Final Reflection

Project #13

Project 15 required the members of each group to use collaborating tools such as Google, Skype, Facetime, or cell phones. Another requirement was that the members could not meet face to face. Therefore, to communicate with one another we had to use one of the tools mentioned above. When we got our project together up until the time it was ready to video, we met and then videoed our segment.

The tools that we have been taught to use during EDM 310 have been very helpful especially for projects such as this one. It makes it much easier to communicate when not everyone can meet. Most, if not all, of these collaboration tools can be used in my future classroom. Skype and Facetime could be used to commicate with others during a class on a specific topic we are studying and Google/Google Docs will definitely used to collaborate among the class for at home homework.

Final Project #16

Project 15: Smart Board

Blog Post Assignment #13

Back to the Future

Check out the video HERE

This video was made by students at Kansas State University. A Google document was made that asked the students what it is like to be a student today. The students were invited to answer the question and make edits to the document. By the time the document was completed, 367 edits were made to the document. The video then shows students sitting in a classroom holding up a piece of notebook paper with different random facts about being a student today. Some students said how much time in a day it takes them to eat, how much they sleep, or how much time is spent doing homework, ect. With all of the hours added together it came out to be 26.5 hours a day. So how does all of these tasks possibly get done? It is call MULTITASKING! If we did not know how to multitask, we would never get any sleep.

I enjoyed watching this video. It is amazing that students in 2007 felt the same way about technology then, that I do now. Technology has definitely brought an entire new way of learning into classrooms. Some teachers are not using textbooks any more and relying strictly on technology and the web. It is really no need to be required to by a $100.00 textbook whenever it will never be opened or whenever you can find the same information on the Internet. Technology can help save some money by possibly cutting down on the money spent on textbooks.

A Vision of Students Today

This is a video done by students at Kansas State University. There was a document made in Google that was sent out to ask the students what it is like being a student in the world today. The students were encouraged to answer the questions and edit the document. There were 367 edits made to the document by the time they were finished. Then the video shows the students sitting inside their classroom holding a piece of paper with random facts about what it’s like being a student today. There were some student that wrote how much time in a day it takes them to eat, how much sleep they get, time dedicated to homework, and so on. When all of the hours were added to together, it totaled up to be 26.5 hours a DAY. There is just one question, how do they get all of this done? The answer is multitasking! If we did not multitask, we would never sleep!
I thought this video was very informative. It is crazy to see that students five years ago are saying the same things we say about technology today! Technology has changed the way we teach, learn, and communicate in the classroom. There are even some schools that are ‘going green’ with no textbooks, paper, or pencils in their classrooms and using strictly technology. I think that technology might even help schools in saving money in the long run because no textbooks will not have to be bought, and honestly whatever is in the textbook you can more than likely find on the web!

Check out the video HERE!

C4K Summary: November

This post was left for Genna, you can check out her blog HERE!

This is what Genna wrote in her post:
Louis XVI was sentenced to death on December 11, 1792. He was accused of bribery, lies, and many other things. Here is a list of all the crimes he was accused of. He lost his head on January 21, 1793. There was nothing he could do to get out of it, even though the accusations were sketchy and did not have much back up. His crimes were supposedly just a way to get rid of him.

Louis went up the steps to the guillotine in nervous manner. In an account from his confessor, it is said that he was very scared. However, he regained courage and remained calm, at least on the outside. He stood before the crowd and said his last words. King Louis announced, “I die innocent of all the crimes imputed to me. I pardon the authors of my death, and pray God that the blood you are about to shed will never fall upon France.” Then, he laid down on the guillotine and awaited his death.

The executioners pulled the rope and the blade struck his head. They held his head up for everyone to see. The people yelled, “Long live the Republic!” The next years to come were those full of terror. Anyone could stand the same fate as Louis XVI. He was just the start of the bloody revolution.

My Comment: Hi Genna! I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post, very informative! I couldnt help to notice your impeccable vocabulary skills! I can tell that you are so smart and you work very hard at your school work. Also, I love the use of your ‘link’ in your second sentence. We are learning how to do that also, and I am a quite bit older than you! Keep up the hard work and embrace this site you have, you will use tools like these lots in your future classrooms!

Kayla Parazine


The next student I left a comment for was Nelson. You can check out Nelsons blog HERE!

Nelsons post this week was about a lady by the name of Ms. Dietra from the Poarch Creek Indian Reservation and spoke to his fourth grade class and he posted a picture of him.

My comment: Nelson, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. It sounds like your class got a great presentation from Ms. Dietra from the Poarch Creek Indian Reservation! Did you enjoy it? What did she speak about?

Kayla Parazine

My Personal Learning Network

This class has taught me so much about technology. With my personal learning network it is easy to access tools that I need such as, google docs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Not only have I learned these different websites I am actually applying them in other classes besides this one. My PLN helps me navigate more efficiently now. I have added all of the different items to my Symbaloo. Symbaloo makes it very easy to navigate the multiple websites; you can even set it up as your home page, which I have done.

C4T #4

This post was entitled Motivate Students to Learn without Rewards and Mr. Prater wrote about behavior management and how it tells us that we need to give something back when we take something away. We do not always get the polite students in our class, so how do we handle that? Some students will come from a less than ideal home so how do we motivate them? Grades are never enough and Mr. Prater rejects physical rewards, incentives, and bribes because they will not result in long-term changes in behaviors. However he says there are three alternatives that are easy to implement into the classroom and they are: Showing genuine care for your students, Demonstrate a constant excitement about personal learning, and introduce appropriate challenges.

My comment: Hi, I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. Your post was so inspirational and helpful for me as a prospective elementary teacher! I agree that genuine care has to be shown towards our students. I have heard that teachers are not only teachers, they are counselors, friends, brothers, sisters, etc. to those that do not have a person of that role in that child’s life. All students want to know that they are cared about and the outcomes in the classroom I would think would be more positive! In our EDM 310 class we are learning lots about technology in the classroom and how it engages and motivates students more. Like you said above, grades are not enough motivation anymore so therefore, we have to come up with other ways to motivate our students intrinsically.


Mr. Prater's post this week was titled "Loving the Unloveable Student". From the title you can probably guess what this post was about. Mr. Prater was informed that he was going to have to teach math to students that had been held back and at first he was not happy about it. His principal asked him the question, "what are you going to do about it?" so he decided that he was going to love these students not mope about it. Because of his attitude change, the students excelled and some went on to be doctors, lawyers, and teachers.

My comment: Mr. Prater, I am a student at the University of South Alabama in EDM 310. Your post was so inspiring to me, as well as many others from the comments I see! You have definitely put into perspective for me on how important it is to love on our students not matter what. We never know what they can accomplish if we show them love and respect. I love the story about the young man who was so excited because his father took him out for pizza because he did well on an assignment. That shows me the importance of staying in contact with the parents about the students’ progress. This was so inspiring, and I will definitely apply this love concept into my classroom! Thank you

Progress Report for Final Project

My group started meeting on November 12 which was a Monday and we have been meeting every Monday and Wednesday since then. The Wednesday we return from Thanksgiving break we plan to record our video. In our video we are touching on two different topics. The first is what prospective students need to know before entering Dr. Strange's EDM 310 classroom. Next is what students will need to know and expect in the class. We plan on this video being 15-20 minutes long.

