Why do people want to be dishonest?

I enjoyed looking up information on Wikipedia and hate to hear that people in such high positions are using such unethical behavior. I do not believe however that any of us can trust Wikipedia any further until the process by which Wikipedia allows individuals to post correction or additives is changed. Why wouldn't they want their names or their User names to be listed unless they are up to no good? Therefore my proposal would be that Wikipedia needs to consider finding some way to monitor the posts in order to maintain the integrity of the site. Perhaps they should force people who wish to make posts to sign in acquiring a user name. Or if they do not wish to have User names they could cause the person who is trying to make a post to attach their names. Other than that the only way I see Wikipedia regaining its credibility is to possibly attach the site to an actual encyclopedia website, so that the information can be checked before it is posted. It is so sad that this type of thing has to be monitored, but as usual a few people ruin it for everybody.

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture isn’t his Last Word!

This man is beyond amazing, which I am sure anyone who ever had the distinct pleasure of knowing him, would agree with. His ability to speak so precisely and clearly about the topic of Education was both comforting as well as inspiring. Dr. Pausch was able to elaborate on a theme which Sir Ken Robinson spoke on, in one of our earlier assignments. Creativity to Dr. Pausch seemed far more important than the data that could be shown from a standardized test. Which I believe he touched on as he expressed the scores he had received on his GRE’s or Board Certification. He believed in himself, and he was lucky enough to have shown his abilities to people who could help him, who also believed in him.

The fascinating beginning of his lecture took us on a trip of where his dreams began. Dreams are what fuel creativity and Dr. Pausch was opening the eyes to these individuals to the fact that without dreams the work is not grounded nor truly founded. His expressions of how he had dreams as a child and how he had chased those dreams as an adult were what made him an extraordinary Professor. A man who could see the importance of other’s dreams, and help them to reach for those dreams, made him a visionary.

He touched on so many fundamental ideas of leading a productive life, perseverance, enthusiasm, love, respect, as well as how to interact positively with people from all walks of your life. All of these fundamentals as well as many more ideals of truth and justice, were his legacy to his students, as well I’m sure, to his peers. He believed in life being an exploration, full of wonder, and dreams and I believe he imparted this in his position as a Professor.

One aspect to his lecture I found particularly motivating was that sometimes walls are not put there to keep you out! Now I know that some people probably completely missed this point, and probably may never completely recognize this truth. However, I saw Dr. Pausch’s statement as an exact replica of some of the situations of my life. I found this a unique understanding from a man who had followed so many of his dreams, and imagined that he used this as an explanation to many of his students when they were struggling to reach their own dreams. Randy Pausch used his life experiences and his personal dreams to assist his students. His method of teaching was life is worth dreaming everything you can dream and working as hard as possible to reach it!

Did You Know 4.0

We previously watched a “Did you know?” video, and this one hit on some new topics. However both bring to the viewer's mind how quickly life has changed in the last 10 years, and how much it will change in the next 25 years. We are in more than a technology age, it is an awakening! As I quoted before it seems to be a type of Technological Renaissance or Revolution. We have to be multifunctional individuals now more than ever. Children today are far more technologically literate than most adults. They have learned more in their first year of school than most adults learned probably in their first 5 years.

The purpose of these videos seems to be to cause the population to wake up to the undeniable fact that Technology is here and we are going. If you are not willing to get on board, we will have to leave you behind. Adults and teenagers who are technology savvy will soon be unwilling to compromise or cooperate with those who are not capable of keeping up with the “new times.” In the past ten years, computer illiteracy has been of little or no consequence, however these videos and many other aspects of society seem to be clearly stating, Technology is the Future! Are you coming?

Is it okay to be Techno-Illiterate as a Teacher?

Wow, this question is amazing to me? Are we even having this discussion? I am an older student, and can attest to the changes that have occurred in the education system in the past 20 years. The field of education is far more technologically based now than when I was graduating from high school 17 years ago. Mr. Fisch’s discussion of this matter is meant to be taken I believe in the same manner as my opening statement, as a facetious statement. Do teacher’s need to be aware of technological advancements is to me the same as asking if the President needs to know if we are going to war! Teachers are crucial to the lives of children for the entirety of their education careers. Once these same students enter the work force it is directly related to some form of teaching that has been imparted to them within their lifetime. It stands to reason then that education is fundamentally responsible for the achievement of our young people in the world. Of course there are factors that encourage or prohibit individual student development. This is not the topic of our discussion. Do teachers have a responsibility to their students to become literate in technology? Fundamentally yes they do.

How can a student be educated by a teacher who does not understand the world from which that student is living now, or will enter upon graduation? Mr. Fisch stated that a teacher needs to know how to do something to teach it. I completely agree. I also believe the most important comment that Mr. Fisch said was that teachers need to teach students that it is appropriate to continually learn throughout their entire life. Teachers do not “know” everything, how can they, the world is moving so fast, and there are so many different areas of proficiency. However, teachers “know” how important and powerful knowledge is, and if we can indicate the severity of knowledge, as a tool to achieve success, we have taught our student’s life’s greatest lesson. Success is not how much money we make; success is when one knows how to find the answers one seeks. Technology is a wonderful tool for which to seek knowledge.

Mrs. Hines Blog on Technology

This blog was truly informative and I agree with the premise of her argument. Teachers must understand that educating students is a labyrinth of opportunities. However the way in and out of the labyrinth is ever evolving, changing as our world and society change. Technology should enhance teacher abilities to impart knowledge or expound on the process of information gathering.

