ACCESS - Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators, and Students Statewide

ACCESS is a program started by the state of Alabama similar to ALEX. ACCESS wants to provide students the chance to learn no matter how far away from the classroom they are. It allows high school students and teachers access to reliable information. It gives students a chance to take courses that might not be offered at their school by interactive videoconferencing. It will also offer more challenging classes for those who want them. This helps in trying to make all school equal by offering all classes to all students.

I think this is a great program although I do not think it will solve the problem of inequality between schools. I think it would be a great benefit for those who want more of a challenge or what to take a class not offered in their school. It could also benefit me as a teacher to take a class that relates to what I teach and try to enhance my class. This sounds like a great new program and I hope students take full advantage of what is being offered. For more information check out ACCESS.

ALEX - Alabama Learning Exchange

ALEX or the Alabama Learning Exchange is a new way to share information. The program is meant to be used by teachers, students, and parents. ALEX is a place where teachers and students can search for useful information that pertains to what they are teaching or studying. The site has many things to offer like web links, lesson plans for teachers, podcasts, and even some professional training.

I think that ALEX would be very useful to me as a teacher. It would give me some to go and easily look up information on topics I am teaching. I would be able to get help and ideas from other teachers. This would allow me to bring new ideas into my classroom that might benefit the students more. It would also benefit the students to have some where to go after school hours to get reliable help with school topics. I am excited to see how this project grows! For more information check out ALEX.

The New Media Literacies

Skills: judgement, negotiation, appropriation, play, transmedia navigation, simulation, collective, intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, multitasking

- What do you think of them?

o I think that students do need to have all of the skills so that they can make the best use out of technology. Like one person in the video said we are no longer just consumers of information but also producers.

- Are they really the 21st century skills that will be needed to be effective artists, citizens, workers?

o I think to make strong and appropriate presentations using information found on the web one would need these skills. The skills help the person find reliable information, sort the information, find media support like pictures, video, and sound. All of these are need for presentations today with companies and schools constantly wanting the next best thing. People today MUST know how to gather information from the web and effectively present it and that is where these skills come in handy.

- How many of these skills do you possess? Which ones?

o I am not sure how many of these skills I have. I think I have judgement when it come to reliable material. I also think I have the skill of negotiation, appropriation, play, performance, visualization, and multitasking.

- How will you acquire the others?

o I am not sure if I have transmedia navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, and distributed cognition. In order to gain these skills I would need to do some more research on what they are and what they entail. I would then practice the skills so that when it came time for me to really use them I would be prepared and use the skills effectively.

Dear Kaia and Intrepid Teacher: Singing Hearts

Dear Kaia is a blog by three year old Kaia with the help of her father, Mr. Raisdana. It started out as a way to show photos but turned into a way to document her life said her father. On her blog was a post about how her and her father went outside to explore and take pictures. Kaia shared her pictures on her blog and through a video essay. It was great to see a father teaching his child at such a young age how technology and learning go together.

Kaia’s blog does not end there. Mr. Chamberlain saw the blog and shared it his class as did many other who saw Mr. Raisdana’s tweet. Kaia was able to share and connect with students and classrooms all over the world. Mr. Raisdana even skyped with Mr. Chamberlain’s class to answer questions. I liked Mr. Raisdana’s comment on his blog that through things like this people are able to take chances and to learn beyond the classroom. Check out Dear Kaia.

Networked Student

The Networked Student video brought up some great ideas of how to teach students using technology. I am not sure I agree with having the entire course being based on social networking but I would definitely like to involve networking in a project. I agree that it is important to make connections with people and many different sources.

I also strongly agree with the video that students must be taught what to look for when researching and taught what is reliable information and what is not. This will help them find good and reliable websites and articles. The students will also need to be taught how to use a social bookmarking site, blogs, wikispaces, google scholar, online libraries and many different sources.

I think that this is a great idea to incorporate into the classroom. I liked how the student in the video shared his project and findings through a blog of his own and on other social networking sites. I hope that when the time comes I can be teacher that teaches students how to network.

Take a look at this amazing video.

This Is How We Dream

Dr. Miller starts off his speech talking about printed book and libraries. Today students may never step foot in their universities library because almost everything in online. Students can also not only access their universities resources but those of universities all over the world. He said that people’s workspace today is laptops and word processing. Books are now in print and digital copies.
There were changes that Dr. Miller also spoke about when it came to presenting information. Documents can now show pictures and video and can also come with background sound. People can also collaborate with others from all over the world by using video and conferencing programs. It is now longer just about the text of documents but about their visual and auditory presentation.
I really liked Dr. Miller’s comment that when it came to information on the web most of the restrictions are those that we place on ourselves. People are not only using video and music programs to compose information but also the actual web. One professor came up with several programs using the web. One would search all the bogs on the web and that instant and measure their mood. The program could show the happiest city in the world!

Check out the first part of his speech!

Duke and iPods

Duke University has incorporated the use of iPods into their classes. The iPods enhance class materials, lectures, and even assignments. The courses themselves are requiring the use of iPods and a variety of departments are using them. According to Duke iPods allow students to gather audio and video from lectures, can be used for field recording, store and file information, and serve as a study support tool.

I think using iPods in class would be great. According to an article by John Parrott many schools are using them in their music and foreign language classes. The students are able to download their lessons and then listen to them when riding the bus or other times when they weren't originally studying. Parrott says that using technology like iPods in the classroom appeals to the student's attraction to electronics and gadgets. It also allows them to be interactive with their study material. For more on using iPods in the classroom read Parrott's article Using iPods in the Classroom Promotes Interactive Learning and More Effective Studying.

iTunesU

I had never heard of iTunesU until my 310 EDM class. I was amazed to learn about all the information on iTunesU. One of the most bewildering things was that Universities were putting their classes up on iTunesU! I was in shock and then thought what an amazing idea. To me I see it as an easier way to share educational information since so many are using iTunes now.

Of coarse, like many things on the internet you have to be careful about the source. Such as the channels for learning languages, who knows what they are really teaching you! But overall I think it is great network to use to get information. I hope to explore it more in the future.

Dr. Alice Christie and WebQuests

I went and visited Dr. Christie's website and found a blog about WebQuest. WebQuest is a website of sorts that allows students to share about what they are doing in their classrooms. The teachers can pick the topic and then the students design the WebQuest. The format for each WebQuest is that there is an introduction, task, process, resources, evaluation, conclusion, reflection, extension, and notes to the teachers. This allows the student to share and get feed back from others.

I could definitely see me using this in my science classroom one day. The format for WebQuest is very similar to that of a lab report. This would be a great way for students to do lab report where they can show pictures and have links to other websites. To use WebQuest would be a great way to make lab reports fun and interactive.