Blog Post 16

PART 1

Reflecting back on Blog Post 1 made me laugh. I remember sitting in EDM 310 on the first day and feeling extremely overwhelmed and stressed out. The instruction manual was so lengthy and I had never even heard of most of the programs I would have to use. Eight long weeks later, I am reflecting on how I felt the first day of class and when I wrote my first blog post.

Everything I said in Blog Post 1 was true! I still want my classroom to be fun, enjoyable, colorful, loud and all of the fun adjectives I used to describe it. I still want my students to be themselves and know that it's good to be different. I still plan on using iPads and SMARTBoards. However, I can now elaborate on all of these things. Now that I've experienced them myself, I can say for sure which ones I will and will not use. I can add iCurio, Blogger, iMovie, widgets and many other things to my list of technology tools I will use with my students. I have learned so much this semester and I'm thankful for the technological knowledge I will take with me!

THANK YOU DR. STRANGE!

PART 2

Blog Post 15

What can I learn from conversations with Anthony Capps?

I really enjoy listening to Anthony Capp’s ideas and advice. Knowing that he once was a student in EDM310, as I am today, gives me hope that I can grow from this class and apply my knowledge in my Project Based Learning Classroom.

Earlier in the semester, I chose to do one of my posts on iCurio. I think iCurio is a great tool for students and teachers. In the video about iCurio, Capps discusses how safe it is and how it can be used for any grade level. Like Dr. Strange, I tend to misplace my notes. This tool can prevent that problem! Students can upload their files into certain folders, search under restricted sites and save their information quickly. This video taught me how to allow my students to search the internet without coming across inappropriate sites. This is really important to me, as a teacher and a parent.

Discovery Education is another tool to be used in the classroom. This allows students to enter key words they are searching for. Like iCurio, this also allows students to search for information without seeing inappropriate websites. I think this would be a great tool for students in elementary school. It seems to be harder to know exactly what to type in the search engine when you are younger. Searching for key words can help students quickly find what they need. I hope to use both tools in my classroom!

The third video I watched was Additional Thought About Lessons. Anthony discusses four “layers” to his teaching strategy. He says there is the curriculum based off of the year, the unit, the week and the day. He compares this theory to a Russian nested doll. It is important to prepare your projects and teachings in all four of these time frames. I agree with Anthony on this! My biggest fear about using Project Based Learning in my classroom is time management. This strategy helped me realize how I need to plan the curriculum. I think this strategy could really help!

I love how Dr. Strange is surprised by many of the information Anthony gives him. This really proves that teachers can learn from students. I enjoyed all of the videos I watched on conversations between Dr. Strange and Anthony!

Jamie Risner

iCurio

In this video Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange talk about iCurio. ICurio is an online tool that allows students to safely search websites and use other online media. Another great feature that iCurio offers is it allows students to store information that they find interesting into folders and to also create new folders. By allowing students to add to and create folders it gives students responsibility and organization skills. These are skills that students will be able to use for the rest of their life. The feature I thought would be the most useful to teachers is that iCurio has the ability to read text to students with disabilities. This feature will be a great help to teachers who have a student with a disability, because they will not have to read the text to the students themselves.

Discovery Education

In this video Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange talk about the online search tool called Discovery Education. Discovery Education is an online search tool that does not just offer pictures but also video’s of experts giving information on the topic. Anthony Capps stated that Discovery Education does not take the place of reading but helps to enhance it. I agree with what Dr. Strange said “students should not just be consumers of technology but also producers of it”. I think this is a great statement because students should not be satisfied with using the technology they are given but rather the students should want to create and contribute to technology, which allows them to have their voice and ideas heard.

Don't Teach Technology -Use It

In this video Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange talk about the use of technology in classrooms. I agree with the statement Anthony Capps made in the beginning of this video when he said “it does not matter if you like technology or not you are surrounded by it”. Everywhere you look there's technology and it is at our fingertips at all times with smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The most important thing I learned from this video is a teacher should not teach technology but should do it. A teacher can do this by designing projects that starts off with just an introduction to technology, then the teacher continuously designs projects that allows students to build their skills and combine the tools they are learning. I think this is a great idea because it allows students to use critical thinking skills and problem solving skills, which they will use the rest of their life. There are many advantages to using PBL and technology. One advantage is it is cheaper because it is a one time purchase and teachers do not have to keep buying supplies for projects. With PBL and technology students can be engaged with projects all year long. I thought this video was very helpful because now I know that in my classroom I should not teach technology but use it.

Maggie Adkisson

In the video iCurio I watched as Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange discuss iCurio. I learned so much about the iCurio and it’s features. Although I had previously looked at it before, I never realized what a great tool it was. I think it is great that it enables students to use the internet while preventing inappropriate material from appearing in their search results. Not only does it provide safe search engines, but iCurio also allows teacher and students to save information in folders to come back to later. I thought this was great! So many times when working on a project I print a numerous amount of unnecessary information because I do not want to lose it after I leave that particular website. Not only is this a great way to be environmentally friendly, but it encourages organization for both me and my future students. I am very impressed with the capabilities iCurio has to offer and will definitely being using this in my class!

In the video Discovery Ed Anthony Capps and Dr. Strange discussed Discovery Ed. Discovery Ed is a website that offers a variety of tools to assist in teaching particular subjects, such as science and social studies. It offers pictures, videos, and much more to reiterate the subject being taught. One feature that I like about Discovery Ed is that it allows students to listen to an expert in a given field. As a future teacher I understand that I will not be able to answer every question they have, but with Discovery Ed I will be able to point them in the right direction and let them find out from someone who does know the answer. I think this is a great tool to enhance and personalize their learning!

I think The Anthony - Strange list of Tips for Teachers Part 1 is a great video for anyone who is considering or even on their way to being a teacher. Anthony Capps provides some very great insight to what his life is like as a third grade teacher. Always reading books, always learning new things, and working more than just the school day. Many people think that teaching is one of the easiest jobs, but that is far from the truth. There is so much more to it than just standing at the front of a room talking. There are lesson plans, parent meetings, and so much more that a teacher does not because it is easy, or because teaching pays a lot of money. They do it because they are passionate about teaching children.

C4T 4

For C4T 4, I had already made my first comment on thePEgeek.com when I received the updated C4T instructions.

