Week 13

I forgot to post anything last night. My father is in ICU with really bad pneumonia and between work and going back and forth to the hospital it's been a crazy couple of days. I woke up at 7 am in a panic over this and hope a late submission will be acceptable.

There really isn't a lot to blog about. We worked together on the web page and completed it to the best of our ability. It would have worked much better if we had all the links and the ability to include all the reading assignments and such. One really important factor to me was that all information for each week was in one place. I don't care for the blackboard style in which you have to check 4 or 5 places to make sure something wasn't missed. I work at a medical school and we have multiple courses so it gets very confusing. Students have to have a very easy way to figure out where to be and what to do. I developed a word document that has each week on a page and has all courses on the same document. That way the students know exactly what they are doing. I also put links on each activity so that when you click on a lecture it takes you to the website to that exact lecture and you can download all power points, notes, and reading assigments for that topic. The students have really appreciated the ease at which they can find what they need. I believe all online courses should be that easy to work with and to find what you need.

Week 12

We chose a website builer site. We now will begin working on our web page. Things seem to be going fine with the assignment.

Week 11

I'm not sure what to blog about this week. We each submitted our answers and then Lauren compiled them into one document. We seem to be working fine together as a team and meeting our deadlines.

Listen vs. Read

I would vote for reading. I am a tactile learner so I really have to put my hands on it and view it and write it to remember it. I can listen to someone talk all day long and if I don’t physically write it down on paper it just goes in one ear and out the other. I even take notes in church or I won’t be able to tell you what the preacher said. I have a sister that is the exact opposite; she has a hard time reading things and does much better listening. This being the case, and my knowledge that there are such differences in learning styles, I know when I start teaching that I will have to use mixed media. That way I’ll be covering all the learning styles and hopefully my students will have a great learning experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhmLxII-Xfc

Technology and Education

Sir Ken Robinson said in his video that, “all kids have tremendous talent and we squander them pretty ruthlessly”. With education being geared at a higher rate one of the things we need to focus on with teaching is technology. My 3 year old already loves playing games on the computer. He can turn it on, load a disk and bring up one of his games. Therefore, technology as it grows needs to be used and taught in every form and way to our children so that they are receiving a complete and marketable education.

We need to look at ways to incorporate more into the classroom. I take courses all the time at UNT that after and 1 ½ in class I think wow, that could have all gone on the web for me to read at home in my pajamas instead of driving 35 miles to Denton and 35 miles home in the pouring rain. Technological resources need to be integrated from our pre-K classrooms all the way through our graduate programs. Colleges and Universities like UNT need to focus on getting the entire faculty trained in making use of the technology that is offered so they can better assist the students with their courses. If students are comfortable texting, e-mailing and tweeting then the teachers need to take advantage of those avenues to better reach and teach today’s children.

On a side note in reference to Sir Ken Robinson video and speaking as a mother who was very hyperactive (ADHD) as a child I disagree totally with his analysis of putting children on medication for the disorder. I had such problems focusing in school and my father refused to drug his children. I eventually gave up and dropped out my senior year. I will be graduating this fall with my BA in English Language Arts which I feel is a great accomplishment but it has taken me 20 years to get to this point. My daughter has the same issues. She’s a straight A student with a great social life but she has a hard time concentrating and focusing on her school work. The medication she takes hasn’t changed her energy, her abilities, or her social standing at school but it has given her the ability to concentrate. Now when I come home from work her homework and nightly reading is done and no one has to remind her or fight with her she’s just able to focus better and concentrate on the tasks she needs to complete. I’m hoping that this will help her do better in school than I did and therefore maybe it won’t take her 20 years to finish a 4 year degree.