Blog Assignment 15: Final Reflection

PLN Project 10: Final Report

I don't think it is possible to make a "Final" report on a PLN, because it is always evolving. However since we are assigned to do so I will let you know were it stands at the moment.

To start the most important thing I have learned to use this semester would have to be Symbaloo. At the beginning of the semester we were encouraged to use either Symbaloo, Netvibes, or iGoogle in order to help us get started. I chose Symbaloo because it is easier to setup and less confusing. I have tiles that are links to all the major sites that I use on a daily basis. For mine and Kayla Nelson's Final Project we created a start of page for EDM310 with all the links we think are helpful. Follow this Link to add it to your Symbaloo page.

I have also become very fond of Twitter over the semester. At the start I was really skeptical of how this would help me at all, but as time has gone by I have realized differently. I have found tons of useful links by following hashtags such as #sschat, #historyteacher, and #edchat. The point at which I realized the power of Twitter had to be when I was looking for someone to interview for my Skype Project. I sent out an open invitation and added the hashtags mentioned above and within 15minutes was able to connect with a Mr. Pitner, a teacher in San Luis, Arizona.

Another thing that I have come to rely on everyday is Google Reader. It took me a little while to figure out how to use it, but now it is part of my daily routine to look at it and get my news. I have been able to keep up to date on everything from the daily sports news to keep track of every time there is a post added to the EDM310 Class Blog by subscribing to the blog feeds. I was able to find an app for my phone that allows me to check them where ever I am, which has made it easier to collect the happenings of the day.

As I stated in the opening of this post my PLN will continue to grow. With the tools I have learned from this class I will be able to learn something new everyday which has always been my lifetime goal.

C4T#4 Summary Post

In this C4T assignment I was assigned to comment on the blog, Primary Preoccupation, by Mrs. Cassidy. Mrs. Cassidy is a first grade teacher in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada.

The first post I commented on was Making Video Without a Face. In this post Mrs. Cassidy explains an assignment she had her students do in which they were to tell a story by making a video, but in order to protect their image she did not allow their faces to be in the video. I, as well as some of the other students in EDM310 that commented on this post, stated that we thought this was a great way to get the students focused on the assignment as opposed to the camera. I imagine that if the students were looking at the camera they would be more nervous and have trouble conveying the story the way they planned in because they would have a little stage fright. I know that I personally don't like to be on camera because of stage fright. She asked at the end of her post if we had any ideas for this project, and I suggested making cartoons. When I was a child I loved to draw and would have enjoyed telling a story with my own art. Mrs. Cassidy commented that she thought that was a great idea, but that none of her students had expressed any interest in trying it. Hopefully in the future one of them would like to try it. I would like to see what they come up with.

The second post I commented on was On Being Learners and Being Teachers. In this post Mrs. Cassidy explains of how her students Skyped with teachers in Colorado and taught them how to use Skype. Mrs. Cassidy commented on how her students reversed there usual role to become the teachers. She was blown away by the answers she received to the question, "Why we use Skype?" Her students came up with four answers on their own:
1)Because we learn.
2)Because we get to meet new people.
3)Because we help other people to learn.
4)Because we don’t have to go to their town to talk to people.
How awesome is it that first graders were able to come up with these answers without provocation? I thought that this would be a great assignment for high school level students. When I get in the classroom I may have my students Skype with an elementary class and teach them a lesson about history.

In closing I cannot express how much I have learned from the teachers that I have been assigned to comment on this semester. Thank you Dr. Strange for coming up with these assignments. I know that what I have experienced through this assignment will help me in the future.

Final Project: Symbaloo

At the beginning of the semester, I wasn't sure what all to add to my symbaloo in order to help me in EDM310. Kayla Nelson and I created a Symbaloo webmix that serves as a starting point for future students of EDM310. This webmix features every possible link and tool that a student will need to use or could use to enhance their experience in EDM310.




Step 1: Go to symabloo
Step 2: Create a user name and a password
Step 3: Select Start your webmix
Step 4: Next, click Add a Webmix at the top right
Step 5: Search EDM310 (the description will say "this webmix will help get you started on symbaloo")
Final Step: click add this page!!!!!!!

To View Our Webmix: EDM310

Special Metaphor Assignment (Blog Assignment 14)

I am one of the six students that got the metaphor in Mr. Spencer's post Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home. To those who missed it please don't take this as an insult, but I thought it was obvious. I guess the reason I understood the metaphor was because I felt that there was no way Dr. Strange would have us read a post that didn't involve technology in the classroom. The context of our class is not about the terrible use of testing in todays schools, it is about the use of technology to make learning better for our future students. Yes, we focus a good bit on how to change this paradigm, but whether we like it or not at the moment all we can do is voice our opinion on how we need to change this broken system. To me a very sarcastic individual I was impressed by the off handed way Mr. Spencer uses his blog to voice his opinion.

To the question of what metaphors I have encountered since this assignment, I could not possibly write them all down because of the frequency with which I use them myself. Like I have said I am a very sarcastic individual, and most of my jokes come form metaphors. I have recently started to understand that this is one of the reasons some of my coworkers find me to be mean. I don't often try to hurt peoples feelings, but sometimes they don't get my metaphors so think that I am trying to be mean. I have lately been trying to cut back on some of the instances in which I use them in general conversation in order to not hurt peoples feelings.

One of the reasons I love history so much is because with the knowledge that can be gained from history we can understand what is meant by certain metaphors. I can think of many times when I laugh at something said in a movie or television show that I laugh at but no one else seems to think is funny because of referrals to certain historical events and individuals. I want to make my students be able to understand those jokes. Sometimes a movie that I find as hilarious most of my friends and family don't like because they don't get the jokes.

I also found this blog post, Metaphors For History, that may help some of my fellow Social Studies majors use metaphors in the classroom.

We use metaphors to explain certain situations or people easier. For example, if we say that the internet is a river of knowledge, we automatically know that the internet is not an actual river, but we understand that it is a constantly flowing source of knowledge. Using metaphors shortens that explanation for us. I hope that we all use this assignment to discover the vast expanse of language open to us with the use of metaphors.

