EDM310 Final Reflection

Thank you again to Dr. Strange and all of his assistants who have helped me through this semester.

Blog Assignment 14

I really do not know where to start in telling about the many resources that Jose Picardo shares but his website probably has any resource an educator could ask for. He has resources to create interactive exercises, edit movies without downloading software, creating multimedia posters, and saving/sharing media files online, just to name a few. In addition to visiting his website, I watched a video by Mr. Picardo entitled, "Top ten tips for using technology in the classroom". In this video he lists his top ten tips as: streaming video, music, teleconferencing, interactive exercises, interactive whiteboard, podcasts, blogs and wikis, social networks, internet tools and gadgets.

I am familiar with almost all of these suggested tips except for interactive exercises (which I can see being very helpful for special learners), music (I am interested in learning how to incorporate music in teaching and gadgets). I have learned through EDM310 how social networks can be used and very useful. I am very interested in using all of the tips suggested by Mr. Picardo because they make me excited just thinking about teaching with them so I can imagine how excited my students will be to be able to use the same technology that they have so much fun using outside of the classroom to learn with inside of the classroom. The use of technology in the classroom will keep students engaged while learning useful skills they will need in life, especially in our technology-driven society.

C4T #4

Improving Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking with Media

In Wesley Fryer's post, Improving Reading, Writing and Critical Thinking with Media he provides slides and audio from a session at the Innovative Learning Institute. Students need to create and document media projects in order to develop and improve their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. They improve these skills through the decisions made, script writing/editing, sequencing and creative thinking when making media projects. Since technology is everywhere and is here to stay, it is important that educators teach students how to use it for education and good and not solely as entertainment.
In my comment, I thanked Mr. Fryer for his helpful advice and information because I've always known how important reading, writing and critical thinking skills are but I had never connected the use of the media to improving them until this class and even more so, this post.


Seeking Adventure in the Wide World

In this video, Mr. Fryer shares a story, showing the importance in giving people the freedom to explore the "wide world", which I take as a metaphor for many things. He says that it is important to experience these things for yourself rather than taking someone else's word, who may not have the whole perspective.

My name is Adrienne Babb and I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. Great story, metaphors are so helpful when teaching! It is extremely scary, especially when it comes to children, to give permission to explore the "wide world"/ internet/real world/etc. but I believe that it is our responsibility as educators and parents to teach children how to make responsible decisions and handle themselves in many different types of situations. After we fulfill these responsibilities, we should allow them to experience the freedom of the world and grow from these experiences. Again, I will be commenting on your posts in my blog if you would like to visit: Adrienne's Blog

Final PLN

This is a shot of my final PLN (Personal Learning Network)for Dr. Strange's EDM310 class. This, however, is not a shot of my final PLN because this will continue to be modified with additions of resources, educators, and other interests. Since my last update, I have added quite a few more tiles for blogs that I follow, including Mr. Joe McClung's Blog. I was fortunate enough to interview Mr. McClung for an EDM310 assignment and learned a lot about the first few years of teaching through our interview. I also recently added Dropbox to my PLN and it has been extremely useful in working outside of home and without my computer. I can acess almost any files of mine without my zip-drive or my computer. I also added tiles for blog post assignments and projects for EDM310 (which I updated whenever Dr. Strange changed them).

Overall, I love my PLN because it helps keep everything that I need for school and leisure organized. When it is time to study or do assignments for EDM310, I am able to open several tabs from my PLN and work on several assignments at the same time. I recommend PLN's to anyone who needs help with organization, anyone who experiences anxiety because of schoolwork and anyone who wants to save time and energy while working. It saves time that I really do not have to waste and I will always use and add to this PLN.

Final Project

C4K #3 November Comments

The Helium Stick
My first post to comment on was by the Excellent 4E and it was entitled, "The Magic Helium Stick". This was a video of the students engaging in a group activity where they must lower a stick to the ground by using all of their fingers, but the stick keeps floating off their fingers.


Hello,
My name is Adrienne Babb and I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. The Magic Helium Stick is an awesome invention. I am still baffled as to how it works though. I think that maybe it does have helium in it and that the students fingers have to create a balanced charge of energy along the stick in order to lower it to the ground. I love this activity and think that it is a wonderful way to get students to work together. I will be writing a post about this activity in my blog if you wish to visit or email me about it.

adriennebabb@gmail.com
Adrienne's Blog






The Candy Vampire
The next post that I commented on was a story called "The Candy Vampire" by Matthew in Mrs. Yollis'class. This story is about a scarecrow, Scarry, who stands up to a bully vampire, Draccy, that steals children's candy each Halloween. Once taken to jail, Draccy, decides to change his bullying ways and become a good vampire.

Dear Matthew,

My name is Adrienne Babb and I am a student in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama. I read your story, "The Candy Vampire" and I really enjoyed it. I appreciated your message about standing up to bullies. Draccy did the right thing by changing his bullying ways. Great job on the story and keep up the good work. Here are links to my email and blog if you would like to visit or comment on any posts that I create (I will be creating a post about my visit to your class blog).

adriennebabb@gmail.com
Adrienne's Blog

Sincerely,
Adrienne Babb


Draw a Stick Man
This link is to an interactive story where you draw the hero, he comes to life and you help him by drawing different tools to help him along his journey. My son loved it and I thought it was very cool, so check it out.

Smartboard Presentation #2

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

In this book, Aldous Huxley introduces us to a futuristic utopia called the World State, where the population is civilized, happy and mass produced. Brave New World starts off by introducing us to the Director of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center where people are produced in bottles, mostly through a process called Bokanovsky's Process. This process is completed by producing up to ninety-six embryos per egg instead of producing one embryo from one egg. The people produced in the hatchery are all predestined to fulfill certain social positions within the World State. The social classes within the World State are Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, Epsilons. Alphas hold the highest social standing out of the five classes. Alphas along with Betas are not products of Bokanovsky's Process and therefore have no twins and are smarter, stronger and hold positions within society that require responsibility. The others are contaminated while still in their bottles to stunt intelligence, strength, height and appearance. The Bokanovsky process is used along with conditioning to create social stability. The population experiences conditioning from the time that they are "decanted" and large sets of twins are conditioned to work the same positions within the society.

