Dr. Alice Christie

Dr. Alice Christie is a retired professor from Arizona State University that taught education at both the K-12 level as well as college level. She devoted her life to teaching and learning and now has a website that is devoted to learning and different ways of teaching through technology. She has teachers from across the country participating in different projects in which she has posted via the Internet. It truly is such an amazing site that gives so much information to teachers that can help them in the classroom.
She has different posts from teachers in how they are using the Internet in their classrooms for projects. This then allows teachers across the glob to participate and use these projects in their own classrooms. It is so neat to see how this can touch so many people and help use the projects to interest the children in their learning. It makes it fun and interactive and makes them really want to participate. I think she is laid out such a great tool that so many educators can use in their classrooms today.

my presentation

Wikipedia, Wired

Wow, I sit here in shock and amazement of how you think you have a trusty source like Wikipedia and to find out how many different groups just go in and change what they want about an article. Different news sources, political parties, ect. Who do we trust with the right information on the internet if everything can be changed so easily! At least we have the ability to see who is making the changes!
After listening to the podcast it really gives you and insite as to what people are doing to better their image. It is away to just magically erase the negative things that may be serrounded by their name. Nicholas does make a good point on the podcast about the wikipedia. He says that it has so much more information with about 90% reliablity. It makes you a little leary. But you do get to see where the changes are being made and it usually points back to the company trying to better their name.
A California Tech Graduate student came up with a way to trace back who is making changes in Wikipedia by tracing the Ip addresses that are being used to change and delete the information. This is a tool that will help out to see what companies and political parties are making changes to alter the way the public views them. This kind of thing truly baffles me. It is amazing what people can do these days. Just when you think you are getting the correct information.

Formula for Success

The blog I chose to read is the "Formula for success" ( Karl Fisch) from April of 2007. In this article he talks about the subject of Math and how it is taught now and a different approach to teaching it. He refers to the teaching as kids memorize it, get tested on it and forget it. " The burp back method" as Prof Strange says. He wants to take a different appoach on it rather then just have one right answer. Look at math from different angles.
He would like math used in everyday situations. Not just equations that are memorized and then forgottten. Learning how to apply math to life and day to day. I think this is an argument that i feel very strongly about also being a student who was not found of math. But finding more and more that I use math everyday just not the algebreic equations. I think that is the point he is trying to get across. Teach children math they can use in their lives. Not just memorization of things that less then a year they won't remember how to do!

Technology in education

I am really glad that I had the oppourtunity to read this blog about keeping up with technology in the classroom. In this post Karl Fisch talks about the importance of keeping up with technology in the classroom today. He is a strong believer that all educators need to be literate in technology in order to teach properly in the classroom. He even compares it to not being able to read and then trying to teach in a classroom. The question he posts and the end of his discussion is "If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." ( karl Fisch source:http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html. It may seem to be an extreme question but it really got people thinking and talking.
This post really hit home for me because I have found myself guilty of complaining about the fact that I have been out of school and that i felt I was about 10 years behind the technology boom with blogs, podcasts, ect. This article was a real eye opener and in fact has be now more then willing to learn and keep up so I can be the best teacher that I can be. Until recently I did not realize how important technology had become as a learning tool in the classroom. His post was brilliant and got a lot of great reponses from other teachers chimming in on their thoughs and experiences. It was neat to see how strongly people felt about this. In fact he was nominated for an edublog award for this post.

international blogging in the classroom

The first international blog I came across was a blog from New Zealand in a 2 year class of 6 and 7 year old. Their teacher uses their blog to update different events and things that happened through out the day at their school. She also posts blogs and video of the children doing different assignments such as their oral presentations so they are able to hear themselves out loud. They also have links to to other blogs they like. And when children have visitors they are able to comment on their special guests or the activities of the day! Again I really like the interactiveness that the children have with a blog in the classroom. It really seems to keep them involved. The picture I have posted is a picture of a an ambulance that came to visit the school. This website is http://2008meadowbank23.blogspot.com/.
The second blog that I found was out of Canada. It was from a grade one class. The teach used her blog also as a learning tool to show what the kids are doing day to day. As the children the children are just learning to read and write they are posting to a blog daily. what a great way to learn your words and letters and to applying them to a computer at such a young age is brilliant. It is getting them ready to the world ahead of them. These teachers have been so inspirational in what they are teaching such young students, then when I plan on teaching high school the posibilites are going to be endless with using blogs in a classroom. I found this web page at http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337

using blogs in the class room

This picture is from a blog that I found from Mrs. C's fifth grade class. She uses her blog day to day to help students go over what they are studying in the class that day. She asks her students to respond to certain experiments and asks them to write about it. But she also wants the students to use complete sentences and grammar when responding to the posts. On her classes blog she has several videos of the students doing projects and their work in school. she also posts pictures and each child has their own personal blog as well. she uses the blog as a day to day tool to go along with the students assignments. She also has different award that they can be given for answering and asking certain questions. The website for this class is http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/.
In an eight grade classroom in Liberty Missouri they used a blog as the read through the novel " The Year of the Hangman" in their history class. He week by week discussed different parts of the book then was able to get feedback from all over the world. The purpose of this blog was to get the students in a online conversation about the novel and really get them interested in learning the history. I believe it was a brilliant idea to have students relate to a historical event in a way that they are comfortable with. He did this week to week and got a great response to the questions in which he posted. At the end he had a feedback part where they were able to tell what they thought about the blog. what they liked and did not like.You can check out this blog at http://mrcsclassblog.blogspot.com/.

Shift Happens

Wow, I sit her kind of stunned at all the information that was just given to me in that incredible presentation. It blows my mind how quickly technology changes and that it is near impossible to keep up with the growth of it. It really hits home with the fact that I do have a child that was born in 2007 and the statistics of where things will be in his life time is mind boggling! It also sets in the reality of what I am going to need to be prepared for as an Educator in the 21st Century.
I was really shocked to find out how little college Graduates we have compared to India and China. The world as we know it I feel will change so much in my life time. I think that we always consider ourselves such a power house of a country, but when you see the statistics and makes you feel very small and powerless. It is an eye opener for what we will be seeing in our future and the generations to come. It leaves you with a very strong message of you better keep up or you will be left behind. As and educator that is the last thing that you want to feel. It makes me hungry to learn more about the technology that we have out there.