Randy Pausch's Final Lecture

Randy Pausch was a highly successful professor at a highly respected college. From watching his lecture I learned that he is a very laid back teacher so of course his students love him! His classes fill up extremely fast because everyone wants to be in his classroom.

The course that he discussed in his lecture is Building Virtual Worlds. In this class he assigns many hands on projects that are extremely difficult and time consuming, but his students love doing them because they get to have actual experiences. Randy Pausch refers to his course as Edutainment. He believes that education should be fun.

Randy Pausch used many quotes throughout his lecture. Some of the ones that stood out were: "When you tell someone they're doing something wrong, it's really helping them." "Find the best in everybody no matter how long you have to wait." I think that from everything he is going through it has helped him to inspire people and really display a positive outlook. He undoubtly looks at life in a different perspective that most.

The main thing that touched me was what he said about teaching students. He said to teach your students to do the right thing and good stuff happens. This is the same exact motto I tell myself that I will use as a future educator. I want to be a positive influence on my students and display good morals to them as well. I not only want to educate my students in academics, but I want to educate them in being good people because they are the future.

Fischbowl May 2007

This article talks about how so often technology teachers (or teachers in general) do not teach technology to the best of their ability. Today's world is so fast paced that teachers become overwhelmed with all of the work that has to be done. Teachers do not take the time to teach their students proper technology anymore. Most teachers would prefer to just do it for them so they can hurry up and get on with the assignment. They assume the student will catch up or figure it out later, but sometimes that's not the case.

I liked the way he referred to this as a customer service issue. He compared teachers to customer service reps in this article. After thinking about that to myself, it makes sence. Teachers really are a student's customer service. I think it is very important that all teachers serve there students with every bit of knowledge that they have in every area as well as technology. An example I thought of was if you are putting something together and someone is helping you. When you get to a point where you don't know what to do, they jump in and do it for you. This is not going to help when you have to put it together on your own one day because you will not know what to do when you get to that point again. I just thought this article really made a lot of sense and it got me thinking about how important quality customer service really is when it comes to education.

Facebook as an Educational Tool? - Podcast

I really enjoyed this podcast. I think it was very interesting how they did a question/answer interview type podcast. This made it a lot more interesting because I was able to see both views. This podcast almost sounded like a salesman discussing Facebook to a customer trying to persuade them to make an account which definitely kept my attention. I know that when I do my podcast I will want to do something similar to this, but I think it would be better if there were more people included to make it more interesting. I would like for my podcast to keep the listener interested as well as informed about the topic.

Blogging Experiences - Podcast

The first podcast I listened to was Blogging Experiences. I thought Blogging Experiences was a good podcast. The one thing that could have been improved is maybe something that would keep the listeners attention better. This podcast was mainly based on facts and information. There was not a lot of debate or opinionated conversation between the girls that did this podcast. When I say it could have been more like a debate I don't mean argumentative. When I create my podcast I will try to find some way to make it more interesting because I had a hard time staying focused on this podcast. I think it is very important to keep the audience entertained enough that they may want to listen to what you have to say.

Power Point Presentation "My First Baby"

Best of Fischbowl

This article talked about how important technology is for the future. It was a very entertaining article that really makes you think about the changes in the world. I am 22 years old and it amazes me how much schools have increased technology.

When I started going to school the most technology that was seen in a classroom was one computer with no internet and an overhead projector. Now most classrooms have at least three computers with internet access. I have just now in the last five years started to learn a little bit about computers. I can't imagine how much my son is going to know about technology when he's my age.

PODCASTS

Today was my first time to ever listen to a pod cast. I don't have an Ipod, so I know nothing about any of this. I listened to MacBreak Weekly, Ed Tech Talk, Kid Cast, & Smartboard Lesson. After listening to these pod casts, it really inspired me to do it more often. I think they were very informative and I enjoyed listening to them.

MacBreak Weekly discussed a lot of different things that involve Mac Computers. I actually own a Toshiba laptop, and I have never used a Mac computer. One thing that I found to be interesting was that they offer a jump drive called iTV where you can watch High Definition television on your computer. It also has something similar to a DVR that records movies and shows. I had no clue you could watch live tv on a computer so I thought this was really neat.

The Ed Tech Talk mainly talked about parent participation and how important it is to have parent involvement in schools. I agreed with mostly everything that this podcast talked about.

The KidCast discussed how students should be engaging in more podcasts in classrooms. I wish that all students could have the opportunity to become involved in podcasts. This talked about how podcasts should focus more on education when being used in classrooms. I think podcasts are so much more interesting for students rather than listening to lectures all day.

The Smartboard lesson discussed the attributes that smartboard can have for teachers. I really liked the way it explained what not to do while using smartboard in detail. I felt like this was the most informative podcast that I listened to.

I hope to be able to use podcasts in my classroom in the future because I think it would be extremely beneficial to the students as well as myself. It would make things so much easier and more interesting. Technology saves so much time.

New Zealand Classroom Blog

This blog was created by Jody Hayes. She teaches a class of 9-11 year olds. This is her sixth year to have a classroom blog. Her blog consists of class role, related links, pictures of previous activities, and updates. She refers to her students as Navigators which is new to me. She uses this reference as a simile stating that her students are like sailors navigating through school to be successful leaders.

Maryland Classroom Blog

This blog page was created by Ms. Whyte who is a second grade teacher in Silver Spring, Maryland at Woodlin Elementary. From the looks of it she is just starting the blog and still getting adjusted to it. Most of the blog discusses Science. Her blog consists of class assignments, related links, class role, and some student entries.

Missouri Classroom Blog

This blog was created by Mr. Chamberlain, a fifth grade teacher at Noel Elementary School in Noel, Missouri. He has included many classroom pictures, updates, educational links, and videos. It is obvious that this teacher spends a lot of time updating and improving his class blog page. It includes a list of books from the library, student personal blogs, and an about me section that has lots of info about Mr. C. This blog is very professional. It has so many wonderful areas that seem very informative to his students.

Canadian Class Blog

This blog was created by Kathy Cassidy who teaches first grade in Moose Jaw, Canada. The site showed different activities done in the classroom. It had a video as well as many pictures of the students. It also had a list of assignments. Her site also included the class role. Only first names were listed which is a very good safety precaution. The blog page was very well organized and easy for parents to understand.