Blog Post #14

I thought Jose Picardo's "Top 10 Tips for Using Technology in the Classroom," was very informative. There are many tips that he talked about that I never would have thought to incorporate in a classroom. One of the tips that I liked was the use of music and iTunes. As a lover of music I think that this would be a great way to keep children interested in certain topics. I also really liked how he included Skype in one of his tips. Skype is a great way for children to communicate with others all around the world.

One of the other tips that Picardo suggested was to use social networks. I think that this is a great idea because so many children already use social networks. You can make small groups, communicate easily with your students, and set the privacy to whatever you want. He also talks about using the smartboard more efficiently. This is something that we have been working on recently in EDM 310. I cannot wait to use a smartboard in my class.

Blog Post #15

Final Project

Blog Post #13

I chose to do option 4 for my blog post assignment. The book that I chose to read was called 1984. I read this book once before in the 8th grade and hated it. I disliked it so much that I could not even make myself read it. I believe that now as I have grown older I have developed an appreciation for the book. It is interesting to compare this book in retrospect to EDM 310. I believe 1984  looks down on technology to some degree.

The book is about a man named Winston Smith. Winston Smith is a low- ranked member of his regions party. The party's leader is called Big Brother. Big Brother is apparently watching you wherever you go. Big Brother knows everything that you say and even everything that you think. Winston does not like Big Brother. He meets a girl named Julia and they start to have an affair. Winston also keeps an illegally bought diary of his illegal thoughts. Winston confides in a man named O'Brian who he is sure is a member of the Brotherhood, which is a group seeking to overthrow Big Brother. Unfortunately this is not the case. Soon after meeting O'Brian, Julia and Winston go to there usual meeting spot in a room above the store where Winston bought his illegal diary. The shopkeeper turns them both in and Winston finds out that O'Brian was secretly a member of the reigning party. O'Brian tortures Winston until he finally begs him to torture Julia instead. With Winston's spirit crushed he has now been defeated and is a loyal supporter of Big Brother.

Progress Report Final Project #16

My partner, Jenna Reynolds, and I have discussed most of what we will be doing for our final project. I think we are going to choose one of the classes we have taken in the past and reform it while incorporating the use of technology. We have a class picked out and can't wait to use the smartboard again.

Blog Post #12

Watch the video The Role of Technology in a Society. Discuss whether or not you agree or disagree with the message. Argue your point and follow the requirements in Writing a Quality Blog Post.

The video The Role of Technology in a Society was interesting because it was a different take on technology. Throughout this class we have been watching videos about how technology can be helpful, so it was interesting to see how it could possibly be hurtful. I do not agree with much of this video. I do not believe that technology has affected society in that many bad ways. If anything society has been great for us in communicating, research, and creativity.

The whole incident with the child that killed his parents over a video game was bizarre to me. This could have happened with anything. He could have killed his parents over a toy or just not getting his way. While the maker of this video has a good point about the addiction of technology, I do not think it is as drastic as she makes it seem. I am a firm believer that family should come first and technology should not get in the way of this but there are many ways to incorporate the use of technology in family situations. For instance, playing a family game on the Wii.

Blog Post #11

Getting to see the different types of technology that Ms.Cassidy used was amazing. I never thought that a person would be able to incorporate that many different things into a class of 1st graders. The children seemed to love working with the computers and the smartboard. I think that I could use many of the types of technology Ms.Cassidy used in my own classroom. If I had to pick one, I would use blogs. One of the children said that his blog helped him to spell better and this is something that I have never given thought to . Another thing that I thought was interesting was the incorporation of the Nintendo DS into the classroom. This seems really fun and effective.

The problems that I think I would encounter would be finding the appropriate time for each child to use the same amount of time on the computer. It would be up to me to make a schedule so that every child could get all of their work done. Another thing that might pose as a problem would be the Nintendo DS. While I think this is creative and fun, I could see the children fighting over it. I would probably resolve this by setting turns for the children to take on the DS. I think by incorporating all of these different types of technology into the classroom the children would benefit by gaining communicating, researching, and writing skills.

Blog Post #10

As a teacher I intend to educate rather than teach by making sure that the tools I use to educate are up to date and relative. From being in Dr.Strange's class I have learned the importance of incorporating technology in the classroom. I did not have this very often growing up and I feel like I was missing out. I do not want my students to feel this way. Technology is such a big part of our society that I find it almost unfathomable to teach without it.

Another way I want to educate instead of teach is to make sure that the children can relate to the material that is being relayed. I am sure that this will not happen for all lessons but I at least want this to be possible for most. For most of my classes all I did was memorize. Much of the material that I would "learn" would go in one ear and out the other. I want to make it possible for my students to relate and remember what the lesson was on. I feel as though I can do this by making the lessons more enjoyable and creative.

