

THIS IS HOW WE DREAM PART 1&2
In these 2 videos, Richard Miller talks about how writing has changed. Writing started with books and print, going to the library and reading information. From the way writing used to be to what it is now has changed dramatically. He explains how we use the web to research. But not only using the web to research, but being able to view live footage from across the globe, connecting to people from all over the world. In the workplace, people are using the internet to make visual representations, so others can not only read about it but actually see the process. He talks about Digital Composing. Another example is in iTunes, people are accessing academic lectures. Mr. Miller presents to us how ideas belong to us as a culture, how educators should be sharing ideas freely for others to get behind the scenes and learn how it is being done. An example he uses is an online publication made, only posted to YouTube. He says within three months there were 9000 views and people were embedding it into their blogs. So what lies ahead? Major changes are in the process of being made. What has already happened and what is yet to come in technology is making lives easier and broadening one's sense of the world around them. I, personally, think it will be fascinating to be able to see in my lifetime, but not only to see it, but to put it to use in my own classroom.
This is how we Dream-Part 1
This is how we Dream-Part 2

EDM310 IS DIFFERENT
We had to watch 2 videos made by students in the EDM class, The Chipper Series and EDM for Dummies. Both of the videos were very creative. Basically, these videos are about how we need to not only do our work, but turn them in on time. It is extremely important to be on a schedule, not only for the instructor but for the student as well. It keeps order in our lives. Another message from the video was that ultimately it is our responsibility to complete the assignments assigned to us and there is a reason why we have to do what we have to do, to go beyond the surface and broaden our sense of learning capabilities. Also, EDM for Dummies is about students in EDM who are having a hard time in the class and don't know where to turn but once they figured it out, they enjoyed what they were learning. For my videos, I would like to maybe be in a classroom setting, teaching a group of students or maybe do a game show of some sort. The more creative you are with your visual aids the more it might reach out to another student and inspire them to do the same, not to mention the more enjoyable the assignment could be.

CRITIQUES OF SMARTBOARDS
In Bill Ferriter's, "Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards" and Michael Staton's, "Why Smartboards Are A Dumb Initiative", both basically argue that the Smart Board is a waste of school resources and time. Michael Staton states that there is nothing new being brought to the table. Teachers still stand in front of the class, the teacher still controls the content, and guide the students through the lesson. "It doesn’t enable social feedback, doesn’t reduce teacher workload, doesn’t make lesson planning more efficient. It just makes the whiteboard a little more attractive." Bill Ferriter actually gave his away because it was useless to him. He says that basically it is a show off ploy to supervisors and parents, so that the school isn't shown up by the one down the street. Both argue that it doesn't make the instruction any easier and there isn't anything on the smart board that they can't teach with the resources already provided to them. Now on the other hand, I found a blog of an educator named Dr. Mary Ann Bell. In her post, Why Use an Interactive Whiteboard? She swears by the smart board. She states that the smart board is a powerful instructional tool that can adapt to all age groups. Some of the things she boasted about were: it can involve the student's in technological learning, notes can be saved, great demonstration tool, colorful, clean, it can accommodate different learning styles, it is interactive and kids are drawn to it.
In my opinion, it is a cool toy if the school can afford it. Is it a necessity? I don't think so. But they are a good resource to provide interaction in the classroom and I don't believe that they should be discouraged from use. There are many different styles of teaching and many different styles of learning. Every educator has individual preferences on what is useful to them. I personally would like to have one in my classroom.

