Podcasts

I found a good educational podcast at podcast pickle called The Teachers Podcast. I think it is very important as an educator to always learn new things. I think there we can always get better at what we do and the way to do that is to learn and try new things. That is exactly what this podcast is about. It covers new ways for educators to use technology and new technologies as well. It is very much designed to be a tool that you can use in your classroom and not just a bunch of random information.

EPals

This looks like an interesting site. There are educational tools are several topics that affect us all. You can find classrooms in different countries around the world to connect with and share information. There are forums to discuss different topics that affect us all. You can do a blog for your school as well. I would use this in my classroom to create awareness for positives and problems we have in our world today. I would do this by assigning different assignments, whether it's just getting on and exploring and reporting interesting things, or creating a blog or even getting on a forum. I think that any time you can expose young people to new things and especially new things in other parts of the world it is a plus. The greater the understanding people have of each other and their way of life the more considerate and forgiving they are to each other. The first thing that comes to mind is racism. I really think the way to stop this is to create a better understanding of each other. You will come to find out that we all live the same basic way. We just have different ways of going about it. This understanding melts away all differences and hopefully prejudice.

I think the WizIQ tool would be very helpful in global collaboration. I think the website is similar to the epals sight, but less globally oriented. Both are great resources to talk with other teachers, learn, and give your students some insight on new things. I would definitely use WizIQ to help my students learn more about different parts of the world through the learning tools that allow you to search information on a vast array of topics and seeing how other classrooms operate.

Videos to Educate

Im a huge fan of all things psychology. I really think that it applies to every facet of life. I found a video on kissing that I would probably show an older classroom just to loosen them up and get a laugh. I would also use it if I wanted to teach people how to teach. The video does a good job of covering all sides of the topic. Since I dont really teach in a formal classroom setting these assignments apply a little bit differently for me. Sports psychology is something that applies directly to my field and my players. The 2nd video I selected is about how doubt can destroy self confidence in athletes and directly affect performance. I would defintitely use these types of videos in just about any setting to help myself educate people

Educational Tool and Flickr

I thought that I would use the mosaic tool to put some flickr photos together. I thought that this would be a good thing to have my students to do. I chose washington D.C. and put some photos together. I would have my students pick one of the topics we're studying and put a mosaic together. Then I would have them write an essay on it and the things they have learned about it.

Flickr

I think sharing photos of a common interest would be a great way to get your students to interact and connect with each other and also you as the teacher. We could use it after a field trip to post photos and then comment on which parts each student enjoyed the most. We would also post pictures from different days of the week and invite parents to observe and comment on the activities. Hopefully this would allow the parents to feel more connected to what their children are doing and learning about and also help the students feel more open in talking with their parents about what is going on at school and what they're learning about.

Twitter

I was thinking of useing twitter in a similar way to what we did the RSS feed. I think it would be helpful in my professional development to follow some educator's twitter pages and learn from them. I could hopefully build a relationship with a few of them and learn more as I go. I also like some of the ideas about useing twitter for other things besides tweets. Educational videos would be a great idea. Posting some or viewing other people's. I also think its important to know you're not the only one having the problems you run into on a daily basis as a young teacher, so viewing some other teacher's twitter pages and seeing some of their thoughts on their struggles could be a really big help. I think we can always learn from each other and following people on twitter is definitely one good way.

RSS & the Panda's Thumb

I really found this RSS thing to be very interesting and useful. I've never found much use for blogs because I dont have an hour to sit at a computer surfing blog after blog to see what everyone is thinking. This tool really makes it easy to keep up with the things you're interested in.



I found an article on the Panda's Thumb about Intelligent Design and Creationism called Jonathan Wells: Another ID Creationist Who Doesn't Understand Information Theory. I found it interesting, because it was talking about cloning. The mere mention of cloning sparks endless conversation among most people. The argument for ID was that cloning doesn't creat more information. It just copies it. The author then basically states that since there is more information the information is new. Its kind of 6 in one hand half dozen in the other to me, but nontheless I enjoy watching the two sides go back and forth. I also really enjoy the pictures on this blog.

Social Networking Website

I found a pretty cool website on Georgia High School Football. I recruit GA so it could be pretty helpful in my professional life. It has information about high schools games and what players are doing well, which is clearly something that would helpful to my recruiting efforts. Feel free to check it out and see what you think.

A Learner of Today Is...

The video I watched was a great lesson on how we view learners and how that view has changed with the times.

The image that came to my mind when thinking about all of this is of the "old" learner being a person locked up in a room just reading book after book and then going out into the world to put his knowledge to use.

The learner of today is someone that is immersed in a world full of learning making "connection" after "connection" to new people and new information.

This is the "network" that Siemens refers to in the video "the changing nature of knowledge". This Learner is constantly learning and growing, because the world is moving at a much faster pace. According to the article the "half-life" of knowledge is becoming increasingly shorter. The article says that knowledge is said to be doubling every 18 months now. I think that is an astonishing rate and really quite fascinating.

A Vision of Students Today

I watched the video "A Vision of Students Today" and I felt like most of it was common information to college age people. Seeing the numbers on paper put it in perspective a little bit though. Im not sure I am on board with completely going online with classes though. I think young people are being coddeled. Things are being made to fit them instead of them having to do anything difficult. Just because we read a lot of emails or are on the internet a lot doesn't mean everything has to be made to fit that. I personally enjoy a good book just as much as checking my facebook. However, it is pretty incredible to be able to get just about any information I desire by hopping on my computer. I think the internet is an amazing tool, but I dont feel that it should be a lifestyle.

Group Posts

Not sure how many of my group members Im supposed to post on. Only one of them has a blog so far so thats all I could do. Hope it works.

Safety

Safe blogging should be pretty obvious. I think the most important thing is to remember that ANYONE can read your blog. This means your loved ones, friends, and even the occasional creeper. My mom seeing something bad I say or a creeper getting interested are two bad scenarios. So I'll try to keep it interesting, but not too interesting.

3 ways to help my students

I think a blog could be a great way to increase my students interest in each other and the subject. I could post topics on the blog from class parties to an interesting discussion topic on whatever it is we're studying. I think it would be great for them to communicate with each other as well. Students are always on the internet and certainly blogging. Getting them involved in a school or class blog wouldnt be too hard. It would be a great way to raise interest in school activities. Whether its talking about an exciting basketball game our team played or who should be homecoming queen. Teaching is all about presenting the information in a way the students are interested in and I think blogging is a step in the right direction.

Hey guys. Just wanted to say whats up. Im sitting in the hotel with the team trying to get some school work done. I hope you guys all show up tomorrow to watch us beat Pitt.