Tom Johnson's "Don' Let Them Take the Pencils Home," was very informative. The argument that Johnson wrote about was whether or not children should be allowed to bring pencils home from school because they lower test scores. This argument had a message in it. As teachers we often look at the problem rather than the solution. If we do not take a step back and look at how we can fix the problem, than it just keeps reoccurring.

Gertrude is the name of the woman who is trying to keep the children from bringing home the pencils. She argues that the ones who bring home the pencils play games with them rather than learn. Johnson argues that even if they are playing games with the pencils, they can still be learning. If the play hangman they are practicing writing letters and spelling words. There are so many different ways of learning.

Blog Post #9

The first post of Mr.McClung's that I read was "What I Learned this Year (2008-09). " In this post McClung writes about his first year teaching as a stand alone teacher. He talks about how the student comes first and we as teachers often forget this. Teachers make lesson plans and get so worked up about how they will get evaluated that they forget how the student will interpret it. We cannot get stressed to much about the lesson plans because they will never be perfect. The important thing is to make sure we realize our mistakes and learn from them. He also mentions technology and how we should not be afraid of it. We as teachers need to embrace and take advantage of it.

This is probably my favorite blog post that I have read this semester. It was great getting to hear about a teachers first experiences in a classroom. It prepared me for some things that I will encounter when I start teaching. I really enjoyed how he incorporated the importance of communication in his blog post. I agree that most conflicts can be resolved through communication.

The second blog post that I read was "What I Learned this Year (2009-10)." This blog post was about Joe McClung's second year teaching. He moved grades form 6th to 8th. He writes about the transition and the hardships that he had to overcome. McClung also talks about teaching subjects that you really have no idea how to teach. This is helpful to many people because I am sure most teachers have to deal with this at least some point in their career.  

This post reached out to me just as much as McClungs first post did. He wrote about another important thing to do when it is your first year teaching, and that is finding a friend in a school mom. I know this is important because my mom was a school mom. I can remember how much she helped my teacher and how grateful my teacher was. Another topic that I enjoyed reading about was discussing current events in school. McClung says that so many of these children do not think for themselves and we as teachers must figure out a way to help them do this. 

Blog Post #8

Richard Miller's "This is How We Dream," hit home for me. As a lover of books myself, I feel that it is important to have a love for literature. Miller also spoke about how you can by any book now virtually, for only a fraction of the price. I have a Nook and I love it! There are so many paper books that I have purchased that I have never even opened. I have never really thought about it, but this is a waste.

 Miller also talks about how we share knowledge infinitely through the internet. This means that anything you put on the internet is there forever. It is never really deleted. This is amazing to me. This is one of the reasons why it is important to be smart about what you put on the internet. It would be awful to put something horrible on the internet and know that it can never be erased.

 This video was an eye-opener. It made me realize that times are changing. Every day they are making new technology, always something to replace whatever came before it. The way we use to do thing is dying. Pretty soon we will not even need paper anymore, everything will be done through the internet. This is why it is so important to be technologically literate.

 Carly Pugh's blog post was informative and very well written. The assignment that she came up with would be a great one for this class. She does come close to writing with multi-media. It was like she was writing with videos. She put text with it, but there was a video every few sentences. I think that she did an amazing job with getting her point across.

 The video "Learn to Change, Change to learn," had some great points. One man in the video talks about how they are blocking blog posting and other creative outlets for children in schools. We should be incorporating those in our schools. I really appreciated how another man talked about how most children today are in a "nearly now" state. He also says that this is a great state for learning. Simply put, times are changing and technology is a part of this world. We should embrace it.

 Personally I loved "EDM 310 For Dummies." I thought that this video was clever and creative. I would love to be in a video people can relate to. When I first started EDM 310 it was a bit overwhelming. This video made excelling in the class feel possible.

Blog Post #10

Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" was very inspiring. His lecture was titled "Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams." He talked about many things that kept my interest. One thing that he spoke of was taking the time to dream. If we cannot take the time to dream, then how can any of our dreams come true? One must first have a dream to fulfill it.

 One of the other topics that he discussed was the importance of good parenting in a child's life. I owe so much to my own parents. They always taught me to follow my dreams. I think that this is what Randy Pausch was talking about. There needs to be more parents out there that encourage their children to follow their dreams.

 He also spoke about how it is more important to put people before materials. This is really hard for some people. There are so many distractions in today's time. This has even been a problem for myself a few times. Materials come and go, but some friends are with you forever.

 Randy Pausch's teaching methods are all circled around having fun. It is hard to truly grasp a concept if you are not having fun while learning it. It is also important to have fun while you are teaching it. I would have to say that I would have learned so much more in school if I would have been having fun while I was learning. Incorporating fun into leaning can also help the students to retain the information much better.

