Week 11

The Apple Ipod is a wonderful thing to have in the classroom. The ipod is something that can make college life especially much easier. With the ipod students and teachers can store many different things into one small piece of equipment. It can be used for recording in the classroom. The recorder can also be helpful when studying in groups or peer-to-peer activities. Teachers can have different music files for the students to download and study for a test. The ipod also holds notes that may be uploaded and studied on the go. The ipod has a small design that can be taken anywhere. Students are more likely to study when it is more convenient. The large books are no longer need to be carried around.

The ipod is a big help in foreign language classes. I am taking a foreign language and there is not a better way to learn the language other than listening to it. With the ipod students can listen to their classes on the go while driving or even exercising. Apple has now made the ipod touch which take the old ipod to another level. If the ipod touch was to be used in the classroom the capabilities are endless.

In 2004 Duke University gave first time students a new apple ipod. The students and teachers incorperated the ipod into the classroom. Students that used the ipod said that it helped with everyday school use. They use the ipods for many thing such as 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 increased communication throughout the campus and the students. Overall the use of ipods has greatly increased the technology in the classroom. To learn more on how ipods helped this university go to http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/reports/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf .

Week 10

I found information on Dr. Christie’s site on the topic of podcasting. Podcasting can be used in the classroom for many different things. “Podcasting provides a window into the classroom”. Podcasting is like digital story telling. Also, it can be fun and every educating. Fun is an essential in the classroom. Students and teachers can interact through podcasting.
I think that podcasting is a great thing that teachers should use more often. These days almost every student has an ipod and podcasting brings things the students like in connection with learning. When the students are interested in what they are learning then the learning part comes a lot easier.

Week 9

I have always heard that Wikipedia was not a good site to reference because it is not vailid. I had no idea why everyone said that but after reading these articles I know why it is not vailid. The website can be changed by anyone anywhere in the world. Many different pages have been changed and research shows that many of the changes are made by the companies that the page is about. There is a scanner that a raduate student Virgil Griffith created to track down the source of the change. One example is Walmart, they changed the wikipedia article on them when it came to the wages that their customers were making. I think that this shouldn't be right and people should not be able to change the pages. I don't know if Wikipedia will ever be valid but maybe oneday they will accomplish it.

Week 8

I chose to look at the August blog called “Creating Personal Learning Network” in Karl Fisch’s, “Best of the Fisch Bowl 2007.” This blog was interesting because personal learning networks can be created by students and teachers. These personal learning networks are places that people can go to learn new things. There are many different resources that can be used. The teachers have taught the students how to find information on different things. Students find different websites for one topic of interest. Also valid websites are learned and what websites are invalid. The students are to learn how to provide more valid websites for other people to look at.

This is a very good thing for students to learn. Every student needs to know that not every website is a good resource. This helps the students with the technology of the internet and how other people can change it. This assignment was created to have students create trustful websites and also added to the assignment the students were asked to put a little bit of personal touch to it. Now the students are more aware of the internet when they start to write a research paper or just browse blogs, Personal Learning Networks, and any other forms of media.

Week 7

This blog is telling teachers that they need to be able to use technology in the classroom. Students do not get everything they need in the classroom if the teacher is not using all of the resources available. Technology is the newest thing in the classroom and it has brought the teaching standard up. A teacher today that can't use technology is like a teacher 30 years ago that can't read or write.
I agree that teachers should use technology in the classroom. A teacher that isn't using technology is going to be left behind and the students do not learn in the best way. Technology is the number one thing in education today and it should be used by everyone.