iTunes University

After writing the last post about the possibility of using iPods in classrooms, I was interested to see what Apple, the creator if iPods, thought about it. TO find out, i visited the Apple Education Site to find out more.

According to the website, Apple is using iTunes University to let teachers distribute digital lessons to their students. Since the students are going to bring their cellphones and iPods to school anyway, they might as well take advantage of this and use it to their (the teachers and the company) advantage. Podcast are sent to students over their iPod or iPhone and then they are able to study and learn on their own time. If something comes up, the student is easily able to pause the podcast and come back to it later, leaving no excuse for why they could not finish their homework.

Apple is even making it very easy for teachers to use. The students already have the devices, so all the teachers need to do it get the software to use it, and Apple makes everything they will need. Clearly, learning does not only take place in the classroom anymore.

iPods in Instruction

In todays classrooms, everything from food to youtube is being used to teach, so why not iPods? Using iPods in a classroom is never something I would have thought about, but after being about it, I see that it is an idea that would actually work! I read this article on how iPods are being used in the classroom. It said that within the last year, the number of iPods being used in classrooms has quadrupled and the number of classes using them has doubled. That was very suprising to me!

I like the idea of lectures being uploaded so you can listen to them anywhere. I think that would take a lot of the stress out of the class because if you miss something while taking notes, you do not have to panic, you can just go back and listen to it later. I also think that many students would use the iPods just to listen to music or watch videos and ignore what is going on in the class which could ruin the chance of using them for class work for everyone. It may also give studetns an excuse for not going to class since they can just upload it later. Even though there are some downsides to using iPods, like anything else, in a classroom, I think it is a concept worth trying out.

Dr. Christie's Website

I decided to write my blog this week on Dr. Alice Christie's website. Specifically, I am writing about the part on Electronic Portfolios. A Electronic, or digital portfolio is a collection of your teaching or scholastic artifacts but together in some kind of multimedia program. At USA, we use Folioteck for this.

That was the main reason why I decided to write my blog on this topic. In the education major here, we all have an electronic portfolio and I was wondering if using this technology for something so important was better that just keeping a paper file. Something Dr. Christie said that I really agree with is that a portfolio has to be more than just a bunch of documents thrown together. It has to have purpose and structure. She said that a portfolio needs to be organized around standards, just like ours are. I think this will make it much easier to make sure that you have everything you need to go out and start teaching in a school.

She also said that your portfolio needs to contain future goals based on your past performances. I think this is very important too. Having your goals as a teacher clearly listed in your portfolio will be a big help to future employers. It lets them know where you want to go with your teaching career and if you are a good fit for their school. That way there is less of a chance that you will spend a few months or years there just to find out that it is not the right school for you and then you have wasted your time.

By making your portfolio electronic, you have less of a change of losing important documents and more of a chance of being hired as a teacher. This shows the employer that you are not only organized but computer and technology literate, which is a big plus! You can find out more on what Dr. Christie had to say by clicking here

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a "free, multilingual enclylopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation" (www.wikipedia.com). This site is often used as a reasearch tool by people all over the world. I definitely think that Wikipedia can be used as a source of information for research. At the same time, I do not think that Wikipedia should be your ONLY source for research.

One reason why WIkipedia should not be a trusted source as a final answer to anything is because anyone can make changed to the information on wikipedia. According to The NPR Blog major corporations have been going into wikipedia and making changes to entries containing negative references or information on them. These companies include Exxon, Walmart, and even the CIA. That makes you wonder if you can believe anything you see on the website.

On the other hand, you are able to see who the source of the information is, so you can decide for yourself if the informatin is reliable. If you are doing research on something like Walmart, you may want to check other sources where Walmart is not able to have only the informatin they want posted, but, if you are writing about George Washington, atleast some of the information on Wikipedia should be usefull. Users need to use Wikipedia at their own disgression and check all of the facts they decide to use.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

I went into this blog thinking "Do I really have to listen to 40min of some guy talk? This is going to be so boring." Once I started listening to it though, I was quickly proven wrong. Randy Pausch did not spend his whole time talking about how sad his situation was and try to make people feel sorry for him. Instead, he was surprisingly upbeat. His biggest point throughout his speech, was to always go for your dreams. I thought this was a great message!

This lecture is not something only the students in the EDM310 class have been listening to, people all over the world are listening to what Randy Pausch had to say. Mr. Pausch has inspired people everywhere with his lecture on Lessons Learned, Childhood Dreams, and Enabling the Dreams of Others. Never in the lecture does Randy Pausch talk about how he can not obtain his dreams because of his condition. He went for them all anyway and lives his life to the fullest extent he could.

One thing I loved about his lecture, was when he talked about the brick wall. He said the brick walls in our lives have two main purposes. Those purposes are to show us how badly we want something and also to stop the people who do not want something bad enough. If you are willing to find a way over the wall, then you deserve to obtain the dream that you are working for. I think it ties in with the saying "nothing worth having comes easy". I also liked how he talked about how it wasn't a total waste if you didn't get what you wanted. You still get experience and I think that it just as important, because that will make it a little easier to go back and try it again.

I thought this was a great lecture and I strongly encourage EVERYONE to go and listen