Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch Last Lecture:Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. This was a GREAT lecture. It was very inspirational. One of the podcasts that I watched for last weeks post was about this same lecture and just hearing the students from last semester talk about it was inspirational.
The way that the lecture was layed out was so organized. Everything was broken down with important points. The really important points were emphasized by being repeated throughout the lecture.

In this lecture, Randy Pausch spoke on three main points. These points being: Childhood dreams; enabling dreams of others; and lessons learned. On the first point, Randy Pausch talked about brickwalls, this was something he brought up more than once. Brickwalls are placed for those who really don't care to achieve their goals, those who keep going, this proves how badly we want things.

Another point that was made in the lecture was about people who are critical, critics still love you and care. Randy Pausch said that if you are doing something really wrong and nobody says anything or trys to correct you, they have lost hope in you so when someone is critical, this is a good thing. I really enjoyed how these points were thrown into the lecture, it made the whole lecture encouraging.

Also, Randy Pausch talked about what he learned from his childhood dreams, not only from the ones that he did accomplish but also from the ones he did not. He actually said that the dreams that he did not accomplish are the ones that taught him the most.

What really kept this lecture interesting were the many pictures. Randy Pausch had many pictures that really caught your attention because they were funny. While watching this last lecture, I had many emotions. I was sad for one because he knew that he had liver cancer and that he didn't have long to live, I was also amazed at the attitude that he had about it all, and I also learned some really mportant things that I hope to pass on to my own students one day.

This lecture can be viewed at Randy Pausch.







Also, if you would like to visit his homepage, it can be found at Randy Pausch home

Fisch Bowl 2007

In returning to Fisch Bowl 2007, I chose to read the October blogs. Theses different blogs made some good points. Let me back up, all of these blog posts were related to filtering the internet in schools even for teachers. The different blogs will really make you think about the same thing that all of these people are trying to figure out, "how best to meet the needs of our students?"

The first statement that really stood out to me in one of theses posts that,"not one of those who sigh or are critical of filtering decisions has their job on the line should "Johnny" access inappropriate content. This was straight to the point and oh so true. This guy also pointed out that these critics would not sit in court with him either when a lawsuit was filed.

This made me think, filtering is neccessary, as sad as it is to say, even for teachers because in another post, someone said, what if the teacher uses bad judgment? We are suppose to be able to entrust our children with their teachers but truth be know, not all teachers are trustworthy. On the other hand though, some of the internet does need to be accessible to teachers and students because it will enhance their learning experience.

One of the other posts suggests way to save youtube videos and similar sites locally. Teachers could save these type things from their own computer and still use them in their lessons. If necessary, these saved videos could be approved before the students are allowed to view them.
This is a link to a youtube video that I watched that I thought all should watch, it is not related to filtering but it is related to education. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CRlmhWSvEM
I couldn't figure out a picture to incorporate so thought a youtube link would be good.

These posts from October can be found atOctober

Podcasts

The two podcasts from last semester that I chose to listen to were "Watchers and Listeners-How do We Respond?" and "Lessons from Life: The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch." I listened for things that I could use to improve podcast for this semester but apparently I am not a very critical person because I thought they were done really well and if ours are as good as theirs, then we will be doing pretty well.

"Watchers and Listeners- How do we Respond?" This podcast was done by three students named John Hardman, Keri Ashworth, and Autumn Jordan along with their professor, John Strange. Their podcast was based on an article that Professor Strange had written. The group examined the theses that "students are now listener/watchers and not reader/writers. How accurate is that claim and what reactions should we have to it if it is correct? This podcasts can be listened to by clicking this link Watchers and Listeners. This is also a picture of students who participated in this particular podcast along with Professor Stange'>John Hardman, John Strange, Keri Ashworth, and Autumn Jordan" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh856XwiFnnZbbC0gzFLUmmc79M6NRjfJBuFdmnSemK1bEF7dx_Ya3e4_YNDPL4MNESg80-1lENKb8ls4BMtJpVbZ2qAtkoy2YaVbGs7UHU-Dy_jhyG1SQsiOBebAPM0vFZ4ei_Fxw3Lzw/s200/T0406.jpg" border=0>

Each of the students introduced themselves and their majors as well as their hopes and plans for their future which I liked because it helps listeners get to know the speakers a little bit. One thing that I caught in the podcasts was that the students asked Professor Strange to explain something in his podcasts that they didn't know and he couldn't remember what it was either, it was kind of funny but not a good thing The students did address every aspect of the article and the points> how do you get people who are in the process of learning to contribue instead of listening/watching? How do you get them to produce material? Some things I had never considered too much was how much now people are listening to books and watching movies instead of actually reading the books. Professor Strange pointed out that changes are happening rapidly with technology.

