NPR Blog on Wockipedia

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that many students and teachers use for research. I have used Wikipedia many times for research. I have always assumed that the information was unbiased and based on facts. Virgil Griffith a California college student has created the Wikipedia Scanner which has the ability to trace the virtual fingerprint left behind by computers. He has discovered that many companies and government agencies has accessed some Wikipedia articles and actually changed the information they contained. Therefore altering the integrity of the information and the website this make the information useless for research purposes.

NPR article explains how anyone is able to make changes to the articled posted on Wikipedia. This new technology can show who is altering the information and what changes their making. It seems to me that the company behind Wikipedia would be out raged and take action to secure the site and the integrity of the information published on it. One of the people on the podcast suggested that this was beneficial for the integrity of the work published on this site. But I do not agree because that means anyone can change the information to what they feel it should say. Altering the unbiased opinion of those who originally wrote the work.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Chlidhood Dreams

Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science and human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg Pennsylvania. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and passed away on July 25, 2008. Before he passed he delivered one final lecture at CMU on September 18, 2007 before a packed McConomy Auditorium. His lecture was titled Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.

His lecture covered three basic points the first was Childhood Dreams, second was Enabling the Dreams of Others and finally Lessons Learned. His first topic Childhood dreams he discusses what his dreams consisted of like experiencing zero gravity, playing football in the NFL and Disney Imagineering. He was able to achieve all the dreams he had listed for himself through some creative means and determination. However he never actually got to play professional football but, the lessons he learned from training ended up being more valuable. He called indirect learning a “head fake”. Basically it's when you learn one thing in the process of learning something else.

Second he discussed enabling the dreams of others. His family sponsors a dormitory over in Vietnam where 30 students are now able to attend school. One important point he brought up he was discussing a new course he was teaching that enrolled 50students from various departments the set up was every two weeks they would produce an assignment with three classmates and after that project was finished they would work with a new team on the next project. When the first project was finished he was blown away with the quality of his students work but instead of telling them how great they did with exceeding his expectations he suggested they try harder the next time. In turn that raised the standards for their potential. I personally would never take that approach with my students before however, I will now.

Finally he discussed the lessons he had learned. He gave his thoughts on “brick walls” when you’re tiring to achieve your goals and you run into a brick wall. That should be incentive for you to try harder. He also said that they are there to weed out the people who aren’t serious. I thought that was pretty clever. And something I will pass on to my students. There is always a good and bad way to say a negative thought so think before you speak negatively to your students what you say may impact their life.

In conclusion Randy Pausch was a remarkable man loved by his family and his campus. He devoted his life to helping and teaching others and had fun while doing it. He has definitely impacted my life and I only listened to an hour of what he had to say I can only imagine the incredible things his students learned from him everyday. I want to express my condolences to his family and his campus the world has lost an extraordinary man.

Why Wireless?

Why wireless? This question has an infinite amount of answers. Karl Fisch asked this question the day his school Arapahoe High School finally installed their wireless connection. He wrote a rather long essay about the importance of students have internet access in their classrooms. He also scattered some rather clever quotes throughout to make his point. His bottom line is students may need answers that cannot be found in the walls of their school the answer may lie with a student on the other side of the world.

By not allowing our students to have internet access we are denying them the right to find the answer to their questions. Technology is everywhere and denying our students access is like saying they do not need to know how to read or write. Ignorance is blinding and damaging. Our students will be plagued if they are not prepared for what their future holds for them. Schools cannot believe that all learning takes place inside classrooms.

Students’ educations are enriched by the entire resources wireless connections offer. They are able to work with students continents away. Computer usage enriches their learning by offering new ideas and programs to make learning more interactive and less passive. Teachers are able to connect to other teachers and blog about concerns or ideas that work well in their classroom.

Students today are overloaded with gaming and IMs at home shouldn’t we make learning as interactive as possible. And offer in classroom computers and wireless connections so students can explore a world different than their own.
KarlFisch Has posted his essay on his blog page. It really does make you wonder what people are thinking when they oppose students having internet access.

EDM PodCast

“Possibilities for Using Facebook in an Educational Setting” hosted by Allison Midgette and Shaundretta Bethel ( pictured on left) was a pod cast discussing the pros and cons for using Facebook in the classroom. I think the girls were very well informed however, I think they needed to speak up a bit and have more of a discussion type conversation. They did not exchange a lot of dialog between the two. The each took a turn and basically gave their opinion one at a time.

I personally am not familiar with face book so I can not really agree or disagree with their opinions. However, I do know have ideas of ways I could use Facebook in my classroom where before listening to them I had no idea. They definitely did their research and were very knowledgeable about facebook. Comparing this to other podcast I have listened to I think if the topic is approached as more of a discussion it holds the listener’s attention more.

