Post 19 -C- Technology Enhances Creativity

This particular article is about Brillion High School in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The school has started an particular approach/method to giving technology to the students in their school. They wanted to show them technology, not as a means for lecture and teaching, but by a tool to create an environment for creative thinking. The article talks about the technology class scenario, but this class is different because it allows students to use technology to create things rather than just hammer and nail and bird house together. The philosophy of the school in using technology every area is to create and develop innovative and creative thinkers and problem solvers who can go to further education or enter the world of work. They don't want there students just focusing on using technology to enhance the visual design of their project, but to use technology to make, research, and ultimately surround their project. They want to show their students the how much fun technology can be in the real world scenarios and hopefully encourage these high school students to choose a career path on their experiences with using these particular technologies in the classroom. Brillion high is very progressive in their future thinking and everything they attempt to do is based on design and invention with technology and their ability to adapt to the new ideas and progressive nature is huge.

This article really jumps out to me in that schools are focusing their whole direction and future plans with technology at the back bone. They are turning their school into a student driven focus of using technology to solve problems, instead of using to technology to enhance the design of a project. The school is preparing students for their future and their career's. The program has jumped from 70, just 3 years ago, to about 350 presently and it is growing bigger every year. A local company has donated a huge portion of money to enhance the technology center in the school and that makes a huge difference to the community. It shows them that even their local companies are focusing on technology and how important it is to a students education (they also probably had other motives too). I have never had the opportunity in my high school career to use technology in such a way that is breaking ground today. But i am thankful that my lack of technology experience has come to an end and as a future teacher, i am progressing ever so slowly into the direction that education needs to be heading in.

enhances creativity

To view this article, please click here

Post 18 -C- School built by Microsoft

This article is about a technology school inspired by college students that got the school board to start teaming up with Microsoft to build a technology based school in a economically disadvantaged neighborhood in Philadelphia and then in Austin. Many college students in the University of Texas have noticed that the k-12 schools in the area are not up to date with the use of technology and one particular school only 6 miles away from the college was in desperate need because many of the students attending came from economically disadvantaged families. So the pushed the school board to review the school of the future in Philadelphia and notice how Microsoft helped changed the entire school around. In the school of the future, Microsoft donated tons of new technology's and also equipped a laptop with each student, but the major factor or stipulation was that each of the 750 students attending the school of the future, they would have to apply for a 4 year college. This plan is what the Austin college students and school board would like to see come to Travis High School. The process are still in motion, but Microsoft and the Texas school board are very optimistic for the upgrading of this school and many more like it around the nation.

While i was reading this article, i was really encouraged to see that other colleges around the nation are out there helping the local schools in the area. I mean i am sure FGCU helps other schools, by providing interns and other stuff like that, but i can bet some good money than many of the students here would not go to the lengths that the students at UT are taking to upgrade a local school. Microsoft is doing a great deed to society (and for their themselves) by donating equipment to base a school around and really focus on the students educational career. It would be real nice to see other major production companies to start doing similar acts of kindness. Maybe we will see in the future Apple providing technology for schools. Wouldn't it be nice to see hundreds of schools around the country equipped with tons of technology, donated by a major company. That would change the way our ability to teach and learn in those schools and those students would have a great advantage right from the start of their high school career. I learned that a little effort by anybody,especially a group of college students can put for a goal and see it completed. I only hope to have the opportunity to be apart of a similar act in the future.

To read this article please click here

Post 17 -C- Schools Cut Technology Budget

While i was researching for an article about technology, i came across this article of a middle school in Stamford that actually cut their budget for computers and technology. This strikes me as very odd because many other schools across America are increasing their technology budget and this particular one is cutting it. Many schools are putting more money into technology because they know how influential certain programs and technology can be to a students ability to learn. The school district is going to use the money they cut from the technology and computer budget and put it towards other areas of math and reading. I agree that both of these are important, but technology and computers can greatly enhance both of these subjects (it can extremely benefit a reading student). Many of the teachers in these districts are protesting against these cuts and saying that technology is too important to the evolution of education and to cut this critical aspect of school can be detrimental. The school board answer to their pleas is for them to turn their shoulder and say they are not cutting technology, but allowing other subjects to create new ways to use the technology they have. That sounds foolishness to me, but they say their district is in need of more reading and math programs in their school, so who am i to judge. I just can be an outsider looking in on the situation and say that technology budgets need to be increased in all schools, because the benefits of doing so is to great to give up.

