Wednesday, December 3, 2008
My EDM 310 Blog Assignments are Now Complete
Good job everyone i had a great time in this class with you all. hope everyone has great succes in your future professions.
edm 310 final blog
i learned a lot in this class. I already knew how to do a lot of the stuff we covered i just had not had much practice at it. that has now changed drastically and helped out a lot. i feel like this practice will help me out as plan lessons as a teacher. the best thing i learned in this class is that technology is an excellent outlet to the community and can be an essential part of a our future profession. other things that i have learned are how to make an igoogle page add an rss feed and how to use google gadgets. the most interesting thing i learned how to do is pod casts and it was also the funnest thing we did. on top of learning how to make a pod casts i also learned of the many ways pod casts can help in education.
i learned so many interesting things in this class. but i wish that we would have actually used more html because i would like to learn how to do that in depth. I also would have liked to learn how to make a real web page i think that would have been a fun thing to learn how to do also. that being said i think the varying tech abilities of the class would have made these things kind of hard.
i learned so many interesting things in this class. but i wish that we would have actually used more html because i would like to learn how to do that in depth. I also would have liked to learn how to make a real web page i think that would have been a fun thing to learn how to do also. that being said i think the varying tech abilities of the class would have made these things kind of hard.
electronic contact assignment
my electronic contact assignment project was kinda of difficult to complete. However i did have a conversation with a student at Jefferson state a community college in Birmingham. he was very helpful in fulfilling my task and answering the questions i asked. i asked about the classes at Jeff state and also asked him about the usage of electronic devices in the class room of high schools. he answered them very thoroughly and informative with his answers. he stated that many of the high schools in Alabama are behind on getting technology in the classroom. he also said that he thought that it was an essential tool in modern day learning.
Pros and cons of bloging
This was my very first attempt at blogging. I feel that blogging when done right can be very useful and informative tool. at the same time some blogs are mindless chatter that isn't really worth reading. By reading some of my fellow classmates blogs and countless other blogs i have come to the realization that there are both pros and cons of blogging.
As a teacher I feel that blogging in the classroom is a good way to keep parents and students involved with your lesson plans. this alone is a reason that every high school should and probably will have a blog site in the future. classroom blogs will make assignments easier for both teachers and students. Parents would benefit from blog sites as well because it will give them access to the assignments that are do and if their child has trouble staying on task they will be able to keep them on task.
A cons are blogging are basically human error and security reasons from what i can tell. I feel like there could be potential problems with anyone having access to the blog at anytime. this could lead to non scholastic things being written on the blog site and ruining the educational surroundings. also blogs can be run improperly. Links that don't work half written posts and unclear images are all ways that one could render a blog ineffective.
all together i feel that the pros greatly out weigh the cons. Blogs would and are great assets to the academic community. keeping students interested in what they are learning and getting their parents involved are two of the most important things that a teacher can do to benefit the child.
As a teacher I feel that blogging in the classroom is a good way to keep parents and students involved with your lesson plans. this alone is a reason that every high school should and probably will have a blog site in the future. classroom blogs will make assignments easier for both teachers and students. Parents would benefit from blog sites as well because it will give them access to the assignments that are do and if their child has trouble staying on task they will be able to keep them on task.
A cons are blogging are basically human error and security reasons from what i can tell. I feel like there could be potential problems with anyone having access to the blog at anytime. this could lead to non scholastic things being written on the blog site and ruining the educational surroundings. also blogs can be run improperly. Links that don't work half written posts and unclear images are all ways that one could render a blog ineffective.
all together i feel that the pros greatly out weigh the cons. Blogs would and are great assets to the academic community. keeping students interested in what they are learning and getting their parents involved are two of the most important things that a teacher can do to benefit the child.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
access visit
in the labWe took our visit to the access or distance learning lab at Davidson high school. it was very interesting. Mrs. wright was the head of the lab and explained what went on in the classroom. When we walked in the room they were having class so we asked the students questions about the electronics in the classroom and how they liked it. Mrs wright explained that the access class Is an optional class that some of the students choose to take. she also told us that she just got certified to teach the access lab and it would be fully operational next semester. I observed the classroom for a little longer and asked a few more questions to the students and then left. I was impressed by their access lab. we don't have some of the stuff they had at Davidson at the university of south Alabama.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
"growth" vs. "fixed" minds
this video is an interview with carol dweck a psychology professor. the video is about the debate on if a child's mind is developed over time or is it already fixed on the intellect it can obtain. the study was performed into different groups and the subjects were not told what exactly was going on. one group was taught new things to develop their brain and the second group learned study skills. the group that learned new things seemed to actually benefit more from what was going on.