The second Podcast I listened to was “YouTube for Educational Purposes” hosted by Joel Graham, Noelle Shipman and Kimberly Kelly. I enjoyed listening to this Podcast more because the used a conversation format and interacted with each other more than the first group. They actually discussed the pros and cons of YouTube in the class room. They did talk about some of the inappropriate material on this site and that if students were going to have access to it they would have to be closely monitored. I really appreciated them not just focusing on the positive so if I every use it in my class I’ll know to be monitor my students very closely.

I think they did this cast very well. I did however listen to the Podcast “Watchers or Listeners: How Do We Respond?” hosted by John Hardman, John Strange, Keri Ashworth, and Autumn Jordan and I must say their cast was the best to me. However, they did have Dr. Strange on the cast with them directing them a little. But they had a casual conversation about Dr. Strange’s article he had written. Their conversation flowed well and it kept my interest through out.

If you would like to listen to these or other podcast please follow the link Dr.Strange Podcast.

Karl Fisch Blog

Karl Fisch wrote a blog titled” Is It Okay to be a Technologically Ignorant Teacher. In his blog he asserts teachers who are complacent with their little or no computer knowledge. He is challenging teachers to become more familiar with technology so that more students can be exposed to it. Karl has several basic beliefs. I will only discuss a couple. His first belief is that all teachers should have basic computer knowledge. There are very few job experiences that students will encounter that will not require basic computer knowledge. Teachers should not say proudly that they have little computer experience as if it socially okay. They would not be proud if they were illiterate to Karl it’s the same.

Schools or universities that graduate students who do not know basic computer uses should have their reputation and funding questioned. They should not be proud to let students leave their institutions with computer knowledge. Their students will not be ready for college or job opportunities. Not providing students computer experience in to day’s world is almost like handicapping them.

I completely think that as teachers we need tools like technology to help us teach our students more efficiently so they will be better prepared for life after school. I personally was not exposed to computers when I was in school and now that I’m in college it has definitely hurt me because now I’m forced to play catch up and my instructors have to work harder just so I understand the basics. So in a way I feel cheated. I hope to use computers in many areas of my classroom from communicating with parents to being able to provide my students with alternative study options than just reading books.

I think this blog in some part was worded a bit strong but I don’t feel it could be avoided and all students deserve exposure to the benefits of different technologies. Karl Fisch was right when he compared knowing how to read with being equally important as knowing how to use technology. Computers have been around for thirty years and they are not going anywhere. So we all need to learn how to use them for our and our students’ advantage. He is a direct link to

Karl Fisch Blog check it out for yourself.

PodCast

Podcast are technology venues that are used to connect people concerning specific information. I have explored several Podcast pertaining to different areas of education and how education has been effected by technology. The really neat thing is Podcast are able to connect teachers living in different parts of the world. You are able to hear several points of view on a specific topic. Almost like a radio broadcast type feel. The first Podcast I listened to was Smartboard lessons Podcast which was hosted by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger they were actually two-thousand miles apart when they were doing this Podcast, however they sounded as if they sitting next to each other. Joan Badger actually has a website Teachers Connecting.comthat is also used as a forum for teacher to connect with each other and learn new teaching strategies from each other.

The second Podcast I checked out was “Kidcast” episode 58. Dan Schmit was the host his topic was “The median is not the message”. Basically he was discussing how to teach children the way to use technology. Instead of assigning a presentation with an uninteresting topic that doesn’t spark the children’s curiosity. Pick a question or topic that the student will be curious and more willing to explore deeper than putting together a few slides to get through the assignment. The more interesting the topic choice the student in return will not only do more to learn about the topic at hand he’ll use technology to explain it to the fullest potential In return actually learning more.

Next I listened to “Macbreak Weekly” which is a forum to discuss and compare different technologies ins and outs. I listened to episode 123 which was a discussion comparing Macworld and Apple. They were discussing if Apple was going to survive some of the new technologies that was happening with Macintosh computers. I honestly didn’t really understand a lot of the jargon they used. “Edtalk Talk” was my next Podcast I listened to they were discussing Parents as Partners in episode 19. All of they guest on the cast had backgrounds in various technology fields and were also parents very involved in their students schools. They were discussing the benefits in schools that have a strong connection with their parents. It closes the gap between students and parents when the parents are involved in the activities happening in the classroom and students tend to learn more productively.

“ConnectLearning” podcast episode 92 was the next podcast I listened to, the host was David Warlick a school principal. The guest on the show was Chris Lehmann he was overseeing a teachers conference he was responsible for creating. This conference was set up differently than your run of the meal conference. Some of the main differences were the length of the sessions teachers were able to attend. The standard session only lasted 60 minutes, the sessions at his conference lasted 90 minutes so topics could be more thoroughly explored. The time in between sessions was also extended to 30 minutes so teachers didn’t have to rush from session to session. The could be able to visit and not be in a hurry. At the end of each day they also held a reflection sessions where teachers could chat about things they learned earlier in the day. The last podcast I listened to was “This Week in Technology” the host in this cast was discussing different photography issues. One of the photographers was complaining about the camera and lens security would allow him to take to photo graph the presidents inauguration.