Project #9a

Project # 6

Blog Post #5

Dr. McLeod is an associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He is the founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education(CASTLE). Dr. Scott McLeod is widely recognized as one of the nations leading academic experts on K-12school technology leadership issues. He posted a post Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff.Please? Below is my response.

Dear Dr. McLeod,

My name is Audrey Mitchell. I am enrolled in Dr.Strange’s EDM310 course at the University of South Alabama. I completely agree with you wanting to see who has the next leg up. Everything that people do in today’s world is risky.This can even just be going to the coffee shop. Though this does not mean that people should have zero involvement with the outside world. If students are properly taught by their educators then they should be able to use the internet and any kind of social network to help them better educate themselves. I loved your sarcasm in your post. It grabbed my attention and actually ticked me off a little while I was believing every word that you were saying. It all sounded off the wall ridiculous but all at the same time extremely true. I am a huge believer in using what we have available to best educate our students for the future.

The iSchool Initiative :17 year old high school student Travis Allen, created a program called iSchool. This program is based around the use of an iPod Touch in a classroom. In the video, Travis demonstrates what all a iPod Touch has to offer. Travis has basically built a school inside of the iPod. He demonstrates that there are apps for the following: email, chemical touch(periodic table), US Constitution, world wiki, scientific and graphic calculators, notes, calendar, access to text books and regular reading books, iHomework, USA Presidents, star walk, formulae ,and a recorder. At the end of the video Travis demonstrates how money can be saved through this program. He says that each student would save the minimum of $600 and the iSchool would cost $150 per student. I think that this is a creative idea but I am not fully convinced that it would work. Is this program aimed to be home school based or still classroom based? I am also scared that this will make student even less social then they already are. I am a huge believer in technology being positive in a classroom but I also believe that everything can be harmful if used to much.

 

Zeitgeist Young Mind's Entry (Travis Allen)

On February 21,2011 CNN said " With one post on You Tube , Georgia high school student Travis Allen launched a revolution". Larry Jacobs-President Education Talk Radio said " Travis Allen is the Mark Zuckerburg of Education". At age 17 Travis launched the You Tube video. At age 18 he created iSchool initiative. He now has a group of 25 students traveling the country inspiring schools to embrace global learning.  Allen says we " Must rethink, retool, rebuild our educational institution to better prepare our youth for the digital world they were born into". I am very impressed by the outstanding progress that Travis Allen has made over the years. However, I still agree with the comments that I made above. I would love to see his plan make a difference but I am just not positive it will.  

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir :
Eric's video was mind blowing. Yes a choir ensemble of 185 people is all that impressive, but a choir ensemble of 185 people who never met or sang together is. Eric put this performance together on the internet and posted in on You Tube. I think this process is an example of how far technology has come in the 21 century. This use of technology can give us access to pretty much anything. I find this scary but also very useful as long as people follow the rules and do it legally. I think this will be a fun activity for elementary school children. They will have to use brainstorming abilities that they have never had to before.

 Teaching In the 21st Century by Kevin Roberts :

In this video Kevin Robert's shows that he believes that teaching in the 21 century mean that teachers are no longer the main source of learning. We as teachers today are the filters. The way to educate has changed dramatically over the years. In the 21 century we are privileged to have access to many forms of technology. Students and teachers today have access to: blogs, cellphones,twitter, facebook, wikipedia, youtube, iPods, and google. There are many ways to use these sources to help educate others as a teacher, or yourself as a student. Students can use these sources to validate information,synthesize information, leverage information, communicate information, collaborate with information, problem solve with information. As a teacher in learning I am very found of using technology in a classroom and I believe that Robert's view on teaching is accurate. I do wonder how teachers are able to keep students from getting off track and using these technologies in the wrong way. The video had a great point. All tools provide temptation but they are not a source of negative behavior.

Reading Rockets :
 On Reading Rockets I found many things that I thought I may one day use in the classroom. One of my main challenges that I think I am going to face as a teacher is teaching my students how to read. ABCs of Teaching Reading  says it perfectly. If teaching children was an easy task then it would come as easily as speaking does to children. Being able to read does not just come by exposing yourself to books, it must be taught. For many children this ability comes by being taught slowly and taking it one step at a time.
Frank McCourt in Reading for Meaning also has a great point behind the usefulness of reading and learning how to read. On night when at a bar McCourt was given directions which lead him to the public library. McCourt grabbed a few books and headed back to the bar. The most useful advise that the bartender gave McCourt and for myself was " You have the book in your hand young fellow but you don't have it in your head. So go home and read". Getting a book in your head, understanding it, and connecting it to everything in your life is the best way to learn how to read.

