Dear Kaia/ Intrepid Teacher

Dear Kaia (and Skyelar)

Intrepid Teacher

Jabiz Raisdana is a year 7, 8, 9 English, History, and Geography teacher at the Compass International School in Doha, Qatar. As a teacher by profession, he maintains an educational blog called Intrepid Teacher. On a personal level he maintains a blog for his oldest daughter Kaia, and his recently born second daughter Skyelar. Interestingly enough, it seems as though his personal family blog has brought him attention here in the U.S. Recently, Mr. Chamberlain's class in Missouri, came across Kaia's blog. They were able to skype with Jabiz in their classroom, and created a video response with a voice thread for Kaia and her Dad.


Mr. C's Class Blog

Mr.C's class blog is maintained by Mr. Chamberlain at Noel Elementary School. Mr. C has been working with other schools in a project called Comments4Kids. There are sections on his blog page for his students to follow links to other class blogs and make comments. Mr. C is working with his students to further technology in the classroom.

Mr. Raisdana's professional blog the Intrepid Teacher follows the work of Mr. Raidana's students and their studies in Qatar. He recently posted about the difficulties that he has encountered in the system there. He is determined to teach his students about blogging and the use of the web in instruction. Recently his school shut down for several weeks because of swine flu. Mr. Raisdana posted about how he was so glad that his class was able to make progress even though he wasn't having face to face meetings with them. He also talked about teachers who were not accustomed to this type of teaching being at a loss to proceed with their classes. I had not previously thought about the aspect of emergency situations and classroom instruction. The ability to carry on by way of a class blog, or website would allow for instruction when classes are not able to meet. This led me to a completely different thought. Isn't this somewhat like homeschooling? Are homeschoolers at an advantage in this area over those that go to a conventional classroom? Many homeschooled children participate in online classrooms. They can receive their instruction from teachers that are thousands of miles away. They rarely have face to face meetings with teachers other than their own parents.

Mr. Raisdana's was recently reading The Last Child In The Woods. This led him to take his little girl outside and let her photograph her surroundings. He then helped her to put her photos together and record some narration with them. When Mr. C's class found her blog and pictures they responded to her. Mr. Raisdana had to determine if he wanted his daughter's blog to be used in this way. Of course there are always concerns over someone using the materials inappropriately. In the end he determined that he wanted more good to come from the use of her blog and photos for the good of his students. He said that we can't expect our parents to be comfortable unless we ourselves are willing to put our own selves in that situation.

As we continue to become more and more dependent on technology in the classroom, more opportunities will present ourselves for global learning efforts. What a wonderful connection that these two schools and families have made.

The New Media Literacies

New Media Literacies Video

The New Media Literacy project video discusses skills that are needed to function in today's society. The skills mentioned in the video were judgement, negotiation, appropriation, play, transmedia navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, and multitasking. The video elaborated on judgement, negotiation, appropriation, and play, but did not mention the other skills in detail.

As our society moves toward technological advancement, people must move along with it. This is nothing new, it's the way we have always been. We move and progress forward in every aspect of our life, or we are left behind. As long as our moral compass is not affected, I have no problem with progress in technology. Just because we possess the ability to do something, doesn't make it the right thing to do.

I feel I have the ability to make judgements, negotiate, appropriate, and play. I believe collective intelligence is what we experience when we collaborate on a project together. If I don't possess the knowledge I need to do something, I can collaborate with someone who does. Multitasking is required in most aspects of life with family, jobs, and education. As with any skill that we don't possess, if we desire it, we must use education to aquire those skills.

In my search of the New Media Literacy project I found a few helpful websitesthat further explained the concept of new media literacy.

Project New Media Literacy

Publius Project

University of Oregon Media Project

Each of these sites offer further explanation of media literacy. We must be careful to use a number of resources when searching the web. Blogs in particular can be biased and not factual. Project New Media identified three core challenges in it's research. The participation gap, the transparency problem, and the ethics challenge. These three challenges are discussed in detail in their white paper project. The white paper project can be found here:

White Paper

We must continue to research and educate ourselves on the growing resources available to us. We don't want to be left behind, or be responsible for letting others be left behind.

Networked Student

The Networked Student Video

I watched Wendy Drexler's Networked Student Video a couple of times. I also left a comment on her blog for the video. I'm very anxious to see how her middle school students achieve with this learning environment. As the mother of middle school child, I would love for my child to have a teacher such as Ms. Drexler. As a former teacher of middle school children, I can see how this type of learning environment would really appeal to this particular age set. Middle school children are eager for independence, and I think this type of learning offers them independent practice.

Why does the networked student even need a teacher? I've found myself asking this very question with several of the video's that we have been required to watch. Are we going to get to a point in society when we start cutting teachers out of the classroom and placing our students in front of computer monitors instead? How much money could be saved by eliminating individual teachers and just allowing one teacher to teach multiple classes through video? Could this be the answer for all our hurting education systems in the area?

I think Ms. Drexler addresses this question in her video. Teachers are still needed for the students, just in a different capacity than what we have been accustomed to. The teacher will be the person to teach how to build the learning network, how to communicate with others and ask respectfully for the help of others. Teachers must help students determine good resources from propaganda, and help them organize their information. Hopefully the students will retain their learning network after their course has ended.

I'm feeling more prepared each day to meet the needs of the networked student. I think most teachers of networking don't proclaim to know it all, just that they are willing to spend the time along with their students to find out the answers. They are okay with admitting that they haven't used a particular resource, but they're willing to realize that learning is a two way street along with their students. With ever changing technology, it is impossible to stay up to date on every possible resource.