Technology can be a great addition to every subject at every grade level and i believe that middle school is an important time for students to learn the benefits of learning technology and how to correctly use them. I know that this article discuss one school, but what about the other schools that do the same thing, how are those students learning ability being affected. It seems like the educational system of that district is limiting themselves and restricting the ability for creative teaching and learning in their schools.

To view this article please click here
Another article of the teachers protest against cuts

Post 16 -C- Technology Reports

I was searching news articles for education and technology and i came across a survey about how states use technology and overall what types and how much technology in each of their districts.The report is called Technology Counts 2007 and it is a project of Education Week magazine's Editorial Projects in Education. It surrey's all the states in different areas of how they are using technology. Unfortunately i could not find Florida's report, because i would have to pay for the subscription and there was no article out there, but i did find a couple of other states and i thought sharing this would be an interesting read for some. Out of the articles i found, these are the states and their nation wide ranking in the use and operation of technology: Minnesota C (moved up from a D), New York C-, Wyoming B-, Oklahoma B-, Arkansas B-, Georgia A, and South Dakota A-. The national average for all the states is a C+ and i would have to say that statistic is very low and our nations education system should be ashamed for not implementing more technology into our schools system.

I think it is excellent how they conducted surveys on how each state is using technology compared to the national average. I think each state should in turn conduct a survey on how each district in the state is using and implementing technology. Then each state can see where they need to provide more support for integrating technology into the education of certain districts. I also think it is sad on how many states rank below the national average and i wonder how they use the money that is being allotted to them. I am saying the mid central states are ranking higher then new york, new jersey, Texas and Minnesota. Those states in my mind are some of the biggest most popular areas and this survey is telling us that they are not using technology to a greater extent then say Wyoming. That is pretty sad to me and i think they need to implement either more money to the use of technology or take money away from other areas of school and put it towards technology. Lets just hope for out nations sake that the use of technology throughout the nation will rise so more and more students can be influenced and greatly progress and their ability to learn.

To view the article on each report click on the state name below
Minnesota
Wyoming
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Georgia
South Dakota
New York
Missouri
Colorado
New Jersey
Texas

Post 15 -B- Making CD labels

Throughout this school semester we had some particular assignments that had to be submitted by a CD. Either the files were to big or it contained music or pictures, but we had to turn them in on a CD instead of via Angel website. The tricky aspect about turning them in by CD is that the professor asked for the CD to come with a label and on that label our name, our affiliation, course number, and in the background a picture of some sort. At first i thought of, "oh great i have to buy a CD label maker and paper", but the professor showed us we can use our regular printers, we just have to change the format. He walked us through that process and we were on our way to printing CD labels. The only problem i have seen with printing CD labels is it sometimes hard to remember what side to print on and how much ink the printer is using to put that picture inside of the CD circle. I think after this semester i am going to have to change the color and black ink cartridges for my printer. This has helped my learning experiences, because i now know how to make and use CD labels (and this is a tool i can pass on to my students and this will help organization in my future classes).

Blog 14 -C- Computers in the Class

I was doing some searching for articles that tell how technology has impacted education and i have come across one that discusses computers. A company, Apple, is making a strong push to make their computers more accessible and practical for education and educational purposes. Apple computers have advanced so far past the PC and has more available programs and new technology additions that buying a PC is a foolish investment where you will have to upgrade a year or sometimes after you buy one. This article discusses how a school is changing from the PC to the apple because of the Intel processor and other high quality programs that already come equipped in the machine. The beauty of the processor is that it allows users to access the mac OS application as well as the windows applications. So basically they receive the best of both worlds on one machine. One major advantage of the apple in education is virus free program and no pop ups. They have so much protection against that garbage and when it comes to students safety from that stuff is vital.

I personally do not own a apple computer, currently, but i use a apple computer at the church i attended (where it holds the lights program, sound board, and other applications on one machine), my good friend mike seeberger who uses one in his school as well as one in his house, and been exposed to how business people use apple in a company called First strike productions. They all have shown me the wonders a mac can do and i am planning on purchases a apple computer soon, once i get the money. I think education can benefit tremendously from using an apple computer and all the wonderful programs it has on the machine. Any advanced technology class, such as audio/video production and website production, etc., should be switching to this machine, so why not education give it a try. I am excited on how apple is making efforts to produce computers that will benefit schools and i can wait for the research to come out positive on the affect it has on learning and curriculum's. But only time will be able to show those details.

To view this article please click here.

Blog 13 -C- Technology with Special Ed.

Teri Lawrence said, "Until we change the way we teach, outcomes will not improve." This is attitude she has when she entered the special ed classroom at Mt. Hermon school. Lawrence, PH.D. in instructional design, was brought in by DCS to create an instructional program for special education teachers that used the latest in computer technology. This instructional program is needed because the school is lacking in motivation and stimulation for special needs students. They are feeding them text books and regular main stream class, but instead Lawrence stresses that technology and visual stimulation will greatly enhance the learning ability of these students. Now Lawrence has implemented technology like smart boards, handhold student keypads, colorful graphic designs, laptop computers and some other of latest in electronic technology and has transformed this special ed program at Mt. Hermon into one of the best schools in the nation for special education. These programs create a fun interactive environment for these students to learn and grow in and the teachers at Mt. Hermon are seeing great results from the special needs students and give all the credit to the technology that has been provided to them.

This is a great step forward in thinking for special education programs. Every time i walked by or visited a special needs class in high school, the teacher was playing more of a role of babysitter and teaching moral lessons, but never really engaging the students into a program they can relate too. With technology it is become a lot easier to engage all students interest and make school exciting and fun for not only the students but the teachers as well. Mainstream classes are already using multiple forms of technology in their classrooms, but research and more instructional programs are coming out for those teaches who will be teaching special ed classes and want to use new technology. The main goal is to reach the students and if technology will greatly enhance the learning ability for special needs students, then it should be mandatory for schools to implement them into the classrooms. It may not have to be every bit of new technology, but just enough to start changing the environment of the classroom.

To view this article please click here

Blog 12 -C- Making Blogs Safe in school

This is an article written by Erin Richards in New Berlin and it is about implementing a safe environment for school teachers to access, use, and monitor a blog for their classroom. In the article it talks about how school districts are starting to use programs that will protect students work and identity while operating in assignments via the Internet. The programs that they bring to our attention are Virtual Office or Moodle and they are programs designed to make a blog a secured connection between the teacher and his/her students. It denies access to outsiders, but also allows room for adding teacher and students from other schools to join in on their blog. The article uses an example of a elementary school using a blog to discuss their favorite book and they teacher shows the students the importance and significance of using tools such as a blog to enhance their learning ability. A second part of the article discusses the plan to train teacher on how to utilize the blogs and the ability to use them. Some teachers say it is not really a blog, but more of a continued discussion/chat room. But no matter what the label may be when using the safety programs, the students will still be working together and learning new aspects about topics as well as share their ideas and thoughts in those areas.

It is really important for teachers to use technology in their classroom to enhance their curriculum, but they need to be aware of the potential danger and how to face it. It is refreshing to see that companies are making an effort to provide a safe environment for teachers to use programs for their students where they are out of harms way. I enjoy reading about other schools who are starting to implement blogs into their curriculum, because i intend on using them in my future classroom and they are providing prime examples on the effectiveness of them on a classroom. Blogs can allow student who don't normally talk up in class to have their voice be heard, as well as all the students to communicate and collaborate ideas and thoughts on certain subject areas/topics. It is really a amazing tool to use in a classroom and i hope the research and studies turn out positive on the effectiveness of a blog so that it will not hinder my future school from allowing me to utilize them.

To view this article pleas click here

Blog 11 -B- Exam 1

In our first exam for the class we had to collaborate with fellow students to formulate a presentation from the given scenario by the professor. The scenario that we were given was that we were teachers in a school that received a 10,000 grant for the use of technology. As 5th grade teachers we had to work together to come up with a proposal to the principal of how we would use the money for the better of the school (what we would buy, how would we use the materials we bought, and how would it benefit the school). For each dollar that we were going to use we had to justify why it is important to the curriculum and how it would engage the students and their ability to learn. Our class was broken up into 3 groups of about 7 or 8 students. We had to meet at least once using the online chat room provided by the professor as well as post and discuss aspects of our project on our assigned discussion board. For the online chat room we were given prompt question on how to start and continue the direction of the conversations so it would remain on the topic of the exam. We were to work together on having a main group focus, but each individual student had to make their own proposal which they would submit via the essay that went along with this exam. What that meant was, that each group members would have the same principles in their proposal as the rest of the group (the ones that were discussed in the chat room) but they would still have to right their essay adding their own twist and originality to their proposal.

