Use of iPods in Instruction

I have never heard of such a thing!! I wish that our college used iPods in some of the courses that I am taking so I can be issued a free one, just like at Duke University. That is so awesome, but I'm sure they do not expect the iPod to be used so much for personal pleasure, but for use to help in adaptation to digital technology. According to Duke News, there were 42 courses that required an iPod in the year 2006. I am sure by now, many additional courses have been added to the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI). There is so much today that deals with technology that I agree it should be used more in our classes. Someone in America cannot go throughout one day without the use of some sort of technology. Every single job requires some knowledge dealing with technology, so everyone should definitely be more informed about it.

In doing more research on iPods being used in classes for instruction, I stumbled across a website dealing with iPod use at Edith Cowan University, Using iPods in Learning & Teaching. They listed a number of "ways for educators to use iPods in Teaching and Learning." Here are a few: Recording Economic Lectures, Reviewing with iPods, Text and audio, Storage of information, Developing new engineering software, Dictating lesson plans and research notes, and the list goes on! Being able to record a lecture really appeals to me, since I tend to fall asleep in class sometimes! That is horrible, but at least I still choose to attend :]. Like I said earlier, hopefully one day this will reach all colleges around the United States, including the University of South Alabama. By the time it does, I most likely will have already graduated, but it can and will help others in the future become more literate when it comes to technology while also making life easier in college.

180 days?

On the Fischbowl web page, I read the blog posted by Karl Fisch in April "180 days?". Barry Bachenheimer, who is the Director of Instruction for Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools in New Jersey and also a professor at Montclair State University, used a power point made by Karl Fisch in one of his classes to start a discussion-"Did You Know?/Shift Happens". A lot of the students didn't really seem to care so much because they were mentioning that they do not have enough time to do what they already are doing. It lead to a discussion about how well the time is used yearly for students to learn and/or make a difference while in school.

Barry Bachenheimer created a response to his students' thoughts and called it "180 days", and Karl Fisch took and "remixed" the response and created his own version called "180 days?". The whole presentation is showing how a lot of the days are used in school to do things that are not absolutely necessary, and could be used for many better things. The countdown went all the way to 120 days. 60 days of the 180 days allotted for students to be learning in school were not used efficiently. I like the fact that Karl deducted 12 days from the 180 for testing. I disagree with testing too, Karl! Maybe the administration at schools need to analyze what all is going on while the students are attending class, and realize maybe they don't need a movie day once a month. Use that time to better not only themselves, but the world...

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Technological Literacy

This post written by Karl Fisch, I think, was a great one to write about on our own personal blogs. I agree completely with the blog and do not think that he was too forward in anything that he said. If our University did not also believe that our teachers we are creating at this institute for the future need to be literate when it comes to technology, then I probably would not be enrolled in this class right now. Most of the things that I have learned so far in this Micro-computing Systems class I already know how to do, but I believe knowing all of the basics is a necessity for every teacher. Someone posted a comment on this post asking Karl exactly what it meant to be technologically literate. Some may think that since they can use a Power Point presentation during a lesson in class that they are literate. I would have to disagree with that because some things like that are as easy as 1-2-3. Anyone can do it. Good news is that pretty much everything on computers these days has become user friendly for even the new user.

But honestly, I think it should be essential for everyone to be technologically literate. Practically almost every single job these days involves one knowing how to deal with some sort of technology. There is no telling how it will be ten... twenty... thirty years from now. I am sure soon enough one will not be able to get a job at all if they are not literate when it comes to technology. Our world is progressing daily. Karl Fisch made the statement, "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 and write." That does sound a little bit extreme to me, but most likely is true. Being technologically literate soon enough will be something everything will be expected to be and know how to do, just like reading and writing. You can't get by these days if you can't read and/or write. It is great that a blog like this was not only posted, but recognized, and hopefully impacting many around to learn how to work with technology. And like Mr. Fisch said, ignorance of it all is definitely not something to be proud of.

International Blogging

I actually found it quite difficult to find people who work in or with international schools who keep up with a blog. The first one that I did come across was of someone who is teaching at an international school in Guatemala City. I have been to Guatemala three times now, and my dream would be to teach there one day. This blog that Kelly Graves keeps up with with is mainly about her daily activities. Her blog can be read at www.kellyseagraves.blogspot.com. Most of the things that she spoke about had nothing to do with her giving others an education. She seems to be interacting with the people through things such as church and cookouts. It was fun to read, but I got nothing insightful from it. Below is Kelly with a friend eating hot dogs in honor of February.



The next blog that I found at http://theinternationalteacher.wordpress.com/ is one for the international teaching community. I think it is great to have such a blog like this where people who are interested in teaching somewhere other than a place like Mobile, Alabama can find out more information dealing with it all. The most recent post talked about finding that "fit" in the perfect international school for you. Not all schools are meant for every teacher, but the majority of the posts deal with schools that are out there who are in need of someone to teach there. Like I mentioned earlier, teaching in Guatemala would be absolutely amazing, so a blog such as this one could be and is actually very helpful to me in deciding what I want to do with my career. The picture below was taken by a teacher overseas one day while at the market.

Blogs in K-12 Classrooms

After viewing a few blogs found on Google, the one that caught my attention most was actually the first result given when I searched. Alfred Thompson's blog, which can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/, is very informative. He is a computer teacher, so most of his blogs I would say are directed toward other computer teachers. In my opinion, it could also be directed towards people who are interested about new software and/or how things operate within a computer, or maybe even for a caring and involved parent. Posts he had written that caught my attention were "How To Teach Your Child to Program", "How Software Is Built - Updated", "10 Golden Rules For Teaching Computer Science", "WiiMote (Wii game controller) and Microsoft Robotics Studio", and "More on teaching kids to think - AKA CS concepts for looking things up". Alfred uses his blogs in order to help parents with their children, teachers with their students, or just help an everyday gamer use their new Wii! A picture of Alfred Thompson is posted below:



Another one I stumbled upon was a blog created for Ms. Nelson's fifth grade class found at http://msnelson.blogspot.com/. This one seems a little bit different from the blogs that Mr. Thompson has posted. This one was more for the parents. Ms. Nelson would post blogs often about what the students have been learning in detail. So not only would the parents be able to see what progress had been made in their child's classroom, but the student could also get on in order to review the lessons of the day. There were a few posts made that gave extra information to the student, for example, more links to help them on one of their upcoming projects. I actually think that her creating a blog for her classroom was a great idea. I may even use a blog one day when I teach so my students will have no excuse for not knowing what they missed or when to turn something in because it will always be available online. Below is a picture of Ms. Nelson' class: