FAREWELL for now...

Dr. Strange and EDM Fall 310, it was a great pleasure to grow and learn with you. There were many times I did not have the slightest clue as to what was going on in class, but I feel much better now. I am available on Twitter and Facebook, as Jennifer Bass, for anyone who wants to keep in touch. I hope everyone becomes successful in their future careers and have a wonderfully blessed life.

This is a very sad ending to our class and makes me want to cry. I am leaving these tears in memory of me. I would upload one of my very own genuine tears, but I couldn't google one up.

SUMMARY OF EDM 310 FALL 2009

Blogging has taught me a new way to communicate, share, and get feedback from people. It will be a useful tool for me to communicate with students, parents, and other professionals to learn new things. Also, I can share informative and tutorial websites with parents and students to promote their educational growth. Presentations have given me a new technique to use in preparation for English literature. I can introduce pictures, places, thoughts, and other ideas to the class prior to the lesson. Google docs can be used to have an e-mail, assignments, and other educational material accessible at any time. Podcasts can be influential in encouraging students on specific topics by listening at students and others opinions. Also, students may get the opportunity to create a podcast. YouTube will be excellent for researching educational videos pertaining to topics discussed in class and can reinforce my classroom instruction. Personal learning network (PLN) is a useful tool to obtain, share, and stay current on educational material and ideas as it arises. Also, I will add Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) to my PLN to assist me with lesson plans. A part of being a teacher is to be willing to learn and I will maintain contact with my PLN group as a part of this learning process. Twitter is being used by me to assist in maintaining part of my PLN group. Comments 4kids is a fun way to communicate and share ideas with students across the globe. Educational materials can be obtained through iTunes and iTunesU. Accessibility and the use of html tag modifiers will be a factor in my class. I will create a questionaire using Google forms at the beginning of the term to see who has internet accessibility. The ones who do not will be given ample time to complete assignment requiring internet access. Also, in my blogs and e-mail, I will include links to take students to the sites of my choice. Google Earth can be used to give virtual tours of locations and places discussed in the text. As an English teacher, I will encourage and assist students taking college credit courses through the Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS). Technological literacy is very important to the future of schools. As previously discussed in this class, reading habits of students are continuously deteriorating as schools are becoming submerged in technology. Currently, I am at the beginning of my intellectual trail and have a long road ahead.
2. Google Earth and Pecassa was introduced in class, but I wanted to learn more about them.
3. I do not regret anything I learned in this class. I really appreciate the EDM310 experience.
4. The introduction to Google Earth was exciting to me and I plan to explore it in greater detail in the near future. I enjoyed doing presentations with pictures and I plan to use Pecassa. The entire class was a very exciting experience. I got internet access at home about a year ago and was not aware of all the things it has to offer until this class. Also, it was exciting to me to learn how to search the internet for information.
5. I felt like editing html tags was "intellectually challenging." I played around with it for a long time before I could figure out what the problem was. My instructional videos would play sounds and not show pictures. So, I could hear Dr. Strange's voice, the clicking of the mouse, and no sound. I read the instructions and that was not successful. Html's looked like a foreign language at first and many of the letters and symbols were very similar.
6. I was not bored at anytime in this class.
7. I would not change anything in this class.
8. I am somewhat technologically literate to a medium extent.
9. I will maintain my technological literacy by checking educational websites I am following on Twitter and searching the web for other sites to add.

Comments 4kids

Comments 4kids was a very interesting project. Students show the world what they are learning as they learn it. We watched videos, read stories, and commented on students' blogs in other schools. There was a brief video of the Incy Wincy Spider read by a little boy named Evan. There were drawings used to make the spider appear animated as he moved up and down the water spout. There was a 4th grader who demonstrated the process of making a basket and the storyboard organization was great. Particularly, I liked Room 10 Pt England's class blog. This is their first year blogging as well as mine.

Project 11 SmartBoard Uses

SmartBoard Uses was done by Sabrina McAnally, Lindsay Sanders, and me. It demonstrated how the SmartBoard can be used by the students and teachers. We described the SmartBoard, gave statistics, and demonstrated how it works. As to my surprise, it is used mostly by English teachers, which is my major. Also, there is a webinar available with free training materials. If you would like to view our presentationclick here.

Personal Learning Network (PLN)

In my Personal Learning Network (PLN), I am following educators, professionals, websites, and some of my EDM310 classmembers. Dr. Strange, my EDM 310 instructor, got me started with my PLN. Danielle McQuieter, Quanda Atkins, Kathi Pines, and Kevin Pugh are professional college graduates I will maintain contact with for technical and educational questions as education continuously become submerged in technology. Cade Somers, Emily Carlson, and John Harville are class members who began their PLN's with me and we can share in our learning experience. Larry Ferlazzo, Shelly Blake-Plock, Joe McClung, and Jim Fawcett are educators I have encountered through the web. They share websites containing beneficial information pertaining to the education field. Edutechation, Leapfish, and Richard M. Byrne are websites I will continuously use to keep up-to-date with new technology as it arises and apply it to my classroom instruction. My PLN members are on Facebook and Twitter. I will be able to keep my PLN going by checking messages, leaving questions, adding others, and in real-time when available. Also, I will send links to my members as I encounter them.

Podcast: Our Experiences in Blogging, Good So Far

My group's podcast consisted Sabrina McAnally, Lindsay Sanders, and myself. We discussed how blogging would be useful in the classroom. There were the advantages and disadvantages to blogging. Internet accessibility, income levels, and availability were also discussed. If you like to view our podcast click here.

New Classroom Rules By Education Innovation

I like the rule "Come to school everyday, unless you would rather just go on-line." I commute to school 2 days a week. I find it very convenient to take an on-line course to prevent traveling everyday. Spring semester 2009 was my first semester back in school after 13 years. I commuted 3 days and the stress was overwhelming. I don't know of many times that I have been stressed out like that. To decrease stress, I decided to have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for as long as possible. I have 3 classes on campus and one online.

Secondly, we should "Be polite, courteous, and respectful at all times in both physical and virtual space." I think this rule is important, because perception and appearance are important parts of life. If you are a professional educator, you should dress, act, and be respectful as a part of your profession. If you would like to view the new classroom rules, then click here.

Brilliant Things Teachers Do and Stupid Mistakes They Make With Technology

Doug Johnson discussed things teachers do with technology. The first one was to make conferencing real-time. It is one important component of networking. This encourages parental involvement. Particularly, I enjoy e-mails. This is a way of allowing parents and teachers to keep in touch at their own discretion. It is very easy to get behind in everyday tasks and e-mails are accessible anytime.

Also, accepting the role of co-learner is very important. It has been addressed in EDM 310 that willingness to learn is an important part of becoming a good teacher. The teacher can learn from the teachers as well as teach them, too.

They can make stupid mistakes. First, not monitoring student's behaviors on the web is a bad mistake. As a teacher, you have to control what the student is accessing on the web. There is still a small chance that students can get around internet blockers on the school computers. If the student does something he or she should not, it can be traced back to your e-mail address and you can be held accountable.

Secondly, another mistake is believing online communication is private. Personal messages can be posted and will appear on the web for a long time. This situation is very common on my Facebook page. For instance, the chat history shows everything that has been exchanged between chatters for a long period of time. If you would like to view Doug Johnson's post,click here.

At The Teacher's Desk

At The Teacher's Desk, there were many ideas discussed about the use of collaborative learning in the classroom. First, skyping was a collaborative way to spark student's interests in class work. It gives students and teachers a new way to come up with new ideas from outside resources. Also, it may be useful to skype a place being discussed in the class and listen to what the local students there have to say from first-hand experiences. For example, if my class is reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I could plan a skype visit with students in Monroeville, Alabama and get insight from them.

