Project 16

Using the website Tumblr, we, The Grey Wardens (Emily Russell, Jay Shiver, and Rodney Patrick) have built a PLN that any teacher or student can turn to for ideas and tools they can use in the classroom, and we have done it in a way that attempts the kind of writing with multimedia project that Richard Miller talked about in This is How We Dream.


The Grey Wardens Final Project

To see the posts of individual members of the group, each post is marked with the name of the person who submitted it, and tagged with their name as well. There are links in the sidebar, as well, that will allow you to easily navigate through our individual posts.

Project #13

For Project 15 and 16 our group, The Grey Wardens, used Google Docs, Gmail, Tumblr, and Skype to discuss the way we should handle our projects. Personally, I preferred Gmail and Tumblr. This is mostly because I find Google Docs a little annoying to navigate, and also because I hate Skype. I just to not like videotaping myself. It makes me self conscious and uncomfortable. If I'm unable to meet someone in person I much prefer to use more traditional methods of contact. To be honest I find all these forms to be useful only in the absence of the ability to make contact with each other in person. I know that was the point of this exercise, so once again I preferred Email.

Blog Post 14 End of Year Reflections

Sorry about my voice the mic in my webcam seems to make all sounds go up about three octaves.

Project 15 part 2

Final PLN

I have many useful links on my PLN. I also use it to gather a lot of information that I've selected as being helpful for me. I use this more than anything else I have set up for this class.

Blog Post 13

I couldn't do it. It was extremely easy for me to avoid things like Facebook, but I have other online classes so I just couldn't avoid using my computer. I don't really watch TV, or use social media sites. I do often go to movies and I enjoy video games. If not for the online classes I am enrolled in I'm fairly certain that I could have accomplished this media fast.

There was a suggestion on the instructions for this blog post to should read a book. I found this hilarious because my favorite hobby is reading. Right now I'm reading the Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. I'm not sure if this part was needed in this post, but I wanted to add it.

This would have been hideously difficult for many of the people in my family though. I have a nephew that the only thing he does all day is play Call of Duty. He does this for about twelve, or more, hours a day. My dad watches TV for much of the day. The reason this isn't quite as difficult for me to do, outside of school activities, is that I much prefer going places than to staying home and playing with my computer.

C4T 4

My teacher this go around was Kelly Hines. Her post was about comparing different people's reactions for technology in the class rooms to pieces of a pencil. It was a very good diagram. I actually thought that it was funny and I liked it much more than many arguments I have heard over technology in the classroom.

The second post of hers that I commented on was about Rondee. Rondee is a program used to set up group activities. I told her that this seems to be a very useful tool for getting together groups of people with busy schedules. I intend to try Rondee.

Progress Report on Final Project

Our group, The Grey Wardens, I wonder if anyone understands the reference, are just getting started on our project. We've been communicating mostly through email, Twitter, and Skype text chat, since not everyone in the group has a webcam to use. We've also used Delicious, the a bookmarking website, to share information with each other that we find on the internet about our topic.


We used Goggles, an app that you drag to your bookmarks bar. When you click it, you can draw on your current page, and anyone else who has the Goggles app will be able to click it and see the writing other people have left for them. So we've used Goggles to point out interesting stuff on the websites we share with each other.

Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts - Special Post #12A

1. Do schools in the United States systematically destroy (or inhibit) the development of curiosity and/or creativity in students? If yes, why does that happen? If no, how do you counter the argument of Sir Ken Robinson that schools do undermine the development of creativity in students?
No they don't. Many schools don't encourage creativity, but they don't stop curiosity. He argues that school prevents curiosity, but I've had several teachers that were able to bring out my, nearly nonexistent, creativity. It isn't the school system. Its each individual teacher.

2. Can a curriculum be developed that increases the curiosity of students? If so, what would be the key components of such a curriculum?
The easiest way to find a way to increase how much a student enjoys a class and wants to participate is to simply ask them what they find interesting and see if you can incorporate that into the lessons. Its sad how little most of the teachers I've had cared about trying to make a subject interesting. It would be so much easier to teach a student if you just try to capture his students attention.

3. Can a curriculum be developed that increases the creativity of students? If so, what would be the key components of such a curriculum?
Yes it could all a teacher would have to do was not let a class fall into a rut. That is one of the worst things about public schools, they do the same thing day in and day out. The monotony that this causes saps all the creativity in most students.

4. Can a teacher's actions increase the curiosity of students? If so, what would be those actions?
If a teacher assigns interesting work, or gives creative lectures it would be very easy to make a student curious about most any subject. The only reason that this doesn't often happen is that it would require much more work that most teachers can't be bothered with.

5. Can a teacher's actions increase the creativity of students? If so, what would be those actions?
If a teacher were to give students more leeway in many of the assignments they give it would be more likely to increase the creativity in the students doing the work. This is really the most simple and effective way to increase the creativity in students.
6. What would help you become more creative? What role would teachers and/or schools have in that process?
The easiest way that teachers could make me more creative in their classes is to stop assigning a lot of busy work. Just about every teacher I've ever had has loved assigning work that I was never able to determine its purpose. This pointless work usually takes up so much of my time that I don't have time to do anything but the bare minimum on my work.