Blog Assignment 13

Alabama Learning Exchange, or ALEX, is a place for teachers to find lesson plans, links, and podcasts to help with planning in their classroom. For example while exploring the site I found a lesson plan in which students used a class wiki to make a class presidential election. The students created websites for their parties and candidates and eventually elected a president. Their are also podcasts for various subject areas. I personally explored the social studies podcasts and found podcasts for many Alabama history topics and historical figures. There are also links to professional development opportunities.

Since my wife is a teacher I asked her about how her school uses ALEX. Her school uses ALEX as a credit recovery system. Students who fail a subject participate in a distance learning program in order to relearn subject matter that they were before unable to master. She personally uses ALEX to find methods that already work and are fashioned towards the Alabama course of study.

As a teacher I would definitely use ALEX in order to help me with my lesson plans. I would also be interested in sharing my own lessons that are successful so other teachers can come up with ideas for their classroom. I feel it is important for teachers to share ideas outside of the school you work in. The more minds that come together, the more great ideas can be come up with.

ACCESS is a site dedicated to distance learning for Alabama Students. There are AP exam reviews for teachers to use to help students prepare for the tests. Students also have access to these learning materials in order for them to prepare outside of the classroom. There are also AHSGE remediation materials for students who have had trouble passing the exam. There are also lists of available online courses for students to take in remediation and in the AP level.

Progress Report on Final Project

I know this is not what anyone wants to hear, but I have been so busy with my other classes lately that I haven't had a chance to get started on the Final Project. I will have more time to work on it next week.

Project 15: Book Trailer: The Story About Ping

Blog Assignment 12

There is a lot of knowledge to be gained from Twitter, but how can we find people to follow other than those provided by Dr. Strange? A good start is to search hashtags relevant to your field. For example you can try #edchat, #historyteacher, #sschat, etc. Search for a few hashtags that are relevant to your future teaching field and 1)find a link and write a short summary of it and 2) find out what you can about the teacher that posted the link and post it to your blog.



I found this tweet several weeks ago while looking at #sschat. The link is to the History.com Topics page. As a future history teacher this site interested me. I explored the site a little and found an interactive map of Europe that has presentations and videos of several different events during WWII. This will be a great tool to help keep my students interested during class while teaching pretty much anything.

The teacher that posted this link in Kris Larson and can be found on Twitter @LarsonKr. She is an AP Government teacher at Central High School in St. Joseph, MO. Central High School also has a Twitter page that can be followed @CHS_Indians.


I also found this video about the basics of Twitter on Teacher tube.

Project 14: Teach Someone Something

I thought I would show people how to make a link button on their blog. I hope this helps.

Special Assignment: Mr. McClung's World

Mr. McClung's World is the perfect example of how I would like to construct my future class blog.

In the Mr. McClung tab of the blog Mr. McClung mentions that he is a lover of music and if you look at the left hand side of the blog you will find a song of the week. I am not much of a music lover, but I would probably put the score of my favorite sports teams games as well as the scores for the teams from the school I teach at.

I would say that Mr. McClung is a very dedicated teacher. It takes time to create a blog with as much information as this one. Mr. McClung is the kind of teacher I would like to be. He seems to really take an interest in what he is doing and in the life of his students.

The first thing that struck me in Mr. McClung's Class Rules is "Stay Positive." I am a glass half full(metaphor) kind of guy, and this is what I want all of my students to do. I was also impressed by the gestures and responses he requires of his students. It must be a fun class. I feel that it is paramount to learning to keep the students entertained. This is an innovative way to keep the kids awake and I am really interested in trying some of these methods in the future.

The first thing under the heading of "Everyone Needs", in the Syllabus tab, is a daily planner. This is important for the students to have. This will help them keep tabs on what they have to get done and when they need to have it done by. Mr. McClung outlines his penalties for late work under this same heading. This is closeto the penalties we have for our work in EDM310, except we will probably be worse off if we are late with our work.

Under Welcome Mr. McClung outlines what he is doing with his class blog. I hope to do much the same thing with my classes in the future. I will probably post links to current events and other "cool" stuff that may interest the students.

The first link I checked out under Useful Links, was to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. I was interested in looking at this site because I am a history buff. I found links to articles about the Third Riech and Concentration Camps among several others. I have already bookmarked them on delicious.

I also looked at the link World War II Propaganda. Again this interests me because I love history. It is a shoot off form the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website. It show some of the propaganda that the Nazi's employed during WWII.

These sites would be useful in a history class to give students a starting place for research papers. I am sure these are on the list of useful links so Mr. McClung's students can easily find information that will make their assignments easier.

In the post Internet Safety Mr. McClung sets out some guidelines for his students to follow to help keep them safe from online predators. I am not able to think of anything that I would add. I really like the idea of giving the students a generic email address to give when one is required.

In our C4K assignment last week I was assigned a video from the talent show. I took a look at some of the other videos on the blog and found some really good videos of kids describing certain events that they had been learning in class. I really like this use of technology. The students can use videos made by their peers to continue learning necessary information.

The chat button on the right hand side of the blog is neat. I think it would be nice to be able to chat with people who are looking at my blog while I am on the computer.

Mr. McClung's blog would be useful to parents in that it will allow them to keep tabs on when their kids have assignments due. I know for a fact my mom would have loved to have this tool in order to make sure I did all my homework on time. Administrators could use this blog to show off the learning that their students are accomplishing. I am sure Mr. McClung's principal is very happy to show off this site, or if he hasn't he should it is amazing.

This blog differs from the others I have looked at in that is so in depth. It seems that nothing happens in class that is not on this blog. I don't see where Mr. McClung gets the time, but I am glad he does. I am sure his students appreciate his hard work.

C4K Summary 7,8,9, and 10

In C4K #7 I was assigned to comment on a video from the post Talent Show. I was assigned to comment on the video "T-Man Showing Off His Piano Skills." I was quite impressed by the young mans talent because there isn't a musical bone in my body. I also watched each of the videos under that post and each one of the participants did a great job.