I have learned that working as a team to reach a goal is a very wonderful and influential way of learning. Even though i like to work by myself, because then i have full control over the outcome of my research, preparation, and the overall project. With this project i realized that sharing the workload and cramming ideas together makes the proposal seem very small in its size and allows for a swift easier project. This exam also gave me a bigger perspective on how i have to create a use/significance for technology in my classroom. Within the project we had to explain why would we use the money for that certain technology and that got me to think outside the normal areas for what i use technology and create new and exciting/engaging ways that will reach my students.

This exam was filled with challenges, hence it was an exam, but most of them had to do with time restrictions for many of the participants. In my group when we were supposed to meet for the online chat room, for some reason i was not allowed into the chat room, the professor forgot to grant me access. So the next class period i talked to him and we got that straightened out. So our group went for another try except this time we were missing a couple group members. However we went ahead with the online chat room and then posted some of the important material onto the discussion board. Another challenge that i faced was answering the questions that the professor wanted us to answer. He gave us some specific question to answer, but the problem was that they were very similar to other questions, so it seemed to me that we were repeating ourselves many times throughout the proposal. This confused me and i could not deal with it, because we are not allowed to intervene with protocol and were forced to do it the professor laid out guidelines or we lose points. This forced me to spend an extra long time writing the essay and had my proposal well over 2000 words. That is a lot for just one exam. I faced the challenges as they came along and did it with a good attitude. They were minor obstacles in the path of the final project, but nevertheless i turned it in on time and from my point of view a very decent proposal, but we will see.

Through this assignment i learned that i need to give up my instincts to work alone on projects and cherish the assignments that allow us to work together and take full advantage of the opportunity. Also i have realized that even though a essay may take a very long time to write, if i follow the directions and answer each question then the process will run much smoother. I know now that i am much better at multiple choice and in class essay exams then a project like this one.

Blog 10 -B- Audacity

One of the funniest projects we were assigned this year to complete was recording our voices using the recording program Audacity. We were first assigned to find our favorite poem, dr. Seuss book, and a picture book that we wanted to use for the readings. After we found the particular ones we wanted to use, we were to recored them using Audacity.

From this activity i now know of a program that allows us to record our voices and use them in any other program. Many recording equipment can be expensive, but Audacity is free and all you need is a microphone. While i was doing this project and a couple of the other projects in this class, i was starting to get visions of great assignments or presentations for my future classroom. Audacity can open so many new doors in my curriculum by just applying it to the other programs already being used. For example, i have this idea to record question and the answers to those questions, also get video footage of the area(s) that i am talking about, and make a review game for a quiz/test. So when the student clicks on question one, a short video will appear and at the end a question will begin to talk. I will ask the students to raise their hands if they know the answer and then play the sound clip with the answer. I know it is just a start, but it seems like i am heading in the right direction with the use of technology in my classrooms. Audacity is another great addition/tool that i can use to enhance my curriculum that is heavily based on traditional methods.

Audacity is a very interesting program and it has a lot of detailed and advanced setting condensed for easy use. However, for a beginner like myself, i did not know how to tweak any of the settings to get the outcome i desired, so i basically kept the settings on default/normal thinking my project will be alright. When the time came for my grade i got penalized because i had sound problems, too much pauses in between paragraphs, and interference with the sound quality. I heard them while i was doing my project, but had no clue how to fix them. The only other challenge i encountered in this project was having to endure hearing my own voice. I have found then when you hear a recording of yourself you always sound different then what you hear in your own hear. I guess that is how it goes.

I learned through this assignment that there are some fun ways to enhance your classroom, that the students will enjoy it tremendously. No many teachers use recordings of music, narrations, or any sort of thing like that in their classroom, and i think it will be a new wave of teaching tools in the future. I think the possibilities are endless and the students ability to learn material will be greatly increased. Audacity is a fun and easy program to use, it also is not very time consuming so a teacher can make a new practice video/audio quiz for every test without cutting into his leisure time. I am definitely going to use Audacity in the future, because i believe it is a tool worth using to enhance my students learning ability.

Blog 9 -B- E-books with Students

As a class we just completed a great research assignment of reading electronic books to young students. I say that this assignment was a research one, because we were investigating a new tool and the effectiveness on young students. We were first introduced to e-books in a previous assignment where we had to view, judge, and share our feelings about the e-book we were assigned to view. However this assignment we were to view the e-books with a child between the ages of 4 and 11 to see how he responds and feels about e-books over the regular picture books. It was not which one do you like better or would rather read questions, but which type of material is engaging more, you can learn more, and which one is more suitable for the expansion of learning in a classroom. These are the real answers we were seeking when conducting this project, because the other questions are just bias and only answered according to our feelings of the subject. After we viewed the e-books and conducted an short interview with the student answering some engaging questions, i sat down at wrote a essay of my experiences and what i learned from it.

I absolutely enjoyed reading the e-books to the young student, even though i know they are for elementary and lower middle school classrooms, but i really enjoyed the thought of using them in a classroom setting. I plan on becoming a high school history teacher, so for me to use e-books in a classroom would be very difficult and mostly not useful for my students. Nevertheless, I have never had the opportunity in school to have been given such a fantastic tool as an e-book in my early educational years, but the value it can hold is amazing.

From this activity I learned a lot about how technology can enhance and alter the curriculum for certain subject areas and how little tools can greatly increase the learning ability of some students. E-books create an environment for lower level readers to greatly advance their skills and have a fun and great time accomplishing this. There are a variety of e-books currently out there and more and more are coming out each day. This can be a great tool for lower education levels that will greatly enhance their students reading level. I have learned from this activity that no matter how small or insignificant i think a technology tool can be, there is always a way for that to enhance my classrooms traditional way of learning. If it can help enhance my classroom, then i have no choice but to utilize it and let my students grow from it.

I did not encounter many challenges while conducting this assignment and the whole process went very smoothly. I got the child without a problem (since he was a long time friends son), i had no problem accessing the website and getting the e-books ready, and there was not much trouble interviewing with the young child. The only problem that i really encountered was a time management, the essay was around 3000 words and that is to long for a prerequisite educational computer class. But in all fairness, all the assignments are like this, but it helps us be prepared for the future.

As a learner i have realized that i have to have a open mind about technology that is out there, even though i may not be able to use e-books in my particular class level, there are many other levels that will greatly accept e-books and use them to enhance their students ability to learn. To go with that, there are going to be some technology that those grade levels will not be able to use that my level can use daily or with every project. That is the beauty of technology, everyone can use some form of it, but at different levels of usage. As a future teacher i have to be aware of when to use it and what type to use, but the question will never be should i use it.

Blog 8 -C- History and Technology

Guidelines for using Technology to prepare social studies teachers is the name of the article that was graciously given to me by one of my classmates/collaborators. She noticed that i was planning to be a social studies teacher and so when she came across this article she left me a comment with the URL. This is the whole reason why we are conducting this blogging exercise and that is to learn how to efficiently collaborate and share with other fellow learners.

This article was a preparation guide for social studies teachers when using technology in their curriculum. It raised some very great aspects on how and why we should use them and what are the most effective ways we can implement them. One of the main points it was trying to get across to the reader is that teachers need to use technology to advance beyond what can be done with only traditional ways of learning. I think this is a great point. Many people use technology to enhance their traditional methods of lectures (hint power point), however we need to start implementing the technology's that are going to take us beyond that point. Like with many other subject and areas in education, technology opens the door to learning history in ways that were never thought possible before (for example, virtual tours and images of cities, battles, and etc.) The article gives a great example of implementing technology in a history classroom beyond the setting of a classroom and that was the Virgina center for digital history. In this center there are digital cities and digital texts which student can explore and research on there own the time setting of the civil war and culture of those days. The center has primary sources, artifacts, and digital images and videos of Virgina and many other places involved in civil war battles.

The article stresses the fact that technology can help the classroom and as teachers we need to show the students that using technology in your work will greatly enhance your learning ability. We need to challenge students to utilize the tools that are out there, such as Internet databases of historical texts, and implement them in their research and study of the certain subject they are studying. If social studies teacher would start to use more technology in the classroom then maybe many students would enjoy the subject of history more than the occasional nap class they make it out to me. I have never found a student who wouldn't enjoy history if there were some excitement to it, and technology provides that exact solution in history. But it is up to us as history teacher to use them and how to use when engaging our students.

To me this article was a eye opener to many social studies teacher and it encourages us to use technology and how and when to use it. The goal of the text that i felt it was telling me was that we need to fall behind in the history department and start showing technology in our classrooms to our students in hope that they will use them for their historical studies. History is one of those rare classes that technology can enhance the curriculum dramatically, but it is hardly ever used to that extent. There is so many aspects of technology that can be used and i plan on harnessing them and utilizing them in my classroom. Students will respond and learn more from a subject that is interesting and engaging to their interest and needs. Overall i enjoyed reading this article and i feel more enriched and prepared for teaching social studies in the future. I also want to thank my classmate/collaborator who kindly passed this article on to me, i sincerely thank you.

To view this article please click here.

Blog 7 -B- Storyboard 2

The storyboard 2 project was a way different than the first storyboard we created. We used PowerPoint instead of word and we made a story with a dialogue between two or three people. I recorded my voice with the text in the story and i added pictures that went along with my story. There were a lot of fine detail we had to follow and a lot of strict guidelines for each part of the story. The pictures we used in our story had to be our own and just like the other project we had to crop the picture and clear the image up. The audio had to be distinguishable between the different characters in the story. At the end of the story the professor wanted us to have a page for our personal profile as well as a page for giving credit to the people helped, the author of the text and audio, and the owner of the pictures. These added a great sense of ownership to the story and i can realize the importance of having this in our books. The professor wanted a specific outcomes for our stories and that was for us to be able to work from these in future projects as well as our future classrooms.

I learned, well remembered, from this activity all the fun power point can be and all the influential as a future tool when i am a teacher. With the addition of using audio files and pictures i could really enhance a study session for an upcoming quiz. This project has inspired me to think outside the box of traditional teaching methods and enhance my classroom teaching style with the use of different projects using PowerPoint. I know that it takes a while to complete a lesson using PowerPoint, but the outcome is definitely worth the trouble. Hey i could just make the PowerPoint over the weekend or during the summer, and just like other things when using computers, when you make it once you have if forever, unless unseen circumstances.

There were many challenges to this project, like many projects when using PowerPoint, and most of them dealt with time consumption. Cropping the pictures, recording the audio, writing the story, the settings of each page, the minor details that make the project great all took a considerable amount of time and i had to manage it effectively in order to get the project done. We were given this assignment over spring break so that helped with the time issue, but i had to assign a certain part of the project in separate smaller sections. This made my project much easier because i was working on it in a set format where each fell into each other as the next piece of the puzzle. I started with the text, then cropped and added the pictures, recorded my voice for each character, finally i worked on the transitions and setting of each slide. It took me a considerable amount of time to complete this project, but i fear i did not meet the professor requirements for this project.

With this project i have grown as a leaner and especially grown in my knowledge and preparation for my future classroom. I have remembered all the fun PowerPoint can be and how enhancing it is to a lesson. I have always enjoyed viewing PowerPoint lessons in my previous classes, so i want to use this tool to a greater extent than what i have been exposed to and show my students how much fun and interesting history can be while using PowerPoint.

Blog 6 -B- The Blogging Experience So Far...

It is March 2nd and i just spent most of the day yesterday catching up on my school work. Part of my school work load is maintaining a blog (as you see here) but as i was updating my blog i thought of a couple of questions concerning the overall blogging experience. What is the incentive to comment and collaborate on other students blog? According to the guidelines of the blog, we get 3 points if we continue a conversation from a initial comment from another student, but why initiate a conversation in the first place? I did not want to be part of this problem so i spent time going to the different blogs i am apart of and commenting on other students blogs (about 7 quality comments so far, well i hope they are quality). My thinking was that if i give feedback to other students blogs, then they will in turn gain a chance to earn there 3 points and hopefully will reciprocate my collaborating and come to my blog and return the kind gesture. So i am writing this blog to maybe spark peoples interest to check up on there fellow students blog weekly and place one or two comments on their blogs. Make it a habit, when you update your blog with a new posting, immediately go to a fellow students blog and comment on one of their posting. This will enhance everyone's blogging experience and will spark collaboration and learning for the class. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and hey send me a comment back and let me know what you think......Robert White

