Exit Slip 10-28-2010

Today I think I learned that it is important to make sure that you keep your discussion group on topic. When the topic drifts away from the main idea you need to refocus the group as soon as possible. I did like that the group had us face to face with other people in the class for the discussion and had us speaking directly with each other as opposed to speaking in larger groups. I am happy to hear that there are grants available if we go out and look for them for our classroom. Elluminate was really interesting. I'm g lad I got to learn how to use that program. I hope I am able to use it sometime.

Chap 7 Rethinking Education

I think that the losses are evident and very sad. The loss of a liberal arts education and the "digital divide" with limited access to computers for poorer children are serious issues. "Finally, will people become more isolated, witting at home in front of a computer and interacting less with other people socially? It is by interacting with supportive mentors and teachers that people are inspired to work hard and learn difficult topics."(107) I can see how there can be gains with customized education and increased engagement in learning. However this does bring up again the issue of the "digital divide" and would not be possible in many households. I like the idea that is brought up in  the book of the One Laptop per Child effort but of course seeing this as being very costly and with all of the cuts in education lately probably not possible at this time.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Chap 8 Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

I really love the idea of screen casting and pod casting. I think that screen casting is great because you can actually show in real time what you need to do or what you did while you are explaining what is going on. I like that it is so visual and you can see exactly what is going on. I think that pod casting is also a great resource for the classroom. You can record different lessons so the students can listen to them again later or have the class do their own recording about thing that they have learned.  like the ideas that the books gives including ""pod tours" of the campus on back-to-school nights (perhaps created by students), or tours of art displays narrated by the artists. You could record assemblies, do new teacher orientations, have supervisors record descriptions of their departments, and record board meetings for students, teachers and parents who are unable to attend. Principals could record weekly or monthly messages to the community, teacher or even students." (117) I think that since the communication is done with a recording of the persons voice it is more personal and it is easily accessible for many people to just listen to even if they do not have strong reading skills.

Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 2010. Corwin. California.

Exit slip 10-21-2010

I really liked how the group today splip up everyone into groups for discussion and that makes me think of ways that my group can split people into groups for discussion when we do our lesson. I also really liked that the group today was really prepared and circulated well to keep everyone thinking about different things while they were in their discussion groups. I really want to do that now as well.
I'm glad that I learned how to lock things down in the whiteboard software because I need to do that with my iWBL. I am also happy I learned about Skype. I think I will use it often.

Chap 6 Rethinking Education

I found this chapter really interesting as always. I think that it seems to be a very natural progression that the education system has gone through. It seems like apprenticeship was the first form of real education in children's lives and it was very informal in the fact that it was done by watching and doing and just learning one particular skill, although it was very effective and it did seem like a great way for the children to learn. With the progression into public mandated schools I almost yearn a little for the one on one apprenticeship days of our pasts. I think that the ideals of back then would be a wonderful way to run a classroom, although it is not really very practical in the fact that you can not have a 1:3 teacher to student ratio. I can see in this chapter why some parents may opt for homeschooling to achieve more one on one attention but still feel that they would be more well rounded culturally if they were to be in a public school.

Chap 7 Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

From all of the different ways of communicating with different classrooms across the globe, this is the one I feel would work the best. I think that Flickr is an amazing way to share pictures, video and in depth information with another classroom and how interesting would it be if it were one that were across the globe? I love that you can pinpoint things in the pictures and explain what they are, that really make the pictures come alive! I believe that this tool is the perfect way for our students to learn about other cultures and places first hand. Since they are also so involved in the process I think that they will find it extremely enjoyable as well as informative.

Exit Slip 10-14-2010

I am really excited about doing this iRLO in Scratch. This program I think is one that will be extremely helpful for me to know and I am looking forward to using it in my classroom. I believe that knowing how to use this program will set me apart from other applicants in my perspective field.

