Blog Assignment #14

Teacher Knows if You’ve Done the E-Reading


This post explains about the new technology called CourseSmart that allows teachers to see if and how often that their students are reading their assignments. CourseSmart is already altering the way that teachers present material, how students are responding to it. This software enables the teacher to determine if the student is actually leaning the material or just memorizing it the night before a test by checking how many times, if any, that the students open their books.
As a future teacher, I think that this new technology is a great way to monitor the student's work ethic. This lets teacher know which students need extra help when they are struggling or if they are just being lazy and not reading the assignment. This also helps the teacher know if his/her student is actually learning from their readings, or if they are only memorizing the main points. I think that this will benefit both the teacher and the students in the future.
As a student, I think that knowing that the teacher can see if I am actually reading the assignment will inspire me to do my homework. This holds each student accountable for their reading homework, and I can bet that more students will begin reading if schools used CourseSmart in their classrooms. Also, I would feel like I had to pay more attention to may readings and take better notes if my teachers were monitoring my homework. I may not like it because I would not be able to skim by anymore, but in the long run, using CoursSmart would benefit me as a learner.

If I could talk to the teacher that this post is referring to, I would ask him/her the following questions.
*Could you see a change in the student's work ethic after using CourseSmart?
*Does it increase the work load for you as a teacher by using CourseSmart?
*Do you use the information you receive with CourseSmart when you give the students participation grades?

If I could interview the students in this class, I would ask them the following questions.
*Do you like your class using CourseSmart?
*Do you think that it benefits you as a student?
*Do you consider this new technology an invasion of privacy?

A comment I would leave for this blog post would be...
Thank you for sharing this information on CourseSmart. I think that this new technology is a great idea, and it will benefit the students as well as the teachers. I also believe that using CourseSmart in the classroom will improve the number of students reading their homework each night, and also improve their quality or reading and taking notes because they will know that their teacher is monitoring them.

C4T #4 Summary

Jarrod Robinson blog Mr. Robo-The PE Geek

Comment #1. The 14 Day Twitter Challenge for PE Teachers. This post is about a challenge that Mr. Robinson has to encourage teachers to begin using Twitter. He wants everyone to understand the benefits of creating these powerful connections and to have a platform of professional learning through Twitter. I said that I thought that the 14 day challenge was a great way for introducing teachers to Twitter. I also stated how I really liked the way he breaks it down into simple steps, because I remembered when I first started using twitter that I was lost.


Comment #2. Zite – My Personalised Professional Learning Tool. This post is about an app called Zite. It is almost like an electronic personal newspaper that gives you popular news from all over the world in your favorite subjects. The more you use it, the app leans the type stories that the reader prefers and gathers more like it. Also, if the reader can share a story that he/she likes with their facebook or Twitter. I said that I though this was a great app for everyone to use. It allows the user to find stories that they like, and enables them to share it with the world.

Project # 15 Smart Board Group Project

Progress Report On Final Project # 16

Nikki Rae Mooney, Jarrod Roberts, Ciara Deese, and I are in the group 3 Ladies and a Guy. We met on Wednesday, April 17 where we began filming our video "Mythbusters EDM 310 Edition". We have planned out what each individual is suppose to do in order to complete our project, and we are going to meet again on Tuesday and Wednesday to finish it.

Blog Assignment #13

In Brian Crosby's video Back To the Future, he tells about a class that he teaches that has students who are "at risk." He explains some of the troubles that they go through ,and he does not understand why there is such a disconnect with these students. They are so behind that he worries that their lack of creativity and imagination may cause them to lose their passion. Mr Crosby finds ways to reach these kids by making learning fun for them. He incorporates technology into the classroom by providing all the students with laptops to create blogs, and he also conducts several projects that the students are able to take part in. This type of hands-on learning peeks the students interest and inspires these students to take a more active role in school. He gets the students to explain what they learn on their blogs, and this replaces the standard multiple choice tests. By using blogs, they realize that people from around the world actually read their posts, and this provides motivation to strive to be better. Mr. Crosby does not only stops there. He skypes other teachers and classrooms around the world to help them learn how to do some of the same projects as his class. The students benefit from this type of learning because they are now connected and collaborate with people from all around the world when they were not even connected and with their own neighborhood before.



Mr. Paul Anderson's video,Blended Learning Cycle, explains his new idea of a blended learning cycle. He takes the compelling parts of online, mobile, and classroom learning and blends them together in the classroom, and he then adds in the five "E's" of the learning cycle:explore, explain, expand, engage, and evaluate. He goes on to explain his idea by breaking his blended learning cycle down into six different parts. To start off, he askes a good question that will get the students interested, and then he lets the students investigate and explore. Then, he likes to incorporate a video for the students to watch instead of only giving a lecture, and he also begins elaborating on all of the other important factors that the students need to learn that deal with the question he has asked. Finally, he reviews all of the information with each student, and if he/she can explain what they have learned, he gives them a test.
I think that Mr. Anderson's blended learning cycle idea could be very beneficial to students. It gets the students more interested and involved in what they are learning. I like how he is very hands-on and makes sure that each student actually understands the subject matter before letting them move on to the next thing. This forces the students to actually learn the material instead of memorizing the information just for a test.

