iPods

Duke University distributed iPods to their students in an effort to improve the use of creative technology. A lot of their courses used iPods. Some of these courses reported that the access the iPod gave them helped the students have better interaction and also helps further the course content. The faculty uses the iPod as a tool for recording, repitition, access, and transferring files. The iPod is convenient because you do not need to stay in a specific location to use it. Duke's purpose in this research is to build on successes with digital audio and find innovations in technology.
I found a site called www.ipodknowledge.com. It has compiled intructions that you can find for everything about the iPod. There is also tips and tutorials. This site has information that has been collected from all over the web.

Dr. Alice Christie

I was searching through Dr. Christie's website and found the web design section the most interesting. I found it also to be what I think would be most useful to me as a teacher. I plan to have a website that can be accessed to my students so I would probably use this.
This section has all different kinds of resources like principles, a toolkit, photo editing, using tables, rubrics, little tips, and examples. You can tell that Cr. Christie has a lot of experience and this is all the information you need to design your website.

Presentation

Wikipedia

I don't think they will ever get Wikipedia to be a reliable source but if they can it will take a long time. Every English professor that I have had in South Alabama has not accepted Wikipedia as a source for papers. I have always been told by these professors that it is very likely that the information on this site is not factual because anyone can put words on the site. I have never used Wikipedia to gain knowledge because I don't trust it. Even if they fix the problem I still do not think that many people will take the site any more factual. Viewers will still worry about the reliability of the information.

Correcting Links that Do Not Work

The four most important reasons that links do not work:

1. The link in not correctly spelled.
2. Nothing is placed between the two part of an a tag. I will demonstrate this to you.Apple's Web Site which you may find interesting.
3. You forgot to include http:// in the address. It must be included.
4. Sometimes Google doesn't like a / after the address. Try removing it.

180 Days Response

Are there really 180 days of education? That is absolutely a big no! There are 180 days of school, but not learning. There are so many distractions set up by the school systems and by the emphasis on testing. Doesn't everything revolve around tests? Schools are so set in their traditional ways and don't branch out into others things, so these students are going to suffer because of this fact. Maybe new tests should be made on new material. School systems need to just move out of the comfort zone.
Maybe we should pace ourselves throughout the school year, instead of having whole days that are filled with absolutely no learning. This will help our students not feel as stressed under the pressure of a more compacted day. I believe that the way our school year is set up actually has a bad affect on the students. Those stressful days when we try to cram everything in that the students need to know, make our students reject the enjoyment of learning. We are teaching them that learning is a lot of work that puts a great deal of pressure on them.

The Fischbowl Response

Karl Fisch's question, 'Is it okay to be technologically illiterate?' brings up alot of thoughts for me. I feel so behind. I am a junior in college and have never done a powerpoint and have little computer use on a daily basis. I know, as a teacher, I must prepare my students for their careers, but am I prepared to do that? I think the answer is no for right now. I am beginning to understand I should take extra classes and work at home to improve my computer literacy.
Another huge thing that I think of that is not being mentioined my Fisch is what technology is provided in schools? I have been a substitute teacher at two schools and cannot believe how old the technology is compared to what the students probably have available to them at home. The computers take forever to start up, they crash during classes, they are loaded with viruses, and limit the students and teachers to what they can learn. I was learning from the Mavis Beacon Typing Program when I was in elementary school and the school I taught in was using it just as much, eight years later! It is important to get better technology in the schools so they can learn more and it won't take the whole class just to get the computers to work.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL BLOGS

I FOUND TWO GREAT BLOGS FOR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS, THE FIRST WAS A BLOG FOR THE SHU REN SCHOOL. IT IS BRAND NEW SO THE WEBSITE IS BASICALLY PROMOTIONAL. IT SHOWS THE GRAND OPENING, CELEBRATES NEW TEACHERS, INFORMATION ABOUT TUITION, THE AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM, AND BUILDING DEVELOPMENTS. IT IS LOCATED IN BERKELEY AND THIS BLOG GIVES MORE BACKGROUND ON THE PROGRAMS THAT THE SCHOOL PROVIDES.
THE OTHER BLOG WAS FOR THE AMBRIT ROME INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL. IT IS LOCATED IN ROME. THE HOME PAGE HAS A LOT OF PICTURES OF THE CHILDREN THAT ATTEND THE SCHOOL. MOST OF THE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL IS IN A LINK TO ANOTHER PAGE. IT ALSO HAS AN EMAIL TO CONTACT SOMEONE FOR ASSISTANCE ON ANY QUESTIONS.

Other Blogs

I FOUND TWO GOOD BLOGS ONLINE. THE FIRST ONE WAS CREATED ABOUT THE BOOK CALLED SARAH PLAIN AND TALL. IT EXPLAINS THE AUTHOR, THE PLOT, THE THEME, THE GENRE, SETTING AND CHARACTERS. THIS BLOG IS AN ONLINE LITERATURE CIRCLE FOR THIS BOOK.
THE OTHER BLOG I FOUND WAS NOEL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. IT IS FULL OF VIDEOS OF STUDENTS, BOOKS FROM THEIR LIBRARY, AND LINKS TO DIFFERENT WEBSITES FOR THE SCHOOL.

An Amazing Movie

This movie is very eye-opening. The statistics are much more dramatic than I would have ever thought. All of the technology we use today has been developed pretty recently yet it has expanded quicker and larger than anything that i have ever heard of. Technology has even created jobs that were not available before. Students are now being prepared for jobs that do not exist yet. Right now technology seems to be doubling every two years. If myspace was a country it would be the eighth largest country in the world.
All of this information really did surprise me. I am flabbergasted at the rate that computers and all technology has grown. I do feel like computers are completely different when we got our first computer in 1996, to now. So I do see that technology has been rapidly changing but the statistics shown on the video amazed me none the less.