In this London based utopia, there is no knowledge of God but what God would be is replaced with the founder of the new world, Ford. People are no longer born into families, they do not experience sickness, sadness, old age, isolation, passion or any sort of prolonged gratification. The population is conditioned to be happy, peaceful, passive, to know and love their position/class, and participate in societal "norms" that are created to maintain stability. Some of these "norms" include: sexual relations with each other because relationships and exclusivity are forbidden, to take "soma" (a drug used for leisure or to escape unwanted feelings, ideas) on a regular basis and especially if experiencing any negative feelings or thoughts contrary to conditioning, regularly participating in recreational sports and "feelies", which are depth-less movies where viewers can experience physical actions that occur in movies.

Bernard Marx is introduced as sort of an outcast who is an Alpha but everyone believes that alcohol was accidentally slipped into his bottle before "decanting", which made him "different". He does not seem to fit into society because he often feels like the norms in society are silly and has opposing ideas and questions about life. Bernard wants to have intimate dates with Lenina and is not really interested in relations with other women, but she thinks he is weird for this behavior because "everyone belongs to everyone" in the World State. Bernard takes Lenina to a Mexican reservation where Indian savages live. These "savages" are born normally outside of the World state and live without the technology and pleasures that the World State has. While there they encounter John and Linda, a mother and son who are not natives of the reservation. They find out that Linda was actually a resident of the London World State and was accidentally left at the reservation years back while pregnant. While on the reservation, Linda was constantly ridiculed for practicing the social norms from the World State. Unlike Linda, the people on the reservation believed in monogamy and exclusive relationships. Her son, John was born on the reservation but was never accepted as a native so Linda taught him what she knew from conditioning and from afar he watched and learned from the natives.

Bernard and Lenina return to London with John and Linda where Bernard becomes an instant celebrity because everyone wants to know about the savage (they are all repulsed by Linda's old age, flabby skin and discolored teeth). John is very attracted to Lenina but cannot accept her promiscuity. Linda dies and no one shows any caring emotion (they are conditioned to not have emotional attachments to each other), and John becomes enraged with the norms, vices and behaviors in the new world. He attempts to start a rebellion where only one person joins him, Hemholtz Watson, who is a friend of Bernard's and also feels that the World State lacks depth and the option of free will. The rebellion ends, unsuccessfully, because the people of the World State are conditioned to know and only want what they are predestined to have; they are ignorant to anything outside of what they are taught. Because of their inability to fit into society, Hemholtz and Bernard are given the choice to be sent to an isolated island of their choice, where they can continue their alternative way of thinking and behaving. John chooses to relocate to a life of solitude and proper behavior in a lighthouse, only to be found and harassed again as the "savage". He whips himself while their to punish himself and avoid the vices and behaviors of the World State. In the end he is overwhelmed by "fans" of his and when he sees Lenina among the crowd he cannot bear the emotions that arise in him because she represents everything that he hates about the World State and he begins to whip her until he passes out. The next day, more "fans" arrive to find that John had hanged himself.

I loved this quote:

"A society, most of whose members spend a great part of their time, not on the spot, not here and now and in the calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it...As the art and science of manipulation come to be closer understood, the dictators of the future will doubtless learn to combine these techniques with the non-stop distractions which, in the West, are now threatening to drown in a sea of irrelevance the rational propaganda essential to the maintenance of individual liberty and the survival of democratic institutions." p. 268

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited. New York: Harper Perenial Modern Classics, 2005.

Why We Use Metaphors

Metaphor : a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money). This is the definition of a metaphor, as given by the Merriam- Webster dictionary.

Metaphors are used to help the reader better understand something that may not be tangible by comparing it to a more tangible object or idea. Merriam- Webster gives the example of a metaphor as a person "drowning in money"; the concept of having a lot of money is more easily understood in their example than a person possessing  " a  lot of money". Metaphors are used extensively throughout the Bible. A metaphor that many people know is the snake that tricks Eve, in the Garden of Eden, representing the Devil, who is also known to be sly and tricky. Metaphors are used throughout literature and in our everyday life.

In Dante Alighieri's "Inferno", Dante has lost his way on the straight or right path in life and finds himself awaking in a dark forest where he finds out that he must travel through the 9 levels of Hell (each level being a metaphor for a specific sin) in order to find salvation. The author, Dante Alighieri, does not literally mean that Dante, the character, has gotten lost on a road but that Dante has strayed from a moral or righteous path leading to salvation or God. His use of this metaphor makes this poem so much more interesting because people like stories with drama and excitement. A story about a man who is disobedient against God but wants to learn to change his ways in order to achieve salvation is just not as exciting as a man, lost in a dark forest, who encounters his mentor (who has been dead for many years)and they embark upon a journey through Hell in order to achieve his salvation. Metaphors bring better understanding, beauty and images to writing and I love them but I can understand how some people are confused by them. When there are too many metaphors or they are used incorrectly, it makes the story hard to understand. I, sometimes find myself reading passages over and over to understand metaphors because they can be tricky. I believe that a person must have and use critical thinking skills in order to understand metaphors (shout out to Dr. Kern Jackson at the University of South Alabama for teaching, nurturing and encouraging the use of these skills in me).

The way that people are taught directly affects their perceptions of school and them not being able to understand metaphors and sarcasm. We are raised to blend into society: go to school, get good grades, listen to authority, take notes, regurgitate notes, graduate, get married.... The key part in all of this is listening to authority. Not enough teachers (authority figures) encourage students to think for themselves (critically or creatively) but instead teach and encourage them to listen and regurgitate. Because of this, many students stop thinking for themselves (or never even start) and take what they get from these figures as the literal truth and never even question if they agree with it or whether it makes sense.

Blog Assignment 12

I thought of this assignment because recently my son's pre-k school has joined Big Universe, an online reading and writing community. We are able to read books online everyday and sometimes in Spanish. They offer books by age, grade, category, subject, and many more options but it is not free to subscribe (there are free online libraries, such as the International Children's Digital Library). When I was a kid, I loved to read but wasn't always able to visit the library to read as much as I would've liked so I re-read books when I couldn't get more. These online reading websites gives students, parents and teachers books instantly and there is no due date or waiting period involved. We shouldn't just expect that our students will frequent these sites on their own so I suggest that we have weekly homework assignments that come from these sites.

* Books can be used with Smartboards to change up story-time a bit.

The assignment I would suggest is to create a homework assignment using the International Children's Digital Library, which is a online library that allows you to save books to a bookshelf.

1) Visit the website ICDL and create an account. Browse through the books available and play with the "add to bookshelf" button. Choose and read a book for the assignment.