The 21st century will take our world into an ever increasingly technological advanced society. These advancements will continue to enhance life as we know it. We will have new advancements towards, transportation, communication, learning, entertainment, etc. However this is not a new concept. This has been occurring in our world since the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment. Technology advancement is nothing new, and it is not the technology that is “teaching” anyone. The advancements are due to individuals who are curious about anything and creatively solve problems. Thus, as a society we should understand that technology is the result of ingenuity and realize this is a fundamental skill for students to learn. Then we would reason that Educators have the responsibility to impart creativity and ingenuity to our students just as much as we have the responsibility to teach them subject matter. How better to encourage our next generation of inventors than to embrace and excitedly undertake the next generation of learning, with technology at the helm.

A Vision of Students Today:

The idea which Mr. Wesch was trying to portray was a pertinent topic for any educator to consider. Our world is moving so fast that certain applications are becoming outdated before many people even have the time to learn them. Basically, just as many people become familiar with a specific technological advancement, there is a new improved version of it available. The students made several points I found specifically pertinent to my life right now as a student, the cost of tuition, books, work load, and the hope of still maintaining some activity in my spare time that includes my interests. I liked the way the students went around the room giving different facts, even though some of them were difficult to read. It was a fast paced message, which also to me was indicative of how we learn today. Things are being pushed at us from so many different directions, sometimes we barely glance what was flashed in front of our face. We almost have to rely on all of our senses to process everything going on around us at such a high rate of speed. No longer can students sit in desks and write notes, listening to lectures. They need to be trained in the world of innovation, and coached in the process of critical thinking.

Mr. Wesch did a good job of explaining the idea he was trying to get across. Even the aspect of presentation was pertinent to how life is today, face paced, things coming from everywhere, and many different forms of information. However, I believe that the presentation could have been a little better if the students would have practiced there moment several times, being ready to pop up, not pulling their words down to quickly, or possibly using multiple students in place of some of the times one student had to change pages. One way of correcting the lapse in time where one student had to show two pages, might have been to have the person beside them ready to pop up the second half of the comment so the camera really didn’t even have to move. Another possible correction could have been for the camera person to practice moving the camera and focusing the lens, before this final presentation.

Next Generation Learning

How small our world is becoming, when only 100 years ago the world would have seemed too massive to grasp. The opportunities that technology is presenting in the field of Education, is merely astonishing. People can chat across the world, student’s can read, post, blog, email, twitter information to other student across the world too on research and presentations, or parents can view their children’s education daily.
The video I watched entitled, The Next Generation Learning, was exciting for me to view as a future Educator. No longer is learning one dimension, as the child said, “Children use to sit in desks all day, not anymore,” how exciting to think about all of the possibilities for tomorrow. Many children have suffered and been labeled with some type of learning disability, when often times they are struggling with the education method of the day. The new availability of technology for teachers to reach out with to students as more and more technology becomes available will surely revolutionize the world of Education.
I feel sure that I am going to take every opportunity to continue to broaden the world of learning for my students and expand their knowledge in the world of technology. Regardless to the subject area you teach, learning should be fun, and that is one aspect of education today that I find so fascinating compared to the past few years in which it has seemed more important to teach subject matter for standardized testing, than it has to make learning fun and interesting.

LangWitches Podcast

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to these ladies discuss technology and a conference they had attended during this Podcast. The ladies were merely eating and having a conversation and decided to share the conversation about what they had experienced during their conference. The conversation was lively, interesting, and it was easily related through this discussion the woman enjoyed and liked each other’s company.
Again, I believe it to be important to keep the Podcast interesting, and keep the listeners attention. The woman went back and forth from topic to topic easily and discussed very interesting points to becoming more technologically literate as a teacher.
One exact example in the conversation I found intriguing was how the woman said a presenter at the conference had used technology during his presentation. He was discussing how teachers could begin to use Flip Camera's in the classroom in many ways, as he was talking, he said, "Well let's see some of the ways," and went and typed on his twitter account, and people began to answer him right away with ideas on fun ways to use a Flip camera. Technology in this way is beginning to almost make learning three dimensional, and the possibilities seem endless.

Learning to Use Podcasts

After viewing the TechLiterateTeacher podcasts I am more aware of the definite distractions a video Podcast can present than an Audio Podcast. I deliberated on some of the possible pros and cons of the Podcasts, while considering the Podcasts I will be expected to create. I was specifically struck by the distractions of this video Podcast verses merely some of the Audio Podcast I have listened to so far this semester. Previously I listened to a Podcast, Kidcast, and Dan discussed some of the possible problems or special aspects to consider when creating a video verses an audio podcast. I completely agree and this will be of vital importance when we decide which type to produce.
If we are going to produce a Video Podcast, I think we should be very detailed in some of the visual aspects of the Podcast. As I am a multi-learning individual, the aspect of the background of the Video became a serious distraction for me to listen and relate to the topic. The movement of the individual people, and the facial expressions also became a focus point for me, rather than concentrating on the topic.
Rather Audio or Video, another aspect I decided would be of special interest to someone who is both an audio and visual learner, is that the conversation needs to flow easily, and the presenter’s need to be sure of what they are discussing. It becomes a similar distraction to the audience if there is a lot of silence in the Podcast, it is very slow moving, or of a monotone type performance. I think that if we are able to practice what we are going to discuss, have some pointers to keep the conversation moving, and be aware of how our body language can affect the audience if we prepare a Video Podcast, we will enhance the performance.

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