The End

As EDM 310 is coming to an end, I am asked to reflect on the class as a whole, and I can't think of anything negative to say. This was my first college computer class, and one of my first classes in the College of Education. I must admit that coming into this class I was dreading it just a little bit, because of its position in my college career. However, this class has been a very enjoyable experience for me for more reasons than one.
I have always been pretty savvy with computers, but I had never ventured into the realms I was forced to explore in EDM 310. I most enjoyed the blogging process with both my class blog and my professional blog. It was great to finally learn how to create one on my own, and I have thoroughly enjoyed having a place to post my own personal thoughts on current educational practices. I was always a little bit indifferent to things like blogging before this class, but with the creation of my professional blog, I now see how beneficial and important blogs can be when used correctly and for the right reasons.
I have to admit that everything I learned in this class was new to me, and I have already benefitted from every bit of the knowledge gained in this course. EDM 310, I can also safely say, was fun on some days! I loved learning how to use Audacity to create podcasts. However, in my opinion the best thing about this class was the no test policy. Aside from the fact that all of my other classes were running me into the ground to study for a test every week,because it's the shorter summer semester and this class provided a welcome break, I actually learned more without the pressure of a test every week. I realize that the method used in this class wouldn't work as well in others, but in a technology class I feel that the best way to learn is to do! I have really enjoyed my experience in EDM 310 and I will continue to use the new technologies I learned here in both my personal and my professional life.

Thank you!

Texting and Education

The problem at T.C. Williams High School seems like one of those things that has been sorely neglected at the administrative level. There was a time at my high school when the administration couldn't back up their handbook threats on cellphone use, however; when it became obvious that cellphones were a problem, my school began cracking down. There were always the few brazen ones who would defy any rule put in front of them, but for the most part, when we saw they were serious, we followed orders rather than have our precious cellphones taken or worse. T.C. Williams could fairly easily handle the problem it is having with its students and cellphone use without advising parents to take texting off their childrens' plans. That wouldn't solve anything actually. Kids would still find some reason to have their phones and use them unless they crack down on discipline. 

As for texting away my education, I have to disagree. I am just as attached to my phone as the next person. I will also admit that I feel insecure and somehow unattached when I don't have it. I also text a great deal especially when I have some simple message I need to relay. However, it doesn't eat away at my concentration or my education, because I won't let it. I know when cellphone use is appropriate. I realize that that there are those that don't realize what's appropriate or don't care. However, taking away texting from students of any age (middle, high school, or college) is not going to fix their concentration problems. We as a society should know by now that there are a million other things that can occupy our attention if we are being forced to do something we don't want to do. If we took away texting, we would also have to take away Facebook, because now we have the technology to access that from our phones. The "nerdy" students may be reading in class instead of texting. Are you going to take away books?

There's Nothing Wrong with being the Optimist

I am a whole hearted defender of the optimist in every situation. I am always the faithfully optimistic one with my eyes on the future and improvement of things. I am used to dealing with those who don't see the world the way I do. I can absolutely see how people could get bogged down and view the world as a bleak place, but what's the point? There's nothing wrong with being the optimist. I've found that I'm a much happier person for my optimistic streak. Education is absolutely a place where optimism belongs above all others. How can we expect our students to believe in themselves if we don't? My grandmother used to tell me that if you believe you can do something you can. That same principle applies to being optimistic as a teacher. If you believe things can be better, or a person can be better, often the results will surprise you. I believe an educators job is to inspire and encourage greatness, not shatter dreams because they are unrealistic. Part of childhood is dreaming, and part of our jobs as teachers will be to give students the tools to achieve whatever their dreams may be.

What Would We Say

As teacher's what would we say if presented with these same questions? I think it would be great for all teachers to have to answer these questions. Whether it be for professional development or just a little reminder of why they get up every day for school, I think teachers would benefit from taking time to come up with answers to those three questions. 

If I were brave, I would have my students much more engaged in technology in the classroom, and assign projects to help them learn rather than solely focusing on testing. I will love teaching for many reasons, but mostly for my students and the reward of touching their lives for the better. One way I would love to make my school unique is by finding grant money to make art and music education available again at the elementary level, because studies show that art and music increase classroom performance. Sadly, with budget deficits, things like art and music are the first to be cut. 

