iTunes U

iTunes University is a great way for teachers to get information to their students in a way that they love-with their cell phone or with their computers. There is a great site sponsored by Apple which gives a tour of iTunes U it is www.apple.com/education/guidedtours/itunesu.html. Teachers can creat content lectures, students can research and they can collaborate with other learners around the world all in a secure environment. Some of the categories included in the iTunes U classroom are languages, fine arts and history. Students and teachers can access free lectures, language lessons and audiobooks from their IPod, Iphone, MAC or PC. There are over 100,000 educational audio and video files from universities, museums and media organizations.



ITunes U is an amazing tool for both teachers and students. Teachers can relate to their students with their lectures and research on their level. Most young people have a cell phone or have some way to access a computer. This is a fun, new way to get a students attention. Students can also contact and listen to other learners all around the world. This is truly a global classroom that is user friendly and easy to access.

Did you know?

Did you know/Shift Happens is a presentation created by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod to show the viewers some startling statistics on technology and the world. To get to the presentation you can click here www.thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/did-you-know-20.html. The presentation has many interesting statistics about the United States and other emerging countries around the world like India and China. The number of college graduates in each country was quite surprising with the U.S. at 1.3 million, India at 3.1 million and China at 3.3 million. In India 100% of college graduates can speak English. In the technology realm right now MySpace, if it were made into a country, would be the 8th largest in the world. These are just some of the surprising numbers being presented in the movie.

I think that the main message of this presentation is that the world must start preparing its students and young people to be adept in technology. The message is especially talking about the United States. The message urges us as citizens of the United States to urge our educators, school board reps and politicians to take every measure necessary to get our children ready to compete globally with technology. I do agree with Mr. Fisch to an extent but the emphasis should not only be on technology but traditional learning as well. We do not want to breed a generation of robots, instead we need to create a generation of well rounded learners and human beings.

Teachers and Technology

In reading the post entitled "Is it ok to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher" I do see Karl Fisch's point. If you are going to be a teacher in today's classroom you must have some technology background. Students in the classroom in this day and time must be students of the world, that is just a fact. In order to be successful as adults they must have some computer skills. So then we must ask, why not the teacher that is molding their young mind? I really like the comparison of standards that the Fisch makes, would you tell someone you can't read, then why would you tell them you know nothing about computers? I like this, computer skills should be right up there with learning to read and write in today's world.

I feel that educators should take every opportunity to learn about technology, not just computers but ways to better their own classrooms. This can be done by simply learning how to create a Power Point presentation or learning how to upload a grade book on to the computer. These skills will simplify and better their classroom. If the teacher is willing to learn then allow them to do so. To some degree I do agree with letting a teacher go that is not willing to learn, chances are they need to retire anyway. On the same note, the school boards should be providing opportunities for their teachers through workshops to learn educational technology. If everyone pulls together teachers can learn new things as well.

Listening to past podcasts

I listened to podcasts that were done in Mr. Wakeman's EDM 310 class in Spring of 2009. The two I chose to listen to were the Last Lecture of Randy Pausch and Shift Happens. Both had some very interesting information and were well done but could be improved and I know I could use the mistakes made in these podcasts to make my own recording better.

One mistake that really stood out at me was the scripted sound. Both groups at times sounded like they were reading from a script and it sounded almost robotic. Another issue I had with both podcasts was the problem of voice level. The first being too low and the second being too loud. One would like to hear a nice soothing voice on a podcast almost like a talk radio type voice. In my own podcast I hope to avoid filler words like "um" and long pauses. I would also like my own podcast to be more of a conversational format not actually saying, "I am going to pass the microphone of to so and so." Paper rattling is also a big no no, the listener wants to hear the speaker not the paper they are looking at. Both of these podcasts were good tools to help me better my own recording.

Listening to Various Podcasts

This blog post subject is about various podcasts we were directed to listen to on I-Tunes. The podcasts included SmartBoard Lessons Podcast, KidCast, ConnectLearning, EdTechTalk, MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Photography. This assignment was great because I got to listen to many examples of how podcasts are done, how they sound and how they come across to the audience. I learned what to do and what not to do for our own podcast assignment.

SmartBoard Lessons podcast is the first one I listened to, it was hosted by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger who are both teachers in Canada. I listened to Episode 11 which was lessons on how to wrap up the school year. Joan also talked about some very useful web links for teachers. She talked about a math movie link that sounded quite interesting. It alerted teachers and students to movies in modern day cinema that used math in them. These movies included Alice in Wonderland and National Treasure to name a few. I found the podcast to be interesting once they got to the subject, I think there was just a little too much chatting. It is also pretty interesting that these two people were not even in the same room together. They were doing the podcasts from their own offices miles away from each other.