The post was about the app - Motion Tennis. Motion Tennis is an app that allows the iPhone to turn into a "tennis racquet". You will need an Apple TV or AirPlay device to see the tennis game. This is a great tool to use on rainy days or to simply teach the basics of tennis. The app is $7.99 on iTunes. Some may argue that they want a free app that does this, however I think that is a reasonable price for a game this extensive. I would imagine there are many other apps you can download that are similar to this.

The other blog, iPE, is not your regular blog. This is a podcast blog! Instead of just typing out their thoughts, findings, teaching strategies, etc., Nathan Horne and Joey Feith actually blog by using a podcast. This made it much more fun for me to look over their blog. They share ideas and stories from their classrooms. There are many great websites, teacher blogs, tools, apps and general information on their blog. This was my favorite blog I've visit so far for C4T!

PLN

I think PLN, Symbaloo, is a very interesting tool. Although I didn't use it very much this semester, it could be very helpful. I created mine, but never took the time to learn how to use it proficiently. It could have been a great tool, especially for EDM310. I am going to work on mine and try to use it more! When I made it, I tried to color coordinate it and put similar links beside each other.

Blog Post 14

Blog Post 14 Interview Due 07/21/13

You are to interview a teacher who uses PBL in their classroom. The teacher should teach your area of specialty. Create a list of questions prior to the interview that include things such as how long have you used PBL?, is there any advice they can give?, how does he/she practice time management skills in their classroom while using PBL?, etc. The interview can be videoed in person, recorded via Skype, Google, whichever is best for you and the teacher. You can just use an audio recording if you'd like. I have provided your specified teacher that you will interview in a Google Doc. It is your responsibility to set up the time and place of the interview.

After the interview, you must summarize it and tell us what you have learned from the teacher. Then, upload your interview to YouTube and post the interview and summary to your blog.



I came up with this idea because I thought it was cool how Dr. Strange and Anthony share ideas and learn things from each other for their classrooms, such as certain tools to use on the web. My friend, Katherine, has been a teacher for ten years. She teaches fifth grade. Just a couple of years ago she started hearing about Project Based Learning and became interested. Last year was her first year to make some changes in her classroom. Although she is nowhere close to knowing everything there is to know about PBL, you have to start somewhere! She admitted that she was comfortable in the way she was teaching, but knew it wasn't fair to the students once she started seeing all of the other possibilities. I know my first year as a teacher is going to be stressful and scary, but I hope that I can at least have some courage to introduce PBL to my students. She told me that it was acceptable to learn from my students. I agree with this! There are many children who know more about technology and apps than adults do. Why not engage with the children and allow everyone to learn something?

Project 15

Blog Post 13

Are you thankful for the education girls AND boys are given in our country? You should be! I know that I am after watching the TED video on Kakenya Ntaiya! I highly recommend everyone watch this video!

As a child growing up in Kenya, Kakenya Ntaiya was not promised an education past twelve years old. Her father was away working most of the time, and when he was home he was selling the crops her mother had worked on all year and drinking with his friends at a local bar. Her mother, her siblings and herself were to do exactly what her father demanded or the mother would be abused. She was arranged a husband to marry once she became a woman. When she was thirteen she was mutilated as a female, like the all of the other girls her age. Since her mother was denied an education, she emphasized how important an education was. Ntaiya told her father that she would go through with the “celebration” of becoming a woman if she could continue her education. He agreed.

Little did she know how her world would change! She went to high school in Kenya then received a scholarship to college in the United States. She went around to all of the men and collected enough money for her plane ticket to America. Once she got here, her eyes were opened to: SNOW, rights, laws and many other things that had been stolen from her back home. After receiving her Master’s, Ntaiya went back to Kenya to repay the community for helping her receive her education. She started an all girls school and not only kept 125 girls from being sexually mutilated, but helped them transform into educated young ladies with chance at life!

It is so important to realize how lucky we are to have our education handed to us. For me, it was known that I would attend school all the way through college. But, for others it’s not that simple. It’s amazing what you can do if you really want something and fight for it. In another TED video Sugata Mitra emphasized how amazing it is to see what children can do if you give them certain atmospheres and tools. Once she made it to America, all it took for Ntaiya to be successful was an opportunity. We should teach our students to be motivated like she was and not just expect things to be given to you. We are truly lucky to live in this country and be given the education opportunities that we have.



Jamie Risner

Shukla Bose: Teaching One Child at a Time

I enjoyed the video “Teaching One Child at a Time”. In this video, Shukla Bose talks about how she started the Parkrma Humanity Foundation. This foundation helps the children in India who live in the slums get an education. Bose started by going to the slums and identifying houses where the children who would never go to school lived. She would then talk to the parents about sending their children to school. The parents wanted their children to go to school, because they wanted their children to have a better life, but the parents still had to be convinced that change was possible. The Parkrma Humanity Foundation started with one school that was located on the top of the building and had 165 children. The Foundation grew to four schools and a junior college, which all became successful because the schools taught the best curriculum possibly. They even taught English to get the students ready for a globalized world. I think it is great that the children are not just being taught basic skills but also skills that will help them have a better future. The main reason the schools became successful is that the schools and teachers operated under the idea of "one child at a time", which means they would educate students through school and into college by focusing on treating each child as an individual. I believe more schools should operate under this idea, because not every child learns the same or at the same speed. This idea means students are more likely to understand the material taught rather than just being passed along to the next grade.

Maggie Adkisson

In the video "To This Day" ... for the bullied and beautiful Shane Koyczan raises his voice against bullying in a poem. As a child he was picked on and torn down everyday because of his weight. This video was made to raise awareness, put a stop to the cruelty, and most of all give hope to those who feel different and alone.

