IPods as Educational Tools

IPods have become incredibly popular over the last several years and Apple is constantly issuing new editions, each with more impressive capabilities than the one before it. The ancient Ipods were only good for listening to music. Now you can download anything from audio files to videos to TV shows and more and it can all be compiled into one small device. This presents a very interesting opportunity for educators. Duke University led the charge in 2004 when they gave each incoming freshman an IPod which was utilized by professors in the classroom. They were able to provide lecture material, book material, video material, etc. relating to the class and students could download it all to their IPods. Duke continues to use the IPods as a valuable educational tool but they now only provide them to students who classes call for one, which is quite a few. It is a very convenient way for teachers to disseminate information as well as for students to obtain it. Other colleges have taken notice of Harvard's revolutionary idea and begun to use IPods in their own college classrooms. If it is growing on college campuses, will it soon be considered for high school classrooms?

I found an interesting article by a man who writes a blog about educational technology and he talks about how high schools are resistant to the ideas Harvard has adopted. The main concern for high school administrators and teachers seems to be the prospect of students cheating. With so much new technology, and younger generations adapting to it so quickly, cheating does become a consideration. However, I think in a controlled atmosphere using IPods in a high school setting could be very useful. I think students might be more prone to listen to recordings or podcasts related to what they are learning than sitting down and reading about it. Of course, some still wouldn't do it but I think it does provide another option that some students might really embrace. But there are problems with this approach as well. It would be nice to just give everyone a free IPod but there are monetary realities that must be acknowledged. Maybe eventually this will become a more viable option in more schools. I think it would give a whole new avenue to learning that students might appreciate and benefit from.

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2007/05/the_ipod_of_the_beholder_can_m.html

My Presentation

Alice Christie's Site

After looking through Dr. Christie's site I saw several things would greatly aid a teacher in his or her classroom. I was particularly interested in the section that talks about having an effective website. I think for any profession trying to disseminate information through the web, having an accurate, easy to use site is paramount. It is fairly easy to develop a website but to create an exceptional site takes some time and effort. Dr. Christie lists certain points that good websites should have.

She has created a rubric to help her audience gauge the quality of the site they are developing. There are ratings of emerging, developing and exemplary with explanations of what makes a site so. She gives specific points a website should consider, such as philosophy, curriculum, audience, etc. and describes what they look like at each rating. Of course, it would be desirable to achieve an exemplary site and she helps you see what you need to accomplish that. As I said before, I think a good website can be an extremely valuable tool, but in the same vein, a poor website can be frustrating and useless. I think Dr. Christie has a very easy to understand, helpful rubric to assist educators in developing sites for their schools or personal classrooms.

180 Days

I read the blog "180 Days?" in which Fisch borrows an idea from Barry Bachenheimer about time wasted in schools.  Bachenheimer gave a college class a lecture pointing out how students of the 21st century need to receive instruction for the skills required to succeed, specifically keeping up with technology.  When he presented this idea to his college students they were enthusiastic but concerned about a lack of time.  Bachenheimer put together a presentation showing how much time is "wasted" in school and Fisch developed his own similar presentation.  

Watching his presentation does show that there are definitely wasted times during school which, when added cumulatively, add up to many days.  (60 days in Fisch's estimation).  While I did agree with several of his examples of activities that could be considered wasteful I don't think you can constructively use every hour of school.  Students, as well as teachers, welcome breaks and lulls in activity throughout the long 180 day school year.  That being said, I definitely believe schools could find additional time to cover more technological material and improve student's proficiency.  While many schools do offer some sort of computer class, it is often very basic and we have moved beyond the basics in the world today.  I think that with a little rearranging, most schools could find time to include more technology based classes in the curriculum and prepare students for what they will need to know to better succeed in today's society.    

The Necessity of Technology

I read the September post by Carl Fisch and I have to say I completely agree with him. I really enjoyed the following quote:

"If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read or write."

At first glance that seems like quite an over dramatic statement, but after considering it I found myself agreeing. We use reading and writing to communicate and therefore must be taught how to utilize those skills. You cannot learn from those who themselves don't know how to do it. We are increasingly becoming more dependent on technology and must learn how to utilize it in an effort to keep up with the trends of communication. If a teacher is completely deficient in such a vital area, they are not effective instructors.

This is not to say that anyone who is not computer savvy should be cast out of their job and replaced with a newer, more technologically capable version but people must be willing to adapt. It has been acceptable in the past to just say "I'm not a computer person". This is not the case anymore. Computers are an integral part of our lives and are becoming more so all the time. Teachers have a responsibility to keep up with the skills that need to be given to their students. Just because it is something they are unfamiliar with is not an acceptable excuse. They must keep an open mind and be ready to learn new concepts which is something people in the profession of education should be doing all the time anyway. A teacher would be hard pressed to force students to learn things they considered too difficult if he or she was unwilling to do it themselves.

Blogs from around the world.

Here are some international classroom blogs I was able to locate:

http://2mgems.blogspot.com/

This blog comes from a "grade 2" class (6 and 7 year olds) in Brisbane, Australia. Their teacher Mrs. Marrinan has really developed a very impressive blog for her students. It is amazing to me that kids are starting to blog at such a young age but these kids really seem to enjoy it. They have set up their blog where they can chat internationally using a program called Yackpack which uses your computer microphone so your voice can actually be heard. They also have a map that points out the places where they are currently receiving visitors to their site. When I was viewing the blog there was a dot on Mobile, AL. This blog keeps the kids up to date on important information such as what they are currently doing in class, what is going on in their area, as well as important events going on in the world. It posts a "routine reminder" which lets the kids know what they need to be doing daily. There are many helpful links as well as video uploaded onto the blog. They just recently won an award for excellence in blogging and it is evident why. They really have done an impressive job.

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337&blog_id=&listclass=15889

Here is a blog I found with an even younger group of students at William Grayson School in Canada. Mrs. Cassidy teaches a 1st grade class and has developed a blog detailing what is going on in her classroom. With such young children, this blog does not seem to be so much for the children to keep up with what they are supposed to be doing so much as the parents. This blog allows parents to see what their children are doing and what they should be working with them on. The blog also uploads videos of actual activities in class so parents can go inside the classroom. They do let the kids blog as well. They let them type out a sentence (which is riddled with typos, of course) then they type what it is meant to say under it. It is a great way to begin getting children to begin learning skills that will be so important as they grow older. They won't have to go through a difficult assimilation stage as they get older because they are doing it now.

Blogs in the Classroom

Teacher's today have a very valuable tool available to them to help both themselves as well as students: blogs. Blogs are becoming increasingly more utilized in schools as well as in individual classrooms. These are two that I located on the Internet.


http://mrscaldwell0.edublogs.org/
The author of this blog is Mrs. Caldwell who was an English teacher at Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham, AL. Though she is taking a year off after becoming a mother, she uses her previous year's class blog as an example and is working on helping other schools to implement this practice. Looking through her blog you can see that every few days she would post a question(s) for her students to answer. Each question pertains to some piece of literature or at least some theme they have been studying about and they use what they are doing in class to supplement their answers. She also keeps them informed with what they should be doing as far as assignments as well as her status on certain things such as grading. She has additional links which take you to her personal website as well as to many sites she feels have interesting information. I thought it was very interesting that she is trying to change career paths and go from teaching to helping others learn how to teach more effectively. She mentions on her personal website that she is very supportive of using technology as a way of unifying both departments as well as school.

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=17192
The author of this blog is a 6th grade teacher at Greater Atlantic Christian School who is in her 21st year of teaching. Julia Osteen refers to her blog as the "English Corner" and uses is as a way for her students to communicate with each other. The students take books they have read and make comments of different opinions they have about them. Other students then comment on other students' posts. This provides a good way for students to talk with one another and provide another source of knowledge besides just the teacher in the classroom.

Shift Happens

Watching this movie made me realize just how much things have changed and will continue to change during the upcoming years. It is mind blowing to think about just how much things have changed since 1995. I vaguely remember when my parents first got the Internet but I do not remember what like was like without it. It also makes me think of how hard it is for people to take a step backwards once they become accustomed to certain technologies. We started out using a land line but I have been using a cable modem for the past five years. On the rare occasion I run into a computer that runs on a land line I feel a lot like punching a hole through it because it is so slow. Also, if I am ever anywhere that I cannot access the Internet, I feel completely cut off from the world. I use it for so many things that it has become indispensable.
This movie also shows how many ways we can be connected throughout the world. Programs like MySpace and Facebook allow us to be in contact with those we would never be able to talk with otherwise.

Things have changed so much just in my lifetime and advances are happening constantly. I cannot imagine what the world will be like for my children. The computer I am typing on now will most likely be obsolete and they will wonder how I ever survived with this inferior technology. These changes bring about new jobs markets that we have never previously had and new majors are being created to train students in skills that have never before been needed.

As someone studying to be a high school teacher, it makes me realize how much the classroom I teach in will differ from the one I was taught in. Computer skills were luxury when I was younger but they are becoming necessity. Tomorrow's students must consider the skills needed for being proficient in computer usage as important as reading and math. It is a changing world and we must be prepared to change with it.