Podcasts

The first pod cast I listened to was from http://www.kid-cast.com/podcast/index.htm. The speakers were Jake and Carson, students from Hickory Day School in technology. Their pod cast was concerning World problems namely Child labor. These two boys were brief in speaking and to the point which shocked me coming from kids but they had the basic knowledge of children working in factories. They explained how children are too young working in Africa and all over the world. They said children are cheaper to employ than adults in the Ivory coast. Companies such as: Hershey, Mars and Nestle buy cocoa beans from labor plants which to them are unfair. They asked a question, “Would you buy a $7 far trade bar cocoa beans or .50 nestle bar from someone in child labor violations?” They mentioned that there are Human Right’s Organizations watching the trading. They gave their school’s website Cshell@hickoryday.org in closing.

My second pod cast audio came from:
Mac Break Weekly 105: Don't Lick The Glass
The speakers were: Leo Laporte, Robert Llewellyn, Chris Breen, and Don McAllister
First the hosts gave mention to their supporters. They spoke on an “Apple” event. The pod cast was more like a lot of conference calls to get feedback on the event. It really sounded like a radio telecast and many of them talked together and over each other. They cracked jokes a lot and discussed pictures of the event and the gadgets introduced and updated such as the new Nano from Apple, updated Itunes, Ipod touch, maybe Iphone 2.1, Ipod’s color scheme and its 9 colors offered.

They hosts repeated how the slender types of the Nano have become popular and has more storage. They repeated the Ipod classic 160gigs are liked a lot but like the new size of 120gig that is out now mainly for the new width, they were excited with the larger library and Apple Iphone’s and volume control had added speakers and don’t need headphones. Said speakers are not good on Ipod touch. If I were in to this technology, it would have been informative, but there were too many of the same things mentioned in this pod cast and I was bored with it. My husband has the larger Ipod and loves it. I think they all costs too much.

Thirdly I listened to:
Teachers Connecting 4: Students View of EdTech & Connections
February 15th, 2009 this pod casts which was for informing students, how to listen to students and teachers. The introduction had loud music and the host and co-host talked of weather in Canada’s which is where the co-host was located.
They mentioned to discuss 7th grade students and why smart board helps and they think teachers should connect. I didn’t hear much from that. I did hear them mention to listen in or join in the “ Chime” at 415-315-9492 for more pod casting. The hosts quickly gave links for others to use, I did catch: webspiration.com for mind concepts in Math, said it had good symbols for ideas and organizing points. That’s free of charge for now but may change in the future. I heard them say there are brainstorming activities to submit through minister or brainstorer.com, for students to give study notes, researching ideas that they can collaborate on at a later time. The chime kept going off and they got a mailbag and opened it to find a letter from Australia from a Peter Hollard which he talked of pod casts he enjoyed as teacher. This pod cast could have kept the jokes and chiming to a minimum. The information was ok but I got frustrated hearing the same thing over and over again.

My fourth pod cast was from :
Teachers Are Talking Episode 14 from Thu, 2008-12-25 02:27 the hosts were Cheryl Lykowski and Susan van Gelder and Steve Dembo of the Educator Network
This pod cast focused on talk from ideas, practices, interests and blogging. The teacher started off the pod cast talking about snow days in long Island and Canada and their cars driving in snow. They spoke on schools they worked in liked or otherwise. One teacher compared working with kids to teachers acting like kindergarteners, who are afraid to do different things, afraid the mix up the environment in a class a bit.

I did enjoy Mr. Dembo talking about his experiences focusing on the classroom, especially with children with illnesses. He is no longer in the classroom he took a job in technology to network on a variety of areas.
He spoke on the empowerment of people and experiments to uplift technology in education.. The vast majority of the pod cast was that of Mr. Dembo and his own experiences. The pod cast could have been more informative.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture/EDM 310

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo, was a video with so much to say and relay to others. I can’t recall having to watch a lecture online but this was well worth the time. Without making his illness a a focal point, Mr. Pausch, delivered a informative, heartfilled lecture.

First, I want to say that as educators, we really need to reflect on what “DREAMS” mean or meant to us and try very hard not to knock those of others. Mr. Pausch said, “Show others what is feels like to make others happy with something you are doing.” I feel as a teacher, all my 18 students look into my eyes and want something from me that no-one else may be able to give them and after viewing this video, I want to make a point of listening more and trying to do my best for them even more. I pray that I am not a “brick-wall” that stands in front of someone’s achievements or dreams so to speak. I pray that I am that teacher, mentor, parent, colleague or friend for someone and that I have made a difference and will continue to do so.

The fulfillment of childhood dreams are amazing. I can only remember wanting to be a teacher and here I am, in the process of that dream. I can’t recall anyone pushing me or pulling me from that dream. I remember being told that I can and will help others in a major way, maybe this is my time to shine, maybe not yet but it will happen.

Mr. Pausch also made a statement that people with large families are better people because they know how to get along. I don’t particularly agree with that, but I see his point. I speak only from a personal level when I say that my immediate family was small, but I do have a large family in general. Even with that in mind, I think I am the most easy going person to get to know. I see myself as one of the "tigger" people, that is happy and full of life, dedicated, honest and I try so hard to be prepared.

I look forward to reading and viewing more of professor Pausch’s work in my career. I was almost at the end of the video when I noticed that he passed away in July 2007 and my heart goes out to his family.

