Goodbye for now!!

First and for most, I appreciate everything Mr. Sullivan has done to further my education with technology. I would like to say goodbye to my classmates and Mr. Sullivan. I enjoyed being in this class with everyone. I'm sure we will meet again in the future, whether it's as a colleague or a teacher. Take care and have a good spring semester.

What I have learned this semester.

At the beginning of this class (EDM 310) I thought it was going to be horrible. I thought all this work was going to be a waste of time and just a bunch of busy work that would be overwhelming. I guess thats why they say don't judge a book by its cover. Once I got comfortable with blogging, this class turned into my best and most interesting class. I really enjoyed Mr. Sullivan as a teacher. He made sure we were up to date with all of our work and he showed that he really cared about teaching us the material. At this point of the semester I have three blogs, a twitter and facebook account, and I use skype on a daily basis. I never would have thought that this would be the case. I also enjoyed using Google Earth and Google Docs. Google documents is definitely something that I will use throughout my future career. Watching podcast and videocast in iTunes was another great network that will be helpful in the future.

I believe I have benefited greatly from EDM 310. Before this semester I was not considered a technoligically literate colleague, but I now think I can consider myself as somewhat technologically literate. The things I learned in this class have given me enough confidence to believe I can be successful teaching students. I want to have a positive impact on children and this class has provided me with some experience with technology that will help me in the future. I understand that there will always be new advances and therefore, I consider myself open to any new technological advances that will help me as a teacher.

I have two things that I wish I could have learned in this class. My mother is a teacher and she always talks about how difficult it can be to use STI Classroom for Windows and Smartboards, because nobody has taught her how to use this technology. STI is a program that is used for grades, progress reports, and lesson plans, all of which will be important to me in the fututre. I would like to have had the opportunity to learn how to use some of these online grading systems and smartboards.

Overall, I have learned a lot from taking EDM 310. Mr. Sullivan is a great teacher that wants everyone to be able to make a postivie impact on children in the future. I plan on using what we learned in the class to further my education and to teach children in the future.

Classroom Rules

For this post we were asked to pick the two most important topics from each of the three list we were given. The three categories given are Seven Stupid Mistakes, Seven Brilliant Things Teachers do with technology, and New Classroom Rules. From the first post, seven stupid mistakes, the two most important that I chose were, 1. Not supervising students while they are using computers and 2. thinking technology in schools will go away. I chose the first one because students do need to be supervised when using computers. Students this day and time are smart enough to get around almost any type of internet filters. They not only might be visiting sites that shouldn't be viewed by students, but they also can waste valuable time if they're not being supervised properly. The second one that I chose was "Thinking Technology in Schools will go away." They're right, it's stupid to think that technology will go away. Technology is taking over education and in my opinion it's a great thing. Students need to learn as much as possible about technology to survive in the real world as it is today. I even believe that students will be allowed to use cell phones in the future. Therefore, technology will never go away from the schools.

The second topic was seven brilliant things that teachers do with technology. The two that I chose were 1. accepting the role of a co-learner and 2. Use the kids own devices to teach them. First, I believe admitting that you don't know something or that your wrong is the way to succeed. Teachers shouldn't act like they know everything about everything. I can't stand when teachers do that. Believe it or not I'm proud to say that I don't know everything. That just leaves more room for me to learn new things. Mr. Sullivan is a perfect example of being a teacher that will admit he doesn't know something and I respect him greatly for that. Teachers should enjoy being able to learn new things from there students or younger generations. The second one I chose was using the kids own devices to teach them. School systems will never be able to keep students from bringing these devices to school, therefore we might as well let them learn from the devices. I believe if we help students use these devices to learn then they will be more willing to participate in the classroom.

Finally we were required to read the post "New Classroom Rules." The two most importants topics I chose from this post were 1. Come to school everyday unless you would rather go online and 2. Talk only when permitted, text at all other times. The first rule is straight forward and I believe it's a good rule. Don't sign up for classes if you know your not going to attend them. The rule basically says take online classes if you hate coming to class. Don't waste money if you don't like coming to class. Since being in college I've seen many students that only come to class to take the test. To me thats being ingnorant and stupid. The second one I chose was talk only when permitted, text at all other times. I might be looking at this the wrong way, but it seems like this rule is saying that it's okay to text whenever you want in class. This rule would cause alot of controversy. To me it's important because it doesn't need to be a rule.

Teacher's Desk

This was an interesting and helpful blog. They talked about using twitter and other technology for effective communication. I currently have a twitter account and it has allowed me to view many great ideas to use in my future classroom. I have learned a lot from others ideas that they have posted on twitter. Maybe I will be able to share some good teaching strategies when I become a teacher. The blog also talked about using facebook to communicate with parents. I never really thought of using facebook to communicate with my students or their parents. This can be a great tool for keeping parents up to date with school work or other school events.

I thought the skyping post was interesting. It's awesome to see that two different classrooms from across the world can communicate back and forth using skype. The students are able to see how other people from around the world are educated. It's crazy to see technology changing as quickly as it is. In my opinion all of these technological advances are great ways to help students learn. Twitter, Facebook, and Skype have definitely helped me and I'm sure that there's much more to come.

Michael Wesch

This video was rather boring, but he got his point across to me. He definitely showed how far technolgoy has come in the last 25 years. I'll have to admit at first I hated using twitter. I use twitter mainly for direct messages, instead of posting what I'm doing all the time. I do like to get on twitter and just read what everybody is saying and doing throughout their day. I guess I just like being nosey sometimes. I'm a person who just doesn't like putting myself out there for everybody to view. I've had people want me to make youtube videos with them to put on the internet, but I just don't like doing that. I don't use facebook or myspace either. I just like to view what others put out there for everyone to watch. Even though I don't like putting myself on videos I do believe that youtube and other technological advances can help students and teachers. I can see where youtube videos can be great to show to your class and help them learn. I believe youtube videos have several advantages. Not to get to far off subject, but they have videos showing people how to change a spare tire or a flat tire on a bicycle. These types of videos will not help teachers teach students school related material, but they can educate others out there in the world. This is why youtube and other types of technology can be so valuable to anyone.

Posting Work to Blogs

It is important for students to post their work to blogs (or in other ways). Posting work on blogs can make students feel like they have accomplished something. Since being in this EDM 310 class I have learned to appreciate my own work even more. I believe when students see comments to their blogs it lets them know that their work is also appreciated by others. Posting work to blogs can help others learn from what you write in your blog. Therefore, not only are you learning from what you posted, but others can be getting positive outcome from what they read on your blog.
I am taking EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama. This class provides examples of students posting their work to blogs. Throughout the semester we have had many projects, but our class blog is probably the most important in my opinion. I have certainly learned a lot from posting to this blog every week. To be honest the blog has been a headache at times, but I believe I will benefit greatly from learning about the weekly topics that have been provided for the class blog. This class blog has certainly improved my technological skills and shows just how hard our class has worked all semester. In my opinion the class blog is much more important than just writing the information on a piece of paper. The blog can be viewed all across the world and can teach others or give them new ideas.