ACCESS

ACCESS or Alabama Connecting Clasroom, Educators and Students Statewide, is a new distance learing program that has been set up for high school students. This new program has been very successful in the Alabama schools that have tried it thus far. This ACCESS program offers students the chance to take classes online. Many students tend to benefit from online classes because they can access the course and information any time, any where.

The ACCESS program offers many class choices ranging from English to chineese and many math classes. Also, they offer advanced placement courses for students with exceptional abilities. Some of these courses can be taken for a college credit. This is a great program for students who can excel in AP courses because they can get a head start in college.

In addition, many students who come back to high school after dropping out will benefit from this program because they will never have to set foot inside a classroom. Many students who come back to school may have jobs and other priorities and cannot be in the classroom 5 days a week. ACCESS makes it easier and possible for these students to graduate.

I really like the ACCESS program and I feel that it benefits the students greatly. Although I do feel this way I also do not think the program is for everyone. Some students need to be in the classroom but there are many who will enjoy and excel in this program. I would like to teach through ACCESS because I would enjoy seeing my students benefit from this type of learning environment.

Alabama Learning Exchange

ALEX is a great resource for teachers, students, and parents. On this site you can find many great resources and links to help with education. One of the most helpful links on this site is the lesson plans section. You can choose any subject and any grade and be given a lesson plan for that subject. Also, on the ALEX site you can acces the Alabama Course of Study, the course of study helps teachers make sure they are teaching the skills needed for that grade level. Along with the ALCOS and the lesson plans, ALEX also offers a personal workspace, weblinks, podcast treasury, and professional learning.

After searching this website I feel that this would be a very helpful tool for me when I become a teacher. I could get on this site and search for ideas for my lesson plans and also find the professional development programs. Also, it would be very helpful for me to choose from some of the podcasts listed on the site to teach my class or even have my students access them on the site themselves.

I really like that this webiste is easy to navigate and will be easy for students to use. I find that this is a great tool for students looking to do research for school. Students can get information on almost any subject on the ALEX site. Overall, this site benefits everyone from teachers to students. I am glad I now know about this resource and I will enjoy using this when I become a teacher.

Dear Kaia

Today I listened and read some a few blogs between a young girl named Kaia and Mr. C's class. In EDM 310 we have an assignment called comments for kids. In this assignment we leave comments on kids blogs from around the world. This is how the students found Kaia's blog. The class begin leaving her comments on her blog, which her father was helping her compose. Her father soon noticed the comments pouring in and decided to contact Mr. C. They decided to do a skype to allow the students to ask questions. Kaia's father told the students that Kaia might have a hard time reading and grasping the comments they were leaving on her page. The students then decided to create a voicethread and a video.

I also read the blog Singing Hearts: Intrepid Teacher by Kaia's father. He tells us about how he started his daughters blog. He read a book called The Last Child in the Woods,this book made him worry that his daughter was not getting enough fresh air or nature. He then decided to go out with her and explore their surroundings. Kaia and her father took pictures of everything. He stated that his daughter had so much fun and was so proud of her pictures. He then asked her if she wanted to see her pictures on the "big screen." Of coarse she said yes, so he then proceeded to put her pictures into a photo essay on her blog. This is when he started to notice the comments pouring in from all around the world. He could not believe the connections she was making with so many people.



I feel that this is such an amazing way to use technology. Students in a different part of the U.S. got in touch with the father of the girl whos blog they had been commenting on. Technology has grown so much and we can use it in education in many ways. By being able to leave videos and use skype with others we are creating numerous connections for our students. Also, it gives us a fun way to teach the students to use technology. I forsee this being a regular teaching tool in the very near future.

The New Media Literacies

I watched the video New Media Literacies. This video discusses the skills you need to have to be able to participate in the vast opportunities on the internet.

The skills listed in this video are: Judgement, negotiation, appropriation, play, multi-tasking, transmedia navigation, simulation, connective intelligenece, performance, distributed cognition, and visualization. I feel that all these skills are 21st century and people do need to obtain most, if not all of these skills to be successful.

I feel that I obtain quiet a few of the skills. The skills I believe I have are judgement, negotiation, play, multi-tasking, and visualization. I am semi successful when it comes to technology but I feel that if I were to obtain all of these skills I would be a very successful technological teacher.



In addition to viewing the video I did more research into the New Media Literacies Project. I found a overview of the project on this site New Media Literacies. I learned that this project at MIT that explores how to equip students with social skills cultural competencies that are required to raise understanding on the importance of being technologically literate.

