Blog # 10

In the first video we watched it was done in the kids perspective of how blogging had helped them. The students said that blogging had improved their writing skills, as well as spelling skills. One student said that every time they create a blog post that they feel their writing skills are improving with every entry. One student said they liked blogging because it allowed them to put their work in the public for others to see and comment on. He continued on to say that he liked getting the comments because it helped boost his confidence. Other students said they got comments from other classes, and from their family members. The fact that students are enjoying having technology in the classroom is great, its expanding their learning abilities and taking learning from the book to note learning to the technology learning.

In the second video which is part 1 of a 3 part video question session with Kathy Cassidy. The first part she is talking about how she got started with incorporating technology into her classroom. She said it started with receiving computers in her classroom that had internet but did not have the options to download programs, she then turned to finding ways to bring the computers and the internet into the classroom by starting blogs, and creating videos that the students could watch and or participate in. She talks about how she starts working with her students from the beginning of the school year that starts in September and working with their blogging skills until they leave her classroom. She states that she has had mixed views about her bringing in technology into the classroom. Some teachers feel as if technology is not needed because the old way of teaching still works and is not flawed. Kathy Cassidy talks about ways she keeps the kids safe, some of the ways are only allowing them to post their first names, and not allowing pictures that can be matched with the students first name. These are great ways of keeping the kids safe when dealing with the internet, and I honestly had not put much thought into how i myself would keep my students safe when it came to their blogging. She ends this video by saying that all teachers should be technology literate and that it should go beyond being able to work a spreadsheet, she states that teachers should start developing online networks, such as twitter, twitter will allow them to reach out to other people who have the same interests as them.

In part two she was asked what media would be best for teachers just starting out in the technology world. She said that she really had no answer to that but said to go with what you the person who would be doing this was interested in. It its writing then start a blog, if its photography then create a flicker. She makes it clear that we should play off of it by what we are interested in. Cassidy also goes on to say that Twitter is a good resource because it can help create friendships between people who have the same thoughts and interests.

In the final part of the video, actual EDM 310 students were allowed to ask her questions. One question that was asked, was how often did she let her students blog in a week? She replied with usually once a week, but that it varied year to year with the size of the class she had and the number of helpers she had in her class too. With less helpers then the students would get to blog or have computer time more often. Another question that was asked was, can Facebook be used as a means of education? Cassidy answers that she believes that it can be used for education, but that she would suggest that the students create a Facebook strictly dedicated to school. That way the teacher could post on the news-feed and that would allow for the students to easily find or see any announcements that the teacher might have posted. These are the two questions that really stuck out to me because one I myself was unsure of how much a child should be in the technology world when in a classroom. I say this only because the class is not a computer course so there would have to be an even balance of computer time as well as other classroom times. The second question stood out because I had never thought of Facebook being and educational tool, which now I know that I can be if taken the right way.

I could see myself using technology in my classes, I could require them to create a weekly blog post about what time period in history we had go over that week, my requirements would deal with important facts, and dates that I made sure to stress in class lecture. This would be more so of a reflection on what the students had learned during the week. When it came around to test time they could refer back to past blog post to receive answers for the questions on the study guide I have provided them with, as well as look upon other students blog to get information they the writer might have missed when creating their blog. This is how I feel I could incorporate technology into my history classes.

C4K Summary

In the past month, I have dealt with commenting on many children's blogs ranging from different ages. The post ranged from "about me's" to book reviews of their favorite books, to some of their favorite things such as chocolate, or music, to animals they enjoy most. The most recent blog I was given to read was centered all around Israel. This blog was written by boy named James who is in the 6th grade. He wrote all about the past religious history that was focused in that region, the pottery that could be found in this area, and scrolls one could find in such a rich place of history. He opens his blog with saying that "Israel is the only nation on earth who still has the same name, the same people inhabiting it, speaks the same language, and worships the same God as it did 3,000 years ago". This was what initially captured my interest once I started reading this blog. It was very informative, and decently written besides a few minor mistakes. All in all this past month of C4K's were all very interesting to read and comment on. These students are developing great skills at blogging.

