Friday, September 28, 2012

Blog Post #5

1. The iSchool Initiative

Travis Allen made some very good arguments in his video The iSchool Initiative. School budgets are being cut, teachers are getting layed off, and classes are getting larger. He created the iSchool Initiative in hopes that one day, all schools will adopt this idea and become and iSchool. An iSchool does not use paper, pencil, copy machines, or books. Every student and teacher will have an iTouch that has iSchool apps.
ischool apps
There are apps for everything a student needs to learn and teachers need to teach. Books, workbooks, and library books are available with the touch of a finger. There is an app for note taking. iHomework is an app students use for homework. There are apps for scientific calculators, world and geography maps, and any science and math formula a student will ever use. Attendance, grades, and assignments are all recorded on the iTouch. The use of this technology in schools saves approximately $600 per student and only costs $150 per student. Travis hopes that with this initiative, people will see that technology is needed in classrooms today.

One of my biggest concerns that I have is the replacement of teachers in the classrooms. With technology advancing so rapidly, what if there comes a day where teachers are no longer needed? The education system is already in the process of deleting things that are no longer useful. Books are being replaced with computerized notebooks and soon students will not need to know how to write. Why? Everything is typed and done on computers. Writing is slowly becoming unimportant in education. I fear that soon, teachers will be replaced as well.

2. Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

I was completely amazed after watching Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir. His choir consisted of 185 people from all around the world. They performed 'Lux Aurumque' and it was uploaded to You Tube.
virtual choir
I would have never guessed that these people had never performed together before. They were so in tune with one another, you'd swear that they had performed a thousand times before together. This video shows you that with the use of the internet, anything is possible. It is truly astounding what people can do with the internet. I've never seen the internet used quite like this before.

3. Teaching in the 21st Century

In this video, Kevin Roberts ask the question, What does it mean to teach in the 21st century? Teachers are not the main source of knowledge anymore. Why? Students can find out information on anything, anywhere, and anytime. Resources such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, and many others give students all the information that they need. Teaching in the 21st century no longer consists of teaching just facts and content. Teachers need to be teaching students skills as well. In this fast-paced technological world, students need to know how to use all these resources properly. They need to know how to blog, how to comment, how to create podcasts and upload video to You Tube. Students also need to be taught how to handle these resources in a professional manner. Students still need to know the basic concepts remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. These basic concepts are extremely important to their education. And even though the tools that are used have changed from books, pencil, and paper to iPods, iPads, and cellphones, teachers can still teach students lessons that are relevant, challenging, and engaging.

As a future educator, it seems as though I am going to have to be on top of my game with my knowledge of technology. I am going to have to know how to use all the different resources available so that I can incorporate it with lessons I teach my students. Learning how to teach students in the 21st century is definitely going to be a challenge. I don't know everything I should about technology right now, but I am trying to catch up. It makes me a little nervous, but I'm sure that by the time I have my first class of students, I will know everything I need to know about teaching students in the 21st century.

4. The Flipped Classroom

In the first video I watched, Katie Gimbar, and eighth grade math teacher, discusses why she flipped her classroom. She states that ninety percent of class time is spent on delivery and review of the content. This means that most of the time, she is standing in front of the classroom lecturing. Ten percent of class time is spent on application of the content. This means that this is the time where students are actually applying what they learned in some activity. Before the flip, she was teaching to the middle group of the class. There was a group of higher level students in the back of the classroom that was bored with the material, and a group of struggling students that were being left behind.

classroom
Flipping the classroom consists of lecture videos that are made by the teacher for students. Students watch these videos at home before class the next day. They can pause, rewind, and re-watch the videos as many times as necessary. Students are able to post questions in a forum and the material is self-paced. Students know the content before class the next day. Therefore, ninety percent of class time is spent on application of the content, and ten percent on delivery of the content. It is more efficient for both teachers and students.

The second video is about Dr. Lodge McCammon and his program FIZZ. Dr. McCammon came up with the concept of flipping the classroom. He stated that he believes that there is too much lecturing in classrooms today which is one of education's biggest problems. All that time that teachers spend lecturing is not efficient and the students aren't engaged. He developed the program FIZZ, which trains teachers how to flip their classrooms and gives them a better understanding on how the concept "Flipping the Classroom" works.