In C4K #8 I was assigned to the post Tribute to Jules Verne in which a student had written a descriptive paragraph about the ocean. I advise anyone who reads this post to take a minute to click the link and read what they wrote. It really is impressive. Also, after commenting on this post the teacher of the Wildcat Writers e-mailed me to tell me thank you and ask how we found her class blog.

In C4K #9 we were all assigned to explore Ms. Yollis' Class Blog. Ms. Yollis' blog has quite a lot of stuff going on with it. She has videos on how to comment and how to take good digital photos. There is also a page in which she shows her students how to write html code. Personally the page on how to write html has been very useful to me in EDM310. On the write hand side of her blog there is a flag counter that keeps track of all of the different places that people visit from. She also has a page devoted to the time zones for all of the different regular visitors to their blog. In order to keep parents involved with her class Ms. Yollis has a Family Blogging month. In this month the family of her students are encouraged to comment on their children's blog. I think this is a great idea. Not only will the students have the thrill of seeing their parents and family members comments, but they are also helping teach their family how to blog.

In C4K #10 I was assigned to comment on the blog Miriam's Magical Moments. I commented on the post Kayaking to Captain Cook Monument. Miriam made me want to go on a vacation to Hawaii after reading her post. I also gave her a link to a site with information about Dolphins since it seemed she was interested in them after her trip to Hawaii. I didn't leave a link to my blog on the comment, but she was still able to find it and comment on my book trailer. I plan to comment back on her blog as soon as I finish with this post.

Blog Assignment 11

The video by first graders in Mrs. Cassidy's class, Little Kids... Big Potential, is a joy to see. The children in her class really seem to enjoy what they are doing. I feel that Mrs. Cassidy is probably going to be a teacher that these kids will remember as their favorite for years to come. I am interested in using blogs in much the same way these children use theirs. I want to have my students post their papers on their blogs as opposed to hand it in to me so that their friends and families can see what they have accomplished. I also like how the children described the class wiki. With the links Mrs. Casssidy put on the wiki the children were able to find the learning games without having to use a search engine. In my opinion this method makes the use of technology in the class safe. The kids also discussed how they should only be nice in their comments to their fellow students. I do think this would be tough to overcome in a high school classroom. The only possible solution to keep comments positive will be for me to make sure that I have to approve all comments before they show up on the blog.

Mrs. Cassidy's skype interview with Dr. Strange was also very informative. This is the second time this semester I have realized how important it is for us to comment on kids blogs in our C4K assignments. She described how happy the kids get when people just view what they have posted. When we comment on the students blogs all over the world it makes them feel famous. I wish when I was in school people would have done this for my work. I am sure it makes the children want to write. I was also happy to hear about how her PLN helps her. In the short time I have used twitter I have been thoroughly surprised about how much I have learned from it. I suggest to anyone reading this post to find a hash tag to follow (ie. #sschat, #edchat, #historyteacher, etc.) that pertains to your future subject. I have found many great links to sites and lesson plans that I can use when I finally get into a classroom.

C4T#3 Summary Post

I was assigned to comment on the blog of Greta Sandler, About A Teacher. You can follow her on Twitter @gret.

The first post I commented on was, Blended Instruction With Blogs and Wikis for Young Learners. This post gave a link to a recording of a presentation she and Shelly Terrell. They talked of how they use blogs and wikis in their classroom. The presentation takes about an hour and a half to listen to, but there is a lot of great information. I commented on how they keep parents involved in the class through these avenues. I feel that with blogs and wikis we will be able to show off the good work that our students accomplish. Don't y'all remember how great it felt when your parents put your good grades on the refrigerator for everyone that came over to see? Imagine that being available for everyone to see and anyone in the world can comment on your accomplishments. They both said that their students absolutely love it when someone from another area of the world says something about their work. This makes me really excited about what we do for our C4K assignments, and even more determined to use blogs and wikis in my future classroom.

The second post I commented on was, rscon11 Creating Safe Learning Environments. This post direct you to another of Greta's recorded presentations. She talks of how to create a safe learning environment for her class. The point that interested me the most was her talk of making the classroom "our" class as opposed to "the" class. I am a very I am a very competitive person which is why I play sports, but I don’t think the classroom is a great place for competition. When students help each other like they’re a team the kids that understand the material can help the others that don’t quite get it just yet by telling them what helps them understand it. Sometime we as teachers may not be able to get our point across to every student, but another student may be able to get it across to them.

I really suggest you subscribe to her rss feed. You will not be disappointed.

Blog Assignment 10

In Morgan Bayda's post, An Open Letter to Educators, she directs you to the video above by Dan Brown. Dan is a recent college student who dropped out because he was frustrated with the college education he was receiving. He was upset that he had to sit in a classroom and listen to a professor spit out information that he would later have to memorize and regurgitate for a test. He felt, that with information now being "free" and "liberated" on the internet, these types of classes hindered his learning as opposed to increasing it as college is supposed to.

Personally I feel for this young man. I have dropped out of school twice for much the same reason. In the past I often felt that classrooms and professors had nothing to offer me, because they were giving me information that I either already knew or could find without spending so much on a college education. However, I realized quickly that all the knowledge in the world can't help you get a job when most employers that could benefit from that knowledge will not hire someone that does not have a degree. Hence why I am now back in school.

I value being introduced to this avenue of thought immensely though. As a future teacher I will strive to make my students aware of the value of being able to find information as opposed to just memorize facts for a test just to forget them at the end of the semester, or worse, immediately after the test. In this new technological age we are afforded an opportunity that no other generation before us has been able to benefit. We are able to find anything and everything we could want to know a the touch of a button. We as teachers are responsible for keeping kids interested, and with technology we can help them learn more than just the information they need for our class we can also help the find answers to every other question they have for the rest of their lives.




In Mr. Spencer's post, Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home, he tells a story about a teacher who lets his children take home their pencils. The teacher is confronted by a colleague who is worried that if the children take home the pencils they will just play with them instead of use them for what they are supposed to. The post is honestly funny and I think everyone should read it.