"Lessons from Life: The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch" was done by two students, Kelse Volz and Crystal Powell. They looked ast lessons for life that can be found in "The LAst Lecture of Randy Pausch." This podcast can be found at this link Randy Pausch. I really enjoyed this podcast also. These students shared what they had learned from Professor Pausch and they also shared about him which I thought very appropriate considering that he had recently passed away. Professor Pausch had very useful teaching technique that every teacher shoule keep on mind. This podcast was inspirational to me and I think would be to everyone. I would like to do a podcast like this one that wold really stick out in listeners minds the way that this one did mine. Great life lessons. Here is a picture of the students that completed this podcast.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTmlF9LIxCW2WhZEPxbyLsVGIHyzvzW3dRVjYzrhtolXABDsSnjS2tttb2kzJKGh2bW4gLIJYFSOnasqyRGjaA8TUpC82NBUTkRXBVLgsCb61s8KDdGCt8pHc2yhVPK4gIzI_apCFMlA/s1600-h/A6.jpg


These podcasts have definitely gave me an idea of what is expected when completing our own. I think this will be interesting and I hope it will give me some ideas of how to create podcasts with my own students once I become a teacher.

Fischbowl

"Best of the Fischbowl 2007," Karl Fisch makes the statement that, "if a teacher today is not technologically literate-and is willing to make the effort to learn more-it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write. He then asks "Extreme?" and says "Maybe."

Well.... I don't know that I feel it is an extreme thing to say. From my own personal experience with online work, being technologically literate is definitely a must for anyone that plans on being successful at all. If teachers are not tech. literate, they can not teach their students and therefore their students will not be tech. literate. The worst part is when they get to college, they will be overwelmed because they never learned anything about the computer or web.

I think it is unacceptable for a teacher to learn new things and at least try to keep up with advancing teachnology. I understand that teachers have a lot on their plates but I also feel that it is our responsibilty as teachers to teach students the things that will be beneficial to their lives. Technological literacy is beneficial and should not be overlooked.

I now understand even more why a computer class is a requirement for a degree in Education, it should be now and should be always. As technology changes, so should computer classes. We need to have something to offer to our students and ways to help them with technology.

Podcasts

I have listened to parts of five different podcasts. I could not find ConnectLearning so I was not able to listen to what it was about or how it was done. Overall, it is really ineresting how the podcasts are done. There were different speakers but they could be in different locations. I also found out that there are podcasts for all listeners including kids that you can subscribe to for free.

I listened to SmartBoard Lessons 123: Notebook 10. Ben HAzzard and Joan Badger were the speakers and they were 2000 km away from each other. They introduced themselves and talked about the weather. These podcats are about using Smart Board. This particular podcast was not a lesson but was introducing the newest version of Smart Board. This podcast was about the features and classroom applications. They gave links such as Smart. In each podcast, they give downloadable lessons.

KidCast is self explanatory, theyare podcast for kids. I listened to episode one, I actually listened to all of it because it was really short. This particular podcast was a review by kids for kids on a movie. This would be a great tool for older elementary school students in exploring podcasts.

Ed Tech talk show number 26 took place on Feb. 8, 2009. This podcast as well as the others started out with music. Listeners can join in through chat rooms or through skype. This particular podcast is about constructive learning, "way to learn is by doing." When I heard that I thought about this class because we are definitely learning by doing, lol!

Mac Break Weekly is about Macintosh and "This week in Phontography" is about Photography. Everyone was introduced, they were all in different locations, southern CAlifornia, Seattle, Vancouver, New York City. I think it is really cool how a podcasts can go on with people in different areas of the U.S and probably even different countries. Teachnology has really came a long way. Technology is moving so fast that it is impossible to keep up with.

International school/teacher blogs

The Ambrit Rome International school is located in Rome Italy. They had a pretty cool blog with lots of pictures and YouTube. AmbritRome. On this blog you can find a contact email, links to the schools homepage, and of course they have an archive. We are in Alabama, in the United States using blogger.com and they are in Rome, Italy. Although there is a huge distance with many many miles between us, it is like we are right next door.

The Shu Ren International school has a blog that is much like any other blog but I would say, it is more extensive. It has a blog for a campus it has in Berkley California in which adult chinese classes are offered and then I found blogs for preschool and Kindergarten. kinderfirst The kinderfirst blog was very informative with news, important dates, letter from the teacher to parents and what I thought was neat was the letter from the English teacher. I thought about the fisch bowl that we watched last week about other countries speaking the english language fluently.

U.S. teachers/schools blogs

Well, I did find through my surfing of the web that many schools and teachers use blogs, pretty cool, learn something new everyday. I am sure that more and more schools and teachers will be using blogs in the near future. Blogs for communication to parents would be a great idea.

Anyways, I found this elementary school called Trantwood Elementary and they had a blog which can be found at Trantwood. On Jan. 22nd, Mrs. Holmans 2nd grade class posted their Wild Water Haiku blog with a link to actually hear the students read their haiku about Wild Weather. Haiku's. On Trantwoods blog spot you can add a comment but the comment must be approved first and then will be posted within 24-48 hours. 5th grade also posted a blog calle "Dear President Elect Barack Obama" on Jan. 9th, 2009. There is a list of the different blog entries by the different grades.

Harrison Elementary school was another school that I found that currently uses blogs. Harrison Elem. School is located in Warsaw, Indiana. Their school blog consists of info such as classroom web pages where teachers can post info, provide descriptions of various projects, and share photographs of their activities. Teachers can also create links to important websites and even maintain a classroom blog separate from the school blog. Harrison