iTunes Podcasts

I have never listened to or created a podcast before. It is hard for me to focus and listen to someone that I cannot see so this was a challenge for me. The first podcast that I listened to was SmartBoard Lessons. The sound was alright, but not really the best so I'm not sure what they were using to record their session. I also did not understand the point of their podcast.

KidCast had a richer, smoother sound to my ears. Dan started off talking about the difference between podcasting and video podcasting or 'vodcasting'. He mentioned that using the term 'vodcast' could be a little confusing to people who were trying to understand what media syndication was. Well I understood what he was talking about when he said 'vodcast', but I had to look up what media syndication was. According to Wikipedia, syndication is "the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network". Dan also brought up a good point about video podcasting being a step by step development. Most people are not very comfortable in front of a camera or do not realize what is involved in the setup of video podcasting.

EdTech Talk had terrible reception and I had to listen closely to hear what was being said. One of the ladies mentioned skype calling someone. I did not know what skype was so I looked it up. Skype is a 'program' for lack of a better technical term that can be used to make calls and video chat with people for free. Well it is free to an extent, but you can look it up if you are interested in knowing.

Connect Learning had a clear reception, not as clear as KidCast though. It sounded as if it was being tape recorded. The librarians in this podcast were talking about how podcasts can be used in the schools for learning or sharing of information. They also brought up a good point regarding policies for the school children and the need to get permission from parents to allow their children to speak on audio podcasts or to show their faces on video podcasts.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis is a teacher and IT Director that utilizes technology to connect students with the world. She believes that students have the ability to learn, but that students learn in different ways. She customizes the curriculum to the students in the classroom and in doing so they are able to effectively learn how to use different aspects of technology. She teaches them how to use their resources by giving them new terms and the students research it themselves. So not only are they learning a new term on their own, but they are being empowered to learn on their own and using a multitude of resources.

I've come across many students, and even experienced this myself when doing research papers or when wanting to bake a different type of cookie. Instead of just giving up and saying "oh I just don't know how to do this" or "I can't do this so I give up" I discovered that I could empower myself and actually utilize the resources available to me. Not only was I learning from these experiences but I also gained a bit of confidence from realizing that I could do it and I could do it on my own. Vicki encourages and brings this independence out in her students. Aside from independence she is also encouraging the students to work with each other and other students across the world to learn the different uses of technology.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

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Mr. Robinson makes some excellent examples and points about children not being encouraged or exposed to the arts in education as they should be. He believes that creativity in education is as important as literacy. It doesn't take just a logical mind to solve mathematical problems. Someone had to be creative enough to think of all the formulas we use to design buildings. In fact you would have to be creative to come up with a design for a building. As adults we tend to discourage children from being creative without realizing what we're doing to them. We brush them off as being annoying when they bang on pots and pans at six o'clock in the morning. I say buy them a drum set and see where they go from there. Sure a child drawing on the walls is a pain when you're the one that has to scrub it off. I say devote a wall specifically for them and you can even cover it in paper and let them have at it, or join in to show that you are encouraging them to be creative. In the education system though we are so focused on drilling children on multiplication problems and ensuring that they produce high test scores every day, and the arts only once a week. I believe that creativity should be encouraged every day. When I subbed for the elementary schools in Ocean Springs, and this goes without saying that I'm not an art teacher and have no current methods for teaching art, but I set aside the last ten minutes before the announcements came on for the children to draw a picture for me. I told them that it could be about anything that THEY wanted to draw. There was not one child that did not give me a drawing.

Today there is more medication for 'problems' that could be better taken care of if parents knew about better options. For example with the girl that could not sit still and was unable to focus until they took her to a dance school where she was able to focus her talents and energy. I'll give a personal example involving my little brother. He was diagnosed as being 'ADHD' and was on medications all through the school year. No longer was he fidgeting in class or unable to sit still for long periods of times. He also wasn't running up and down the hallway at home or constantly pestering my little sisters. However, he wasn't on the medications during the summer either. My parents feared that it would stunt his growth so they took him off, but they did enroll him in little league which was something he loved doing and he was able to run around and use that excess energy and he was still "normal" at home.

Did You Know? 3.0

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I feel that this video clarifies the fact that Americans need to focus their efforts on ensuring that our children are rising to the same or reaching higher standards than those of other countries. Instead we lower our current standards so that we look better by comparison than we actually are. If our children's IQ's and abilities are lower ranking than those of children in other countries then who is going to create the jobs and perform better at them?

I read some comments on the video of other YouTube users and some asked the question about how are we training students for jobs that have not invented yet. To say that we are training for jobs that have not been invented yet and to problems that do not yet exist is not as far fetched as it initially seems. People invent things every day. Think back to the days of Edison and you may understand that some things he invented did not exist twenty, ten, or even five years before he created them. We are constantly teaching young minds and they will constantly think of ways to improve upon an invention or invent something entirely new and that may open up new jobs in the future.

Technology advances further with each generation so it is of no surprise to me that its able to quickly reach larger audiences each time. What I did not realize is how much I have been taking these technological advances for granted. We are able to reach people on a different continent on the opposite side of the world just by clicking a button. Of course I was aware that we are able to do that, but it was an action that I did not feel had any significant impact on me until recently. It certainly makes the world seem smaller.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. My name is Brittany Thomas and I am studying elementary education. I hope to graduate in 2012 if not sooner. I aspire to teach third graders. Why third graders? Well, when bouncing from job to job looking for something that could hold my attention, use and further develop my skills, and entertain my poorly stimulated brain a friend of mine mentioned substitute teaching. I had tried almost everything else. The mundane fields of retail, photography, day care, house keeping, and delivering pizzas no longer pleased me. I stepped into substitute teaching and for some silly reason I listened to others instead of myself and hopped into high school. A total nightmare! After coming to the conclusion that high schoolers and middle schoolers were unable to satisfy my talents I braved the world we call elementary school. I absolutely loved it! I never sat foot in another high school or middle school again. I was now able to stand up in front of a class room and teach the lesson plans laid out by others. My brain was no longer feeling like a fallen souffle.

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