I like how Mr. Spencer uses this blog. I may be stating the obvious, but he is using pencils in place of computers. With this post he attempts to answer the question of whether or not teachers should give students homework assignments that use their "pencils." The teacher says he teaches the parents basic uses for the "pencil" so they can be help for their children with their assignments. I love how this post uses sarcasm to prove a point that, yeah kids may use the "pencils" for games, but they may be learning while playing those games. If we give our students assignments that make using "pencils" fun, and their parents are there to help them they will be able to learn more.

Project 12 Skype Interview

Follow this link to check out Mr. Pitner's Class Wikipage

C4K Summary 4,5, and 6

In comment number four I was assigned to comment on a post by a student in Mr. Wolfe's fourth grade class in Birmingham, AL. The post I was assigned to comment on was titled African and Indian Elephants. The student did a great job of research on the elephants. They asked what our favorite animal was and I answered Giraffes. I gave them a link to a encyclopedia article about giraffes so they could learn some more.

In comment number five I was assigned to comment on a student named Selena a Pt. England School in year seven in Room 20. Unfortunately I was late with my post I just never saw it earlier. She created a survey using a Form in Google Docs to ask her classmates where they would like to travel to. She then used the data she collected to create a pie chart of her results. Check out her Blog to see what the students said. I told her out of the locations she gave the option to go to I would have chosen Russia.

In comment number six I was assigned to comment on Ryan's Blog Post Egypt. I was unable to find out much about the kid that authors this blog, but from what I can gather he is a preteen or teenager. He commented on the situation in Egypt and equated it to the American Revolution. I was very impressed to see such a young man interested in what was going on over there. I posed to question to him that although it is great that the people of Egypt gained their freedom, don't you feel that the example they gave to the rest of the nations of the region may pose a threat to our national security. I am very glad a young person is paying attention to current events.

Blog Assignment 9

In Mr. McClung's post, What I Learned This Year, he summarizes some of the things he learned during his first year of teaching at the elementary school level. He touches on points such as reading a crowd, being reasonable, and never stopping learning.

Mr. McClung's first point of his reflection was how he learned to read a crowd. He states that during his college career he became so focused on the content of the things he was to learn and write about that he lost touch with the fact that when he became a teacher the lesson no longer involves only him. I thought about this for a few minutes and realized that is exactly what I do when I write a paper. I forget that what I am putting on paper needs to be directed at an audience that may know nothing of the topic I am trying to write about. When we become teachers we have to be able to make our lessons understandable to our audience. Students are most likely learning what we are presenting to them for the first time. It is paramount that we remember our audience when creating our lessons.

Another of Mr. McClung's points was that we have to be reasonable in our expectation of our students. We must remember that our students are learning the things we've already learned. I have had an experience once before, when I was coaching middle school baseball several years ago. At the beginning of the season I got frustrated that the children I was coaching had a tough time grasping concepts that I thought were simple. It took me several weeks to realize that these kids had not had the experiences that I had already had. Once I grasped this concept I was able to be more help to my players, as opposed to being just mad at them for not being able to do what I thought they should have been able to do. I was able to use their mistakes as learning experiences that would make them better in the future. In the process my stress level decreased, and both the players and I had more fun and won more games.

The last point of his essay was to never stop learning. He said that we expect our students to learn everyday, so we should do them a service and continue to learn as well. We owe it to our students to be open minded towards new ideas and ways of doing things. We should make it a goal to learn something everyday from our students, our peers, and our superiors. We don't know everything!

I will save this post to take a look at when I become a teacher so that I will not forget these valuable lessons. I'm sure that between now and then I will lose touch with some of these concepts, and I want to be able to reflect on them when I get into a classroom.

Blog Assignment 8

Dr. Millers video This is How we Dream is a great video that brings to light the change our world is undergoing. For centuries our education system has been set up around print documents that are largely being lost. Our world is now going to all digital based documents, and unfortunately the education system has not caught up.

We as teachers have a responsibility to learn how to create these web based documents not only to teach our subjects curriculum but to also teach how to create them. In order for our students to survive in the business world they need to learn how to write and share their ideas on the web. I believe the major point of this video is the idea of sharing. Ideas are no good if never told to others. We need to share what we are thinking to get feedback and get something out of them.

I am not sure that I am prepared to write with multimedia just yet. However, I am learning more and more everyday in EDM310 that will make me more prepared to write with multimedia. We need to make a real effort to learn these techniques. Don't take this class lightly. Make an effort to really learn from this class and when the class is over, don't put up your computer and forget what you've learned. Use It!

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies were very funny. I would like to put my vote in for an Academy Award right now. The Chipper Series made me think of my first venture in college and how I was such a procrastinator. This class has helped me with my time management and kept me on track with what I am supposed to do for this class as well as my other classes. EDM310 for Dummies was just comical to me. If I look back at how I felt at the beginning of this semester I felt the same way. By just doing the assignments that we were assigned early on I have learned how to do the things necessary to complete everything in a more efficient manner.

If I were to create a video for the next group of EDM310 students, I would create one that shows them how doing the work assigned makes things easier as you go along. I am now able to post videos, write blog posts with links, and many other things that make each assignment simple. We should let the new students know that this class is not all that hard, it just takes a little work.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn is a great video that gets you thinking about how our education systems need to change. I find it appalling that the education industry was ranked 55 out of 55 in level of IT intensiveness by the U.S. Department of Commerce. How is the education industry below Coal Mining? That is terrible. Our education system needs to get away from standardized testing. We no longer need to memorize facts and regurgitate them to be considered smart. We have the technology to find out anything we want to know by hitting a button on our smart phone and asking it a question. We need to give children the skills to use these technologies responsibly. There is no excuse for education to continue to lag behind. We need to evolve our industry, as every other industry has, to the point where it is ahead of all the others in the IT department. School should be where students learn the technologies needed in the real world. Don't you think that would make our economy more efficient? I do.

In RSA Animate's video The Secret Value of Time there were two ideas that struck me. First was the idea of how boys use video games to create there own world and that they are bored in a classroom because it is analog and not digital. We should use this knowledge and make the classroom digital. Children will be more excited to learn new things if we make lessons that allow them to create something. The second thing that struck me was the fact that only 20% of American families have sit down dinners. In my family we sat down to dinner together every night. My parents used that time to find out what we had learned in school and ask us what was going on in our lives. We should all have sit down dinners. When I have children I vow to sit at the table to eat as much as possible in order to stay in touch with what is going on in their lives.

In another video by RSA Animate Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us my ideas of how we are motivated were turned upside down. In economics classes we are taught that the almighty dollar is our main driving force for motivation. This video shows that is not the case. We are driven by knowledge. I feel that is what might save this country. I have alway wanted to just learn. I like learning new things and creating ways for others to learn. That is part of the reason I want to become a teacher. We are not going into this profession for the money. God knows that we are not gonna make a fortune at what we are doing. I want to make this world a better place. If we give our students the ability to create and seek knowledge on their own by directing them in collaborative projects of their own desire they will learn and be more productive. They will be much more enthusiastic about what they find because they found it themselves.

SmartBoard Presentation Project 13

Try out this little quiz to see what you learned.




Both members of the group we presented to made a 9 out of 10 on the quiz.

Short Movie Project 11: Why I want to Teach

PLN Project 10: 1st Progress Report

I am using Symbaloo to create my personal learning network. I like being able to use all of the different tile to create links to my favorite search engines. I am able to use the Encyclopedia tile to search for information on topics I need to research for EDM310 as well as my other classes. I have a paper to write in both of my other courses this semester and plan to use what I have learned in this class to complete both of them.

The best thing I have learned to use in this class to help me with my other classes is Evernote. I use Evernote to take notes in all my classes. It allows me to keep all of my notes in one place. I am able to access my notes all the time from my cellphone. If I need to study for a test I don't have to take out my notebooks. All I have to do is take out my cellphone and start reading my notes.

I am getting better with Twitter as well. I favorite tweets from teachers around the world that will help me learn more about PLN's and history. I am able to use the links they provide to expand my PLN.

I also have begun using Google Reader to keep track of what's going on in the news. I don't like to watch the news, because there is so much going on in the world to day that I don't care to hear. With Google Reader I am able to only read the stories that interest me. For example, I am able to read developing news of the unrest in the Middle East, and ignore all of this craziness about Charlie Sheen. I plan to use Google Reader to help keep my future students up to date on current events that will be relevant to my classes.

The one thing I have been trying to understand but can't seem to grasp is Delicious. I find it harder to bookmark sites on Delicious than to bookmark them on my browser. If anybody has figured it out and can tell me the best way to use it, I welcome the help.

I am looking forward to expanding my use of my PLN. Knowledge is power and I feel that this is the best way to learn more.

C4T 2 Summary Post

Surviving Dachau, Liberating Mauthausen from Wesley Fryer on Vimeo.

I was assigned to comment on the blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wes Fryer. You can follow him on @wfryer.

The first post I commented on was Teacher Blog Controversity in Pennsylvania Points to Need for Social Media Guidelines. In his post, Mr. Fryer talks about a teacher in Pennsylvania who had a blog that she used to describe her disdain for some of her students. Some of her students and parents found her blog and brought it to the attention of the school's administration. She used foul language and was not very nice in describing some of her students. The teachers blog post's that are under scrutiny have been taken down from her blog, but since the "scandal", as she describes it, occured she has posted several other things. In her first post's since her blog was discovered she describes how she feels her blog should have been private. In our class we are being taught how to provide a digital footprint that we can be proud of. This teacher seems to have no remorse for creating a deplorable digital footprint. I hope she is never allowed to set foot in a classroom again.

I commented to Mr. Fryer that the Mobile County Public School System has recently began looking into to new social media guidelines. I feel that teachers like this one will make it easy for the powers that be to ban teachers from being able to use blogs and other social media. It is my hope that this one teacher and the few across the country that don't post the way they should don't take the useful tools of the internet out of our hands.

In the second post I commented on, Surviving Dachau, Liberating Mathausen, Mr. Fryer posted a video of a lecture given by a holocaust survivor and a concentration camp liberator. I watched the 90 minute long video and was moved by the message of the Mrs. Eva Hance and Mr. Mark Geeslin. Mrs. Hance gave a moving speech about her horrible experiences in Dachau and how they have taught her that hate is never the answer. Mr Geeslin told stories of how he felt when he liberated Mathausen Concentrartion Camp. His regiment actually found Mrs. Hances father alive atop a pile of dead bodies upon entering the camp.

I thanked Mr. Fryer for posting this video so that all could see. I feel that it is important for our young people to hear these first hand accounts. History has always just been written words that could be lost very easily. Now with things like this being put into the digital world first hand accounts can be saved forever. There are some people, like Irans Ahmadinejad, in this world that still say the holocaust never happened. If you watch the emotion with which Mrs. Hance tells her tale you could never believe such a thing as false.

Blog Assignment 7

Dr. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is one of the most inspiring things I have watched in a long time. If I am ever in the position he was in when he gave this speech I hope to be as happy as he is. His passion for what he has accomplished is inspiring, and I am glad that it did not die with him. He was truly a great teacher. I would love to be the kind of teacher that can inspire greatness in all of my students to the point where it can reach more than just the students in my classroom.

The first thing that caught my attention was what his football coach told him. "When people stop telling you you're doing wrong that means they don't care." I feel that the world has forgotten this concept. Teachers are forced to pass children because it would look bad if they don't. In my opinion a kid is not going to learn anything if you just let them off the hook when they do something wrong. I've always thought that you learn more from failing at something than you do from getting it right. Maybe this is why I love baseball so much. In baseball if you have a career batting average of .300 you have a great chance of being put in the hall of fame. To hit .300 you must get three hits every ten at bats. That means you failed seven times, but from those seven times you failed you learned something to help you get the three hits you got.

I love the analogy of the brick wall. "Brick walls are there for a reason: They let us prove how badly we want things." If something gets in your way it is not a sign that you should give up, it is a way to show whoever put that wall in your way how determined you are. We've all heard all our lives that life's not easy. Too often lately I have noticed that as a culture if we don't get what we wan't right away we give up. We need to be able to teach our kids to keep pushing. If someone tells them they can't do something we need to be there to tell them to prove them wrong. Like Jim Valvano, North Carolina State basketball coach, said in his 1993 Espy Speech, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up."