C4K Summary Post 1

I really enjoyed watching the videos that these children made. They are so talented! My favorite was Aleesha's video about Geoffrey the giraffe who came to visit her class. He taught her about some very valuable safety tips. The most amazing thing was that she remembered all of them. It is great getting to see what these children are doing in school. These posts make me that much more excited to start teaching a class of my own.

Blog post #6

Wendy Drexler's "Networked Student," served as an eye-opener for me. Everything that children will be able to do online now, and even more so in the next few years, makes me wonder if children will even need a teacher. All learning can be done online. This is if the children find reliable sources. They can communicate with the teacher and other students using any social network.

 As of right now, I am not sure if I am prepared to be a teacher of the networked student. Up until the past few years, I have not been a networked student myself. I have also learned more about the use of the internet this year than I ever have. There is still so much more that I need to understand. Hopefully, by the time I graduate, I will be prepared to be a teacher of the networked student.

 I really enjoyed watching "A seventh Graders Personal Learning Environment." She had all of her sites organized so well. It made it so much easier for her to find everything she needed. She had her school work separated from her leisure activities. I would have to say that her PLE was more organized than mine but it made me want to change mine for the better.

Project #9a

Blog Post #5

I really enjoyed Scott McLeod's post. He definitely tried a different approach. Many people will do the opposite of what you tell them to do. I think that this might be what McLeod was trying to do. By telling people not to let their children use technology, maybe they will start letting them use technology. I agree with most of what he says. It is important to show our children how to properly use the internet. There are also a few bad thing on the internet as well. Which is why it is smart to demonstrate how to use the internet and how not to . 


Scott McLeod is a professor at the University of Kentucky. He is the founder of CASTLE. This is an academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. He has also received many national awards for his work in technology. McLeod is also a regular blogger. I cannot wait to read more of his blogs.

Travis Allen's video was amazing. I agree with everything he said. At first I thought that it sounded like a good idea but it would be too expensive. Allen then compared the costs and it would actually be cheaper, especially in the long run, to do things his way. ischool sounds like a great idea.

Allen seems like an extremely intelligent person. He has gone far since his first video about the ischool. He now has an organization specifically for the ischool. There is also a team of people that help him out. Allen has also received credit from many credible sources.

I have never seen the internet used in the way Eric Whitachre used it. He did an impressive job. I thought it was great when I was watching it, but when I read that Whitachre had never met with these people, it made a big impact on me. The whole piece sounded so beautiful. I hope he continues to make more videos like this one.

Roberts sees teaching moving more towards technology. He knows that children do not use teachers as the number one source for information anymore. Students can get information anywhere, specifically the internet. The approach that Roberts takes is very relevant. The times are changing and with that teachers have to change as well. They have to be more involved and get their students more engaged. This will affect me as an educator because I am in the next generation of teachers. I will be the one that has to set the standard for the new style of teaching. I do not mean me specifically, but the next generation.

Project #7

Blog Post #4

The videos that I watched to help me understand the usage of podcasting, were extremely helpful. My favorite video was "The benefits of podcasting in the classroom." This video helped me realize that podcating can be a very beneficial and educational tool to use while teaching a classroom. Children can re-watch a podcast that the teacher used in class to review the lesson. The video also explains the use of vodcasts,which are podcasts with video. This can help children because they often relate better to visuals. Podcasts can also be useful to children that are out sick. They can listen to the podcast to catch up in class.

Presentation Project #5

Blog Post #3

I think that the points Kelly Hines made were legitimate. She put certain things in perspective for me. Ever since I started in EDM 310, I thought that technology was the most important thing. Ms. Hines made me realize that it is not. There are other aspects of being a teacher that come first. One of these things is making sure that what you are teaching is actually learned by the student. It does not matter what tool you use to teach if the student does not understand the concept.

Hines made another good point that while technology is a good tool, it is useless if the teacher is technologically illiterate. That is why I still believe that most teachers should be technologically literate. Technology is our future. Most people use technology everyday. This is why it is important to have technology incorporated in our schools in some way. Though I do agree with Ms. Hines, technology is not everything.

I felt as though I could relate to most of what Karl Fisch was saying. I also often struggle with the technology illiterate concept. There are so many teachers out there that are great without the use of technology. The only problem is that they might be doing their students an injustice by not incorporating technology. I only say this because technology is the future. Every one of those students will be using technology in their life at some time, if not every day.

I also really enjoyed Fisch's comparison of being technologically illiterate to actually being illiterate. It is a clever comparison. I would also agree that while he may be harsh, he has a point. At one point in time it was acceptable to be illiterate, and now it is not. Now it is acceptable to be technologically illiterate, but in the near future it will not be.

I was extremely impressed by Gary's Social Media Count. I had no idea how fast all of these media accounts were going up. After only watching this for one minute, 60 hours of YouTube video had been uploaded. That is incredible! At just two minutes 700 new Twitter accounts had been made. I had no idea Twitter was growing at such a rapid pace.