Blog Assignment #12

I think a good idea for a blog assignment would be to actually get the studnets to give an example of an assignment that they would give their future studnets using a blog. This will make students have to think ahead and visualize themselves in their future teaching environment using technology, and it would benifite each of the different types of teachers-English,Math,Social Studies,ect. Because I am going to be a high school English teacher, an example of my directions would be:
Blog Post #1
Think about when you one day become a teacher. How will you use technology in your classroom? For this blog post focus on the subject that you will teach, and create your own blog assignment that you could get your students to do in your future classroom. Make it as authentic as possible so it can actually be a lesson that you may one day use. Tell what grade level and subject the assignment will be for. Give spacific and clear directions, and try to make the diffculty match the grade level.


My Future Blog Assignment for 12th Grade English
Finish reading the novel Of Mice and Men.In a paragraph describe the setting of the book. Find a picture that you think best visualy describes the setting and add it to your blog.
Next, you and the others in your group will get together and video yourselves acting out a part of the book. The video must be at least two minutes long. Then you need to upload the video to youtube and embed it into your blog post.
The final requirment is to write two paragraphs about how you wish the book would have ended;however, if you are satisfied with the way it ended, write two paragraphs explaining why you liked it ending that way.

Blog Post 11

First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class
Ms. Cassidy is a true pioneer when it comes to using technology in the classroom. She began teaching her student by using technology over 10 years ago during a time when nobody else was doing it. She was one of the only teachers at her school to begin using technology, and she did not let everyone's negative opinions stop her. She should be an inspiration to other teachers who are too scared about if their piers will disapprove.
Regardless of the fact that she only teaches 1st graders, Ms. Cassidy still gets them to understand how to use blogs,wikis, and all kinds of new technology. She is a firm believer that teaching by using technology is the only way to keep the students up to speed with our ever-changing world, and give them a head start above students who do not get the privilege of using technology in the classroom.
In the future when I become a teacher, I would like to use several of the technological teaching tools that Ms. Cassidy uses. The main one I will focus on using is blogs. I think a blog is the perfect tool to us in a high-school English class. My students can give their feedback on the books or poems that I assign to them, and I could even give them a creative writing assignment for them to post. The options are limitless! I think that using blogs in the classroom will benefit the students also because they will be more interested in the assignment and also get to show their creativity.
One of the main problems that I think I will face is the students cheating. Technology makes it easier and easier for students to cheat because the information is always just a click away. I liked how Ms. Cassidy explained the issue of cheating. She said that teacher just need to realize that information is everywhere now, and we need to just look at it as a collaboration. The student may base his or her ideas off of things they find on the internet, but the teacher needs to focus on making them build off of that found knowledge and creating it to be their own.

C4T #3

Dylan Blain

First Comment
In his first blog post he says that where he is working, the faculty is starting to use iPads to share videos of the lessons and sharing it with other members of the staff. He is a PE teacher, and he likes how it is easy to share different ideas he has for exercises with others. I told him that I am going to school to be a teacher and to coach volleyball or softball, and that I think that the idea of using iPads to share video footage with others on the staff is a great! It shows how technology can make being an educator so much easier.

Second Comment
In his second post, he says that using research informed ideas within his teaching has always been something he has tried to do, but it is difficult because he is a PE teacher, and his field often gets overlooked. He then gives a free option of finding research informed ideas about PE. I said that I agree with him and think that using research informed ideas while teaching is the best way to keep up with the best techniques, and that I will also do this when I become a teacher and a coach.

C4K March

Harper.
In Harper blog post she talkes about her mom, and how sweet she is to her.She also tells how she does not want to move out of her grandmothers house and move schools. I told her that I liked her post, and that she seemed to be very smart because she spelled all of her words correctly and did not have any run-on sentences.

Blake
The next comment I left was for Blake. He is from a small town and likes to hunt, fish, and play sports. In his post, he explains that he thinks blogging is a good tool to use in the classroom because it allows you to communicate with others from all over the world. I told him that he reminded me a lot of myself because I am also from a small town where hunting, fishing, and sports were the main things to do. I also told him that I just learned how to use a blog in my class EDM 310, and that I also think that a blog is a great way to communicate with people from all over the world and learn from what they have to offer.


Izzy
Izzy's post is a book review on the book Divergent. She says that she is not as brave as the character in the book. I told her that I was already thinking about reading this book because a lot of my friends have said that it was really good, and her comments on the book have made me want to read it even more.

Tyler
Tyler's post is about how Larry and Tracy, two people who have autism, came to his school and answered several of the students questions after they watched the movie based on the story of their life- Wretches and Jabbers. I told him that I thought it was great that Larry and Tracy actually came to his school and answered questions for them, and that it was an amazing experience because they can see what its like when a person has autism.

The group Sour Power
This blog post is about a man named Philip Gans who was captured and tortured in the Holocaust. I told him that it was a very informative post, but they needed to watch out for run-on sentences next time.