Second, Teachers Need to Become Social Networking Experts discussed how the networking tool can be used to collaborate with other teachers, parents, students, and other educational professionals. I have only been on Facebook about 4 months and my network has grown drastically. I am already a member of my senior class alumni and a Facebook family tree. I read the post about the teacher who had a Facebook page to collaborate with his students' parents. The idea sounded good, but I don't think Facebook is private enough for that type of networking.

Also, I liked the presentation of The Fundred Project. The idea and the way it was advertised to other classrooms was very organized. It explained the project and posted a power point demonstrating the reason for it. The project encouraged other teachers and schools to collaborate to succeed in this project's completion. Also, I want to know if President Obama makes the even exchange for the template 100 bills. If you would like to read about the fundred project click here.

What Ever It Takes

In Michael Wesch's video, he made several comments relative to my current experiences in college. In the past years, I have lived a sedentary, somewhat isolated life that lacked socializing. The use of blogging has encouraged me to communicate more. It allows me to tell my opinion and get feedback from others.

My self-awareness has been improving through this class. It has allowed me to see myself the way others see me on my blogs. By posting my picture, I can see how I appear to others and think of ways to improve or change it. Sometimes I see other's blogs and they have similar views to the one's that I have. This makes me think my thoughts have value and are not always wrong.

Also, Wesch discussed how media has given more meaning to "whatever." As times change, media has a big impact on the culture. Media and technology is constantly changing. He described the past meaning of "whatever" as a form of selfishness. As future teachers, we have to care and "Let's do whatever it takes...by whatever means possible." If you would like to watch Wesch's video, click here.

The Importance of Students Posting Their Work in Blogs 3

Posting assignments in blogs give students the individual attention they may not get in the classroom setting. There is a wide variety of students in a class. Some may be shier than others and feel embarrassed in front of other students. This allows those students to collaborate with the teacher and discuss unresolved issues outside of the classroom. Also, the student may become more comfortable with the teacher and increase his or her class participation.

The Importance of Students Posting Their Work in Blogs 2

Posting assignments to a blog will be useful and informative to accommodate parents with busy schedules. Today, most parents work and this is a useful way for the parent to keep up with what the student is doing in class. This will allow the parent and teacher to know when the student does homework by the date and time on the assignment. Also, it gives the parent time to collaborate with the teacher and see what improvements can be made on the student's behalf.

The Importance of Students Posting Their Work in Blogs 1

It is important to post assignments on the web. This allows students to review their work and see where improvements can be made. The more improved students become, the better their work will become to the world on the web. Also, comments made by others viewing the posts will contribute to students' success in the classroom. You can watch a video of students singing Landslide by clicking here.

PROVERBS 4:25-27

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, & Students Statewide (ACCESS)

Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS) is a distance learning program available to all Alabama public high school students. This gives students the opportunity to earn college credits while in high school. Also, it provides Alabama High School Graduation Exam (AHSGE) remediation modules for high school students who need it. This is a network between college instructors and students through web-based college courses.

ACCESS provides tools to assist students in their on-line experience. Their goal is to give students college credits prior to entering college. This site allows students to connect with the AHSGE, advanced placement (AP) tests, web-based courses, and interactive videoconferencing (IVC) courses. Also, it contains resources that include an Alabama Virtual Library, so students won't have to leave home to look for information. Also, this library and Wickipedia's matching information can be combined together to fulfill reference requirements for papers.

ACCESS will be a good program to introduce to the students. This gives high school students a head start in college. Students can shorten their stay in college and reduce the cost of a college education. As a future English teacher, I can assist some high school students in taking available distance learning English courses prior to attending college. Also, I can obtain modules for students who have not passed the English portion of their AHSGE and assist them with any difficulties they may be having.

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)

Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) provides tools to assist teachers with their lesson plans. It provides web links for a specific grade, subject, and topic being taught in the classroom. Teachers have to be creative and be able to reach out to a very diverse group of students. One has to consider poverty as an issue that hinders students from accessing needed materials for the learning process and try to accommodate their needs in the classroom.

ALEX provides a variety of resources that will be useful in the classroom. There are lesson plans available for the teacher's use to coincide with the lesson plans they are preparing. There is a place where an individual teacher can develop their own personal workshop. Also, there are web sites teachers can use to get additional information.

