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.

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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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