Reflection on Podcast Project

Podcasting was a lot of fun. Especially when establishing it with a partner. It was a lot of fun to think of an entertaining script. My partner, Hannah, and I made our podcast like a cheesy radio station talk show. I feel we did a very good job in summarizing our article and giving our reaction to it. Our article was on the flipped classroom idea and how it was "born". Hannah and I had good interaction with our scripted conversation. It was also a neat experience to learn how to do a task with someone, without having any given tutorials. We did end up having to look up certain steps in saving a podcast, but otherwise everything else went very smoothly. It was really fun looking for good sound effects that would fit in out show. This task was a lot of fun to the both of us and I think it would be a lot of fun to do a follow up or watch someone's reaction to hearing our podcast. Here is a link to the article we discussed in our podcast: http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/how-the-flipped-classroom-is-radically-transforming-learning-536.php
 

Reflection Ch. 8 of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

Chapter 8 of the book really focuses on podcasting and includes video and screencasting and live streaming. The book does a great job on emphasising that podcasting is "the creation and distripbution of amateur radio" (p. 112.) This chapter really gets me thinking about how this kind of technology can help the kids in the classroom. Podcasting and live streaming is a great way for the students to get involved with current issues and topics. It is always good to have discussion within a classroom and doing podcasts or live streaming is a fun and interactive way of getting the students involved. The book says that "podcasting is yet another way for them to be creating and contrubuting ideas to a larger conversation" (p. 115.) As a future teacher, I will definitely try to incorporate podcasting or live streaming for a fun way to get the students active and involved with their community by interviews and such.

Reflection Ch 4-5 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

I thought these two chapters were really interesting. In fact, chapter 4 really impacted my thinking about wikis. I have lived with all high school teachers and even college professors forbidding the usage of wikipedia in any research paper or essay. However, these teachers/professors just focused on the thought of anyone can edit the website and make a mistake or vandalize the information. They didn't realize that there are constantly people checking the entries and correcting them. It's also interesting to understand that wikipedia is an unbiased and unopinionated resource.  The book shows that wikipedia is said to be the most reliable encyclpedia. As a future teacher, I would not detour kids from using wikipedia but encourage them to use it for quick (hence the name wiki) information. The book even suggests having your students collaborate and negotiate editing on the wikipedia (or other wiki sites,) which is a great idea.

Chapter 5 was really interesting because I have never heard of Really Simple Syndication. It's really neat to understand that a bunch of websites that obtain a similar subject can be put all into one. Like the book says, it would be convenient if your have 30 websites that constantly update new information that you want to share with your students. You can set up a Really Simple Syndication to simplify and convert all the text from all the websites and put it under one. This way you don't have to waste time looking for all the different websites. As a future teacher, I would definitely use this idea to get my class more organized.

Reflection on Growing Up Online Video

This video really opens your eyes to how dangerous technology can be for a student, or anyone in that manner. Without using online safety, there are many risks that a person can take. Online activities can create a hostile environment from strangers, people you may know, or even yourself. However, when online activities are performed in a safe manner, it can be very beneficial. As future teachers, we need to make sure all of our students are being educated on the safety precautions that are needed to ensure a safe online environment. We also need to show our students the correct and safe procedures to be online. We don't want to scare them, just educate them in order to guide them.

Reflection on "14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging"

I feel that all the steps are very crucial to make blogging successful within the classroom. However, I really like step number 7. I believe reaching out to other classrooms around the world and interacting with them would not only be a learning experience, but fun! I also believe that interacting with classrooms around the world would intrigue the students and open their eyes beyond their classroom and classmates. As Mrs. Ripp explains, you can use this opportunity for other subject areas, such as geography. It would add much smoother transitions between lessons and allow students to make connections. This would also be a neat and free way to replace pen pals. You would not have to pay for stamps, and the students can interact with more than just one other student across the globe.

Reflection Ch. 1 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts...

Chapter 1 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms
 
Enduring understanding: The advancement of technology is constantly changing how teachers have to teach in their classrooms and interact with their students. We need to have the understanding that everyone is at different technological abilities including yourself. Often, students may know more than the teacher. We, as teachers, need to work with our students to integrate technology into the classroom successfully and adapt as a whole.
 
Questions for chapter.
1. How is the advancement of technology changing our classrooms?
     Answer: There is always new technology being used in the classroom, and as teachers we need to use that technology responsibly and effectively to enhance our students learning.
 
2. What challenges will teachers face with using the changes of technology in the classroom?
     Answer: Some of the challenges may include; students being more technologically advanced, distractions, and multitasking. As teachers, we need to be willing to learn too. We need to adapt to the advances of technology. We also need to keep the distractions limited by keeping the students engaged.

Multitasking

Multitasking

The main point of the Frontline videos about multitasking were very interesting to watch. The professionals were explaining how it is very hard to completely multitask. The only time that multitasking can be completed is if each task uses a completely different part of the brain. For instance, you can listen to music and read. However, if the music has lyrics, then you are no longer able to multitask. It was also interesting to hear all the college students say how good they are at multitasking and that if they didn't multitask they would be bored or behind in class. The game just proves that multitasking is very difficult to succeed in. Especially when both tasks use the same part of the brain.

It definitely opens my eyes to see how easy it is to get distracted by technology. However, since technology is so useful and helpful, as a teacher you don't want to ban all technology. Therefore, to be a successful teacher, you would have to limit the distractions to prevent multitasking. Putting a block on social networking and perhaps certain websites. You have to have the notion that students will find ways around these blocks. However, at that point the students have made their own decisions and will receive grades suitable for their efforts.