Carols experiment although not conclusive was very informative and she rose some good points. the human brain is a muscle and only gets strong by using it and challenging it. she also said that children's brains get stronger as they are challenged.
i feel that the findings in this video are pretty much common sense. we all know that you have to challenge your brain to get smarter and to learn. as a teacher i will challenge my students learn and help to develop there thinking so that they will be valuable assets to their communities.
Carols experiment although not conclusive was very informative and she rose some good points. the human brain is a muscle and only gets strong by using it and challenging it. she also said that children's brains get stronger as they are challenged.
i feel that the findings in this video are pretty much common sense. we all know that you have to challenge your brain to get smarter and to learn. as a teacher i will challenge my students learn and help to develop there thinking so that they will be valuable assets to their communities.
edm 310 podcasts
the podcast in class were very fun to be involved with, although it made allot of people nervous. Some where better than others but all of the podcast were performed by first timers and were not expected to be great in the first place. there are several ways to approve the podcast in the future.
One of the main ways the podcast could be improved is just by getting more experience performing them. experience will led the performers to better speakers and speak more clearly while making there points so that the listeners can follow more easily.many of the podcast seemed like they were being stretched out to make the time quota and that led to some confusion. this may have been due to lack of preparation from the participants or just due to a simple fast talking problem.
as long as the experience factor is taken care of i feel like some of the students could be very good a performing podcast in the future. I know that i found them very entertaing while they were being recorded and interesting when i listened to some of them on the computer. in the end i felt like all of my classmates did there best and that they gave 110 percent and did rather well considering it was our first time. this experiment was one of the most interesting things i have been apart of and has opened my mind to the possibility of using podcast for group projects in the future.
One of the main ways the podcast could be improved is just by getting more experience performing them. experience will led the performers to better speakers and speak more clearly while making there points so that the listeners can follow more easily.many of the podcast seemed like they were being stretched out to make the time quota and that led to some confusion. this may have been due to lack of preparation from the participants or just due to a simple fast talking problem.
as long as the experience factor is taken care of i feel like some of the students could be very good a performing podcast in the future. I know that i found them very entertaing while they were being recorded and interesting when i listened to some of them on the computer. in the end i felt like all of my classmates did there best and that they gave 110 percent and did rather well considering it was our first time. this experiment was one of the most interesting things i have been apart of and has opened my mind to the possibility of using podcast for group projects in the future.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Edutopia
Edible schoolyard is about just that an edible schoolyard or garden where the kids learn to plant crops. they also learn to cook, be on a team and water plants among other things.
global village video is on a global realization project. This program raises awareness of hunger and diversity throughout the world. the done in perryvill Arkansas on the heifer ranch. it is run basically like a kid survivor.
I believe that these videos hello me as a teacher by just giving me ideas of how there are so many different ways to teach. It gives me a goal of finding a new better way to teach that people have not found yet. kids learn all kinds of different ways and we should use all of the resources and try all kinds of different things in our pursuit of knowledge.
Also these videos raised a valuable point. global and environmental issues are very important to teach children and are often over looked. I remember as i was going through school i never was taught the things that theses kids are learning and to this day don't know some of this stuff. educators should take this in to account and try to at least introduce children to new things on a regular bases even if they will not be able to implement them all the time.
global village video is on a global realization project. This program raises awareness of hunger and diversity throughout the world. the done in perryvill Arkansas on the heifer ranch. it is run basically like a kid survivor.
I believe that these videos hello me as a teacher by just giving me ideas of how there are so many different ways to teach. It gives me a goal of finding a new better way to teach that people have not found yet. kids learn all kinds of different ways and we should use all of the resources and try all kinds of different things in our pursuit of knowledge.