With his combination of words, music, and pictures the audience is sucked into the lives of the different characters. Feeling their pain with every word. Watching the constant insults break them down. Allowing the names to define them, because after hearing it for so long they are no longer able to see themselves as anything else. Watching this video is like watching a train wreck waiting to happen. It is dark and depressing, but you just cannot take your eyes off of it. My words alone cannot even begin to explain what a nerve hitting masterpiece Shane Koyczan has created. I believe it is only appropriate to share a couple verses.

she was eight years old

our first day of grade three

when she got called ugly

we both got moved to the back of the class

so we would stop get bombarded by spit balls

but the school halls were a battleground

where we found ourselves outnumbered day after wretched day

we used to stay inside for recess

because outside was worse

outside we’d have to rehearse running away

or learn to stay still like statues giving no clues that we were there

in grade five they taped a sign to her desk

that read beware of dog



to this day despite a loving husband

she doesn’t think she’s beautiful

because of a birthmark

that takes up a little less than half of her face

kids used to say she looks like a wrong answer

that someone tried to erase

but couldn’t quite get the job done

and they’ll never understand

that she’s raising two kids

whose definition of beauty

begins with the word mom

because they see her heart

before they see her skin

that she’s only ever always been amazing

People says "kids are cruel" like it is an excuse not to stop bullying. That bullying is okay because it is coming from a child. We ignore how badly the bullied child's feelings are hurt and what the possible repercussions could be. This teacher just moved them to the back of the class hoping they will become invisible. Unfortunately, time and time again we have learned that ignoring the problem does not work. That is why we have kids bringing guns to schools to kill other students, harming their own bodies so that they can feel a moment of relief, and overdosing on pain killers just to get away from reality. By leaving them alone, without support and trying to make the them invisible we are doing nothing, but helping to create their own personal tragedy. We need everyone, not just children, to come to a realization of how their words and deeds can affect others. On his project website he says, "Schools and families are in desperate need of proper tools to confront this problem. We can give them a starting point… A message that will have a far reaching and long lasting effect in confronting bullying". His original video has received over 9,000,000,000 views on Youtube. I believe that we had found a plausible solution. If we could show our students something like this video, we could teach them what their words can do to others. Everyone has compassion and I think when they realize the outcomes a change will be made.

Project 14

Blog Post 12

I really enjoyed Sir Ken Robinson's video How To Escape Education's Death Valley. He discusses learning in America and how even though we put enough money and time into teaching, it's not the most successful way of allowing our students to learn. I was literally laughing out loud when Robinson was discussing ADHD (not because I think the diagnosis is funny for any child to have, I just couldn't agree more). He says that he knows it exists, but that just because a child is hyperactive doesn't mean they should be put on medicine to be calm. I agree with him: any child that you make sit in a classroom for hours at a time is going to get bored and lose concentration! With that being said, why don't we make the students' learning exciting and try not to let them get bored?

Another analogy he used was curiosity being like the engine of a jeep. I learned that curiosity is so important for the teacher to possess as well as the students. Students can thrive off of curiosity and therefore willingly learn more. I never thought about it, but learning and education are two different things. Robinson says you can talk about education without talking about learning. Just because a teacher is in a classroom "teaching", does NOT mean the students are learning. We've been talking about standardized tests in a lot of my classes lately. There is a time and place for standardized tests. They should not be used on a daily basis; just for diagnostics. I agree with this for many reasons, but especially because not all students are good at taking tests. So, just because a student doesn't do well on a standardized tests means they don't understand something? FALSE.

At the end of the video Robinson describes what he means in his title by "death valley". Death Valley is a desert by his house that nothing grows on. It doesn't get any rain, therefore it has no grass, trees, flowers, etc. But, when it did rain, flowers grew! Death Valley is like our students' learning. If we don't teach them anything and give them a learning atmosphere, then they won't learn anything. If we do, then they will grow in their education and learn. I can't wait to have a classroom and try to apply the things I've learned in EDM310 from people's blogs and videos to my own students!



Jamie Risner

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson?

Changing Education Paradigms

In the video Changing Education Paradigms Sir Ken Robinson he asked two questions. The first is "How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century, given that we cannot anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of the next week?" The second question he asks is "How does a country educate children to also have cultural identity while also being part of globalization"? I enjoyed this video very much. It shows how public education became what it is today. "The current system was designed and conceived for a different age. It was conceived in the intellectual culture of the enlightenment and in economic circumstance of Industrial Revolution." The current system divides students into the academic and non academic categories, which makes many brilliant people believe that they are not smart. I believe this is very true. If a student does not make good grades the stdent often believes that means the student is not smart. If a student is discouraged they begin to shutdown and do not want to go to school. Sir Ken Robinson makes a great point that the school system needs to get away from standardization and go to divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the essential capacity for creativity and to see multiple answers-not just one. I think this is a great idea because divergent thinking teaches students to use their minds and their creativity rather than just using their memorization. Sir Ken Robinson also gives a great example of how the public education system is failing. In his example, 1500 kindergarteners were given a test to measure divergent thinking. 98% of those students scored in the Genius level. The same test was given the the same children when they were 8-10 years old, and again at age 13-15. The results were that the scores continuously deteriorated. I was amazed by the results of the test. It shows that as children get further along in their education their divergent thinking skills begin to suffer. This is because they have been taught that there is only one correct answer. This video opened my eyes to the problems of how students are being taught in the education system. I think any person that is wanting to become a teacher should watch this video.

Maggie Adkisson

Ken Robinson is an author and educator. He led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, and was knighted for his work. We can learn so much from Sir Ken Robinson in his 2006 TED talk on The Importance of Creativity. Although he talks on a variety of points, one in particular caught my attention. He said,

There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think math is very important, but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting? Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side.

After hearing this, I began thinking of all the schools I attended throughout my life. That is twelve schools to be exact. I came to the conclusion that not one of them encouraged me to get up and dance, do something creative, or anything else outside of academics. I thought why is this? Who decided that math, science, and english were the most important subjects? I later learned that our educational system was made to suite the needs of the industrial revolution. A time when people were focused on manufacturing. Public schools began preparing students for jobs by focusing on math, science, and other subjects that were deemed important. Likewise, little time was spent letting students use their creativity in art, drama, or music. Society did not care at this point in time if you could paint or do something extraordinary with your creativity. They wanted someone to be able to work machines and understand how to fix them.

Even today, our education system remains much the same as it was during this time. Students spend minimal time in classes such as art, drama, and other creative thinking based classes. Sir Ken Robinson is absolutely correct when he says that schools are killing out creativity. As young children we probably look like this little boy a lot, or at least I did. Covered in head to toe in whatever I was doing. Most time it was dirt.

Then we start going to school, where teachers only want one answer. The textbook, burp back answer. It does not matter if you see a color as being salmon, but if a teacher says it is pink then you are supposed to see it as pink as well. We tell children they are wrong, when in fact they could very well be right. Who is to say their perception is wrong? Instead of accepting their ideas, we break them, and turn them into robots by teaching them only to see what we want them to see. I learned from Sir Ken Robinson that we need to stop this negative stigma of being wrong, and let children discover and learn through their own eyes. Allowing them to keep their creativity and imagination.