I also think that in addition to answering the three questions, teachers should be challenged to but their beliefs into action. 

6 C's

I whole heartedly agree that education is not only changing more from reading, riting, and rithmetic to the six C's but that it needs to change. However, I also have to consider that in all cases those six C's that sound so glorious and progressive will not succeed. As a Special Education teacher it will be my job to teach my students the skills they need to succeed. Sometimes that means in education and life. Sometimes that just means life skills. In those cases I can't waste time thinking up new and creative methods to connect my students to classrooms around the world when I need to concentrate on getting them ready to face the world. It is true that I will have to be creative in my teaching methods, and that doing so might engage my students to learn. Although, the six C's should become a greater part of education in whatever capacity available, it must also be considered that sometimes simple really is better. 

"Burp Back" Education

I've never thought about education the way Dr. Strange describes it, but that is the way I have always been taught with the exception of classes such as this one and the rare history class in high school. "Burp Back" education isn't effective in my experience, because the only information I remember clearly I completed some sort of project on. In my opinion things like simply regurgitating information for tests and quizzes is what makes students dread school so much. It's always the same thing day after day. As teachers if we allow ourselves to make education more interesting by assigning projects and other things of that nature maybe our students will also be learning more effectively. 

Classroom Bloggers in the USA

First of all I have noted that schools in the US might not be quite as up on the new technologies as they are in other places across the world. The good blogs I did find were not for individual classes but represented a whole school and then extended to individual classes. 

The Bancroft Blogosphere was created for Bancroft Elementary School in Massachusetts by the Technology Teacher. The school blog has links to other class blogs that were created through the same site. The blog also has posts by teachers and students about upcoming events and current events. The Tech guy makes post detailing his adventures in helping different grade levels set up blogs for themselves. One thing I really like about this blog is the little section that gives kids information about how to be safe online. 

The other interesting blog I was able to locate was the school library blog of John Kennedy Elementary School out of New York State. This blog looks fun for children, because it has links and instructions for creating interesting different kinds of avatars to use on the site. The main library page also has posts by the librarian about things coming up in the library. The blog also has links to other class pages, and other teacher blogs. 

International Classroom Bloggers

  The first International blog I was able to locate was Mr. Clarence Fisher's for a combined class of seventh and eighth graders in a small town in Manitoba, Canada. Much like our class, each of his student's also has a blog that they are to post various assignments to. His class also makes its own vlogs, wikis, and podcasts. I was impressed considering this is a class of seventh and eighth graders, but then again the younger generations are getting more and more technologically savvy. Mr. Fisher uses his page as a portal to all the information his students need to remember from class, and he also posts reminders for tests dates and such. 

The other International blog caught my eye because the teacher made a post about J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter. This class blog was located in New Zealand where the teacher was making her way through her first year at the school after moving from New Mexico. This blog was for a class of fourth graders (or students in year four), and was more a guide for parents to help their children, and stay informed about what was happening in classroom eleven. However, like in the post about Harry Potter, the students (with their parent's help) were to make their own internet postings whether it was to the class blog or another internet site. 

The GDrive

The GDrive is one of those new technologies we will be expected to at least know about if not use for ourselves. The idea of total cloud computing does not appeal to me as of yet. I don't mind using an internet based server to save my pictures and other things. I am a Mac user, and I got used to that idea with the announcement of MobileMe. However, MobileMe and other services like it don't offer free unlimited space to store everything that would be on a hard drive. I like the freedom to choose what I load into cyberspace. Like the author of my article about the GDrive states, the idea of free unlimited storage in Google's huge databases wouldn't be so bad if we as subscribers would be allowed to pick and choose what we save. However, I don't deny the development of the GDrive would be a serious technological advancement, and the idea of not needing a hard drive anymore is revolutionary. In fact, it is something that is slightly hard for me to fathom. In short, although I concede that the GDrive would be an extremely useful new advancement that will likely change the way we think about computers, I am not quite ready to trust it yet. 

Is the Internet Making us Stupid?

