Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture was excellent. It was a very inspiring and also eye opening speech. The fact that he is ill is not impacting him to not achieve his dreams. This should inspire people to live life to the fullest and chase their dreams even it things at times get tough.

I feel that his teaching methods were a very interesting and effective. The fact that he showed teachers can impact students no matter what age was quite something to me. He encouraged his students just as he was encouraged by Andy Van Dan. I really thought a lot about when he said "we can't change the cards we are dealt but you can change how they are played".

Randy Pausch was inspiring to me so his impact on student's were probably tremendous being that they saw and spoke with him a regular basis. It is seen so much when things are not going our way we want to give up, but this is a great example of perseverance. I hope that I myself can have an impact on students in such a positive manner as Randy Pausch. It has to be really tough to live under the type of health conditions as Randy Pausch, but he showed that where there is a will there is a way.

This lecture was very enjoyable and motivating to listen to. If more of us had the same drive and attitude towards life as Randy Pausch it would be better for ourselves and society. Randy Pausch is the true definition of a warrior.

Me & Sports

Fischbowl 2007 Best Of

I read the month of February from the best of the Fischbowl 2007. I do agree that the concepts are more of what people should be tested on in math. I do not feel this way only about math I feel that anything that requires sometime of systematic approach should be assessed this way. I was in a math class where the teacher would look at your work that was shown, and if you got the answer wrong but she could identify where you went wrong on a step would give partial credit.

I feel that there is more gained by actually knowing how to do something rather than to memorize and forget it. A perfect example is you do not forget how to drive a car or ride a bike no matter how long of a layoff it is that you do it. When you memorize a thing for the sake of taking a test you probably will not remember it three months later. I thin that his example about building the school was also a very good one.

Podcasting

I listened to Larrica Smith and Theola Hine's podcasts. Their podcasts was about what facebook is and it's usefulness in education. In my opinion they did a pretty good job especially being that it was their first time doing a podcast without practice. There were a couple of pauses, but they were very clear and thourough and the message was communicated very well. I think that practice could eliminate the pauses that occured while they were doing the podcast.

I also listened to Allison Midgette and Shaundretta Bethel's podcast on facebook's test, and how educators feel about facebook in class. I think that preparation and practice will be something that I will really try and focus on with my podcast. Also something that might help would be choosing your group instead of being placed in a group. I think that both of the podcast that I listened to were overall pretty good.

Podcasts

The podcasts that I listened to seem to have been made based upon a collection of data on certain issues or topics. The idea is to keep listeners or viewers current with the latest news on a particular subject. Podcasts are a very useful way to provide information to people. Podcasts can especially be useful to those who may not like to read to seek information.

Some of the topics that were talked about on the Smartboard podcast were very interesting. Joan Badger had some very good ideas as to what smartboards could be used for in schools. The ideas of keeping track of how many books have been read by kids, and seeing how many other countries view their blogs were a couple. She also mentioned seeing how kids used their time in and out of school.

On the Kidcast podcast it was mentioned that students were not really gaining anything from the podcasts that they were making. It was said that the students were just making podcasts because they had to. Some suggestions were that they create presentations and present them live to a lot of people. It was also stated that kids need to go deeper than just knowing how to successfully create podcasts.

Podcasts can be huge success if the correct emphasis and training is put into it for the kids. It also can be a huge success for educators to be able to get information passed along amongst each other. This is a great technology tool that needs to be taken advantage of. This was actually my first time really listening to a podcast, but I don't think that it will be my last.

Technological Literacy

I feel that as an educator in today's time it is of very much importance that you are technologically literate. As stated in the blog you cannot teach something that you do not know. Technology is only going to become more and more a part of education as well as many other aspects of society. Students must be taught at least the minimum necessities of communicating and learning through technology.

I do not agree that a person who is technological illiterate is equivalent to a person who could not read and write thirty years ago. I feel that it is important to be technologically literate, but I think that there are very intelligent people that are not. The world is constantly changing and there is a mandatory need to change with it, and as educators technology is a big part in the changing of education. Teachers and school officials should be held accountable for their lack of technological literacy if proper training is being provided.

International Schools Blogging

On this blog site they are using this to help teachers become better as technologists. They have tutorials for the teachers on the site as well as technology resources. An online learning section available to learn about different programs available. In the media resources section there are more options for learning more about different programs.

International schools blogging

This blog is for Shu Ren International school. On this blog it is advertising its summer camp, the celebration of the Chinese New Year, upcoming events, and other things about their school as well. There are personal classroom blogs on the site and a school calender. Many different categories can be chosen about the school from the blog.