Week 12

ITunes University is a free resource provides by Apple through the iTunes store. Anyone, including teachers and students can access iTunes U and get general information or full courses that are offered from some leading universities. In the section Beyond Campus, on iTunes, students can find museum exhibits showcasing original artwork, modern music, and historical achieves to name a few. Another section available is the language section, which includes everything from Introductory Spanish to Elementary Greek. There is also a new section that includes content for K-12 teachers and students.
I believe that Itunes U would be helpful to teachers and students for many reasons. One of the reasons is that students enjoy using their Ipods or Iphones, and it is a great way for them to access information from classes they are taking or just finding information for homework or projects. Another reason is that it is helpful to students because teachers can upload podcast so they can listen to them anywhere they are. Students can fast-forward to parts of the lecture that they didn't understand and review it as many times as necessary to prepare for a test. It is a different medium from the textbooks and class notes,that they have always had around.It is also just as easy for them to click on the lecture as it is to click on a their favorite songs.
I believe that iTunes is also helpful to teachers because they can go on iTunes as well and find information that goes along with what they are teaching in the classroom. If a student misses class, they don't have to worry about them missing the lectures if they have them uploaded to Itunes, they are available to that student. As you can see it is very beneficial for teachers and students to use iTunes.
To find out more about Itunes Click Here

Week 11

IPods are used in the schools for many reasons, one includes giving the bilingual students iPods to sing songs in English=, which helps them learn the English language better. Other examples include posting homework on school websites, so that the students can have easy access to them. It is also especially useful in teaching language skills. Another example includes, a teacher at Grand Prairie's Ervin C. Whitt Elementary School, who puts a rock song about solid, liquids, and gases on the iPods for the students to learn about. Iowa schools are now using iPods to give standardized test to the students.Using iPods is a great way to teach kids about subjects they might otherwise find boring.
Duke University did a study on using iPods in schools and found some academic uses for iPods, which include, portable access to course content such as lectures, songs, historical speeches, foreign language content, iTunes Music Store, Blackboard course management tool, and podcast. The iPods can be used to capture lectures, field notes, interviews, and will also help the students to be able to listen to the lessons they have recorded as many times as they need in order to learn it. An example would be for the students to listen to the vocabulary w0rds as they try to study and prepare for the test. IPods reduce the amount of physical materials, by having audio and video recordings, which provides a more convenient way to learn and study. Duke University found that the iPod was most useful for recording at short distances and in small groups. Using iPods is a great way to bring technology into the classroom. As teachers it is important for us to know how to use and incorporate iPods into our classrooms, so that we will not produce technologically illiterate students.

To find at more about Duke University's study Click Here!

Week 10

I found Dr. Alice Christie's web site to be incredibly helpful to me as a future teacher. She provides information to help teachers become technologically literate. She has information on many topics, some include photography,using a GPS, podcasting, and internet safety. I enjoyed the photography section because I love to take pictures, but I believe that the searching the web section would be the most beneficial to me as a teacher.
In the searching the web section she list search engines and subject directories for students, as well as parents and teachers. Instead of the students just searching on Google, she has a section on kids search engines, some include ask for kids,kids click, and Yahoo kids, which are all search engines just for kids, so they get information on a kids level.The internet is a great way to do research, but it is important that you know where to look for the information, and are able to trust the sites that you are getting the information from. In the searching the web section, Dr. Christie also includes an Online Researching Resources, which includes databases, encyclopedia and almanacs, web cam directories, virtual field trips, and ask an expert directories, which can be used by students, parents, and teachers as well. The virtual field trip section was interesting to me because you can take your students on a field trip around the world,while they are siting in the classroom.

Week 9

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that can be used and edited by anybody. It has been known to get edited by politicians, big corporations, and church groups that are deleting or adding words to help their images. For example, someone from Wal-Mart changed their image in 2005,by changing a line about how its wages are less than other retail stores to a note that it pays nearly double the minimum wage. Another example is Diebold, in which a user deleted 15 paragraphs from an article on e-voting machine-vendor Diebold, excluding an entire section critical of the company's machines.

Virgil Griffith a grad-student from Cal Tech created the WikiScanner, a search tool,that traces IP addresses of those who are making changes to Wikipedia. When changes are made to Wikipedia, it leaves fingerprints behind that offer hints about the contributor, such as the location of the computer used to make the changes. In the case of Wal-Mart and Diebold, the IP addresses came from inside the corporations. Wikipedia is not a reliable source to use in papers because the information is not fact based. The WikiScanner may help Wikipedia become more reliable because people may be more cautious about changing information, when they know that it can be traced back to them.

Week 8

In Karl Fisch's " Best of the Fisch Bowl 2007" the August blog "Creating Personal Learning Network" was neat to me. The blog explains how students and teachers can create personal learning networks, which is a collection of resources that you can go to when you want to learn something. The resources can be parents, teachers, the internet, books, journals and other forms of media. The teachers gave the students the assignments and are teaching them how to find trustful sources, and to help them find multiple sources on that same topic, but to compare and contrast them to get multiple view points on issues. The students don't only learn how to use their own personal learning network, but they should be learning how to be part of someone else’s learning network. How to provide relevant and meaningful information and analysis to others.
I believe this a really good assignment for students, by helping them to become more technologically advanced. The teachers assigned the Personal Learning Network as an assignment at school but they also wanted the students to take it another step and add things that they are personally concerned about. It is important as a student in 2008 to know how to make and use sources that are trustful. Whether you are writing a research paper as a student, or using the internet to find information to use in your classroom it is important to know how to use Personal Learning Networks, blogs, internet sources, and other forms of media.

Week 7

In Karl Fisch's "Best of 2007" September blog, he addresses the question "Is It Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?" He says "We should stop being so nice. After all, we've got our qualifications and jobs, and we don't have the moral right to sit placidly on the sidelines whilst some educators are potentially jeopardizing the chances of our youngsters." I believe that is the absolute truth, as we have been learning that technology is the key to a successful future, it is crucial that the students learn about technology. How can we expect to have successful adults in the next generation if the teachers of today do not know enough about technology to teach it to their students?
As Karl Fisch says we the teachers will be jeopardizing our students futures if we can not teach them about technology. I agree that the teachers that are not willing to learn about new technology should find other jobs. Teaching is about learning new things and passing it on to your students. If we the teachers are not willing to learn new things, how can we expect our students to learn? As a future teacher I never want to jeopardize my students futures by not teaching them about technology because as Fisch says, it is a part of life not an add-on.
To see Karl Fisch's blog click here!

Web Accessiablity and Adaptive Technology

Mr.Steve Sullivan spoke to us tonight about the W3C and informed us how blind people can access the internet because of the W3C. He showed us some hardware that blind people can us to help them access the internet, such as magic, and jaws. Jaws enables them to listen as they move across the screen to the options they have and in the direction they need to go. Magic is a type of magnifying device that magnifies the screen to about 3 times the normal view.