Blog Post #13

The assignment for this post was to review current state initiatives (Alabama), specifically ALEX.

ALEX Alabama Learning Exchange- This is a program that provides, much like it's name implies, a site for the exchange of information between teachers and other groups. Some of the information available includes web links and lesson plans covering all of the subjects. I specifically investigated the resources available for High School Social Studies Teachers. I found some great Economics lesson plans covering a range of concepts that I thought would be very useful.

ALEX also has a very nice podcast directory and a well organized section for professional development. My overall impression of ALEX is very positive. I found the site as a whole to be very helpful and extremely well organized. I have to admit, when I read the requirements for this assignment that I was skeptical of what I would find (Alabama doesn't have the best reputation on educational matters), but I found the site to be very professional.

Multimedia Product

Survey Results

The survey I created asked a variety of questions. I gathered info about topics ranging from area of study to favorite football team.

According to my survey, 84% of respondents were female and of those 81% live off campus. One hundred percent of the males lived off campus. Zero percent of respondents lived in a fraternity or sorority house.

The Junior class composed 47% of the sample followed by Sophmores (26.5%), Seniors (21%), and Freshmen (5.5%).

Sixty three percent of respondents were Elementary Education majors compared to 21% majoring in Secondary Education. One hundred percent of the Elementary Education majors were female whereas 40% of Secondary Education majors were male.

On the technology front, laptop computers were by far the most owned devices with 89.5% of those surveyed owning at least one. Thirty seven percent of respondents owned a desktop followed by the 11% who owned a Macbook.

The Macbook owners seemed to be the most tech. savvy with 100% of them owning at least one more gadget. Seventy one percent of desktop owners owned another device followed by 58% of laptop owners.

Macbook owners also gave themselves high marks on the rate your tech. literacy question. The average ratings for the three were as follows:
    Macbook- 4.5/5
    Laptop-  3.7/5
    Desktop- 3.0/5
   *5 being most profecient and 1 being least profecient

On the topic of football, 68% of the respondents reported pulling for Alabama, followed closely by South Alabama (63%). Of the Alabama fans that responded, 70% reported being a fan of at least one more team. One hundred percent of them also pulled for South Alabama. Ninety two percent of South Alabama fans pulled for another team, the most popular being Alabama (75%). Twenty one percent of the respondents were Auburn fans with 50% of those rooting for an additional team. Zero percent of them, however, also cheered for South Alabama.

Final Project Progress Report

At this point I'm torn on what to do with my project. I think that I'm leaning towards making a website that will offer instructions for many of the activities that we've used in this class. I'm not sure if I want the site to be geared towards helping EDM310 students though. I think it would be great to have easy, accessible instructions for teachers. This would be creating a technological classroom 101 or a one stop shop for implementing basic tech tools in your classroom. I have iWeb on my computer and it seems fairly easy to use.

I need to find a partner still and I have to admit that I haven't begun to look. I also need to begin gathering resources and instructions.

Blog Post #12

This is a video on cyber-bullying. Ryan Halligan was a 7th grader who committed suicide in 2003 as a result of cyber-bullying. As classrooms become more "connected" it is a problem you need to be informed about. What steps can you take to prevent this behavior from affecting your students? How might you handle a case of cyber-bullying in your classroom?

C4K Summary #2

Kids 3-7- My journey through kids blogs this past month brought me to the far off lands of Australia and England, as well as here at home in the U.S. The topics covered included what we would do if we were invisible, a day on a sailboat, and how we celebrate mothers day in different countries. Overall I was very impressed with the writing of the students. The most impressive to me was a by named Dillon. Dillon is a 5th year student in England and he wrote about sailing: 

It was a windy day, a cold and gale force wind was biting my warm face on the Ted Ashby. When we were on the sail boat we went towards the Harbour bridge with the wind blowing against our clothes. The wind moved the boom left to right. The icy wind was blowing heavily and strongly.

Pulling and heaving with all my might the sails were slowly going up. I struggled as I heaved, pulling the sheet fast with the wind blowing on the sails. I was wondering if the sailors thought it was a hard job, because for me it was.

I commented that I thought he was a fantastic writer. I also mentioned that I have been sailing on Mobile Bay. I thought his description was fantastic.

The only post I got feedback on was a girl named Vanessa who is competing in an international blog competition. I mentioned that I was from the U.S. and she asked which state and how did I come across her blog. I responded that I was assigned her blog as part of a college course where we read blogs like hers so that we can teach our students to blog one day.

I enjoyed reading many of the posts by these young bloggers even the ones I didn't comment on. I could also see improvement in writing style and technique from the first post to the last.

Summary Post C4T #3

My third teaching blog to follow was that of St. Pius X School in New Zealand. I found this blog to be very helpful for teachers wanted to take a more digital approach to education. They seem very willing to share their experiences and have come up with some great ideas for teaching through technology.

The first post I commented on was titled "A New Twist to Parent Engagement". The post was about a parents night where the parents came up to the school and were taught how to use computers by the students. I thought this was a great idea. I'm sure it gave the kids a lot of confidence and it also showed them how committed their parents were to their education.

The second post was titled "Blogger Improves Comment Management". I chose this post to comment on because it seemed relevant. I'm responsible for managing my own blog which is fairly uneventful, but, when I'm responsible for managing an entire classes, I'm sure I'll need some help. This post was about some of the ways Blogger has improved our ability to manage the comments that are made on our posts. Very insightful.