Timeline Timetoast - Project #9a

Blog Post #4

Eagles' Nest Radio & Class Blog

Phenomenal! Everytime I run across great ideas like this, I become more and inspired, motivated, and excited to become a teacher! Before watching the videos, I was unsure of how to incorporate podcasting in the classroom.  I certainly know now! 

When we were assigned to produce a podcast, we weren't given much instruction on how to make a good podcast. After listening to the students, I quickly learned!  Here's a couple of tips I would like to share:

 1. Know what you're talking about.  To do this you have to research your podcast topic so that you can better deliver your topic.

2. Make it fun, make it your own! There's nothing like having to learn about something so boring.  What a wonderful way to get students enthuased about learning.  It's also a good way to get the students to facilitate in their own learing.  These students got really creative to make the information interesting and memorable. 

The Benefits of Podcastinng in the Classroom

Like I mentioned before, I had no clue of how podcasting could be used in the classroom.  Here are some reasons why teachers and future educators should promote project based learning in the classroom:

• an effective way of interacting with students outside of the classroom
• makes it relevant to them
• it allows for differentiation
• students can access the higher order thinking skills in Bloom's taxonomy
• it promotes creativity and innovation
• it can offer distance learning opportunities for absent students
• makes learning more memorable
• parents can see and hear what their children are doing at school

The Education Podcast Network

The Education Podcast Network is a collaboration of ideas from people from around the world. This is a great tool for teachers to utilize to gather lesson plan ideas from other educators. The EPN also allows you to access specific podcasts based on a specific subject.  The EPN is basically the yellow pages for educators.  This site definitely helps teachers to develop 21st century lesson plans that are creative and innovative.

Blog post #3

Michael Wesch: A Vison of Students Today

Personally, I have experienced a lot of what this video showed. I've been in a classes that had well over 100 students. I've spent money on books that has pilled in my trunk and collected dust. I've had classmates to only show on test days. I've had teachers to not know my name. Trust me I've had what I call the "true" college experience. At times I've felt like I was being robbed of a well deserved education.

I believe that this video is trying to show that professors are laging behind in the "Technology Age" and it very well shows the affects that it has on students. College is a place where students depend on for their future. How can students learn if they are so bored and fed up with the repetitive system of school which leads to students feeling like what is being taught is worthless. You know, this makes me think about the question Dr. Strange asked on first day of class. Should teachers be technology literate? Why not incorporate the internet and the social media websites in learing if you know that your students spends most of his/her time on it. Think about all the possibilities that would spark in a class if they were! 

Dr. Strange is really setting an example with EDM 310. What if we had to attend this class twice a week and listen to Dr. Strange lecture about how to do the the things we do instead of actually letting us do them? We would be bored out of our minds! Instead Dr. Strange is allowing us to aid in independent learning.

Technology is here and isn't going anywhere, so let's get with the program!



MathBoard    

I choose a math app because many students find this difficult subject to be a challenge, trust me I know!  I want to be able to make learning this key subject enjoyable and memorable much as possible. So after searching, I ran across Math Board.  MathBoard is a fantastic app for teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems   I also choose this app because it's suitable is for all ages.

Here are a few MathBoard features that I absolutley love:
- A quiz can be timed, and timing can be set as a countdown timer or elapsed time.
- A quiz can be saved making it simple to replay a similar quiz or the same quiz at a later date.
- Wrong answers are reviewable with both the incorrect and correct answer.  You can even generate a quiz from just the wrong answers.
-Explains the required steps to solve various types of problems.

Project #5 Google Presentation

C4T #1 summary post

Oh my gosh,  I absolutely love the teacher's blog that I was assigned!  Pardon me if I am overly excited, but I really am.  I was a little hesitant to start C4T because I didn't think I would get paired with a teacher that would spark my interest.  Pernille Ripp is a phenomenal 5th grade teacher at West Middleton Elementary located on the outskirts of Madison, WI.  She runs several inspirational blogs, one of which being Blogging through the Fourth Dimension.   Below are two posts I read and left comments...


I Am the Job Creator


Mrs. Ripp gives many reasons why she feels that she is a Job Creator.  Not in a sense that she provides employment but, she spends the money at various establishments that keeps the economy going.

  I said...

GREAT post!!! In society we are both CONSUMERS and PRODUCERS. WE consume the goods and services, but we are also producers because we replenish and keep society afloat. The prime example that you gave in the blog which pertained to going to the mall. You are so right because when I go to the mall and spend money, I'm not necessarily putting the money in their pockets per say, but what I am doing is spending money so that the company can profit to make more good and hire MORE people to sell those goods. Everyone in society is a job creator because if there wasn't a need for it, then their wouldn't be job. I am a JOB CREATOR.

Hello. I am a student at the University of South Alabama. I am assigned to comment on your blog for a few weeks. You can also visit my blog.



Do High-tech Gadgets Improve Learning- What a Dumb Question


Time For Kids is a magazine that Mrs. Ripp uses in her classroom to stay current with events around the world. One headline really stuck out to her which read, "Technology Takeover...Schools Nationwide Are Using Technology to Teach Lessons.  But Do High-Tech Gadgets Improve Learning?"  At which she immediately thought- what a dumb question!  She answered and gave her opinion in a post.  This is a topic that starts controversy worldwide.  She argues that gadgets has nothing to do with learning but, its has everything to do with how you use it to facilitate effective learning.

I said...

Excellent post! It really hit home with me. In a course I'm now taking, EDM310, we are learning the importance of integrating technology into our future classrooms and how to do it effectively. Your post fell right on time because the last few assignments given to use are to get us to realize how dumb this question really is. People fail to realize that technology is just a tool. Teachers are still needed to facilitate learning. It's just left up to the teacher to put the driving force behind the tool. I think of it like this, can you sit a lawnmower on the lawn and expect it to mow it? Of course not! So why do some think gadgets work the same? So after watching assigned videos and reading your post, I have come to a conclusion. YES, this is a dumb question!