Blog Post #12

For this weeks blog post we are suppose to come up with our own assignment. I immediately knew what I wanted to do! There is a teaching concept entering classrooms today that is known as Whole Brain Teaching. Never heard of it? No worries, this assignment will help familiarize yourself with it and help you to apply it to any area of study!

1. Watch this 8 minute and 48 second video of Chris Biffle demonstrating whole brain teaching. How To Begin Whole Brain Teaching: 1

2. Watch this six minute and 34 second video of an actual teacher using whole brain teaching in her first grade classroom. Whole Brain Teaching: 1st Grade Classroom

3. Write a blog post about what you think of whole brain teaching. Do you think it is silly, stupid, useful, helpful?

4. Get to know the creator of whole brain teaching Chris Biffle and write a paragraph about who he is.

You can follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisBiffle
Want to become certified in WBT? Follow this link to learn how!
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Whole Brain Teaching is a method that integrates an effective classroom management system with learning approaches that tap the way your brain learns best. This approach is amazingly effective, and fun for both the teacher and students.I think whole brain teaching is a wonderful concept to incorporate into the classroom. It works well with any subjects! It seems to help manage the classroom better than any management tips I have ever heard or ever observed. It might have seemed a little absurd when I was first introduced to this concept, but I quickly realized it was a must to incorporate into the classroom.

Chris Biffle is the author of seven books (McGraw-Hill, HarperCollins) on critical thinking, reading and writing. He has received grants from the U.S. Department of Education and served on the Harvard based Perseus Project. In the last 10 years, Chris has established himself as nationally recognized authority on teaching challenging students; he has been lead presenter at over 50 Whole Brain Teaching conferences, attended by 5,000+ educators. Thousands of instructors across the United States and around the world base their teaching methods on his free Whole Brain Teaching ebooks.

Blog Post #11

Mrs. Cassidy's Class

In Mrs. Cassidy's first grade classroom they use many approaches to technology. Some of these include: blogging, websites, Wiki, Skype, and even the students Nintendo DS'. Mrs. Cassidy set up blogs for all of her students. This allows them to work on their writing skills. She and the students particularly like this because it is not just Mrs. Cassidy reading their work, but the whole world! The students write usually about a sentence or so a day and they get feedback from lots of viewers. Their teacher set it up on their blogs so they can see how many people have visited their blog that day. Mrs. Cassidy sees this as a reinforcement for her students. This tool also allows them to be more focused on what they are writing. Another perk of using technology in her classroom is that the parents get to follow their children's progress. They do not get to post everything online, but most of their writing is online and their parents have access to see their child's progress in the classroom all while learning to use technology. The children have been taught by their teacher that safety is crucial while on the internet. They only go by their first names, no last names are displayed. Also, if their picture is up, their name will not be directly beside it. Before the students use technology, papers are sent home to the parents to explain what their children will be doing exactly. Some other items the students use are Wikis. This helps them ask questions to others about topics such as traditions and rituals from around the world.

In the Skype video with Dr. Strange, Mrs. Cassidy tells us that she got involved with technology because she was given five computers and that was enough to create a center, so she thought why not! She realizes that there are some teachers who still like the traditional way of teaching, but as she said, the students love it. It can become an issue when teachers do not like or care to learn about technology because it deprives their students of the world they live in. Like Mrs. Cassidy stated: "technology is apart of our world and it's not going away". I think Mrs. Cassidy has a great approach to technology and I think as long as we are using technology in the classroom there will not be much room for impediments. From what I can tell, technology is engaging to our students, not distracting. I think there are many benefits to having technology in the classroom. By allowing students to have their own blog, access to a class blog, or learn how to navigate a website is beneficial to them. Of course they would have to be taught what is right and wrong when it comes to browsing the internet. Nonetheless, technology might be strange to us, but it is not strange to them. This is their world and they have to be taught how to navigate it for future purposes!

Check out Mrs. Cassidy's First Graders here!
Check out the Skype conversation between Dr. Strange and Mrs. Cassidy here!

C4K Post #8

September 25th
This is what Jazmyn wrote for her blog post:
Hi my name is jazmyn and i like to curl and to do girl guides.what is your favorite thing to do?I live in rocky mountin house we live by alot of moutins in canada.people love to do summer and spring and winter sports.what is your name?i have a dog and a fish they are two of my favorite animals.whats your favorite animals or pets?we have lots of wildlife here like birds and deer bears moose and owls.moose and owls are very rare.i also love marine animals.I love to read its my favorite thing to do after school. do you like to read?

Comment: Hi Jazmyn! My name is Kayla Parazine and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. It is so neat that you live in Canada! I have visited there once. I went to Niagara Falls and it was beautiful. I just got married this summer so I stay really busy working, going to school, and being a wife!

October 30, 2012
Dr. Vitulli and Dr. Santoli are in Ireland and I was to comment on the Potato Fest has Begun and this is what i left: Hi Dr. Vitulli and Dr. Santoli! I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class and I have been assigned to comment on this specific post. I hope you are both having a great time in Ireland and learning lots! Your posts are very entertaining! Have a safe and great rest of the trip! Link to the site: here

Our First Eighth Grade Volleyball Game
Nicole wrote about her first volleyball game experience in the eighth grade. She is a very active young lady. She has been playing volleyball since the sixth grade and she also ran cross country. Her team did very well for their first game, they won! You can read her post here!

My Comment: Nicole, I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. I loved reading your post about your volleyball game! It sounds like you all are really good! You seem very athletic, keep it up! You are a beautiful writer, you are able to tell stories so well! I feel as if I was right there with you at your game! Congratulations on the win!

C4T Post #3

Student-created Political Parties
This is the follow up to the What My Students Believe about Politics post. For phase two students formed groups based on common ideas as discovered from isidewith.com. Students then created their own parties including name, slogan, logo, campaign platform, and 30 second commercial. They then premiered them this week in front of state representative along with a 2 minute stump speech. Overall they did a great job and I feel like the energy and interest in this project was the highest I have seen. Students definitely made an impression on the representatives. Check out their commercials and their party platforms are linked in the YouTube descriptions.

Honortarian Campaign Ad

My Comment: Hi Michael, I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I was assigned to comment on your blog this week! I must say I love what you challenged your students to do. It is so important that they learn the importance of the election and what it is all about, it doesn't come around that often! I was never apart of anything such as this while I was in elementary school. Your students did awesome on their videos, very entertaining! You have inspired me for sure!