I thought the concept of flipping the classroom was very interesting, but I don't think that I would use it in my teachings. Students already spend the majority of their days in school. Now we are giving them lecture videos to watch at home too? It just seems like there would be too many issues and conflicts with this concept. I really don't understand how you could teach your students a lesson through a video, and your students actually learn the concept. If you really feel that your students are not engaged in your lectures, then obviously the problem is you. It is part of your job as a teacher to create activities that go along with your lecture that will have your students engaged. You do not have to flip your classroom to do this.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Project #5 Presentation

Blog Post #4

Preparation For Podcast

Langwitche's 1st Grade Read Along Book

Langwitche explains in this post how the students created their own audio read along book. She worked with the classroom teacher to create the interview script. The script was recorded with the students as they read the book chapter by chapter.
Children's Podcast
After the scripts had been recorded, she created a booklet for each of the students using a template in Microsoft Word. They played the podcast and her students were able to listen to the audio while following along in their little booklets.
I think that this is a really great idea when you are creating your own podcast, especially if you have to present it in front of an audience. Sometimes, you can't hear or understand what someone is saying in a podcast. If that is the case, then a read along book would definitely give you a better understanding of what the author of the podcast is trying to present.

Langwitche's Listening-Comprehensive-Podcasting

In this post, Langwitche highlights the importance of listening (hearing) and comprehension in podcasts. She describes hearing not only as hearing the sounds of the letters that make up a word, but also the context. You have to hear all of the words around it and hear the flow of the sentence to help you understand what is being said. She also states how important language is. When you are speaking in any language, be sure to put emotion and feeling into your words by using pronunciation, volume, and tone. This gives your language a meaning.
In her class, she gave her students the opportunity to record and edit a portion of a podcast. The class was reading the story of Purim. Each student had to record and edit one sentence. They had to speak in Hebrew. They then worked together as a class to put the clips they had recorded in correct order to tell the story of Purim.
I thought that this was such a great idea. It was amazing to hear seven and eight year olds speak Hebrew so well. I didn't realize that with the use of podcasts, many different skills could be taught such as listening, comprehension, collaboration and speaking.

Langwitche's Flat Stanley Podcast

Flat Stanley
In this post, Langwitche's first grade students sent paper Flat Stanleys to relatives and friends around the country and recieved images and stories back. The class had just finished reading the book "Flat Stanley" which was about a little boy who got flattened and mailed himself to places all around the world. She gave them a homework assignment in which they had to pick a location and write a short script. The script had to include the location, how they got there(transportation), what they did at that location, and how they got back home.
In class, the students created a podcast and told their stories and adventures of all the places they had traveled to on their "Flat" journey.
I thought this was a really neat idea as a lesson in class. I really enjoyed listening to the students and all their adventures. You could definitely tell that the students had a lot of fun doing this assignment. They were very creative with their scripts and very enthusiastic in the podcast.

Project #3 C4T #1

On September 7th, 2012, Will Richardson posted on his blog and titled it "Why Does Algebra Need to be Tackled?" He had extreme concerns about the way Algebra is being taught. He doesn't understand why students are being put in front of computers to learn Algebra when so many are struggling with it in traditional classrooms. Dr. Moore, a professor at U.T. Arlington and an advocate of using this method to teach Algebra, said that he "hoped" the pass rate for Algebra would increase to 75 percent. Will Richardson commented that it seemed as though Dr. Moore didn't care at all about Algebra actually being relevant to students' lives. He said that maybe the goal was to just pass the course. He states that the way we talk about things have to change and the value we place on the exercise has to change.
My comment to his post asked the question, What happened to the teachers teaching? It seems as though teachers now have become lazy and just want to hand out a grade and for students to just pass the class. What about the students actually learning what they are being taught? I think that is more important.

