Book Bistro

This week's comment 4 kids assignment was on a class from Earlham. I looked at and commented on Becca's post to her grandparents about Book Bistro. Book Bistro is a day, usually Friday, that one student shares a book that he/she has been reading. Students bring snacks during this time, and they act as if they are at a bistro. Becca has not shared her book yet, although I know she, along with the other students.

I commented that I think a day set aside for students sharing with others about books that have read or are reading is a great idea. Book Bistro probably gets more students engaged and excited about reading, especially if they know that they will get to share and eat food too. Students need to learn about different things that their peers are learning. Students sharing different ideas and topics is one way to gain knowledge. Also, by simply sharing a book or anything else with others, allows students to start learning the concept of networking, which is simply sharing information with others. Book bistro is a great day and idea! The class website can be found at, http://mrsgstudent.blogspot.com/.

Students posting work to blogs...

It is important for students to post their work to blogs (or in other ways) because it lets them feel important and like they have accomplished something. Being a student myself, I like to know that my work is appreciated, and by students having their work posted to blogs, it lets them feel like others appreciate their hard work. Posting work to blogs gives a sense of satisfaction. Also, by students posting their works to blogs, others can look at it and learn something new. Lastly, it is important for students to post work to blogs because it allows the student, parent, teacher, etc to look back at previous work and see improvements and progression.

I am currently taking EDM 310 (technology class) at USA. There are some examples that come to mind that demonstrate students posting work to blogs. One example is my EDM 310 class blog that I am posting to as I type. EDM 310 has other projects, but the main project that students participate in is posting to their individual class blog. Each week we have certain topics that we have to blog about, and this blog documents almost everything I do in this EDM 310 class, including some of the other assigned projects. This class blog is important because not only does it serve as documentation that I participated in class, but it also allows me to learn numerous things about technology. By posting my work versus just writing on paper, I along with the rest of the world can view my work. Viewing other's work can teach people and give them ideas. Blogs can be used as resources for anybody. My class blog link is www.bentonaedm310fall2009.blogspot.com. My EDM 310 class blog can be found at www.sullivansedm310fall09.blogspot.com.

A second example of students posting their work to blogs is the PS22 choir in New York City. Their site an be found at http://www.ps22chorus.blogspot.com/. This example shows that posting work to blogs is important for recognition of the student's hard work. Because their work has been posted to blogs, they have been invited to shows on MTV and ABC's Nightline. This exmaple also shows how the students enjoy what they do. To take a look at the work of the PS22 Choir, click here

Another example of students posting their work to blogs is Mr. McClung's class. He posts students work and activities to his class blog in order to let people see what the students are learning for the week. This allows others to not only know what the students are doing in school, but it also allows inspiration for others. Click here to view Mr. McClung's class blog

The final example that demonstrates students posting work to blogs is the Room 10 at PT England School. Their class website shows the different projects that the students complete. Such projects include letters and animations. By posting student's work to blogs, other family members besides immediate members can see what work the students are doing. Also, by posting to blogs, people from around the world can look and see what other students are doing. Click here to view Room 10's blog

Again, by posting student's work to blogs, many doors open for teachers, parents, and students. Parents, stuents, and teachers can track to work of students. Other teachers and students can gain inspiration from other's work. Posting work to blogs and in other ways, gives people more access to learning.

Google Form - Help your Teacher get to know you Better!

This is a form for me to get to know you as a student better. The questionnaire will only take a few seconds to fill out. I hope you enjoy!



click here to fill out the form

ACCESS

The ACCESS program stands for the Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide. ACCESS is a program by Governor Bob Riley. ACCESS is in place to try to provide all Alabama public high school students with equal, high quality education and educators. ACCESS is a distance learning program.

ACCESS provides all Alabama public high school students with high quality teachers in order to provide fair education across the state of Alabama. The goal of ACCESS is "Our Vision: The State of Alabama will provide equal access to high quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning" (ACCESS). ACCESS provides students and teachers with "Courses, Educators, Students, Resources, and Technical Support". ACCESS's Home page offers people with important dates, reminders, news, support centers, and more. Some of the resources that ACCESS provides to students and teachers are ALEX and the Alabama Virtual Library.

ACCESS is a distance learning program that will let all public Alabama high school students have an equal, high quality education. ACCESS has links for parents, students, and teachers. ACCESS is helpful because not all schools are fortunate enough to have the funding as other schools are, and ACCESS is allowing students from poorer schools have the same learning advantages as students from richer schools. ACCESS, to me, will help solve some social problems such as education being unequal for students of certain incomes. ACCESS will allow all students in the state of Alabama that are in high school a fair and equal chance at getting ahead in life due to the education offered to them. ACCESS's distance learning is a great plan of action. ACCESS has been going strong since November of 2004. It started off in Year One with about ten million dollars in funding, according to ACCESS's website, which can be found at, http://accessdl.state.al.us/. ACCESS is providing equality to every high school student that attends an Alabama public school.