Also these videos raised a valuable point. global and environmental issues are very important to teach children and are often over looked. I remember as i was going through school i never was taught the things that theses kids are learning and to this day don't know some of this stuff. educators should take this in to account and try to at least introduce children to new things on a regular bases even if they will not be able to implement them all the time.
wbgh: a night on a coral reef
I watched the video about the coral reef on the 9 thorough 12 section. the video is a documentary on the animals that live on and in the coral reef. it also describes what forms a coral reef and that the shelter attracts the fish to stay there.
In education visual learning is a very useful tool. some kids learn better by watching things in action or being shown how to perform a task. Now that i tunes has put podcast like this one up for anyone to download it opens a whole new world of topics that teachers can teach and have some visual references to back up the things they are teaching to the students.
Videos like these were very educational as i came through grade school. i remember watching videos like this one in several different classes and they helped me to develop the knowledge base that i have to day. this video has proabley already introduced kids to things they have never heard of before
In education visual learning is a very useful tool. some kids learn better by watching things in action or being shown how to perform a task. Now that i tunes has put podcast like this one up for anyone to download it opens a whole new world of topics that teachers can teach and have some visual references to back up the things they are teaching to the students.
Videos like these were very educational as i came through grade school. i remember watching videos like this one in several different classes and they helped me to develop the knowledge base that i have to day. this video has proabley already introduced kids to things they have never heard of before
podcasts are fun
a podcast is a great way to teach. it can be done several ways. the most popular way is to just record lecture on a topic of your choice. this type of podcast is just as if you were attending a class lecture. the other main way to perform a podcast is a semi formal discussion based question and answer type of session. this type gives you a since of being in the discussion.
The class lecture style is mostly done as a formal lecture but can sometimes be done as a casual talk. This style is the best way to give a bunch of information in a given period. it is also a great tool when focusing on a single topic for a extended period of time. one negative on the lecture blog style is that it is most times less entertaining and can be boring at times when compared to the discussion based podcast.
The multi speaker podcast can be done as formal lectures but are mainly performed as a causal talk between a few people. these discussion can be done on a variety of topics in on one podcast and can give a lot of information but is not very detailed. The discussion are pretty entertaining and give you a since of being in the room with the speakers kinda like a mourning radio show. the cons are the discussions are sometimes vague and there is a possibility of people interrupting each other.
All in all podcast are the future of learning. Home work and maybe even class will be done on itunes and broadcasts to further the learning experience and continue the growth that we start at the school. podcast could also get the parents involved and help kids to answer that age old question of "so what did you learn at school today".
The class lecture style is mostly done as a formal lecture but can sometimes be done as a casual talk. This style is the best way to give a bunch of information in a given period. it is also a great tool when focusing on a single topic for a extended period of time. one negative on the lecture blog style is that it is most times less entertaining and can be boring at times when compared to the discussion based podcast.
The multi speaker podcast can be done as formal lectures but are mainly performed as a causal talk between a few people. these discussion can be done on a variety of topics in on one podcast and can give a lot of information but is not very detailed. The discussion are pretty entertaining and give you a since of being in the room with the speakers kinda like a mourning radio show. the cons are the discussions are sometimes vague and there is a possibility of people interrupting each other.
All in all podcast are the future of learning. Home work and maybe even class will be done on itunes and broadcasts to further the learning experience and continue the growth that we start at the school. podcast could also get the parents involved and help kids to answer that age old question of "so what did you learn at school today".
Monday, November 17, 2008
the last lecture
Randy Pausch's last lecture was a very emotional and inspirational speech on what was at first achieving your childhood dreams. The lecture ended up being a verbal how to on living your life and achieving the goals that you set for yourself no matter what obstacles or "brick walls" you run into through out the adventure of life. The lecture was also very informal and felt like he was just talking with friends in a living room when in actuality he was speaking in front of an absolutely packed auditorium at Carnegie Melon the university where he works.
