Gary Hayes Social Media Count

This was amazing to me I knew that millions of people were on the internet but man that was crazy just the amount of emails that had been sent in just the small amount of time that I was on the site. this just goes to show you that we are in the technological age and if you don't get on board now you will be left in the dark. If you have seen the counter imagine how many of the people sending email are children or the number of social networking pages created how many of them are children the social networking page is probably more adults than children mainly because most 8 to 18 year old's already have social networking pages they have a myspace page or a facebook page or even both and twitter. This just proves the point that as a teacher you have to be technologically literate because the kids you are teaching are very literate and if your not you will never suceed as an educator.

Karl Fisch: Is It Okay to Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is not okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher. If you are a technologically illiterate teacher then you are doing an injustice to all the students that you are teaching. In my opinion you must be able to relate to someone to be able to teach them well if you have no idea of how to even get on the internet then how are you going to teach a student who spends a minimum of 2 hours a day on the internet. If you don't know what a social networking site is and all of your students have a Facebook or Myspace page or both how can you begin to get the message you are trying to teach. I can only imagine if my teachers in high school would have used technology in their teaching maybe I would have done a little bit better in those classes. I went and sat in on a 9th grade English class here in Mobile county and the teacher was using a type of "Smart Board" and the students were taking a quiz on run-on sentences and the whole class had a remote and they took the quiz all together they would answer the questions and then go over them right then to me that seemed like a great way to learn. I think that every teacher young or old should have to be somewhat technologically literate if not then find a new profession.

"It's Not About the Technology"

I agree with Mrs. Hines as a teacher you must also be a lifetime learner not just a teacher. I think that as teacher if we lose the gift of learning than we have lost our right to teach. How can we teach someone something if we ourselves are not able to learn teaching and learning are not the same thing but they are tied to each other like a knot. I think as a teacher in the 21st century we must be up to date on the latest ways of educating if we aren't then we need to turn in our resignation and find a new profession education is a serious subject we are educating our future. If you look at it that way then it makes it much easier to understand why we have to stay up to date on the newest technology. "Technology is useless without good teaching" this is my favorite line in the whole blog it is so true that just because we have the newest technology doesn't automatically mean that the kids we are teaching will learn the subject. We must be good teachers on top of being "tech literate" teachers because what is technology if we can't use it.

In the section "Be a 21st Century Teacher without the technology" this is a great section it just shows you that you can teach in the 21st century in a school that doesn't have all the bells and whistles in technology that some of the other schools do. This just goes to show you that teachers have to be on top of there game when it comes to educating the youth of our country.

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

This video is a good represintation of college life in the 21st century I can remember my first semester in college I bought all the books that were needed, or at least i thought they were needed, and then i get in some of the classes and don't even so much as open the book. I was really angry I spent good money on those books only to sell them back to the book store for less than half of what I paid for them. I also spend probably 2 to 3 hours a day on the internet and I might read three books a year but the web pages are off the chart. I also have seen the one where the girl has the paper that said the person that sits beside me paid for the class and never comes I myself have been that person. There is many teachers and profesors that don't even try to use technology in their teaching and that is a problem just look at some of the statistics in this video technology is the way to connect with the students you are teaching. Think about it if you can't connect with your students then you can't teach them and if you can't teach them then you are in the wrong profession . Technology is not the only thing you need to use in teaching but if you just ignored it all together then you are doing yourself and your students a grave injustice.

I myself will try to do the best I can to incorperate technology and books and chalk boards into my teaching process. I remember one of the first English classes I took in college was at a community college and all our papers had to be hand written in class and turned in at the end of the class period we could not use computers or take them home to write them on our home computer. This blew my mind I was in a college class and couldn't use a computer to write a paper are you kidding me I was able to do that at a small private school that I went to in high school. I think the only thing I would add to the video was maybe instead of having them hold up pieces of paper maybe have all of them have laptops to send the message that we are in a technilogical world and it is here to stay it is not a fad it is the norm.

Podcast

I could see this being the next big thing in education especially on the college level but also on the lower levels. Schools can keep in touch with the children, the parents and the community. Us as educators have to stay up with technology to keep education interesting for the kids. This wouldn't be my favorite way to learn but it would be better than reading a book thats for sure some of the podcast were kind of drawn out and dry.

The first podcast I listened to was the SmartBoard Lessons Year End Ideas it was pretty good it was verry conversational because there were two hosts. They had a great idea on this one about how to use movies in math this is a great idea, It makes math more interesting to kids. One of the T.V. shows they used as and example was The Office this eppisode could be very usefull in teaching children what a surplus is and basic math. They were complex in this podcast but not too complex to the point where people couldn't understand what they were talking about.

