Friday, December 7, 2012

Project #13

Using Collaborative Tools Such as Skype, Google Docs, Google +
For Project #15 & Final Project #16 my group was able to use Skype, Google Docs, and Google Chat to effectively produce our work. This past week we used Skype to watch each other rehearse our lines for project #15. The past two and a half weeks we have used Google Docs to share script lines and ideas. Also, for our final project #16 we chatted on Skype about songs to pick and shared pictures we took. Making our project #16 together was really enjoyable!
my computer pictures

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Blog #13

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A Vision of Students Today
Kansas State University students made this short 5 minute video about what college students deal with. Thinking about the video from a student's point of view, I pretty much agreed with every sign the students held up. The signs ranged from average class size of 115 to prices of hundred dollar textbooks. Students often come to class because they have to due to attendance rules but they Facebook or surf the web rather than pay attention to their teacher. Technology is so much more entertaining than a dry erase board and some power points so why not make your teaching lesson fun?!

From a teacher's point of view, I can remember being in college and going through the same things. I want to make my classroom more interesting, hands-on, and incorporate technology that grows with the advancements in life. I want the material I teach to be relevant to their life and what they can use later. Since I plan on teaching elementary school my class sizes won't reach 115 but even if it's as high as 25 I will make sure I know their names and who they are.

From a university president's point of view, I want make sure my professors and facilities are up to par. I have to understand that teachers all have their own style of teaching and some work out better for them than others. Even though, they have a style I want them to be liked, have a good retention rate, teach well, and make sure they have students that are learning from them and passing. The better my university the more students I will have come join. That means the more students that join the more money that comes to me. Seeing this video from this point of view seems to be the most difficult for me because as I relate better to the video as a student I don't know how they ask us to pay so much for books and barely use them and barely have the time to work to buy them!!

Back to the Future
Mr. Crosby shows us in this video how he uses collaborative learning with his students. One particular student had leukemia and so he would skype with her since she wasn't always able to come to school. That's a great example of how technology can benefit students in a major way. Mr. Crosby has 4th, 5th, & 6th graders that would blog on laptops about the activities he would do with them. Having his students blog allowed them to grow as writers, and they had people comment back to them, which they really enjoyed.