Podcast Project # 8

Blog Post Assignment #5

Eagle Nest Radio & Class Blog

The Eagle Nest Radio podcasts were obviously very cute and creative. I really enjoyed listening to the kids sharing facts with me about various things. I noticed several things in their podcast that my group could use in ours. First, I noticed the way that the children used their voices. The voices of the children were never monotone or boring, they were constantly keeping your attention with an inviting excitement about the subject they were discussing. Secondly, there were sound effects to go with whatever they were talking about. For example, when they were discussing Rome, there was ancient Roman music playing behind the voice of the person speaking. Another example is the shark podcast. When listening to the 3rd graders podcast on sharks you could hear the sound effect of water in the background. If my group did voice only podcast, we would take some tips from these 3rd graders for sure!

Langwitches (Producing a Podcast)

In this blog, I read the many different ways that you can do a podcast. The following is a list of what was discussed:

• Individual recordings
• Small groups recordings
• Entire class recordings
• Portable MP3 recorder
• USB microphone attached to computer
• Use cell phone and specific number to record audio
• Scripted recordings
• Unscripted recordings

The writer of this blog also talks about how you should use enthusiasm in your voice. In doing so you will keep the listeners attention. Then, I learned several different topics that you can choose to produce a podcast. some of which were interviews, doing research on a topic and discussing it and documenting a trip or event that you attended. I also listened to some of the audio podcasts available at the bottom of the page. My favorite, was of the kindergartners talking about their favorite part of the rain forest due to the special effects on the voices of the children. My group will be doing an interview with a professor!

The benefits of podcasting in the classroom

This video was very helpful in identifying what the true benefits and purpose are for podcasting. One of the many benefits is that it lets students in the classroom express their creativity when they create one themselves. They use music, sound effects and integrate their own enthusiasm. Podcasts can be downloaded onto your ipod. If your teacher records their lecture and it is available for download you can put it on your ipod and listen to it for extra help. If you are a visual learner your teacher can do the same for you and you can see the lecture through video.These two types of podcasts, as shown in the video, are very helpful for a student who is sick and can't come to school. The part of the video that introduced Harry Dale was very interesting. The was he did stories with the podcasts made it much more interesting for the kids in his classroom. Not only is a podcast helpful for students but the parents of these students can get involved too by listening with their children or even hearing work that the children have done in the classroom. There are many benefits to podcasting, it's just a matter of using them! 

Blog Post Assignment #4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

I really loved this blog post by Scott McLeod, who is a professor with an education degree in Minneapolis, Minnesota! I mean let's be real, what parent in 2010 will be fully capable of keeping their child away from technology even though that's what they would want to do? A child, teenager, or young adult will use technology through friends or school at some given point. It is not a matter of if, but when will my child use technology. I really loved his sarcasm too because, it almost shows you how ignorant some parents sound when they say such things. I really liked the approach he used to get his point across. I'm sure if there was a study conducted, where identical twins were separated at birth and one was introduced to technology, and the other was not, I'm sure that the technologically advanced child would be more educated and prepared for the world we live in today as well as the future as opposed to the other child. Do you agree?

The iSchool Initiative

I thoroughly enjoyed Travis' perspective of the iSchool through the iTouch. I already have an iTouch and can see, just like Travis, all the opportunities available now without the iSchool even being established. I really think that this wonderful idea would be somewhat difficult in a way. If you are a student in a public school, you go to school for free. There are some small fee's to pay, but I never remember paying 600 dollars a year. If a public school student was required to buy this form of technology, would it be too much to  ask for a low income family? Would or should the school provide the iSchool for the students?

I think a lot of careful consideration should go into the cost of this product before requiring students to purchase it. Maybe there should be payment plans set up for families, or maybe the money a school would save in paper, ink, classroom supplies and computers cost should be saved and use that money to buy the iTouch. I still love the idea of the iSchool and I think it would be very convenient. It is also, as Travis said, a way to reduce our carbon footprint and go green! I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of the iSchool!

Lost Generation

The technique used in this video was very effective to me. It really made you listen and grasp the point. The producers of this video were very creative. I loved how when it reversed, you could could read the words from bottom to top and make a more hopeful story out of a once hopeless one. I really believe, if there would have been a true video about the point they were trying to get across, rather that a voice, then I would have been more distracted by what was going on in the video and I would have missed the urgancey of this message.