One of the counts that really amazed me was the money spent on virtual goods. It was increasing extremely fast. I do not spend very much money on the internet, so this really made me think. Also at just 4 minutes, 4,000,000 items had been shared on Facebook. I had no idea Facebook was this huge. This was an incredible tool.

A Vision of Students Today put perspective into the fact that education must progress with technology. A change must be made. As an aspiring teacher this change must come with my generation. Most teachers, in today's time, do not use technology at all as a teaching method. By doing this, an injustice is being done to those choosing the education field.

For a teacher to teach the student, one must use methods that the students use to teach themselves. This would be things such as web pages, twitter, and email. From my own experience, I feel comfortable using technology, and therefore appreciate classes where it is integrated into the lesson plans. However I do not think that students should be solely dependent on technology. This might encourage one to use technology to do all of their thinking for them.

Blog Post #2

I really enjoyed the "Did You Know" video. I did not know a single one of those facts. Most of them blew my mind. To think that China will soon be the largest English speaking country is amazing. Also it is hard to believe that one in eight couples met via the internet. It is probably more than that now because that video was made three years ago.

My favorite fact was the one about Myspace. I am not sure if it is still accurate because Facebook is now more popular, but it is still hard to believe that the amount of people that used Myspace could make up a large country. It makes me wonder how big of a country the population of Facebook would make in 2011. Also the comment about how in 2013 they will have created a computer that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain. In my opinion they are already there.

The video "Mr. Winkle Wakes" really made me think. I remember in school, I rarely used computers. When you get into the real world, computers are all that you use. I have never thought about this before I watched this video. Because technology is such an important part in adult life, shouldn't we be training for it in grade school? I think so.

The only thing that we need to make this dream possible is money in the school systems. Without money we cannot buy computers or smart boards. I think that computers are a necessity. How often do you use what you learn in grade school, in the real world? In my opinion, not that often. How often do you use computers? We use computers every day.

The video "The Importance of Creativity" was amazing. Ken Robinson is an amazing speaker. He kept my attention the entire time. The story of Gillian Lynne was eye opening. It makes me wonder how much creativity we suppress by putting children on medication. Gillian obviously had ADD and she became one of the greatest talents the world has ever known.

I really enjoyed when he talked about making mistakes. In schools now, making mistakes is the worst thing you can do. Really some of the best things ever invented came from mistakes. We are training children to be afraid to make mistakes. Robinson spoke about how young children are not afraid to make mistakes and be creative. As children grow they lose that sense of brevity.

Cecilia Gault's interview was very well done. Ken Robinson is an amazing speaker. It is amazing how the drop out rate in Finland is only one percent because there is no failing. I think that this is something we need here in the United States. There is so much unwanted pressure about failing that it ultimately makes the children stressed about school. We all no that stress is the last thing you should be focusing on while trying to write a ten paged paper.

To make sure the Cecilia Gaults in our classrooms get what they need, we need to focus more on technology and creativity. We should put the same stress arts and music as we do on math and science. They are all equally important. We need to start doing things like Finland. Our education system really needs to change.

There needs to be a Vicki Davis in every school. Probably more than one. She is preparing kids for the future. The future is not full of pens and paper, it is full of computers and the internet. If I would have had a teacher like Davis when I was in school, I know I would have it easier now. I am positive I would have it much easier in my future.

I really enjoyed this video. It makes me happy to know that there are actually teachers out there like this. We had one computer lab in my school and you could only go twice a month. This is not right. Teachers should prepare you for your career. That is exactly what Vicki Davis is doing.

Wordle.net

My wordle about my life.

Blog Post #1

My name is Hannah Still. I was born in Mobile, Al. When I was eight I moved with my family up to Birmingham. I went to Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham for two years and loved it! Two months ago I moved back down to Mobile. So far I have enjoyed it. I am really looking forward to my classes here at South Alabama and I am excited to start the Education program.

Sadly, I don't have very many hobbies. In my spare time I enjoy hanging out with my friends and family, cooking, and swimming. I have always had an interest in the Education field, but I have not always wanted to be a teacher. Figuring out what I want to be when I grow up has not come easy to me. I have jumped around from vet tech, to speech therapist, to wanting to get a business degree. Even though I spent time seriously considering each one of these careers I always came back to wanting to be a teacher at an elementary school. This is how I knew that a teacher is what I truly needed to be.

Managing my time is not something that I do very well. I am a procrastinator. I watched Randy Pausch's speech on time management and really learned a lot. He started out with comparing time to money. This is something that really made sense to me. He also talked about getting organized because being unorganized is a huge waste of time. Because I am not a very organized person, this is something that I really need to consider. This video was a huge help and I am really thankful that I watched it.

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