Previous EDM310 Podcast review

The first Podcast I reviewed was titled "Can You Tube be used for Educational purposes"?
Adrienne Lynch, Joylyn Reese and Brian Stevens were the casting students.

These student’s podcast had some information and they took turns giving it. They described You Tube as a Google product, said it gave “how too’s” for teachers, news, videos, music, and movies. The students said that You Tube had a lot of examples and that it showed ways to use it but I didn’t really hear much support on that. They mentioned valuable things and not so valuable things in the site such as: Class projects, presentations, post videos for class, workshops for teachers and documentaries. They also mentioned it was a “good cheat tool.” One student said that most schools restricted access to it but there were ways around it and that personally he would use sparingly. There were lots of examples given by way of other teachers, instead of themselves. They babbled on, but didn’t give concrete reasons to the list of purposes to support the ideas mentioned. The Podcast was long but not with core experiences.

My second Podcast viewed was: "Useful Websites for Teachers" by Shyane Fant, Erica Sledge, and Ashley Cleveland.

These students listed sources from HDTV://its.lee summit.k12.mo.us and said it was an interactive site on how to get tech in class. They gave other examples of links to be used such as: SmartBoard tutorial, word, and excel. They explained that students can look at it, do PowerPoint, pick grade subject areas to be used in your own classroom. They mentioned the use of games, lesson plans, resources, web design and media graphics.

They also sited: Teachers.net can be used for any type teacher, adult and Professors. They explained the use of possible 4000 lesson ideas, project sections, grants to be searched and field trips. They also mentioned publications were made by teachers, articles for different things and chat board usage. I got a lot of listening to them speak and plan on using the websites. I think it would be helpful to any teacher.

Articles I found concerning podcasts

The first podcast I reviewed was: "Student's Perceptions of You Tube Usage in the College Classroom." Shonna L. Snyder, Sloan Christine Burke, USA

You Tube is an Internet application in which people can upload, share, and watch videos. Technology such as You Tube in the classroom could prove to be an asset in meeting the educational needs of our generation. Technology in the classroom has come a long way. Growing advances in video technology and communication tools brought on by the Internet in the past decade have caused educators to consider their benefits as classroom tools.

You Tube, has quickly become a communication platform on the Internet . You Tube, Instant Messaging, MySpace, and Facebook are used mainly as a social communication. By using a variety of instructional methods and learning activities in the classroom or via distance education courses, an enriched learning environment is created for the student (Beldarrain, 2006).

College students are using the Internet at much higher rates compared to other populations. Students check email, download music files, and use instant messages all the time for educational purposes. College students are using the latest communication technology on the Internet such as chat rooms, blogs, Clearly college students are in the using the most up-to-date Internet technologies You Tube, can be beneficial to a classroom learning experience.


My second podcast review was : Student's ‘Evolving’ Use of Technology
By: Insidehighered news

We all know that we spent a significant amount time on the Internet for any given purpose. Studies show that the use of Face book and other social networking sites are on the rise. So are students using websites now for education or social platforms?

More and more it seems that for communication purposes such as: E-mail, Web sites, message boards and Blackboard are ways of connecting globally. Information technology and instructional technology are used daily, but are these methods practical for all class types? If a teacher can teach a class productively, it can be done with or without Information Technology. So it really boils down to how it is implemented in the class and how we as upcoming teachers can make our classes equally productive with the changing technology advances. We should keep the old days in mind when computers were not such a big issue and just use it as a tool not as a factor.

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

I believe there are many of ways to to convey lessons to children. In this post by Karl Fisch, he states that " All educators must achieve a basic level of technological capability." In saying that, I agree that some level is the key word here. If a person is able to turn the PC on and click on Internet Explorer, then that's their level. Mr. Fish says, "People who do not meet the criterion of #1 should be embarrassed, not proud, to say so in public. Maybe, maybe not. Not everyone believes in the things found on the Internet, maybe they are people who'd rather search and find physically what they desire. Instead of using technology to communicate, like emailing, some would rather pick up the phone. That's their choice.

As an educator, I agree that I am not an illiterate teacher. I have some computer skills that I can convey to my students at a certain level and I continue to search ways to increase my knowledge to help myself and my students/children.

At my job, there are some seasoned teachers who hasn't the slightest interest to learn about computers, that's their choice. I do not see how they got the certification they have without the use of a computer at some point. Personally, I wouldn't want to be one in the bunch who was technologically illiterate but that just me.

My Presentation

The Fischbowl: Let’s Stop Preparing Kids for College

In reading Karl Fisch's posts, I tend to think that too much enfaces is put on students to go straight to college after high school. High school doesn’t necessarily prepare you for college, although when finishing high school and going onto college can possibly them a greater job opportunity and future advancement doesn’t mean it’s for everyone and this same achievement can be met other ways..

Mr. Fisch said, there’s no question that the statistics show that folks with a college education are likely to earn much more than those with just a high school education. According to the U.S. Census bureau, “workers 18 and over with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $51,206 a year, while those with a high school diploma earn $27,915 .”

As noted in Mr. Fisch’s blog, in fields with a need for scientific, engineering, or accounting knowledge, there are certainly other ways for students to get that knowledge that might look very different from the typical college experience, including trade schools, internships/mentorship’s, online options or even joining the Military.

Companies can train a person to do just as well or better than a college degreed person. These employers could teach them the specific content they needed to know for their job. A college education doesn’t makes people any more of a better person. Molding them in high school can prepare them to be a better person.

Alt and Title Text- Water and Peace