Post #10

Sir Ken Robinson spoke on bringing on the learning revolution. Education must be revolutionized, not just modified. We have the tools of technology and the access to instant infinite information and we must use it in education. Just because it hasn't been used before doesn't mean we can't use it now. As educators, we must rise with the occasion and work with the circumstances of this century, not the last century. I think a lot of times when I think of myself teaching, I envision situations similar to those in which I was taught. The reality is, my classroom will be totally different because the situation has completely changed. I will have to use technology that my teachers could have never dreamed of.
Robinson's other main point is individuality. Each child is different and they cannot be taught the same way. We as educators have to learn to help each individual student learn. Teachers can make or break a child's dream so it's important that we encourage each of our students to do what makes them happy. You can't force all children to grow up and be doctors. It takes all kinds of people doing all kinds of things and it is our job as teachers to encourage and enable our students to do whatever it is they dream of.

Post #9

Little Kids... Big Potential is all about Ms. Cassidy's first grade class and how they use technology. The students seem to really enjoy working with blogs, wikis, and using other tools online to learn and share their work. I have had a hard time imagining how I will use technology in a high school English classroom, but this video has me convinced that students want to show their work off and receive feedback from others. Ms. Cassidy raises the question, "Why would they want to write something with pencil and paper for me to see when they can write it on their blogs for anyone to see?" Students may be more apt to work harder and put forth their best effort if they are submitting their work to an online writing portfolio. These blogs could include all major essays as well as literature reviews. Basically any work that can be done on paper can be done on a blog to create incentive to try harder. One problem with this may be the accessibility of computers and internet connections. In my area, there are not devices in every classroom and it would be hard to schedule enough classes in the library or labs where enough computers are available. Although we assume that students have enough access to a computer to print out the occasional paper, we cannot assume that they have enough access to be making multiple blog posts a week. That being said, if it is possible to create a class blog of "online writing portfolios" I think it has the potential to be very beneficial in a high school classroom.

Project #14

My project based learning plans can be found here.

Post #8

There are countless 21st Century learning and communicating tools. Twitter, Facebook, and Skype are all great ways to communicate. Sites like Quizlet and Flashcard Machine allow you to make virtual flashcards that save paper and are accessible from anywhere. One of my favorite online learning tools is Educreations.

Educreations is a database of instructional videos uploaded from people around the world. You can browse videos by school subject or search a specific topic. Not only can you find tutorials here, you can create them. The free app is available for download on your browser or iPad. Videos explaining basically any lesson can be created, such as this video on literary theme: Theme. This can be used by teachers as an alternative to powerpoint slides or as a tool when flipping the classroom. Ashley Cross used Educreations in her classroom to allow students to create their own video lessons. This is probably my favorite use of the technology because I feel like having students teach the lesson is an extremely effective way of assessing their knowledge. They can only teach if they truly understand. Also, students will engage in the subject while using the technology to create instructional videos. Watch Mrs. Cross's students' Educreation videos here.

Project #9

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C4T Summary #2

Bill Genereux, an Associate Professor of Computer Systems Technology at Kansas State University at Salina, writes a blog about intertwining technology with the arts and education. In his post, Pineapples don't have sleeves, He discusses the problem of poorly written questions in standardized testing. The questions are ambiguous and often confusing to the students they are supposed to be geared towards. The problem here is not only the questions, but the tests themselves. He mentioned reviewing a practice standardized test that his daughter did in class and talked about one of the ineffective questions. I am more concerned with the fact that teachers must take valuable learning time to teach students how to pass standardized tests.

Don't Know How really hit home for me. Genereux addresses not attempting new things because you don't know how. I have had problems in the past with this solely because of pride. I don't want to be wrong, so if I don't know how to do something I'll probably avoid it. Obviously this is a problem I am trying to overcome. I have to constantly remind myself, "What's the worst that could happen?", and try new things. He talks about computer technology and how it is always evolving, making it necessary to learn as you go. As educators, we cannot be afraid of not knowing. We have to use the tools we have to find out!

Project #13

The Art From Renaissance Project

The Art From Renaissance Project is a two-part project geared towards 9th grade World History. Students are broken into groups and required to create and present a slideshow about a particular Renaissance artist using iCurio and Google Drive. By giving each group a different artist, the whole class receives in-depth information, more so than if a brief overview of each artist had been given from a textbook. Then the class will attempt "The Michealangeo Project" where paper is taped to the bottom of tables and students lie on their backs to dra, recreating the painting of the Sistine Chapel. This gives students a better idea of how difficult it was and how incredible the work really is.

Post #7

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Pausch's lecture is by far my favorite thing we have been assigned. I really enjoyed hearing his stories and his views on different aspects of life. He talks about teaching and learning and shows how project based learning has been effective. Seeing how his small project exploded into a huge, university-wide event gave me a better idea of how important it is to allow students to use their creativeness to learn.

In his last lecture before his death, he divulges his methods of teaching at Carnegie-Mellon. He began a class called Building Virtual Worlds in which fifty students were broken into groups of four and completed five projects dealing with virtual reality. Not fully knowing what to expect from his students, Pausch was blown away with their performance on the first project. This teaches us to never underestimate our students and shows that when we give freedom of creativity, students will almost always surprise us. Another important point from this particular story is that when Pausch didn't know what to do, he called his mentor. It is so important to have those with more experience to call on and ask for advice. This goes along with building a personal learning network like we have discussed earlier. Randy makes the statement, "Get a feedback loop and listen to it." In order to teach more effectively, we must get feedback from students, parents, and our own peers.

The reoccurring theme in randy Pausch's last lecture is the "head fake." A head fake is where you accomplish an underlying goal through working at another goal on the surface. He used this method repeatedly in his own teaching and it is the basis of the Alice Project. The Alice Project teaches students how to program while they think they are just creating animation and playing interactive games. Teaching students something hard by having fun is an extraordinary concept and should be employed in every classroom. As teachers, we can get students much more engaged and excited about difficult concepts and projects.

Randy talks about learning from your students. When you allow freedom of creativity, you will not always get what you expect and you may not always get what you want. Pausch says, "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." This statement holds true in the classroom. If a project doesn't work as well as planned, learn from it and make changes. As teachers in a project based learning environment, we must be flexible and willing to improve our methods based on our students.