7. What would help you become more curious? What role would teachers and/or schools have in that process?
Really I can't become more curious. I'm always wanting to learn new things. Teachers should make non curious students curious, but just as importantly they shouldn't annoy and bore curious students until they purposefully stop trying to learn about a subject.

Blog Post 12

For this assignment I want the students to watch This Video.


I then want them to write what they thought about this video in a few paragraphs following Writing A Quality Blog Post

This video could be a great video for someone who is just beginning to study Napoleon. It is missing some very important pieces of Napoleonic history such as The Hundred Days and his trip to Elba. The art in this video was very amusing and very much like a cartoon. It would be very easy for someone who wants to just learn the basics of Napoleons life to get it from this video.

The only problem I had with it was that I know an enormous amount of Napoleonic history so whenever I watched it all I could do was think of the things that was left out of it. The fact that they could miss something as important as The Hundred Days where Napoleon returned to retake his crown until his army was defeated again astounded me. Though it was missing some key elements this was a very good video.

Blog Post 11

For this blog post we had to watch two videos by Ms. Cassidy. The first one was Little Kids...Big Potential and the second was a Skype interview with Ms. Cassidy. To be perfectly truthful I'm completely amazed that there are first grade students doing the same things that we're doing in our college EDM class. She seems to be implementing these things in ways that frankly astonish me. The way she is using technology in her class is impressive to the point that I honestly like the way she is handling her class. I've never been someone who really liked the idea of a technology based classroom, but I think this will be a very impressive class, and it already is one. I'm really looking forward to trying some of the things she talked about.

Blog Post 10

The video Do You Teach or Do You Educate is interesting. I honestly didn't think that just by adding something like music to a presentation could make so many more people pay attention. For a teacher to truly be an educator he has to actually care about the students he is teaching. A teacher has to spend an enormos amont of timne trying to make a studnet retain the information he or she will be taught. So many teachers refuse to go the extra mile to get students interested in their class. We should do everything in their power to help the students they are supposed to teach.

It is not necessarily a teachers job to teach a student what their morals should be or how they should act in society. The only problem is that it seems that lately more and more parents are leaving this for the teachers to do. It seems to me taht kids are spending almost no time with their parents anymore. I find thhis odd considering that when I was little I spent all of my time with my father, I still spend quite alot of time with my dad. For many children teachers are becoming a mojor influence on their students, even more than they had been in the past.

I then had to read Mr. Johnson’s post Don’t Let Them Take the Pencils Home. It seems to be a satirical post about students taking pencils home and its effect on test scores. He makes many biting comments about parents and the perceptions of teachers in social media.
I loved how, to me, it seemed that Mr. Johnson thinks that too many teachers only teach what they think will be on the goverment sponsered test given every semester. he said he once got in trouble for useing a game to teach the material instead of just using traditional methods to prepare for the upcoming test. This is the most horrible problem with the modern education system. If you only teach for the test then the studnets don't learn anything. They find the material and lessons so horrilby monotonus that they forget the information almost immediantly after the lesson is over. We need to change this if we ever want to have an effective educational System again.

Project 13 Smartboard

Blog Post 9

What I've Learned This Year

The learning experience will never end no matter who you are, even if your a teacher. This is one of the ideas presented by Joe McClung. At the end of the 2009 school year, Joe McClung a 6th grade teacher decided to write down some of the things he learned from his the first year he was a teacher. How to read the emotions of a crowd, be flexible, get his message across, be non-judgmental, embrace technology, acknowledged your students ideas, and never ignore a chance to learn. These are valuable lessons, and I'm glad I read the lesson plan beforehand without having to learn these things alone with no one to help me understand it. I found these to be the most valuable for me.

1. Don't let the lessons be all about your ideas You can't focus on how your superiors are judging you, you need to focus on whether the students are understanding the content. I have never spent too much time on what others think of me. You should do, even if it makes you look stupid, whatever you think will most help your students. Your job is to teach not to look cool.

2. I am in no way, shape, or form shy. I have never been afraid of talking to people I don't know. According to Mr. McClung, the best way to tolerate your job and build a good relationship with your colleagues and students is talking to them. Communication is both talking and listening. Listening to your students and taking an interest in their lives can gain you their respect.


3. Don't expect more from your students than is reasonably possible, because it's cruel and will hurt them if they feel they disappoint you no matter what they do. You're the teacher, you're supposed to be helping them learn. I get pretty annoyed when people don't understand something the first time I explain. But this is something that I am working quite hard on to change.

Someone should always try to remember that they are not the center of the universe. The people around you are as important as you are. You should always do your best to understand what other people think.

What I Learned This Year 2010

Three years later Joe McClung is still able to make a blog post about his experiences as a teacher time as an 8th grade teacher. The lessons he learned this year are: know who your boss is, don't expect others to care about what you care about, don't be afraid to be an outsider, don't be controlling, and don't get complacent. So lets get started.