Blog Post 11

Ms. Cassidy, a first grade teacher in Canada, is taking advantage of the technology provided. About ten years ago she was given five basic computers. That's where her journey began with incorporating technology into her classroom. In the first video I watched, Little Kids...Big Potential, it is clear that her students enjoy using technology in their classroom. They use computers for their blogs, websites and wikis. They also use videos and pictures. They were even allowed to use a Nintendo DS for a specific lesson. Her students are communicating and sharing ideas with other students around the world, including places such as China. I'm 24 years old and I think that's awesome; I can't imagine what a six year old would think!

I think all of her techniques have potential to be used in my classroom. First of all it depends on what resources I'm given. Hopefully by the time I have my own classroom, each of my students will have an iPad. I thought it was interesting that Dr. Strange brought up the students' parents in the interview and what they thought about their students not only being on the internet, but their pictures and work being posted as well. I have babysat children before whose parents did not want their children's pictures put on Facebook. I loved Ms. Cassidy's response though: she only uses first names and she doesn't post their pictures with their names.

In my opinion, Ms. Cassidy's approach would be very beneficial to the students, parents and the teacher. Imagine if your students were having fun, being creative and learning while people around the world were looking at their work and their parents could see their process at their convenience! Sounds pretty legitimate to me. I think we need more teachers like this, not just in early education, but all the way through college. My daughter is 3 and she has her own iPad. She can work the iPad better than I can. I can't imagine what she could do if she had a little academic encouragement once she's in school!

Project 13

Collaborated by: Kaylee Diegan, Maggie Adkisson, Jamie Risner

A Day In The Life Of Worker Ants

Duration: 225 to 250 minutes

Subject: English, Science

Grade Level: 3rd

Project Idea Summary: Students are to do online research about worker ants. Students are to use the research they found online to create a short story, and illustrate as if they were the worker ant for a day. They are to write about what they would do, what problems they might encounter, and how they would solve those problems. Students are to then get into groups and read over each others stories. Each student would receive and give feed back from their group members. Students would then revise their stories and illustrate them. All the stories would then be compiled into a book called A Day In The Life Of Worker Ants. A podcast would then be made of the book with each student reading their story. The podcast would then be posted on the individual, as well as the class blog page.

Content Standards:

ELA(3) 9. Compose narrative text using an introductory paragraph, specific time frames, clear sequencing of events and conclusions.

TC2(3-5) 8. Collect information from a variety of digital sources.

ELA2010(3) 24. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear events sequences.

21st Century Competencies To Be Taught and Assessed:

Collaboration

Communication

Critical thinking

Creativity and innovation

Entry Events:

Show YouTube video about worker ants.

Formative Assessments (during the project):

Rough drafts

Summative Assessments (end of the project):

Written products by using a rubric

Oral presentation by using a rubric

Resources Needed: Computers with internet access

Access to class blog page

Pens, crayons, markers, paper

Microphones

Reflection Methods:

Group discussion

Class discussion

Writing in a daily journal

C4T 3

The PE Teacher is a blog written by Dylan Blain, a PE teacher in the UK. In the first blog I read Dylan Blain is looking for a website that provides research on physical education. He found one; Physical Education Matters. However, like many other teachers he was looking for one that is free. He also found one of those; Dr. Ashley Casey's blog. PE is being overlooked. It is not seen as an important aspect of school and learning. I happen to disagree with this. I’m not sure exactly what research is saying about physical education, but now I’m interested and want to search and find out.

The second blog post was about department developments. Instead of sharing lesson plans by paper planners, Dylan Blain and his colleagues are using their classroom iPads to share video footage of their lessons. I think this is a great idea. He also talks about using Google docs to share information and have separate folders to put specific information in. Google docs has worked well for my group in this class. I’ve enjoyed using it because it is simple and works quickly. Using technology can make things easier in the classroom by freeing up time and allowing for creative opportunities.

Here is a video that discusses reasons that physical education is important for students!

Blog Post 10

I had never heard of Randy Pausch until we were assigned to listen to his Last Lecture. In Randy Pausch's Last Lecture I was amazed at his lecture ability, outlook on life and all of his accomplishments. If you're not familiar with Randy Pausch I suggest doing a little research. He was an incredible family man, teacher, mentor and member of society. He was diagnosed with cancer and was given three to six months to live. He found this out one month prior to his lecture, but it wasn't holding him back!

I learned many things from Pausch's lecture:

You must teach fundamentals- students have to know the basics for everything else to work

If someone stops being hard on you, they've given up on you- never stop being hard on your students

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted"- even if we don't get what we want, we are still learning something and there's a reason for it

Dreams DO come true- never tell your students that a dream is too big

The classroom is the best place to make others' childhood dreams come true- encourage your students to dream, and help them accomplish those dreams

Keep pushing your students, raise the bar- no matter how excellent their work is, keep pushing them to do bigger and better things

Technology can really help students enjoy learning- why not make learning fun for students?

HELP OTHERS!- karma will get you

Let your kids paint their bedroom :)- what's it going to hurt?

NEVER GIVE UP!

Brick walls will only stop the undetermined- those who are determined will find their way around

I was so impressed with Randy Pausch and his outlook on not only teaching, but life in general. I was sad to read on the internet that he passed away in 2008. But, I am happy that he clearly lived a life he loved!

Project 9

Project 12, Part 2

Project 12, Part 1

Project 10

Blog Post 9

Blog Post 8

Paul Andersen, a science teacher in Montana, is incredibly smart and has great ideas to incorporate in his Blended Learning teaching style. He has been teaching science for nineteen years and just recently began teaching science online. His main idea is Blended Learning in the classroom. Blended Learning consists of online, classroom and mobile tools that incorporate engaging, exploring, explaining, expanding and evaluating (the five E's).

Andersen has six steps to his students' learning process. The first is the question. This starts the tone and is the "hook" of what they are learning. I realized that it is important for the question to be something interesting to the students so they are willing and encouraged to learn. The next step is investigation/inquiry. This is where the students should experiment and try various things with the proposed idea. Next is the video. This is more for the teacher. Andersen makes podcasts giving his students detailed instructions so he doesn't waste any class time. Instead, he has this time to review with his students. The fourth step is elaborating. This is where the students can read on the subject, or do some research. Also, this is where graphs and tables come in to play. Review comes next. Andersen meets individually with his students to evaluate them and see how well they know the material. He says in his video that if a student really knows material, then they should be able to explain it. He sits with his students and asks them questions. This is where he can tell if they know the material or not. Lastly is the summary quiz. If he doesn't feel like the students know the information, they will start over wit this learning process. If they do know the information, he will give them a timed, paper/pencil test.

