Comment 4 Kidz WK 8

I commented on a girl named Cristal's poem about her feeling like a slave. Her poem is on Ms. Shelter's blog site

March 28th

An Open Letter to Educators
In early humanity only the privileged and select few were able to obtain knowledge, while most people were left in the dark with no means of access to this treasure called information. But with the invention of the internet, information has been freed to be obtained by anyone. Although this decreases the value of information because it is more commonly found, it also creates more convienent ways for peolpe to get and use it. Dan Brown uses the example of how before the internet people had to use globes and atlases to plan trips. With the internet all you have to do now is plot in your location and destination and it gives you instant directions and seconds.

The most significant fact that Dan pointed out was that we as students are programmed to come into class and memorize facts and how well we memoize these facts determines how smart we are. But in todays age, the value of being good at memorizing facts is alomst pointless because of the internet. Now everyone has instant access to facts thanks to the internet. We are wasting a lot of time teaching students this way.
I've been in college for about 3 years now and it amazes me how i can pass classes without ever having to buy the books for them. I can just google any information i need and the informations is just as accurate.

March 7th

The first part he emphasises is the importance of the fundamentals. Fundamental are like the framework, the foundation of every persons house of learning. You can not build a strong, stable house without having your fundamentals together. This principle is found true any many places. Like the example he uses with Football. I play football and the first thing they teach you before anything is the fundamentals so you can build on those and move on to the more advance skills and techniques. And the same rules apply for learning and teaching in the classroom as well.

He talks about the brick walls as metaphors comparing them to the rejection people face when they are turned down. He says that these brick walls are there not to turn you away but to test how bad you want something. Everyone didn't get the dream the first time around but those who really wanted it kept knocking until that door finally opened.

He talks about handing over things you are so attached to. And these could be students who you've been teaching for years that you are really fond of, but aren't coming along like they should be. He believes that when you have to let these things go, that you make sure it's to someone who can take better care of them. I agree with this because as teachers we are very caring for our students, but we can't solve all their problems alone. Sometimes you do all you can and if that's not working than find someone who can do more for them.


The last part I wanted to mention is that he was saying how important it was to help people. Everyone needs help, even you. Kids are going to need your help teaching them, caring for them, and disciplining them. Other teacher are going to need your help on advice on how teach to teach a lesson or on some creative ways to teach it. Your going to need help when you run out of supplies and need to borrow from the teacher next door. Everyone helps each other. That's the power of a team because together everyone achieves more.

Feb 28th

This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
If you think about how in the past when your parents and grandparents where in school, you will come across a ton of difficulties that they ran into that modern technolgy has made a hundred times more convienent for its users. Take for instance how those generations had to find information by going to a local or school library and search for books that might contain the answer they need. This process was extremely time consuming especially if the libraries didnt have the books necessary. Or what about when they wanted to communicate to a friend or relative that lived overseas? They had to pay some kind of charge just for a simple conversation of "how have you been".

Thanks to technology, these issues have become minor inconviences. Now all you need is a computer and internet access and you can enjoy looking up plenty of information and talk to people all over the world about any subject. Think about all the great speeches that were recorded, like Dr. Kings "I have a dream" speech. People in my generation could never hear it without the use of technology. It enables us to experience events that we were not able to witness.

In our blog assisgnment it asked if we will be prepared to write with multimedia and will our students be able to. I know that multimedia technolgy could be very useful to me as a teacher and as a learner so i am trying to absorb everything i can from my EDM310 class because it is showing me a whole new way to communicate, teach, and learn. My students will most likely be able to use multimedia because as technology assimulates into the classes, they will be familiar with it at an earlier age.


Networked Student
Being connected to millions of individuals can have tremendous advantages. You can communicate with the minds of people who are already in the career you want to be in or with people who are trying to get into the career. Either way you can all learn from eachother, building off of what the other one knows to construct a good foundation of education principles and techniques.

Connectivism can be very beneficial but i wonder if it will effectively teach our students alone. Putting the sole responsibility on the student to find information can backfire because you never know who the student is networking with. It could be someone who isn't who they say they are which is a major problem when communicating with people on the internet.

This style of learning also changes the role of the teacher from a primary source of knowledge to a educational guider and a model of they way to build your personal learning network. With me being a P.E. teacher, I'm sure that they number of students i have could prevent me from making sure every student knows exactly what they're doing. I could use a network of instructional videos that teach students certain sports and/or about the body and how it works as a system, so students can learn on their own time in case they didn't get everything in class.

Toward A New Future of Whatever
We have so much freedom of choice in America. Dr. Wesch spoke about the reasons why people in my generation feel so confident and impowered. I can see how this feeling of importance and deserving of attention and recognition has been installed into our brains by the media. They sell us electronics for our pleasure, produce bigger vehicles with more power just for us, and want us idolize music artist for their "its all about me/i do what i want" rockstar attitudes. So i think it has completely spoiled us. But i'm right along with them so i have to point the finger at myself too.

The Media is going to have a enormous affect on us and our students as teachers. Its going to determined what's acceptable to wear, what's acceptable to eat, what's acceptable to drive, etc etc. In other words, you and your students will be judged through the media's standards.

Personally I enjoy using and being envolved with media tools because you can feel apart of a world much larger than your small town local friendly faces you see everyday.

Comments 4 kids summary

In Mr.McClungs World blog i commented on his blog about Arkansas being the 2nd most unhappiest state. He gave some facts about how they have a very high divorce rate (2nd only to Nevada) and have no professional sports team.

For seem reason i wasn't able to get access to Patrick D's blog for some reason because the computer kept telling me i was looking for something that wasn't here.

In Ms. Toa's class i commented on a girl named Lauren's post on her haiku poem. The poem was very good too as she wrote about her moving to China from the U.S.

Feb 21

I decided to blog on a couple of Dr. Alice Christie's points and how it could benefit me as a physical education teacher. I want to point a couple points that i agree with. First is the philosophy that teachers create such environments to facilitate learning and provide opportunities for self-reflection and self-evaluation. As the teacher it is ultimately your job to create a successful place of learning for your students. As a P.E. teacher, that could mean having activities organized and playing/teaching games to students that will emphasize teamwork, critical thinking, and good sportsmanship.

Another point is that she states learning is reflective and incorporates feedback from teachers (co-learners) and peers. This could mean to encourage communication for strategizing and such between students especially ones on the same team. Students learning to collaborate with eachother is an essential part of making learning more dynamic and flexible. These tools can be very beneficial to learners going into an ever-changing world.

My thoughts on the iTunes Universitiy are surprising very positive after visiting this websites article on them (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16624-itunes-university-better-than-the-real-thing.html?haasFormId=f9768f0e-e55c-439a-b647-e3a56f64a4f7&haasPage=0) On figured students who listened to podcast lectures were just lazy students who didn't want to go to class, but the article stated that those students were receiving higher exam scores so it seems they are effective in some scenerios. As a student i would be willing to listen to podcast lectures because i miss parts of the lecture, trying listen and write at the same time while thinking about what's being said so i can put the pieces together on my own.

As a teacher it would probably make your job easier because you aren't having to repeat things to students as much or email individual students what they missed so much when a student misses classes, but rather just record everything you want them to know and have them all get itune acounts so they can obtain the lectures when needed. It also helps keep students who have to miss class for important reasons a way to stay with the class and not have so many students get behind in class because missing one day in college can hurt you.

http://news.duke.edu/2005/12/ipodupdate.html, this link is on the usage of ipods in Duke University's classrooms since being implimented in 2004. Apparently it was the beginning move of the Universities attempt to incorporate more digital technology campus wide. From ipods to videos, audios, and online collaboration tools, Duke has noticed that the increase comfort level with digital devices has increased studying outside the classroom. The article states that in intends to continue to support a broad range of technology use.

Feb 14th

What I've learned this year
In his blog, Mr. McClung talks about tips he has learned over the years of being a teacher. Advice like making your lessons centered toward your audience not just curriculum. Being flexible even if it means going against something your accustomed to. Communicating about issues instead of repressing them. Remembering that you're teaching kids, not adults and try and think like they do because they think different than adults. Also to use technology and listen to your students like showing interests in their lives. And most importantly never stop learning because we work in a learning envoronment.

Using all these tips can definetly help make your early teaching experience less of a bumpy one. Some teachers don't pick up these things until later in their careers but learning them earlier will make you a better teacher and a more successful one too. My favorite piece of advice is telling upcoming teachers to remember students are kids not adults, so they think differently than teachers and you must take that into account when trying to reach them.