2)Think of four homework questions for your student to answer. Post these questions, including the name of the book, to your blog.



Ms. Babb's Homework Assignment

Go to ICDL and read, "The Blue Sky" by Andrea Petrlik Huseinoviç and answer the following questions:

1) Name three of the animals in the sky and tell what their connection with the little girl's mom is.

2)What did the wind bring to the rabbit? What did this remind the little girl of?

3)Why was the little girl sad?

4)Where did the blackbird take the little girl?

Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog

I found Mrs. Yollis' class blog to be full of information. Mrs. Yollis has links that introduce her bloggers, teach visitors how to leave a comment, share interesting information about California, teach how to use html code, show the time zone differences between their friends around the world, give tips on how to shoot great digital images, provide educational blogging resources and Mrs. Yollis also includes a link that shares information about her career and interests. On top of all of these resources for parents and students to explore, Mrs. Yollis also includes a link to her personal website which provides even more resources to learn, including games, articles and activities. I really enjoyed exploring Mrs. Yollis' blog because it is very informative. I learned how to shoot better pictures and video from one of Mrs. Yollis' students. She is definitely doing a great thing with her students and I am thankful that she shares her knowledge through her blog. Mrs. Yollis is a true example of an educator and it is obvious from her blog that she is a lifelong learner.

Progress Report for Final Project

Ashley, Pamela, Taylor, and I will make a video targeting non-traditional students. By non-traditional students, we mean students with families, jobs and other responsibilities that demand a large amount of their time. We plan to demonstrate how each member,(some traditional, some non-traditional) approaches their work in EDM310. I will demonstrate how I use Symbaloo along with the Fall checklist to organize my work in EDM310. We will discuss the anxiety experienced at the beginning of the semester, how to stay caught up on work and important things to know about EDM310.

Joe McClung Interview- Project 14

Blog Assignment 11

Little Kids... Big Potential

In Ms. Cassidy's video, she introduces to the viewer her first grade class and how they use technology to learn in their classroom. I think it is remarkable that these first graders are using the same technology that I am learning to use right now. Even though it is used on a simpler level and with facilitation of Ms. Cassidy, they seem to be very knowledgable and interested in what they are learning. It is also very impressive that they are aware that they learning and are still excited to do the work.

I used to be concerned that, once I began to teach, I would be limited in the technologies that I could introduce to my students because of their age but Ms. Cassidy has shown me through this video that even at the young ages of 6-7, students are able to understand and appreciate technology used for learning. I fully intend to use technology to educate my students because technology exposes students to any information they want/need but it also exposes them to different cultures. To show them that technology is not simply for entertainment, is to provoke a curiosity in what else they can do with technology. I love what I am learning and hope that my students share my excitement for it when I introduce it to them.


Interview with Mrs. Cassidy
Mrs. Cassidy shares some of the techniques that she uses to teach with technology in her first grade classroom through this interview. She started using computers in her classroom around the year 2000 when her classroom was given five computers. Mrs. Cassidy took the initiative to learn how to make web pages to incorporate in her classroom, which lead to blogging, wikis and videos. One of the benefits of the techniques that Mrs. Cassidy uses in her classroom is the students are much more engaged and excited to learn. Mrs. Cassidy says in this interview that this is because students do not have to "power down" when they come to school.She also mentions that both the student and educator are handicapped when they are not able to use the technologies that are part of their everyday life. Another benefit is that the parents are able to follow the progress of their children throughout the school year with their blogs.

I will definitely use Mrs. Cassidy's blogging, video and web page techniques with my students. Blogging is a great way to keep track of and record lessons taught throughout the school year(which is good for my students, their parents and myself). Also, I believe that having students work on their own blogs increases their confidence in their work and also their motivation to do a good job. When students receive comments on their blogs because their work has been seen and shared, they become more involved and excited. I do expect, just as Mrs. Cassidy suggested, that some parents and administrators will be opposed to exposing the students to the Internet. To address this problem, I plan on sending home a letter explaining exactly how I intend to teach the students and that I will not provide personal information like last names or a picture with a first name attached(just as Mrs. Cassidy did). In addition to the letter home to the parents, I will invite the parents and administrators to a meeting or presentation to discuss what the children will be working on. I will show examples of the work that the students will do and hopefully by showing the parents and administrators that I have a plan and that I have considered the dangers and how to avoid them that they will feel more at ease with what I intend to teach to the students.

C4K #2

October C4K Comments

My first blog to comment on was Daniel. His post was about the book SuperFudge by Judy Blume. He says that he can relate to the character Peter, who will run away if the baby is crazy, because at one time he also wanted to run away. I asked Daniel what his favorite book was and shared with him that my favorite book growing up was Journey to Jo’Burg by Beverly Naidoo. I also informed him that I did not think that babies could be crazy, being that they only sleep and eat.

My second student’s post to comment on was Benny. I left Benny the interesting fact that the U.S. was the first country to send an astronaut to the moon.

The third student’s post to comment on was George. I commented that it is very important and cool that he loves science at his age and that I just am beginning to appreciate science as an adult. I also left George with the fact that Jupiter is the only gaseous planet that has an ocean. I also left a link to the website where I found that information. In that same week, I was randomly assigned to comment on was Jadyn, whose post was about pollination and how pollen attracts bees. I left her the comment that one beautiful outcome of cross-pollination was the beautifully colored flowers and that my favorite flower is the Lily.

My fourth student to leave a comment for was Mr. Avery’s class. In this post Mr. Avery posted that they were learning about dividing fractions and if his students understood the lesson he agreed to make a rap about dividing fractions. I commented that he did a good job on his rap and how lucky his students are to have such an enthusiastic teacher.

My last student to leave a comment for was Dj. Dj made a video about how people in New Zealand still believe in mermaids. I left a comment stating that The Little Mermaid was my favorite movie when I was a little girl and that the animation in the video was done very well.

Blog Assignment 10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

In this short movie, Joshua B. Bloom, distinguishes the difference between teaching and educating. He defines teaching as showing or explaining how to do something, presenting something as a fact, giving information about something, causing someone to learn something and motivating someone by example or punishment to do or not to do something. Mr. Bloom defines an educator as someone who illuminates and inspires others. He also describes them as intellectuals, mentors, guides, advisors and moral people who show the way to others.

In EDM 310, I have become so much more excited to teach than I ever was before. I believe that this excitement comes from the realization that I can educate rather than just teach. I have been given the resources I can use to educate my students along with directions and many examples on how to use them. I intend to use Skype, Podcasts, Youtube, Blogs, the internet and my SmartBoard to keep my students engaged and excited to learn. I believe that in the elementary grades, educators begin to develop within their students a foundation of either excitement or fear and loathing of learning. I remember those educators that made me love coming to class to read, research, think and work. They made learning exciting and fun. I also remember (not by name) those teachers whose class I dreaded to attend. One quarter, I had a teacher that sat at the projector and had us copy math problems in our notebooks every day during class, it was hard to even stay awake so being engaged was out of the question.

I intend to help build a foundation based on the desire and excitement to know more within my students by incorporating the media that I mentioned earlier within this paragraph. I will also lead my students by exemplifying the same excitement and desire that I wish for them. I will not just give them the information that they need to know but I will guide them in the direction of where the information is located, just as Dr. Strange has done for me. My students will always be encouraged to ask questions and know that their ideas are welcome. Within my students, I want to develop not only the desire learn but the capability to teach themselves as well.








Don't Let Them Take The Pencils Home!

In this post, Tom Johnson addresses the ways that our students'learning potential can be limited by fear and ignorance of administrators, parents and teachers. In this post, what is limiting their potential to learn is Gertrude's focus on the problems instead of the benefits created by the students taking pencils home.I found this post to be clever and humorous but also sad because it addresses real issues that are present in today's education system. The cleverness of this post lies in the fact that pencils can be replace with almost any learning source such as: books, computers, games to name a few, and still be relevant.

One reason Gertrude is opposed to students taking pencils home because of an article stating that students who use pencils at home score less on standardized tests. Another reason is that she cannot see how the students can be held accountable for how they use the pencils at home. She believes that they will use them to play "sick and twisted" games like Hangman. Gertrude is so focused on the possible problems that she cannot or will not entertain the thought of the benefits that Mr. Johnson is explaining. This is unfortunate for the students in Mr. Johnson's class because that is one less learning resource that they can benefit from, which is a disadvantage when compared with students from other schools who are allowed to take pencils home. I really appreciate Mr. Johnson's concern for the lack of interest placed in teaching the students in low income areas about the educational use of pencils at home rather than just using them for entertainment.

Mr. Johnson seems to already have anticipated some of the problems with taking pencils home and taken the necessary precautions such as: having parents sign waivers, talked to parents and students to explain the benefits of using pencils at home, and he has developed a program to teach the parents the same skills that the students will learn which encourages the students to learn and helps the community by educating the entire household. Mr. Johnson's view on how to address problems that may arise in educating students is to anticipate and be prepared with solutions.To take the opportunity to learn from them, in my opinion is negligence because they deserve and it is our duty as educators to provide them with the best education that we can and we should not be driven by fear or close-mindedness because they suffer in the end.

Blog Assignment 9

What I've Learned This Year (2008-2009)

Mr. Joe McClung shares his experience as a first year teacher in this post. He gives a few pointers for new teachers to help them through the unexpected challenges they will face their first year. Mr. McClung states that it is important that teachers are aware of their audience (the students), are flexible, able to communicate, have reasonable expectations of their students, open to technology, respect their students voices and be lifelong learners. These tips are what have gotten Mr. McClung through his first year and plan to implement in his future as teacher.

Mr. McClung says that, as educators, we may plan what we think are perfect lesson plans, but we have to be mindful of our students'comprehension and that problems may arise but we must go on with a smile. I also learned from his post that the relationships that we build with our students and other professionals are very important. Communication helps resolve conflict, build respect and rapport. We must also expect that there may be times that our students do not meet our expectations but it still is important to set those expectations. It is our jobs as educators to provide the encouragement to succeed and consolation if they don't. As educators, it is important to be open to technology and it's developments. The educator and the students benefit from the use of technology. Lasting impressions are built when students feel like their teachers really care and to do that Mr. McClung says that listening to them is the answer. Finally, as educators we should lead by example and constantly try to learn new things. We can and should benefit from the environment we will be in and constantly seek new information to share with our students. Like Mr. McClung says, it is not about all us, the educators. We should strive to be the best we can be so that we can provide them with the best education that we can.


What I've Learned This Year (2009-2010)

In this post, Mr. McClung shares his experiences as a second year teacher and challenges that he faces when he has to teach 8th grade students in multiple subjects, as opposed to 6th grade students. He states, that initially, the transition to teaching science to 8th graders was not so hard but teaching social studies and history in the state of Arkansas(of which he is not a native) was difficult. Another challenge that came for Mr. McClung was the independent attitude of the 8th graders and how he could adjust his way of teaching to accommodate that attitude.

As a teacher of social studies, he had to initiate class discussions, which were difficult for him because his students were not thinking independently or analytically but were looking for his answers and opinions. He states that he solved this by encouraging them to think analytically. Mr. McClung suggests having a mentor at your school to help you learn routines and help you out on bad days. It is important to not be too "cool" to make a fool of ourselves sometime. In order to make memorable lessons or engage students, we may have to do things that make us feel silly but the satisfaction of our students learning the lesson is the feeling that will stay with us. Mr. McClung suggests that we delegate some of the class work (like passing out papers) to our students. This gives responsibility to the students and makes them feel important and like they are contributing. He says that is not only important to teach in depth, the subjects that you are interested in but all subjects because they are important to the development of your students education. I also learned that assessing that the students understand the information is just as important as teaching it because it a pointless lesson if your students did not comprehend what you think you taught. I agree with Mr. McClung on the point that no matter what is going on with you personally it is important to realize that if you let it affect your performance, then your students unfairly suffer. Overall, it is important to always listen to those who know more than but remember your own philosophy and remind yourself that you are always growing.

Project 13- SmartBOARD

Blog Post 8

This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
In Mr. Miller's, "This is How We Dream" videos, Part 1 and Part 2 he shares how text and print are almost becoming obsolete in our society today. We work just about wherever we like, thanks to our laptops and obtain information through the internet. Therefore, we spend less time in offices and libraries. He shows how technology can and should be used to write, research, share and teach. A very different and groundbreaking way that we can collaborate and share information through the internet by composing documents that contain text, pictures, music, video and charts/diagrams.

