ALEX and access

In my recent search of the alabama learning exchange or ALEX, I discovered it is a website to help teachers help their students succeed. It provides the teachers sample lesson plans and lessons plans from other teachers in the state. Teachers also can create a personal workspace to create their own lesson plans through the site. All teachers could use this site to plan for their classes. Whether it be drivers education, mathematics, or english. It has a very wide variety of courses that can be accessed. There are also links to access several Alabama Department of Education Program Websites. There is a distance learning option also. This takes you to the Alabama connecting classrooms educators and students statewide, or ACCESS.
The site listed particular characteristics that successful ACCESS students usually possess: * are self-motivated and self-disciplined* stay on task without direct supervision* like to figure things out without direct assistance* prioritize workload effectively* can successfully work alone* are good at assessing their own progress* like working with computers and software programs* enjoy the challenge of working with new technology * are good at following instructions * use email and can create messages with attached files * can download and install programs from the Internet * can search the Web * can copy and paste from one program to another * rarely procrastinate * enjoy communicating in writing and reading the writing of others * work with others to complete projects * seek assistance when problems arise * take an active role in the learning processStudents take complete assignments, projects, collaborative work, and even tests online. Grades are reported to the students "home school" which is their high school and received with other subject grades on a report card.

Kaia's Blog

This type of communication is breath taking. Using voice thread because Kaia can not read was a creative idea. It did not take her father long to connect to her classroom. This shows me how fast technology is becoming. At first her blog started out as a way to share pictures with family members but now it has kind of become a way to record her life events. Since kaia's dad is a teacher, he sees how technology has played a bg role in his childs life. Kaia lives in the desert and loves taking pictures. She also loves her daddy. Kaia created a photo essay that was very creative on her part.

Kaia's dad is a teacher and he states, "that kaia is still too young to grasp the connections she is making." I understand what he is saying but in the years down the road, kaia will be a master at communicating with people outside her hometown. Her father states that ," if we want our students to feel comfortable and be cautious online, we must be able to do the same with our own children." I feel like teaching technology begins at school, but should not stop once you get home. Technology is on going, and in the future it will be useful to everyone, especially teachers.

Parents need to grasp the fact that in their childrens future technology will play a major role in their learning. They should not just sit back and let their children do it on their own. Helping children explore technology will give them a head start in to learning.

Comments for kids Week 5

Today I read the story about a dancing holiday. I wish we could have a day to just dance. It would be very funny and entertaining. But I know that holiday is far fetched in the U.S.

More on New Media Literacies

I found that the New Media Literacies project is a research initiative based within MIT's comparitive media studies program, which explores how we as teachers might best equip young people with the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world.
The goal of this program is not to replicate existing paradigms. We consult regularly with leaders in industry, the arts, public policy, journalism, education, and the nonprofit sector, trying to understand contemporary developments, identify job and internship opportunities, and pinpoint skills and knowledge which will help prepare our students for new opportunities.
Students can better deal with our culture by possessing these skills. judgment, negotiation, appropriation, play, trans media navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, and multitasking. These are skills that involve creative expression.

New Media Litericies

I believe that they are all great skills to possess. Yes they are skills that all artists, citizens, and workers need to possess. For example employers want their workers to be able to multitask, and what good is a person who can not multitask. I possess 8 of these skills. Judgment, negotiation, play, appropriation, simulation, performance, visualization, and multitasking. I can acquire the other skills when I get more in depth with technology.

The Networked Students Mrs. Drexler

This video shows how and why students should be technologically literate. First students should build their PLN. Once they create a blog, they can start to comment on blogs from around the world. Although blogs reflect opinions rather than facts, a student should not be drawn away from it, but rather want to add their opinion.
You never know who can benefit from your blog. I have done things this semester in class that I have never done before. Like using the websites delicious and wikispaces. I want to be able to give my students a head start in the technological world. If they are not introduced to it early in life, it will be harder to teach it to them later in life.
I feel like I am very prepared to be a teacher of networked students. I can take everything I learned from this class and teach it to my students. It will be beneficial to everyone in the future. I really want to know how things will work out with Mrs Drexlers middle school class. I'm sure things will turn out great.

Richard Miller

As Richard Miller stated, I also was brought up in a house full of books. I use to love to pull out books and read, until I first used a computer. After that first time, I was hooked to a point where I thought everything should be done on the computer. Today I have kind of strayed away from that theory, because I found out that computers crash.
The internet is a place where things live forever. You can go online to see how our leaders vote. Computer scientists can put together a visual representation of whale hunts by Inuit Alaskans. Many people are shocked and pleased by the success of academic lectures according to Richard. Information on the internet should be shared with everyone.
I believe I would be ready to write with multimedia. I do believe if things were more technologically centered in the schools, students will be more ready for the future, if they plan on attending college. My students will be able to use technology better by the time they leave my class. I am a teacher who would use technology to my advantage in the classroom.

Ipods for instruction

An ipod is a device that can function These devices have several unique features for intriguing educational opportunities. Portability - can take to different sites and move around within a location, social interactivity - can exchange data and collaborate with other people, context sensitivity - can gather data unique to the current location, environment, and time, connectivity - can connect hand helds to personal computers to create a true shared environment, and individuality - can provide unique scaffolding that is customized to the individual's path of investigation. IPods are not replacements for learning, but are rather tools to aid in the learning process. Many teachers think this will become a distraction in the classroom, but in reality it will incease students awareness of technology and how to use it in the future. This is one site I found useful for this assignment. Here is the link http://www.knowledgejump.com/technology/ipod/ipod.html

Dr. Alice Christie

The Internet is an important communication tool for teachers and administrators. Educators can take advantage of this tool by learning to create purposeful and well-designed Web sites targeted at their students, the parents of their students, other teachers, and community members. This will be very useful to me when I start teaching because I can post pictures of activities that my students did on the web.
This way their parents can go online and actually see what their children did and actually learned. Web design can also be beneficial to parents as well, they can comment on the activities that their children participate in and see what goes on day by day in the classroom. This would also be a great way to keep in touch with the new technological generation. Students can leave out of my classroom and take information with them that will be beneficial to them for the rest of their lives.

Comments 4Kids

Today I commented on a young girls love for star wars for my comments for kids. Sadly, I had to let her know that I was not a star wars fan, but i would talk to my sister about it because she is.