Blog #10

I thought that Dan Brown's tactics are a little outrageous. Even if the the schooling was getting in the way of education, companies look for diploma's and degrees. they look for schooling. In this time, it will be harder for Dan Brown to get a high paying job over some one who as been schooled. Overall, i thought the blog was good. Most of the time in history classes i just get the review sheet and look everything up on Wikipedia and it would be a lot faster than actually looking the terms up in the book. I do think that technology should be intergraded into classes more than they are. Learning things on the internet can add a diversity of ways to learn unlike the traditional classroom.

In Daniel Pink's video, he leaves us with two questions: "What is my sentence" and "Was I better today than yesterday?". I think that these are very good questions that invoke a lot of thinking. They help up unclutter our very cluttered life. I am not sure what my sentence is but i tend to believe that i am better than i was yesterday.

Project 13

Skype Interview

Blog # 9

This was a blog about what Mr. McClung had learned in his first year of teaching elementary education. He broke the blog down into seven different points. With these seven points, he shows how we need to focus on the students learning the material rather than us, the teachers, teaching the material. he said we should not get caught up trying to make a perfect lesson plan, because there is no such thing as a perfect lesson plan. Things will always come up when you are trying to teach. The students might not learn the material as quickly as you had hoped so you have to be flexible with your plans. He said we need to listen to our students. I think that if we connect with our students it will be easier to teach. They will want to listen to you, because you listened to what they had to say.

Project 11

Blog #8

Richard Miller created two video's to show the uses of technology in the Humanities. The first video he shows how he was able to create a paper on the Virgina Tech shooting without going to a library or buying a book. He was able to go onto the internet and find what he needed. In the second video, Richard Miller shows how technology is constantly being changed and updated. He shows how efficient it is to use technology correctly. He also talked about converging Humanities with the sciences. He believes it would be great if they did come together because everything would go better and faster.

I think the primary message of the two video's is that technology is something you have to learn hands on. It is something that is hard to teach and is easier to learn by trial and error.

http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/2009/07/20-interactive-whiteboard-resources-for-teachers/ was a site that supported smart boards. They should how smart boards could be used in ways that a normal board could not. A smart board is more interactive than a regular projector or chalkboard. In the other postings, they complained that smart boards are not much different than regular white boards.

additional assignment 2

I think that he makes sense. It involves a lot of trial and error, but if you want to accomplish something using the computer sooner or later you can do it. According to the speaker there should be no interference from the adults and the kids have to be interested. Computers play a huge role in the learning. It is fun to play and learn things about computers or the internet when you want to learn them. When you do not dread what you are about to do, you are most likely to have fun at what you do and learn it easier. The way to motivate someone to learn is to get them interested in something they like. I am motivated to learn by wanting to graduate. When I study, i am teaching my self. The reason why is so i do good on my test. A teacher is suppose to guide you or help you in the right way. If you are stuck, he/she will help you around the problem. Other questions or issues are raised by this video i think are: are teachers teaching too much, and if so how do they get the students interested in what they need to learn.

Project 9b

project 10

My PLN is a lot better than it was at the beginning of the year. If you were to ask me what a PLN was i could not have told you. I have learned several interesting things from teacher and students i have had to follow. I am getting better at using technology to make school work easier and get done quicker. Overall my PLN is not that great but it is getting better.

blog #7

Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon. He is dying of liver cancer and he was giving his "last lecture". The title of this lecture was Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. During this speech, he talked about different things he learned through out his life.

At the beginning of the speech, he was talking about childhood dreams and how to accomplish it. He talked about how you need to be specific with your dreams. He said if you run into brick walls it is ok because "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things".

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want." I thought that was a pretty cool quote. He was very much with the never give up attitude. If you fail, you know know what not to do next time. He wanted his students to never quit just because they had ran into a "brick wall".

I thought the head fakes was a good way to conclude the speech. He not only talked about how to use head fakes; he used one to finish his speech. I thought his speech was a very interesting speech. I did not look forward at watching a hour plus video, but it was well worth it.

Time Toast Project 9a

Group Project

Please Click "Podcast" for Link to View

Podcast

http://gallery.me.com/jstrange#101216

Blog #6

Networked Student

This is about a guy who goes to a physical class one day a week, and he goes to a virtual class two days a week. While online, he learns how to research, share, and differentiate information. He learns how to use tools such as Google scholar, skype, itunesU, and wiki. The narrator called this a Social Network.

I think this is a good idea. This concept helps people work on their research skills. It allows for people to do more hands on with technology. By becoming hands on with technology, they become able to do their work faster. The faster one can do his work and it be correct, the better chance someone has to work his way up the ladder. It also helps with problem solving. It makes the student have the think through problems they may encounter along the way.

The point of the teacher is like what the narrator said. They will help when someone is stuck and just can not find a way around the problem. They will also serve as a valuable resource and source of wisdom.

7th graders PLE

Her PLE is closely related to our PLN. She blogs and does reports like we do. Like us, she has the freedom to do her work when she wants to do it and where she wants to do it. She is suppose to check a blog site every day like us. So her PLE is very similar to our PLN

The Machine is (changing) us

I liked and agree with his early point of the video. Most people just do or say what the tv tells them. We have become so dependent and have built our society on the television that it has reached the point what ever it says goes. People are forgetting how to think and reason for themselves because it is easier to let other people do it for you. I thought it was cool when he was talking about "context collapse". You can see this all the time on youtube. I thought this was a really cool video and i think it did a good job explaining the change in communication.