ALEX

ALEX stands for the Alabama Learning Exchange. ALEX is a wonderful, useful tool for teachers in the state of Alabama. ALEX provides numerous materials and resources for teachers, which is always helpful to school systems. ALEX can be found at http://alex.state.al.us.

ALEX provides numerous resources for all types of teachers. ALEX specializes in all grades and all subject areas. The Home page of Alex has eight different boxes or links. Each one is a resource for teachers. The eight links include, "Courses of Study, Personal Workspace, Professional Learing, Help Box, Search Box, Podcast Treasury, Web Links, and Lesson Plans". Each of these breaks down into specific subgroups to further the resource. For example, under "Courses of Study", a teacher could search according to grade level, subject area, or keywords. Once a subject and grade are chosen, ALEX gives a list of different standards for that subject and grade; ALEX then provides web link(s) and lesson plans that relate to that standard. ALEX does this example for every grade and subject area.

Another great resource for teachers that ALEX provides is the "Professional Learing" box. ALEX provides teachers with the "Alabama Department of Education Program websites to find professional development opportunities, teaching and learning tools, the latest news, best practices and more" (ALEX). ALEX also provides teachers with a "Personal Workspace". Teachers have to have an account for this particluar tool, but the account is free. "Establishing an ALEX account allows you to create personal workspace for storing and submitting lesson plans and teacher web pages" (ALEX).

ALEX is very helpful to teachers. The links allow teachers to find any information that they might need in order to teach better, learn more, and overall be a more effective teacher to students from K-12. I know that once I start teaching, ALEX will be a Favorite on my cmputer becasue of the numerous resources that it provides. I can create lesson plans using ALEX that go right along with the grade and subject. I can look up different news, links, and practices using ALEX's resources. Anything that I might ever need to teach can be found on ALEX's website. ALEX is an essential tool or resource for teachers k-12.

Is the Internet making us stupid?

I do not think that Google or the internet is making anybody less smart. Times are changing, and technology is too advanced for people to not use the internet. Skimming and scanning is a way to research a little bit faster in order for a person to know if the material is right for the topic. People are not becoming stupid due to the internet. I believe in fact that the internet is making people more aware becasue not everybody likes to read in the first place. More people can research because of Google and the internet because it is much easier and quicker. It is how the people process the information given to them. Processing is an individual thing, not an internet thing. Google and the internet are helping our society versus making our society stupid!

Mr. Chamberlain, Kaia, and Intrepid Teacher

This week's assignment was different from most because all of the posts that were looked at went together. Every post had the same connection. The third post visited, which was the Intrepid Teacher was the event that happened first. Kaia's father is a teacher, and he was reading a book. While reading the book about nature, he decided to let his daughter go out and spend time in their nature. His daughter, Kaia, took pictures and then made a simple video essay about her pictures. The second post was about Kaia's pictures and nature experience in her own backyard. The lesson her dad was teaching her was "...even if they are discarded and ugly, they can be beautiful, if we look at them right" (Dear Kaia, http://is.gd/#WSsn). Technology available has made it to where a little girl that can't read can take pictures and still make an essay out of them by telling the audience what the pictures are.

Mr. Chamberlain's class partakes in Comments 4 Kids, and his class commented on Kaia's blog post. Because Kaia is not able to read yet, the class made her a voicethread to let her know what they commented on. Technology is so great and useful for these types of things. For a little girl to be able to communicate in some way with a class around the world is amazing! Also, Kaia's father Skyped to Mr. Chamberlain's class.

Technology is go advanced and useful if educators use what is available. Because of technology, a little girl can communicate, without being able to read, a teacher can communicate to another class that is around the world, and teachers and students everywhere can work together without having to ever have met one another. Voicethreads, Skype, video essays, and so much more are helpful to students and teachers both. It is so exciting to see what technology provides, and it is even more exciting to think what technology will be like in just 10 years!

To implicate these types of technology in the future, educators will be able to have their students communicate to other students around the U.S. as well as the world. The implications for teaching and learning is great for the future because technology is allowing everybody to be connected. Schools in the future are going to be different than schools now; the question is, how will schools be in the future with all of the new technologies available?