Richard Miller: This is How We Dream.

Old Style Learning

This is How We Dream Videos

It wasn't too long ago that an assignment to write a research paper meant hours spent at your local library in research. You would try to find as many resources as possible and sight those sources on note cards. Many times those sources might be from encyclopedias or news articles. If you really couldn't find the materials you needed you may have to resort to searching through old microfiche. Sometimes your sources wouldn't be from anything recent, they might be years old. Composing your paper usually involved handwriting or typing your information on paper, footnoting all the resources you used.

Fast forward some years later and now that process has changed so much. Dr. Richard Miller's This is How We Dream lecture brings many of these points to light. Our world is totally different now. We can compose documents by pressing a few buttons. We may never have to leave our home to get the information we need. The web offers us countless resources at our fingertips. The web allows you to use up to the minute information when looking for resources. No more waiting for the newest information to be released in a yearly encyclopedia.

Richard Miller also discussed the importance of educators who are willing to share their ideas. Putting together a presentation involves not just words, but a visual presentation. We can produce our information and distribute it globally. Most of the limits we have, are limits we place upon ourselves. Teachers must be inspired to be new media composers. Sharing with each other and collaborating on projects.

I think we as teachers are preparing ourselves each week to be new media composers as we type blog posts. We are searching up to date information through sources on the web. We read each others thoughts and ideas through these blog posts. We have collaborated on surveys and class projects. We in turn can take these thoughts and ideas into classrooms and use them with our students. Students need to continue to be challenged in the classroom with new ideas and concepts. If we can help them with new technology to complete their requirements, they can continue to progress with technology.

New Media Learning

iPods In The Classroom

iPods for Learning

iPods have become much more than just a sound machine for listening to music. Back in 2005 iPods surpassed the 15 million sold mark. That number has probably doubled since then. New models have been introduced year after year, always improving on the product. Now many colleges are handing out iPods at freshmen registration. Duke University seemed to pioneer the use of iPods campus wide to be used as a learning tool.

Article on Duke University's iPod Giveaway

The benefits of using iPods in the classroom have been classified into five categories by Education World. One of the first benefits is it's portability. It can easily be taken to other sites and moved around to a different location. Second, it is socially interactive. You can exchange data and collaborate with others. The iPod has context sensitivity, meaning you can gather data unique to the current location, environment and time. The iPod also offers connectivity. They can be connected to personal computers to create a true shared environment. Last, iPods offer individuality with unique feature customized to each user.

Education World

I could see using the iPods for listening centers in an elementary classroom. Teaching music, foreign language, and podcasts about subject areas in science or social studies would be a great listening tool. Teachers can use iPods for lesson planning and blogging. Tony Vincent offers an excellent site offering ideas for iPod usage in the classroom. The ideas are endless.

Learning in Hand

i Tunes University

iTunes University

iTunes University is a special area of the iTunes store that was launched in May of 2007. It allows institutions to make audio and video material available for downloading and subscriptions. Podcasts and vodcasts are available from many higher learning institutions such as Cambridge, Oxford,and Stanford. Materials upload to iTunes University must be sponsored by a higher learning institution. This allows higher learning institutions to distribute their educational materials to students all over the world.

iTunes Presentation by: David Hopkins

As an extension to iTunes University there is also the iPhone University. Abilene Christian University was one of the anchor schools to start providing their college freshmen with this cutting edge media. "ACU will use the iPhones or iPod Touches to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors’ offices, and check their meal and account balances," the university said in a statement. ACU also developed 15 web applications for Apple devices.

Apple Insider Feb. 2008

iTunes University offers so many possibilities for colleges and universities to reach more students. Many of the offerings are free of charge to view. If the schools have projects that need more attention, they may be able to gain that through iTunes. They can also collaborate between institutions on projects. Collaboration would be great fromt the teachers prospective and the student. Since all materials must be through higher learning institutions, it offers some credibility to the materials found there. For more information on how to use iTunes University:

eHow: How to use iTunes University

Dr. Alice Christie

Dr. Christie's GPS and Geocaching Guide for Educators



GPS and Geocaching for Educators

I chose to review the section of Dr. Alice Christie's site on GPS and Geocaching for Educators. I am fairly familiar with the GPS system, but have never had any geocaching experiences. GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The system is a 12 billion dollar system of 24 satellites that circle our globe. These satellites are maintained by the U.S. Department of Defense. We can purchase relatively inexpensive GPS receivers that communicate with these satellites. The receivers give us latitude and longitude coordinates, and keep track of our paths.

GPS Receiver

Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game using GPS receivers to locate cache locations. Once you find the cache locations you can log your visit to the cache, take an item from the cache box, and leave a cache treasure for someone else. If you would like to create a geocache location, you first need to get a container, a log book, treasures for hiding, and a GPS receiver. Containers should be waterproof, such as a jar, tupperware container, or ammo box. You must hide your cache on public property in a place you can visit often. Be sure it blends with the environment, and record the coordinates of the cache. Be sure to log the information online so that other geocachers know where to look for your cache. If you are interested in hunting cache or hiding cache you can log it at the official website.

Geocaching.com

I feel that children would really enjoy Geocaching. It seems to be the modern day version of a scavenger hunt. Children could be taught science concepts with lessons about how the GPS system works, and environmental concepts with hiding cache. They could be taught geography skills, teaching latitude and longitude. If the teacher makes their own cache spots they can even involve some of the class in choosing the hiding spots. The cache found by students can contain any content that the teacher chooses to emphasize.