Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Ch. 10 and epilogue

Chapter 10 reiterates a lot of what was already said throughout the book. It also discusses the big shifts in teaching and technology. I believe open content is the most important shift in education. With programs like Kahn Academy and free courses offered by colleges via the internet, it seems to be a huge game changer in education. Why pay top dollar for a university when you can get a free education offered by top colleges and learning programs? The education system should really be geared towards learning rather than the student trying to get the grade.
The epilogue was a bit odd, but it presented a teacher using technology within his classroom. He used a lot of web resources to prepare his class. I think the way the teacher has everything organized seems great, and once you have everything set up like he does it will make teaching much easier and more effective. Being a journalism teacher, this is especially useful to him and opens up a world of opportunities for him.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts chapter 7 & 9

When looking at Chapter 7's review of Flickr in education, I would have to say the most useful feature of Flickr in the classroom is its annotation feature. Annotating images can be extremely useful for the classroom; I can see it being very useful to teach geography, especially in the secondary setting. You can take an image of a mountain range and annotate its different features, from plataeus to distinct peaks. It also allows for students to annotate images themselves, such as giving them a quiz to identify different features of a mountain range.

Chapter 9 was focused on social networking. I agree there are some ways you cvan integrate it into the classroom, but only if they are networks such as Ning where the educator has a lot more control. Integrating Facebook in the classroom does not seem like a good idea at all and can only lead to problems. I recently attended a presentation by a lawyer who deals with a lot of educational law, and she gave many reasons on how Facebook can never be a good idea. Facebook involves integration into personal lives, and it would be extremely difficult and risky to set up a classroom network via Facebook as it has a very high chance of crossing into personal information.

Educational Gaming

I played educational games when I was a child, and I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I mostly remember this math game that was in a science fiction setting. Here are some games I evaluated:

Oregon Trail- A great educational game that teaches not only some history but teaches lessons in frugality and how to intelligently buy things. The specific online Oregon Trail game that was linked in the agenda isn't very good, it is a free version and wasn't made very well. It would be better to buy the game; I owned "Oregon Trail 3" and it was pretty in-depth and I learned a lot.

Free Rice- This game has been around for a while, and I played it back when it was only a vocabulary game. It is cool to see it has expanded into something more. I think this is a great way to learn while doing something good for society, as I believe the site is legitimate.

3rd World Farmer- I am not sure whether this game was designed to be realistic or not, regardless it is pretty depressing. What I do like about the game is the fact you can purchase things and save up for things. It teaches students wise monetary decisions which is important in life.

Chapter 2 and 3 Podcast Reflection

I had a fun time creating the podcast. I was the facilitator in our group discussion, and I believe I did a pretty good job at it. I felt as if I was a talk show host, which felt pretty funny. I believe our group did a good job as well, everyone seemed knowledgable about the content and no one really had a hard time coming up with things to say.

I liked doing this assignment and I felt it gave me more insiration to be knowledgable about the assigned chapters. I felt as if it were a good motivator, because it is much more personal to demonstrate your knowledge verbally then to demonstrate it on something such as a test. I also enjoy making things such as this (I work and DJ at the school's radio station) so I felt comfortable doing something like this.

I wouldn't mind doing this in my classroom in the future, and I feel it could be a lot of fun for my students to pretend that they are doing a talk show or a radio broadcast. I am a big advocate for teaching using real life examples, and this is something that utilizes a real life situation, in a way.

Self-Grading Tests

I have absolutely no problem with self-graded tests when they are used correctly. If the teacher using the self-graded test is competent and realizes that the answers you type in (if the answer needs to be typed) have to be typed in absolutely correct or you get the answer wrong. For example, what if the answer to question is "frog" and a student types in "frogs"; the test will mark him wrong just because his answer was plural even though he understood the concept. I remember taking tests like this in an intro to art history class in the D2L application; it infuriated the students because the teacher didn't do anything about her self-grading tests having the answers have to be exactly correct. It was the same way in my geography 101 course, which was even more of a problem because it was an online course so I couldn't even see my teacher in person.

I would use self-grading tests sparingly in my classroom, as they can pose too much of a problem with answers needing to be typed correctly. In a way, they are almost more work in the fact that the teacher will have to through and look at each incorrect answer and see if it can be interpreted as correct. When it comes to multiple choice tests, however, I think they are already used a lot in a self-correcting format and that is fine, as there is only one right answer.

Rethinking Education ch. 1-2 response

I think this book has made some very interesting points from what I have read so far. An interesting quote I have pulled from the book is "Enthusiasts argue that trying to prepare students for the 21st century with 19th-century technology is like teaching people to fly a rocket ship by having them ride bicycles." I find this to be a pretty extreme statement; the book argues things such as books, chalkboards, and paper and pencils are obsolete technology for the classroom. It's ironic that I read that books are obsolete from a book. However, I do partially agree with the quote. I think part of the reason schools are so stuck in the past is because of funding. It costs a lot of money to adopt today's technology in every classroom, so it is difficult to eliminate such primitive technology such as a chalkboard. However, it does work to use a chalkboard, a lot of teaching comes from within and not the tools you use. I believe there is both sides to the argument, but regardless, it is always best to have the latest technology in your classroom.

Website Validity

Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
I decided to Google search "tree octopus" only to find several articles on revealing this website as a hoax. I really couldn't justify looking into the website more to determine if it is real or not.

Martin Luther King Jr. - A True Historical Examination
I find this website to be somewhat credible, as it contains sources in each of its articles. However, it seems to sometimes blend in personal opinion in some of its sections, such as the rap lyrics section. It also appears to be fairly dated, as some of the links go to a website called "the way back machine," which is an archive of websites from pretty far back.

All About Explorers
The website is a little bit confusing as the home page encounters a 404 error. Looking at the website authors page, the descriptions of the website authors seem to be pretty odd. One of the authors is the "staff psychologist and botanist." I take this website as a bit of a joke; the information on the explorers is pretty brief and there isn't much to them.

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division
I know this website is a joke; "dihydrogen monoxide" is just another word for water, or H2O. Google searching "dihydrogen monoxide," the website is one of the first to pop up. It is classified as a hoax.