PSA

I think that there could be a lot done with Movie Maker for the classroom and the kids could have a ton of fun using it and watching themselves. I am looking forward to using this with my future students and even with my kids. I think that kids would have a blast seeing themselves, in fact my partners son was thrilled to see himself and it was just the back of his head! Kids would really have a blast and just the endless possibilities make me excited to use this in the future.
I felt that the entire process went rather smoothly. I liked using Movie Maker and think that it was relatively easy to use. The hardest part of this process I think was just coming up with a concept and then making sure that we had a storyboard that we were happy with. After we had our concept I think that it went rather well and came out as we had expected.

Chapter 10 Rethinking Education

I like how the chapter was split up into sections and that each section was about rethinking different aspects of education such as education in the work place or government involvement in education. I did not agree with everything that was said in the chapter but that is to be expected, you can't always agree with everything that one person says, it is just one persons opinion after all. I am disappointed that the tone of this chapter leaves you feeling that if you do not incorporate technology into every aspect of your classroom that you will fail to be a successful and effective teacher and I do not feel that is true.

Chapter Discussion Guides

We met twice as a group and prepared well in advance for our group discussion. I felt that we were prepared and did a good job with our presentation. The one thing I think we could have done better with is time management so that all students could have had their ideas shared, I feel that that was a downfall in our presentation. I think that facilitating a discussing can be beneficial because we are then able to see our peers perspective on the subject at hand and therefore maybe get a fresh look at the same material.

Exit Slip 11-18-2010

We need to make sure that directions are clear and concise, make sure that everyone understand the directions.

We can find many resources in a minute online if we know what we are looking for.

Exit Slip 11-11-2010

Few ideas from todays discussion
1. Have class answer in certain amount of words.
2. Have a back up plan.
3. Don't forget students if you break them into groups before hand

Chapter 9 Rethinking Education

I like in the chapter that it suggests sitting with a child that plays video games and have them explain to you the purpose of the game while you ask questions in regards to the strategies used. I think this is a great way to gauge the way in which the children are focusing and using the games in their minds. I also like how it talks about getting kids involved in communities or groups of other kids that are interesting in the same thing they are where they can explore their curiosity, all while having a parent or adult mentor monitoring in the background of course. I was also happy that it talked about vocabulary development and the fact that many can acquire vocabulary at an accelerated rate when it is in a game form or in a meaningful context.

Contemporary Issues Podcast

How much effort did you exert preparing for the podcast?


I did a lot of research before finding a website that I felt was credible and had a lot of really usable information. I rewrote my script a few times and recorded a few times until I was able to go through the entire thing without stumbling over my words. The research, writing of the script and finding the music was the most time consuming part of the assignment, second would be the actual putting together of the podcast with the recording be the least time consuming.

How does creating and sharing a podcast with your peers impact your future teaching?

I am happy that I know how to make a podcast now. I think that this could really come in handy if I wanted to post something online for future students or even just have them listen to it in class.

References for podcast:

www.cyberbullying.us
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070907221530.htm

sound effect from: www.PartnersinRhyme.com

Lead in and out music from: www.incompetech.com

Chapter 10 and Epilogue Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

I honestly didn't care much for this final chapter. It felt almost as if the author was stating that you have to make everything strictly electronic and online otherwise you will completely lose your classroom and I don't feel that that is so. While I like his ideas of having the students work put online for others to see and giving the students a feeling of ownership over their work, I do not feel that all of the work that is done is always something that necessarily needs to be shared. I do not believe that all work needs to be done online and shared and some work can still be done on paper and ultimately thrown away in the end. I for one do not feel the need to do a math assignment  online and post it for the world to see, nor do I have the desire to look at others math work online. I just feel that the author goes a little overboard with his ideals in this chapter.
In the epilogue I think it shows that you can do a lot on computers in a short amount of time. Computers are definitely efficient time savers. I like how the author goes about exploring all the different ways the teacher was going to share different information with students and parents and that made me think about the different ways that I could share with my students parents in an efficient manner.

Exit Slip 11-4-2010

Good ideas for a better presentation:
1. Give directions before breaking up the groups.
2. Having the directions on board in print.
3. Don't make pages too confusing or busy. Use separate pages rather than have too much on one page.
4. Color coding reduces cognitive load.

Chap 8 Rethinking Education

I found the Performance Based Assessment section of this chapter really interesting. I really like the idea of "tying certifications to the specific goals of learners"(114). I think that it is nice how it would be all set out online so that the students and the parents could follow it and clearly see which certificates they would need for their desired career. The new curriculum design was different in the fact that it wanted the students to almost become experts in a particular subject before moving on. In this chapter was I was mostly drawn to the Performance Based Assessment and felt that it had a great outline drawn out within the chapter.

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

Cool Tools Screencast

How much effort did you exert preparing for the screencast?

I worked for sometime on a script but found that it ended up being too long. After my 4th recording I ended up using the script as more of a guideline and tried to speak a little more relaxed as all previous recordings sounded mechanical and rehearsed.

How does creating and sharing a screencast with your peers impact your future teaching

I think that being able to create a screencast will be an excellent skill to have. Being able to share how to do something while showing it online could be really helpful to many students. Students having access to this information may make the difference on whether or not they are actually able to understand how to do something or not.

Chap 9 Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

I thought this chapter was interesting because I honestly never really thought about how you could possibly use Facebook in a classroom. While I liked their ideas I kind of liked the idea of using Ning better because you can design it yourself and make it more personalized and have it work more towards your individual needs. While this may work best for the teacher, using Facebook may work best for the students since they are more familiar with it and will probably feel more comfortable using something that they have already had a lot of experience with and use on a daily basis.