TIMETOAST (9B)-MARYLAND STATE SYMBOLS

Blog Post #7

At first glance..an hour and 16 minutes..come on..but WOW. Mr. Randy Pausch is an amazing role model. Someone to look up to. Someone to say, wow..if this man can have liver cancer and be told he has 3 months to live, yet he is so positive and passionate about life, never taking for granted any aspect of his life, good or bad, in the best shape of his life..i can be that way too. Or better yet..I want to be that way.
Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon. Two quotes Mr. Pausch used in his lecture that I will always carry with me are 1. "When you are screwing up and no one tells you, it means they have given up on you. Your critics are the ones who still care." And 2. "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."
Randy Pausch begins his lecture revealing he has liver cancer and has three months to live. He actually presents to the audience the scans of the cancer. He talks about his childhood dreams and explains how he achieved each one. He spoke on how his own personal achievements, small as they may have been, pushed him into the education field because he wanted to inspire others to go after their own dreams. He presents three main points in his speech, his childhood dreams, enabling the childhood dreams of others and lessons learned. He used several visual aides in his presentation.
One part of his speech that I really enjoyed was when he talked about the Brick Wall. How everyone is faced with brick walls during the course of their life, but it is how we overcome those walls that builds the person that we are. Another part of the speech I liked was the Head Fake. It is a style of teaching where you teach someone how to do one thing, but all the while they are learning something completely different.
There was so many great points that Mr. Pausch made. He truly is an inspiring man. It made me reflect on my own life and the kind of educator that I want to be.
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Progress Report on Project #10-PLN Project

I researched both Symbaloo and Netvibes. I found Symbaloo to be a little more user friendly, even though both took me a little while to get the hang of. So I chose Symbaloo to build my Personal Learning Network. So far I have only added a few of my own sites to it, to include Facebook, You Tube, Gmail, Twitter, Yahoo, and Flickr. With everything else I had to do this week, I haven't really had the time that I have wanted to really sit down and explore. I look forward in the coming week to add more to my PLN. Symbaloo is such a cool site. I can't wait to get it organized the way that I want it. It is a really useful web tool and I like that you can access anything on that page from any PC.

TIMETOAST (9A)-A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY ON ME

COMMENTS FOR TEACHERS 2

For this assignment's Comments For Teachers, I was assigned to http://jasontbedell.com Mr. Bedell has written several blog posts (13 so far) on something called Professional Development 2.0. I was only required to read the most recent post, but to get a full understanding of the idea, it was recommended to read all 13. I am glad that I did. I learned about so many things I was unfamiliar with. He explains social networking and social bookmarking. He talks about how to connect to teachers from around the world and how to share resources with other educators to broaden their own style of teaching. He goes into explaining what an Educator's PLN (personal learning network) is and how it can help students to grow and learn. By you yourself broadening your teaching methods, you are helping your students to become better learners. Mr. Bedell goes into explaining what some of the different networking sites are such as Twitter, Delicious, Diigo..to name a few.

September 22, 2010-How Social Bookmarking Works
In his most recent post, Mr. Bedell goes into full explanation as to what social bookmarking actually is. Having so much information and so many useful sites and resources from other educators, it is extremely difficult to remember them all. In social bookmarking, instead of "bookmarking" or "adding to your favorites" on multiple web browsers, here is a system where you can organize and process information and links all in one place. While doing so, you can access your bookmarks from any computer, anywhere. You have the option to make your files public which also allows others to access your saved links as well. How it works is you or the other person has to add the other to your personal network to be able to access them. This way, you can share any interesting information, link, or resource with other educators or anyone else from anywhere. Delicious is the most popular and easy to use social bookmarking site. Another popular one is Diigo. In Diigo, you can not only bookmark sites, but you can highlight certain sections or add your own notes. Instead of organizing into folders, you add tags. For each category, you can type in as many tags as you'd like. This way, if you find a good site from someone else in your network, you can add it to your own library for later access. I suggest checking out Mr. Bedell's blog if you are unfamiliar with how social networking works. There is a ton of useful information and he really breaks it down so you can actually understand what the concept is all about.
How Social Bookmarking Works

October 1, 2010-Professional Development 2.0-the Ebook
In my previous post, I mentioned that Mr. Bedell had made several posts on his idea Professional Development 2.0. When I went back to his blog this time, he had put all of these ideas and then some into an E-book. The E-book was great, much easier to read. In addition to his explanations on social bookmarking, PLN's and such, he added a tremendous amount of information. He talked about how any educator needs to be a Reflective Educator. A reflective educator is one who is open to constructive criticism, someone who can reflect on his methods and styles of teaching and be able to analyze himself, finding his own strengths and weaknesses and how he can improve. Mr. Bedell goes into talking about blogging, what it is, how to do it and the benefits of blogging. Here he states four valid reasons that one should blog; Accountability, Transparency, Community, and Validation. He talks about Conferences and Unconferences. An Unconference is basically the same idea as attending a Conference but with some major differences. A Conference is usually only open to educators, very expensive to attend, whereas an Unconference is open to the public and usually free. He gives resources on where to find Unconferences or how to start your own.

I think that the end product, the Ebook, looked great!!! Everything was stated very clear. For anyone that is curious as to what a PLN is, social bookmarking, networking, all of the things we are learning in this class, this book is really informative and goes into great detail. What I really like about it is that he explains AND illustrates, by example, how to do EVERYTHING. You should really check it out. These are things we are learning and experimenting with in class, but after reading Mr. Bedell's E-book, I really have a great understanding of how it all is put together and works. Professional Development 2.0-the Ebook

Blog Post #6

The Networked Student
What exactly is a "networked student"? A networked student is one who learns basically on his own, does his own research, connecting with other students in his own personal learning network. Networked students don't attend class, have no textbooks, and can ask their professor for help over the web. A personal learning network is an individual network in which you can follow or be followed by other students, teachers, or just about anyone. When you have information to share, you post it and others can comment or add information to build on.
So why does a networked student even need a teacher? The teacher provides information on how to build the student's network, how to properly use it, and helps him organize all of his information. If help is needed, the teacher provides it. This semester is my first experience with online/hybrid classes. Mostly every class I am taking is web-based and we only meet once a week, if any. This new style of learning connects you to people from across the globe and you can even connect to other colleges and professors which is a way of broadening your education.You get a wider range of information and it gives you the freedom to work at your own pace. I like that you have more resources than just the information from the text book. I think a good mix of both are definitely needed. A teacher will always be needed to provide instruction to those students who need it. Am I personally ready to be a teacher of a networked student? Of course. I don't totally disagree with the process and as technology is integrating itself more and more into the classroom, I will prepare myself for that. But I also won't forget that I am a teacher and that is what I am there to do, to teach and to guide my students in the right direction.
If you want to know more about what a networked student is, check out this video The Networked Student

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment
In this video a seventh grader demonstrates how she uses different online websites to organize all the information she needs for school. I thought this information was really informative and boy does this young lady have all of her stuff together! On her PLE, she has all of her resources organized onto one page, keeping her personal sites, like Facebook, separate from her school sites. She mentions that having a PLE could be distracting, but having the freedom to learn on her own gives her the initiative to be responsible and get her work done. I have only used a couple of sites that this girl has, but I am looking forward to broadening my own network. A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

The Machine is Changing Us
So I was almost put off by this video because it was 33 minutes. But once I started watching it, I got really into it. Dr. Wesch gave a great presentation on how the machine is changing us. He kept it interesting by relating to his audience on a personal level we could relate to by using humor, television clips and you tube videos. He talks about how over the years, the culture has tremendously changed. And how it is extremely important to find different ways to engage your students on a personal level. He talks about how using tools such as you tube has become the new way for people to express themselves without feeling awkward. He says that new media creates new ways of relating to others and also to knowing our own selves. As a future educator, I know that I have to find what's hip to my student's generation so that I can better understand what world they are coming from. Everything changes generation to generation and it is really important to know how to relate to and understand someone from a different generation than you. I really liked the analogy Dr. Wesch used about the word "whatever", how the meaning has changed so many different times over the years. How it began in the 60's as "I don't care", in the 90's to "I don't care what you think", and hopefully in the future it will come to be that the word "whatever" will mean "I do care and let's do what it takes. It shows how technology is changing how people live and work and view themselves and others. The Machine is Changing Us