PLN

To start off for my Personal Learning Network I have set up a Twitter account. My username is daniellepitt and you can check it out my clicking here. So far, I have begun to follow a few teachers like Mr. Lamshed and Mrs. Kelly Hines. I have contacted Mr. Lamshed about the technology that he uses in his classroom and also I have commented on his awesome fundraiser Clippers for Cancer. Because of the time difference and being on the opposite sides of the world it has been a little difficult to talk to one another. So far, everything has been going really good. Can't wait to finish this up!

Week 7

Richard Miller videos part 1 & 2

I have always been a pen and paper kind of girl, whether I am writing a paper or writing assignments for this class. It just seems natural for me to do it that way. I love spending time in the Daphne Public Library just looking at all the books and checking them out if I find something that I need. Granted, I do look up probably 90% of my research online, but I always seem to find my way back to books some how, someway. Writing a paper for class with a pen and paper before I type it up is just a natural way for me since that was what I was taught to do.

Watching these videos of Mr. Miller of writing with multimedia had me thinking. I, personally, think (or thought) that I am able to write with multimedia and I would not have any problems with it. I realized after watching Mr. Miller that I am not quite up to par. I have a lot of learning to do before I start teaching my students how to write with multimedia

As far as if my students will be able to write with multimedia, I believe they will be. I may not be the one teaching them how to do it, they may be teaching me. (Which I find a little scary.) If the children we are watching in videos for this class are already blogging, making videos, and lord knows what else, I am pretty certain they will know how to write with multimedia. I have said before that all teachers should be a little technology literate, so I know that I will learn and hope to be the one to teach my students how to write with multimedia.

Wendy Drexler' s : The Networked Student

Am I ready to be a teacher to a networked student? No, at this point and time I don't think that I am . I am not fully networked yet and I probably never would have been if it were not for this class. If I were to teach a networked student and I am not a networked teacher that would leave room for the student to be smarter than me, when I am the one who is suppose to be teaching them. Now, when I become fully networked and have a full understanding of it then yes I will be ready to teach a networked student.

Since, I will be teaching elementary education I don't know how many PLN's I will be showing my kindergardeners through 3rd graders. The older students I may be able to teach them how to construct a PLN. I think that if Ms. Drexler wants to teach her middle school students how to do that then I think that that is fantastic. That way when they are in college and getting ready to graduate they can make a PLN and start off in their field a step ahead of the others in their field.

Overall, I think that PLN's are great tools for people. They are especially great for college students getting ready to graduate, people who have the same hobby (like photography), and also for people within the same field of study.

Michael Wesch's Whatever video

This video was really good, a little long, but good. I had never viewed Youtube as a helpful tool. Of course, there are extremely funny videos like everyone else I have watched, but like Mr. Wesch pointed out it is a tool that can be very helpful other than with educational videos. It, as well as other social networking sites, gives people the ability to "step out of the shell" and let other people see them for who they really are without being judged face to face. A lot of people have this fear of confrontation with other people. The fear of confrontation that comes with the fear that they will know what my insecurities are and they will make fun of me or they will tell everyone about them. Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, and Twitter gives people a place to express themselves without dealing with their insecurities and without having to have any in person confrontations.

In high school you have your friends that you see and hang out with on a regular basis. Then when you graduate all of the "popular" and "nerdy" kids are asking to be your friends on Facebook and you accept. Why? This is because neither one of you have to deal with facing each other in person and dealing with your own insecurities. You have this computer in front of you and it's like you friends with them because you talk or send invitations to each other but you don't interact outside of that safe place.

As far as what it all means for my professional career as a teacher, I do not know. I don't think that Facebook or myspace can be incorporated into learning in the classroom, but Youtube can be. It has some educational videos on there that are "G-rated." So, I am not really sure what it means for my professional career, I guess I will just have to wait and see!

I did love the ending of the video about turning "whatever to you" into "whatever it takes."

Comments for kids

Jacqueline

- Jacqueline posted a few paragraphs all about coral reefs. She listed many facts about them that I didn't even know! She had written very good paragraphs with a lot of descriptive words and she made sure that every time she started a new topic about coral reefs she started a new paragraph and ended that paragraph with a strong conclusion sentence. Here is a portion of what I wrote to her: "Your post about coral reefs was great! I actually learned some things that I had no idea that they did. Keep up the great job!"

Comments for Kids

Week 4
Ann R.
-Ann wrote about her favorite time of the year, which was Fall. Here is a little of what I commented on :
"Your post about fall was fantastic! My favorite season is the summer because here in Alabama, we have the beaches that are so close we can go just about anytime we want to!"

Week 5
Ashleigh
- Ashleigh wrote a story titled "Bitten" it was a short story about her experience being bitten by a spider. She did really great with describing everything that happened. I had already commented on it once but it was not posted so I went ahead and tried to comment again to see if it will be approved.

Week 6
Mubasshira
- Mubasshira had a video of drawings of his New Year's Eve. They were really great drawings. Here is what I posted as a comment on the video and description:
"Your drawings were really good! Also, your story underneath the video was good too! I just have one question, what made that night so much more special and beautiful?"