This program will be useful for assisting teachers in the classroom. Creativity is a part of a teacher's classroom instructions. As a teacher, I may have ideas and strategies to present in my classroom. I can get additional help from ALEX. There may be a few struggling students that requires something extra. I may be able to derive new ways to present instructions to my class.

Kaia's Adventures

These videos discussed how a child can learn from the web and easily get exploited to the entire world. In Kaia's case, it started out as a connection to keep in touch with love ones. It never intended on getting so much publicity. She can't read yet, but she is learning from other students through the internet. I think this encourages Kaia to want to learn more.

The implications in these videos are there are dangers in exposing young kids to the world on networking. Kaia's father recognized these dangers. Her father watched the videos with her. Also, he realized how vulnerable the experience made her. It started out as a way of sharing her photos with family, but it ended up being viewed world wide. This can be a good way of young children learning, but it should be done under strict supervision. You would never know the person they are networking with on the web. This story started out about a book The Last Child in the Woods. Without strict supervision, your child can be lost in the woods of networking.

New Media Literacy Project

The New Media Literacy Project (NML) is concerned with teaching skills to prepare students for the upcoming digital age. These skills will be needed to function in the future. Also, new technologies are becoming a part of our culture. So, as future teachers and students, we should be preparing to grasp our newly developing culture.

I read the article "As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History." There is the possibility that as the classroom becomes more technical, textbooks will be on a decline. Some students already have laptops. It is tentative that students will be given iPods and digital textbooks with their textbooks loaded on it. Not purchasing textbooks would the the schools big money. Although it has its benefits, textbook publishers would lose a lot of money. One has to consider low income families may not have internet accessibility available at all times. This problem can lead to a digital divide, which means a wide gap between the rich and the poor.

New Media Literacy Policies by the NML Staff

New media literacy skills are the things you need to know in order to teach in today's classrooms. It is more like a thought process and a teacher has to be able to interpret new information from the web correctly before including it in the classroom instruction. These skills will create more reliable information presented in the classroom.

I think these are effective skill needed in today's society. Today, perception and deception is a part of everyday life. One needs to be aware of these skills as a part of survival. Judgement and negotiation are the most important of these skills. One has to be able to use sound judgement and make the right choices. Also, negotiations help to reinforce and support that those choices are right.

I am beginning to improve my judgement and negotiation skills, because they are weak right now. I had done very little work on the web before 2009, but I am learning and willing to continue learning new things. As I continue in my education, I should gradually accumulate the other skills over a period of time.

Why Teach the Networked Student?

I thought developing a personal learning network (PLN) is a good idea. This is a place where one can collaborate and get help on topics from others. This is a place where a person's opinion is counted, but it cannot be reliable without reinforcement. Also, other peers can be included in this network. PLN broadens a student's learning. Including professionals can give a student other sources, ideas, or directions to look into.

Again, one has to keep in mind that people include their opinions and their posts are based on their own knowledge. Similar to Wickipedia, this can be unreliable if used without caution. For instance, if one uses a bit of information, it should be reinforced by another source in the network. This allows the information used to be more accurate and reliable.

There is a couple of reasons a networked student needs a teacher. In the previous paragraph, I discussed the unreliability of a PLN if the information is interpreted incorrectly. The networked student needs the guidance while building their networks. The students have to be taught how to ask for help and be able to pick out factual information from the network. Also, a tech literate teacher should assist the student in creating an organized scavenger hunt. The student should be encouraged to maintain their PLN throughout their education. It will be beneficial in reinforcing their knowledge of a topic and collaborating with others.

As a high school English teacher, I see many benefits of a PLN. Education is becoming increasingly technical and there is a possibility of a decline in students' reading habits. Creativity is encouraged to enlighten a student's learning in the classroom. My network will allow me to collaborate with other teachers across the globe for creative ideas to use in the classroom. Currently, I am not prepared to teach a networked student, but I am in a continuous learning process.