Will Richardson titled his blog post "This is Student Learning" on September 17th, 2012. In this post, he very briefly talks about the definition of student learning from the Indiana DOE's RISE teacher evaluation system. Indiana's teacher evaluation system defines student learning as a teacher's contribution to academic progress over the course of the school year. All he had to say about that was "WOW."
I commented and said that "WOW" was right. There is no way you can base student learning solely on the teacher's contribution. A teacher can teach all day long, but if the student does not participate, the student will not learn. Also, academic progress is not the only thing that teachers should be focusing on. Part of a teacher's job is to instill their students with morals and values. They are there to be role models and prepare students for the adult world in the future.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Blog Post # 3

Peer Editing

Peer Editing Checklist
What is peer editing? Peer editing is working with someone to help improve, revise, and edit his or her own writing. When you are editing someone's writing, there are several different things to take into consideration. There are three steps in peer editing to use as guidelines. First step is to compliment. Always start out by giving them a compliment on their writing and tell them what they did well on. You don't want to be a Picky Patty and pick apart their writing. You also shouldn't be a Mean Margaret and give them only negative feedback. Second step is to give them some suggestions. You should give the person's writing that you are editing some specific ideas about how to make his or her writing better. Don't be frightened to do this. Give them suggestions on their word choice, organization, sentences, and topic. You can't be afraid to hurt their feelings, but just remember to stay positive. It's called constructive criticism.

The final step in peer editing is correction. Look at their grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Do they have run-on sentences or incomplete sentences? This is when you look at all the little details. Just remember, stay positive. You are helping them to become a better writer so that they can get the best grade possible. As you are writing, you can't see all the little mistakes you make. Therefore, it's always best to have someone look over your work. Just remember when you are peer editing someone's work or your work is being peer edited that you are helping each other to become better writers.

Technology in Special Education

Technology is special education has really affected the way it is taught in schools today. It has made a huge impact on special education students and a big difference in their lives. With the use of technology, students with special needs are able to learn better, faster, and more efficiently. Technology allows special education students to do things that they weren't able to do before. I think that it makes learning for them fun and really gives them the motivation they need so they don't feel too different from everyone else. I think that for teachers, technology is such a great thing for the special education program because teachers are able to communicate with their students much better. There is a better understanding for students and teachers of what is being taught and what the students are learning.

In my future classes, I can use technology in many different ways to teach my students that have special needs. For example, a student that is not able to be verbal can very easily communicate with computers. If a student is not able to see well, there are computer apps that can magnify the text. What if a student needs someone to read to him or her? That problem is easily solved with a pair of earphones and a computer app designed to read aloud and along with the book. Technology gives special education students the confidence they need to function and feel comfortable around other people in the everyday world.

Apple Apps for Special Education

Apple Apps
Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) Word Scramble App is a great app for students with Autism, Down Syndrome and language delays. This app can be used to practice spelling and vocabulary in a way that is fun. One of the things that I love about this app is that you can customize it to fit the needs of the student. For example, you can hide PCS symbols to focus on symbols that reinforce specific vocabulary words, letters, or phonology sounds. You can also turn the text labels off to practice listening skills as well. The word scramble decks include three letter words, four letter words, all the way up to eight letter words. There is a picture that goes with each word that is shown. The letters to the word are given to the student, but they are scrambled. The object is to spell the word out correctly.

PCS Word Scramble App would definitely improve learning, especially with a student that has special needs. It would help improve their vocabulary, spelling, speech, and their recognition skills. I would definitely use this in my classroom.

Harness Your Student's Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis, a teacher in Georgia, uses wikis, blogs, podcasts, virtual worlds, and other new media tools to connect her students with the world. With the use of all this different technology and media tools, she has created a learning environment that is fun for her students. They are able to communicate and share their ideas with people from all around the world. It really does open up students' learning capabilities because they have so many different resources available to them with the use of technology.

Vicki Davis stated in her video that with pencil and paper, only a certain kind of student is able to learn and succeed. With technology, every student is able to reach their full potential because technology is designed to fit everyone's needs no matter what kind of a learner you are. She also stated that many teachers veer away from the use of technology because they themselves do not know how to use it and they feel that they should know everything because they are the teachers. It's okay if your student teaches you something that you didn't know. It does not make you any less of a teacher.

