Comments4Kids

I absolutely loved this project! It was so neat and interesting to view blogs of people from all over the world! The best thing about this project was the idea of how the children would feel when they saw that someone from the United States saw their blog and made a comment about it! I especially liked the videos of the students coming up with their own version of well known fairy tales like Goldie Locks and the Three Bears!! I hope that with the response these students received from reading, they will continue to read everyday! These children are so lucky that they have teachers who are introducing this to them at such a young age! These kids are and will be more technologically advanced then I can ever hope to be! Thank you Dr. Strange for introducing this project to us!

Why Publish Sudents' Work to the Web?

I think it is very important to publish your students' work to the web for several reasons:



Take me for example. I had no idea what a big network blogging was until I enrolled into this class! Before this class, I had only ever used Facebook as a network and with facebook, you can only keep in touch with people you are friends with. I have experienced many things in this class but what has really stuck with me is the face that I have connected with people from all over the world and with people that I don't know! It is absolutely amazing where blogging can take you!! You can look at my blog here




Another example would be a little girl who knows more about technology than I do! With little Kaia it turned out to be an extraordinary thing for her when her father decided to publish his daughters work on the web. With all of the posts and pictures Kaia and her father have uploaded it has connected Kaia with people from all over the world including our EDM class! To see her blog click here




A third example would be a project we did called Comments4Kids. I especially liked this project because we were able to connect with young students from all over the world! Just think about this, when a child posts a video of them reading a book in New Zealand and they find a post written from a teenager or a twenty-something year old in the United States, think of how excited they would feel! To me, this excitement could be enough to encourage these young students to keep reading and to keep uploading their videos on the internet. This is very important to me because I feel like too many kids these days aren't reading enough because more and more kids have TV's and such in their rooms and cars that it's hard to find a place to read these days! It is also important because it is making these students want to upload new and different things and it keeps them interested in new and exciting projects. To see an example of a blog, click here

ACCESS

The Alabama ACCESS Distance Learning Initiative was launched on November 1, 2004 by our Governor Bob Riley for classrooms, educators, and students statewide. It is used to help classrooms and teachers by use of technology. I like the idea of ACCESS because it provides "equal access to high quality instruction" which I believe is very important in the classroom. The idea of ACCESS is to help all students quality learning opportunities and I believe that this well help Alabama's public school system. According to the ACCESS website, there are four key concepts:
"• Rigorous Web-based and Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) courses taught by Alabama certified and highly qualified teachers
• A technical infrastructure to deliver approved Web-based courses and connect IVC labs via a statewide network
• Three regional support centers to hire, train, evaluate, and support e-teachers
• Statewide coordination, scheduling, and support for distance learning".
I believe these components will help many students who learn better by using technology. These key components can be found on ACCESS website if you click here

These objectives I obtained from the ACCESS website which you can find here
The objectives of this plan are as follows:
· Provide access to advanced diploma courses
· Provide access to additional course offerings
· Provide access to advanced placement or dual credit courses
· Provide access to remediation and supplemental resources
· Leverage existing resources and distance learning offerings
· Provide teachers with additional multimedia and technology tools to enhance instruction

ALEX

ALEX, an acronym for Alabama Learning Exchange, is a program developed by the State of Alabama's Department of Education to help teachers with all different sorts of things for their classrooms! You can do everything from looking up lesson plans to looking up Alabama Courses of Study(ALCOS). ALEX is such an amazing resource for teachers! It has many examples of lesson plans for every subject you study in school. There is also a tab called web links and it takes you to all sorts of links that are extremely valuable to all teachers. I liked the tab called Professional Learning because it sends you to a page where you can "find professional development opportunities, teaching and learning tools, the latest news, best practices and so much more!"

I think ALEX is such a great resource for all teachers and students who are in school learning how to be an effective teacher. Honestly I wish I had known about ALEX when I was creating my Teachers Portfolio last semester!! I looked up a lesson plan for third grade math for ideas to use with my third graders since they are having trouble in math and it actually helped a lot! This website was such a good idea to come up with and I plan on using it for the rest of my teaching career!!

You can look at the ALEX website by clicking here

The New Media Literacies

In this video, many literacy skills are discussed. I feel like every one of them is very important in today's world. I believe anyone using any type of technology in today's world, needs to possess if not all but at least most of these skills.

I think that each of these skills are very important not only when dealing with technology but in our every day life. I do believe that these skills are needed for the 21st century to be an effective artist, citizen, and worker. I possess several of these skills but the one I am probably most effective with would be multi-tasking. I am very good at that and sometime it gets me in some trouble!! The rests of the tasks that I do not possess will come to me with time and those things I will have to learn and explore for myself.

If you are interested in learning more, you can watch the video here

"The Networked Student" Wendy Drexler

Oh wow! This was definitely a new way of learning to me! I don't think I would ever like this form of learning because to be completely honest, I hate staring at a computer screen! It hurts my eyes and gives me a head ache!! I never knew that online classes could connect you with so many people and other networks! It is definitely a neat way to learn but, I don't feel like I could ever do it....So props to all of the students who are able to learn this way because it is definitely a cooler way to learn than sitting in a classroom!

I do agree with the question, "why do you even need a teacher?" I do agree with the answers to this question in the video but, I can also see the opposite answer. I don't necessarily understand why there needs to be a teacher when there can just be an instructor who uploads directions and such.

Although I have a different opinion on this form of learning, I still think it is really cool that technology has come this far and is helping so many students in a way that makes learning more fun. If you are interested in the Networked Student, you can watch the video here

"This Is How We Dream" Mr. Miller

In part one of Mr. Miller's lecture, he went over the fundamental changes in today's reading and writing culture. He spoke about how important books are but how easy it is to find them online. He also showed how easy it was to write an article on the tragic Virginia Tech murders. I also liked how he showed how easy it was to keep in touch with his colleagues and even family.

In part two, Mr. Miller discussed producing multimedia on the web. I like how he made a comment about how it is easier to get the full effect of a story when there are pictures or videos; for example the whale hunt in Alaska.

Although I learned a lot from watching both parts of this video, I don't necessarily agree with him. Call me old fashioned, but I still read books and go to book stores to buy books. I actually read every night before I go to bed!

You can find Mr. Miller's videos here

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

I liked this video a lot. You can tell that Mrs. Davis is really interested in making sure her students succeed. She also makes it look easy to learn the new forms of technology that people are using these days. I also liked how she tells other teachers that they really don't need to know everything about what they are teaching before they teach it. She said its fun when the students can also teach the teacher.

I think that our EDM class is along the same lines as this classroom. I feel like Dr. Strange is teaching us this new technology in a way that makes it fun to learn and easy to want to incorporate into our own classrooms.

Sir Ken Robinson

I completely agree with Sir Ken Robinson. I think that creativity in education is very important. I feel like a student can't get a complete education without having their creativity challenged. I believe that art, chorus, band, drama, etc are very important in education. I agree with him when he said, "All kids have tremendous talents but we squander them." I feel like exploring your creativity is just as important as English and Math.

I had no idea how schools everywhere are downgrading these departments. I understand that some schools may not have the funds for these departments but I think it is extremely sad that some students will never have the opportunities to explore their creativity. A way to help with this, is to have the parents and faculty make it known how important it is to have a way for students to express themselves.