Comment 4 Kids (Week 2)

This week I looked at a class in England for year three. I looked at two different student's animations on the "Incey Wincey Spider". I thought that both animations were very well done. Both animations had great movement with the spider. Saadiya's animation had cloud, rain, and spider movement. Evan's animation had a great picture of the house. I really liked his drawing.

The basic assignment for the students were to create an animation with a nursery rhyme. I thought the assignment was a great way to incorporate technology and art. It looked as if the students really enjoyed this assignment, which in turn made me really enjoy viewing their works!

New Media Literacies Project

New Media Literacies is a great project for the education system, as well as the general public. New Media Literacies is a set of particular skills needed in order to be able to function in today's technological world. New Media Literacies has three main challenges, "...identifies the three core challenges: the participation gap, the transparency problem and the ethics challenge" (newmedialiteracies.org).

In order for young people to be able to participate in our culture and society, they must know the New Media skills because they are in place to know how to work in today's society. For young people to be able to form their own opinions and create works themselves, they must know how to gather information, collaborate, and synthesize. New Media Literacies will be able to equip students with the tools to be able to function in schools and the real world.

Being professional does not happen overnight. Professionalism is made up of different skills that a person obtains; not everybody has the skills needed to be professional. New Media Literacies is the set of professional skills needed for young people to work with. Every student needs to be taught New Media Literacies so that they will know how to act professional and develop professional thoughts and projects. New Media Literacies is a great educational project because it is helping our future by giving them access to the most recent technologies.

Comments 4 Kids

The class blog that I read was about Mr. McClung's class. The post I read was about his week's activities. The first activity he did with his class was on the topic of genetics. His activity was putting Popsicle people together in pairs in order to show genes. From what I read, it sounded as if the students really enjoyed it.

The other point he made in his post was about Tie Tuesdays. Every Tuesday, he and his students wear ties to school. It is a Mr. McClung "thing"; however, they hope that it will catch on throughout the school, as well as other schools. I think Tie Tuesday is a fun way to connect people together. Tie Tuesday is such a simple thing to show people unity.

His last comment was on the fact that everybody has not so great weeks. His week was stressful, yet he always looks for the positives. I think that everybody has weeks that get them down, but they can't let them bring them down completely. Tough weeks make the good weeks even better.

I really enjoyed reading Mr. McClung's post, and look forward to reading more.

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler

The Networked Student video by Ms. Wendy Drexler was very inspiring and helpful, as well as knowledgeable. Ms. Drexler's view on the 21st century student is up-to-date with everything else going on in the world as far as technology goes. Ms. Drexler has marketed the "networked student", and I believe that students should be networked in today's technological world.

I had never really thought about a student needing outside networks for school. I am more of a traditional student, and the only source I use besides an actual book is the internet. Even though I love a traditional chalk board, text books, and pencils, times are changing. Teachers as well as students have to change with the time, or people will be left behind. Ms. Drexler's video on networking with students sends a powerful message that students need more than just an instructor telling them what to do; students need to learn how to find information, and who to look for when trying to gain information. Networking provides that plus so much more.

A networked student is able to use outside sources such as Delicious, iTunes University, Google Scholar, Skype, Blogs, and Wikispaces plus a teacher to gain information about different educational subjects. The video asked the question, "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?". The video then responded that a networked student needs a teacher to guide that student in the right direction, learn how to build a network, learn how to communicate properly, and many other things. A teacher acts as a "learning architect, modeler, and synthesizer" (Wendy Drexler's The Networked Student). A student could not properly know or understand how to network or become networked without a teacher.

Am I prepared to be a teacher of a networked student? I am learning everyday how to be a networked student myself right now. My EDM 310 class is the number one tool that I have in order to teach me how to network. I think that once I am a teacher, I will know a lot more about networking. Networking with students will help me teach other students how to network. I think that networking is something that students can help teachers with as well because students are always finding new websites to visit, such as Facebook. Before Facebook was open to anyone, it use to be open to just college students. Students found and used the website, and now teachers can be found on there as well. Facebook is just one example of a network site; there are many many more as well as more to come in the future. Being a networked student is very important in today's world. Books and pencils are just not cutting it; technology is too far advanced to not use to resources available, and using different resources is how a person can become networked.

This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2: Richard Miller

Richard Miller's videos or presentations on This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2 was very inspiring to watch. I think in today's society, people are stuck between the old writing and reading and the new writing and reading. I think our world is becoming mostly technologically based, and the older ways of doing things are eventually going to be dead.

The old way of read or writing is just that; students or teachers or anybody that needed any type of information only had books to turn to in order to do research. Text was only in the form of actual paper in a real place, such as a newsstand or library. Just as Richard Miller mentioned in his This Is How We Dream videos, writing has and is changing. The new way to read or write is to basically listen and watch. Instead of reading, people can watch or listen to things. Instead of writing, people can collaborate with other's works and make new, modified works.