I learned quite a few things from Paul Andersen. First of all, I was very impressed with his blog and the way he presented himself in his video. He sounds very intelligent, put together and like he really cares about his students. I have already learned from EDM310 that my classroom doesn't have to be the same, boring classroom atmosphere I had in grade school, but Andersen really reinforces this. He gave great examples in his step-by-step learning process on ways to ask questions, use time management and make sure your students really understand what they have been learning. I am excited to incorporate things such as group activities, podcasts and student-centered learning in my classroom!



Maggie Adkisson

What can we learn about teaching and learning from these teachers?

Through the video Making Thinking Visible, we see Mark Church a sixth grade teacher in Amsterdam, use visible thinking in his classroom. The video starts with a topic they learned about the day before, early human beginnings and the origins of human society. He has his students create and write down a headline to summarize what the meaning of the search for human origins is all about. The students then start discussing in their groups how to summarize what they have learned into a small statement. Once they have decided on their headline and written it down, they share it aloud and tell why they chose that headline. Later on once they have completed the lesson they will go back and answer the same question, and then see how their answers changed over time. This is an example of visible thinking. The goal of visible thinking is to develop student thinkings patterns while expanding their understanding of a given topic. To do this visible thinking uses questions to get students talking and thinking about the possible answers, and documented answers to be able to go back and reflect to see how their understanding and thoughts have changed on a given subject.

Jamie Risner

Back To The Future

Back to the Future is a video by Brian Corsby who is a teacher at Agnes Risley Elementary school. Mr. Corsby teaches fourth graders who are second language learners. The first day of class he gives his 24 students a quiz. One question asked the students what city they lived in. Only 9 got the answer correct. Another question the quiz asked the students what country they live in. Only 3 got the answer correct. This video goes on to show the many projects and style of teaching Mr. Corsby uses in his class. My favorite project they did was sending a high altitude balloon up into the atmosphere with a camera. When the photos and video came back, the students wrote stories from the point of view of the balloon and took their story and the photos taken from the balloon to make an illustrated book. Mr. Corsby does not have tests in his class. Students post videos of themselves doing projects to their blog. Each student not only has a blog but also a laptop computer to use in class. Students also use their blog to post about what they learned and did in class that day. Mr. Crorsby used technology to help fourth grade students get excited about learning and connect with students all around the world. I thought this video was amazing and Mr. Corsby showed more passion for teaching and learning than any teacher I have ever seen. Keeping students engaged in learning and excited about going to school is the most important thing any teacher can do because if a student is excited about learning than the sky is the limit.

Project 9 Progress Report

My group and I met yesterday to discuss project 9. Each of us chose one "part" and are reading it and summarizing. We are going to meet again next Tuesday and discuss our findings. We will each describe what we read and ask each other questions in our podcast. I'm looking forward to coming together as a group and making this interesting for our class to watch!

C4T 2

Jonesy the Teacher is a PE teacher who is "having a crack at putting PE in the 21st Century." In the first blog I read, Road Safety Film Festival, he described a project his students were to complete based off Tropfest. Tropfest is the world's largest film festival. His students had to create a movie with road safety as their focus. Together, the class and teacher came up with six words. Each group had to choose one of these words, and use it as their film title and theme, thus basing their movie from this one word. The film had to include an ESI (Erina Signature Item), which was a traffic light. After the initial shock from the students, they were excited to see their end products. I had never heard of Tropfest before reading this blog post, nor an ESI. I thought this was a great project and it had to be rewarding for the teacher to see the end results his students produced.

In the second blog I read, No spoons, Jonesy discussed how he is trying to get away from "spoon-feeding" his students, or as Dr. Strange calls it "burp-back-education", and gear more towards project based learning. He uses Edmodo, where students can share documents, power points and assignments, and OneNote, which ended up not working like he planned. But, with technology, we have to expect that sometimes things will go wrong. When he first introduced this new type of learning/teaching to his students, he found that they wanted to just be spoon-fed. As I said in the comment I left on his blog, I was one of those students who wanted to be spoon-fed when I was in high school. I wanted my teacher to give me the answer, memorize it, and make a good grade on the test. But, I didn't know any different and now that I've been introduced to project based learning, I can't believe that teachers have taught this one specific way all of these years.

Blog Post 7

With today's technology, there are so many available tools to help enhance teachers' classrooms. I watched the video Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children. In this video many tools are shown that can help increase the learning experience for impaired children. A few of these are sensory aids, flip cameras, text telephones and text to speech devices. Sensory aids, such as hearing aids, can allow students with hearing impairments to hear better in the classroom, thus automatically increasing the things they can learn. Flip cameras allow access to videos immediately. Text telephones are used for those who have speech impairments. The main tool that struck my attention most was the text to speech devices. These are frequently used for students who have ALS. There are apps you can download on the iPad such as EZSpeech Pro, Fat Cat Chat Repair and Verbally Premium. EZSpeech Pro is for literate users who have lost their speaking ability to ALS. Users can receive phrases from others and store them in their device. The Fat Cat Chat Repair is more "small talk" based. The student can push a symbol, then they are prompted to choose from fifteen different words choices that best fit the symbol. Verbally Premium seems like it would be extremely helpful for those who are speech impaired. With this app, students can save their favorite phrases or most commonly used phrases. The voice can be personalized. Students often use this for common places such as a doctor's office or the classroom. These apps, along with many others, can be found on a Special Apps, Special Kids blog.

The other video I watched was the Mountbatten video. The Mountbatten is a braille writing machine. You can connect it to a computer and save, transfer, and receive files. It helps recognize braille characters, allows play for young children who are not physically able to use traditional braille writers, provides basic level concepts of using braille and displays the children's work. This is a great way for impaired children to be included in classroom activities such as peer group projects.

It's hard to say which of these I will use in my classroom, but I think all are potential tools that could help me with any impaired students I may have. Hopefully I will have an iPad in my classroom, in which case I could download any of these apps to use in my classroom. I think it is so important that project based learning is including impaired children. All children deserve the opportunity to explore and learn at their full potential. They can't do this without teachers who are willing to let it happen!



Jamie Risner

What Assistive Technologies Are Available To You As A Teacher ?