Stopping Students from "Cramming"
In this blog post, Michael touches on how his students are rushing to finish their final work in his classroom. They are suppose to do the assignment, receive feedback, then refine their work. However, the students are waiting until the last minute to submit their work. He is attempting two new changes to alleviate this issue. One is students will be required to initiate a re-assessment of a standard within two weeks of the first assessment or they forfeit the opportunity to re-assess. With a re-assessment attempt they will gain another two week window to continue to work on the assessment. By this he hopes to encourage students to begin re-assessment immediately and build in a habit of doing and receiving feedback and doing again and of course eliminate waiting until the end of the quarter to cram. The next approach is to to withhold grades from students. He thinks many teachers realize that as soon as a grade has been attached to any assignment students have been conditioned to view it as "done" and are not motivated to continue in it.

My Comment: Michael, I am a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. I can see your frustration through your words! I have to admit though, I was one of those students in high school. Like you said, if a grade was on it, it was pretty much done-zo for me. I didn't feel motivated to finish and I would become complacent with my grade and move on to something else. I think your approaches to this issue are solid. With holding the grades from the student could work! I would like to know how this worked out for you

Special Blog Assignment

A World Where Grades Will be Left Behind

In this article of USA TODAY, Mary Beth Marklein writes about an education that will be free and available to anyone that wants it. She describes it as being related to something like a whimsical playground: no one is late for class, failure is not an option, and a lesson looks a little something like Crazy Birds. Sebastian Thrun, a 45 year-old vice president of Google and Stanford research professor, states that "you want learning to be as much fun as it is to play a video game". Thrun is the founder of Udacity, the education company, after teaching a free-online artificial intelligence course that drew more than 160,000 students. This experience was so profound for him that he said he could no longer teach in a traditional Stanford classroom. Udacity is just one of the online start-ups he oversees. Thrun's vision is to develop a catalog of free online courses taught by star professors from around the world. Within Udacity special effects and videos of instructor's hands writing on white boards are being incorporated.

Sal Kahn, a friend of Thrun, has inspired a growing number of schools to 'flip' their classroom. This means having the students study videos at night then complete their homework in the classroom during the day. Basically, it is taking pencils, paper, pens completely out of the classroom and replacing them with a diverse type of technology. There are many schools in the North that have taken on this challenge. There are even some college's that want to make a college education as cheap as a cell phone bill!

Thrun's invention is neither the first or last high-tech invention to revolutionize education. When faced with the question "What will education look like in 30 years?" Thrun says that technology is enabling educators to personalize education and scale it up. In saying that, classes will involve more challenging quizzes to help students master a particular skill, grades wont exist, instruction will be free with the exception of related services.

I feel as if EDM is very similar to this approach. There is no paper in or out, just strictly technology, no grades are given, there were no huge fee's that had to be paid, and it is available to anyone and everyone. This article would not have made much sense to me if it were not for this class. The thought of having no paper, pencils, or books in a classroom sounds completely absurd. However, this class has completely changed my perspective. In saying that, I complete agree that a change in the way we approach education is needed. Technology is the future, and the future is now!

Project #11

Blog Post #10

I'm a Papermate. I'm a Ticonderoga.

Honestly, I had never even heard of a Ticonderoga, so naturally I googled it. Apparently it is a more classy version of the standard Papermate wooden pencil. Judging from the picture, the 'hipsters' or people in the 'in' only use Ticonderoga's no matter how much they cost because they are apparently the best. When reading the comments on this post on John T. Spencer's blog I discovered that this goes deeper than just a preference of one's wooden pencil. He is using this cartoon to display the relationship between a PC and a Mac. The PC is the Papermate and the Mac is the Ticonderoga.

Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?

In this post by Mr. Spencer, I think he is trying to make a point of educational/learning games in the classroom using technology. There are obviously lots of opinons out there that people have about them. Mr. Spencer says that the games are used as a stimulation for the students to teach them everyday life skills, and he relates this to doctors and soldiers how they use this type of learning to perform their important daily skills. I think the principal in this conversation over-reacted about the games used in the classroom. Because the games are engaging and helping our students learn, there should be no reason to complain about them! They are not hurting, they are helping.

In another post by Mr. Spencer is Avoid Social Networking. This post is about interaction between teachers and students outside of the classroom. It seems as if Mr. Spencer is somewhat making fun of teachers who think this is unacceptable. For example, it is said in the conversation "If you see one of your students at the grocery store, just avoid eye contact like they dont exist". I think this is a hilarious statement. Even though we are outside of our classroom we should still be models for our students. Also, another point he is making is social-networking. Class blogs have become a huge fad lately. This way the students can express themselves and contact their instructor anytime they need.


Dont Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

First of all, I must say I love Dr. McLeods sarcasm in this post. The point he is trying to make here is that is is absolutely insane to not let your kids express themselves through technology. There are many parents and teachers, sadly, that are sheltering children from this. Honestly, I think it hinders their learning experience. Children should be allowed to express themselves with their classmates and teachers freely. If we do not allow them to do this, how will we know what their potential is? I think Dr. McLeod makes a great approach to this topic in the way he worded his post. It just sounds absolutely absurd to not allow our children/students the option to explore and learn with the technology that is available to them right now.

Who Is Dr. Scott McLeod?

There are lots of wonderful things to know about Dr. Scott McLeod. He currently serves as the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency 8 in Iowa. However, he is currently on leave from his position as an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky. Dr. McLeod also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). This is the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators. He was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). Dr. McLeod has received numerous national awards for his technology leadership work. Some of these include recognitions from the cable industry, Phi Delta Kappa, the National School Boards Association, and the Center for Digital Education. He blogs regularly about technology leadership issues at Dangerously Irrelevant. He also just completed his first book, What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media.

Project #14

Project 12

Blog Post #9

Mr. McClung

"What I Have Learned this Year" (2008-09)
See this post here!
I especially loved this blog post! You can truly understand that he was a first year teacher. Mr. McClung posted lots of helpful tips for new, inexperienced teachers. Realizing that it is not all about me, the teacher, is crucial. We are there for the students and their learning, so the focus and energy should be on them, not ourselves. We have to realize that not everything is going to go smoothly, especially in education. Therefore, we have to find that flexible bone in our body! There is no need to get worked up over something that did not go as planned. We need to simply move on and come up with something else! Backup plans are key. Communication is important especially in the work place. Even though it might be tough, talk it out, it will be better in the end. We have to set reasonable goals for our students. Like Mr. McClung I could not stand coming to class. Sometimes I felt as if too much was demanded of me and I could never meet the expectations of my teacher. What our students have to say is important, so listening and getting to know our students better should be top priority. And lastly, we can never stop learning. Actually, we never should.

"What I Learned this Year- Volume 4"
Find this post here!
Mr. McClung found it hard trying to figure out who he was as an educator after his fourth year in teaching. He had a good standing reputation with his students, but he seemed to be placing importance on what his peers thought of him. He discovered that taking care of his students is what is important and that worrying about what others think of him has never resulted in anything positive. I think we can all learn from this. Like mentioned above in his previous post, our students are our main focus. Yes, it is easy to get caught up in things outside of class, in this case, peer acceptance. However, that carries over into our class and our students will suffer from our personal lives.