Blog Post #4

Langwitches- Flat Stanley Podcast

This blog post assignment could not have come at a better time. A few weeks ago my sister and I received a package in the mail from my baby cousin Copper in California. In this page was a "Flat Stanley" or in this case a " Flat Cooper". Cooper is a first grader in San Diego, California. Like Cooper,one of the first grade classes at Langwitch Elementary, read the book Flat Stanley by Jim Brown. They made paper Flat Stanleys and sent them around the country to their relatives and received photos and videos of the experience Flat Stanley had back in return. Expired by "the other first grade class" the six year olds wanted to create their own recording. As a class they brainstormed the route they would take and the requirements. Each student was to pick a location and borrow a book from the library about their location. With their parents they read the book and wrote a short description that included: the location(City,State,Country,and/or Continent), how they got there(transportation),what they did at that location, and how they got back home. The students were also reminded that this was going to be a recording so they needed to think of the senses and sounds that should take place in their video to help with the mood of the video.  I think that Flat Stanley is a creative way for children to get to learn about other parts of the world. 

Podcasting with First Graders: 

 The first graders at Landwitch Elementary were very impressed by the second grades podcast about animals second grade podcast about animals, and the response that the second graders received from teachers around the world. Attention and acknowledgement from others is important to children. The first graders decided that they wanted to make a podcast of their own and get their voices heard also. These recordings were not only able to be seen and heard on computers but also iPods. Sense the students and their teacher had been reading a chapter book called Vacation under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne  from the Magic Tree House series, they decided to make their podcast based off of this. Their idea was to pretend like they were interviewing the two main characters Jack and Annie, about their most current adventure where they went to Pompeii. After each chapter that they read as a class, they would write down questions that they had for the characters. The teacher took turns with each student making one a narrator, another Jack(boy), and another Annie(girl). They would go to the back of the glass and record their voices directly into Garageband. It was amazing to see how this activity made even the shiest of students come out of their shell and get into the activity. 

 The benefits of podcasting in the classroom:

 The podcast tutorials : Podcasting in the classroom, Podcasting using GarageBand, and How to podcast

teach and show others the benefits and  how to podcast in a classroom. Some of the benefits included:  

•  an effective way of interacting with students outside of the classroom.
• a form of learning that students today are familiar with and therefore makes it relevant to them.
• it allows for differentiation and project based learning
• students can access the higher order thinking skills in Bloom's taxonomy 
• it promotes creativity and innovation
• it can offer distance learning opportunities for absent students
•  the process of creating and uploading audio files is easy
• students can record role plays in character making their learning more memorable
• the process of creating and uploading audio files is easy
•  students can record role plays in character making their learning more memorable
•  parents can see and hear what their children are doing at school

Project #5

Post #2 C4T

C4T#1


I was assigned Elvira G. blog post Showcasing My School. She was asked to manage her schools website and creatively showcase the school, students, and activities that take place. She did this by creating pages on the website for: faculty and staff, administration, school calendar, announcements, and PTA. She also plans on adding a few more pages including grade level/ class specific pages, and special feature videos. 

In response I put "Hi my name is Audrey Mitchell. I am taking EDM310 at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. This blog captured my attention greatly due to the significant need for a blog like this at each and every school in the United States. It is extremely important for parents to play a huge role in their kids education and I believe this would successfully help them to do so. Technology these days has done wonders with education. With my mother being an elementary school teacher I have been able to see this through the use of smart boards. This is why the use of Ipod touches at your school has caught my attention. I was wondering if you all only had a select number of them that you used with the children or are there enough for each child in the class room? Also, what kind of activities are you able to do using the Ipod touches?".


Ms.Elvira responded by saying :
"Thanks for stopping by! The uses,implications,and possibilities of technology in education has been a recent passion of mine that was inspired by my Personal Learning Network(PLN) on Twitter. Our school was the first in our district to have several class sets of iPod Touches. As you can see from the video on our school's homepage, we use them to practice different skills via educational apps to recording students reading to develop fluency. I am interested in utilizing the video features and having my students create their own videos for the near future."