Blog 5 -C- Podcasts in School

New Albany-Plain schools to use podcasts as studying tool for kids is an article written by Simone Sebastian and it is an online article for a newspaper company called The Columbus Dispatch. The article discusses how a school district in Ohio is implementing the use of Podcast in their curriculum. They basically are recording lectures, assignments, homework, study guides, or any other sound file to help students have another avenue for learning outside of the classroom. If a student is sick or another one needs extra help before a quiz, then they can just grab the Podcast file and start listening and learning the material. The great part of it is that students can access it anywhere there is an Internet connection and anytime of the day, also, that teachers can implement this technology in any field or subject area. For example, the basketball coach of the middle school plans to Podcast videos of the games so he can give it to his players to review how they played and what to improve on. That is just one unconventional way of guiding students into bettering themselves, now public schools have to play catch up in this department and start implementing Podcast and other influential technologies into the education curriculum.

I agree that schools are lagging behind in the field of technology in the education curriculum, but they are slowly progressing into using them on a daily basis. However, education has to pass the old stigma of notes and lectures and start-taking advantages of the 21-century’s technology. T he students are already using these technology in on everyday basis because they enjoy it, so lets borrow their enthusiasm for the technology and add it to our curriculum and maybe they will enjoy the material too. While I was reading this article I thought what a wonderful way for students to continue learning at home in such a fun and engaging way. If my students wanted some extra help with a certain topic or extra study materials, they can just grab the sound wave of the Internet and throw it on a CD or other device. Now they can ride in their car and listen to that portion of material. It might not work with all classes, because each teacher has a different teaching style and the transformation would limit their strengths of teaching. For anticipation of my future classroom, I am not sure my students would want to listen to a history lecture unless they were intrigued by it, but I think that this type of technology would be very beneficial to foreign language classes as well as English or Poetry classes. These types of classes would benefit tremendously if the students were listening and practicing the language outside of class.

To view the article: New Albany-Plain schools to use podcasts as studying tool for kids by Simone Sebastian.

Blog 4 -B- 5 Educational Experiences

At the beginning of the 2007 school year, the first major project we were assigned to complete was an essay, using Microsoft Word, about 5 educational experiences or lessons learned in our lifetime. The professor assigned some major criteria to address: why was it significant, which was involved, when did it happen, how did it affect your learning, and many more. At first I didn’t know what were the significant experiences in my life, but then I started to remember my favorite times in school or the activities I did that prepared me for my future. In no time at all I started to remember all these significant events that happened to me. One of my favorite and most influential to my future career was the time I went to London, England. This was very significant to my learning because I got to encounter the historical places I have been learning about since I was a kid as well as touching and viewing the historical places that I will be teaching in my future classes. Well enough about my experience, the essay was meant to give us a platform for the future assignments in the classroom.

Like I mentioned before that this assignment has helped me learn how I got to the place I am in today. It has taught me to look back from my everyday life and view my past experiences and see how they affected my future education. This assignment also showed me how to prepare myself for my professor grading style and his expectations for each of his students.

The only challenges I faced when working on this assignment was what events to choose, how to manage my time, and addressing all the criteria being asked for. To face the first challenge I basically wrote down all the events I could think of and choose which ones were most significant to my education and which ones prepared me the best for my future career. Managing my time was a problem for me because the essay turned out to be a very long one, around 3000 words if I am not mistaken. That is more than an upper-division history course essay, so I needed to balance my time to give a fair share to my assigned reading in my other classes. While I was writing my essay I read each criteria one by one and try to address each one to best of my ability. However I missed the part or overlooked the part where I was supposed to break them up into separate paragraphs so I lost some points on that. Other than those problems, it was a fun and interesting assignment and I got to look into my past to see what affected my future.

I learned a lot about myself from this assignment, because in life we never step back from our everyday occurrences and say, “how did I get to be here in this place?” I looked into my past and viewed the events and details that affected my decisions that led me to the place I am in now. I am happy that I made those decisions and I do not look back on them with contempt. This is one of those assignments that inspire me to use for my future classes, because they can work in any subject area. I can use this in a history class, but transform it to 5 aspects about their ancestor history (for example 5 aspects about the White Family in the history of Ireland). I still have a while to think about this new assignment, but it is a good place to start.

