What is a Planet?

The podcast I chose to watch was from ages K-5 titled, "What is a Planet." The video podcast discussed the number of planets found in the solar system. The thing they found was hard to classify as a planet because of certain characteristics. According to Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director, the count of planets in the early 1800s was greater than it is now. After finding all these planets they came to the conclusion that they had actually found an asteroid belt. Most of the document talks about a planet called Series that turns our to be an asteroid along with the well known "planet," Pluto.

I think podcasts like these are very important in our education today. They do not only teach learning through listening but there types of podcast are short videos that broaden our knowledge about things we would have never learned. I think this podcast was very interesting and used by any age but especially younger children because it is explained very easily. To check out more podcasts like this you can search in the iTunes Store.

"Growth" vs. "Fixed" Minds

"Growth" vs. "Fixed" Minds is a video podcast put on by the Stanford University. The students were seperated into two groups: the Fixed mindset were the children who appear intellegent and then the growth mindset were the children who were taught how the brain works like a muscle and absorbs information. Dr. Dwech tells the interviewer that teachers could tell which students came from which workshop. Dr. Dwech gives a very good example about race car drivers and how the drivers improved by finding there mistakes and fixing them.

I believe podcasts like this show teachers the importance of not only what they teach students but how they teach them. Dr. Dwech states how important motivation is for children. They can have the study skills they need, but not the motivation to apply them. Children need teachers to break down the learning cycle and not just give them information but also help them process it and understand it.

Mr. Sullivan

Mr. Sullivan was a visitor in our EDM 310 class on October 2nd. He put on a presentation called "Accessibility to All." Mr. Sullivan explained to us that he was legally blind and explained many softwares that he and others use to help. We got to see examples of how these tools were used. One of them was a lense that zoomed in on where ever the person runs the mouse. Another one we looked at would read aloud whatever the mouse ran over. Mr. Sullivan explained to us that when one of your senses does not work, the others work better. He showed us that because he was blind, he could listen to the computer reading everything very fast and translate it for us. He also helped raise awareness that there are people out there and all web sites should be accessible to everyone. We learned how to make our blogs accessible with just a little extra work. Now with these programs if he were to every wonder about my blog he could find out with out the help of other. I very much appreciated him taking the time to come talk to our class.

Edutopia

A Night in Global Village: Heifer Ranch by Gearge Lucus was the first video I watched. It is the story about people help the less fortunate. They allow kids to take a walk in someone else's shoes. They also donate livestock to impoverished families and raises awareness about impoverished and hungry families. These students and teachers take are shown what the living conditions are like in other countries. They are separated into groups and given rights to one resource in which they must exchange for other things they need. They also receive other good such as matches and food. They undergo many challenges such as making their own food and some student lost the use of their hand. One girl explained that this trip showed her how to live outside of her comfort zone and shows what other people go though in their lives.

The second video I watched on Itunes was The Edible Schoolyard put on by Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California. It is about students in 6Th grade at this school who spend their first period outside planting and gardening. The class uses this garden as a hand on experience when teaching math, social studies, and science. The teachers are hired to make the garden the center of teaching. The students are taught to work together with their other classmates to get the jobs done, most of them probably wouldn't get done without teamwork. The founder of the Edible Schoolyard, Alice Waters, started to the garden to cut down on costs. I am truly jealous of these students.

Alabama Virtual Library

The Alabama Virtual Library, also known as the A.V.L., is a group of internet resources that can be used by student, teachers, or even just citizen of the state of Alabama. The site consists of magazines, journals, and news paper articles that can be helpful to the public. One way to use the site is to get an Alabama Virtual Library Card that you can get from any of the Public Libraries here in Mobile.

The other way the site can be useful is the database search. This tool allows you to find information but selecting an age group or a topic, ranging from Adult Education to Social Sciences. This site can also be used to find a specific magazine or journal, however it is only virtual copy of th information it is still very helpful to people. The Alabama Virtual Library can be useful to pretty much anyone living in Alabama but it is especially useful for college students and teachers.

