Mr. Chamberlain: Dear Kaia

I enjoyed reading these blogs that unfolded the story of a brave dad, Jabiz, exposing his daughter to an eighth grade class in Missouri. Mr. Chamberlain's class discovered a 3 year old little girl, Kaia's photography through her personal blog her dad created for their family. Jabiz read, The Last Child in the Woods, to Kaia and it got him to think about how Kaia should be spending more time outside. So the two of them explored their desert surroundings and took some pictures. Jabiz was teaching her to look closely at what is around her, take in the beauty, even if at first sight most people disregard as ugly. He teaching her a valuable lesson at finding the positive and beauty in everything. Kaia's pictures were beautiful, I loved seeing her home from her perspective.


Mr. Chamberlain's class watched Kaia's video essay of her pictures and they made many comments. Jabiz responded to the class and told them he would read the comments to Kaia, but it would be a good idea to send a video response to her since she can't read. Mr. Chamberlain's class did just that through You Tube and Voicethread. Then Mr. Chamberlain and Kaia's dad communicated for the dad to Skype into the class and answer their questions and give them information on where they live, Doha, Qotar. He is a teacher himself and he realizes the importance of learning.



I find these blogs so informative. It amazes me how easy it can be to communicate with strangers from all over the world. I don't even know where Qotar is, I will be looking it up after my post though. It has me thinking about my contacts for this class across the world. I'm very curious to see what I find. I agree with the dad's post on the Intrepid Teacher post about how scary it is to put yourself and especially your children out on the Internet. From reading the comments though it helped me to see that I should teach my children now the right and careful way to use the Internet. It is amazing how much you can learn out there. I could definitely see myself using these resources in my classroom to teach my students. I think it would be so educational and exciting for them to see what is out there for them to learn.

To read these blogs yourself you can go to the following links:

Mr. Chamberlain's Class Blog
Kaia's Blog
Intrepid Teacher

The New Media Literacies

I agree that technology is very useful and beneficial to our culture. All of the skills mentioned are needed to be effective in technology. I do see that our culture is turning to everything in technology so it is helpful to teach our students these skills so they can be prepared for their future career. Even though I think everyone should have exposure to this technology, they don't have to have it to be a successful artist, citizen, or worker.

I have some of the skills listed such as: judgement, negotiation, appropriation, play, collective intelligence, distributed cognition, visualization, and multitasking. I definitely have the multitasking down, I'm a woman and a mom. I'm getting better at transmedia navigation from this class. For me to acquire the performance part, I would have to get comfortable with what I'm talking about. Plus I don't like to be in the forefront and be seen I think some people are naturally better at this and enjoy it. As far as simulation, I would have to do research on this topic.

In my research to find information about the New Media Literacies Project, I found a you tube video done about some high school students. This video helped me understand the importance of new media literacy more than the assigned video. The video showed a range a what students could do in their class, from rapping to a game show. I can really see now how much a student could benefit from this project. To view this video click here: New Media Literacy Project.

Another great site to find information about New Media Literacy is New Jersey's New Media Literacy Project. The information on this site talks about the benefits of students participation in this project. Two that I was most interested in were the benefits to students health awareness and violence reduction.

In researching I found this blog of an intern involved in the New Media Literacy Project and their will be a New Media Literacy Conference this next week if anyone can make it. It's at M.I.T. - good luck! :)


When I first started researching this topic I was not that into it, but I persisted and it really changed my initial view.

Wendy Drexler: The Networked Student

I feel that I learned a great deal of information just from this short video. I never thought about how students could basically take a topic on their own and run with it, without being lectured or from books. I think this is an awesome way for students to learn, especially since our world is becoming more and more technologically advanced. I like that students are having to work for their information, it teaches self-discipline and self-learning. This is so important to their future, they aren't going to be handed everything on a silver platter.

Wendy Drexler's video, "The Networked Student," made me really think about, "Do students really need a teacher?" I think they do for exactly all the reasons mentioned in the video. They need someone to guide them when they run into trouble, they need some encouragement and support. The teacher is able to teach the student how to build a network using all kinds of sources, and then teach them how to differentiate between good information and bad. They can also teach them to organize their information and how to use the web as a scavenger hunt for information. Then the student can get excited about what they've learned. The teacher has such a major part in this network learning, so now that student will be able to maintain what they've learned to help them in their future.

I don't feel prepared yet to be a teacher of a networked student. I still have a lot of learning to do before I could teach others how to network. I don't have enough confidence in my own networking skills yet. I would be a teacher that would have to learn from the students. I know that it's good to learn from your students, but I still think I should know a little more than they do about this topic.

Robert Miller: This Is How We Dream

I found what Robert Miller was showing in his video, "This Is How We Dream," to be very interesting and informative of what's to come in our future. I liked how he showed examples of past events in his multimedia presentation as well as how to use future events. This is definitely a new way of writing compared to just pencil and paper. I think that having this program can benefit all members that learn how to use it properly. I find this multimedia to be fascinating and inspiring to want to learn more about it.