Mr. McClung has taught the same subject the past four years and he noticed himself becoming routine with what he was doing within the class. He was being dependent on old lesson plans and his creativity was slowly dwindling. Luckily, he was presented with the offer of teaching an AP course and he gladly accepted. He felt like this was a door opened for a fresh start. He mentioned that school was difficult for him as a child and he basically dreaded going to class. He knew that because of his lack of enthusiasm, his students would reap from that. He did not want his students to experience what he did in elementary school. This post really speaks volumes of how we as educators need to keep it fresh in our classrooms and be creative! We must remember our students futures are at stake.

PLN Progress

For my personal learning space, I have created a Symbaloo. I find that Symbaloo is the best tool for my learning space because it allows you to have all the websites you need right in front of you on one page. It is also convenient because you can group tiles together in certain categories (i.e. social networking, presentation websites, educational websites). It is free and you will always have it! Therefore, while I am learning new websites/tools in this class I can add them as I go along. When I become a teacher I will have them ready to use! It is a great organization tool, also.

Blog Post #8

Dr. Richard Miller: "This is how We Dream Part 1 & 2"

Dr. Richard E. Miller talks about how writing in the academy has changed and how writing in our culture has changed. This is the greatest change in human communication in human history. We now have the opportunity to communicate instantly, globally. Dr. Miller states that we need to be engaged in the work of literacy now. He considered writing as a solitary activity. However, incremental change is where we work now, it is not so much in libraries anymore. We carry our laptops and our desk is our workspace. We do not have to research at just our University libraries, but we have access to any library on the web. Dr. Miller had the opportunity to write about the shootings at Virginia Tech, and he wrote his whole piece without stepping foot into a library. This speaks volumes of how much we have access to on the Internet. It is now possible to collaborate using technology. We not only have to use text, but we also can use images and/or video.

We are working in this digital environment. We will approach a new material, material that is changing before our eyes. iTunes U is a great site to use for academic lectures and information. Dr. Miller states something that rings so true. He says that ideas do not belong to us individually but as a culture. And we as educators must be willing to share ideas freely. Not only can we look at the information given on the Internet, we can get behind it and go further into research and see how it is put together. That way we can put alternative information together and share it globally. Sometimes this may be presented as a challenge, however Dr. Miller states: “The largest restriction we put is on ourselves”.

When Dr. Miller speaks about foreseeing a time that students will not just use word processing but use the other methods he speaks about in his video, we are already here! The video was created a short four years ago and we have come so far. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the world of communicating through technology. Almost everyone is connected someway through this wonderful thing called the Internet. I can only imagine where our future classrooms will be at the time we arrive to teach them. I do not expect there to be many books in the classroom when I take my place as an educator

Watch the video here!


Comments for Carly

After reading Carly’s post and the comments following, I have come to the conclusion that having a teaching philosophy is key. Teachers need to be able to live out their philosophy into their classroom for their students to see. Carly’s creativity was very transparent, nonetheless in her post! I also think this is crucial to implement into the classroom. Carly had said in her post that instead of making her students to the same-ole-same-ole read a book then write an essay on it, allow them to research! Just like Dr. Miller stated in his videos about writing with multi-media, there are tons of ways for students to access information.

I think Carly nailed it when comparing her post/assignments to Dr. Richard Miller’s video. Everything she wants to incorporate into the classroom is what he was saying our classrooms would soon be like. Her ideas were so creative and gave me something to go off of as a student and a future educator!


The Chipper Series/EDM 310 for Dummies

Both of these videos were very creative and helpful! These types of videos are great for implementing into our future classrooms. They could be used for introducing a new concept in math, science, English, etc. Not only are they great for explaining more in depth, but they are also engaging for students. It is way more engaging/entertaining for students to visually watch something be explained than have it just be taught to them verbally by the teacher. Both videos were great for getting the creative juices flowing!


Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

It is startling to believe that Education was ranked number 55 on the level of IT intensiveness, under coal mining! Students are able to have a much more stimulating and rich environment outside of school than they are in school. Students are able to communicate very well through IM, Facebook, and texting; however, these things are banned from their school.

Because the time we live in is changing so rapidly, school just might become a place where students meet for group projects. They have so much access to data at their fingertips and are unknowingly learning how to do that themselves. They do not necessarily need to know facts to survive in their culture, they need to know how to access information. The times have completely changed. Even from my time being in high school not long ago, everything is much different now. Therefore, I have to learn to change, and change to learn so that way my students will be taught properly to survive in their thriving technological world.


Scavenger Hunt 2.0

1.) The tool I found similar to Facebook/Twitter was Classroom 2.0. This is a network for those who are interested in Web 2.0, Social Media, and Participative Technologies for the classroom. It is a free community-supported network. It is an online community for teachers, somewhat like Facebook, but strictly for teachers. They have their own blogs, they can post, and comment to other teachers also. I think this would be an awesome tool to have once I become a teacher. It would be nice to be able to interact with other teachers from all over and get ideas that they are using in their classroom with the Web 2.0.

2.) Prezi gives students and teachers a free license and it is called the Edu Enjoy Subscription. It allows you to have 500mb of storage space, all of your presentations will be private, and you get to use your own logo instead of Prezi's logo.

4.) Glogster Edu is a video tool that I have never used. It is free for students and teachers. Glogster EDU is the leading global education platform for the creative expression of knowledge and skills in the classroom and beyond. They empower educators and students with the technology to create GLOGS - online multimedia posters - with text, photos, videos, graphics, sounds, drawings, data attachments and more (edu.Glogster.com). This is a simple website to use. Even children that are four years of age are using this tool!

C4T #2 Post

I was assigned to comment on Mark Hardeman. His blog is here, check it out! The first post I commented on of Marks was about the school he teaches at undergoing a recent accreditation process. They used the Middle State's Association's "Excellent by Design" protocol to drive their process. He was happy to report that their school has improved their planning ethic and were successful in using the process to set a vision for the future of ACS. Their school community collaborated to define what attributes they would like their students to exemplify. At the end of their process, they determined ACS graduates should be: Thinkers (Critical, Creative, Reflective, Independent), Responsible (Organized, Risk-takers, Open-Minded, Respectful of self, others and the world), Well-Rounded (balanced, inquisitive, adaptable, knowledgeable, effective communicator), and Leaders (Diligent, Motivated, Confident, Principled, Collaborative).

My response to his post was: "Hi Mark, my name is Kayla Parazine, a student in EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. It is so exciting to hear about the accomplishments happening within your school. It is encouraging to see all of the staff collaborating to make your school, and the students within it, a better place. I am interested into seeing how your mission will pan out, I will definitely be keeping in touch with your blog posts! Thank you for sharing!"