C4T#2

Writing with Edmodo: Ms. Elvira wrote about the ways she uses the new form of technology used to better educate students in writing. She does this by: weekly journal entries, collaborating projects, keeping in touch with former students, and checking in after-hours or during extended break. She ends her blog by asking "How do you want to use Edmodo in your classroom?"and "What were your favorite features?".

In response I posted "Teaching has changed so much over the years. The use of technology and what teachers are now able to do with it just excites me to a great extreme. Being ADHD I wish that we had had these sources available to us while I was going through elementary school to even high school. I just think that not only will it help kids with learning disabilities but also all other kids. I feel that it will make them excited to learn and make them strive to learn even more!"

Blog Post # 3

Peer Review - Public Comment:

When I went to peer review Terri Wagner's Blog Post # 2, I began to wonder and kinda worry which way would be best to go about doing this. Should I peer review on her page directly where the public will be able to see it? Or should I email or message her privately where it is only for our eyes to see? After thinking this through I decided to post it directly onto her page become criticism is a positive thing and will only help and not hurt in the long run. I thought that Terri did a very nice job not only on her blog post but also on the set up of her blog. I was very impressed. She needs to keep up the good work!

Technology in Special Education:

a. Technology has made a positive impact on students with special needs. Ipads and computers are a few forms of technology that have been able to do so. Ipads provide students with a better understanding of the word by being able to hear the correct pronunciation. Computers magnify the words which helps the student to be able to see it better. Technology catches these students attention and makes them actually be able to enjoy learning. This helps them finish their assignments, make better connections, and come across clearer than a teachers lecture. 

 When I become a teacher technology will be the main tool of my teaching technique. The use of computers and Ipads will help give students a better understanding of each subject by being able to interact with their fellow classmate and teacher. There are also several different learning games and apps available to use. Keeping special needs children attention is a difficult task but these new forms of technology will help me to do so. I will also teach my students to be familiar enough with the uses of each form of technology so that they will be able to use this knowledge with their future career. 

Gary Hayes: Social Media Count

Technology growing more now than it ever has before. It has become the high point of everyone's life. The rates show that as I advance in my teaching career I should also advance in my knowledge in technology and how to use it in the classroom.Teachers need to be familiar and know how to use up to date technology that their students will be able to relate to. Because of the growth of technology and how much this generation uses it on a daily basis technology use in the classroom is a great way to grab students attention.

  

Teachers need to say good bye to chalkboards and dry erase boards and hello to smart boards. Smart boards save time with writing and also provide you with access to programs that you can use to interact with the students.Incorporating videos and games into a lectures helps give the students a visual example of what they are learning. The use of technology also saves teachers time by being able to set up their assignments and videos in advance. Our world now revolves around technology and social media so we as teachers need to be familiar with and be able to use each form to the best of our ability.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

The size of classes believe it or not, can make it more difficult for students to learn.  One on one time with a teacher is difficult to receive when a class is so large. One on one learning time is vital to be able to learn a subject correctly. Because of this some students spend thousands of dollars on textbooks but never attend class. Students are made to multitask between classes, school work ,work, and various other activities. They spend majority of their time studying and teaching their self a subject.Teachers spend most of their time lecturing and using technology when they should be using the forms of technology that they have available to them.

Students use technology on a day to day basis. If teachers want to be able to keep a students interest then they should take advantage of the technology that has been made available to them and use things like a smart board verses a chalkboard when educating.Teachers need to be educating their students for the future not only the present. Technology is what our world now revolves around and as teachers we are suppose to be able to educate our students to were they are prepared for the crazy world and life that they have ahead of them.

Blog Post # 2

1. Did You Know?

By: John Strange 

The facts in this video really blew my mind and caused me to do some research of my own on some of these topics so that I could see for my self that these statements were true and also why they are or are going to be true. The first part of the video talks about the population of China and India verses the population of the United states in many situations. These situations being: that 25% of India with the highest IQ's outnumbers the entire population of the United States, India has more K-12 honors students than all of the K-12 students in the U.S., and also that in 2025 the number of English speaking Chinese is likely to exceed the number of native English speakers in the rest of the world. I found on Google that these are all true because of their population number verses the population number in the U.S. The population numbers of these countries is as followed: India has 1.22 billion, China has 1.3 billion, while the United States only has roughly 312.8 million. This leads me to the answer that the statements above are true because these two Asian country have nearly half of the worlds population. 