I think from taking this class, EDM 310, that I'm a little more prepared to learn multimedia than I would have been. I do think that I would need some guidance before jumping into this new way of writing. I think that would enjoy learning more about how to do the program. It would be a fun way to write and research your information. Learning can be much quicker and easier access. I think that having all the different media being used to write a paper enriches your learning and teaching.

I think students could learn to do this with proper guidance. They would have to be introduced to other things first like blogging. I think students could learn how to do this quicker than most adults because they are already use to handling technology all the time. They could probably teach the teachers. Young students absorb so much information quickly. They could really benefit from this, they would have a well rounded view of their topic they are studying. I definitely see this multimedia in our students future.

iPods

iPods can be used to gather information from various sources on the web. One way i s to use iTunes U to watch lectures and educational videos or listen to podcasts. One site that I found said students can also transfer text-based information to their iPod and read it onscreen. The site also said with the notes reader, news articles, classroom notes, even flash cards for spelling tests can be right at hand. In this article, they were finding that iPods helped students that had ADD and ADHD because they were able to focus on the task at hand without a lot of distractions. Most students were excited to use this technology in class.

I really enjoyed reading how Duke University implemented iPods in their school. It started with them putting the orientation on the new 1st year students' iPods. From there they had faculty and students excited to use iPods in their everyday classes. They wanted to try it out and see what kind of responses they got from doing this and they had mostly positive results. They decided to continue with this project and integrate it in more class and with more students, even 3rd and 4th year students. In the article, they stated how iPods gave students more initiative to learn other things on their own. The students are able to listen to lectures on their way to class whether they are walking or riding the bus, which saves them a lot of time.
iPods are small and compact and easy to use with a little bit of initial guidance. These could even take the place of some text books.

Principals Partnership - iPodsDuke University -iPods

iTunes University

Teachers can use iTunes University in a variety of ways. They could have their students watch or listen to vodcast or podcast lectures by them or others. They can also have the students listen or watch educationsl videos. They can also find other information from other schools through iTunes. The teachers know that iTunes is accessible at anytime of day which is helpul to their students. Teachers are able to give students the basics and let the students find out all the details about a topic. It's teaching student to be self motivated learners.

Students can benefit from iTunes as well, they can access iTunes anytime of the day for completing homework or other projects. They can get their class lecture if they were absent in class and still be caught up for the next class. Students can also use their iPods, iPhones, or laptops to do their assignments anywhere at anytime. There are numerous educational sources on iTunes to help them in their research. There are instructional videos to teach students how to use iTunes or any other topic that they would need more information on. Students can just about learn anything by using iTunes, they have access to so much information. I am definately going to start using iTunes U a lot more to find my informtaion.

Helpful Links:

How to use iTunes U
Download iTunes U
Presentation about iTunes U

Dr. Christie's - Google Earth

I really enjoyed how easy it was to find information on Dr. Christie's site about Google Earth. She has information about what you can find on Google Earth, lesson plans for Google Earth, and how to use Google Earth in the classroom. Google Earth can be use for students to find information about a certain location. They can find roads, 3D buildings, street view, borders and labels, traffic, and weather. They can even find information about national geographic, news agencies, travel and tourism, dining, lodging, shopping, schools and hospitals.

I would use Google Earth mostly for Social Studies and Science. I would have each student find a differents location across the world and find all of the above information on it throughout a project about other cultures or our local information about where they live. I think this would be of great interest to the students. Google Earth can help students visualize the world around them as well as keep them interested and excited about what they are learning. I think Google Earth would be a wonderful tool for technology in my classroom.

Wikipedia

Since Wikipedia can have anyone edit the information, I would never trust all the information to be completely true. I doubt that it would ever be 100% accurate, but it still gives you plenty of good information to compare with other sources and use them all to make your own educated mind up. I feel that Virgil Griffith has made a great step in helping be more accurate. I agree with the speakers on the Wikipedia Scanner podcast that it might cut down on all the changes made to . But as they said, they can still alter the information from another computer anonymously. I would still use Wikipedia, but cautiously and I would use other sources as well.

I would allow students to use Wikipedia for finding information about a subject where they had to gather their own information from several sites and use their educated judgement for that given assignment. The sites would need to be the same as Wikipedia for it to be reliable. The students would be able to use it for opinionated papers, like "Who is the best President?"

I would not allow them to use it for a research paper about factual events or people. The site does not have way of keeping information updated and factual at all times, therefore it wouldn't be a good site for a paper about Parkinson's Disease or Cher. Since anyone anywhere can add to the site, I wouldn't trust students to get accurate information.

I do think it is a good idea to use hyperlinks for vocabulary that students may not know. It is a quick resource for them, and they are having to take the time to learn new words on their own. Not everything has to be laid out in such detail. It teaches them to be self sufficient learners.