Blog Post #5

Who is Scott McLeod?
In my opinion in two words I can sum up who Scott McLeod is, "Technology Genius". But I can also say that he has done some great things in his life to help other people.
       Before I read about Scott McLeod, I read his blog about Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?. I enjoyed reading this blog and the way he worded it. I agreed with most of the stuff he stated. There are a lot of young kids that have cell phones and that have Facebook. I feel as though sometimes that can be unsafe and very distracting. But when you think of technology as being computers and Smartboards then you have a different outlook. They are helping our kids today learn and get ready for what ever lies ahead in their lives. When I was in elementary school and also middle school we did just use pen and paper. It was not always a bad thing, but I personally think that if I had learned from a Smartboard I would have loved it.  
       Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor of Education Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He is also the Founding Director of Castle. Which stands for UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education. Wow..... That is a mouth full to say. But with the help of his Co-Director Dr. Joan Hughes, they are helping build the teachers and leaders of tomorrow. Castle has partnered up with some major software companies to help schools that are suffering and students as well. All through Dr. McLeod's journey in helping people and creating Castle he has earned many awards.
I really enjoyed reading and learning about Dr. McLeod. I hope that one day I can help people just like him.

The iSchool Initiative and ZeitgeistYoungMind's
By: Travis Allen.

I would have to say after watching these two videos, I am blown away at the things the I-touch can do and will possibly be able to do. Travis Allen is a pure genius for coming up with this idea. I would have never thought about that. I loved his question in the video The iSchool Initiative , " Does Technology belong in the Classrooms ? You decide. In some ways it is already happening, but using a I-Touch for most everything would be taking it one step further. Would it help with saving teachers and helping with budgets cuts? I personally don't see how it could. If you see how much a I-touch runs for and see how many students you are having to but them for, I just don't see where the money situation would get any better.
     I feel as though in my opinion that having more technology in the classrooms today will be distracting. It would help kids learn more about technology and also help them to learn to be more responsible with checking their homework online. I really think Travis thought of a great idea, but I am just not sure where it would really fit in a classroom.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir
   
   WOW... I am almost speechless after watching this video. This is purely amazing how Mr. Eric Whitacre got all of there people to sing over there computers and come together. It was 158 people from 12 different countries.  They sound like they are all together in the same room. This use of the internet is pure genius. Along with watching that video I also watched the Introduction to the Virtual Choir. In this video he just explained how the virtual Choir got started. I think this amazing. He got everyone to come as one and share one common thing... Singing.

Teaching in The 21st Century
By: Kevin Roberts


    Kevin Roberts, as well as everyone else is seeing teaching changing in front of our eyes. I have stated in many of blogs that technology is taking over. If anyone has a question about anything dealing with life or school they just go to google and find it out. The internet and our cell phones contain everything we pretty much need to know in our everyday life. Mr. Roberts is right that all these tools we are using are not for entertainment anymore. They are for us to be engaged in.
     I am a Physical Education major and I was thinking if Technology is going to affect my teaching down the road. In some ways I think it will and some ways I don't. There are so many exercise videos and lesson plans on the internet now, that it makes me think that it will affect me as an educator.

Reading Rockets

    I found this website interesting and very useful. When I got to the Reading Rockets website I found a powerpoint on some different apps that could be very useful to students. While I was looking through the apps, one app caught my eye. This app is called Speech with Milo: Sequencing. This app deals with sequencing sentences. The child will try to put three parts of a sentence in order. When the child puts the sentence in order, the story will come to life. This app is for Pre-K thru 4th grade.
    I believe this app would be great to share in the classroom as well as with your children at home. It is fun and entertaining and makes learning seem fun. This website looks very useful and I can say I will be using this in the future when I start my teaching career.

Project #9a: Timeline About Me

Blog Post #4

Langwitches

I read the blogLangwitches. I loved how the teacher let the students do their own podcast about the book Vacation under the Volcano. What I really found interesting about what the blogger said was that even the shy and scared students wanted to participate in the podcast. I know that as a young child I always loved to get in front of a camera and talk or have a recorder and talk into it. With the teacher letting the students do the podcast they are most likely comprehending the book better. The blog also stated that the students were so quite and attentive while they were making their podcast and even while they were waiting they were. Doing this podcast gave the students the opportunity to get better acquainted with technology and learning to podcast. I think this was a great learning experience for these students.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

In the video and article by Joe Dell, The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classrooms, Joe explained how podcasting can be very helpful for students. That deals with interaction with the computers, learning how to deal with podcast, and also helping the students comprehend the materials more. I love how in the video he used the example of the young girl that was worried about staying home from school sick because she had a test the next day. I think it was super beneficial that the teacher posted the study guides on I Tunes.
If every teacher had the knowledge and ideas of posting work and study guides like that, sick students would be helped a lot. Students making podcast learn so much. I myself have never done a podcast before but I am super excited to be able to learn how to do one. This will help me in the future while teaching my students. I am so glad that podcasts are available for everyone and i encourage everyone to start making one.

