Intrepid Teacher: Singing Hearts

The website, intrepid teacher, is made by kaia's father. In his blog he writes about why his daughter wanted to do a photo essay, how she did it, and what was the overall experience. He writes about how he was caught off guard when a group of 8th graders from missouri tried to communicate with his three year old daughter in Quatar. They did this through twitter twitter. He contacted the class via to discuss kaia's story with the classes.

In the end of his blog he asks his readers questions about online experiences and children.
Is the risk of exposing ourselves and our children online worth the connections that will be made and the lessons that will be learned?

I believe, it is worth the risk to teach children how to connect with the rest of the world via this technology. In the coming years it is all that will be around. Start children early so it will be easier for them to grasp later.

What is the value in this experience?
The value in the experience is knowledge. It helps people understand how technology contributes to globalization.

Mr. Chamberlain on his blog titled Dear Kaia: Voicethread and Video

This blog is in response to Dear Kaia's "This This That" blog. Since Kaia cannot read yet, Mr. Chamberlain's class sent Kaia a reply via a voicethread and video. On this video each class member stated a fact about either their class or video and some gave opinions.

Mr. C's blog also states that he had Kaia's father talk with his class through skype about kaia's adventure.
skype

Dr. Strange wrote a comment that caught my eye.
"I hope you grasp the enormity and magnificence of what is happening. here. You are witnessing the emergence of the new learning paradigm which will, I believe, be what either replaces schools as we know them today, or what will allow them to survive."

I also believe that technology is rapidly taking over schools and one day might change them forever. For example, student's are now using PowerPoint's vs. poster boards for school projects. I did not know what a PowerPoint was until High School and I didn't know what a voice thread was until now.

This class's curriculum continues to amaze me.

Dear Kaia

The blog this this that by Dear Kaia is about a young girl who makes her first "photo essay." A photo essay is a collaboration of digital photos and audio downloaded onto a slide show format video. Her goal was to take pictures of her surroundings and use technology for all of blogger.com members to see.

Kaia in Action:
Photo 1
Photo 2


... more photos.

I find it refreshing and adorable that a child of that age is intereseted in today's technology. She was able to take a camera and her voice to create an online video masterpiece.What does this say about tomorrow if a young girl can use this kind of technology to her advantage? I can honestly say that I have no clue how to construct a photo essay and the fact that she wants and knows how to, blows my mind. I enjoyed watching this little girl.

New Media Literaces

NML's staff, video clip, is about the skills needed to survive in the 21st century. The necessary skills include:
• Judgement
• Negotiation
• Appropriation
• Play
• transmedia navigation
• simulation
• collective intelligence
• performance
• distributed cognition
• visualization
• multitasking



I think the skills I possess is judgement, multitasking, and play. I am good at depicting creditable sites. I like to get a lot of my information from sites such as the Alabama virtual library. Multitasking can be very easy for me as is for most females. As of right now I'm toggling between several screens to gather this information, tutoring someone in math, and somewhat listening to the news in the background. The clip describes play as a form of branching out from the norm to achieve a common goal. I am all for trying new ways to learn things. I hope to acquire the rest of the skills.
Multitask Skill


I think all of these skills are necessary in the 21st century. Especially the skill play. It is needed for all of us to learn new things. Judging what is credible is also important.

The Networked Student

Wendy Drexler's "The Networked Student," is a video clip about connectivism. The narrated story gives examples on how technology can work in the educational system. Wendy suggest that students can use different social networking sites and manage them through a reader. This would provide an organizational tool and help broaden Internet knowledge. They could then visually connect with other classmates through programs such as skype. Skype would provide a more convenient way to communicate.
photo credit

The movie states an interesting point of view on what on online teacher actually does. They say that he/she is a synthesizer, change agent, learning architect, modeler, networker, and a connective learning incubator. I believe an online teacher is there to help you whenever you need it versus there whenever everyone else needs it. To elaborate, when a student needs help about subject he/she can write an email to his/her teacher. The teacher can have more time to personalize their response to fit that specific student's needs than in a classroom setting.


At this moment, I am not prepared to be a "network" teacher. I am not familiar with too much technology. I have never even been interested in an iPod. This class is teaching me new things that I believe will be useful to me in the future. I am sure throughout my years of teaching, I will gain a lot more experience with Technology and then I could say, I am prepared.

How We Dream Part 1 & 2

Part one of "How We Dream" talks about how written text is converting to web text. Dr. Miller tells his life story about how he was always interested in books. He wanted to have them, read them, and eventually work with them. He got a job writing for magazines. He wrote about the deadly shootings at VTech but was required to post it on the web as well. He stated that magazines are becoming obsolete. They are reaching a mailboxes and slowly making their way to the trash. This is a powerful statement. He conveys that web text will be forever there where as written text will not.


Part Two of "How we Dream" elaborates on the topics of part one. In this clip he states the future of what is currently being done. People are now composing digital media vs. using word documentation. These clips are available on websites such as youtube and/or iTunesU. His dream is that eventually all students and teacher will use this format to teach and learn. More importantly he hopes they will use auditory media and creativity in doing so. He says it takes inspiring places and inspiring teachers to achieve this dream.


You Tube Photo Credit


iTunesU photo credit


Both parts of the video clip exemplifies that learning methods are evolving. In the past couple of decades, researching has gone from traveling to libraries to sitting at home surfing the web. Dr. Millers' Dream is that the educational system will take advantage of this opportunity and make it mandatory for the teachers to train and teach and the students to learn through tech formats.

iPods in Instruction

iPod

In 2005, Duke University partnered with Apple conducted an experiment on 1,650 incoming Freshmen. Each student got an iPod free of charge. The students used tools such as: the calender, to store sports games; the alarm clock, to wake them up in the morning; the address book, to store important numbers; and the hard drive function, to back up files onto a computer. Once they backed up the files onto a computer they could post information on sites like blackboard(a popular program used for Internet classes).


iPods in the Classroom


iPods allows teachers to integrate audio and video into daily classroom curriculum. History teachers can play back famous speeches accessed from the Library of Congress. Putting a video or audio onto a computer can let students who missed a day catch up to the rest of the class. This can also allow a student to review daily lessons as many times as they need to and when they want to. This is a good tool for studying. iPods allow students to interview people and create podcasts for the community to watch.

Whether its used for storing events and contacts, waking up in the morning, downloading files, and/or studying a lesson iPods is a useful device to have in the classroom.


References:
iPods in the classroom
Duke University

iTunes University

iTunes University is a free site that allows users to access and download classes from different Universities around the United States. Universities such as Berkeley in California,Yale in Connecticut, and Stanford in California all participate in iTunes U. This program provides a constant access to information anytime, anywhere. Over 200,000 lessons can be viewed and download through iTunes university onto a computer, iPod, iTouch, iPhone, etc.




iTunes U has two basic sites. An Internal Site and a external site. Internal sites allow only members to view and listen to podcasts. Internal sites allows the user to customize with branding and scripts. An external site allows all to view and listen to their podcasts.


iTunes U would be a help to me as a student. I have always enjoyed Internet based courses because they allowed flexibility. I am able to view the course when i need to and it is available to access anywhere via a computer. iTunes U takes it up one step. t allows you to download a lecture to an iPod which optimum for working out, traveling, running errands, etc. while allowing the user to learn being completely mobile.

Teachers can use the iLife and/or iWork applications on Mac to create educational materials. This allows teachers to be creative with their lessons. With Podcast Producer and wiki server IT professionals at a school can introduce a various amount of multimedia.

iWork

References:
Apple Education

Dr. Alice Christie

Google Earth Logo


I am studying to be a Secondary Social Science teacher. In that field, one is allowed to teach several subjects such as: Geography, Civics, all Histories,Economics, Psychology, Sociology, etc. These courses require the use of visual aids to induce discussion and learning. Dr. Alice Christie suggests that Google Earth can provide this plus add excitement and global perspective.

This is perfect for a Geography or History class. Instead of turning to numerous pages in an Atlas to look up cities, states, physical features of the United States, you can use a click of the mouse. Using Google Earth layers in a history class can help the students compare and contrast the past with the present. In Sociology, you can compare the population and trends in society such as tourism, climate, terrain, etc. in different countries of the world.
Google Earth Layers


Google Earth can benefit teachers as well. The free version is a down loadable software that is continually updated to provide accurate information to students. Also, It allows teachers to bring technology into their classrooms.


Additional Reading/ References:
Google Earth Article by: Alice Christie
Google Earth Tour
Google Earth Product Tour

Scanner Tracks Who's Changing What on Wikipedia

This is my first time reading/hearing that Wikipedia can be considered an unreliable source. I was completly oblivious that "just anyone" could edit the site's content. NPR's, web page article, " Scanner Tracks Who's Changing What on Wikipedia," suggests that major companies have been suspected to edit information for personal gain. The article gives this example:
From:

Wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores. Founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage.

To:

The average wage at Wal-Mart is almost double the federal minimum wage (Wal-Mart). However, founder Sam Walton once argued that his company should be exempt from the minimum wage.

Walmart is not the only company that has been accused. Diebold, a voting machine company, deleted paragraphs questioning the company's integrity. Politicians have been known to switch and transpose words to cover up fault.





A man named Virgil Griffith designed a Wikipedia Scannerto help solve this problem. The scanner is suppose to track down I.P. addresses to the computer's location. Griffith hopes that this will solve the reliability problem. The only problem is that a person could easily access a "coffee house's" wifi and edit it untracble.



Knowing what I know now, I would not make the mistake of trusting Wikipedia again. Although, the site is suppose to be at least 85% accurate, that is 15% less than what I would trust. I would rather travel across town to the library and read an encyclopedia than lay back in my chair in front of the T.V. and surf the web.


Article: Scanner Tracks Who's Changing What on Wikipedia

Photo Credits:
Virgil Griffith

Wiki Scanner Logo