Teaching CPR

I always try to find video's about pretty much anything I am going to teach because it is not only good for me as an instructor but great for students to have visuals as well as to get instructions from another voice than the one they ear everyday as it can become monotonous. I believe that CPR should be something students have to review every year for the very important reason that it saves lives... I usually try to present videos as introductions at the beginning of classes since it tends to settle the class down and gets the students attentions easily. The good thing about them I find is that they will raise questions for students and we can often answer them as the video follows and review them as we go through the lesson.

Bigguglabs.com

I really liked this website because it makes it really easy to transform your picture in to objects. I am not very good on the arts and crafts and this website could make it a lot easier to decorate my classroom so that it is more interesting for my students. I cannot show it on here because what I created was a poster but it basically is a poster of uncle sam saying that he needs the students to pay attention in their social studies class. I thought it was pretty funny but on a serious note little things like that create a classroom atmosphere that is favorable to learning. I also saw a map maker that could also be very useful in creating a map that you could use in your classroom often because you made it so that it matches the information you have to cover in the curriculum.

Micro Blogging

I have always found micro Blogs such as Twitter or Facebook very entertaining as well as useful especially when it comes to keep in touch with people we aren't living near by. I have a bit of a hard time seeing a mirco-blog being a big part of my teaching career other than to keep in touch with people I have met or will meet in the domain of education. I definitely don't see myself using it with students of mind because I think theses websites are or can be personal. I wouldn't be comfortable being "friends" with all of my teachers currently because there are things that I like to keep to myself or at least don't want to share with people that I consider strangers. I would then not expect my students to have to share things about them with me.

The furture of higher education

I liked this post about the future of universities. This author is replying to another that is predicting that universities will disappear by 2020. That I thought was really an interesting subject because I often ask myself if they are really necessary. The author's reaction to the first one's theory was that they would change for the better bit definitely not disappear. I agree that there will definitely be some evolution in our higher education system and definitely some in the way people see higher education.

I personally think there are way too much Colleges and that there are way too many subjects that can be studied there. This has for effect to bring way too many students to go to college for reasons such as; they simply got in, that is what most people do after high school and to have fun !? In the end I found that College seems to be a "must do" for Americans. Now I have no problems with tradition but this too expensive to be a strictly be a tradition. This tradition as for effect that many students are left with huge amounts of student loans and a degree they really can't do anything with more than they could have done with their high school degree... I think universities are made for people that know they want to become first of all and that second of all have the ability to complete a degree that will almost guarantee them a job. I think colleges will go back to the way they where meaning that there will be less of them and less subjects you can study. I mean by that there won't be undergraduate degrees in Sociology or similar dead ended programs. This might sound harsh but in our economy one can't afford submerging in debts and have nothing to compensate for them.

The name of this blog is: Connectivism Network and social learning

the name of the post is: radicalization of education refrom

This is the link to the connectivism website

ESL group

Here is the website of the group I was interested in.

This group seems to be very useful for job search in my domain in the US and internationally. There are also forums and different articles on Esl which is not the most common field of teaching.

Connectivism: The Learner is a river

I really like the way Siemens described the way we learn in his article because I personally always struggled learning by my self even if what I needed to do was described to me. I thought and sometimes still do think that I am stupid for not understanding some of the articles that I read but when I look at the connectivsm model of learning I realize that I might not be the only person that struggles to learn on their own. I don't believe that I need to discuss everything that I come across of in order to understand them, for example most movies I don't discuss so much because I feel like I got a good grasp on cinematography. When I think about it however if I would come across a movie that I struggled understanding or a certain concept that I read in a article that I can't wrap my ideas around, I would rather discuss my misunderstanding with someone else than read extensive literature on the same subject. Both solutions may or may not be effective however discussion would definitely be my first choice. Seimens says, "Connectivism also addresses the challenges that many corporations face in knowledge management activities. Knowledge that resides in a database needs to be connected with the right people in the right context in order to be classified as learning. Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism do not attempt to address the challenges of organizational knowledge and transference.

"Information flow within an organization is an important element in organizational effectiveness. In a knowledge economy, the flow of information is the equivalent of the oil pipe in an industrial economy. Creating, preserving, and utilizing information flow should be a key organizational activity. Knowledge flow can be likened to a river that meanders through the ecology of an organization. In certain areas, the river pools and in other areas it ebbs. The health of the learning ecology of the organization depends on effective nurturing of information flow."

In one of the videos Seimens explain how there are two components in is model of connectivism and they are internal neuro network as well as the external component. Seimens later says " We might not be able to control how individual internal neurons connect with each other but we can certainly connect with other individuals and with other sources of information". I think that Seimens has a very good understanding of how knowledge can be accessed in order for it to be learned. I think that he is wrong by saying that learning or knowledge changed because I think people always had the chances to discuss knowledge with each other but he is right that the process is easier now. I don't see how the way people learn in its basic essence necessarily as to do with the way technology evolves.

In the end I have to say I am a big fan of Connectivism because I can identify to it and also because technology will facilitate the models effectiveness for today's learners.

Reaction to videos

I watched a few videos and agreed that there is definitely many changes in in the world's situation that are directly affected by technology. Technologies related to computers or more precisely to the internet and our ways of communications. The "Did you know ? " video mentioned that China will eventually be the number one English speaking country in the world, it also said that 100% of college graduate in India in the class of 2006 spoke English. The web offers proximity to the rest of the world and free access to information that would have been difficult to obtain before the creation of the web. The web indeed assimilates every cultures in the ways they access media and information.

Blogging Safety

This is one thing I am a little concerned about. Is it really safe to discuss private and confidential information on Blogs? I guess it depends how you do it. I would never use names or locations to discuss problems with other teachers that blog because it is one thing to seek solution but another to openly talk of students confidentiality. Using nicknames could be good and restricting who will have access to your blogs will also help. Since students also have access to your blog I will definitely use a different account to post teacher to teacher related materials. Moderation will also be important since individuals tend to get carried away when they are indirectly posting comments.

Top 3 ways I would use blogging in my classroom

1. I am sure that as a beginning teacher I will encounter lots of problems where I will need to try different solutions in order to correct. I think that anybodies first instinct should be the first thing you try because it comes to you naturally however Blogs will allow me as a teacher to read up on other peoples way to deal with problems of the sort which I may not have thought about. Blogs will also allow me to get comments from people that will attempt to help me find solutions. I would rather use Blogs to keep in contact with former or current co-workers so that the information we will discuss can be available to other people in my situation. Confidentiality of course is going to be something I will need to be careful about.

2. The second way in which I intend to use Blogs is closely related to why I decided to take this class in the first place. Since kids use technologies more and more, I feel like using a blog to follow up on something we worked on in class will not bother students as much as if they would need to go back to their books in order to review it. I am aware that not all students have computers at home but I see nothing wrong with allowing those that do to get extra work in at home. The first thing I would do is set up a question blog not only for me to help students out but for their peers to assist a struggling students. Forming a community of learners is something important to facilitate learning but often there isn't enough time in class for every student to share enough to feel strongly a part of a group. Bloging would also help the students that don't feel comfortable sharing in class to share by Blogging.

3. The third way in which I would like to use Blogs is for extra curricular activities. There is very little time in the classroom to cover material and with standardize testing we are left with no time to discuss what goes on outside the classroom. Field trips, sporting events, clubs or other extracurricular activities are all opportunities for students to learn a lot while having fun. Not all students can take a part of them and often they are simply unaware of what they are. This is where blogging comes in to inform and give a chance to those that are interested but unfamiliar to those activities. The blogs will also give a chance to participants to see different point of view from other students that took part in the activities.