Thoughts in Anthony Capps Post Concerning "This is how we dream" by Richard Miller

Wow! What an eloquent analysis of Dr. Miller's speech. I understood Dr. Miller's basic message, but didn't see all the details that Anthony pointed out. It is extremely interesting that the author himself gave such incredible comments and encouragement. Anthony seems to have an amazing ability for writing. Great post, Anthony!

Posting student's work to blogs

The students in the PS22 Chorus recorded their own beautiful version of Stevie Nick's song "Landslide" and posted it on the web. She was so impressed with their work that she invited them to perform at Madison Square Gardens. What a wonderful opportunity and reward these children have received for their hard work and talent. Had their work never been posted, Stevie Nick's might never have made the invitation!



Another example of a benefit of posting children's work is Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog. Mrs. Cassidy uses the blog to show the activities in which the entire class is engaged. They work with classes all over the world to produce creations such as "The Monster Project". The children are learning to collaborate with others across the world. Her kindergarten students post their individual work for comment. Children can be very motivated when they know that anyone in the world might see their production.



The work of college level students certainly offers a great deal of opportunity for discussion. The topics, questions, and even arguments presented in "A Vision of Students Today" by Michael Wesch are displayed for the world to contemplate and possibly try to answer.


The blog where our own podcasts are displayed on the web is another example of why it is good to post students work. Not only are the "Conversations with Future Teachers" posted for discussion by the world, but the work of classmates is shared and we can all learn from the work of others. We watch and listen to learn and collaborate to improve our own productions.

Comments4kids Week 10

A second grade teacher at Random Lake Elementary School has just begun having her students blog this year. Her blog has generally been a great place for the families to "peek into" the school day. The teacher communicates announcements but also posts information about the things the second graders have done and are planning to do. I think parents, students, and teachers could probably benefit a lot from this kind of interaction.
I also followed a link to the class website. Wow! What a great site! There is information and links for parents, teachers and kids.

The Story by Anne-Maire Holmwood

Ms. Holmwood created a very friendly video about stories and how they have been passed through time. Indeed, she told the story. Comments left at her post included information about using "free use" images. Three listed sites were: http://creativecommons.org/
http://www.archive.org/index.php
http://freeplaymusic.com/index.php
I want to make sure I follow copyright laws.

ACCESS Distance Learning

The acronym ACCESS means Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Education, and Students. Statewide. The goal of "distance learning plan is to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students". Students must be a enrolled in an Alabama public high school and only the designated staff member at their school can enroll them in ACCESS.
I found that every high school course, including electives like foreign languages, could be taken through this web based resource. The site listed the following particular characteristics that successful ACCESS students usually possess:

* are self-motivated and self-disciplined
* stay on task without direct supervision
* like to figure things out without direct assistance
* prioritize workload effectively
* can successfully work alone
* are good at assessing their own progress
* like working with computers and software programs
* enjoy the challenge of working with new technology
* are good at following instructions
* use email and can create messages with attached files
* can download and install programs from the Internet
* can search the Web
* can copy and paste from one program to another
* rarely procrastinate
* enjoy communicating in writing and reading the writing of others
* work with others to complete projects
* seek assistance when problems arise
* take an active role in the learning process

Students take complete assignments, projects, collaborative work, and even tests online. Grades are reported to the students "home school" which is their high school and received with other subject grades on a report card.
Alabama is broken into three regions and students are served through a support center in their region. Teachers are usually from the same region and ACCESS offers online teaching opportunities to state educators.
ACCESS could certainly be a great resource, especially at a school or in a district that did not have the funding for all the teacher units the needed. Could this be what schools will be in the future?

The Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)

According to the site description, the Alabama Learning Exchange "is designed to index and share many types of educational materials and information through a time-saving, one-stop resource for educators, parents, and students. The majority of these rich resources (lesson plans, Web links, and interactive activities) are located and connected to the Alabama Courses of Study by National Board Certified Teachers."
What a wonderful resource for teachers who want to prepare the best possible lessons for their students! Teachers can simply click on their grade level, scroll down to their lesson objective and find several complete lesson plans and links to useful sites for making learning fun and interesting. I look forward to using this great site when I am planning a lesson to teach and meet the required standards.
There is a "Podcast Treasury" with many subject areas that could be an excellent tool in the classroom. A part of the site is for "Professional Learning" with lots of information on Library Media, Alabama Professional Development, Special Education, English Learners Education and more.

Thoughts on Kaia's Blog and her Daddy's Blog

Kaia is a very young little girl whose daddy helps her blog. She shares lots of thoughts, pictures and experiences. William Chamberlain's class regularly comments on kids blogs. Kaia's father contacted Mr. Chamberlain's class and asked them to send Kaia a voice thread and they did. This was one more way to connect and provide more motivation to little Kaia to post.
As it turns out, Kaia's Dad does a lot to inspire and motivate Kaia to express herself. He is definitely working towards Kaia's literacy. They took cameras outside, Kaia took lots of pictures and created a photo essay about her pictures to put on her blog. Many people have seen her presentation and have commented. ....This can be very motivating for a young child.....
Kaia's Dad is a teacher. He is very interested in technology being used as a tool in education. He stated that Kaia "is still too young to really grasp the connections that she is making, but in a few years these connections and this type of interaction will be ubiquitous in her life. I hope that her teachers are ready to help her continue on this journey."
While technology is a very useful tool, there is definitely another side that teachers must understand. I believe parents are right to have reservations and the following quote from Kaia's Dad's blog that expresses my own views.
"...this experience was also eye opening for me as a parent, because having Kaia exposed like this made me hyper aware of how vulnerable I am making her... I started to think about how much trust we ask that parents put in us as teachers. Kaia’s blog started as a way to share photos with family, it has quickly become a way that we are documenting her life. And now, it is becoming a way that she is connecting with people throughout the world. This is scary. Part of me wants to pull back and keep her our little secret. But if we want our students to feel comfortable and be cautious online, we must be able to do the same with our own children. As teachers and technology evangelist it is easy to ask parents to allow us to expose their children to a variety of experiences online, but as a parent it can all seem so scary. I agree with many people that if we choose to live open lives online, we must trust that the positive experience will outweigh they dangerous ones, but there is nothing like seeing pictures of your daughter on a youtube video created by someone else to spark up the paranoia. Where can this go? Will I always be able to control it? Should I be able to? These are all important questions to ask as we push the boundaries of our lives and our learning online."

The New Media Literacies Project

I wanted to find a good definition for "media literacy" and, in my search, I found a very compelling reason to teach it. The Center on Media and Child Health states,"As a teacher, encouraging and practicing media literacy in your classroom is one of the most important things you can do to keep children safe and healthy in the Information Age. Since your students are surrounded by media every day, learning how to question the media messages they see and hear is crucial."
The Comparative Media Studies (CMS)Program at MIT has developed the New Media Literacies Project. The CMS site states, "Our courses are designed to teach students to both make and reflect upon media and in the process, to acquire important skills in team work, leadership, problem solving, collaboration, brainstorming, communications, and project completion, which will prepare them for a broad range of academic and professional careers." In another part of the site, the CMS notes the "social and cultural expertise" that is taught in its department.
I think the New Media Literacies Project is part of that effort. They have identified important skills that are needed to be successful in media. Indeed, we all need to be socially and culturally considerate toward others, in technology and in person.

Thoughts on the "New Media Literacies" by the NML Staff

Terms from The New Media Literacy:
judgement, negotiation, appropriation, play, transmedia navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, multitasking

I believe we should use judgement when considering any content, no matter the source. The prospective of the presenter always affects information. The video mentioned that negotiation is about "knowing how to enter into different groups and different spaces and knowing how to understand what the different norms are". I've never been part of a "group", but I would suspect this is about being socially acceptable. Appropriation is like putting together a research paper from many sources. Play is "the capacity to experiment with your surroundings as a form of problem solving". I think these skills are just different forms of the same skills always needed by effective artist, citizens and workers.

Comments4kids Week 6

I read Cody's post from Mr.Goerend's Classroom Blog. He wrote a great little story about the creation of "National Hop Like a Kangaroo Day". In the story, a boy named Max hurt his foot playing football and had to hop on one foot for a few days. Through a series of events, the President learns of Max and his classroom's idea of a day to hop around like a kangaroo. I think it would be a fun holiday.... especially if we could all dress like kangaroos and spend the day hopping around in the parks near our homes!
Colby is learning to write creatively and lots of people are getting to see his work. I have got to say that as a sixth grader, I do not think I would have wanted my own work out there for the world to see.

