Websites

Alex


ALEX stands for Alabama Learning Exchange. It is a very useful Website. You can use it to find lesson plans, other learning sites, and the course of study you are trying to fulfill. It also has the latest news and provides opportunities for you as a teacher. If at any time you needed help while looking through this website, there is a help icon that can help you with what you are looking for.

After spending time in the website, I was able to explore in many different areas. I think that this website is very useful and can help us as future teachers. The best part is that you always have somewhere to go if you every need help with brainstorming ideas or if you just cant think of anything..lol

Access

Access is a website for both teachers and students. This website is so great for helping the students become more successful and for the teachers as well. This website allows the teachers to interact with the students if they're having difficulties. Having the teachers get to know their students in a greater depth. The teacher can know what specific areas they are struggling in.

Some of the links in Access are the Educators, Students, Technical Support and the Courses. The website provides updates. One amazing part is that the classrooms are being able to link to one another so everyone can learn from each other. I think that this a great tool that can really help and teach our students and teachers for the better.

Michael Wesch

Hmmmm..very interesting. Mr Wesch definitly had some good points in this video. I like how he incorporated different elements into his video. How he used the television shows to go with his discussion. I particular like the part about the use of the word "whatever" for the children who grew up in the 90's. I was definetly a "whatever" girl..thanks to the movie Clueless. Every generation is different, from the clothes to their facial expression and even the words that they use in their vocabulary. I do agree that the media controls everything. We do things now, not based on if we want to, but what other people will think. I think that television has played a huge role in making up our minds and changing America. I dont even have to say how much we are allowed now on t.v compared to 20 years ago. Are we diconnected?... Yes. A text message is now a conversation. Thanks to Facebook we barely talk anymore at all. You can stare at a persons profile pic and do some chatting via i.m. No more facial expressions and voices. People are no longer used to social environments anymore.

It is very interesting how people can now talk to a camera and call it a conversation. Now you can have a relationship over the computer, you don't have to live in the same town or anything all you have to do is have some internet and a built in web cam, and boom your in love....Its like it no longer matters who you really are, as long as you look good on paper..or in this case a computer screen. This is a very good video, very very interesting.

The networked student

I very much enjoyed this video. I love how everything was soo organized! Crazy enough the video discussed a lot of the things that I am learning in this class. Like learning how to use the blogs for educational purposes. Even with the pod casting, how we can allow students to listen to lessons. Also with the i pod, they can be used to listen to lectures.

"Why does a networked student even need a teacher?" I thought about this question and maybe even wondered if in the future children will even need us teachers to be there. The answer to me is Yes. Students will always need a teacher to be there. Especially with the technologies that are becoming more available, we will need to be there to show them how it needs to be used. Its good knowing we are still wanted...:)

"Are you prepared to be a teacher of a networked student?" I will be prepared to be a teacher of a networked student. I don't think anyone can be prepared to the fullest. There's always going to be some new technology invented, so I'm going to have to always be in the learing mode. So the more I'm willing to learn, the better off my students will be.

Acheiving your childhood dreams

Nice....My favorite part was that he made the video fun and exciting to watch. I must say that it was hard getting my assignment done from this video, but I was able to pick up on a few of his methods.

My favorite of course was his way of having fun and shying away from "book learning" that our school systems are built on. He would use projects to teach to his classroom. I definitely found that meaningful and useful. I think students would enjoy (as I do) hands on learning. Also projects can promote other great skills like working together. It is such an important skill for children and adults to learn. Mixing the students up and having them work in different groups was something I agree with. It gives them a way to better learn who they are and how to work with others.

Lastly I liked how he pushed his student to succeed. He mentioned how he told his student what a great job they had done on a project, but knew they could do better. I liked that he gave them the praise they had earned but didn't stop there. I think its sooo important for us to always be pushing each an every student, to be all that they can be. To me that the difference in being a teacher and being someone that helped them in life.

This is how we Dream

OK....I must say that event though I got information out of this post it's delivery to me was on the boring side. Now i know that's a little harsh, and i don't mean it to be rude, but I don't enjoy watching boring videos! Note to anyone making a educational learning video...make it fun!

So about the video, it did speak to me and I was able to revieve information on mulitimedia. I agree that our work-place has changed dratically over the years, like being able to use computers for work or to do shcool porjects (to take this class...lol). The biggest change was the reading and writing vs the listening. We have evoled so much and i'm sure we will continue to grow. There was one comment in particular that I liked and I will end with that; The restriction are the one we put on ourselves.

Dukes Ipod

Here's the rundown on Duke.
Duke has decided to give 1600 Freshman iPods preloaded with orientation information, Dukes fight song and the academic calendar. They want the Freshman to use the devices for course content, record lectures and for foreign language lessons.
The goal for the school is to expand the information both in the classroom and in the campus community. (Tracey Futhey, Vice president of technology) The school estimates the cost at $500,000. The freshman also get to keep the iPods.

The school says they are looking forward to the ideas of both student and faculty. Futhey also said that the experiment is not a push-to combat copyright infringement over peer to peer networks: but said "I do think having a device that gives them an easy to use legal alternative could be helpful in curbing illegal file sharing."

Click here to read more about Dukes ipod experiment.