Mr. Miller said, "ideas are not our own, they are our cultures." I love this quote because it is important to share our ideas, especially in education, if we want to fix may of the issues that are present in the education system. I mention our education system because that is the field that I am entering once I graduate but through the internet, anyone in any field can create and share their ideas on any topic. Mr. Miller states that it is important to create "beautiful compositions" because it will engage more viewers and can be shared globally much sooner than if it were written in plain text. We want and need to share information to make changes and learn from one another, so why not take advantage of the tools that are available to us?

With the changes that are always taking place in technology, we definitely need more educators to teach the students how to use the tools available so that they can learn, create and share their ideas in the future. I am learning how to write, create and share my ideas through technology and will continue to build on what I have learned. Since teachers are not the only educators and students themselves have become educators through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites on the internet, it is important that give our students something positive, useful, engaging and important to the future to pass on.I know that I have a lot to learn but I feel like I am already writing with multimedia, on a much smaller level, in this class.






Carly Pugh's Blog 12
I believe that Carly's Blog 12 assignment is definitely an example of what Mr. Miller is referring to when he says "writing with multimedia". Carly shows just how creative she is with this idea. As we learned from Yong Zhao, in the video "Learn to Change, Change to Learn", "technology is just not here to help teach traditional subjects, but has invented a completely new environment." I would call this a digital or multimedia lesson plan and a very great way to engage more students in learning about different and almost any subject.

I am really enjoying this opportunity to explore Youtube because prior to this class, I used Youtube solely for music and funny videos but I am seeing that there are many videos there to teach and inspire. By creating this playlist, we will not only have resources to teach and engage our students with but have resources to remind us of our own philosophies and motivations.






The Chipper Series & EDM310 for Dummies
I believe that the primary message of both The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies is that we, the students, have full control of how we progress through EDM310. We have every resource that we need from the beginning of the semester, therefore, there is no reason to fall behind in our work. I will admit that even though I have never turned any assignment in late, I am really busy with my other classes and my family and am only able to keep up with assignments due that week. I do, however, allot time each week to work on these projects so that I am not late.

I think that I would like to make a video that shares with my viewers how I balance my student, family and personal life. It is far from perfect but compared to the beginning of the semester, I feel much more grounded and haven't experienced any anxiety when I look at my checklist since then.





Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Learn to Change, Change to Learn, is a very interesting video addressing the issue of how students are being taught in our technological based society. The educators in the video share their opinions but also some facts about the "schooling" of today's students. According to Cheryl Lemke, these students are learning so much more outside of the classroom through the internet, communities, museums, libraries friends and family. The amount of resources that they have outside of the classroom is almost limitless, so why does so many classrooms place limits on what kind of technology the student has to learn from?

Stephen Heppell explains that with these new technological advances, teachers must be given a place to experiment with educating and share their results with one another. Daniel Pink states that giving students standardized tests is not going to prepare them for the jobs that they will be working. He states that the jobs that they will be working will not require what he calls the, "right answer vending machine approach". Daniel Pink says that the jobs that they will be working will require them to be creative, able to collaborate, understand context, and problem solve, just to name a few. I agree with what the educators in this video are saying. Our resources to learn and teach have been limited until now but our resources are almost limitless and all that is required of us as educators is to take the initiative to research what it is that we want to teach our students. I believe that it is also our responsibility, as Richard Miller stated in his "This is How We Dream" videos, part 1 & part 2, to share this information with others because "it is not ours but our culture's".

Tyrone the Big Bad Bully Book Trailer

Short Movie Project 11

Blog Assignment 7

Last Lecture

In Randy Pausch's video, "Last Lecture", he shares with the viewer teaching methods to carry with us throughout our careers and throughout our lives. Randy Pausch believed in having fun, sharing knowledge, helping others, being loyal and staying determined to reach his dreams, just to name a few traits that I learned from his video. He accomplished what he wanted to in his life and he shares with us a few lessons on how we can do the same for ourselves, as well as, passing on so that others can also achieve dreams.

Randy had many great mentors in his life and I believe that one lesson that he taught through his video is that we all need mentors and need to pass it forward and help others by becoming mentors to someone else. He mentions that focusing on others is a way to get others to want to help us. Other ways Mr. Pausch advises us on how to receive help is by practicing good karma, being honest, being earnest and always apologizing when we mess up.

One method that Randy discussed was the importance of dedication. "Brick walls are there to let us prove how badly we want things", is a quote that he shares with us multiple times in his video. Randy tells us that brick walls will determine who really wants it and who doesn't and I believe that to be true. We will be discouraged many times throughout our lives but we must keep fighting for what we want. We must stay dedicated and focused to reach our goals.

Another method for teaching others how to reach their dreams that Randy shares with us is to not set the bar for our students. He shares a story about when he first started a course named "Building Virtual Worlds" and his students blew him away with their first project. He could not think of where to go next with his class because they surpassed his expectations so he called a mentor at the time and his mentor told him to tell his students that they did well but could do better. I really believe in what he and his mentor did with the students because many of the students would have stopped growing at that point. Their expectations of themselves would've ended there because their teacher was satisfied and so Randy really helped them grow by masking his amazement.

I enjoyed watching Randy share his excitement and passion for living and learning in this video and I did get the first "head-fake" early on. I love the quote that he shares, "The best way to teach someone something is to have them think they're learning something else." He has given us valuable lifelong lessons on how to get what we want out of life. This is definitely something to take with you into life and to share with others. I forgot by the middle of the lecture that he was terminally ill so the fact that the video was for his children didn't really cross my mind until he shared that with us in the end. It makes sense either way that he would leave something for them to live by whether they had him around for another week or a few more decades. Randy Pausch is a remarkable man and I appreciate all that he has shared with me.

Project 9b The History of Popular Music

Project 10 1st Progress Report on PLN

My PLN


In my PLN, I have added Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, the EDM310 class blog, MyMindGap blog, The Principal of Change blog, the EDM Checklist Fall 2011, Evernote and the Innovative Educator blog just to name a few. I have really benefited from having a PLN and I am still building upon it. Having all of my favorite and frequently used websites in front of me saves me so much time because I don't have to try to remember the addresses of any websites that I may not have used in a while. I will continue to use my PLN to keep up with other educators and resources that will benefit me in my career and life. Please visit some of the links that I provided above because you will find some really interesting posts written by really interesting people.

Project 8- Team Gryffindor Podcast

Blog Assignment 6

The Networked Student

I loved Mrs. Drexler's video, "The Networked Student". Mrs. Drexler explains reasons why personal learning networks are so beneficial and how to go about building a PLN. Through PLN's, the amount of knowledge that can be obtained is multiplied because the student will share what information he has learned with his network and in turn, they will share the information that they have, which is multiplied by other people within their PLN.

