iTunes University

ITunes is usually where people go to download music, movies, and TV shows. Well now there is a new section of iTunes devoted to education. There you can search millions of audio and video files from many different schools. It was created to enrish cirriculum with digital content. Colleges and universities build their own iTunes U sites. Faculty can post stuff for their classes. Students can download what they need. More than half of the nations top 500 schools use it to distribute content to students. Any school can oopen all or part of its site to the public.
You can listen to language sessions, watch lab demonstrations, and review lectures. Everyone seems to be loving this new creation. Once the site is up it pretty much runs itself. Therefore, the faculty rarely need help with it. Students get on the computer to email, chat, and surf. With this new invention it helps the teachers get into the digital lifestyle and helps keeps the students engaged in the courses. It is a way to bring your subjects to life that wasn't possible before.

For more information visit Apple Education

The Use of iPods at Duke University

This semester at Duke University the freshman recieved a very nice gift in there welcome goodie bags. They recieved an iPod. The university says it will be used to record lectures, capture data, and play language-training recordings. It is being funded by money the university set aside for a special one time project and they do not know if the project will continue over the years. Some students think that it makes no sense. Some of the freshman already have iPods so they are selling theirs on ebay to make some money. It comes equipped with videos from the president, information about the campus, tips for studying, and the alma mater and fight song.
I don't really know how I feel about this. In one way it's a really good idea but on the other hand the kids might not even use them and then it would be a waste of money. I think there are other things the university could do to help with learning. Even computer programs would help. Some of the kids would end up selling them or losing them and that is a big investment to just to waste. I don't think I would want them in my classroom because even though they might help with learning you never know what the children are doing with them. They could be listening to music or watching videos they have uploaded to it. I think there are other ways to enhance learning than giving everyone an expensive iPod.

Prowlers

The USA Prowlers Dance Team attended camp at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL.
Here is a picture with the dance team, cheerleaders, and coaches after we got done with our evaluations on the last day of camp.

Football game

Me and Tyler were about to go to my sister's homecoming game. She was on the Junior Homecoming Court.

8 years

My best friends of 8 years got together to celebrate a birthday weekend.

Birmingham

Me and Raley took a trip to Birmingham over the summer to visit Laura.

Pictures from Picasa

 
 

A Cultural Revolution

After reading the article "a Cultural Revolution: From Books to Silver Disks" by Dr. Strange my opinion hasn't changed on the subject. Technology changes everyday. In 15 years we have gone from CD's to so many other things to store information on. These days we have more than one way to store and more than one thing to store it on. In the next 15 years there is no telling what will be avaliable for us to use. With that being said there is really no way to say how we will use it in our classrooms. Today we have so many forms of communication that we didn't have when I was in grade school. I think it is wonderful because I think it keeps the children involved. But you can't really say how we will use it because we don't really know what will be avaliable for us.

My Picture Changed to Sepia Tone in Picasa.

My Picture Changed to Black and White in Picasa.

Seymour Papert

Seymour Papert is considered the world's expert on how technology can provide new ways to learn. He has developed many opportunities for children in the digital world. He was a professor at MIT where he had a lab that children first started using the computer. They would write and make graphics. The Logo language was invented there. He is an amazing man. He is a mathematician and cofounder of an Aritificial Intelligence Lab. He also worked with Jean Piaget.

The website that I got my information from is http://www.papert.org/

International schools and teachers using blogs in the classroom

I found webiste called My Journey in ITC and Blogging. This is a website of a woman that teaches in New Zealand. She has a view videos and articles about education on her page. One thing I really liked is that you could change the language of the website to make it easier for you if you don't speak very good english. This is a very god website. It has a lot of really good information for students and parents.

Another website i found was Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom Blog. She is a teacher out of Canada. She has a very cool thing on her page called a yack pack. You can talk into and they can talk back because they are learning to read and write. She has very good ideas for her children. I was very impressed with this website. She has very good articles and is very involved with her class.

United States schools and teachers using blogs in the classroom

The first blog I found was called The Cool Cat Teacher Blog. It has many different things that you can go and look at. They have links to other blogs and many different articles dealing with education today. There are a few videos you can check out also. There is also student inventions which I thought was a very cool idea. It is a really fun webiste and I think it has a lot of information.

The other webiste I found was Beyond School. It was a very interesting website. It has a view from the student's desk. It also has some things about teaching grammer. There is a list of books. There are also links to different blogs. I also thought this blog was very good.