The next post I commented on was titled "Can Marshmallows Help Build Teams?". I quickly came to find out that they can, indeed, build teams. In his blog, Mark tells of how the summers can be used for a great time of reflection for teachers, however they also start thinking of the up coming school year. He wanted to incorprate an activity called The Marshmallow Challenge that has been made popular by Tom Wujek's Ted talk called, "Build a Tower, Build a Team". They performed this activity at one of their staff meetings and discovered that it led to great discussions and lots of fun. Some of the main points that these faculty members brought up during their debriefing was: manage your time, team building, it's okay to take risks, learn from our mistakes, set reachable goals, group size matters, high stakes can lead to decreased performance on creative tasks, and fun. You can check out Tom Wujek's Marshmallow Challenge website here. This site gives all of the material needed to conduct the challenge at your school.

To his post, I left this comment: Hi Mark, it is Kayla Parazine from EDM310 at the University of South Alabama, again. The Marshmallow Challenge sounds like such a great way to get things rolling! It seemed to spark many ideas. This is definately something I would like to try when I become and educator and have to attend staff meetings. Also, I see where some have commented saying that some have done this activity with students. I see how that could be very effective! Thanks for sharing.

Podcast Project #8

Blog Post #7

The Networked Student

This video/presentation was very interesting. I honestly have never heard of terms such as 'connectivism' or "a networked student". Since this is a true story, it is hard to believe that students now, in high school, are having hybrid classes. When I was in high school I could not imagine having to learn online at my house. It is very interesting to see how far advance some schools have become in just a few short years.

The teacher in this demonstration is teaching her students to get out on the web and make other connections with students, different websites, etc, on the particular subject they chose to study. The students have to build their own personal learning network. The teacher instructs them on how to find valid websites for their particular subject of study. These websites might include: Google Scholar or their school library database. Once they find peer reviewed articles, they will post to their personal URL where others share their different URL's also. This way the door is opened for them to go onto other websites others have found on the particular study. Then, they will share the sites they have found from others onto their own page. They then will search other blogs that others have written about the topic. The students must know that blogs are usually opinions not facts. Since they have done some research up to this point, they may even feel free to leave comments on the blogs of others stating their opinions. Whichever blogs the students choose to comment on, they can subscribe to them so that way when the person posts again, an e mail or notification will be sent to them. The next step is for them to create their own blog posting the information they have gathered so far. Not only do the students have access to the internet, they have ways to access information through their iPods/MP3 players. They can download podcasts from actual professors from Stanford, Cambridge, and Yale. Through processes such as these students may even stumble upon ways to contact the professors at the Universities and ask questions. Video conferences via Skype may even be an option. Through this long process, students will be able to show the world and other students their hard work. This is important because students that might be studying the same subject somewhere else will be able to access their page and view valid information.

With all of the technology students have access to in the 21st Century and learning processes such as the one mentioned above, why should the networked students have teachers? Well, who will teach them how to become networked students? The teacher of course! She plays a very important role in the lives/learning of the students. Teachers are there to steer them in the right direction, answer questions, model, ect. The teacher can only hope that the students will leave their classroom fully aware of how to navigate all that she/he has taught them so that way they can apply it to their students, maybe, one day.

Watch this informational video here!

Comparing a Student's PLE to my PLN

It is somewhat sad, honestly, that this 7th grader has knowledge of websites that I just recently learned about the past few years in college. Therefore, her learning environment is very much similar to my learning network. She seems so enthusiastic about learning. This goes to show that technology is very engaging for students, so hats off the to the teacher who encouraged this method in her classroom!

7th grader's PLE

C4K Posts

C4K Post

Comment One:
The first student I commented on wrote in his blog about 'Dot Day'. This story was one that the teacher read to the classroom and they made a day out of it at school. The student explained in his blog the story. The story was about a little girl who could not draw and complained to her teacher. Her teacher drew two dots on a sheet of paper asking the girl to connect them then make something out of it. The little girl ended up finding a creative way to draw between the dots, and the teacher thought it was so great that she ended up leaving the picture on her desk. So the little girl did not feel left out that she could not draw anymore, the teacher helped her prove that she did have talent.

I left a comment explaining what a good story teller he was and that I hoped dot day was a lot of fun for him. I also explained that I felt much like the little girl in the story that could not draw and I hope to be able to make my students feel like the teacher did in the story one day. I left him with the questions of if he enjoyed dot day and can he draw?

Comment Two:
The next comment I left was for Lauren. She was posting a blog comment about important things in her life. The things most important to her was her faith, family, and basketball.

I was able to relate to her on faith and family. I told her these were two very important parts of my life also, so we had something in common! Very cool. Also, I encouraged her to stay strong in her faith, and that it was encouraging to see a girl her age stand up for something like that.

comment Three:
My final comment was for a student who blogged about a made up story about the McCreamy family. They told how they ate ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All of their names had something to do with ice cream.

I commented saying that they were a very good story teller and if I was apart of the story I would fit right in because I love ice cream! I left them a question asking if they liked ice cream and is that why they wrote a story concerning ice cream? Also I encouraged them to keep writing. You can read this comical story about the McCreamy family here. And leave taydel954 a comment!

Blog Post # 6

The Last Lecture- Achieving Your Childhood Dreams: Dr. Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch seems to be somewhat comical. I love his opening statements to this lecture. His approach to his chronic situation is phenomenal. I admire how he comes right out and tells the class all the facts and he is very accepting of what has happened to him. Like he said, ‘you can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand’. This lecture is about Dr. Pausch’s childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons on how to use what we have heard to achieve our dreams and enable the dreams of others.

The next part of Dr. Pausch’s lecture is about his child hood dreams. He goes through a list he had compiled of many different dreams he had as a child and then proceeds to tell how he accomplished them and some he did not. The most outstanding part of this portion of the lecture is about the brick walls he speaks of. He says ‘brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things’. Most of the time when I notice a ‘brick wall’ in my life, I turn and go the other way thinking that what ever I was trying to achieve was not suppose to happen. However, Randy Pausch says differently. I have a new perspective of obstacles, or brick walls as he says. If you want something bad enough, you should go after it. Just because there is something standing in your way does not mean there is not a way around it, you just have to find it. This is very inspiring and I could use this concept very easily when becoming a teacher. I am sure there are lots of bumps in the road on the way there and while being an educator. This is also a great concept to teach students.

Next, Dr. Pausch talks about helping enable the dreams of others. He touched on the class he taught at Carnegie Mellon University. What I took from him on teaching his class is that they were having fun while learning. Basically it was like they did not know they were learning at all. While in the middle of their projects they were actually learning the systems they were using without even knowing it. I find this very interesting and helpful. I think this is the way learning should be. I hope to portray this strategy in my classroom one day. I hope to be able to have my students so engaged that they forget the fact that they are actually learning, but they think they are just having fun. I also think that we might learn more while having fun!