I believe that this is the way that educators need to encourage students to learn and to foster a love for learning. It is time for our education system to catch up with the rest of the world as far as taking advantage of the technology that is available to us. PLN's are excellent ways to share information but it is important that our educators make sure that the student is able to identify valuable and credible information. Mrs. Drexler addresses the responsibility of educators following the question "Why does a networked student even need a teacher?". Mrs. Drexler states that the educator provides guidance, teaches students how to communicate with others within a PLN, find credible sources, and collect and make sense of the large amount of information available on the internet.

I must admit that the question of if I am ready to be a teacher of a networked student places a lot of pressure on me but I feel confident because I am preparing myself for that position by taking advantage of what I am learning in EDM310. I am understanding better what a PLN is and I am building and learning from mine. I am also comfortable in saying that I will not know everything that there is to know by the time that I begin teaching because I do not think it is possible and also because it is a life-long journey. I will still be learning as I am teaching my students and I believe that that is beneficial to myself and my students because I will be modeling that even though I do not know all of the answers, I am determined to look for and them.






A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

"Welcome to My PLE!" is a video about a 7th grader's personal learning environment. I was very impressed while watching this video because of how thorough the student was in building her personal learning page. On this page she included her science class blog for videos and assignments, Facebook, Youtube, her agenda, Evernote, Delicious, and her own personal blog just to name a few but she shows that having a PLE or PLN really organizes and aides in obtaining information. It was apparent through her blog that she is a hard-working student and she really has benefited from having a PLE. Her glogster was also very impressive because it contained audio, video, text, and graphics. This is amazingly different from the posters that I created when I was in school.

"Welcome to my PLE!" has answered many questions that I had about what exactly a PLN is and how it is used. I have benefited a little from my PLN but now that I understand what it is and how it works, I feel more confident building upon it and customizing it to my needs.

Summary Post C4K 1,2,3

My first student to leave a comment for was Chandler in Mrs Krebs'class. Chandler's post was about some of his favorite things. His class had to bring in a few things to describe themselves. He brought in a basketball, football, baseball, deer, a Nebraska cornhusker's hat. I commented on how impressed I was at how well his blog was done and also that I noticed a guitar pick in with some of his favorite things. I asked him how long he had been playing the guitar and his favorite song to play. You can visit his blog here: Chandler's Blog

My next student to leave a comment for was Jephte at Pt England school. Jephte shared a few facts about Latvia and Lithuania on his blog, such as their population and favorite sports in the country. I commented that both European countries share an interest in basketball and soccer with the American countries here. I also asked Jephte what were some of his favorite sports to play. I ended my reply by complimenting him on how well he manages his blog. You can visit his blog here: Jephte's Blog

My final student to leave a comment for was Chandler again. In his post, Chandler shares that his class is helping raise money for the American Cancer Society. His group came up with many good ideas on how they could do this. One of their ideas was to babysit children in the community and the have the parents donate any amount of money they would like to the American Cancer Society. Another idea was to construct a tree of hope for anyone fighting cancer. Their last idea was to keep a bucket in each classroom and have the students donate money into their classroom's bucket and at the end of the week, whichever class donated the most money to gets the chance to pie a teacher. I commented that the parents of the community would appreciate a night of free babysitting but it sounded like a whole lot of fun to pie a teacher. I encouraged Chandler to attempt to do all three ideas if he and his group are able. I complimented him again on how well of a job he is doing with his blog and him doing his part in bringing awareness and support to the American Cancer Society. You can visit this post here: Chandler's Blog

In all of my comments, I made sure to leave my blog address and email so that the students could reply to the questions that I asked or if they wanted to comment on any of my posts.

Blog Assignment 5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

Scott McLeod is an associate professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Kentucky, the founding director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), and the co-creator of the amazing video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens). Through his foundation CASTLE, he prepares tech-savvy educators, which is crucial in our time if we are to stay ahead of global competition in the technological field. He has won several awards and has been recognized by companies such as: IBM, the National School Board Association, Microsoft and the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Scott McLeod often blogs at Dangerously Irrelevant, Mind Dump and The Huffington Post.

In Scott McLeod’s post entitled, “Please don’t teach your kids this stuff”, he makes several points addressed to parents, educators and administrators who believe only in the negative aspects of technology. He illustrates through sarcasm that those who deny their students a proper and necessary technological education are lowering their students’ chance at a successful future. This type of sheltering also displays a lack in trust in the student’s ability to make responsible decisions, which is not good for the relationship between the adult and student. I believe that as parents, educators and administrators, it is our responsibility to also be moderators and educate our students on not only the dangers but also the benefits of our modern technology. There are dangers involved with the internet but as with anything else, sheltering our children will not teach them to protect themselves when they are on their own in the world.





The iSchool Initiative

In Travis Allen’s video, “The iSchool Initiative”, he suggests that some of the problems in America’s education system like budget cuts, teacher cut-backs and crowded classrooms could be solved through iSchool. His iSchool initiative proposes that pens, paper, books, copiers, maps, globes, and calculators along with many other current necessities for the classroom be replaced by iSchool. Travis states that many applications and programs for the iPhone are ready to be used in the classroom, such as: Formulae (for formulas and equations), U.S.A. Presidents, World Wiki and Star Walk just to name a few.

Through his iSchool initiative, Travis believes the American education system could save up to $600 per student, parents can keep track of their children’s progress, teachers can track attendance and homework and students can stay organized and informed on what their assignments are. I believe that this is a wonderful and environmental friendly idea and it will be a great contribution to teaching students how to be proficient in using modern technology. My only concern is for the underprivileged students at schools that could not even afford to provide every student with their own textbook. What will these schools do in order to solve their problems of budget cuts, teacher cut-backs and crowded classrooms? The iSchool initiative is a great one but it may not be for everybody.





Lux Aurumque

Wow! This is the immediate reaction I had to Eric Whitacre's "Lux Aurumque" video. Within the first five seconds of the video, before the singing even began, I was amazed at what Mr. Whitacre had accomplished. Through Dr. Strange's class my eyes are being opened to the many ways that technology has simplified our lives but I am absolutely amazed at this video. To think about this choir practicing and working together to make this song as lovely as they did, is a bit boggling. I can say though, that this is another confirmation of the convenience that technology provides. Just think about how difficult it would be to get everyone in this choir together in person to practice and they do not even have to be in the same country!
Kudos to Eric Whitacre.