Multimedia writing is becoming more and more common, especially among universities or colleges and other schools. An incremental change that Richard Miller talked about in his videos was the fact that people's use of reading and writing has changed; people use laptops versus paper, word processing, and desktops. Any person can do almost anything and everything on the computer or internet. Books or texts have "dual lives" according to Richard Miller. Books have a temporary space in the form of an actual book or text that can be picked up at home, school, or library. Books also have a permanent place on the internet; books or texts are slowly becoming web-based. Anybody doing research can find mostly everything on the internet without having to step foot inside a library. The method of information being web-based is for the purpose of "sharing knowledge infinitely" (Richard Miller's This Is How We Dream Part 1). An example that Richard Miller gave when using multimedia writing was his MLK project. He used the documents of print, sound, and visuals to create one project.

Multimedia writing needs to become more prevalent among students and teachers today because the use of multimedia is growing. Teachers need to be prepared to write with multimedia, and I think that I am prepared to write with multimedia. This EDM 310 class is helping out with some multimedia writing by just learning the basics of technology. My future students will eventually have to learn how to write with multimedia as well. I will have to teach them so that they will be effective in the process. I do think that students today will be at least aware of multimedia writing if they do not know how to write with multimedia already. Multimedia has many different functions. The main function is to collaborate with different types of media and people to create a new work that shares information or knowledge.

Another thing that Richard Miller mentioned that I agree with is the fact that we need inspiring teachers. Teachers need to want to share information together and openly. Teachers need to share openly because that is another way of learning and creating. Also, for multimedia writing to become effective, there need to be "inspiring spaces" as well as "inspiring teachers" (Richard Miller's This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2). Multimedia writing is more useful today than regular publication because multimedia writing gets across to more people faster. As Richard Miller mentioned in his example in his This Is How We Dream video, if he had not put his video on the internet, then people would not have received his message quickly if at all. The new "publication pushes ideas into our culture" (Richard Miller's This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2).

New Media Literacies by the NML staff

This short YouTube video was interesting to watch, and more importantly, it makes you think about what media literacy is. As one of the NML staff stated, media literacy is "a set of skills that everybody needs to deal with our culture today" (www.youtube.com/user/NMLstaff08). I think that the New Media Skills are obvious because every single time a person searches the internet, they have to judge the content, negotiate, and play in order to fully understand what it is that they are reading or researching. Some of the New Media Skills mentioned are judgement, play, negotiation, multitasking, and simulation. Those are just a few of many New Media Skills needed in order to be able to participate in today's culture.

I think that the New Media Skills are 21st century skills needed to be effective artists, citizens, and workers because the 21st century is all about media and technology. I do think that these set of skills were needed even before the 21st century, even though technology was not prominent. An everyday person needs at least some of these skills in order to function in everyday life. To effective in life, people have to determine what is reliable (judgement), how to participate in groups (negotiation), how to problem solve (play), and how to function many things at once (multitasking). These skills are very important for today's society with there being so many different opinions and or facts out on the internet and in the media, but even when media or internet did not exist, people still needed these skills just to function in a society.

I would like to think that I possess every single New Media Skill; however, I probably realistically possess half of them at least. A lot of these skills people do or have naturally, and they do not really think about them. As mentioned before, people use these skills on a daily basis, and more times than not do people even not know that they are using the skills. On a daily basis, I possess the judgement, play, negotiation, multitasking, performance, and visualization skills. Actually when really thinking, most people, including myself, really use all of these skills at some point throughout the day or week at school, work, or home. To acquire the other skills that a person does not have, he/she needs to find out what the skill means, and then try to use that skill at some point. For me, when I make a point to use a skill, whether it be a New Media Skill or not, I practice using that skill until it becomes natural for me to use it.

I really enjoyed watching this video on New Media Skills. I think that people will be more aware of the skills that they possess or do not possess after watching it because people can use them and not know it.

EDM 310 Fall 2009 Class Photo

iPods in Instruction

iPods are can be very useful in the classrooms for the purpose of instruction. iPods can be used to play music, listen to podcasts, watch videocasts, and more. iPods provide just one more tool for teachers to use in their classrooms. Technology is so advanced today that teachers have more and more technological devices available for use, including the iPod.

In one site, Mississippi is reported to get a two year grant from AT&T to support an innovative "Early Educators" program. "The "Early Educators" program will provide instructional interventions to younger students from older students, using iPods and instructional podcasts" (Mississippi Department of Education News Release). This information can be found at its site, http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/Extrel/News/2009/09AT&TMSCenter.html. This site's information includes the support of providing innovative technological tools for MS schools and teachers.