Week 6

Alice Christie

Alice Christie's photo section was my favorite because I enjoy taking photos myself. If only you could see my house, there are picture everywhere!! When I downloaded Picasa for this class I spent hours editing my pictures, because I didn't know that you could do that with a program that was free!!! Having pictures in my classroom would be so much fun. When your teaching a lesson and you can't have the real thing in your classroom (i.e. lions, tigers, bears, oh my!) the next best thing would be to have great pictures to show your students.

A way that pictures could be used in a classroom would be to have students take pictures of objects that are in the shape of letters in the alphabet. Since I am teaching elementary students this would be a fun and easy lesson to teach and a great way for my students to learn. Another way that I could incorporate photography into my lessons would be for the older children to make a power point on something to do with their life. Just like we did!!!

iTunes U

This is a great tool for older students. It would not exactly help elementary students, the students that I plan to teach, but maybe there is a possibility of them using it in the future. It was a little difficult at first but after several tries i found it just as easy as the regular iTunes. As far as other schools that use iTunes U i checked at schools like the University of Alabama, Duke, and Stanford's. Stanford's iTunes page was really cool. Here is the link to their page. They offered many things like courses, lectures, and some text.

Having iTunes U could be useful in the classroom. As a teacher, I could post my lessons on there so that my students could review them before a test, so a parent can know what is happening in their child's class, or if a student is out for that day they can know what they missed and it be like they never even missed a day!

iTunes U in the Classroom!

iTunes U is a great tool for both students and teachers! Teachers are doing so much with ipods in classrooms like having students do podcast and then making a CD for the parents so they can review their progress. Many teachers can access any speech through the Library of Congress. I read an interview with an educator in California ( you can read here) where he had nothing but great things to say about the ways ipods are being used in his schools. Duke University's page offers so much! They encourage their students to be creative with technology. They gave out ipods to assist with technology and classrooms. iTunes U could help students study while driving, working out, and just going from class to class.

Week 5

Wikipedia Scanner

The program that Virgil Griffith made for scanning Wikipedia to see who edits what, is an OK tool! As far as if (or when) Wikipedia can be used as a trusted source of information, I have never thought of Wikipedia a trustful source. It is just too easy for anybody to go on there and edit anything and everything. With this new scanning program I don't think that it will help Wikipedia ever become useful. People will still be able to edit anything, they will just be caught faster and more easily.

Wikipedia Scanner is a really great idea I just don't think that it really is all that useful. I mean what does it really matter if Wal-mart went in and re-worded a few sentences or if a big time company went in and deleted a few paragraphs? This is just a new way to show that big time companies lie and how they will continue to do so. So, I will say again, this new program is an OK tool.

"What I've Learned this Year"

The post by Mr. McClung of "What I've Learned this Year" was great. It went through what he thought his first year as a teacher was going to be and then what it actually turned out to be. His initial thought of how it was going to be all about him and how he taught just to please his superiors and not about his students and how they learned. Boy, was he wrong!! He finally learned that it is all about his students and that he needed to communicate with them and become more flexible with his lessons. He just needed to get over his first fears before he got into the groove of things.

His thoughts of what he went through in the beginning were exactly what I am having now before I start teaching. There are a lot unknown factors that are scary and so I think that teachers, especially new teachers, have this idea that they are going to be able to go into the classroom and present this perfect lesson and not have any problems. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!! Communication with students is a key factor in teaching as well as being able to go with the flow. So I think that Mr. McClung learned so much in his first year and I thank him for sharing with everyone what he has learned!

presentation

Week 4

Comment4kids

I read Ann's post about fall and why it is her favorite time of the year. Reading a student's blog is really fun for me because it allows us as teachers and future teachers to see into their world. Having a student write a post really seems to help with the student's ability of writing a paragraph. I really enjoyed reading her post and look to forward to reading other student blogs.

Creating Podcast

I watched the video podcast The benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom. This podcast was really informative about ways that in my classroom in the future I can use it to enhance my teaching skills. I am one who believes in the "old-fashioned" way of teaching, a teacher standing in front of a classroom and teaching without or with minimal technology available. This podcast showed a few ways that having technology in my classroom can be used for good. The example of the child who is home sick from school and was able to get online to view class assignments and study for tests. This not only can help the students succeed in class it will also hopefully help more parents become more involved in the classroom. Having students and parents be able to be more involved in the classroom is really great and what students need, especially these days.

Teaching students how to effectively use technology, podcasts specifically, will be something that I as a teacher will be able to teach so that the students will be able to take with them as they grow. The students seem to really like learning off of the podcasts. Each student had nothing but great things to say about podcasts. I loved the little girl who said that her parents were glad that she was listening to the podcasts instead of Beyonce! Even the principle seems to think that when used properly podcasting can be an effective tool.

Some of the tools that I learned to use in my podcast was: write a script, incorporate music, record a video to go with it, and have more than one person. I look forward to making my podcast and possibly teaching my future students how to podcast.