Podcasts

The first podcast I checked out on itunes was ConnectLearning hosted by David Warlick. I chose Episode 99 which was an interview with a librarian named Ann Krembs. Although I have not heard any of the others, the flow of this one is very natural. It doesn't seen rehearsed on like it is being read off of a card. Another thing to point out, the music in the beginning caught my attention right away.

The second one I listen to was EdTechtalk, which coincidentally starts out with music too. The voice at the beginning sounds almost like a robot. They state early in the podcast that there goal is to welcome conversation. In the episode that I heard they are interviewing a woman about parents and their role in school. Just like the last one this one doesn't seem to be memorized.

The next one I listened to was KidCast. The tag line for this podcast is very clever: "Questions make the world go round." This is very true especially when it comes to kids because that is how they learn is by asking questions. This one does not sound as natural as the last too. It sounds a little more organized and more thought out as though they spent a lot of time on it. I don't think this podcast would be very interesting to children, it is more like listening to a professors lecture.

Now I have moved on to listening to MacBreak Weekly. I do not like listening to commercials so this one was not one of my favorites. Luckily I have a "scrub" bar to skip through these advertisements. The MacBreak Weekly sounds like the morning news or maybe two D.J.s on the radio babbling about economy and politics and other current events.

SMARTBoard Lessons Podcast was my favorite one I listened to. The music in this podcasts encourages people to keep listening. It's not all talking, it has some good music to keep people's attention. The lesson on the podcast is about clouds. Again, it sounds like people on the radio just having a conversation. The conversation in this podcast reminds me of Chuck and Shandi off of Lingo, they sound very comfortable with each other. I like how they don't only talk about the lesson they also talk about what's going on in there lives, so it sounds more personal.

This Week in Photography was my last podcast to listen to. The host of the show has nick named the show T.W.I.P. This podcast would be very interesting to any person who likes to take pictures or wants to anything with photography. It discusses magazines and photographers. The host of this show is a man named Scott. In this episode he interviews his favorite photographer named Andrew Darlow and where to find the best printer. Podcasts are great for people to share there thoughts to anyone who wants to listen!

The Last Lecture

"The Last Lecture" was a lecture done by Randy Pausch. This lecture was done by a man who only had about three to six months to live due to ten tumors in his body. His over all personality was wonderful. He was very healthy looking and very optimistic about the lecture. He looked as though he had been happy all his life because he showed pictures and noted that he was always smiling as a child. In the beginning of the lecture when explaining to everyone his situation, he said "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." I loved this and wrote it down immediately.

The lecture he gave covered many keys points such as the "head fake learnings," where he would teach one thing with the intention of secretly teaching them something else. Another thing mentioned often were the brick walls. These were the things stopping us from what we want to do. Sometimes they're there for a reason. He talked about his childhood dreams. They ranged from being in a zero gravity atmosphere to being an imagineer. I loved the story about his football coach and the statement about when you're messing up and nobody tells you that means nobody cares. I thought that was a very good way of looking at things.

Randy Pausch started a course called Building Virtual Worlds. His students did such a good job on there first assignment that he didn't feel he had anything left for them to do. His students got so good at building these virtual worlds that they started having shows for people to come and see the worlds created by this students. They showed an example of one and it was amazing. It looked like someone must have spent a ridiculous amount of time on these projects.

This extraordinary individual created a game based on Alice in Wonderland that taught people about computer programming. This is one of those "head fakes" I discussed earlier. He also created a similar program that taught java through and interpretation of The Sims game. He talked about his friend And Van Dam that talked him into going to graduate school and becoming a professor. He told him if he was going to sell something it should be something worth while like education.

He ended the lecture by telling the importance of Karma, that of which I am a firm believer in. He tells the audience to always apologize when you mess up and to always focus on others. It was already known to the audience that this man was not self centered at all . There he was giving his last lecture and he talked about the people in his life that have influenced him and made him the person he is, but he went further and got the entire audience to sing happy birthday to his wife. The last few things he said were the most important. The lecture was titled follow your dreams but it was another "head fake". He was teaching people how to lead there life. Also it was to teach his children something. It was very interesting. If you would like to read it the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo