The

Mrs. Hines

I must say I am somewhat actually on Mrs. Hines side on this, but I am young and still have a lot to learn. When she first starts talking about how she doesn't think the 21st century isn't about technology and she goes on to state that her friends would call that Blasphemy, this is how I feel as well. Most of my family and friends all are riding on the fact that technology holds the key for everything but I feel as though this is untrue. I agree with Mrs. Hines that in order to be able to teacher better with the use of technology you must have a teacher that is willing to learn it. We will get nowhere if you keep throwing technology in our faces and we are using it but not being a successful teacher. It all depends on how far a teacher is willing to go to get her children to learn. I completely agree with the fact that teachers have to be learners in order to teach. Technolgy is a powerful thing, but Teachers hold more power than a computer!

Mr. Wesch

Wow, which is one of the first things out of my mouth about this video. To be honest, this video is so true. I am glad that I came to a smaller school I wouldn't have to deal with some of the problems that go on in bigger schools, but still these problems do exist somewhere on my campus. There is no worse feeling then taking a class full of nothing but powerpoints, scantron sheets, and textbooks that are never used. I'm not sure that I can completely agree with the statement he made at the end about technology can save us alone, I think that people can save us. If teachers made classes more interesting for our college students then we would actually learn stuff rather than cramming and taking the exams. I'm not saying it is all the teacher's fault because the students have a great deal with it themselves. Some student don't give classes a try all they think about is passing and getting that degree. It's as if most students don't care about learning, they care about money. This video really captured what most students are feeling like when it comes to higher education.

More podcasting!

Well I decided to listen to the pocast which I thought would be cute which was the Eagle's Nest Radio & Class Blog. Listening to those children get so excited about what they were learning was amazing. Podcasting must have really made them learn so much. The were so expressive and excited in their podcats. In one of the podcast they were talking about how if all the children in the world would use their voicies and try to help save the sharks then the would be making a big difference How adorable and so true. Getting children invovled with this technolgy has no limits. TO think about how happy these children must be because they are broadcasting a podcast and making a difference.

Google Article

It's weird to think about how people all around this world have one saying that we can all understand: Just Google it! Take a step back and think about it. If I were in Australia right now and wanted to know why kangaroos hop, I wouldn't have to ask anyone, i could just google it.
Mr. Bill Thompson makes many great points in his article but my favorite one was when he say " Perhaps the real danger posed by screen-based technologies is not that they are rewiring our brains but that the collection of search engines, news feeds and social tools encourages us to link to, follow and read only that which we can easily assimilate." I think that is a powerful statement because he is trying to tell us to make an assessment by ourselves rather than by what the internet links us to.
All in all this was an extremely interesting article, I even made a few of my friends read it, I will think twice before i take the easy route and Google next time!

Lending a comment..

This first comment I made was on Mary Hutson, I thought hey I this girl's name makes her seem like she is smart, which is true because people with her name are smart, like myself haha.
I wrote on her blog about Harnass Your Children's Digital Smarts: Yes, girl I am with you on that. It is so weird to think about teachers not catching up with the times, I mean hello we like in a technology world. Great Blog!
Next person was Mr. Carl Herring, I commented on his blog about Ken Robinson.
Comment: You used my favorite quote which was "Creativity is as important ad literacy"! I could not agree more with what you were saying about how every child is born creative but most lose that because they are afraid. Great Blog!
The last person I commented on was Tiffany Paul. I commented on her post about Podcasts.
Comment: I am defiantly with you on the whole I thought I was keeping up with technology, but I was wrong thing. I agree with you about podcasts being useful in many different settings. Great Blog!

Podcasts from other classes.

The one podcast I decided to listen to was one about the use of Itunes in education. First off, the beginning music needs to be changed. I listened to the whole podcast and thought to myself, well they could have been more prepared. Don't get me wrong, they did a great job, it just seemed like only one person really seemed to know what they were talking about. Another problem was the sound kept going from being loud to being quiet. But other than that, I thought the podcast went over well.
I decided to listen to another one so I could have more sources. The next one that I listened to was the one about youtube in education. This one actually seemed the same as the other. I think when I do my podcast I want it to be attention getting, no matter what I'm talking about. I want the information to be informational but not really boring.

Podcast Pandemonium

Podcast, not a word I was very familiar with until now. My first thought about podcasts was simple, they are like a news broadcast on Itunes. Except they don't tell you news, they tell you about ways to do different things. When I began on this journey, I decided to go into it blind. I had no idea what i was doing, just clicked on podcast and then clicked on education.
The first podcast I began to listen to under the K-12 education department was Teaching with Smartboard with Scott Miller and Dave Sladkey. My first impression was thank god I could fast forward! Although these guys had great voices and kept me somewhat entertained, i found this podcast not helpful. I guess if I had sat down and began from their very first podcast then I would understand how these guys would be truly helpful. The used some words that were not quiet understandable for people who are not down with the technology language.
The next podcast I decided to venture onto was Teachers Teaching Teachers, which was not on the blog agenda but I saw it and decided that I had to listen. So first off, no fast forwarding in this one. I was hoping this podcast would be for elementary education because I would have loved to hear advice from teachers that would help me out. This podcast was not that one, this had Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Thomas Locke talking about technology. I was really hoping it was teachers talking about how to handle situations in the classroom, I was unfortunately wrong.
The third time is the charm? Yes I think so! I found a blog I truly enjoyed listening to. I was also not on the blog agenda. I found this one and it was called The Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf. This podcast peeked my interest because I'm in elementary education and we do have to tell stories to children. First off I loved the fact that there was several different people to talk on this podcast. They just gave great ideas on how to tell stories and they are also very well knowing of what they are talking about. Defiantly suggest this podcast!
Last but not least I decided to find another one off the blog assignment's list and I went with KidCast with Dan Schmit. This podcast he was discussing video casting which was good because in class we were discussing this idea. He seemed to have a lot of knowledge about technology which is good. I'm not really sure where i stand on his podcast, i was okay, but he didn't string me in to coming back for more.
All in all, I believe that podcasts have potential to help us a lot as teachers. I really look forward to making my own podcast.

Get them while they're young.

Mrs. Vicki Davis of Georgia has harnessed one of the greatest ideas for technology so far. It almost seems as though she has turned teaching our children how to use a computer is a way of art. But lets be realistic here, the reason this is such a great idea is because our kids will hardly make in this world now if they do not know how to handle a computer. Lets face it, nobody in the U.S. is without access to the world wide web, why not teach our children how to use it?

Here's to you Mr. Robinson!

Mr. Ken Robinson's talk about the lack of creativity in our schools was interesting. Its sad to think of our schools pushing kids to think of art as not being of much importance. I believe it is very important for a child to explore their creativity. A child can be the next William Shakespeare just as easy as they could become the next Billi Gates all a child need is encouragement to be creative.
Mr Robinson explains at one point that teachers tell students how hard it is to become an actor or a musician so it discourages them. It only makes me wonder how far away are we going to push kids away from trying to get a job that would actually make them happy. I think art is one of the most important subject, it allows us to be unique. Without art our world would not be the same.

Technology taking over?

After watching the first video "Did You Know" I felt as though my country was being targeted. The very beginning had me questioning how far my country has fallen behind in the times. To think that we are all having trouble finding a job and better yet keeping those jobs. Is our country going under? Just how far have we fallen behind, are we looking forward to another Great Depression? It almost seems that the more technology we get in this county, the harder it is to find jobs. Its seems like every time we Google, someone loses a job.
In the second video "Mr Winkle Wakes" had me trying to remember what my life was before my blackberry and laptop. What was did I do with my life before hand? How did I ever get in touch with people? It seemed like Mr. Winkle was so lost, as though doing things the old-fashioned way is completely extincted, like it never existed. It made me wonder how dependent we are on technology, would we even know how to save people's lives as a doctor if there was no computers? That's the one thing I liked about him going to the elementary school, you are always gonna learn the same basic things there, nothing has really changed in a 100 years.

About Myself!

My name is Mary Elizabeth Travis and I'm from Selma, AL. I have 4 older brothers. I am a junior at South majoring in Elementary Education. I am a Resident Advisor for the dorms. My interests include reading, watching movies, hanging out with friends and family. I am a huge LSU fan :)! Thats about it for me, if you want to know more, just ask.