Although, the article is titled with Google's name, the article isn't just about Google at all. It isn't even just about "sites like Google". The article tackles this increasingly pertinent question: Is the internet making us stupid? As all questions of this nature go, my answer is strictly based on opinion and my knowledge of today's society, however it would be hard pressed for anyone to prove this point one way or the other without valid scientific evidence.  

Is the internet making us stupid? To consider this question we must look at today's society, and how it is vastly different from that of our parents generation, and it is changing almost daily in many aspects. Technology is one of those. In our world technology is a rapidly changing field that we are expecting to keep up with. Literacy has a different meaning today than it had fifty years ago. Long ago when a person was literate, they could read. Not only is the definition slightly changed today, but now there are also different forms of literacy. In today's world, if a person is not technologically literate, that person is not considered well - rounded. 

I don't agree at all that the internet is making us stupid, on the contrary, I think that the sea of information we can access at our fingertips and the ability to do so makes us all the more intelligent. Sure, the internet is certainly changing the way we think about things, but what isn't. We as humans, have to change the way we think about things almost daily to continue our free existence. Also, like anything else, the use of the internet as a tool can go to far. It can make us too dependent on it's free luxury of knowledge or access to friends and family. However, when used on the basis of need (not almost constantly) the internet can be a friendly tool to help us gain a broader knowledge base whether it be about our friends or about the current state of the economy.  

ACCESS

ACCESS, or Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide, is an online learning initiative implemented by the Alabama Department of Education to give students and teachers a greater opportunity to learn. ACCESS bridges the gap between what individual schools can provide their students, and what students want or need to know. Courses available to Alabama public high school students include Advanced Placement, elective, and other courses that might not otherwise be available. It is an especially valuable tool in rural areas where the opportunity for learning may not be as great. It is an innovative program that provides an example for other online learning tools. 

ACCESS also provides opportunities for the educators who teach the online courses. The program provides qualified E-teachers from ACCESS site schools to deliver to online class to areas that otherwise would not have access to the course or a certified Alabama teacher to direct it.  ACCESS is a wonderful tool for students in Alabama hoping to make the most of their high school educations. However, many students don't know of the opportunities the innovative program has to offer. When I attended high school my classmates and I had no idea what we could be doing with our education. Instead we settled for what the schools in my rural town had to offer. We weren't slighted in any way, but it would have been nice to know what other opportunities were available to us through ACCESS. As a teacher, I would always make sure my students knew about the chance they had to further their education through ACCESS. It is a blessing to teachers to see students with a thirst for knowledge, and ACCESS is a tool to aid students in quenching that thirst beyond what I could give them. 

ALEX

The Alabama Learning Exchange, or ALEX, is an invaluable online tool created by the Alabama Department of Education for students, teachers, and administrators alike. The purpose of the ALEX site is to compile all of the resources and data an educator or student in the state of  Alabama may need and put them in the same place. All of this information is only a mouse click away, and is user-friendly for all who would ever need it. ALEX is equipped with easily identifiable links to each area to help visitors navigate the site.

 ALEX includes pages dedicated to lesson plans. There is not only a database of submitted lesson plans on key subjects that teachers can access and print for their own use at any time, but there is also a template teachers can use to create their own lesson plans. By creating an ALEX account teachers can also submit their lesson plans so that others can  use them as a resource. Another valuable tool ALEX offers is the page dedicated to the Alabama courses of study. This page is easily searchable by subject and grade level. All Alabama teachers are required to meet these standards when educating their students, and having the courses of study readily available online keeps them from having to maintain a paper copy. The ALEX website also offers opportunities for professional development to teachers and administrators, as well as a links to valuable annotated educational websites. There is even a link to the ACCESS distance learning website which will be the topic of my next blog. 

As a teacher I have found that the Alabama Learning Exchange will be a useful tool for me professionally. By simply creating an ALEX account I can have access to all of the many resources it has to offer, and my own personal ALEX workspace where I can store and create my lesson plans and teacher web pages. 

Hey Guys!

I finally got my e-mail and blog set up, and I am looking forward to learning to use all of this. Thanks everyone for visiting my blog, enjoy!