I really do think that with the use of technology and the many different media tools we have available, teachers are able to teach better and more efficiently to their students. As a result, students are more involved in the learning process and actually enjoy it. Therefore, more students are more likely to succeed and become successful adults.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Blog Post #2

1. Did You Know?

Watching the video "Did You Know?" was an extreme eye opener. It's obvious that technology and people are advancing and becoming smarter everyday. Twenty-five percent of the population in India with the highest IQ's outnumbers the entire population of the United States. That means that India has more honor roll students than the United States. Are you kidding me? Apparently not. The fact that a super computer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain in the year 2013 really blows my mind. It scares me to think that technology is becoming smarter than humans.

I have realized that as I am preparing myself to be an educator, I need to be thinking about the things I am going to teach my students. With the world and technology advancing so rapidly, I am going to have to prepare my students for jobs that doesn't exist yet. I am also going to have to be ready for any questions and comments that my students have, because not only is technology advancing, but people are advancing as well. It seems as though I am going to have to be one step ahead of the game in order to be a successful educator in this very busy technological world.

2. Mr. Winkle Wakes

Mr. Winkle Wakes is about an old man waking up after 100 years of sleeping to find that the world had changed. Everything had changed except for one thing. He noticed all the busy people with their very busy machines. These machines were able to print pictures and documents on paper very quickly. In hospitals, he noticed there were X-rays and machines that kept people alive. He was overwhelmed by all the new technological advances. Then he went to school and immediately felt comfortable. Nothing had changed. The teacher stood in front of the class and lectured while students sat quietly taking notes. Mr. Winkle felt and ease of comfort because school had not changed.

This video holds very true with schools today. With all the advancing technology, it seems as though schools are having a hard time catching up. Therefore, children are falling behind. We cannot allow our children to fall behind because they are our future leaders. They are going to be the people running our country. One of our job as educators is to give our students access to different resources to help them learn. Technology is a fantastic resource to use for anything, especially education. Children have lost interest in school because nothing ever changes. There are no surprises, nothing to grab their attention. With the right technology in schools, teachers would be able to explore and introduce new ideas to their students and teach them in a way that has never been taught before.

3. The Importance of Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson makes an extreme eye-opening video about the importance of creativity in education. He says that education is meant to take us into a future that we can't grasp. He believes that creativity is as important to education as literacy is. He says that children will take a chance because they are not afraid of being wrong. As we become adults, we fear being wrong and do not want to make mistakes. In today's schools, children are being taught that making a mistake is the worst thing you could do. Schools are killing children's creativity by teaching them this concept. In the education system, Art is always the last subject to be taught on the list. In many school all over the world, dance and theatre aren't even taught. Public schools are based on two ideas. One, the most useful subjects for work are at the top. The second idea is academic ability. Apparently, everyone must be smart. This kind of thinking enables a child and lowers their confidence. Children are actually being taught that you have to be smart and perfect. Ken Robinson says that we need to rethink the fundamental principles in which we are educating our children. Our task is to educate children's whole being and to help them make something of their future.

I enjoyed watching this video. I thought that Ken Robinson made some very good points, and I agree with a lot of what he said. In today's schools, teachers are told to prepare their students for state testing. Therefore, teachers just cram an abundance of information into their students and students basically regurgatate it back on tests. As a consequence, students quickly forget the information because all they did was memorize. They didn't learn anything. I think our education system definitely needs to be re-thought out. It is our job as educators to prepare our students for the future and invoke creativity. Creativity is so important in education. It brings out new ideas, new thoughts, and new adventures. It opens up a whole new world. I strongly believe that if we incorporated more arts into our teachings that students would learn more and actually retain what they are being taught.

4. A Day Made of Glass

A world made of glass absolutely amazes my mind. The video demonstrated what the world will look like with the new advances of glass and technology. It will be apart of your everyday life. It will be in our homes, cars, hospitals, parks, and schools. This new glass technology will be everywhere. The amount of information that can be transferred from worlds away simply through glass is mind-blowing. This new technology will change the world and the way people live.

When I think about education and this new technology that they are creating, it would open up so many opportunities for children when used in schools. Everything you are teaching on the board in the front of the classroom is transferred straight to the student's tablets in front of them. the students are able to interact with one another on a huge activity board in which they can manipulate. I think this new technology is going to take the education system to a whole new level entirely. I am extremely excited about these new upcomings and cannot wait until they are available in schools.