I contributing factors that helped make the lecture a success where quite obvious throughout the entire video. Randy Paush, as he states in the video, is a great sales men and knows how to talk to people and also how to tell the occasional joke or two. In top of being articulate Randy is also an extremely gifted educator who has been on the cutting edge of his profession since he began. He states that he loves to use what he calls "head fake learning". Head fake learning is explained as teaching a student something valuable through a game or activity that is fun and exciting to the point the student forgets they are in class or studying. The final evident factor is that Randy Paush has cancer and is able to still live his life to the fullest and even though he only has a little time left he is still having fun. I believe that this experience gave randy the necessary hindsight and foresight to make such a pivotal speech.
The lecture was in fact a motivational one. but, at the same time it seemed to be a sort of don't feel sorry for me i achieved all of my goals kind of thing, which is fine. If one can use their life to motivate others to teach, learn, or even create projects they should do it because once you get someone thinking that the possibilities are endless their is no limit to what that person can achieve. Mr. Paush's lecture achieved this goal and more. It moved and motivated everyone in the room and it was visually evident and showed that emotion coupled with experience is a great teaching tool.
This lecture should be passed around to all educators to show how you can motivate your students and maybe get some motivation for yourself too. also the lecture can show you how effective the ability to sell a topic is in the world of education. Lastly, make teaching fun. I think that was randy's main teaching point let the students use their imagination and make efforts to apply head fakes in your lesson plans.
I contributing factors that helped make the lecture a success where quite obvious throughout the entire video. Randy Paush, as he states in the video, is a great sales men and knows how to talk to people and also how to tell the occasional joke or two. In top of being articulate Randy is also an extremely gifted educator who has been on the cutting edge of his profession since he began. He states that he loves to use what he calls "head fake learning". Head fake learning is explained as teaching a student something valuable through a game or activity that is fun and exciting to the point the student forgets they are in class or studying. The final evident factor is that Randy Paush has cancer and is able to still live his life to the fullest and even though he only has a little time left he is still having fun. I believe that this experience gave randy the necessary hindsight and foresight to make such a pivotal speech.
The lecture was in fact a motivational one. but, at the same time it seemed to be a sort of don't feel sorry for me i achieved all of my goals kind of thing, which is fine. If one can use their life to motivate others to teach, learn, or even create projects they should do it because once you get someone thinking that the possibilities are endless their is no limit to what that person can achieve. Mr. Paush's lecture achieved this goal and more. It moved and motivated everyone in the room and it was visually evident and showed that emotion coupled with experience is a great teaching tool.
This lecture should be passed around to all educators to show how you can motivate your students and maybe get some motivation for yourself too. also the lecture can show you how effective the ability to sell a topic is in the world of education. Lastly, make teaching fun. I think that was randy's main teaching point let the students use their imagination and make efforts to apply head fakes in your lesson plans.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
web site layouts
Dr Alice Christie's site is extremely well done and can teacher students and teachers many things. the thing i was most interested was the basics of designing a website. this seemed like a very useful thing to learn due to the power of the Internet as a learning tool.
the first thing it says to consider is your target audience and the format your site will be played through. next she says that the layout is vital and you must have a title at the top of every page and put your most important information to the left of the page and your links and such to the right. also the text should be definitely separated from the links and buttons by a border. Background and color are also important. never use more than five colors it cause distraction and certain colors are better suited in special areas (ie. blue is great for background and use red for numbers). lastly make sure everything on your site is spelled and works properly and u will have a very effective site to aid in the pursuit of knowledge.
the first thing it says to consider is your target audience and the format your site will be played through. next she says that the layout is vital and you must have a title at the top of every page and put your most important information to the left of the page and your links and such to the right. also the text should be definitely separated from the links and buttons by a border. Background and color are also important. never use more than five colors it cause distraction and certain colors are better suited in special areas (ie. blue is great for background and use red for numbers). lastly make sure everything on your site is spelled and works properly and u will have a very effective site to aid in the pursuit of knowledge.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
wikipedia cant be trusted
wikipedia is a site that with holds lots of information and is perfect for the college student who has a very deverse group of classes, or so it would seem. the blogs on the npr website have opened my eyes to the posiabilites of inacuracy in the website. which is completly true and makes since due to the nature of the website that allows all users to add/ delete anything they want to.