Teaching Math To The Blind

Before watching this video, I never gave much thought to how a blind student learns math. I had always assumed blind students learned math with braille. However, blind students are unable to learn math using braille because braille is only linear and cannot show two diminutions in math problems. Professor Art Karshmer at the University of San Francisco, designed a solution to this problem. Professor Karshmer put braille on small blocks that look like scrabble pieces and then designed a board that was made into a grid. The blind students scan a block and then put it on the board. The computer then tells them in what row and grid they placed the block in. This design makes it possible for blind students to work problems out in two diminutions, which helps give blind students a foundation of math. This design is one of the most important tools available to blind students and the teachers responsible for teaching them math. Without a foundation of math, the number of jobs for a blind person becomes more limited.

Ipad Usage For The Blind

This video was amazing! Wesley Majerus is blind, yet in this video he demonstrates how new software that is put into an iPad makes it possible for a blind person to use an iPad. The software has voice-over which allows the user to drag their finger over the screen while the iPad tells them which app their finger is on. Another great feature this iPad offers is a main stream e-reader. By having e-readers available, a blind person can buy a book they would like to read but which is too expensive or else not offered in braille. The e-reader on the iPad reads the books out loud and describes images in the book. The only problem with the e-reader that I noticed during the video was that the reading voice was fast and hard to understand at times. The best thing about this iPad is that it comes this way out of the box and already set up. This makes it more user friendly to its blind owner. With this new software, a blind person is now able to use the same type of technology that seeing people can.

New And Useful Technology For The Blind

I was amazed at all the different technology for the blind. I found two different ones on the website www.ehow.com click here ; that I thought would be very helpful. The first technology is called the smart cane. The smart cane is a new and better version of the walking stick. The smart cane can detect objects around the user up to a few meters away. This would be a great thing for a blind student to be able to have for crowed hallways or field trips. The most impressive technology for a blind person on this website was the Knfbreader mobile. The knfbreader mobile is a phone for a blind person; however it also has a camera that lets the owner take pictures of a text. The knfbreader mobile will then read that text back to them. This would be an amazing tool for a blind person in any situation in which braille text is not available. However, I was unhappy to find that I would not be able to use these tools in my classroom because they are hard to obtain and very expensive.

Maggie Adkisson

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

In Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Child Is Learning On the iPad, I was able to watch as a parent was given instructions to use an iPad, that her child uses in class. It was simply amazing to watch. Although, it was just an iPad that so many people use day to day, I have never seen it used in such a way, nor did I realize what an incredible tool it really is to have. The parent was able to slide her finger across the top of the screen while the iPad read aloud to her the apps available to select. When she found the app she was instructed to find, she was able to double click anywhere on the screen to bring it up. Even more amazing she was able to type any letter by using this speaking iPad to help select the proper letters.

After watching this video I wondered who was this Denise Robinson? I google searched "Denise Robinson special ed teacher" and the seventh listing was the article, A New Model of Education for Blind and Low Vision Students. As it turns out she has an amazing story of her own. It is not just Denise Robinson, but Dr. Denise Robinson. A woman who puts every waking minute into working with blind children. Her inspiration? She lost her vision due to diabetes when she was twenty-four. Fortunately, she gained her sight back years later due to several surgeries. Through her experience of being blind, she understood the improvements needed to help others be able to function and live a normal life. Her story is inspirational and reminds me of my math class last semester where I encountered a boy that was blind. I had never been around someone who was blind and for me it was fascinating. He was so smart and I could not understand how he was able to survive in college. I remember talking to my mom about him. Saying that, even though I did not know him very well I was so proud of him because if it was me, I don't think I would be able to go and do what he is accomplishing. Likewise in the article, she tells that there is a 74 percent unemployment rate among blind individuals because they are not being taught effectively. With her methods and use of technology she is working miracles in lives of so many students. She is someone that I inspire to be like. This video and research is useful to me because it made me realize how much I would enjoy making a difference like Dr. Robinson has working with blind children. After this assignment I will definitely be looking into specializing my education to help the blind.

The article, 50 Must-See Blogs For Special Education by Jeff Dunn, is a great resource for teachers. It has different blogs that cover anything and everything. From special education tips and strategies all the way to blogs for specific disorders. One particular blog that caught my attention was, ADDitude Blogs, a blog made to help those dealing with attention deficit. It is a brilliant website. Not only is it available to help those coping with the disorders, but the writings are all from those suffering from ADD, parents whose children have been diagnosed, as well as ADHD experts. For a teacher, this is a great because the writings are not giving a glossed over, dictionary version of a disorder. It is giving you personal accounts, findings, methods all from people who understand. When you have a child in your class that has a disorder such as ADD or ADHD, what would you rather read to be able to help them to the best of your ability, a research paper or a personal account?

Project 8

Blog Post 6

"What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?"

When I was in K-12 I hated when teachers would ask the class a question, wait until someone, well no one, answered the question, then call on a random student. It made me uncomfortable and scared I was going to be the one they called on. Maybe it was because I didn't know the material, some of the time, but many times I just didn't know if I had the right answer because of the way they worded the question. Now, especially while being in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class, I have realized that asking questions is very important!

If a teacher never asks his/her students questions, how do they know if the students understand? Also, why just give them the answers rather than letting them explore and figure it out themselves? In doing that, students are only being hurt in the long run.

I think Asking Questions to Improve Learning does a very good job at pointing out the important things about asking questions. Asking questions can help involve students in the classroom, understand how much they are learning and comprehending, learn to talk in front of peers and adults, and have confidence to answer a question they know. As a teacher, I will try to plan the questions I will ask my students while I'm planning my lessons. It is important to be specific in the questions you are asking students. It is also important to ask one question at a time so they aren't confused about which question they are supposed to be answering.

I agree with Dr. Strange in that "questions are more important than answers." Especially with the technology we have today, children have the resources to find out the answer to any question! One of my professors told us a story the other day about his eight year old daughter. She came to her dad and told him that she didn't know how to figure out the circumference of a circle. Instead of telling her the answer, he told her to go use her iPad, computer, or tablet and find the answer. About thirty minutes later his daughter came back to him with her iPad in one hand and a pen and paper in the other hand. She had searching online for "how to find the circumference of a circle", found a video that gave her instructions and practiced suggested problems. He was so impressed with how she was able to go and research and find the answer to her own question. That just confirms why we shouldn't just give children the answer!

