Monday, March 2, 2009
Wikipedia
The articles assigned about wikipedia were not surprising. Companies such as Walmart and Exxon, and organizations such as the Catholic Church and the CIA have changed information on Wikipedia in their favor. This was made possible to see by a graduate student named Virgil Griffith who created a database specifically designed to track down the editors of wikipedia. I believe that wikipedia can be a good starting point for research, but it should not be used as a factual source for information. It should probably be considered what kind of subject is being researched. For companies and other organizations, edits should be expected by that company on wikipedia.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Randy Pausch's last lecture
Wow. What a fantastic speaker. I was crying by the end of his lecture. There are a few important teaching methods Randy used in this speech to make learning effective and interesting. He used a powerpoint so his audience could follow what he was saying visually, he used humor,and a warm, conversational style of speech.
Randy shows that not only did he engage his students at MIT, but he engaged all of campus, parents, and other outsiders. He made his classes and projects interactive and made many efforts to open opportunities for his students after graduation. All teachers should make an effort to do this for their students! Randy also used what he called "head fakes" for his students. This means that he basically tricks his students into learning something hard by making it fun.
There are a few points that Randy had in his speech I would like to mention. His whole speech was about childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned. First, I loved what he had to say about "brickwalls." Randy says that brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough. He also stated that experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
Randy was a phenominal teacher who truly pulled the best out of his students by interesting them, making them work hard, and by requiring that their work be hands-on. He opened doors for them, challenged them, and learned from them. This is what a teacher should be and I think that all future teachers should watch this video. For anyone who stumbles upon my blog and reads this post, please follow this link and watch the video. You won't regret it!
Randy shows that not only did he engage his students at MIT, but he engaged all of campus, parents, and other outsiders. He made his classes and projects interactive and made many efforts to open opportunities for his students after graduation. All teachers should make an effort to do this for their students! Randy also used what he called "head fakes" for his students. This means that he basically tricks his students into learning something hard by making it fun.
There are a few points that Randy had in his speech I would like to mention. His whole speech was about childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned. First, I loved what he had to say about "brickwalls." Randy says that brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough. He also stated that experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.
Randy was a phenominal teacher who truly pulled the best out of his students by interesting them, making them work hard, and by requiring that their work be hands-on. He opened doors for them, challenged them, and learned from them. This is what a teacher should be and I think that all future teachers should watch this video. For anyone who stumbles upon my blog and reads this post, please follow this link and watch the video. You won't regret it!
May 2007-Customer Service
On this post, there is a video from youtube with the audio from a customer service call to HP from a man who needed software sent to him primarily because of a mistake made by the company itself when he sent his computer in to be fixed. During most of the call the customer service agent asked questions about different identifying numbers of the computer (which is apparent upon pulling up the file), and the man was left on hold for most of the time as well. After the phone call was disconnected, another person from HP called the customer back to ask him about his experience with customer service and his phone call.
Mr. Fisch posted this video to remind teachers that our students are like our customers. I really liked this quote from him: "It seems like most of the time (at least in my little corner of the world) that instead of being treated as the customer, we look at it in the opposite way. That the folks that are supposed to be serving the customer in each of those relationships are instead looked at as the ones with the "power" in the relationship. That too often administrators are treated like the customer of teachers, that teachers are there to meet administrator needs. And that teachers don't think of their students as customers often enough, but instead the students are supposed to meet our requirements."
It is important for us to take special care and time for each of our "customers." Poor customer service has almost become expected when dealing with companies on the phone. Has the same concept become expected in the classroom? We hope not! Being conscious of our students needs and doing everything we can for the best learning atmosphere and opportunities possible is our duty. Is this not customer service?
Mr. Fisch posted this video to remind teachers that our students are like our customers. I really liked this quote from him: "It seems like most of the time (at least in my little corner of the world) that instead of being treated as the customer, we look at it in the opposite way. That the folks that are supposed to be serving the customer in each of those relationships are instead looked at as the ones with the "power" in the relationship. That too often administrators are treated like the customer of teachers, that teachers are there to meet administrator needs. And that teachers don't think of their students as customers often enough, but instead the students are supposed to meet our requirements."
It is important for us to take special care and time for each of our "customers." Poor customer service has almost become expected when dealing with companies on the phone. Has the same concept become expected in the classroom? We hope not! Being conscious of our students needs and doing everything we can for the best learning atmosphere and opportunities possible is our duty. Is this not customer service?
Listening to student podcasts
This assignment required us to listen to previous podcasts done by students in the past. The first podcast I listened to was about how youtube can be used for educational purposes. I felt that these students did a great job with this assignment! As compared to the professional podcasts I listened to for the last assignment, it was almost as good. The only suggestion I would have for improvement would be that the conversation needed to sound a little bit more conversational. However, it was very well organized and informative.
The second podcast I listened to was not as well done as the first. This podcast was about facebook and how it can be used for educational purposes. It was informative, but it was obvious that the students were nervous and stumbled alot on their words...saying alot of "um's" and "like's". I would suggest practicing the episode a few more times and becoming more comfortable with the conversation before recording. Even though I learned alot from the podcast, it was hard to follow and slightly boring.
Karl Fisch
Karl's post from September of 2007 proved to be very...well...shocking. I must say, however, that I do agree with his point....Teachers today that are not technologically educated are like teachers in the past who could not read or write. It is unfair for certain students to have teachers who do not incorporate technology into their teaching methods. This could severely hurt the child in the future because other students are receiving this type of education and information is more accessible for the child.
Karl also mentions that Headteachers and Principals who have staff who are technologically-illiterate should be held to account. This is very true! If teachers don't understand computers that is not their fault, but they should be taking steps to learn about computers and have a better understanding of how we can use them for education. If THEY don't take action, the principals should. There are workshops available and research that can be done online to where anyone can learn at least basic computer skills. If the teacher hasn't learned it, they can't teach it!
Karl also mentions that Headteachers and Principals who have staff who are technologically-illiterate should be held to account. This is very true! If teachers don't understand computers that is not their fault, but they should be taking steps to learn about computers and have a better understanding of how we can use them for education. If THEY don't take action, the principals should. There are workshops available and research that can be done online to where anyone can learn at least basic computer skills. If the teacher hasn't learned it, they can't teach it!
Podcasts
This assignment gave me a much better understanding of what a podcast is and what their uses can be. The podcasts assigned were mainly informative, designed to expel information about a specific topic/subject. However, after listening to these podcasts I noticed that on the itunes store there are many different purposes for podcasts. Some are for entertainment, news, comedy, and there are even podcasts on podcasts! I chose 3 podcasts of the six we listened to to write about that I found the most engaging.
Ed teck talk was the most engaging podcast for me. I listened to episode #31 about self-directed learning. It began with a fun introduction of each speaker and a short explanation of what self-directed learning means. They explained that self-directed learning is usually set up by someone else, but utilized my the individual. Electronic Village Online is one place that students can go to online where you can pick certain posts to check on regularly and learn from. It is not something that you need to see every day or else you get behind. You can pick your interests and choose when you want to look up any updates.
The next podcast I found very interesting was kid cast. This began with the introduction of the host and an update of what he had been doing since the last episode. He then introduced the topic. The topic was how he disappointed to see that the podcast were created by students because they were required to and not because of an interest. The content was not focus in the podcasts, the focus seemed to be the assignment itself. The host explained to the listeners how to make students want to make a podcast and how to organize them to where there is an easy way make multiple episodes and an easily-flowing conversation of these episodes. The point is to have an extended academic conversation!
The smartboard lessons podcast is a very helpful tool for teachers seeking free ways to engage students in what they called mind concept maps with other students and teachers online. In this episode, there were two speakers. At the beginning, they introduced themselves and the topic, which was different blogging platforms. They then spent most of the show talking about different sites for student blogging.
Each podcast was nicely organized and fun to listen to. To be honest, I thought that it would be very hard to keep my attention without a speaker to look at. It was much easier then I expected, and I enjoyed this assignment!
Ed teck talk was the most engaging podcast for me. I listened to episode #31 about self-directed learning. It began with a fun introduction of each speaker and a short explanation of what self-directed learning means. They explained that self-directed learning is usually set up by someone else, but utilized my the individual. Electronic Village Online is one place that students can go to online where you can pick certain posts to check on regularly and learn from. It is not something that you need to see every day or else you get behind. You can pick your interests and choose when you want to look up any updates.
The next podcast I found very interesting was kid cast. This began with the introduction of the host and an update of what he had been doing since the last episode. He then introduced the topic. The topic was how he disappointed to see that the podcast were created by students because they were required to and not because of an interest. The content was not focus in the podcasts, the focus seemed to be the assignment itself. The host explained to the listeners how to make students want to make a podcast and how to organize them to where there is an easy way make multiple episodes and an easily-flowing conversation of these episodes. The point is to have an extended academic conversation!
The smartboard lessons podcast is a very helpful tool for teachers seeking free ways to engage students in what they called mind concept maps with other students and teachers online. In this episode, there were two speakers. At the beginning, they introduced themselves and the topic, which was different blogging platforms. They then spent most of the show talking about different sites for student blogging.
Each podcast was nicely organized and fun to listen to. To be honest, I thought that it would be very hard to keep my attention without a speaker to look at. It was much easier then I expected, and I enjoyed this assignment!
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