Video Podcast

After watching a couple of these podcasts I realized that I need to be a hands on teacher. These videos showed me how important it is to get your students to understand what you're teaching no matter which route you have to take to do it. I feel like a lot of schools have drifted away from projects and field trips. I think children need fun instruction to give them different choices to learn. Some students may understand the lesson from a lecture but other students may need a fun activity to help them grasp it from a different level or point of view.

When I become a teacher I want to do everything in my power to make sure all of my students are learning and having fun while doing it. Learning should be fun. It shouldn't be something that you dread. I know that while I'm in my math class I hate and I want to go home the whole time because the teacher doesn't help me to learn it in different ways. If a child is confused like that all the time he/she will begin to hate school. I want my students to look forward to school each day. In order for that to happen I will have to take notes from these video podcasts and make learning exciting!

iTunes University

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16624_itunes_university_better-than_the_real_thing.html discusses how students are learning differently and using more technology than say 10 years ago. It discusses how technology has improved grades tremendously. iTunes University is so much more effective than just basic lectures. It keeps learning more interesting for the students. iTunes is a way for students to go back and view a lecture they sat in two weeks ago to help prepare for tests etc...

I know a lot of people that use tape recorders to recollect lectures but iTunes University is so much better than that. Teachers probably put more effort into there lecture as well knowing the world can view it anytime. The only downside I can think of is that absentees may possibly go up with this type of technology. I hope that one day this could be used for online courses because I would be the first one to sign up for it. For me, it takes a lot of time to take care of my child and go to school three days a week. So, I would love it if I could take online courses that actually had lectures I could view online to help me grasp the lesson. I think iTunes University is wonderful & I would love to have the opportunity to be apart of something like it.

Duke iPods

I researched the site: http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipods_initiative_04_05.pdf I found it surprising that Duke gave away iPods to all their future students coming in as freshmen. The plan was to promote more technology in classes. The plan definitely paid off because teachers and students loved it. Teachers began requiring students to complete podcasts instead of written assignments.

The second site I researched was: http://learninginhand/ipod/index.html This was more of a beginners iPod information site. It was broken down into two seperate groups which included iPod touch and iPod with click wheels. I would really benefit from this site if I was interested in iPods because it gave great detail in instruction for using an iPod.

Dr. Christie

Dr. Christie gave some really helpful tips on building classroom blogs. I hope to be able to use a blog when I become a teacher, but I am kind of worried that most parents and students would not care to be involved in it. A lot of parents are fearful of technology because they don't like change. My Daddy doesn't even know how to turn a computer on and he doesn't care to learn. I know that there are a lot of people that are like that. I want my students and their parents to get involved in technology because it is so much easier to communicate this way. Dr. Christie gave many tips on how to get blog attention and I hope they will work for me in the future.

Wikipedia

I was so surprised after reading about how Wikipedia really is. I have actually used Wikipedia for information many times. I was shocked to find out that basically anyone can edit information. There is no telling how much information on Wikipedia that is false. This is really aggravating to me because researching is not an easy task and knowing which research sites have accurate facts seems almost impossible.