Next I listened to KidCast which is learning and teaching with podcasting. It was episode #62 and it was hosted my one person, Dan Schmit. This podcast was very straight forward and got right to the point of the podcast. There were no guests just one man speaking his mind on video podcasting or "vodcasting." He had the opinion that video podcasting was not a natural progression from audio podcasting it was what best suits your message. One is not better than the other. He made the point that video podcasting can be used for content that needs a visual and it can also be used for students who are learning about body language. He said the downside of the video podcasting was the time factor, teachers and students don't have time to this kind of podcasting because it is time consuming.

ConnectLearning is a very informal podcast hosted by David Warlick. I listened to Episode 90 in which he was at a conference of librarians and they were brainstorming about ways to use the podcast in the classroom. Some said that the podcast could be used to record class sessions and that students could use them at home for homework and projects. David did point out that this is being implemented at the college level but not so much at the K-12 level. Another teacher said that the podcast could be used to interview school faculty and employees and those interviews could be added to the school website for parents and potential students to view. I really liked this podcast because it provided some great ideas to teachers.

EdTechtalk podcast was talking about teachers teaching teachers or what are we learning from our colleagues. This podcast went back to a moderator and guest speakers format with varying opinions to different questions. All of the guests were asked to talk about what projects they were working on and how they were helping teachers. It sounded like they were heading up workshops that teachers were attending during their summer break to enhance them professionally. Some of the speakers also talked about projects that they got going with their students. An example of this is a project where kids create a cooking show recorded as a podcast.

The last two podcasts were very "techy" and they were of little interest to me. They were MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Photography. MacBreak Weekly is a podcast that discusses the latest Mac news from a journalist standpoint. It is really a round table discussion on all things Mac. They discussed the new I-Phone and the WWDC. As I am a PC user none of this interested me at all. The last podcast I listened to was about photography. This Week in Photography discusses camera technique, technology and news. Once again they were talking about Apple and new RAW updates to various cameras.

International Blogs

The first international school blog that I came across was that of the Zhuhai International School in Guangdong Province, China. You can access the blog by clicking here. This school is pretty amazing as it is a member of the International Baccalaureate Program and is a candidate for the World Baccalaureate Program. It is truly an international school with many nationalities represented. The teachers at the school are certified in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. The school ranges from ages 3 all the way up to high school age. The blog itself has some great pictures of the students and contains monthly news letters to parents and guardians.

The second blog I found was for Ambrit Rome International School located of course in Rome Italy. You can access this blog by clicking here. Ambrit's goal is to teach an international education to a diverse population of students. This school is also striving to meet the International Baccalaureate standards. The blog is actually the school blog but the students have created a number blogs including one about technology, sports and music. The blog I found has some excellent slide shows and pictures of the students in action. It also has a link to the schools main web page.

My Presentation

School and Teacher blogs around the country

I found a blog used by Bertha Robinson Elementary school located in Jackson Missouri. One can access this blog byclicking here This site includes useful information such as a monthly newsletter, menus, calenders and information about the school staff. It also includes accelerated reading lists. So just basic but very useful information for parents and caregivers of students at this school.

The second blog I found was from Hickam Air Force base in Honolulu Hawaii. How awesome would it be to go to school in Hawaii?? You can reach this schools blog by
clicking here This blog is a little more personal to the school. It includes posts about alumni, weather in Hawaii and just interesting tidbits about the school. It also has links to the schools main website, a guestbook and information about the Air Force base.

All about ACCESS

ACCESS is long distance learning website provided by the Alabama Department of Education. It allows public high school students "access" to classes that they cannot take at their school. Some of the courses that are being offered this summer include: AP courses in most every content area along with regular education courses such as Algebra I and English. The elective courses offered are also interesting. They include: personal finance, psychology and nutrition and wellness. This site also includes information for teachers and parents as well and also for those who want to participate in the program or just learn more about it. Alabama colleges are involved as well including the University of Alabama and Troy University.

This site provides such an excellent opportunity for students to take classes that they might not have access to at their own school. It also gives them the experience of taking a class online which they might have to do in their college careers. It is beneficial for educators as well because it offers a new, fresh way to motivate students and offers them something new besides just the traditional sitting in a classroom. This is a great chance for students to vary their high school curriculum.

Picture Test

My University

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