The second part of the video talks about the number of You Tube videos watched every minute, number of SMS messages that are sent in the same minute, number of Google searches made every minute, the number of people whom own a computer, and many of things involving numbers and technology. It is impressive how far the world has come with the development of technology and the effects that it has had and is going to have on the world.There is no telling what the world is going to be like in 50 or even 20 years from now. The facts that were found in the above paragraph are easily gathered because of the access that we have to researchers facts that can be view through today's technology.  In the last part of the video it ask its views (teachers or teachers to be) what could possibly be a teachers role? Is it to prepare your students for jobs in 2022? Is it to prepare your students to know how to  use technology  that does not even exist yet? I believe that the answer to those questions is yes. We as teachers should be well educated on how to use  different forms of technology that could help our students to be well prepare for their life and experiences that they may have ahead of them the best way that we possibly can. 

2. Mr. Winkle Wakes

By: Matthew Needleman

This video is about a man named Mr. Winkle who wakes up from a 100 year nap to a whole new world. I can not even imagine the feelings that he was experiencing as he was seeing the development and changes that had happened to the world that he once new. These changes were from the the new models/looks of cars,to the new road construction,  architecture of buildings, and even jobs. All of these were a result of the growth of technology over those many years that Mr. Winkles had been sleeping. 

At the end of the movie Mr. Winkle found one place in this new world that he was comfortable and this was the school. The school was filled with all of the same things that were once in his school many years ago. From the teachers lectures to the kids desk, to even the chalk boards  were all things that made him feel at home. Then all of a sudden he saw a strange looking piece of technology that he had never seen before. This strange device was a computer that was sitting in the back collecting dust. I think that the point Matthew Needleman was trying to make of this is that technology has developed for a reason thus to further our knowledge on things that we use to not have access to before. It is sad but true that just like in the video teachers these days do not use or even know how to use computers or even other forms of technology. They are here for us to use and to help teach and prepare others in ways that were not possible 100 years ago.

3.Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

By: Ken Robinson

Ken Robinson said many things that I will personally keep stored in my brain for all the years I will be teaching. . He said " Kids starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. No one even knows what technology is going to be like in even five years but we are suppose to educate them for it". With all of the paper work, school board visits, requirements, and dead lines there is little to no time for creativity. We as teachers are suppose to be able to use what we have been provided to help educate our children. Yes we may be provided with and educated on things like the smart board but we are also provided with little time to be able to use them. The way that most students are taught is " educating them out of creativity" or as Dr. Strange puts it, teachers use the burp back method instead of using a learning method that to most comes naturally, called creativity. The basis of teaching is math, language, humanities, and then art. Kids are educated from waist up and then hands. One major thing that I 100% agreed with Ken Robinson on was that these days degrees are not worth anything anymore. Before if you had a degree you were almost guaranteed a job unless you personally chose not to work. Unlike then, we now live in a dog eat dog type of a world where there is only so many jobs available. This is why it is important for children to have an extra piece of knowledge that can maybe one day help them get hired.

Students with a learning disability are very close to my heart. I fully agreed with Dr. Robinson's story about the choreographer that could not sit still. I was diagnosed with ADHD in the second grade. This has caused school to be a terrible challenge for me. Like the choreographer all I needed was to get up and interact with other students and do creative hands on activities. Rather than being forced to sit down and learn the "burp back method" way. There is a such thing as "ADHD" and some children really do suffer from it. There are also children out there who really are not ADHD, but their parents or teachers do not want to put up with them acting like children so they decide to drug them and think that  is going to solve the problem. There is one way that all children can learn and that is through creativity, they just have to be given the chance.

4. A Vision for 21st Century Learners

I personally believe that children in the twenty first century are provided with some amazing forms of technology that could provide them with an outstanding and fun way to learn. This can be done through computers or other forms of technology and being able to interact with their teacher and fellow students through them. I agree that is a form of educating that will help program what the student has learned into their brain, hopefully to stay, and not like the "burp back method" where they just cram information from a lecture or a chapter from a text book for a test and then forget it the very next day. While I do agree with the above I also think that technology has had a negative effect. Children from the 21st century have learned to rely on technology a little too much to where some only pick up a book if it is something that is required by school. Leisure reading is also something that teachers and parents should motivate the children to do. Books are full of information that one may not learn in a classroom. Reading can also help with spelling techniques. There is a happy medium with all things, you as a teacher just have to figure out how to properly distribute the time between the two.

5. Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts:

This is an amazing form of teaching that I hope to one day bring into my classroom. The fact that the students were able to learn through experience and for this to have been such a huge success is proof that technology and creativity is a positive form of teaching. Ms. Davis's form of teaching is a lot like EDM310.  This is one class that I actually look forward to doing the "homework."  I know that what I learn in EDM310 will forever be programmed in me, since I am actually having to learn on my own and teach myself and not have a teacher drilling me with facts.

I cannot wait to be able to put these techniques to use in my classroom one day. Students have the opportunity to work together and feel like they actually accomplished something at the end. Instead of classes like   Ms. Davis's that are focused on students learning on their own through a program on a computer that forces them to work together should be mandatory at all schools. These programs allow students to go out side of the normal learning box and actually put their own creative touch on something. 

Project #Two

Blog Post #1

About me:
Hello,my name is Audrey Elizabeth Mitchell, I am here to tell you a little bit about myself. I am from Mobile Alabama,from the ages of 0-18 I had only lived in two houses, the first in which was around the corner and up a hill from the second. At age 18 I moved to Tuscaloosa to start the college journey by attending Shelton State Community College. Since then I have lived in a total of 5 different places, all in which were in one state and two cities.
My main hobbies are running and working out. These have become to be more of obsessions then anything else. Sophomore year of high school I broke my left knee, which caused me to not be able to be involved in any sports for the rest of my high school career. Once I was completely healed I decided to beat the odds of what the doctor had told me and to one day be able to run again. Because of this Freshman Year of college I decided to start lifting and doing cross fit. Since then I have rehabilitated my knee enough to be able to start running again. I now run and lift on an every day basis and have overly beaten the odds. The goal is to run a half marathon this year.
After attending Shelton State for two years I decided to move home and attend USA. This is something I would have never in a million years thought would happen. I am someone who wants to move out of Alabama and explore the rest of the world and not be a homebody. This may now one day become true. My boyfriend,who is in Air Force ROTC at Mississippi State University,will be graduating this year. He will be based in Hawaii for two years after graduating. I hope to one day move out there with him and see what that part of the world has to offer. Who knows maybe I will be able to do my student teaching there!
My family is the most important thing to me. I have an identical twin sister named Kayley, who is one minute older than me. We are proof of the assumption that twins have ESP being true. Some weird and crazy things have happened to us in our life. I would not trade this gift for anything in the world, she is my other half and best friend. I have a four year older brother, named Hayden. Hayden is your typical protective brother of his sisters. My parents are to me the best parents you could ever ask for, not being bias or anything=].
Both my mom, brother and also his wife are all teachers. My mother has been a teacher for about 28 years. She has always loved her job because of the challenges being a teacher brings. She has always told me that every year is completely different than the last one, not one class is the same either. Hayden is facing his first year of teaching history to high school students. He is also facing the challenge of teaching at a reconstituted school. His wife Mandy teaches theater to high school students at one of the nicest high schools in Mobile County. This is an example that each school brings different challenges.
Growing up I always told myself I would never become a teacher like my mom, but deep down inside I always knew I would. Not only do I love children but I also have seen how rewarding being a teacher can be. Being a teacher also comes with amazing benefits and this career is what held my family together during a few very challenging years. I can not wait to become a teacher and get to experience all of these great things that teaching brings first hand.


Randy Pausch: 
While watching his video on time management I learned or was reminded several things. The thing that stuck out the must is to always ask yourself WHY. He put on the screen several questions to ask your self and I found these very useful!
*Why am I doing this? What is the goal?
*Why will I succeed?
*What happens if I choose not to do it?
*Doing things right vs. doing things
*100 things to do in my life
I feel that these are things that will help me and my fellow classmates pass EDM310 and that are also useful tools for day to day life. You only have one chance at this life you are living. So live it the best way you possibly can and use some of these tools to help you along the way.

Practice Post

My first post.