Week 6 Blog : Due February 21, 2010

Advice from Alice Christie

Dr. Christie had some very good ideas for teachers and students. She seems to be very aware of all the technology to which we have access. Her website helped me develop my own ideas. I especially enjoyed her information on Electronic Teacher Portfolios. I'm a very organized person, and any tool that helps me stay organized is my best friend. This portfolio seemed like such a good idea because it lays everything you need to know out in an orderly fashion. You can organize it any way you'd like which I think is important because not all people organize things in the same way. I'm not a big fan of templates. If I were to create an electronic portfolio as a teacher, I would probably have it divided by subjects. I would also be sure to clearly state which Alabama Course of Study objective each activity covered. This would assure me that I was covering everything that needed to be done. I also like the point she made about being a model for your students. If you have an electronic portfolio, your students will be more likely to create one of their own. As a student at South Alabama, I've already had experience creating an electronic portfolio.
Dr. Christie also had some very good ideas posted in her Web Design section. Most of the schools I've encountered today have their own website. Some even have separate websites by grade level or by teacher. I think this is a wonderful idea! If parents have access to computers (which more and more parents are getting), they have an excellent insight into their child's classroom. I would create my own website for my class. This would be a place to post the work the children have completed. It would also be a place where parents could contact me. Homework could be posted on this website. It would also have a blurb about me so parents and students could get to know me a little better before ever meeting me. I would continue to use the old fashioned methods of parent conferences, homework, etc because I know that not all parents will have access to the internet, but, for those who do, a website would be a very useful tool.

iTunesU

This new technology was a amazing invention. It's great for students and teachers! As a student, you can find almost anything you'd like to learn about posted somewhere in iTunesU. They have lessons on almost any subject. You can learn a new language through this program. It's also very easy to use. One perk about iTunesU is that, if you have a technologically-advanced teacher, he or she may post lectures. This is very beneficial if you missed a day of class and needed to catch up. Not only can you catch up on lectures, but you can do exploring of your own. Teachers are not the only people who submit things to iTunesU. Museums also do their fair share of postings. You can explore many places in the world just by logging on to iTunesU. There are videos and podcasts to check out as well. iTunesU is a great tool for students because it covers almost any subject imaginable.
As a teacher, iTunesU is also beneficial. I believe that if I were a college professor, I would post my lectures on iTunesU. I may not do this as an elementary teacher because it is VERY rare that elementary teachers actually lecture. As an elementary teacher, however, I would use iTunesU for educational videos to show my students. I think this would be the biggest use I would get from this program. Young children love to watch videos. This thing about videos with a younger crowd is that they don't always realize they are learning from them. This can be very useful in a restless classroom. You can learn almost everything you'd need to know about iTunesU at http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/

iPods in the Classroom

I found a wonderful website (http://www.pre-kpages.com/ipods/ )with many ideas for using an iPod in the early childhood classrooms. I'm interested in this aspect of the iPod because I plan to teach the younger students. Music is a large part of learning, and the iPod is the perfect place to store your educational music. It is small and portable. Speakers are easy to transport and fairly cheap. iPods allow you to organize your music in playlists. It's perfect! It's the perfect alternative to cassette and CD players. It can do everything those can do, plus more! You can still record yourself reading a book and have students listen to it at a particular center in class. Podcasts are another plus for iPods. You can create a podcast on any subject you wish to cover! If you want to have your students listen to an educational blurb about endangered animals, for example, than you can create a podcast. All they have to do is listen. It will be a nice change of pace for the students. These can also be sent home to parents to give them information they need to know.
Duke University did a study of the educational uses of iPods. They provided each student with an iPod at the beginning of the year. They took a survey at the end of the year to see exactly how teachers and students used the technology in learning. Most students used the recording feature the most. It was easy to record class lectures and listen to them again later. This created some concern from the professors because they feared class attendance would drop if the lectures would be available online later. Duke decided not to give each first-year student an iPod the next year. However, those students taking classes that used the iPod the most would still be provided with one. I think this is a step in the right direction. We just have to be sure that whatever happens with technology, the students are still learning.

The Technologically Literate Teacher

Dr. Strange has created a wonderful Wiki about a tech-literate teacher. My favorite part about this Wiki is that it's interactive. This promotes using technology to learn about technology. I'm not technologically literate at all. Before entering EDM 310 this spring semester, I truly believed that I was tech-literate. There is an entire world of technology of which I was unaware. Some things I was aware of, but I had no idea how to use them. This won't do me any good as a teacher. I will continue to use this Wiki in my teaching career.

Comments for Kids

This week, I watch a video by Mya about her trip to the Life Education Bus. She seemed to really enjoy her time there. Last week, I read a "Book Blurb" by Zakaria about the Boxcar Children series. These were some of my favorite books when I was younger. The first Comments 4 Kids that I did was for Room 227's Blog. They had a video called "Bag the Bags." It was very informative, and it's nice to see them doing their share to save our planet.