Kevin Roberts video, “Teaching in the 21st Century”, proposes a change in the role of the educator from the main source of knowledge for their students to the filter of the knowledge that they are able to obtain through modern technology. Mr. Roberts expresses that the current duty of educators is to teach students how to obtain, analyze, apply and evaluate the information that is instantly available to them and also teach them responsibility, reliability and integrity when using that information. Mr. Roberts states that the perceived purpose of these technological tools must be changed from means of pure entertainment(short-lived, often irrelevant way of passively enjoying other's creativity) to engagement(actively learning to problem solve and create with long-lasting and meaningful effects).

I definitely agree with the positions expressed by Mr. Roberts because the convenience of technology allows students to access an abundant amount of information but still need to learn the skills to locate and properly use the information. They need instruction in the use of the information because of the consequences of the misuse of it, such as: plagiarism, slander, pirating and copyright. We need to be technologically literate educators who are able to encourage and nurture creativity and motivation to learn.

Project 9a- Timetoast Timeline

My Loved Ones


This is a timeline about my loved one's birth dates.

C4T #2

In her first post, Mrs. Hadley J shares the reaction of one of her history classes when they found out that they would not be receiving letter grades in her class in her post entitled, "Sort of Like Whitewater Rafting". I like her choice of title "Sort of like Whitewater Rafting" because she is showing that she completely understands how her students feel when she delivers the news about how they will be assessed in her class. While taking her family on a whitewater rafting outing, Mrs. Hadley J experienced an excited but pretty scared moment when she realized that her family's lives as well as her own were in the hands of a college-aged guide. She states that she usually likes to be in control of her surroundings and I can completely relate because I don't like to feel out of control either and during the first few weeks in EDM310, I really felt this way but have gained control and am enjoying what and how I am learning.

In her second post, "Investigating in 2011", Mrs. Hadley J shares a lesson that she taught from a Government unit. Her students were assigned different Republican candidates and had to research their positions on the economy and other issues, using the internet, Facebook, Twitter and encyclopedias. Mrs. Hadley J states that she taught this lesson four and eight years ago and share with us the vast difference in the amount of information available through the internet. She states that it should be the goal of educators to "1. investigate the tools that will help them identify the best sources for information; 2. provide models for how to handle all of the information that they find. They, like we, are drowning in the information that surrounds us". I definitely agree and think that educators should share these goals with one another because while our roles as educators have changed, we are definitely still needed to guide our students in filtering the information that they find.

Blog Assignment 4

Roamin' with the Ancient Romans

In the Eagle’s Nest Radio Podcast #3, "Roamin' with the Ancient Romans" the students in Mrs. Edmison’s class presents a well organized and well delivered audio Podcast about the Ancient Romans. They offer information on four subjects concerning Ancient Rome, which are: Roman architecture, Gladiators, the History of Julius Caesar and the biography of Cleopatra VII. It is obvious that this group of students took their time putting together this Podcast from gathering information about Ancient Rome, then constructing a great script and finally each reporter rehearsing their information to be presented.

Listening to their Podcast taught me the importance of focusing on organizational skills when writing, editing and delivering a Podcast. After listening to their program, I was able to recount every subject that was reported and remember the Podcast very well. I think that it is very important for others to remember main points of a lesson after it is taught but this group of students took the challenge of presenting a memorable lesson, an audio lesson at that, and passed. I will definitely think of this Podcast when I make my own.






The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

Mr. Joe Dale’s video on “The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom” offers many reasons why Podcasting is beneficial for modern day students. Students born after 1980 have never lived in a world without personal computers and are referred to as Millennials. Mr. Dale shares the information that these are the students in classrooms today and that they will spend 10,000 hours on the phone, 20,000 hours watching television and many more with the technology that is developed as they grow up.

Since these students spend so much time using these technologies, why not integrate education into the technology? I love the fact that Podcasting is a project based learning approach because it encourages creativity and utilizes higher order thinking skills. Students are able to listen and/or watch to learn about different subjects in and outside of the classroom, which is very important for students who are out of school for extended periods of time. I think that Podcasts and Vodcasts are a unique and wonderful way of keeping students engaged and excited to learn and share what they know.






1st Graders Create Their Own Read-Along Audiobook

I was immediately amazed at how a couple of first grade teachers incorporated Podcasting into their classroom. In the article, “1st Graders Create Their Own Read -Along Audiobook”, a teacher writes about an activity she did with a group of students while substituting in a first grade class. This teacher read a story to the students then recorded the students, in small groups, rereading the story. Once the original teacher returned, the two teachers collaborated in the activity, and even went one step further in writing a script and a booklet for the students to follow along as they listened to themselves through the podcast. This activity proved to keep the students excited and eager to participate.
I am impressed by the initiative taken and the effort of the two teachers who worked together to make this activity work. I never really thought about how or if Podcasting even could be introduced to students in the lower levels of elementary school but this article is inspiring because it shows how technologies can be modified to include students at very young ages.
From this article, I have discovered Garageband which is software that provides music/sound clips, tracks and dead air for users to include in Podcasts/Vodcasts.

My Sentence Video

Blog Assignment 3

It’s Not About the Technology

This post is about the need to focus more on changing the national education system than the need for technology to prepare students for the future. Mrs. Kelly Hines states that teachers in our education system need to take the initiative and need to be passionate about learning about new developments in technology and be aware of what is going on with their students. She also says that, no matter how long of a career a teacher has or how effective their teaching has been in the past, if students are not learning than the teacher is not teaching. I definitely agree with this statement because there are too many teachers who believe that if the student is failing a subject than that student is not trying hard enough. Educators have the responsibility of finding new, different ways of introducing subjects until their students do understand.
The introduction of technology definitely provides a better environment for preparing students for the future but as Mrs. Hines says, if the teacher is not motivated to use the tools that she is given, then the technology is wasted. Mrs. Hines chooses to focus rather on teaching students learning and innovative skill such as: creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem- solving, communication and collaboration because these skills will follow the students throughout their lives and can and should be applied in many different areas of life. Overall, I really enjoyed this post because I agree that not enough focus is placed on developing important life skills in students to prepare them for the future.



Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

Karl Fisch shares, through this post, his opinion on why it should not be acceptable for educators along with anyone else in any education system to be technologically illiterate. He states that educators without basic level understanding of technology should be embarrassed by this fact. I loved the question he posed for his viewers, “How long does it take for someone to wake up to the fact that technology is a part of life, not an add-on?” Before the twenty-first century it would have been acceptable to be technologically illiterate but Mr. Fisch believes that by 2020, it will be very unlikely that a person will be able to lead a successful life without technological literacy.
Educators really must believe that we do live in exponential times and even knowing the latest advancements in technology is not enough. We have the responsibility to prepare our students for the future and it is evident right now that technology plays a major part in the ways that we learn and communicate in the present and will be a major factor in the ways that we learn, communicate and teach in the future.



Social Media Count

Gary Hayes displays a shocking count for the time spent globally, doing various activities online. The activities range from viewing YouTube videos to emails sent globally. The numbers are amazing and the post displays the change in the count by seconds so the viewer can watch the numbers rise as long as they wish. This post truly shows that we are living in exponential times and should be the evidence that technologically illiterate teachers need to see the importance of learning and keeping up with technological developments.
I have always been interested in computers and I thought that I was technologically literate until I joined Dr. Strange’s EDM310 class. This post along with a few others that I have read in the past two weeks have shown me that I know very little about technology and that I really have to learn fast to catch up to what is available to me now because it is constantly advancing. This post also helped me realize that computers seem to be the major way that people communicate. This observation kind of scares me though because this seems to be leading us to a less formal and less personal way of connecting to others. I know that I am guilty of texting my family because it is quicker than calling.

A Vision of Students Today

Michael Wesch’s video shows how a group of students at Kansas State University( and I'm sure there are many, many more around world)feel about the current day classroom. There were many interesting statements made in the video that indicate that change is wanted. Students spend more time reading Facebook profiles than textbooks; those textbooks costing hundreds of dollars are hardly ever used. Students are using technology in just about every aspect of their lives but hardly use it for the classroom. Many feel like the way that they are being taught is not preparing them for the the many societal problems they will face after they graduate, therefore, many do not even bother showing up to class or surf the web instead of working on school work during class.

Project 5- My Favorite Things

Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know 3.0
This was a very interesting video about the exponential rate at which technology is growing, how important it is that we continue to learn and grow with it so that America will not fall behind other countries as technological leaders. The video stated that China soon will be the #1 English speaking country and that India has more honor students than America has students, which are even more reason that we need to prepare our students for the rapid and constant developments of technology.

This video shows that so much information is available to us if we decide to access it. Examples of how we can access this information are given in the video by statistics on the usage of the search engine, Google. The number of searches went from 2.7 billion in 2006 to 31 billion in 2008. Also, the time it took different media to reach an audience of 50 million was radio(38 years), tv(13 years), internet(4 years), Ipod(3 years) and Facebook(2 years). These numbers are amazing and are encouraging to me because they show that we have the technology and the opportunities to keep our place as technological leaders only if we take advantage of and continue to advance with the technology that we have.


Mr. Winkle Wakes
Mr. Winkle Wakes is a video about a cute little man who wakes from a one hundred year sleep to find that the world around him has changed and is full of machines (computers) and new technologies, making him feel disconnected and sad.That is, until he goes to a school to find that is just the way he remembered it and even though they had one of the machines, they didn't really use it, which made him feel good again.

While this video is pretty exaggerated it is a very clever and simple way to show the lack of thought that is put into our children's education and future. I fully agree and understood what Mr. Needleman wanted to share with his viewers with this video. Society seems to hold the areas of business and medicine in such high regards and are always looking to keep these areas technologically developed but in the area of education, teachers are underpaid and the students do not have the resources to keep up with the rate at which technology is growing. This is so important because technology is involved in more and more of our lives and in the future we will need people to fill jobs and be technologically literate to keep up.



Harness Your Student's Digital Smarts
In this video, Mrs. Vicki Davis, explains how she enables her students to become independent learners and exposes them to technology through collaborative and individual projects, blogs, podcasts and also connecting them to students all over the world. Mrs. Davis says that she believes that some students have trouble learning because of the limitations of working only with paper and pen. She teaches them to feel comfortable with any technology they may come across.

I really enjoyed this video and some of the things that Mrs. Davis pointed out, such as, to be a teacher, many people think that they should know everything but actually it is okay to learn as you teach and in some cases, your students may actually end up teaching you. Another point that she made that I fully agree with is that she should not have to define everything but that she can give her students a term and they should know how and where to look for the definition. This belief is better for the student because they will feel more empowered because they did the work to find out what the term means and they will be more likely to remember the information that they find.



The Importance of Creativity
This is an entertaining and wonderfully delivered video of Sir Ken Robinson stating his case on why it is so important to nurture creativity in students. Mr. Robinson believes that children are "being educated right out of their creativity". He states that our education system progressively stops nurturing student's bodies and ends up nurturing solely the left side of their brain. He shares with us the information that our education system was created to meet the needs of industrialism but now, with the advancements of technology changing our world and the way we work, we need to change the way that we educate our students.

I really enjoyed and appreciated many of the points that Mr. Robinson brought up in his talk. One story he shared about Gillian Lynne and how she her educators believed that she had a learning disorder because of her inability to concentrate and remain still in class. While meeting with a specialist for Gillian's problems, her mother discovered that Gillian was simply a dancer and learned better through movement. By the standards of our society today, children like Gillian, are put on medication or in special classes and little or no effort is made to understand and develop an alternative teaching style to help these children.


Can U.S. Students Compete?
In Cecelia Gault’s video, “Can U.S. students compete?”, she interviews Ken Robinson and learns the three myths of creativity:

1. Only certain people are creative
2. Creativity is only about certain things
3. There is nothing you can do about not being creative

Not even a month before watching this video, I realized that if I could learn to be creative, anyone could learn to be creative. I always thought that I could never be a good painter because I was not creative but the truth was that I had to learn to draw to improve my art. After improving my drawing and researching art that I found to be inspirational to me, I found that I am now making art that is very creative.

Creativity is not necessarily taught but is nurtured and I believe that Dr. Strange’s EDM310 class is nurturing my creativity. Dr. Strange does give us objectives to complete in each assignment but there are an infinite number of ways to carry each of them out. He teaches us how to use the tools that we will need in order to create each project and we use our imagination to put our own style into our finished product. This is the reason that I say that we are taught the techniques and we use them to create our own work in our own style. I am learning that, as a future educator, I should give my students the tools that they need to learn but also the space to use their imagination.