1. It's okay to be yourself, especially if your thinking of changing yourself to get slight approval from people who honestly don't matter to you. I have always been okay with being an outsider mostly because people disliked the fact that I don't pander to them. If I end up being an outsider among my fellow teachers for focusing on students? I really wouldn't care. But this is definitely an important thing for most people to learn.

2. This is lesson Mr. McClung learned from a teacher who he regularly went to for advice. If you're teaching something, don't forcibly show them how to do something, your job is to guide them. No matter how much they struggle, you should never do it for them. If you do it for them, they will never learn to do it themselves. It is a very powerful urge to overcome. But if you can overcome it you'll be a better teacher for it.

3. Don't let yourself get too bogged down in a daily routine. make changes daily.Challenge yourself with new tasks that you would never have thought of yourself. I understand the urge to have a routine. To be perfectly honest I love routines. They're easy. If you're in a routine you don't have to think you just do what you've always done. If you overcome this life will be more exciting.

C4K Summary

The first student I commented on was Awais. He wrote a short little story about toys, a white ball, and a spider.
I complimented his story and then said he had a good sense of grammar and a good vocabulary.

My second student was a girl named Molli from Vermont. Her post was about how much she liked where she lived. I asked her if there was any specific things she liked to do where she lived.

The second time I posted on Molli's wall I discussed about how we both had big family's and our fondness for German Shepards.

The third time that I posted on Molli's wall she had an in depth paragraph about the different reasons smoking is bad for your health. I told her that I agreed with her that smoking is something one should avoid.

My final C4K was on Vinolia's blog. She is an elementary student from New Zealand. She had a video about herself on her blog post. I discussed a few of the things she mentioned in her video. She seemed like a very friendly little girl.

C4T 3

My teacher this time was Angela Rand. She discussed how she enjoyed having online conversations with people, and how it was difficult to judge their intentions. I told her that I wasn't fond of conversations over the internet for that very reason.

The next post she discussed was about PLNs. I told her we were also useing PLN's, and that I thought they were potentially very helpful.

Blog Post 8

This is how we dream.
Dr. Richard Miller talks about how to use multimedia. I feel that technology is shaping the way we write. This is another video geared at having new teachers use technology in lieu of classic teaching methods. I think that these methods could be useful IN COMBINATION with traditional methods.
I think these methods do have an upside. It may be useful in making students pay attention in class. They will adapt to this more quickly than the teachers. Technology is very commonplace now.
Honestly Dr. Miller's video hasn't really changed my mind about technology in the classroom. I do thing that technology should be used in hte classroom. I just don't support it as whole heartily as most people in this class seem to. If I plan to teach I will need to be technologically literate.

Carly Pugh Blog Post 12
Mrs. Pugh seems to be a very prolific writer. Her writing seems to verge on satire at times. Her post seems to have been made to be seen alongside Ms. Miller's video. She was discussing the new technology that can be used in writing. Students would discuss how they wanted to teach with a variety of media.

The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies
The first one starts with Chipper having a conversation with Dr. Strange about not doing her work on time. This video is mostly used to discuss the importance of doing your work in a timely manner.
EDM 310 for Dummies is used to show the ways in which EDM 310 functions.This was an amusing video, and I also would like doing things like making videos in classes.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
In the video Learn to Change, Change to Learn,the changing nature of education is discussed. This is the latest video in EDM310 that I have watched discussing how education is changing. Change is good, but in many instances it is hard and we should be prepared for that.
A classroom should not be just a room with four walls, as the video states, it should be the world. There are so many opportunities in the cities around the world to learn in a non traditional sense.

For the Scavenger Hunt I found a website called Edmodo. It's like Facebook. I set up an account as a student and I can make it tell me when anyone attached to my account updates. This website helps me organize everything I do. I can talk with other students for help with homework. This website helps me by giving me practice quizzes. This is a great organizational tool.


The comic creator I found was Memebase.

The tool that I had never heard of was Free Stock Photos. This site has an enourmo. You have to set up an account, but it is free. It has a lot of different types of pictures that you can use on your blog or website.

Book Trailer Project

Project 11 Short Movie

Blog Post 7

The Networked Student

Wendy and Alex Drexler use little paper figures to highlight a Personal Learning Network. It discusses an American Psychology who doesn't have a textbook and does not attend lectures. She decides to use a PLN to gather all the resources she would get with the textbook and lecture. They then discuss the various reasons a teacher might be needed.

I think a PLN is a decent idea in this context. I still think you should attend classes,but this would be a great way to gain information you might have missed because of sickness or prior engagements. I really only think this should be used as a supplemental tool for college. I don't think is should completely replace classes.

I could never imagine more than a handful of high school students actually attempting this. They'll do the bare minimum to get a passing grade, if they do that much. Some of the high achieving students would gain a lot from these networks, but the majority would get their grade and then promptly forget they ever existed.


A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

This 7th grader shows us the Symbaloo PLE she had set up for her science class. She had links to her class's blog, her own blog, learning games, sites about animals which she used in her research, a note taking program, and the email addresses of scientists who she consulted with about her bloag on the Box Jellyfish which she called a "Glog." I liked Evernote, a program which allows you to save anything from any website you visit and link it back to the PLE so you can give credit to the source in a simple manner.