My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete

Hi everyone, thanks for sharing this experience with me. I enjoyed being a part of this class and learning together. I wish the best for everyone and their future. We will continue on our way to being the future teachers of this world. Everyone have a great holiday season. Take Care!

My Learning Experience

I have learned many things in this class. I had never before used Google doc, or spreadsheets I have always used Excel and Word and I must admit that I like them better. But, through this class I have learned to use free tools from Google and I appreciate that. It wasn't always easy and often frustrating but, I learned anyway.
Podcasting was something new to me and I was not excited about participating because I am very private and I don't like my voice broadcast for everyone to here. It was Ok but not something that I would do again. The part of class that I like the most was learning how to add links and pictures to documents, this was great. I liked the ACCESS visit and was impressed. I also was interested in ALEX the ALT tags were learned to use were great and something I hadn't thought of before. Presentations I have done many times so this wasn't a new experience for me.

One thing that I would have wanted to do was spend more time in an ACCESS lab and experience a class and learn more about how they broadcast their classes and all of the technical features that go with it. In retrospect, I learned a lot in this class and some of it while kicking a screaming. I had gotten used to the programs that I have experience with and didn't see a need for these others to take their place. Maybe a little closed minded, sorry. This was a good experience.

EDM310 Blog Experience

I must admit that I have had very little to do with blogs until this class. I have read some blogs before but never had a blog myself. My experience with blogging is that it is great for someone else but I have little time for it. I am too busy to spend time blogging. Blogging reminds me of writing a journal and I was never into that either. Because of this class though, I was forced to see other blogs that I would never have seen before and I learned things I didn't know. It isn't that I don't "get out", it is just not something for me. I explore the internet I use technology, but writing a blog is not for me.

I have learned a lot in this class using blogs. I am not sure that the subjects were something that I would have chosen. Blogs are a good way of having a lot of information stored from all around the world by using links and gadgets that are easily accessed. It affords the opportunity to communicate with others over long distances that would otherwise be impossible. There are, I agree, a world of possibilities and discoveries and yes blogging is a good way of sharing this information. So, for those who enjoy blogging then I say go for it.

I read Brett Kittrell's blog and I found it to be interesting and he seemed to enjoy making the posts from the sound of his entries. His blog is well constructed, organized and full of information. The photos that he used were good and his blog was almost up to date. I know that he has spent a lot of time on his work. I appreciate the time it takes to construct such a blog. Maybe he has blogged before and maybe he likes it.

Blogs are used in some of the classes that I have observed in but not many. Mostly, what I see are tutorial websites and test preparation websites being used. I don't know if it is because of a lack of funding or the time that is needed for test preparation is more important but I just don't see that many in the classrooms I have seen so far. I might try it in my classes if there is enough interest and funding for the computers.

iTunesU

I viewed a documentary from Duke University covering HIV epidemic in South Africa. The title was Broken (HIV education film from South Africa), which was produced by MadaboutArt Productions. The short Documentary was a re-enactment of a father raping his daughter(Dolly) and the mother looking the other way when she was told by the brother that the rape had occurred. During this story it reflects the current attitudes of looking the other way in these crimes, which only propagates the spread of HIV and AIDS. The documentary was a public service type message and ends with a message from children to family to protect them because they are the future. It was very well done and I appreciated it.

ACCESS LAB

I went to Mary G. Montgomery to view their Access Lab. Mr. Rose was very kind and showed us a room filled with electronics from a cabinet filled with laptops and two plasma screens mounted on the wall. He told us about internet courses taught in that classroom and how his AP students have access to courses not taught in the school. This allows the students to become better prepared for college study. He showed us the ELMO they have in the class and VCS or video conferencing system in the classroom. There were two cameras and Mr. Rose had a condensing mike so that he could talk at a normal level and still be heard in classes being broadcast elsewhere. Mr. Rose controls everything from a master panel. This was very neat to see. I wish that I had had an opportunity to use a lab like this when I was in high school.

I hope as a teacher, I will have the opportunity to be a part of an access lab in the school where I will be teaching. It really does change the dynamics of the classroom. Students are no longer restricted to the curriculum offered at their school. Instead, they can reach out to other schools in other states and countries. Students can learn from classes taught anywhere in the world.

These labs are expensive but I don't what kind of price we can put on the educational advantage our children can have with a lab like this. We have to find the funding necessary to keep these labs working and running strong for the future.

EDM310 Class Podcast

The first podcast that I listened to was "Blogging and Teaching". This podcast was presented by Rachel Davis, Justin Tullis, and Myrenda Howze. The group as a whole had good information and interacted well with each other. Transitions were very smooth and everyone seemed relaxed. However, toward the end there seemed to be growing spaces of dead air between speakers. It sounded as if they had begun to run out of things to talk about and were trying to stretch what they had. The group spoke clearly and loudly enough, they could be well heard and it was pleasant to listen to.

The second podcast was "Can You Tube Be Used for Educational Purposes". The presenters were Adrienne Lynch, Joylyn Reese, and Brian Stevens. The group seemed to have researched their topic very well. It was very informative and they were able to show the pros and cons of You Tube. The only problem that I noticed was the transitions and they were a bit rough. Maybe they didn't have enough time together to coordinate their information for presentation. Toward the end the group began to fade a little and there was a little dead air in the broadcast, but it was great information.

The third podcast was "Reflections on The Lecture of Randy Pausch". The group was Brett Kittrell, Jenny Mosely, Taylor Irvin, and Bree Smith. Once again, I felt that there was good information in the content of the presentation. Perhaps, they could speak a little louder and more clearly. Their presentation was very enthusiastic but the transitions were a little rough. There was good group participation.

The fourth podcast was the one I helped present called, "College of Education Classes and Technology Used in Them". The group members were Kathryn Bentley, Kerrie Owens, and Hanna Nolan. I think were prepared and had good information but, I don't think that we interacted as much as we could have as a group. The presentation was given like three individual speeches. I need to speak more loudly and clearer but, I don't like the sound of my voice and this didn't surprise me. Everyone else was loud enough and clear enough to be heard well. We needed to interact more as a group.

Electronic Contact

For my electronic contact assignment I found a teacher in Cairo, Georgia who teaches 12th grade Economics classes and tenth grade World History. His name is Justin Amaro and he teaches at Cairo High School. He uses the computer lab for his remedial graduation classes and uses a program called USAtestprep.com to help his students prepare for the graduation exam and he finds it to be very successful. In his Economics classes he uses the same program to help prepare his students for their End-Of-Course-Test. This is a state issued test for all economic students. He also uses an interactive program called InvestSmart that emulates a stock portfolio. Its website is investsmart.coe.uga.edu. Here, he creates a class and his students compete to see who can make the most (or lose the least) amount of money over the course of the semester through buying and selling stocks. He uses powerPoint in most of his lessons

He also teaches a remediation class for kids who have failed Prealgebra. The school uses a program called OdysseyWare for this. Here, students can practice problems and get immediate feedback. Mr. Amaro feels this program has too many loopholes that students can find and it is not very effective. However, the test preps are very effective and adds to the success rate of his students.

I asked Mr. Amaro about how these programs are funded and he said that they have money earmarked in the budget for them. The programs I talked about are easy to subscribe to and use. The test preps would be easy to implement in a school that doesn't have much established provided they have a computer lab with internet access. The kids in his class love the games and practice questions and practice tests that allow them to become comfortable with the tests. The tests are very representative of the actual tests.

I think that I could use programs that would allow for test simulation in my classroom to help students with test anxiety. The practice would help lower the anxiety for better performance during the real thing. Programs would also benefit my students that are not into traditional classroom settings and get bored easily.