In the last portion of his speech, Randy talks about lessons learned. The role of parents, mentors, and students help us achieve our dreams. One thing he said, and I have heard it before, is that our students will shape us. It is crazy to think that we learn more from them sometimes than they learn from us. Sometimes I think we need to be more like them in a sense. They are full of life, always having fun, and as Dr. Pausch says in his lecture, ‘you have to choose if you are an eyeore or a tigger’ and I think we should all be tiggers. Most of all we have to have fun, help others, show gratitude and do not complain. “It is not about trying to figure out how to achieve your dreams, its about how to lead your life” –Dr. Randy Pausch.

Watch this inspiring lecture here.

My Timeline: Time Toast Project 9a

In doing a timeline of myself, I could use this under many circumstances. For one, I could use in the classroom when I introduce myself as the teacher. Also, this could be used at any conference that I might have to attend and I want to give some background information about myself to let the audience know more about who I am. And lastly, I could use this in any class during my time here at South to introduce myself when giving a presentation.

My Sentence Project #6

Blog Post #5

The iSchool Initiative

In Travis Allan's video, The iSchool Initiative, he is basically proposing the idea that classrooms become completely dependent on technology. By doing this, there would be no paper, pencils, copiers, or textbooks, it would all be on the 'iSchool', a gadget similar to the iPod. He states that by doing this, it would save up to 600 dollars per student and the device itself would only cost about 150 dollars. In his newest video, Zeitgeist Young Mind's Entry, he challenges students and schools to get on board of his non profit organization, The iSchool Initiative. In this video, he says something that rings very true, "students need to be prepared for the digital world they were born into".

Even though Travis makes very good points in his videos, I must say that I do not completely agree with where he is going with the initiative. I am 100% for having technology in the classroom and he is right in saying our students need to be prepared for the digital world they live in. However, I do not necessarily think that pencils, paper, or textbooks need to be done away with completely in a classroom. I do not think it would even feel like a classroom! Technology needs to be limited within the class, and it is not always reliable.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

I have to say that my reaction is the same along with every one else's to this video, wow! One-hundred eighty five voices, twelve different countries, never meeting one another, and still making that beautiful noise. I can not image the hard work and patience this man had to create this masterpiece, my hat is off to you Eric Whitacre! Watch the video here, its a must see!

Teaching in the 21st Century

In Robert's video, Teaching in the 21st Century, he is basically saying that as educators, we are not any longer our students source of information. They can retrieve any information they need to know via internet on their phone, computer, iPod, ect. We have simply become filters. Teaching is definitely changing! As educators, we have to adjust teaching students differently, not just by spitting out facts. Using products that are out there such as apps, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Skype and so on, are good tools to help teach students about collaboration. Whatever source of technology teachers choose to use in their classroom, it must be engaging. Engaging and entertaining are two completely different concepts. Students do not need to be entertained they need to be engaged. Being engaged allows room for the students to think creatively themselves, where being entertained is watching the creativity of the one entertaining.

So, how does this affect teachers? First of all, it is important for teachers to stay up to date with what technology is out there. Researching must take place. Look for different sites and try out new software. You have to understand something before you can use it or introduce it to your classroom for students to use. If one finds something applicable, then try and apply it to the classroom during the next term. Also, asking around to others who may be more knowledgeable than you about these things is smart. And lastly, take risks! If it does not work, try something else.

Flipped Classroom

Katie Gimbar: Why I Flipped My Classroom. I thought this was such an interesting approach to meeting the needs of every student in our classrooms. I would definitely apply this to my classroom if I saw fit. I like the fact that students can work at their own pace or work ahead if they feel that challenges them. Also, having them see the information before class is helpful too. I find that Katie's strategy is very efficient!

Dr. Lodge McCammon: Dr. Lodge McCammon's FIZZ-Flipping the Classroom. Dr. McCammon explains the strategy of flipping the classroom. Basically what this project proposes is that students will have access to Fizz videos outside of the classroom and watch them as many times as they need. When the students come back to class, the teacher can be a facilitator of engaging the students and collaborating with them. This is more effective than lecturing in the class, then students going home to work on the information given, alone.

Ms. Munafo: Flipping the Classroom. Ms. Munafo is addressing this video to the parents of her students. Which is a great idea, might I add! She describes the flipping of the classroom as mentioned above in her video. She makes clear that the students need to be taken to the next level and their school feels it is best to use their technology at home and in the classroom. Also, it is more engaging to the students by getting them out of the boring, same-ol-same-ol, lecturing of the teacher in front of the classroom. Now they can see her on their computer at night before class the next day. This is such a great way to get students more engaged and allow more room for learning.

Project #5 Presentation

C4T Post #1

Comments for Teachers

I was assigned to comment on Lauren Brannan's blog posts from her classroom blog.

Sharing the iPad Screen with Students

This first post was about how the teachers were running into complications with the new iPads they had just bought for their classrooms. Lauren stated that it was difficult sharing one iPad screen with 20 plus students in the classroom especially the teachers were use to working with the large screen of the white board. They knew they had to come up with a solution so they looked into a couple of options. One of the options was the VGA Adapter. What this does is project the iPad screen directly to the projector. This device was around thirty dollars. There was a problem when reviewing this product into further detail, and that was that this product had limitations. According to Apple, certain apps might not work with this adapter and also the iPad must remain tethered to the projector at all times, therefore making it hard for the teacher to circulate around the classroom.

The other option was the Reflection Application. This app uses Apples Airplay to reflect the iPad screen onto the computer, which is then projected onto the whiteboard. The app can be installed onto a Mac or Windows machine for only $14.99. Some of their favorite features of the app were that the audio streams to the computer along with the picture, the ability to record what is happening on the iPad screen, including the audio, and changing to full screen mode on the computer.

Needless to say, they went with the Reflection Application. At the time she posted the blog, Hurricane Issac was headed their way, so they could not try it out the week they wanted to. You can check out the reflection app at work in this video.

In my comment, I told the teacher who I was, what institution I was from, what class, and who my teacher was. I mentioned how I was learning the use of technology in this class and it was neat to see the ways teachers are incorporating it into their classrooms. I agreed that the reflection app was the best way to go. It was the most flexible and the cheapest of the two. Even though they had not tested out the app because of the Hurricane, I asked her to please respond back by saying how and if it worked. She did respond, and she said that it was "awesome". The students were really enjoying the app and she first tried it out by using an app from NASA and reflected it onto the smartboard. The students were able to see the images and the text on the board before they could see it on their iPads! Really good information to know for the future!

We have iPad Covers!