Thoughts on "Connectivism"

Wendy Drexler's The Networked Student is a "very easy to understand" representation of the way a student learns through networking. I enjoyed the "commoncraft" design style. The use of simple drawings and a single voice narration is a welcome change to many videos which have sometimes too much video and audio "noise".
"Connectivism" is a way of learning that doesn't use textbooks. The teacher guides the student to information by helping him or her create a learning network. A student searches for information from reliable sources about a subject and then follows the links to additional information and sites. A "virtual textbook" is created by RSS Feeds, "social bookmarking account", voice thread, and wiki. Among other things like being a guide and advisor, according to the video, a teacher "helps him (the student) organize those mountains of information" found through all the research.
At Ms. Drexler's blog, she listed several obstacles that a teacher meets when trying to introduce the teaching method of "Connectivism". One obstacle that might be very real for a new teacher is trying to incorporate this amount of technology and time into the already established and required curriculum. Just as Matthew Needleman suggested in his skype call to our class, I will just have to add a little technology each year. A second obstacle mentioned by Ms. Drexler that is a real concern is "protecting students from inappropriate content". I do not know if I am right, but I understand that sometimes the filters that are meant to protect our children, sometimes block the use of some tools or useful sites. I do not know the answer to this, but I believe their protection should come first.

Thoughts on "Writing with Multimedia"

The move toward using multimedia is obvious in nearly all parts of our life. Many churches have large screens in the front of their sanctuaries where they project song lyrics, announcements and even scripture text. Funeral homes now, at least in my area, prepare short slide shows with a musical background and pictures provided by the family. Many weddings and receptions have a song or two using pictures or video about the couples' lives.
With the advent of cameras on everyone's cell phones and the constant posting to youtube and blogs, I believe our children are growing up in a world where there is music, pictures and video about nearly everything. I think they can't help but think in these terms. The only reason they might not consider producing work for school in this format is if their assignment restricts them to paper.
Richard Miller's This Is How We Dream might serve to make teachers more aware of the world of presentation than students. As I said, students are surrounded with these forms of communication. So, if teachers will provide class time, the tools and instruction in how to use them, and allow students to choose a topic of interest to them, I believe teachers will be surprised how creative their students will be.
It is worth mentioning that I think the biggest hurdle besides obtaining the tools, might be educating the students in how to use them. Some students will come to the classroom with some prior knowledge and access, but others will not. If the tools are introduced in a step by step method and built upon with time, just as math or most any other subject, the student will not become overwhelmed and be able to be more creative with their projects.

Using iPods in the Classroom

According to NECC Ning, "Teacher current app favorites include: WordBook, Thesaurus, USA, Countries, Brain Tuner, Blanks, Whiteboard, CoinToss, Lose It!, Word Warp, FlipBook Lite. Of course they are using the included apps: Calendar, Calculator, Notes, Clock, YouTube throughout each day." Elementary and Middle School teachers who teach math, language arts, science, and social studies use the iPod touch as teaching tools for their curriculum. A special education teacher, Jeremy Brown commented on the site listed above that the ipod "will be used both as augmentative communication devices (AAC) as well as instructional tools - using a variety of apps found in Education section of Apps Store...If all goes well, I am hoping my classroom will become a model for use of such technologies across the county." NECC Ning looks to be a great discussion forum for teachers who will use every technology tool available to teach their classes.
Duke University took the use of ipods to a new level in 2004, when they "were passed out to all of its 1,650 freshmen in the fall", according to the July 1, 2005, article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. voanews.com reported one year later that, "The most popular use was to record such things as classroom lectures or field notes."

Ways iTunes University Might Be Helpful To Me As A Teacher

iTunes University holds actual lectures and information from real colleges and universities. Actual lectures and lessons can be found and downloaded for convenient learning by anyone and for free. Any subject matter is available and future podcasts can be ordered with subscription. Link to iTunesU introduction.
At iTunesU, follow the link or path to DePaul university, Modern Languages, Basic Spanish, to lessons for learning Spanish. These podcasts could be very valuable to me if a child enters my class who speaks Spanish and very little English.
Teacher resources are also available at iTunesU. I have thought that I would love to add American Sign Language to the curriculum in my classroom. I found great ideas and resources at Florida Department of Education, Foreign Languages - Foreign Lesson Profiles. Tips for using cameras as teaching tools in the classroom can be found following iTunesU, Teaching and Education, Northeast Able Resource Center.

Thoughts on "Mr. C's Class Blog" Comments4kids Week 5

William Chamberlain's class blog has lots of information. Several teachers at Noel Elementary School have begun to use technology more and more in their classrooms. I read about Mrs. Smith's third and fifth graders who had made stuffed symmetrical fish. The lesson was used for art, math and social studies. I enjoy lessons that allow children to be creative!!

Thoughts of Dr. Alice Christie's Website

Wow! Dr. Alice Christie's site is an online technology class just like EDM310 will become very soon. I see the benefit in having all the class information ready to be learned by anyone who is interested. The site itself states that "It is a comprehensive resource for educators wishing to use technology in their classrooms."
I will use the "Class" section of the site just as I am sure I will refer back to our EDM310 class blog. Now, I know I will have two reliable and thorough sources for any technology questions I may have after this class or when I have my own classroom.