Project 7

Blog Post 5

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection

In her post, What Is A Podcast?, Scharf gives a definition of "podcast" and gives a little information on the subject. The thing in her post that helped me understand podcasts the most is the video on how to create and upload them. I have never created one before, so I'm a little nervous and didn't know where to start until I watched the video. How To Create a Podcast gives you many programs you can use to create a podcast. It shows specific ways to edit the podcast, such as normalizing it and removing background noise. The video also gives many different websites you can use to publish your podcast.

Langwitches- Podcasting with First Grade

In this blog post a first grade teacher has introduced podcasts to her students. She read one chapter of a book at a time and gathered their questions. Each student would read their question as part of a podcast; with a setting of interviewing the two main characters. The students loved hearing themselves on audio and correcting/re-recording their work. This seems like a very fun and exciting way of learning. Why wait until high school or college for students to get to experience such a positive type of learning? I think this is something that would definitely help students learn about the book they are reading.

Langwitches- Flat Stanley Podcast

A first grade class read the book Flat Stanley. Each student then recorded a segment of the podcast and were "flattened" and mailed around the world. That's not where the fun stops! Then, they read the book with their parents and wrote a script that included how they got to a particular city, how it felt to be mailed, what they did at the location, etc. WOW! I think this is an awesome post that really made me smile. I love hearing things like this that students get to do, not have to do! Allowing students to learn while using their imagination is so important and well performed in this situation.

C4T 1

For my C4T assignment, I was assigned to read 2 blog posts from The PE Geek's website. In the first bog post, Mr. Robbo posted about a 24 hour challenge. 24 Hours & a Mobile Device was a challenge from Jarrod Robinson to his PE class. They were to use their mobile device from the time they woke up until the time they went to bed, and no other use of technology. This was a great way to prove that the use of mobile devices can be useful in ways other than texting and making phone calls. Robinson was able to teach a full day of school to his students by using only his mobile device. I commented on his post and told him how great of an idea I thought it was. I think this would be something cool for Dr. Strange to require his EDM310 classes to do as an assignment. Surprisingly, Robinson responded to my comment and was grateful that I took time to read and comment on his post.

The second blog post I commented on was about the effect music has on exercise. Music, Spotify & Physical Education was about a six week training program that Robinson's students were completing. He allowed them to bring their mobile device,iPod,MP3 Player, etc. to listen to music on while completing their exercises. There are many different apps you can use to play music through. Also, you can create an interval playlist via the Music Workout App. This worked well for his students, but it does take time to get the desired songs set up. I think this was another great idea. Music helps me tremendously while I'm exercising. I can feel like quitting, and a certain song will come on and help finish me through my workout. Robinson also responded to the comment I left on this particular post. He was very encouraging and told me if I had any further questions or ideas to contact him.

Blog Post 4

There are so many technological tools to be used in the school systems. Many of those are used in my EDM 310 class such as a blog, twitter, google docs, skype, etc. However, I think there are certain technological tools that should be used with different age groups. For instance, Remind101. This is a tool that could be used for the age group I want to teach, which is sixth grade. Remind101 was created by two brothers who can see the obvious struggle of communication between parents, students and teachers.

How It Works

As a teacher, you create a login and are given a unique code for your class. Your students and their parents can also sign up, using your class code. The teacher can then send messages to those who are signed up. The best thing about it though, is that there are no cell phone numbers shown. The only thing that you can see when sending/receiving messages is the other's name, not phone number. This keeps a safe barrier with the communication, ensuring that the cell phone numbers of teachers, students and parents are being misused.

Examples

A teacher can send a reminder saying, "Science test tomorrow."

A teacher can send a message saying, "Homework due on 06/11/13. American History, page 220, questions 1-6."

With this tool, students are reminded of their work, and parents are either reminded, or told for the first time. Many times, students are lazy and don't turn in their homework. This is an easy way to stay on top of them and make sure they are performing their very best.



Maggie Adkisson

Once I start teaching elementary education, more specifically second grade, I want to use tools that keep learning fun. That is why in my class room I would like to use SMART Response interactive response system to go along with my SMART board. The SMART Response interactive response system connects a small hand held devices directly to my SMART board. This allows me to post math problems, reading questions, and potentially many other daily questions such as attendance at the front of the room. All they have to do to respond to a question is simply click a button on their assigned device. The potential this tool has in a classroom is limitless. As a teacher, this benefits me in many ways, but most importantly it allows me to evaluate my entire class almost instantly. If I was to give the same problems on paper it would likely take me at least 30 minutes to go through all the papers and get back to my class to address frequent issues or see that they have comprehended the material. Not only does it speed up the time it takes to evaluate my students understanding, but it is a very helpful tool to eliminate unnecessary paper waste. Making my classroom more environmentally friendly.

Jamie Risner

When I graduate I will be teaching High School history, with that in minde I believe the most important learning and communication tool I will be using in my classroom will be e-books. There is new technology being brought into classrooms every day, however I think the most important, and overlooked technology is e-books. One reason I think e-books will be the best learning tool for my classroom is, because they are small, weigh a lot less than a traditional textbook, but can store all the students needed information for all of their classes. Not having to have many different textbooks is not just good for the students, but also great for the enviornment because e-books do not use any paper. E-books are not only good for the students but also great for the shcool as well, because books would be much cheaper downloaded on e-books. On the web site www.dbreaders.com it says that 1,500 books on an e-book will cost about 15,000$, however to buy 1,500 hard copy books would cost about 39,000$. By simpley using e-books schools could save a lot of money that they could put towards other improvements in the school.

The third, and most important reason that e-books would be the best learning tool in my classroom is, because they offer many options that pen, paper, and text books do not. The website www.dbreaders.com says "e-readers offer online dictionary, unlimited notes, saved highlights, simple and convenient search, and the ability to share quotes on popular social resources like twitter and facebook". With these types of options right at my students finger tips the sky would be the limit to their learning. With so many benefits it is hard to understand why schools have not already gone to using e-books. E-books range in price from around fifty dollars to hundreds of dollars, and are avalibale at most electronic stores and even online. I believe it is only a matter of time before schools start doing away with textbooks, and replace them with e-books. My question is, with all the benefits e-books offer to classrooms, why wait to make the swich ?