Another great site that supports the use of iPods in the classrooms can be found at, http://mtsu32.mtsu.edu:11218/PDFs/Using%20iPods%20in%20the%20ESL%20Middle%20School.pdf. This site gives the results of a group of middle schoolers reading books with teachers and iPods. The results concluded that both teachers reading aloud and students using only iPods to read books produced about the same results. the difference is that the students liked using the iPod better because it comes with music, ease, and field journals.

Duke University did a study for the use of iPods in instruction, and the website can be found at, http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf. Basically they concluded that iPods strenghtened the academics of students. iPods engaged the students more, increased both collaboration and communication, and enhanced support for individual learning. The iPod, they concluded, is an easy-to-use tool for both the faculty and students. The iPod has many different educational purposes, which include course content dissemination tool, classroom recording tool, field recording tool, and study support tool.

Based on my research for iPods in instruction, I think that iPods can be a very innovative technological tool for both students and teachers. I looked at many different websites about iPods used in education, and I found that most people or educators think iPods are very beneficial to education.

iTunes U

iTunes University is great teaching tool for educators or students. iTunes University is free to anybody and everybody. To get iTunes University, people only have to download the iTunes Store, and then iTunes University will be under or in the iTunes Store. As stated in the introduction video of iTunes University, "'iTunes U' offers the advantage that users can listen or view a piece of content on their computer or download for use with a mobile device" (http://is.gd/2c3RH). iTunes University is open to anyone with a computer or iPod or mobile device. Anybody, including teachers or students, can explore this site and find numerous helpful topics about pretty much anything.

iTunes University can be helpful to teachers or students. As a teacher, resources are very helpful and useful to have access to; iTunes U provides people with other's ideas and works or lectures. A teacher can go to iTunes U and search a specific school or teacher and listen or watch something about the topic of their interest. One example is going to the link under the section 'Categories' and clicking 'Teachers and Education'. Under that link, people can browse any subject and find something about that particular subject. Also, under the section 'Find Education Providers' people can click on 'Colleges or Universities' and search a specific school. USA is not a university under that section, but other colleges in Alabama that are listed are Auburn University and the University of Alabama. Under those colleges' sites, there are specific people related to that university. Some professors put their lectures on iTunes U, so if a student misses class, they could possibly hear the lecture missed. Also, a student doing research for something can find out different ideas or takes on a subject from different universities or colleges around the world. iTunes U provides many outlets for teachers and students.

Another useful tool that iTunes U provides is the 'Top Downloads' link. Number 15 on Saturday October 3rd, 2009 was the link of Yale Science's "Science Saturdays" by the artist Ainissa Ramirez. This particular link provides people with basic foundations of science. Any teacher or student can use this to learn or teach parts of science. Teachers or students need different types of resources for teaching or learning. Both teachers and students have the textbooks and the internet, but iTunes U is another different type of resource tool. iTunes U provides information on almost any subject that can be useful to both teachers and students.

Important links include:
1) Teaching and Education under 'Categories'
2) Colleges and Universities, K-12 under 'Find Education Providers'
3) 'Top Downloads'

Specific Links:
1) Teaching and Education under 'Categories' then select "Games-based Learning"
2) Colleges and Universities under 'Find Education Providers' then select Auburn University

Alice (Dr. Christie)

I really enjoyed this website. The whole site has great and useful information for educators. As stated in the website, "It is a comprehensive resource for educators wishing to use technology in their classrooms" (www.alicechristie.org). I chose to focus on the section called "Educational Technology". There are many different links that can help future educators as well as educators now in incorporating technology into the classroom.

The Educational Technology section of Dr. Christie's website is very helpful. This section can be useful to educators because there are many different links that people can click on which takes them to a site. One site had an introduction, lessons, an interactive map, and resources. This particular site or link within Dr. Christie's site can be useful for teachers to pick a topic to discuss that relates to one of the link's lessons. They could incorporate that link into their everyday lesson plans. If any teacher needed help to find technology ideas, any of these links can be useful. Another link talks or discusses cameras. The link has all the different types of cameras and information on them. Students could learn not only the up-to-date type of cameras but as well as the older types of cameras.

Again, all of the links within the Educational Technology can be helpful to educators because the links provide teachers with resources and technological ideas. Any teacher can use outside help on a subject, and this site of Dr. Christie can be a positive, creative, and effective teacher tool to use in the classroom. Teachers are always in need of resources, and this site provides just that and more.