I was also struck by the comment he made about the advice his mentor gave him after the first projects he got back from his new class. His mentor told him to not set a bar. He told him to tell them that those projects were good but he knew they could do better despite the fact that he had been blown away by the quality of the projects. Thats a great way to approach teaching. No matter how well a student does if you tell them they can do better you are encouraging greatness. If everyone kept pushing themselves to do better and better no matter how great they have done in the past imagine what this world could create. I will try everything in my power to never tell a student that they have done the best they could. I will tell them they could always do better if they just keep trying.

Thank you so much Dr. Strange for having us watch this video. It was not only a great learning experience, it was also very inspirational.

C4K Summary 1,2, and 3

Mrs. Lurgin is an elementary school teacher in Saskatchewan, Canada. She also coaches volleyball. The blog post I commented on was about a ski trip that the class went on to Asessippi Ski Area & Resort, which, by the way looked like a fun place to get to go to for the weekend.

In week two I commented on a student in Mr. St. Peirre's 5th grade class in the Comsewogue school district in New York state. Sidney posted about a trip he made to Florida. I imagine he enjoyed the weather there as opposed to all the snow they have been getting in New York.

In week three I posted on a student on a student's post in Mrs. Squires Point England school's grade 5 class in Auckland, New Zealand. Jonita seemed like a great kid. She was interested in sports. She liked basball which is my personal favorite sport. She also said she liked Netball. Before reading her blog I had never even heard of the sport. It seemed very interesting. It is like basketball, but without a backboard, you can't dribble, and there are seven players on the court as opposed to five in basketball. I am very glad to have the oppurtunity to learn about new cultures. I can't wait to keep learning new things from these children across the world.

Project 9b TimeToast Timeline: Instructional

Blog Assignment 6

Mrs. Drexler's video Network Student is very interesting. My first thought about it was," This is exactly what Dr. Strange is doing with our class." I wonder if this video is what gave Dr. Strange the idea for how EDM310 is set up? We are now learning how to teach ourselves and not be just taught. I love this. I like finding out things on my own and not just taking other individuals word on how things work or have been done. Things are more interesting to me if I am able to find them on my own. It makes me feel as though I become smarter everyday. I know it is a cliche thing to say, but I want to be a person who learns something new everyday, and with this class I ca honestly say I do.

I also noticed that the video alludes to using Delicious quite a lot. I am still having trouble figuring out how it exactly works. All I can figure out about it is how to bookmark my own stuff on there. Could someone please help me figure out how to find other relevant material on there?

As far as the question, " Why does a networked student even need a teacher?" is concerned, we have to be able to teach students how to do these things, and give them a place to start. We need to be able to teach our students how to find out which information is relevant, and how to find it. We have to teach them which people to listen to. We all know that information is powerful, but bad information can lead to terrible things. If students aren't taught the correct way to sift through the things they find, they may come to false conclusions and skewed views of reality.

I do think that this way of teaching and learning is the future, but I am still a little worried as to how well this type of education will be taken in the public school system. Our students still have to pass these standardized test that the government mandates. Our jobs are on the line if our students don't pass these tests. I, so far, have not seen how we will be able to use this method of teaching to get all of the information to the students. I enjoy learning in this fashion but sometimes I think it would take to much time to use it in a classroom.



I was really impressed by the young lady's PLE in the Welcome to My PLE video. This was one of the video I wached when we began building our PLN's and have been trying ever since I started it to mirror what she has done. I haven't really gotten mine to work as well as it seems she has, but I am trying. I have found several great things to keep organized and help me understand some of the stuff I am learning in my other courses. I am planning on using this new found knowledge of PLN's to help with a paper I have to write in my British Literature class. It also turned me on to Evernote. Evernote is what I use to take notes in all of my classes. I am able to find notes easily and study by using the application on my smart phone when I dont have time to take out a notebook or computer.

"Why Smartboards are a Dumb Initiative" is a blog post that states the problems of spending money on interactive whiteboards. The points it makes are that smartboards are just a more espensive way for teachers to do exactly what they did before they had one, and that they are a way for administrators to show what technology they are spending money on instead of taking a risk and spending money on changing the way students learn or teachers teach.

I found a Survey from a Minnesota school system that kind of puts a hole in the argument above. It shows that 90% of teachers from that district with Smartboards say they agree or strongly agree that a Smartboard makes them a more effective teacher. It also says that 90% of those teachers say that their students find the use of Smartboards more engaging than traditional methods. To me that would make them worth the money spent. If teachers find themselves more effective and their students more engaged isn't that the goal of this educational movement.

In the post Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards Mr. Ferriter makes the argument that interactive whiteboards perpetuate the same style of teaching we are trying to get away from. He basically says that they are a more technologicl version of standing in front of the class and presenting notes. I see where he is coming from, but I don't think he tried very hard to find out a better way to use it. In a post I found, Make the Most of Your Interactive Whiteboard, the idea of recording the lecture and screen for children that miss class is proposed. Isn't that part of what we want to do? We want to be able to teach our students outside the classroom, and that seems to me to be easier that setting up a camera and recording what's going on. It also talks of "borrowing" other teachers lessons for help with your own lesson plans. The use of interactive whiteboards seems like a great way to collaborate with other teachers.

Project 9a TimeToast Timeline: My Family

Blog Assignment 5

I listened to the podcast "Roamin' with the Ancient Romans" on the Eagles' Nest Radio & Class Blog. This particular group did a podcast about ancient Rome. They explained Roman architecture, the gladiator battles of the Coliseum, and the history of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra the 7th. They emphasized points that seemed to interest them personally. They were very enthusiastic about what they learned. The podcast was arranged in the format of a radio news broadcast.

What struck me the most about this production was the amount of things these children learned about Rome. I have always been interested in History, and didn't know that Cleopatra was the 7th, nor did I know that she was actually Roman. This would be a great project for my future students. I feel that they may be more interested in producing something like a podcast as opposed to writing a paper.