The next podcast was KidCast Video Podcasting this podcast was informative on the art of podcasting and how it can be used in education. But it was kind of boring the guy that was the host was good. This one was not conversational it was one guy just talkin I really didn't enjoy this one but he had great information just not very good and drawing people in. If I didn't have to listen to it for this class I would have turned it off with in the first two minnutes of turning it on. I'm glad I had to listen to it because it was chocked full of great information. The using the I-Pod touch for education sounds like a great idea but the feasibility of it is kind of up in the air. Ipod Touch

The next one was ConnectLearning Episode 90 it was different than all the other ones it was at a connfrence and was a question and answer session. In my opinion it was all right not great but not bad. It was better that the last one in that it grabed you at the begining and held your attention instead of about boring you half to death. Useing Ipods in education is becoming a big thing i didn't even realize this but it makes perfect sense the Ipod is like having a radio, cd player, dvd player, and books all in the palm of your hand. It was interesting to see how some of the people in the podcast were using technology in education and what they were using. Iphone

Podcasting is like any other type of media if used right it can be very helpfull and entertaining. Most of these post were ok I didn't enjoy this that much but it was ok. If you were to use this type of thing in the classroom you would have to be carefull on what you used. Like I said before If you don't hook the listiner in the first few seconds then you might lose them, and if thats a student that could be bad. Podcast would be great for the high school students and maybe middle school I don't think podcasts would work in the lower grades because the don't have the attention span to use them properly hell I don't think i do.

The Importance of Creativity

This video was amazing I really enjoyed it. I think that he is spot on with all of his ideas of how the education system kills creativity. Why can't dance, music, art, or drama be taught along with the other "main" subjects. This brings up a great argument on the whole school curriculum and how some students might be better suited for a different curriculum than others. This video brings up some great thoughts on whether or not the curriculum we've had since the beginning of formal schooling is it fit for everyone. Should there be different options for students and parents have on what the curriculum is for the students. I think that in high school especially the creativity one has is pushed to the side so you can focus on the "important" subjects. I also agree with him on the story of Gillian Lynne on how she couldn't sit still and if she was a kid today they probably would have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. Maybe some of the kids they say have ADD and ADHD are great dancers or pianist or actors.I understand why the "important" subjects are considered that but I think that society has changed enough that we need to change the way we learn. If we don't stop killing these kids creative nature we might lose the next Shakespeare or the next Mozart. How depressing would that be if you found out that we destroyed a great composer before they even had a chance to show the world.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

This video was interesting the way the kids could interact across the world was awesome. I think this is the route education is heading in a hurry. This video shows just how important knowing the newest technology is. The kids on the video were doing things on the computer I wouldn't have dreamed of doing when I was in school. I believe that if i would have taken a class in high school like the one in the video it would have helped me out in the long run. I had a computer class but we learned how to make a power point, write a paper on word, make a spread sheet, the basic computer stuff. It amazed me how more advanced the kids in the video are compared to me at that age I didn't know what an avatar was until about a year ago.
I think Vicki Davis should be commended for the work she has done with these kids. It is very important for the students to learn how to do all of the things on the computer and other devices so they can function five years from now. I remember the first cell phone I got I was sixteen and it was this huge Nokia phone black and white screen no Internet I didn't even know what a text message was, now there is kids that are 10 years old with IPhone 10 years old I'm 23 and I can barely work one and these kids are doing it with ease. Think of going to every classroom rather if be math, science, history, or computer class and there is no pen and paper anymore just a computer on every desk. I think that is where education is headed very quickly too

Did You Know 3.0 and Mr. Winkle Wakes

The video was very interesting and was full of helpful facts. It really shocked me with some of the facts it is almost like the movie Terminator where the machines got too smart and took over the world. But that is the world we live in and if you don't know how to work on the newest technology then you will be left behind. We are in the technological age everything is done on computers even homework for school, think about what people did fifty years ago I almost can't imagine life without a cell phone more less with out a computer.
This is the world we live in where most people don't read the news paper or watch the evening news they just get on the Internet and find out what they want with the touch of a button. Think about it when is the last time you wrote a letter to someone and mailed using "snail mail" , the U.S. postal service, I don't know if I ever have. Try to think about the information on the web it is a mind boggling thing to think about. Anything you want legal or illegal you can find on the Internet and young people are the people that usually know how to use the newest technology the best.
So if your going to teach children in the era that we are in now you must learn how to use this technology are you will be left behind. I think this class is the perfect thing for aspiring teachers to take just to get them familiar with some of the new age ways to teach. I wish some of my teachers in high school would have used some of the new technology. I think you can reach the kids much better if you use some of the high tech stuff we have today such as text messages, Internet, blogs, social networking sites, e-mails the list can go on forever.
I think if we don't try to better our knowledge as educators we will be doing a great disservice to the children we teach. Like the video said India as more honor students than we have students that is amazing. The video states that China will be the number one English speaking country in the world and English isn't there native language. We as educators must do something about this or the U.S. will no longer be the world power. In all we have to be on the cutting edge of technology because we don't have the population of China or India so if we want to stay ahead we have to work on being better at educating the youth and our countries future

First Post

This is my first post