Chapter 5 Rethinking Education

This chapter showed several different ways in which people are able to learn without going to a public school. I really enjoyed the section on seniors taking learning trips that are meant to teach them about the places in which they are visiting. The section on homeschooling I found to be the most valuable. I always hear people argue that children that are home schooled are not properly socialized and I do not feel that is always the case since they have programs now that involve several home schooled children t hat helps them to get together and go on field trips together and become involved with each other. In this chapter the most compelling argument for me against home schooling was the following quote: "Home schooling goes against the spirit that moved Horace Mann and his colleagues to advocate universal schooling in order to integrate people from diverse cultures to share common knowledge and values"(70). This quote clearly states what I fear is the biggest problem with home schooling. The students are sheltered from other students that hold different beliefs from themselves in which they could grow as people and individuals. By having this complete separation and the parents having complete control over what the children are taught and whom they are exposed to, cultures, religions and ethnicity's, they are essentially robbed of the education of diversity.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Chap 6 Blog, Wiki, Podcasts

The section on Twitter didn't change my mind on it at all. I understand the purpose of it at it conception was to help keep people in contact with one another, but what it has become to me is just a place for celebrities to speak their minds about every mundane thing going on  in their day, and then the media reporting on it. I do not believe that Twitter is being used for its original purpose anymore and is more of a nuisance and annoyance than anything else.
The section on social bookmarking services I found very informative. Since we have been using delicious.com in class this section was easy to follow. I have found this service to be very beneficial and I believe it will be a wonderful asset to have in the future as an educator. As I come across different sites now that have do to with education, I add them to my delicious account and tag them appropriately, I then will be able to go back to them by their tags in the future and use them for teaching different lessons and or for different resources to help with lesson plans. Having everything in one place that I can access from any computer with Internet access is a great asset to have.

Exit Post 10-7-2010

I'm glad that we went over the expectations for the iRLO assignment. I think that Scratch is a very interesting program. It seems easy to use and could come in handy very well in a classroom. The examples that were shown were really great and gave me some really good ideas. It doesn't seem as bad as I was thinking it was and I am really looking forward to getting started and making my iRLO.

Rethinking Education Chapter 4

I never really thought about how public schools came to be until I read this chapter. I find it especially interesting that the first public kindergarten was in Wisconsin in 1856. I like the evolution of the textbook so that all teachers would be teaching the same material. I never really thought of schools without textbooks, so to think of teachers teaching without them just seems mind boggling to me. I really like how the chapter goes through the history of public school and how it was not needed, then was very much in demand, and how now it is in decline with so many options available. I think that the author did a really great job of making the whole chapter really cohesive in his message. I am fascinated with the idea of compulsory attendance as a way to educate people so that they "make wise political decisions, since the control of the government in this new republic had been turned over to the people." (60) This is another concept that never crossed my mind, that public schools were opened in order to further peoples educations in order to make them better voters, but I can really see how this would be beneficial and very necessary.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Chapter 5 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

This chapter left me so confused that I am not sure that I have any idea what the author was writing about. From what I gathered you can filter different websites for specific articles to be presented to you by certain keywords that you have entered into the program. I'm not exactly sure how this can be incorporated into the classroom and due to my entirely confused being right now I don't feel that I am in the right frame of mind to make an informed decision as to whether or not this is a technology I would utilize in my classroom or life. I am hoping that we will have a hands on explanation of this RSS platform in class so that I will have a better understanding of the program and can make a more informed decision.

Chapter 4 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

This chapter really got me thinking as to the infinite possibilities of the wiki format. When I thought of using a wiki in the classroom I previously only thought of using it as we do in class currently. We could post our classroom assignments and talk recap what we did in class. I love the different ideas of having different wikis for different books read in class or different subjects. I also love the idea of having the kids do research on different subjects and editing wikipedia.org as a class. I think that working together as a class the knowledge that would be gained by that experience would be phenomenal. The teacher that used the wiki to connect to another class in another country I thought was a brilliant idea. What a great way to get the kids to interact and work together on different research projects. Not only do they learn from each other about their living situations and cultures but they also see different perspectives on the same subject in which they are researching.

Exit Slip 9-30-2010

I liked that we went over how to do things with the SMARTBoard. I am aways interested in the different aspects of the SMARTBoard and am always fascinated by the different ways we can incorporate it into the classroom and all it can do. I'm glad we went over the iWBL assignment more in depth as I was feeling overwhelmed by the whole thing at first. I'm enjoying the different groups teaching the different chapters of the book. I like their different styles and I get different ideas after each group goes.