There were two things that struck me while watching the video on the blog post The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom. First was the use of podcasts as a way for students who have to miss school because of an illness to stay caught up on the lectures of the day. Since the start of this class I have been interested in using this method as well as others in my future classroom. It will also be a great way for students to review for tests, because all of the lectures will be available to them while at home.

Second was the use as a project based learning tool. As I said in the second paragraph of this post, this will be more fun for students to do then writing a paper. I also like that the parents of students will be able to see or hear what their children have learned or are learning just by going to the class website and clicking a link to a lecture or project.

I suggest everybody explore The Education Podcast Network. There are podcasts on this site for pretty much every subject we teach. Of course because I wish to be a history teacher I explored the Social Studies material. There were all kinds of different productions on historic events and figures. For example there was a link for podcasts pretaining to the American Revolution, the medieval period, and many more.

My idea for using these stems from something I learned while playing baseball. As a kid my dad would tell me something to do on the field, and I would not think it would work because in my mind he didn't know everything. I feel sometime students will have that feeling with the teachers they see everyday. It may hit home for them more if you let them listen to someone else tell them what you want them to hear.

This is My Sentence

Blog Assignment 4

Scott McLeod is an associate professor at Iowa State University in the Educational Administration program. He is also the director of CASTLE, which is the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. His blog post Don't teach your kids this stuff. Please? makes a great point in a really creative way. Personally, I love sarcasm. Yes, the internet and a lot of the things that come with it can be negative. However, we should not keep kids away from it just for that. There are so many things that come with it that can help them. No matter what people try to do computers and technology will be her to stay. Many of my fellow students have alluded to the idea of just using internet safety technology to keep children safe. All of that is well and good, but, as Mr. McLeod said in his comment on the EDM 310 class blog, most parents don't have the knowledge to implement those technologies. I don't have the answer to that problem, so I pose the question to everyone," How do we teach the parents to keep there children safe on the internet?"

The iSchool initiative is a great idea. The first thing that struck me about this video is that it was produced by a 17 year old high school student. He is very bright and has come up with an idea I'm quite sure would have never crossed my mind at his age. I like how he has done the research on the applications that are available today. I will probably take some time to go through my phones applications to see what may be of use to me.

I am impressed with what he has come up with, but I am not sure it is a completely possible idea. Public schools have enough trouble trying to get families to buy the supplies necessary much less a device like the iSchool. Most of the items listed in the "Ways it May Save Money" slide can be provided to the students from lower income families by the school for little or no cost to the parent. The idea that a school can just get rid of paper and copiers is, in my opinion, Utopian. When I become a teacher I would love to go completely green, but I won't because, as I've learned in my previous jobs, it is always best to have hard copies of something when a problem arises.

The Lost Generation video is amazing. The writer of that speech is an absolute genius. By being able to see the words written out in the order first written, I felt sorry for the narrators view of how their life will play out. When read back in the reverse order, It describes how I like to look at the years ahead of me. I refuse to let others tell me how my life will play out, and hope to be a part of a generation that helps change how we live on this planet. All I can say is, AMAZING!

Again I am amazed by this class! The performance of 'Lux Aurumque' is awesome. Imagine if these people took what Mr. McLeod seriously when he said don't collaborate. We would not have been able to witness that masterpiece of music and technology combined. This just shows what we as humans can now create because of our ability to work with one another without borders.

Teaching In the 21st Century poses a lot of great questions. The one that stuck out to me was the question of how do we control our students with all of these new toys. The answer they gave was simple, but profound. We control them the same way we would with a pen and paper. I wrote in our last blog post assignment that I think we should use the students cell phones as a teaching tool and I got the same reaction from the person that commented on that post that my wife gave me. They both said that students will use them to do other things instead of their school work. My argument is that they're gonna do that any way no matter if we use the phones for classroom purposes or not. If we can find a way to engage the students they may quit texting long enough to learn something.

Teaching in the 21st century means not just teaching facts. It is teaching children how to find out those facts you were going to teach them on their own. All of the information is out there for them, we just have to give them the tools to find the right information from reliable sources.

Blog Assignment 3

Wow! A Vision of Students Today was quite a enlightening video. First of all, I completely feel like my days need to be 26 1/2 hours long. I have went to college immediately following high school and tried to work 40 plus hours a week, go to school, and still have a good time outside of school. It didn't work. I went back and tried to work 60 hours a week and go to school. Again, it didn't work. Now, I've come back and I only work 26 hours a week and it works much better, but I'm still always tired and some days I just can't do any school work, because I just need a break.

I feel lucky that here at the University of South Alabama we don't have such large classrooms. I feel like most, if not all, professors know my name, but thats not because its easy. I make sure I speak up in class and make myself known. In one of my classes this semester all my professor does is write on the blackboard and describe poems. I wish everyday he would use something more modern to help me understand what he is explaining.

I enjoyed reading Mrs. Hines' post It's Not about the Technology. She hit the nail on the head with this. It doesn't matter what technology is at our disposal, if we don't know how to use it in an effective way, it is useless. Teachers need to take the time to learn new and effective ways to implement new devices into the classroom.

I have the benefit of living with a person who teaches everyday in this area. My wife tells me that there are 150 plus teachers at her school and most of them teach the same way they have been teaching for decades. They don't seem to want to evolve with the times. Kids are now allowed to bring their cellphones to school. In my opinion if they are going to use them anyway during the day teachers should learn ways to incorporate them in to the learning experience. Kids may even pay more attention if given the opportunity to use such things in the class.

"If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." Mr. Fisch made this comment in is post Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher. I think it is a little harsh, but harsh doesn't make it untrue. When I was looking for another job several years ago, I remember reading every want add saying you have to be able to do some form of technological program to even be considered. In todays world potential employers need employees that can interact in a more global society that takes tech knowledge.

Why should teachers be held to a different standard? I know I always go back to things my wife sees in her everyday experiences, but I think they are terribly relevant. She doesn't just go to work everyday and try the same old thing. Too many teachers however, do. We as the future educators of the world need to help our students get these jobs. Think about how hard it is for all of us in EDM310 to learn this new stuff. Imagine how hard it is going to be for our students in 5, 10, or 20 years. We owe it to them to prepare them as best we can for the future.

All I can say about theSocial Media Count is, WOW! As a future teacher we have to be able to teach our kids these things. The first thing I noticed is how fast money is made through these mediums. Our students need to be able to tap into these resources.

Summary Post C4T#1

I was assigned to comment on Mrs. Ann Carnevale's Blog Bit's and Bytes.

In her post titled Exciting News and New Resources from January 5th, 2011 she told of a collaborative writing project called Write On. It involves fifteen classes of third, fourth, and fifth grade children from all around the United States. They are three groups of five classes, and are working together through a wiki to write and illustrate a story for a total of three stories. Mrs. Carnevale says," The purpose of this project is to expand writing skills while utilizing 21st century learning tools for communication and collaboration."

The creative efforts of these children is great! I suggest you take some time and click on the Write On link above and read the stories the kids have come up with. They are quite entertaining. Personally I will keep going back to read them until they are finished just to see what they come up with. They make me wish I was in third grade again.

Mrs. Carnevale also gave a link to a K-12 Section for Podcasts on iTunes. The only downfall of this site is there is no real organization, but if you take time to look you will definitely find something that will interest you.

When I looked around I found several links to podcasts directed towards high school history students. Just the few I listened to made me want to provide these for my students. I may even browse this site looking for information for myself while taking my college history courses.

The last part of this post she spoke of CarrotSticks, which is an online multiplayer math website. Students are able to play on their own, or with friends, in up to 25 levels of games. Teachers are able to set up and account for their classroom, and are given a link to share with their students.

It was a fun looking game. I would have loved it as a child. As competitive as I was, and am, I would have played it all the time. I asked Mrs. Carnevale if she knew of any sites similar to this, but tailored towards high school aged students, because my wife is a high school math teacher and she would like to have her kids try something like CarrotSticks.

In the second post I commented on, How Did You Do That?, she gives some keyboard shortcuts for a Mac, which will make navigating your computer easier. There is also a tutorial for the track pad on new Mac laptops.

Just watching the video made me want a new Mac. Maybe one day I can get one.

Since I don't have a Mac yet, I thought it would be a good idea to give everyone out there with a PC a few keyboard shortcuts to help them out.

CTRL+C: COPY
CTRL+X: CUT
CTRL+V: PASTE
CTRL+Z: UNDO
CTRL+B: BOLD
CTRL+U: UNDERLINE
CTRL+I: ITALIC
ALT+TAB: SWITCH TO ANOTHER RUNNING PROGRAM(HOLD DOWN THE ALT KEY AND THEN PRESS THE TAB KEY TO VIEW THE TASK-SWITCHING MENU)

Microsoft Support has many other useful shortcuts. I hope these help.

Presentation Project 5

Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know 3.0 was a pretty shocking video to me. I had an idea of how much information we as humans are now able to access, but this video blew my assumptions out of the water. As a history fanatic its neat to know that in one weeks worth of the New York Times, there is more information than was available during the 18th century.

It is also interesting to find out that China will soon be the largest English speaking country in the world. To me this says were behind the eight ball here in the states. Since we are living in a time where it is so much of a global community, maybe we should make more of an effort to reach out to other countries and cultures. A way of doing this would be to start teaching children a foreign language at an earlier age, and use technology to expand the classroom beyond the walls of the school and into other countries through technology.

Mr. Winkle Wakes was one of those things you see that hits you with two messages at once. My first thought was, "Wow! How things have changed." It makes me think of what our ancestors would think of the world they left behind. Benjamin Franklin once said, "The rapid Progress of true Science now occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born to soon." I imagine if he woke up today to find the world we now live in that he would be excited and overwhelmed just as Mr. Winkle was.

The second thing I thought was, "Man, our school systems are way behind the movement of society." We have a responsibility as the future educators of the world to teach our students how to interact in the real world. Gone are the days where sitting in a desk and listening to us talk is going to help a child make it in the real world. We have to learn how to move with technology, so we can teach our children to do the same.

The Importance of Creativity was a absolutely fascinating speech. Mr. Robinson gave a brilliant presentation. He was very funny and quite profound at the same time which is very hard to do. I hope when I get in front of my students that I'm able to speak as well as he does.

Mr. Robinson has a great idea. We should quit saying children are just A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. we should figure out which way their creative juices are flowing and help them. Some kids may learn like the young girl he spoke about that learned better by moving. She eventually turned out to be a great dancer and choreographer simply because someone took the time to figure out how her brain worked instead of just writing her off as sick. We need to quit giving kids medicine to make them sit and listen to something there not interested in. We need to find the way to make it interesting to them by using unconventional methods.

Cecelia Gaults Scholastic Article is amazingly done. She did a great job with her interview and blog post. I hope to be technologically literate enough to allow my students the same opportunities Cecelia was given. I think that allowing children to be creative in their own way will allow them to learn more than if they just follow a strict set of parameters for expressing what they learn.

The Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts video shows how kids from a small town can interact with the world in today's society. Children being able to reach out to others in the world is very important and may some day help promote a global community that understands each other better.

In EDM310 we are doing now what these children are learning to do in high school. We are being given the tools to interact with our peers from around the world. We will be able to help our students reach out and discover their world like never before. I am excited to learn more ways to make this world a better place through education.

Project 2

Blog Assignment 1

My name is Michael Armstrong, however I usually go by my middle name, David. I'm 25 years old, and I'm glad to be back at the University of South Alabama. I've been married for two years as of December 13th. My wife's name is Mischa and she is a math teacher at Baker High School here in Mobile. I love her very much and I can't wait to become a teacher as well so we can spend more time together.

I currently work at O'Charley's on Schillinger's Road as a server and bartender. Working in restaurant business is a great motivation to get through school and make good grades.

I am a Secondary Education and History Major. I love history and really look forward to trying to make my student's love it as well. I also want to be a coach. I played baseball and basketball in high school and hope to be able to coach both someday.

I am looking forward to this semester and learning many new things about technology.

Practice Post

My first post.