Also, the White Paper identifies three of the major challenges these are: the participation gap, transparency problem and ethics challenge. The participation gap is the unequal access to opportunities, skills, experience, and knowledge that will prepare youth for participation. The Transparency problem is, the challenges that young people face in learning to see clearly the ways that media shape perceptions of the world. Also, the ethics challege is considered to be, the breakdown of traditional forms of professional training and socialization that might prepare young people their increasing roles in public media makers. All three of these challenges are critical to this project. Once these gaps and challenges are taking care of, young people will be able to grasp the skills needed for the 21st century.

The Networked Student

Today I watched The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler. This video is based on students using the internet and other technology to find and use information for their courses. The example in the story was a boy who had a psychology class in which he met two times a day online and he had no textbook. So what was he to do?

The video talked about connectivism. This is being able to be connect with everyone. The boy in this example went straight to the internet to start building his learning network. He did many searches on the psyche and find many different ways to access information. These included: subscribing to podcasts, reading blogs, sending e-mails to professors and other educators on the subject, using skyp to set up a conference with the class, and much more. By the time this student had finished his research he had basically built his own online textbook. Even after his Psychology class is over he and everyone else will be able to view all of his hard work. His work will be available for other students later researching this same topic.

Now, they asked why does this student even need a teacher? Well there are many reasones. Some of which are: The teacher teaches him how to build a network, how to know the difference in good and bad information, how to properly and politely ask to use information. Also, the teacher hopes that at the end of the course the student will maintaine their personal learning network and continue to use those skills in the future. After all, those are the skills we will need in the 21st century.

Now as far as trying this out with middle school students, I feel that this is a high school grade level or higher. I still feel that at middle school age the children need to the structure of a classroom. This is a great idea for high school and college level studetns who should have already built up some discipline to take a course like this. I personally feel that I am not ready for classes to be like this. I still strongly believe in the old time classroom where the kids come to class everyday and take their homework home at night. Now there is nothing wrong with integrating technology into the classroom since it is going to be required in the upcoming years but, I think that it should not be the backbone of the course.

This Is How We Dream

Today I listened to Richard Miller's This Is How We Dream: Parts 1 and 2. These videos were about multimedia prints. He talks about how much is possible with multimedia documents. He states that this is not like the library anymore, where once you leave its gone but, with multimedia if you exit out of the site, its still there. Therefore, its always accessible.

Miller also talked about how you can compose moving image based material on the computer. He says this is an incrimintal change and not a fundamental change. I feel that if I were given the directions and resources to create these type of documents on the computer that I would be able to do so. I also feel that my student would be as well. When given the instruction and resources the students will succeed. I believe this is due to the fact that they are introduced to technology at such an early age now.

Part two talks about being able to compose on iTunes U. Educators are now able to post online lectures and share information with not only students but teachers as well. Also, with multimedia we can broadcast our information world wide. For example, teachers can teach to students on the other side of the U.S. I feel that this will be beneficial for me as a teacher. I would like to record my lectures for students to be able to listen to whenever they need to. This is also a great tool for students because they can access information when needed.

Multimedia production has grown so much and I feel that teachers and students should take advantage of the wide variety of ways to compose information on the web. We can use blogs, iTunes U, Facebook, and many more. Miller states, "its fascinating, how could we not be excited about this?" I agree how can we not? We have so many more resources to teach with than ever before. So we need to take advantage of it.

Using iPods In Instruction

Many people do not realize that iPods can be used as an educational tool in the classroom. I visited many sites and found numerous ideas on how to incorporate iPods into the classroom. I also came to find that you can use them in all grades. One of the sites I visited was iPods in the classroom. This site gave me the idea to use iPods in elementary classes by having appropriate music on there to play in class. I have always learned that music is a great way for students to learn and an iPod is an easy, convienent way for the teacher. Also, for older students iPods are a great way for students to catch up on a lecture they may have missed or for them to watch a videcast about a subject they are not understanding. Another great use of the iPod is for students to be able to record themselves when reading. This is a tool I wish I had when in school because I could never remember what I read and would retain it better if I could listen to it.

I also found a school who launched an iPod shuffle reading program. For more information click here. These school teachers would upload stories onto the iPods and send them home with the students that night. According to the site it was a great success. The teachers stated that the students were more motivated to take the iPods home to listen to the stories. I love this idea because it gets students excited to listen to the stories. Many children now days are more inclined to listen, or watch something rather than raed it.

In addition, I also researched Duke University iPod Experiment. The University gave first year freshman an iPod to use for their studies. They used the iPods in about fifty classes that ranged from foreign languages to music. Also, many students learned that you could download files onto the iPods and use them to listen to lectures. In the end,the results of this study is that 60% of students used them for educational purposes. Now Duke University is giving out the iPods to the classes that used them the most.