Learning To Podcast!!!

I believe podcasting is a great media tool for our educators and students of all ages. Educators can use a podcast for assignments, reminders, educational debates and small lectures, while students can use these podcast as instructional tools for upcoming assignments and events. These are just a few examples of how a podcast can be used in and out of the classroom. The podcast we were required to listen to were great! Although I plan on listening to many more, they all gave me great ideas for our upcoming podcast for our class assignment. Every podcast differed in many ways. They were all interesting and had great topics and host/co-hosts. My favorite was the EdTechTalk and This Week in Photography! I really liked how the guys in EdTechTalk used games to help students learn and relate to the specific subject they were trying to learn. Frederick Van Johnson, the host for This Week in Photography was great! He and co-hosts were witty and kept my attention. I also enjoyed SmartBoard Lessons and the KidCast podcast, which are great for kids and elementary school teachers. I am a little anxious and nervous about our podcast assignment coming up. The ladies and gentlemen I listened to today made it sound really easy. I am assuming we will be talking about technology in our schools and learning new ways to teach our children and students with technology. If so, that is great because these podcasts have taught me about what I can expect for our podcast coming up. Keeping the podcast running smoothly about our specific topic will probably be the hardest part. (considering I like to ramble. Ha). There were several times where I was a little bored and moved to the next pod cast, so I am hoping we have a lot to talk about. As long as the student or teacher can hear the host and co-host voices, I think it would be great to include music during our podcast.

The Social Media Count

The video of the Social Media Count is awesome and a little ridiculous. My next door neighbor is a sixteen year old student at a local High School. She is more than involved in these numbers increasing. She stays in front of the computer about six hours a day. Don't get me wrong, I think it is awesome that she is technologically literate and really knows her stuff...but!! What happened to kids getting outdoors and interacting with friends in person! I didn't have a cell phone until I was 17 so I was forced to call my friends and actually speak with them. My neighbor refuses to talk on the phone. She says that she rather text. That's fine because I'm a huge texter myself. Are my students going to be socially awkward because they are used to emails and text messaging. I really love the web and how it has grown and taught us so many wonderful ideas. I know whenever I'm a teacher one day that I will be open to learning and teaching all technology, but I hope we can teach our students to live outside the computer.

Learning Technology as a Teacher

In Karl Fisch's post, "Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?" he goes in to great detail about encouraging teachers to become technologically literate. I felt this post was very enlightening. Teachers are going to be forced to find other jobs if they do not learn how to use computers and new technology. If teachers do not learn this and aren't prepared to teach it, then our students will be the ones suffering.
I think it is a great idea to encourage teachers to attend classes on new technology and software. Headteachers and Principles could make these classes a requirement for high school teachers and staff. As teachers and adults we can't talk negatively about our students who are technologically illiterate. It is the fault of their past teachers who were illiterate and did not teach them. In closing I agree with Fisch, "In order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves?" This is so true and should posted in school hallways for all teachers to see!!

Teachers Willing to Learn

In Kelly W. Hines' article, "It's Not about the technology". She points out four key points that a teacher should recognize and be willing to teach in these new generations of learning. I loved each of these because I feel they are so true. Throughout my life there has always been a specific teacher that did not want to learn the new technology. He/She wanted to keep things as they were. By doing this I feel as though I missed out on learning experiences. There were other classrooms of my same grade level using these new concepts. As a teacher, I know that I will be willing to learn all these new concepts of teaching. Any teacher that wants to be successful has to apply their self to learn from their students and become extremely self motivated.
A teacher's life goal is for his/her students to LEARN the material. The dedication of teaching and encouraging your students to have a successful day will be my main concern. Teachers should encourage their fellow teachers to look forward to the new technology. To learning it and benefit from it. There are too many classrooms with computers going to waste. I agree with Hines in that these computers should be used for curriculum related development and learning new software. Not for games and word processor. I believe and hope that as the years go by and technology is becoming necessary, that each teacher/professor will step up and be willing to learn and teach with his/her students.

In a Student's Eyes

In Micheal Walsh's, "A Vision of Students Today", he starts out with a quote by Marshall McLuhan given in 1967. "Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the education establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects, and schedules." In Walsh's video, he includes his Introduction to Cultural Anthropology students from the Spring of 2007 at Kansas State University. Each students writes down a fact about their time spent during an average day. The average classroom has 115 students, only 18% of teachers know their students name, I will read 8 books this year, I will read 2300 web pages and 1,281 facebook profiles, I will write 42 papers for class this year and over 500 emails, I spend two hours on my cell, two hours eating, three hours studying, I am a multi-tasker because I have to be, after college I will be $20,000 in debt, I facebook my friends during class, and when I graduate I will get a job that doesn't exist right now. These are some of the facts that were held up by the students. Walsh ends the video with a quote from Josiah F. Bumstead. "The inventor of this stuff deserves to be under the best contributor to learning and science. If not the greatest benefactor of all time".


I find it very interesting how Micheal Walsh and others, have taken the facts presented to show other students and professors know and learn the importance of technology. Although there are the down falls of technology, like the girl who wrote her friends on Facebook during class, which I find myself doing often, I do feel that technology is changing our world for the better day by day. As a student I know that I should find what is most important and make that my first priority. This is very hard considering I enjoy many things like the students in the video. Eating, listening to music, sleeping, watching television, and emails are just a few things that keep me occupied throughout the day. I am hoping that videos like this one, and computer class that I am taking will help my understand the importance of technology and the right way and time to use it.

Helping Your Students Become Digital

A Professor and IT Director, Vicki Davis, is a teacher in South Georgia. She teaches her students every type of technology so they can connect to the world with research and communication. Davis likes the CoolCatBlog, where over 6000 readers come together to learn. The CoolCatBlog won the edgy blog award for best teacher blog last year. She loves having computers and all types technology in her classroom rather than the standard pencil and paper work. She allows her students to form groups and teach the class. This helps the students to become empowered and more aware of the classroom. Davis motivates her students by using new software and new vocabulary so they can learn to look it themselves. Davis and Julie Lindsey created a global collaborative project called, Digi Team. This lets students around the world study digital citizenship by researching, writing, and blogging on two different portals. Digi Team post blogs on assigned topics, which lets students and teachers share and blog about their ideas. Davis and Julie also created the Flat Classroom Project. This helps students learn about trans technology by writing reports and posting blogs to other students around the world. In January 2009, Davis was able to take some students to the Middle East for the Flat Classroom Conference.

I admire everything Davis and Julie are doing for students and classrooms. The new software is an amazing opportunity for students to learn how to communicate and share with students around the world. This type of communication will bring the world together in many different ways. I feel this is an amazing opportunity for myself and other students to learn various languages and to speak better and more proper English. This gives me a chance to enhance my vocabulary and learn new software that I may encounter in the future at work or in a classroom setting. If these programs and new software are available for our students, this will open a whole new world to new jobs and higher learning.

Bring Back Creativity

In Sir Ken Robinson's "talk", he focuses on the importance of keeping creativity in schools and in a child's life until adulthood. Sir Robinson would like to see more human creativity develop in the future of our students, because our future is out students. Sir Ken Robinson believes that each teacher and parent should give more motivation to students and help them find their calling. Instead, he finds that most teachers are holding students back from their talents. Many of our exceptional students are being told they cannot follow their dreams. He states that we should let students take chances so they can be original. As adults we have lost this originality. Adults have become too scared and frightened to be different. The result in in this, is educating people out of the original capacity. A quote from Picasa says, "All children are born artist." Robinson points out that, we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. This is mostly cause by education. Sir Ken Robinson speaks about holding University Professors too high. We shouldn't allow professors to take all the credit in the Public School System. Robinson says that there are two predictions about education. He feels that it was invented to beat out industrialism, therefore a students subjects are going to be specifically for work related jobs. Math and Science would be the two main subjects out, leaving out music and art. The other reason is academic ability. Mainly highly educated students are left feeling uneducated or not valued, whenever these students are extremely smart, but in the wrong program at school. Robinson feels that if we see our students follow their creative capacity and see them for the hope they have this will help them make a better future for themselves and their own children. We as adults might not be here to see the future or show them the way.

Sir Ken Robinson's "talk", in my opinion, was amazing. I definitely agree that we should stop holding our children and students back from being creative and showing their originality's. I also believe that all kids have these talents. They just have to be given the chance to show what they are capable of. It is also true that creativity is as important as literacy. Each child should be given the opportunity to express themselves in a classroom setting. If it is dance or whatever the class may be, this will help the student find their way. I like what Sir Robinson said about taking chances. If we would give these students a chance to be creative and not be frightened, they may grow in to stronger adults. I would like to see University Professors take a different approach. There is a difference in intimidating students and teaching them valuable life skills. The last thing I will point out, is the shifting of education. I do believe education is changing moment by moment. We are the future teachers and have to make sure our students learn about themselves and become creative, intelligent future leaders.

Facts We Should Know

"Did You Know 3.0", is the 2008 latest edition from a meeting in Rome about the world's technology, population, and Internet changing at high speeds. Here is a list of some of the facts that were reported: There are many jobs that did not exist in 2004 that exist now, we are preparing students for jobs that do not exist, there are over 200 million people connected to MySpace, there are 694,000 songs downloaded illegally, the total number of text messages sent exceed the planets population, 31 million people log on to Google each year, and there is more information in the New York times that most people will see in over a year. Like mention above these are just a few facts that were shown on the video that most people should know about.

"Did You Know 3.0" is a great way to get much needed information out to the public. It is straight to the point which keeps it interesting. Having these facts available, keeps the public aware of what's going on in our world and country. I was very surprised by most all of the facts that were included in the video. I felt that the most interesting of all the facts, was the number of Google users. It is very true. Every time myself or any of my family members need an answer, we Google it. From recipes to health facts to sports information. It is all there for our information. But, where did we get these answers before Google? Has the world become solely dependant on the Internet? I am very glad this video was brought to the attention of our class. These types of videos will help change our country for the better.

Mr. Winkle

Mr. Winkle woke from a one hundred year slumber to find the world very different. He walked to a very tall building where he found many strange noises and machines. The noises were very loud. He did not understand how people were talking to one another on computers and telephones. He was very confused and this was making him feel sick. He found a hospital where he thought he would get cared for, but the x-ray machines and other appliances were making him feel worse. He left not knowing where to go. He walked and walked until he found a school. This was very familiar to him. Everything was the same, although there was a computer in the back that wasn't being used. All the children were sitting in rows and taking notes just like he had remembered. He was happy that some things never change.


I really enjoyed the story because it is true, that some things never change. Throughout time it seems as though the good things never change. The things that need to be put in a persons life the most will always be there. School and family are two good examples. School will always be somewhat the same. Students are there to learn and grow together. Family will always be there to teach and help an individual grow and understand life and who they want to become. So I really like the last line of this movie. That some things never change.

Getting Started in EDM 310

Hello everyone!! My name is Samantha Pate and I will be making blogs periodically throughout each week. In this class we will be learning how to blog, which I have never done before. I plan on this being a great learning experience and have hopes of sharing what I learn with my future students. Wish me luck!!