Blog 3 -E- The Mac in the Class

I just recently observed (well more like helped out a friend of mine) at J. Colin English in North Fort Myers. He is a Music teacher at the school and I help him out from time to time in his classroom with working with the students. I am not musically talented but he knows I am going to be a teacher some day and he knows it is good to get experience being in front of the students. What I have noticed is that he uses his own personal Mac in his classroom instead of the school computer. He has shown me a lot of awesome programs that the Mac has that enhances his student learning in the field of music. There are some awesome recording programs where he composes a group of students music piece and combines them into one song; then he presents the song to the class. He also records his music plans on there and he tells me that two times a month he gives his students a CD for them to take home and practice the same music he has on there so they can learn that song. He divides each type of instrument and gives the appropriate song to the student studying that instrument. I have learned a lot of new teaching methods just by viewing the teacher operate and utilize the programs from a Mac computer. It will be a little harder for me to use it as a history teacher but there are a lot of programs in the Mac that I can use to make my presentations or other lessons with. I know many classrooms will not be equipped with a Mac computer but it was nice to see some of the great programs in the system and how you can use them in a classroom.

Blog 2 -B- 9 Square Listening/Learning Game

In the middle of February, we were assigned to make a listening learning game using Microsoft Word. In this assignment we were to use a story from our first essay (Five Educational Experiences) and use pictures (that we captured or created) that represent the story we are sharing. We were to break up the story in 9 sections, with 9 different pictures that relate or express the material in each section. After we completed that we were to record the text from each section of the story with our own voices from a program called Audacity. Then we were to add all three sections together in a 3 by 3 grid to form a little follow along listening game. Now the students will be able to click on the picture and a piece of the story will start to play. Then the students will follow along and try to figure out the path of the story. This will help them with their listening skills as well as give them some fun assignment to do at school.

I learned that there are some fun activities that we as future teachers can create that will enhance the learning and participation of our students where they will not be as bored in school. I also learned of an awesome program called audacity where I can record my voice. This project inspired me with a bunch of great ideas that I can use in my future classrooms as a history teacher. I can not use a listening game like this one (since it is geared toward lower level classes) but I thought I can record questions with my voice and make a quiz of the material I am covering. I also have thought of a couple more ideas but that is one that stands out in my mind.

There were not many challenges to this assignment, other than a little time consuming and I had a problem with setting up my microphones. Audacity made it very simple to record my voice altering pictures was not a problem, however getting to that point gave me trouble. I used my brother’s set of Headphone/microphone (which is a $100 set) but I could not seem to get them to work on my computer. It took me about a hour of struggling and messing around with my setting on my computer. Then I got upset and tired and called my brother and he walked me through the process on how to get to work and then finally did and my life was easier after that. Other than the installment issue, this project went by very smoothly for me.

As a learner myself, I found out that there are so many tools out there for me to utilize and after I used just one of them, I got sparked with many great ideas that will help my future teacher career tremendously. Without every doing this project I would have never have thought of these new teaching tools or every encountered these tools to work with in the first place. After the completion of this project, I feel like I am better equipped as a future teacher and I have gained more experience as a learner.

Blog 1 -C- Digital Technology Changes Classrooms

Digital Technology Changes Classrooms is an article written by Roger Weeder in an online article of a news station in Jacksonville called First Coast News. The article discusses the use of digital Whiteboards and a form of dry erase boards and how they are proving to be more beneficial and interactive than the traditional blackboard and dry erase boards. With the digital Whiteboard, teachers are able to project 3-d graphs, images, and text to enhance the student learning of certain subject. Also the digital dry erase boards give each student a handheld board for them to continue with the teachers instruction. In the article the author uses an example of a 4^th grade teacher and how she uses the blackboard for quiz, tests, and survey’s. She states that she gets instant feedback of each individual student and when she is showing examples of problems, they can work along beside her with these boards. Each student has their own device that when they click on their answer it will lock them in with their choice. This is a great way to make learning fun and exciting for students and an easier way for teachers to limit the paper load in their classroom.

I have done some research on digital whiteboards and for a social science class, a teacher can place a map on there and digital zoom in to certain countries and move around like it was a map on the Internet. I think that education is finally moving in a progressive direction and are looking for ways to enhance the student learning and participation in classrooms. The digital blackboard and digital dry erase boards will prove to be a great asset to teachers as well as student learning in the classroom. It will limit the amount of distractions for the student as well as focus them in on the subject area and participate with the material and examples being presented. I really like the idea of a digital whiteboards in classrooms, and I am looking forward to see and use what new educational technology is being produced.

To View the article click here: Digital Technology Changes Classrooms by Roger Weeder.