Comments for Teachers WEEK 10,11,12

The teacher I had to comment on was William Chamberlain, and his blog " At the Teacher's Desk". http://attheteachersdesk.blogspot.com/

Are We Really Sure That Our Successful Students are Really That Successfull- March 30th.

This post was written about a student named Donte Rome and his blog posting. He brought up the fact how he could pass classes and never buy the books for the class. He would just Google the information and it would be accurate. Mr. Chamberlain brought up the point " Are successful student's really successful?" if they can make it through classes using a search engine.

I think this is a valid point. Why am I learning these things if I can look them up on a search engine instead of sitting in class for two hours. Also why am I buying 200 dollar books.


" Spreading Students Culture Worldwide " March 6th.

Mr. Chamberlain decided to get his students involved by " harnessing the power of students culture". He believes that children take great pride in their culture at an early age. He decided to have an introduction of Maori Mihi for his students. Mihi is a greeting spoken by an individual when they meet in formal and informal settings. He had some of his Maori students record a video of their Mihi.

The student that did this found this really empowering and got a huge amount of positive feedback. She was proud that her greeting would be viewed all over the world. A group of students in Russia even tried to do a Mihi. This technology is helping all students learn about different cultures from all over the world. How incredible to be able to view children in their native setting.

Comments For Kids WEEK 12

My comment was for Vaifoa from PT England School in Auckland, New Zealand. She posted a video of her Mihi, which I believe is a greeting in her native tongue Maori. She was adorable and I told her to keep up the good work and I would return to her post and see what she was doing.

WEEK 12 Blog Assignment - Kaia

What Kaia's father is exposing her to is incredible and scary at the same time. All this new technology and being able to reach maybe millions of people on the web is mind-boggling. What we can learn on the web is limitless. I remember when I was in school and we were limited to encyclopedias and the library. Kids and adults alike are able to learn a multitude of things good and bad from a computer.

I also think that Kaia's father has a reason to be scared also. The good that comes with the internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc. also has a bad side. There are scary people that roam the internet and are looking for victims everyday. Before Facebook and Twitter how many people, just by looking at their phone, or scanning Facebook, could tell what you were doing and where you were every minute of the day. This is really getting ridiculous and we all need to be cautious of what we put out there on the web.

Morgan Bayda

Morgan Bayda is a teacher from Canada that is disillusioned with traditional education. I also have a hard time in some classes. Especially the classes that are so large and mainly a lecture everyday. I don't get that one on one discussion with the teacher and other classmates like my other smaller classes. Also the lecture classes could be done online instead of student's having to sit in these classes twice a week and falling asleep.

Dan Brown's video was also eye opening. He knocks "Institutional Education" and says it refuses to adapt to the landscape of the information age. I think this is true in most universities. We have the traditional three tests and a final exam, which is mostly memorization anyway. I think using podcasts, Ipods, etc. would be beneficial and more productive in most classes. I hope I can incorporate some of this technology in my future classroom.

Comments For Kids Week 10

I had to comment on a teacher blog from Victoria, Australia. The post was about how her students were studying things that float, and things that sink. I left a post saying how I enjoyed the post, and that I have a daughter their age. Also,How my daughter loved The Magic School Bus too!

COMMENTS FOR TEACHERS WEEK 7,8, & 9

I had to follow Dr. Scott McCleod's blog Dangerously Irrelevant. He is a leading expert on technology leadership issues k-12. He was the creator of the Did You Know? video that we had to watch for EDM310 earlier in the syllabus. He has updated this video with Did You Know? 4.0. This video is still going strong with viewers and was mentioned this week in Time magazine.

The second post I read was We Trust You With The Children But Not The Internet. I wasn't aware of this but some schools don't allow their teachers access to the Internet fearing that It will be abused. It is ridiculous that teachers are allowed to watch the most precious of all things (our children), but not be trusted to use the Internet responsibly. I can't imagine as a teacher not having the Internet as a learning resource.


The third post was called Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff Please. This post could have been written by Dr. Strange himself. It was all about what Dr. Strange teaches about technology and collaborating. This was written in a tongue-and-cheek manner, but it really rings true. Some people feel that using blogging, the Internet, ipods etc. are bad because we can't control how kids use them and they will be exposed to explicit things. I agree and disagree with this post. Sometimes I do feel that kids are exposed to things that they shouldn't be. For example my daughter has a cell phone and I can't stop other kids from forwarding things to her. But then again these tools are here to stay. We can either teach our children to use them responsibly or be left behind on the technology train.

COMMENTS FOR KIDS WEEK 9

This week I had to comment on the video Alkaline-Earth Metals. I had a hard time with this video because something is wrong with it. The sound is not working and I made several attempts to view it. Did anyone else have the same problem.