Project # 12 Part A.

Blog # 9

The question we were asked to answer in this blog post was, What Can Teachers and Students Teach Us About Project Based Learning? The the articles and videos provided, I narrowed it further down to five sources that I will be using to write this post. The first article that I will be discussing will be the Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning this article discusses a project that was done at a high school about bacteria ridden water, and how to prevent this from happening. The article says that a project is meaningful if it covers two things, one of those things is that students must find the work or project personally meaningful to them. Second thing that must happen is the work must not only be meaningful but also educational. I will now list/go through what the seven essentials are or what this article says they are. The first one is, A Need to Know- What this means is the introduction of what the students will be doing projects based one. In this article they used a video of a polluted beach, and then the teacher talked about ways that could help combat this problem.
The second point is, A Driving Question- A driving question can relate to pretty much anything, whether it be brainstorming to figure our better ideas that could combat this bacteria problem, since we are sticking to the article they used the example of better drainage and also better designed waste treatment plants. The third point is, Student Voice and Choice- this is saying that the students after given the driving question should be allowed to have choices when it comes to creating their projects and what they use to create them. They could write a paper, create a brochure, a poster, an Google docs presentation. The reason students should have the ability to choose how they will create this projects allows them to further take control and immerse themselves in what they are doing. Fourth point is, 21st Century Skills- this is after the students get the driving question, and also have figured how they will be creating their project they will break down into groups and go from there. The groups will use rubrics to peer review each other and how they have done on their group and individual work.
Fifth point is, Inquiry and Innovation- After given the driving question the class sits down in its groups and they create even more questions focused on or around the question that first sparked their interest on this topic. The sixth point talks about, Feedback and Revision- which is where the groups will look over each of the other group members work and peer review and edit it for mistakes. This till will also allow the students to build on their editing skills and not have to be completely dependent on the teacher for help when it comes to things such as grammar, or spelling. The seventh and final topic talked about in this article is, A Publicly Presented Product- this one is pretty self explanatory, this one is talking about presenting the final project to a public group. It could be a mixture of students, parents and other teachers it does not matter who the public audience is as long as its presented to a public audience.

In the video Project-Based Learning for Teachers This video tells the teacher what exactly PBL is. It tells how the students will be working an extended amount of time answering a driving question. The questions like discussed above are deep and requires the students to think long and hard about this. It is not something that can be answered in a short amount of time, it is something that must be thought about and expanded upon. Once the question has been answered to its best ability the student must share their findings with a public audience or forum, for example a blog. An example of a driving question that was used in this video was, What if Rosa Parks never gave up her seat? This question cannot be answered easily one must put thought into it and the fact that one has to out thought into the question so they can later formulate an answer shows why it is a driving question. Reasons why PBL is something teachers should use in the classroom, it helps develop problem solving skills, it helps students become able to answer open ended questions with more ease, and also helps students become personalized with the project they are working on. Those are just a few things talked about in the video. Students also learn collaboration skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, career and life skills, when working with PBL. This is why it is so important for teachers to turn to this method of teaching, and assigning projects.

I also looked at three other videos and articles. The first video I watched was Two students solve the case of the watery ketchup by designing a new cap This video talked directly to the two students who developed this new design. They talked about how much they enjoyed being able to research ketchup all semester, in hopes to solve the problem of having to shake the bottle, or forgetting to shake the bottle and ultimately receiving soggy bread. They talked to their teacher about what they wanted to do, they received the okay of doing this once they gather information that this was a problem and something that should be fixed. What they did is create an mushroom like part that is on the inside of the bottle that allows for the water to not go out when the ketchup goes out. They used a 3-D printer to print off the exact design they wanted and needed.