This post was actually created before the last post. I had to comment on this one because the teacher did not create a more recent post since the last time I commented. Nonetheless, this post was about how they had just gotten new iPad covers for their iPads. Lauren mentioned how they quickly discovered it was not a cheap task trying to buy multiple iPads for the students. Even though it was expensive, they saw it as a great investment for their students. At first they were not sure how to receive the funds to buy so many covers to protect their investment. They used multiple fundraisers including: Apples for Students, Labels for Education, Tyson A+, and Boxtops. Because these fundraisers brought in so much money, they were able to buy a Mac Mini, computer parts, and other teacher resources from Apples for Students. The Boxtop Program funded new books for their library. Even though all of these fundraisers were great, some only allowed purchase from a catalog, therefore limited purchases could be made. Therefore, they were not able to cut a big enough check for the covers.

Lauren mentioned that they were so blessed at their school to have a principal who cares so much about technology in the classroom. The principal came up with some money from the office to purchase the iPad covers. After strenuous searching, they finally decided on covers from Big Grips. They were not only reasonably priced, but also great protection for the iPads. The best part about them choosing Big Grips is that they provided them a discount for being an education institution. You can learn more about frames like these at biggrips.com.

For my comment, I reminded Lauren who I was. I mentioned that I could not imagine how much money their school had to raise just to purchase the iPads alone, not including the covers for them. I stated that all of the fundraisers they used were great and also very helpful to their school. I mentioned that it was very exciting and encouraging to see teachers getting exciting and going the extra mile for their students to have technology at their fingertips. I also mentioned how I liked the covers they decided to go with. You cant beat durable covers that come with a discount! There was a place to leave your contact information at the end of the post, so I did so.

Blog Post #4

Flat Stanley Podcast

The first podcast I listened to was from a first grade class that had just got done reading about Flat Stanley by Jim Brown. They made their own Flat Stanley's and sent them to their friends and family around the world and had them write stories and take pictures and send them back. These students were inspired by the worldwide success of another first grade class's podcast, that they wanted to make their own.

After brainstorming with their teacher, they came up with a story line so that every student would have a part in the cast. The students were asked to pick one place in the world that they would go if they were to be flattened like Flat Stanley, and choose a book from the library on that place or research it using the internet. They had to include in their script the location, how they got there, what they did, and how they got back home. After creating their own stories their teacher compiled them into one huge story to share with other students around the world, and you can listen to it here!

Podcasting with First Grade

It is strongly encouraged in this post to do podcasting with your students even if they are at a younger age. The first graders at this school had listened to the second grade podcast about animals and they loved their story and became very inspired. The students loved the fact that the second grade got so many comments from teachers around the world. The students were eager record their own voices so that way they "could get into other peoples computers and iPads".

Their teacher had just recently read to them Vacation Under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne. For their podcast the idea was to pretend as if they were interviewing Jack and Annie, two main characters from the book, about their last adventure that made them end up in Pompeii. They broke the chapters up and talked about what happened in each and afterwards the teacher typed up all of the questions they compiled. The teacher rotated through all of the students being the interviewer, Jack (boys), and Annie (girls). You can listen to this exciting podcast here.

Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

In this video/post, Mr. Bell describes the benefits of podcasting in the classroom. Some things he mentions are as follows: it is an effective way to interact with students outside of the classroom, this is a form of learning that students are unaware of so it helps become more relevant to them, it gives different perspectives for learning and project-based learning, it helps promote creativity and innovation, and also one of the most important factors is that parents can see what their children are doing at school.

I particularly like the last one mentioned, parents being able to see what their students are doing in school. I agree with Mr. Dell, that it is very beneficial for podcasting to be introduced in the classroom for many of the reasons mentioned above. Here is a clip of benefits of podcasting in the classroom.

Blog Assignment #3

Peer Editing

In the video Peer Editing, it is telling you the basics of peer editing. For example, it gives you the definition of what a peer is, what editing is, and then the full definition of peer editing. There are three steps to remember when peer editing someone else's writing. The first step is compliments. It is important to always stay positive and think about the way you would want someone to proof your work. The second thing to remember in peer editing is making suggestions. You could make suggestions about word choice, detail, organization, sentences, and the topic. Always remember to stay positive though! The third and last stage of editing is corrections. Make sure to check for punctuation, grammar, sentences, and spelling. Important things to remember while peer editing to stay positive, be specific about what you are correcting and complete all three steps of compliments, corrections and suggestions.

Peer Edit Perfection Tutorial

The tutorial on peer editing is somewhat the same as the video mentioned above. In this slideshow it mentions that editing the work of your peers can be fun, you just have to learn how to do it correctly. It gives the definition of peer, editing, and peer editing also. The three important steps to peer editing are compliments, suggestions, and corrections. It is important to remember you are editing someone else's work. Always think about how you would want your work to be critiqued. Some examples of the first step, complimenting, would be: "I really loved your topic, my favorite part was ____, or it was really fun to read because..". Making suggestions simply means that you are giving the author some specific ideas about how to make their writing better. The last and third step is making corrections on your peers assignment. When making corrections, it is important to look for grammatical, sentence, punctuation, and spelling errors. The main thing I have taken from this is to stay positive no matter what! Constructive criticism does not necessarily have to be done in a crude way.

Top Ten Peer Review Mistakes

The students in this video did an amazing job at portraying mistakes that can be made during peer reviews. Like mentioned in the video, peer reviews can be very valuable for students of ALL ages, not just college students. However,some do not know how to do equality peer reviews. The students in the video went through some scenarios of peer review 'bozos'. The mistakes mentioned in the video were: Picky Patty, Whatever William, Social Sammy, Jean the Generalizer, Mean Margaret, Loud Larry, Pushy Paula, Off-Task Oliver, Speedy Sandy, and Defensive Dave. Overall, these 4th and 5th graders did an excellent job at showing us how to not edit a peers work.


Technology in Special Education

This video on how to use technology in special education is so very helpful especially for me because this is the field I want to teach in! I am slowly but surely learning how important technology is in the classroom. After watching this video, I feel it might be just as or even more important to a special education classroom setting. The teacher in the video mentioned how important her computer is to her and how it has changed not only the way she teaches but how her students function. An example given in the video was about a student named Corbin. Prior to technology in the class room he had to have an assistant read to him out loud during 'silent reading' time. Now, thanks to technology, he can participate in silent reading alone and still be with his peers because of iPod touch audio books.

Just like in a regular classroom this teacher uses power points, she e mails assignments, and has made a website for her class and all her students can access these things. When a student was interviewed the teacher asked why she liked computers in the class room and the student replied 'because they can help'. It is so encouraging as an inspiring special education teacher to see the students so excited about technology because it is helping them advance in their education when it might not have been possible before.

Apps in the Classroom

The educational app I chose was Word Wizard- Talking Moveable Alphabet. Just like in the video How the iPad works with Academics for Autism I feel the same method could be applied with this application. With the Word Wizard it allows the child to hear the sounds of the letters and it has a spell check so if they spell the word wrong it lets them know. Before the child might think it is frustrating or boring to learn to spell or understand the pronunciation of words. This app will help make learning more fun and able to learn on their own.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts was very interesting. Vicki Davis teaches her students how to interact globally with other students by using technology. She also teaches them about google, blogs, google docs, and avatars. She does not necessarily explain everything in detail to her students because she wants them to take advantage of the dictionary and looking words up on google.