Project #3 Presentation

Blog Post 3

Both of my peers have had great posts thus far. They both touched on the appropriate material, included the links in their posts, and followed the instructions. Both of my group members’ blogs flow and are easy to read and understand. I did see a few grammatical/spelling errors in the posts, but they seemed to just be simple typos. I commented on both peers’ posts where the public can see. I didn’t go into specifics on their blog because I don’t think that’s appropriate. I think if you can give constructive criticism, in a positive way, then it is acceptable to post on the person’s blog where everyone can see. However, if there are many grammatical errors and corrections to be pointed out, I think it is safe to send it to the person privately to avoid any embarrassment or hard feelings. Even though we all know that by reviewing each others’ work we are just trying to help, it can sometimes still be a little awkward. You never know when someone might take your advice in a negative way. I agree that by making decisions such as this one, we are preparing ourselves for the teaching world. Each situation is going to be different and require an assessment on how it should be handled.

Paige Ellis, a previous EDM310 student, seems to have the same thoughts that I have on editing your peers’ work. She approached her classmate in both a public and private matter. She left the more vague opinions on the student’s blog, and sent the more specific critique via email. I think this is a great way to give constructive criticism without offending your peer.

I think it is great that the peer editing video, What Is Peer Editing, starts off with the definition of “peer editing”. It is important that we know exactly it is we are supposed to be doing, before attempting to do so. Peer editing is looking at someone’s work who is your own age, and making any suggestions, comments, changes, etc. The three steps to peer editing are compliments, making suggestions and corrections. It is important to start of your editing with something positive, to make that person know that you aren’t just trying to pick out the bad things in their writing. If you give your peer a suggestion, you may be bringing an idea to them that they never even thought about, and wouldn’t write about had you not brought it up to them. Sharing ideas, or suggestions, is very important in editing and also in any other class! When making corrections, it is important to look for punctuation errors, grammatical errors and sentence structure. Many people struggle with spelling, and it is important for you as an editor, to pick up on these things in their writing.

I love how the Peer Edit With Perfection Slideshow says that editing is fun. In grade school and even high school, I absolutely loved getting to edit peoples’ papers. Maybe it was because I like to spell and I’m pretty good at it, or that I was able to help someone who wasn’t so good at it. Either way, it is important that other students like doing things like this and helping their peers.

In Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes, they touch on almost every bad way of editing I can think of! It seems a little dramatic in the video, but that’s how kids are! It’s important that they understand not to come off as “Negative Nancy” or “Mean Margaret”. There is a way of critiquing peers without being demeaning or insulting them. As teachers, it is important that we teach our students to stay away from those attitudes, and be positive toward themselves and their peers.

Blog Post 2

1. Mr. Dancealot

The Mr. Dancealot video was a great example of how not to teach. His teaching style, or lack thereof, was almost impossible for the students to learn anything. How are students supposed to learn by listening to a teacher read straight from a power point? It’s not so obvious in many other classes, such as history, english or psychology as it is in this specific dance class; but it still pertains to all subjects. For as long as I can remember, my teachers have read from a power point or a book, I re-read the information, and forgot the information right after the test. The open style learning that is being used in Dr. Strange’s class is moving us as far away from Burp-Back Education as possible. All students may not be kinesthetic learners, having to have hands on experiences in order to remember information. However, with the open style learning, all types of learners are at an advantage. Mr. Dancealot held his students back from learning in his class, all because he didn’t let them learn. He put his students at a disadvantage like many of my previous professors have done, but I am just now realizing it.

2. Teaching in the 21st Century

Roberts makes it very obvious that teaching in the 21st century is very different from what we are used to. When I think of my K-12 education, the memories consist of chalkboards, memorization, copying from a friend and cramming for tests at the last minute. My entire college career consists of those same characteristics. With the change we have witnessed in technology over the past ten years, I think it is obvious to say that in the future, teaching and learning will both be dramatically different. As Dr. Strange said today in class, electronics (the things that are enhancing our education now), were not allowed in school. We were sent to the office if we brought cell phones to school. We were forbidden to use the computers in the library unless we were being closely supervised. I completely agree with the ideas shown in the video. The amazing technology, that is becoming more advanced every year, should be used as a helpful tool for our education, not a punishment. The “Educational Exchange” says that as teachers we are expected to give students all of the information possible in order to enhance their education. Why wouldn’t we let them share ideas through blogs, tweets and Facebook? Why shouldn’t they be able to post a video on “how to make a paper airplane?” By taking this new route of teaching, we are helping students, not hurting them! By the time I am an educator myself, I will have ipads and/or computers in my classroom. I will be writing on a smart board, instead of a chalkboard or dry erase board. Hopefully, my students will be sharing their ideas and teaching each other things. I also hope that I can be the “filter” in the student-learning relationship, rather than just the teacher.

Maggie Adkisson:

The video The Networked Student describes a modern day student that is encouraged to use technology. Instead of the standard textbook and class lectures, this modern student has both classes and personal online learning. Through his online learning connections, who are possible other students, teachers, and college professors, he is able to read and understand a given topic more in depth than your average textbook allows. With the extended amount of knowledge he is able to gain using the internet, the teachers primary job is to reinforce the information.

I love the fact that this 21st century student was in control of his learning. Through technology and this idea of connectivism he is able to create and control what he learns. By using blogs, scholarly articles, Itunes U, and other resources he is able to read and listen to some of the most educated people that specialize on his given topic. Not only is he able to read and listen to others knowledge, but he can exchange ideas with numerous individuals to further his understanding and knowledge. This is a great modern day idea that is not being used by a majority of students. It baffles me why it is not the most popular way of teaching in our schools. Every answer a student could want is right here, on the internet, but instead we are relying on sometimes outdated textbooks that may only partially cover an issue.

Another aspect of this video that I admire is that the teacher has taken a step back. She may have all the answers and knowledge to a topic, but she is encouraging students to learn for themselves using their resources. She is not dictating what they learn and simply encouraging them to learn.

Jamie Risner:

Harness your students Digital Smarts

In the vedeo Harness Your Students Digital Smarts Vicki Davis teaches students how to use the most important resource that they have avalibale to them, which is technology. By showing her students how to use technology Vicki Davis is able to break down walls, and help connect her students to students all around the world. In the video one of her main goals a a teacher is to get her students comfortable with useing technology. Getting students comfortable with technology is very important for students, becasue the world is changing, and technology is no longer a luxury to have its a requirement. It is easy to see from this video how the use of technology lets the students open their minds and creat and learn in ways never thought possible before.