Curriculum 21 Podcast

In  What is Podcasting? I learned more about what i had to do to make my podcast. I am really excited to make the podcast with my group. Before I viewed this video I had no idea that a podcast was a cross between a "broadcast" and a "I Pod". It is like a radio broadcast. It is really amazing to me that you can edit your podcast in so many ways from removing background noise to edition which parts you actually want to out in the podcast. I cant wait to make my podcast.

Project #6

Post #2 C4T

C4T #1
 I was assigned to read and blog on WhatEdSaid's Blog. I can say that there are some amazing posts. I really enjoyed reading them. I know I was only supposed to read one and comment on it. But I really got interested and kept reading. I commented on the Post 10 steps to get teachers into blogging. I loved the post.
      -Mckinley

WhatEdSaid,

My name is Mckinley Kennedy and i am a student in Dr. Strange’s EDM 310 class at the University of South Alabama. When i found out that i had to take this class i was shocked. I keep asking myself,” why would a Physical Education major need to take a class about blogging”? Well after reading this blog i can understand that it would be really useful to have a blog and to read other teachers blogs. It could really help with finding new ideas of what to teach to my students. I could talk to other teachers and share my ideas with them, as well as them sharing their ideas.
Sitting down and sharing my blog posts with teachers would be an amazing way to reach out to them. I think it is a way of lending a helping hand to first time teachers. I really enjoyed reading your blog about this. It really out the whole blogging experience in perspective for me. It taught me that time and effort in blogging can make a difference


Thanks, Mckinley Kennedy


C4T #2


This week i got lucky again and got to post a comment on the same blog. I read the post Learning by Playing. I loved reading about what fun they had but also watching the movie that her grand nieces made of each other. They were so precious. I feel that creativity played a huge role in those little girls having fun. They also used technology. Since that is what we have been writing about in our past blogs i felt as though this was approaite  post to comment on.


- Mckinley


WhatEdSaid,
First let me say they are too cute. I am so happy that you shared that with us bloggers and also future educators. I just loved seeing how creative they were. In our edm 310 class we have been having to write post on creativity and also on technology. I think both are very important in the education system. If kids aren t forced to be creative then they are just going to go through school getting boring grades. I feel as though technology is one major role in education too. I have a little 2 year old niece and she loves playing with her moms I phone. She will take pictures with it, and also loves watching her goofy movies on it. I feel as though that keeps her interested in learning new stuff. Thanks you so much for posting this again. It was really great.


-Mckinley

Blog Post #3

Peer Review: Public or Private


In this post i had to read Paige Ellis' Blog Post #12. I thought it was really helpful. I also had to watch a video on Peer Editing. I had to peer review Lacie Brother's Blog Post #2. I feel as though leaving a comment on the blog publicly is better that way others can see what you had to say and they can go from there. But in some ways privately is nice too. Maybe if there were a lot of corrections, that way you would not embarrass them. But I think Lacie did a great job explaining everything and telling why she felt a certain way about he technology in schools or creativity in schools. I really enjoyed reading her post.

Technology in Special Education

This video was really great to watch. I love how they showed a boy that could not read without someone there to read to him and now he has an ipod that can read to him. It really showed me how technology is important in the classroom with special education. I know that with special education children they can become bored by just looking at a white board, but with smart boards and laptops it interests them. They want to be able to play on them and it will keep them entertained. 

    I was just shocked at the way that when the teacher put a piece of paper with letters in front of the student he could barely spell a word out. But with having the computer and the mouse he was able to do it. It brought tears to my eyes to see that they were able to learn and really be interested in the activites they were doing. It was all because of technology. 

