Sunday, March 30, 2014

Blog post #10

This week's blog post we were assigned to watch Sir Ken Robinson's Bring on the Learning Revolution speech. Mr. Robinson had many great points, he talked about how education is trying to evolve our education; but Mr. Robinson said we don't need an evolution, he said that we need a revolution. Robinson talks about how college isn't for everyone, and that you don't have to rush into college. Do what you want to do, the problem Mr. Robinson said is, that our education is adopting the fast food life style. Everyone is wanting to worry about college, get through school do your best so that we can get accepted into a good college for a good job. Robinson believes that many people are unhappy with there job is because they aren't using their talents. If you're doing something you don't enjoy then it's gonna seem like an eternity when you're there, but if you're doing something you are passionate about then time will fly by. I agree with Mr. Robinson that college isn't for everyone, that you should do what you are passionate about. Robinson says a little joke about talents, he said that him and Eric Clapton got a guitar around the same time but it worked out for Clapton, the guitar wasn't his thing. Another thing I learned is that we need to customize our educational system. We need to make kids interested in learning have it fit for what the children's interest are. Many people get bored of school and don't want to be there and we need that to change.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Blog Post #9

For this week's blog post we were assigned to watch Little Kids...Big Potential and a Skype interview between Dr. Strange and Ms. Cassidy. In the video Little Kids... Big Potential, the kids talked about how they are learning so many things through blogging and how they enjoy it. They can see their progression and so can their parents at any time. To me I think that is very important because parents sometimes don't always get to see their students work and for Ms. Cassidy's class they can go online to their kids blog and see all the work they have done. They also use wikis, where they can learn by looking at videos and articles that are safe for the kids to research. They also use Skype to talk to other students and experts around the world.

In the other three Skype videos, Ms. Cassidy talks about how her students learn through the internet and encourages her students to start learning by their interests. She seems to have everything down and has many great tips for us and how to keep the children safe. She sends forms to the parents letting the parents know all what their children will be posting and making sure they are okay with it, which is very important. She also makes sure the kids never post their pictures and only use their first name, not their last name. Another point I like that Ms. Cassidy made is that how her kids love writing blog post because everyone can see and comment on. Instead of her just being able to see it and grade it on pencil and paper, the whole world can contribute and see what they are seeing and kids enjoy that.

Ms. Cassidy seems to be a great teacher and it seems that her students really enjoy her class. She has a lot of useful tips that we can use as future teachers. You can tell that Ms. Cassidy loves her job and really cares for her students and wants the best out of them.
Technology and Educational Tools

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Project #9

Blog Post 8

This week we were assigned to research other 21st century learning and communication tools that we could use for our future classrooms. At first I wasn't sure which to pick from because there are so many options out there. But after awhile of searching I found a few that could be very useful.

The first tool I would like to talk to you about is Edmodo. Edmodo is a social networking tool that teachers can set up with their students, administrators,parents, and publishers. When I first looked at Edmodo, it reminded me of a lot like Facebook. The teacher can post assignments and the students can submit them online. It also records all the students work and their progress, the teacher can easily go and access it. Edmodo also personalizes the apps to the students preferences and helps the teacher amplify their lessons.
Edmodo

The next tool I found interesting was iEARN(International Educational and Resource Network). iEARN is a non-profit organization that connects students all around the world. It provides a safe environment where people can communicate each others ideas and thoughts and gain knowledge in service-learning projects. Students can work with other students on projects and interact with each other using iEARN. One example they used was planting daffodils on the same day in four different countries such as the United States, Taiwan, Israel, and Iraq. They kept track of the growth and recorded it, learning all about the climate and how it can effect the growth of the plant in different parts of the world.

Lastly, I found . Diigo provides a safe environment for students to do research and save their work. Diigo has many of functions you can use while researching, you can add sticky notes, digitally highlight important information and organize it into folders. Instead of bookmarking your web pages you found, you can now save them into Diigo and access them from your smartphone, tablet, or any other device. It also saves all your highlighted and sticky notes you put on your sources. You can also collaborate in groups with whoever you would like, with your own personalized library it makes sharing your information with your friends a lot easier.

Project 14

Project Calender

Project Overview

Health

C4T #2

This week I was assigned to Jarrod Robinson's blog The PE Geek. In his blog he shows his new devices he got from Polar Shop and their heart rate monitors. He has a video of his students running and has their heart rates projected onto a screen from his iPad using Apple TV.

My reply:
Hey my name is Joshua Turnipseed and I’m a student at the University of South Alabama. I’m enrolled in edm310 and am assigned to comment on your blog. But I would definitely agree with you, I also find this fascinating! It is really great for students to see what they’re doing and their progress on a big screen. It also could help motivate them and challenge each other.
The Polar Shop

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Blog Post 7

This week we were assigned to watch Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. For those who don't know who Randy Pausch is, he was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He then found out he only had six months to live, due to pancreatic cancer. I didn't know Randy personally, but from his speech and the way he acted even though he knew he didn't have much time to live was so inspirational. You really have to admire the guy for not moping around but instead help others achieve their goals.

In his Last Lecture he talks about his childhood dreams and what he did in order to achieve his goals. He had many great points he touched on. My favorite thing he talked about was his take on brick walls. Randy said "Brick walls are not made to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something." To me this is very important, because sometimes I find myself wanting to just give up on some things. If you really want something then you have to climb those "brick walls," when you work for something and put all of your effort into it, it makes it that much sweeter when you finally achieve it.

Another thing I learned from Mr. Pausch was "head fake" learning. A head fake is when you are trying to fool your opponent into thinking you're doing something else. What Pausch meant by head fake learning is that when you are teaching students. You're not just trying to teach them certain subjects, but you're also trying to teach them other skills, other character building qualities. He also talks about when he was younger, his football coach would always be on his back, always challenging him to do more. Mr Pausch said that you shouldn't expect perfection, but when someone is screwing up and you don't correct them, you've given up. He stresses to always challenge your students, always ask for more. The only way people will find out their potential is when they fail. My favorite quote from Mr. Pausch was "Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want." To me that means, even though sometimes you may not achieve exactly what you wanted, you're one step closer to getting what you want and you have to keep working hard to get it.
Randy Pausch