Blog Post 2

Professor Dancealot

     I think the central message of the video was to show us how not to teach a class. The author of the video asks us what happens when a teacher's goals, assessments, and course activities do not match up. In the video Professor Dancealot shows talks the entire time throughout his lectures and uses diagrams and demonstrations to illustrate his point. The author's point soon becomes clear as the video progresses to lecture after lecture. Professor Dancealot's demonstrations are lost due to the fact that he stays behind his desk the entire time, blocking the students' view. Another crucial part of Professor Dancealot's lectures is that he refuses to involve or interest his students. By the end of the semester half of the original class has dropped and the remaining students have no practical knowledge of anything that has been taught the entire semester, further dooming them when their final turns out requiring them to give a demonstration of all that they have learned. While Professor's Dancealot's goal of teaching a dance class may have been met, his assessment's and course activities are rendered completely moot by the end of class. I would have to agree with the author in that the video is a good representation of what not to do in a classroom. Anyone can simply teach a class but to actually engage a class and make sure the students are learning are the hallmarks of a good teacher.

Teaching in the 21st Century

     Kevin Roberts thinks that to be a teacher is to be to one who shows students the skills they will need to use the information that they themselves can readily access. In his video "Teaching in the 21st Century", Robert's says that students can already access any information they want or need through resources such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube and that teachers should not just re-spout this information to their students. They should engage their students by teaching them the skills they need to know to interpret the data before them. I would agree with the way that Kevin Robert's sees teaching changing. Many students nowadays are bored in classes and don't even show up when all professors do is read from the book. In his video Roberts asks several questions of his students such as: "What is the current relationship between India and Pakistan?" or "You have $1000 to donate toward hunger relief. Which organization in which country would you give it to?". Accessing information on two countries or looking up hunger relief organizations is something that can be done by any student with basic internet browsing skills. However, early in the video Roberts mentions something similar and asks if students can do the following six things: validate, synthesize, leverage, communicate, collaborate, or problem solve using information. Would a student know which food relief organization is the most responsible with their money? How would they know the difference between an article that shows an objective view of the relationship between India and Pakistan and which ones are biased? These are the types of things that Roberts, and myself, believe should be taught to students. I for one will most certainly adapt my teaching techniques to teach my students the skills they will need to use the information they are given.

The Networked Student

     As I watched the video "Networked Student" by Wendy Drexler I got more and more excited. Finally, here was a video that was talking about all the things my professors had been introducing to us. Over the past few years, professors have been pushing more and more for students to establish their "personal learning network". Yet, not a one explained exactly what that was other than the textbook "...resources and people you will use to help you in your field in the future." Well, that's not very helpful. Not a single one answered the big question I always came away with: How? So, when "Networked Student" explained the role of our psychology student's teacher, I was glad. I thought to myself, this is what a teacher should be doing when they tell a student that they should be learning outside of the classroom. Teaching the in's and out's and the how's, that should be a teacher's job. Yet, I'm also a bit sad because I have yet to have a teacher like the one described in the video. I can only hope that one day I'll get more and more teachers like that while I'm in school and hope to be like that teacher one day.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

     In Vicki Davis's video "Harness Your Student's Digital Smarts", I found the main point to be very similar to Kevin Robert's presentation "Teaching in the 21st Century". The point of Davis's video is to say that students need to empower themselves while learning and that teachers should be teaching students and students should be teaching teachers. I agree with this sentiment. I have seen teachers use their experience as a way to elevate themselves and to make it seem like they are all knowing. Yet in the video, Davis says something that I find extremely important. She says "So many teacher think that I need to know everything before I teach and that is completely the wrong thing to teach". Teaching should go both ways or else how can teaching evolve and keep up with changing times? Teachers can guide students while learning from them and students can still learn while showing the teacher something new.

Whose Ahead in the Learning Race?

     In the video "Whose Ahead in the Learning Race?" by Dr. Strange, we saw his experiences with an elementary school classroom and how they where compared to those learning in undergraduate and graduate programs in his college classrooms in terms of using technology. At the end of the video Dr. Strange asks a question. Whose ahead in the learning race, elementary schools, undergraduate students, or graduate students? Given the bare bones facts in the video, it would seem that elementary students are ahead in the learning race and as an undergraduate student myself, I would agree with that statement. Elementary students hold the advantage here because they have easy access to technology which has been provided for them while undergraduate students and graduates are often told "you're on your own." The most important advantage that elementary students hold is that this is all new to them and their minds are not filled with years upon years of other ways of learning. This is the only way they've learned and will know how to learn. For us undergraduates and graduates, we have to unlearn many old ways that no longer are meaningful, in addition to having to learn completely new systems. Having to deal with both is easily confusing and therein the advantage lies with elementary students in not having to balance two ways of learning.

Flipping the Classroom

     The concept of flipping a classroom is completely new to me. I am not sure what to think of it. On one hand I see how if this replaces homework, it can be useful. However, if this was to be in addition to normal assignments and homework then I strongly disagree. Getting the the students to want to learn outside of the classroom is great but putting so much on them to where they are required to spend almost all of their free time learning should not be the goal. I think this approach could be very useful to me as a teacher. Personally, I hate it when teachers just read straight from the books and this solves that problem pretty cleanly. Another thing I detest is having questions to ask and yet no to time to ask except outside of the classroom cause the entire class time has been devoted to lecture. Flipping the classroom seems a good way to balance out all of these problems.

Blog Post 1

What About EDM310?
1. One thing I heard about EDM310 was that it was one of the hardest courses in the Education Department. I hadn't heard any specifics about why it was hard but most opinions agreed that it was the one class they did not like.
2. I am afraid about EDM310 in that I will fail it due to something simple such as not studying enough.
3. I would say I could not compare EDM310 to any of my other classes yet because I've only been to one class and do not yet have enough experience to compare it to other classes. I would say that unlike my other classes, EDM310 is one of the most detailed, structured, and time-intensive courses I have taken.
4. I think the most difficult thing for me about EDM310 would be being able to commit so much time to one class in terms of work and studying.
5. I think the best way for me to address this difficult task for me would be to nip it in the bud and start getting into good study habits early this semester.
6. I don't have any other questions about EDM310 at the moment.

Practice Blog Post

Outline
-Homes
-Interests
-Why USA
-Family information
-Why education
-Educator work details
-Passion
-Interesting facts

My name is Patrick Morrison. I'm twenty-three years old and I have lived in Alabama and Louisiana. I lived here in Alabama for ten years, then moved to Louisiana where I lived for four and a half years before finally moving back here where we have stayed. I am going for majors in English and Elementary Education. This will be my 6th year here at South Alabama. I started attending USA because it was close to home and affordable.
I have three siblings. I am the eldest and I have a twin brother. I have two younger sisters along with many cousins. Our extended family is pretty big. Every family reunion I see people I haven't seen or heard of before and apparently, we're related.
I want to be a teacher because I want to make a difference and feel like this is where I can help the most.
An educator's work in nowadays involves working with students, parents, other people, and technology to provide the best possible way to teach students the things they will need to know for later in life.

I love playing video games and like reading more than even video games. I would like to learn how to swim since I do not know how. Source: Google Images.
I'm bad at names but remember faces very well so if I see you in class or elsewhere and forget your name just bear with me.