How the I pad Works with Academics for Autism

After watching the video on How the I pad Works with Academics for Autism I thought it was so great that the I pad has such a great impact on a student with Autisms life. I can tell you from experience, my mom is a para-professinal at a Elementary school. she is a 1 on 1 with an Autistic Child. Trying to get him to learn off a smart board was great. But he was not always able to be hands on with it. Just recently my mom got a I pad, Sam is always on it and is learning so much. All he needed to be was hands on and be able to learn that way. He is now learning a lot more and is staying focused with his school work. 

         The app I chose was ABC animals. It deals with letters, phonics and handwriting for preschoolers. This app I believe would be great for a special education student. It will help with learning the letters of the alphabet and also learning their animals.

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Wow... Words can not explain how shocked I am at the numbers on Gary Hayes website. I realize that technology is becoming a big thing, but I didnt realize how big till i just saw the video. Technology is here and I think it is going to get bigger. Technology will soon be our lives. I mean dont get me wrong, it consumes our social lives now but it is now entering our classrooms. What a amazing thing!

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

Michael Wesch is a genius in my eyes. This video shocked me. I think I am really one of the lucky ones as one student stated. I get my college and books paid for through PACT. So I was never realizing that some students will be in debt and you will pay a lot for books and end up never using them. I hope that there have been many people that have watched this video and realized that college is expensive. 

C4C #2

In this post i had to read Paige Ellis' Blog Post #12. I thought it was really helpful. I also had to watch a video on Peer Editing. I had to peer review Lacie Brother's Blog Post #2. I think Lacie did a great job explaning her ideas through her own words.

Project #5

Blog Post #2

Did You Know? 3.0- A John Strange 2012 Version
This video by Dr. Strange was covering and explaining the statistics of technology, jobs, and of course the future. I am very impressed that so many children and also children from other countries are getting ahead in this crazy world. After watching this video I am absolutely shocked about some of the statistics that were put in this video.
When going through my daily life I am not even paying attention to the fact that I send that many text messages a day and that I am constantly on my computer. I have always though that was a bad thing. In my opinion with some of the parents getting their children laptops when they are young is giving them a head start on technology. I do after school care at a local school and I am so shocked that so many of those children know how to use the computer and even the I-Phones. Can you imagine what our future leaders of America will be like? We will have some really smart technology people.


Mr. Winkle Wakes
In the video Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman, it is telling the story of Mr. Winkle who wakes up after falling asleep for 100 years. When he wakes he is shocked to see that the world has changed so much. The technology in the hospitals and the offices have even changed. He was worried that he was sick, so he went to the hospital; he realized it wasn’t going to make him any better. He finally found a school. He went in and felt safe. He soon realized that the schools had never really changed but besides they had computers.
In my opinion it is great that the schools now have all this technology, when I was in elementary schools we had computers but we didn’t have the smart boards. The smart boards were an amazing invention. It is getting the students more hand on learning. I myself learn better by hands on activities. I feel as though if we had those when I was in school, I would have done a lot better.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity.
In this video Sir Ken Robinson talks about creativity in education and how important that it is. Half of the kids now are not as creative as they should be. It is always just about getting it done and getting a grade. In order to make a subject fun, the teacher should be creative in teaching it. Sir Ken Robinson talks about teaching math and the teachers dancing around. In my opinion if my teacher started dancing around to a math problem then I would actually want to learn. As I said in my paragraph above I am a hands on learner. I would think that dancing and playing games with a subject would be a great way to learn.
Now I understand that teachers mostly do it in Kindergarten and all through elementary. But think about this, If teachers made it fun in high school don’t you think we would have more students graduating? We would have more graduates having better jobs.

A Vision for 21st Century Learning
In this video A Vision for 21st Century Learning the main point they say is that the traditional way of learning in the classroom is passive. I think technology is really important in education. I don’t think that books and lectures are as necessary. I feel like in the near future technology will take over the classroom. Students are learning a lot more through technology. It is opening their eyes to bigger and better things. The students will be more successful in school and beyond that.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts
As I have said in several paragraphs above technology is awesome. Vicki Davis has a very interesting point in this video, she said that when you only have pen and paper that is where students are going to have a difficult time. In the classroom you will face so many different personalities with wanting to learn. You will have some students that are reading learners then you will have some that are hands on. That is where technology comes into play.
It was great to hear that Mrs. Davis sticks to the curriculum but also listens to the students’ interests and what they want to learn. She lets them “brainstorm” some ideas and that helps the students also let them teach themselves and also to teach Vicki Davis some things too.