Final Video Reflection

Book Trailer

Final PLN Report

I have used my PLN much more the second half of this semester.  I have found that it is a very convenient tool that makes searching much easier as well as navigating the websites I use most often.  I have added many of the teachers that I have done blogposts on.  I added Jose Piscado's blog because I felt it had many very useful tools that I can use again when I need to.  I also added both South Alabama's homepage and USA online.  It is so easy to have all of these websites in one place.  At first I was not sure if this would really by helpful but it is an amazing source to organize the internet and store many resources in one place.

Blog Post #13

Brave New World was written by Aldous Huxley and is centralized around the idea of a Utopian society.  This society is called the World State and everyone from birth is caste into their group in society.  The books seems to deal with themes well beyond its time.  Many people argue whether or not Huxley was simply writing a fiction or a warning for future generations.  We see these issues develop early in the novel.  The embryos of the babies are destined for different classes, the lowest level being Epsilon.  These embryos are deprived of oxygen and soaked in chemicals which could be linked to fetal alcohol syndrome.  However that diagnosis was not known at the time.  The kids are conditioned to like and dislike certain things such as literature.  This prevents certain castes from gaining too much knowledge.  Other modern messages that seem to prevail are things like drug use and birth control.  Throughout the novel the people use a drug called soma to control their emotions.  The peoples lives are controlled by this drug.  And the constant birth control strips all love from the book.  This presents one of the books main conflicts.  John so deeply wants to love a woman but she can only think about sex.  All desire, commitment and individuality is stripped from the characters except John (an outsider) because their lives are so heavily controlled but the World State.  This I believe is how the book fits directly into our class.  The books has a reoccurring theme about the dangers of new technologies if they are not used properly. In the book we see birth control and drugs being abused, which I believe is happening in America today.  We see the government trying to regulate (to an extreme) the citizens lives.  Technology has a lot to offer.  It can cure disease, educate more people and open new doors we never knew existed.  But I believe Huxley is warning us all in his novel about the dangers new technologies present.  Are these dangers already among us?  Are we replacing real interaction with computer screens and cell phones?  It is important that no matter how heavily we rely on technology in our classrooms or in life, we still always stress individuality.

Blog Post #14

Jose Picardo's blog puts many of the tools we have learned to use in this class into one place.  He has links to all of the resources we used including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube along with many other links.  He also has many articles regarding the use of technology in classrooms.  An article on his homepage was about using the new iPad in the classroom.  On his resource page, he has links to hundreds of useful tools, many of which we should be familiar with.  I enjoyed looking through the list because it had many of the things we learned about like Audacity and Blogger but also many other new and useful websites.

His video about his Top Ten Tips for using technology in the classroom was also very interesting.  He stressed using technology in order to reach out to your students.  Some of his suggestions included using iTunes or Skype because most teens are already using these mediums.  Skype can also help connect students.  He also said create your own exercise to fit your students needs.  It makes sense because no one will know your students needs better.  Try to create a system that will help them be successful.  I thought his tips were very important and all regarded engaging students in the classroom.

Progress Report on Final

I really enjoyed working on the Final Project.  It was a ton of work but it allowed us to put all of the skill we learned in this class in one place.  We tried to use as many of the skills from this class in our presentation.  We used iMovie, a Skype interview, the SmartBoard and most of the social networking sites that we used in this class.  It was a great way to show off what we have learned and gave us a chance to use our own creativity instead of having concrete guidelines and rules.

C4T #4

For the final C4T I commented on Aaron Eyler's blog title Synthesizing Education.  The first post I commented on referred to his use of Twitter.  I told him about EDM 310 and how we are required to use Twitter.  I also said that at first I was skeptical about the use of Twitter but have learned that it is a great was to network with other teachers and peers.  His post was about monitoring what people say to you and about you.  He stated that those who are active with their account will get the most out of it.

The second post I commented on was Aaron Eyler's view on different social resources.  He favored Twitter over all the things he used.  He felt it was the most professional and helpful.  He did not seem to like either Facebook or texting.  I agreed with him that Facebook and texting my not be as professional as Twitter can be.  But I also think that used properly, Facebook can be a great networking tool.  We have learned that this year in this class that all of these sites can be used to network and used for professional and educational reasons.  Texting does not belong in the classroom maybe but it is a fast and easy way to communicate and will be something every one of our students uses.

Final Project