I still belive that many of the articles about technical terms and such are still mostly reliable but I do not recomended it as a priamry information source. the site can not be fully trusted in anyway in my eyes. i guess for my information purposes i will have to do it the old fashion way, work the google on the internet machine.
I still belive that many of the articles about technical terms and such are still mostly reliable but I do not recomended it as a priamry information source. the site can not be fully trusted in anyway in my eyes. i guess for my information purposes i will have to do it the old fashion way, work the google on the internet machine.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
best of april
The blog that i read was the best of April called 180 days and it is all about the limited time that the average teacher has for actual instruction. the PowerPoint shows that the 180 days of school are reduced to around 120 days due to things like tests, pep rallies, absences, etc. the maker of the slides mentioned they are not absolute and the slide its self is supposed to be a discussion starter and does not think all theses "wasted days" are a waste of time.
Still being a student the only experience i have with high school is actually being a student in high school and being a part of the pep rallies and tests. when i was in school i remember days before vacations and things like that. they were full of talking about how your were going to spend the time and little or no teaching going on. I don't believe that one can change this much due to the fact that you are working with kids and kids get excited when they are going to have some free time. but then again i guess we all get excited when where going to have some free time or any break fir the normal day routine i guess its not an age thing as much as it is human nature.
Still being a student the only experience i have with high school is actually being a student in high school and being a part of the pep rallies and tests. when i was in school i remember days before vacations and things like that. they were full of talking about how your were going to spend the time and little or no teaching going on. I don't believe that one can change this much due to the fact that you are working with kids and kids get excited when they are going to have some free time. but then again i guess we all get excited when where going to have some free time or any break fir the normal day routine i guess its not an age thing as much as it is human nature.
its okay to be technologically literate
the blog is-it-okay-to-be-technologically is an excellent article. there is no surprise that it is award winning. the blog brings up the very real issue of people in the new millennium still not being able to effectively use a computer, one of if not the most useful tools at any one's disposal. As a student i use the computer for everything from writing this blog to looking up well basically anything i would ever want to learn. a teacher should be able to utilize this valuable tool to enhance their teaching abilities a help take the education system to the next level, where it should have already gotten by now but due to stubbornness or economic reasons it has been delayed.
the post basically attacks old fashion teachers that are showing no signs of even wanting to learn how to incorporate the computer or any other technology in their teaching routine due to inability to perform the tasks themselves or not even wanting to learn how. That is one thing a teacher should always want to do, learn. that is the main component of teaching. Learning is the only way they can achieve a teacher's main goal to further education. how does one produce new ideas in children when they haven't kept learning themselves. a teacher that cant spur a new idea is about as useful as a "teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." with no new ideas our society will stall and the problems that we have will constantly keep growing and we will be powerless to stop the cycle. it is up to teachers to cultivate the people who will come up with the ways to stop these problems, lets just hope there not learning for someone who is "too good to learn new things".
the post basically attacks old fashion teachers that are showing no signs of even wanting to learn how to incorporate the computer or any other technology in their teaching routine due to inability to perform the tasks themselves or not even wanting to learn how. That is one thing a teacher should always want to do, learn. that is the main component of teaching. Learning is the only way they can achieve a teacher's main goal to further education. how does one produce new ideas in children when they haven't kept learning themselves. a teacher that cant spur a new idea is about as useful as a "teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write." with no new ideas our society will stall and the problems that we have will constantly keep growing and we will be powerless to stop the cycle. it is up to teachers to cultivate the people who will come up with the ways to stop these problems, lets just hope there not learning for someone who is "too good to learn new things".
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
correcting links that do not work
4 important reasons links don't work.
1.) the link is not correctly spelled
2.) nothing is placed between the two parts of the a tag apples website
1.) the link is not correctly spelled
2.) nothing is placed between the two parts of the a tag apples website
Sunday, September 7, 2008
international classroom blogs
The first class' blog is from new zealand and is tahught by a women named Jody Hayes. she teaches 10 and 11 year old students. the sites url is Ms.Hayes' class blog. due to the layout of the site and the age of the students it makes me think the blog is ment for the students partents so that they are able to follow along with the classroom ciriculum.