I, personally, did not have much practice in my high school with computers/technology. I think it is outstanding what this teacher is doing within this school. I really admired her for saying, "it doesn't matter if I know the information before I teach it or not". She really leaves it up to the students so that way they can gain more knowledge and understanding. Also, like she mentioned, sometimes the student knows more than the teacher and they teach her new things.

Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know?

While watching “Did You Know? 3.0- A John Strange Version” and “Did You Know 3.0” , my brain literally wanted to explode! Those were some interesting facts about technology in our world. It goes to show how dependent we actually are on technology. However, I must say that I am not surprised by some of the statistics when other countries were compared with the United States. Although I feel that we are technologically advanced here in America I have always felt that other countries have been a step ahead of us. Hence the startling fact that 25% of India’s population with the highest IQ’s is greater than the total population of the United States. That fact is literally mind blowing to me!

The most startling fact stated in Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod’s video is that we are currently preparing students for jobs that do not even exist yet. This tells me that I need to step up my game as an educator. Even though I have a couple of years before I graduate I need to be keeping up with the latest technology now because once I graduate with my degree there is no telling what all will be invented by then! Technology seems to be a never-ending journey. It is already predicted that by the year 2049 that a computer that costs $1000 dollars will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species. It looks like we have lots of work to do as educators to prepare our students for this kind of technological future!

Mr. Winkle

Mr Winkle is an old man who had fallen asleep for one hundred years. The time when he fell asleep there was little to no technology in the world. When he awakes from his long slumber he realizes he ‘is not in Kansas anymore”. Everything looks, sounds, and acts differently now. He notices these machines in the office spaces and hospitals that print things, machines that keep people alive, and even machines that allow people to talk from another country away! Mr. Winkle makes his way down to the nearest school to see if he could find any relief there, and he did. He noticed that everything seemed like it did when he was in school: taking notes, the teacher just talking, and no weird looking machines. Except there was one he noticed, but it was collecting dust in the back of the classroom. Mr. Winkle finally found his happy place.

I can only hope that Mr. Winkle would not be able to find many schools like he did in the ending of this video. Like I mentioned of the videos above, we are teaching our students to live/work in a world that will have devices that are not even invented yet. Even though it might be hard to adapt to the rapid development of technology around us, I feel that it is our job as educators to be just as engaged as our students are with new technology. Even though we might not have grown up with what they have now we have to adapt to their level of technology and learning so that way they can engage on a deeper level.

Sir Ken Robinson

In his video The Importance of Creativity, Sir Ken Robinson argues that we are more concerned with educating students to become good workers rather than creative thinkers. It made me stop and think about my education growing up and if I was encouraged to be creative, and I do not think I can honestly say yes. He has definitely put a new perspective on teaching for me. He mentioned that all children are born with creative thinking, and we tend to educate them out of it.

When Sir Ken said “Creativity is now as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status” was a huge shock for me! I think when we think about creativity we think of art class or a drama class and that is the only places we should show our creativity. How wrong was I? A great example of this was when he told the story of the three wise men during the Christmas play. Instead of ‘Frankincense’ the child interpreted it as ‘Frank sent this’, how clever! That goes to show the creativity of a child’s mind and to think that we could be stripping that away slowly in our classrooms is frightening.

Glass, Schools, and the Future

When watching the videos on Corning's glass I must say I was not able to take my eyes off the screen, I was that infatuated with it. My mind can literally not even wrap around the technology that was being displayed. To think that this is what our future will be like is so exciting. The announcer in one of the videos said that the tablets shown would be used just as frequently as cell phones are today. Almost everyone has a cell phone, and to think that we will all have glass tablets seems foreign to me right now. However, technology is advancing more rapidly than I can imagine!

So what does this mean for our schools and the future? Like mentioned above, we have some serious teaching to do to get our students ready for this kind of future. Not only do we have to teach our students we have to teach ourselves. We need to be taking every opportunity to learn about a new device that comes out and to familiarize ourselves with it. It really puts into perspective of how important it is to educate our children on the right things, unlike the class in Mr. Winkles world. From watching these videos I have a feeling there will be no more pencils and paper in the future, everything will be done on a ‘tablet’ or a screen of glass, so it seems.

Blog Assignment #1

About Me

My name is Kayla Parazine, however it has only been that way for about two months now. I was Kayla Byrd and I grew up in a small town called Frisco City, Alabama. I graduated high school from a small private school there and also graduated with my associate’s degree from Alabama Southern Community College in Monroeville, which is right outside of my hometown. From there I moved to Troy, Alabama where I attended Troy University to pursue a degree in Secondary Collaborative Education. While at Troy I got engaged to my husband Ryan Parazine, who attends University of Mobile on a baseball scholarship, and moved back home after the fall semester to take online classes and plan a wedding! We got married this June and now here I am in Mobile and attending USA.

I honestly was never interested in education until a couple of years ago when I went on a mission trip to Ghana, Africa. At the time I was enrolled in nursing school with no intentions on changing my major, much less changing it to education. While in Africa we went into different schools and taught in the classrooms there the truth of Jesus Christ. For the first time I stood up in front of students in a classroom setting and taught something I am very passionate about. Needless to say, I had a life changing experience over there in Africa. It changed my whole view of teaching and that it is not about spitting out facts and hoping the students will understand. It taught me that you have to be passionate about what you are teaching and wanting your students to understand just as you do so they can apply it to their lives. As you can tell, nursing school did not workout and I did exactly what I said I never would do, become an educator.

Randy Pausch on Time Management

From Dr. Pausch’s video I learned that it is important to focus more on doing the right things rather than doing things right because that is better than doing the wrong things really well. Also, that experience comes with time. I like what he said when he pointed out that, that is why we pay so much in American society because we are paying for their experience because that is something you can not fake. Next thing is that failing to plan is planning to fail. When we plan, it has to be done at multiple levels, for example, by day, by week, and by semester. And our plans will most likely change, so that is why we have to plan in the first place! And lastly, having a to do list. It is important to break things down into small steps and ‘to do the ugliest thing first’ ( I love the frog analogy he gave ).

I have learned that Dr. Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he learned in 2006 that he had pancreatic cancer. He gave his infamous “The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” in September of 2007 and the media got a hold to it, which he says was unintentional and was made just for his students. As a result of the media outbreak, he co-authored a book called The Last Lecture, which became a New York Times best seller. Dr. Pausch passed away from complications due to his cancer on July 25 of 2008.

Helpful Time Management Exercises

Some helpful tips I took from this article was: being reasonable and setting realistic goals, making sure to stop and rest every hour, start paying attention to the time wasters such as television or how much time we spend on the phone, use waiting time to do small tasks, have a regular study area, not on the couch or bed where you are more likely to become comfortable, and to set priorities for yourself each morning or the night before. Being realistic in your expectations for yourself is most important.