As far as the information provided in the video, I was terribly shocked! I really felt at certain points, that I was going to cry. It is so true, that unless our generation changes and teaches our children to be a certain way, that we are headed for disaster. Money should never outweigh the importance of a family. The love of money is the root of all evil. Money is not the root, but the love of it is. We need to learn in this society what are priorities are and what we love most and that should be our families.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

I never in a million years would have thought that a virtual choir would be possible. I'm not really sure, after reading the explination below the video, if the choir actually talked or communicated with Eric, but at the end of the video it does state that if you would like to join you can and it has contact information. I would love to learn more about this choir and how they made this possible. These are the days that i wish I were able to sing so that I could be involved in something so awesome!





Additional Assignment #1

I found google squared to be a really useful search engine for education. With google squared you can do quite a lot of research that can be used to enhance your teaching in the classroom. It is a new search engine to me but I would recommend it to others for thier benefit.

I also found wolfram alpha to be a very helpful search engine that could be very useful in the classroom. It had many interesting facts and graphs right at your finger tips with no effort from you. It was also another search engine that I had never heard of but that I would again recommend to others for their benefit.

My thoughts on the "Did You Know 3.0" video did not change. If anything changed at all it would be that I would always research the statistics I read more in depth before sharing them with others.



I also found that "Foos for Thought" was extremely interesting. It is amazing to me that you can take someone completely illiterate and they can do as much as figure out how to use an ipad. I appreciate technology even more after reading this.

Blog Post 3

A Vision of Students Today

I am the kind of person who does not know a lot about technology, nor did I really care to know, but after watching the videos required for this class I have come to realize how much I unintentionally use technology. It is very true that sometimes I go to class and I just get on facebook on my phone because, whatever the teacher is talking about is whole lot less interesting than the cyber world. I also spend many hours more online than I do studying or doing homework.

Another way that I can relate to this video is in the aspect of books. Every single year that a new semester begins, it never fails, I will buy a book that I pay over one hundred dollars for and the teacher will never require us to use it even one time. Also, by the time the semester is over, you go to try and return the book that you never used and it is out of date and now considered an old edition. In regardes to the web, it will never become an old edition and will never cost you money. The web is updated regularly. In conclusion, I could say that it did capture my college experiance.

It's Not About the Technology

I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I read Ms. Hines' post. It really reminds you, if you are an education major, what you signed up for in the first place, and that is first and foremost to teach. Not only as Ms. Hines said do we teach, but we are also here to learn. Without a passion to teach, and make sure your students grasp what your teaching, you are not going to succeed in education.

My absolute favorite part of this post was when Ms. Hines said, "I equate teaching and learning to a basic physics principle. If an abject does not move,no matter how much effort has been applied, no work has been done. Therefore, if a student has not learned, no matter how much effort has been exerted, no teaching has been done." This quote is one that will stick with me the rest of my teaching career. This blog really gave me incite on teaching and what it is really about. First, a teacher teaches. Second, a teacher adds technology when appropriate.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher

I really enjoyed this post as well. I think even in his frustration he got the point across. I think that anyone who says that technology is not important and that you do not need it in schools should definitely read this blog. I definitely do not think that technology is all there is to an education at all. First you are a teacher, then you can bring in the technology to enhance the learning experience.

School in this day and time is not a place in my opinion, like I've said before, to hide from technology. Even if you aren't using technology inside the classroom you will still need it for keeping in contact with your co-workers and for keeping a record of the grades. There is no way that a completely technological illiterate person could servive in a school system today.

Garys Social Media Count

First, I would like to say that if it takes having one of all of these things listed on the count to be technologiacally literate, then I am not! I did not even know what some of the things were on there. The thing that was even more strange to me was the fact that even though I didn't know what some of the things were on there, they were growing so fast. This makes me think that I should step it up a notch in the cyber world. This was very eye opening for me.

Summary of David Warlick's "2 cents worth"

I found that the first blog post I read, "Dang! I just Missed It", to be very eye opening. As David Warlick went on about Mars and how it could be seen on August 26th as the size of the moon I was actually starting to believe that this could have actually happened. I began to think that I had missed this event as well. After he explained that this was not true, I realized just how many statistics out there could be false and that some teachers do not always do their research. When you do not do your research, you are taking the risk of sharing with your students false information that they in return may also pass on. If David would not have written that this information were false I would have begun to ask people if they had seen this event and I would have been taken for a fool. Be sure to research your facts before sharing them.

I also read his second blog post called "Willing eBook Sellers". This post more irritated me than anything else. I was just so completely baffeled that Sony and Apple would not let Cory Doctorow, who is an author, publish his ebooks with them. They would not let him do so because he did not want to put any license agreements on his books for the buyer. Doctorow's publisher also said that this was ok with him. Still Sony and Apple rejected this idea. Other companys such as Barnes and Noble were perfectly okay with this arrangement. I wonder if Doctorow did this intentionally to prove a point about these big name companies and that they want control over everything. Please comment back with your opinion.

Google Presentation