The second class that i found was actually a link on the first's blog. The class is a first grade from canada. the class is taught by Kathy Cassidy and is a great blog. the site has several pictures and even has a video of what the class has been doing while at school. The students contribute to the site also by participating with the videos, pictures, and even practing thier writing. the address for the blog is Mrs. Cassidy's class blog
class room bloggers
The first one is Ms Millers blog and it is for a bradford high school english class. the sites motto is " We read, we think, we discuss... we post." and that say it all. the site is wonderful for leting students post there ideas in an open forum and discuss classroom topics outside of the classroom. these site seems to have manditory posts for homewok assignments which to me is a much more effective way to assign homework and grade it.
the second blogs address is href="http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/">computer science class. this blog is by a computer science teacher that uses the mantra Know Thy Students, For They Are Not You as the basis for his blog. he drives home the point that one should get to know there students in order to best formulate a lesson plan for them to have the best learning environment.His other point is the normal, students and teachers alike should use the Internet and its tools more effectively and more frequently.
the second blogs address is href="http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/">computer science class. this blog is by a computer science teacher that uses the mantra Know Thy Students, For They Are Not You as the basis for his blog. he drives home the point that one should get to know there students in order to best formulate a lesson plan for them to have the best learning environment.His other point is the normal, students and teachers alike should use the Internet and its tools more effectively and more frequently.
Monday, September 1, 2008
shift happens
The video on http://www.thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/did-you-know-20.html is extremely well done. The video illustrates the growth of technology and brings up the point that you never know what the future holds, change happens everyday. at one point in the video it states that many of the majors in colleges were not around even 5 years ago. it leads you to wonder what jobs will cease to be and what kind of jobs will replace them in the next 5 years
The video also serves another purpose and that is it motivates the viewer. it motivates the viewer to do one of the best things one can do learn. it makes you want to learn about new technology that has just come out and things that are in the making and will be out in the coming years that will shift the way we all live, hopefully for the better.
The video also serves another purpose and that is it motivates the viewer. it motivates the viewer to do one of the best things one can do learn. it makes you want to learn about new technology that has just come out and things that are in the making and will be out in the coming years that will shift the way we all live, hopefully for the better.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Access is great
Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide or Access is a very valuable to both teacher and students all over the state of Alabama. Access broadens the horizons for students giving them opportunities to dabble in otter things other than the core curriculum of the students respective high school helping the student to become a well rounded learner.
As a teacher access would help to find ways to motivate students and help you learn as an educator. also the access program can give the teacher a very valuable way to continue teaching other students threw the web. all together access is an extremely important tool to be able use as a student to widen ones interests and as a teacher to help continue the growth of the human mind.
As a teacher access would help to find ways to motivate students and help you learn as an educator. also the access program can give the teacher a very valuable way to continue teaching other students threw the web. all together access is an extremely important tool to be able use as a student to widen ones interests and as a teacher to help continue the growth of the human mind.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Alabama learning exchange otherwise known as (ALEX)is an online database of lesson plans created by teachers for teachers and student. you can search through the lesson plans by subject to find the specific topic you are looking for. it is also a reliable place to start a course page to organize your class.
Alex seems that it would be a very reliable resource when getting prepared and staying organized for future classes that i would be teaching. Also it would be a good way to keep my students aware of what the future lessons would hold that way there are no surprises.
Alex seems that it would be a very reliable resource when getting prepared and staying organized for future classes that i would be teaching. Also it would be a good way to keep my students aware of what the future lessons would hold that way there are no surprises.
Friday, August 22, 2008
about me
my name is Douglas Joel graham. I go by Joel to most due to a mix up in the oxford shire hospitals confusion after i was born due to the fact my dads name is Douglas also. I only lived in England for about a year and after that i moved to new Mexico then Virginia beach for a while after that i spent a year and a half in Guam a small island west of the Philippines. my family eventually settled in Birmingham where mom is from originally. I spent high school playing every sport i could and having and getting a scholarship to the university of mobile to play soccer. I changed schools two years later so that i could get in the nursing program but that wasn't for me.
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