I then accessed the website 10 Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration In Project Based Learning This website provides many options that students can use when creating projects in the classroom. For example the Titan Pad- which is a fast and easy way to share a document, the cool thing about this is it does not require an email to function, which means if you are dealing with younger children. This would be an ideal product to use just in-case they did not have an email established at this time. Another website they mention in this article is Google Docs- this is something I use on a daily bases, I was first introduced to this at the the start of EMD 310, but have grown to love it and will always use it when I can. They mention more websites that can be used in PBL's but I just picked my favorites or the ones that caught my interest.

The last article I chose to write about is actually a blog post dealing with PBL's in the Physical Education field. Project Based Learning in PE. This article is dealing with teachers being able to adapt the idea of PBL into any school subject. The idea of PBL could throw many people off and they could feel that just because P.E. is not set in a normal classroom setting that PBL is not an option. This article debunks thins myth and shows a solid example of how one can actually do PBL when dealing with a class of this such. The example the blog uses is have the students create a workout schedule for the younger children. They used middle school students to be the students that would be receiving the workout routines the high school students created. Not only does this involve the high school students to work with their classmates, but it also helps the older students talk and relate to the middle school students who are partake in this PBL. All of these websites, and videos provoded great information about why teachers should use this idea.

Blog #8

Randy Pausch did not only show great teaching skills in this video he also gave hope. He was able to install hope into people who may be going through a hard time in their life. Pausch put aside his life problems to give inspiration and sow others that things are possible even if things might not be going your way in life. He makes it a point to show that he did not wait around for something to happen or to go his way, he made sure things would happen. Which is something everyone can take a lesson on, when things are bad do not just sit around waiting for a change you be the change.

In the video the last lecture Pausch brings up a key point about hitting "the brick wall" which is when one hits a dead end and feel as if they can no longer stay on the course they are going on. What Pausch says about this part in your path is it shows how much you as a person really want what you are going after, you can either let it defeat you or you can keep pushing and eventually overcome this block in your path. This is something that made me take a minute and think because I know in one point in my life I have had or know someone who has had these moments and for it to basically be put into the words of "it's not the end unless you let it" shocked me. Not because it is blunt or straightforward but because I had never thought of it like that before.

Pausch also states that we need to be lifetime learners, which means even if we are no longer in school we should never stop taking in important information. Ways that one can be a lifetime learner would be keeping connections with people of the same interests and or majors as you. The reason I say this could be a way to keep that up is the person or persons you keep in contact with might be more up to date on something going on in yall's field of interest than you are. This in turn allows you to be able to learn from the other what is going on and vice-verse. One way that Randy Pausch taught us about learning in this video would have to be his childhood dream of playing pro football. He stated that knowing how to play football was the key, however you needed other skills besides knowing how to play. The skills needed were: trust, loyalty, friendship, and teamwork. He then described this as Head Faking, which is when you make someone believe they are learning one thing, but in reality they are learning something totally opposite of what the believe. The idea of Head Faking could easily be applied to a classroom setting, I say it could easily be applied because students get into this routine of school work, so by keeping with their routine and incorporating skill learning tasks they would also be learning things of that sort without knowing.

Pausch also states that we as educators need to set the bar for what our students can achieve. What he means by this is if your students are doing great projects and assignments but feel as if they can do better then tell them "I feel as if improvement can be made" this in turn will motivate the students to go above and beyond the teachers expectations. This will nit only allow the teacher to see the full potential of their students, but also allow the students to see they can in fact do what they one thought was too hard, or too much work.

C4T # 2 Post 2

This blog is focused on the teachers connects she has established with other teachers that have the same interest as her and the topics that her students are currently studying.
It strongly focuses on the use of SKYPE and how her students were able to connect with a person who was very well educated on the Monarch Butterfly. She also emphasized how the students were very comfortable with using SKYPE and asking questions over a device that way instead of face to face.

Project 9 Video Commentary