Amazing work by EDM310 Students!

So many of you have been coming up with great ideas outside of what you have been assigned in class for EDM310! I added a few suggestions to some of the ideas that were floating around in case any of you, especially those who thought of them, wanted to bring them to life!
Take a look at what our students/your classmates are thinking:


Just to name a few...
Kim Summers' Blog Post #8 : Using technology to go beyond the typical school/class newspaper!
I found this cool website that might not be the perfect fit for this but its a good start!

Paige Ellis' Blog Post #8 : "What are some other ways to be creative by using video? What came to my mind first and foremost, is the truth that acting is not a talent of mine.  I do however, enjoy other aspects that a video presentation requires, especially on the creative side.  Many ideas have swirled in my mind, but my favorite is the Ambush Makeover!  Imagine a teacher, tired and bored with the same ‘ole routine, but not knowing how to change or even where to start.  Her students want to help her, for they are bored and unengaged in the classroom.  With pure emotion and conviction, a student, tweets for help.  Much happens in between, but the outcome is a 21st century teacher ready to bring new life into her former stale, uninspiring classroom."

Elizabeth Brooks' Blog Post #8: Using Stop animation videos to teach Critical Moments in History. Here's a website I found that has lots of great ideas for short animated films.

Krissy Menicucci: "I think an interesting video to make would be on the importance of coming to the lab for help. In the video a student could be at home trying to do their work and not be able to complete the assignment because they are unsure of what they are required to do. Then the student goes to the lab and a lab assistant helps them and explains the steps in the assignment to them. Going to the lab has helped me and I feel if other people saw how helpful the lab assistants can be they would probably go more often."
 thi took this class I did not understand why I, a PE major, would have to take it. I th
Dr. Strange on Brad Goldman's Blog Post #8: EDM310 for Rednecks?

Podcast by Carey Dekle, Alana Escobio, Elizabeth Brooks and Lucinda Prescott:This group went above and beyond to incorporate real-life elements of a newscast using multimedia to achieve their podcast. Great teamwork and innovation!

Caileigh McCulloch's Blog Post #8: How to Stay Ahead in EDM310?
Try this to-do homepage! It's like having your own proverbial "drawing board" to keep up with on the internet.

Josh Milne's Blog Post #8: "I think I could definitely do a video kind of like the Chipper Series, but based more along the lines of physical education. The first time I took this class I did not understand why I, a PE major, would have to take it. I thought that teaching PE doesn't have anything to do with computers and technology. This class has made me understand that technology can be incorporated into the teaching of anything. But having the preconceived notion that I wouldn't gain anything from this class has held me back in my previous attempts at taking it. So I think a video on how the uses of technology learned in EDM310 can be applied to a PE curriculum."

Kashondra Rudolph's Blog Post #8 : "If I had to come up with ideas for my own video, I would find a homeless person on the streets, who desire education but lacks resources. I will pay their tuition for EDM310 and give them a copy of EDM310 for dummies, for an entire semester. At the end of the semester, I would write a summary on how well the homeless person did in EDM 310, using the book and its resources for help. This idea will compare an average student with an homeless person, and determine how well anyone can actually learn."

Regina Sawyer's Blog Post #8 :"An idea that comes to my mind in creating a video would be an "Old school/New school" approach. The old tired looking teacher presenting material the same old way, students are inattentive, and classroom management and organization are nonexistent. Then the New School practice comes into place where students are engaged, teacher are facilitators. The classroom environment is a pleasant atmosphere to be in because organization is upheld due to the convenience of technology and the elimination of paperwork. Classroom management is optimal because students are controlling their own learning. This is my vision at this point for a video."
I think this image is a good representation of this idea.  Can we break away completely from the classic and traditional "old school classroom" like the one pictured? Or is it best to keep somethings the way they are while adding elements that can possibly do a better job of keeping our students engaged? The article that goes along with this image presents a very good argument!
 

What one class can do :)

A school in Tennessee started off studying the holocaust. Their teacher wanted to drive home just how much negativity and suffering intolerance can bring. The class decided to collect six million paper clips in honor of the six million Jews who lost their lives to the holocaust. They were sent paper clips and stories of survivors from all over the world. Be to sure to catch this documentary! You don't want to miss it! :)

Help for EDM310 Students!

Project #10 is vast approaching! So, in the spirit of goodwill and all that, I have decided to jot down a few helpful suggestions for my friends in EDM310!
For project #10, you will have to create your own Personal Learning Network!
Holy cow, what does this mean?!

First off, I highly recommend that you follow Dr. Strange's instructions in the instruction manual and come see us in the lab if you have questions.
Second, it is more effective to test and try out what things are effective in helping you learn and keep up with...stuff..before you have to do your blog post on it. That way, you aren't throwing a PLE or PLN together at the last minute to have something to blog about. (Not that any of you would ever do that, of course ;) )

Second, Symbaloo is about the coolest thing a person could have to start a PLN and to actually keep up with it. You can add just about any website you want to your symbaloo "home page" and track any blogs you are following, etc. And its colorful; it looks like skittles. So, that's always a plus.

BUT, although Symbaloo is great because it keeps all the stuff you need in one place and it eleminates that annoying thing where you have five browsers open and a million tabs up, there are other websites to look into as well. And pretty cool ones I might add!
1) Stumbleupon is the coolest thing since sliced ham. Or bread. Both, even. If you are one of those people who likes to find things that are out of the ordinary, you will be just as enamored with it as I am. You can add all of your interests, and then press the stumble button until a page loads that you really really enjoy and then you like it and it's yours forever. It saves it to your favorites, where you can store all kinds of educational videos, blogs to read, website databases, cool photography, free stuff, etc. I always wanted to know where to find cool, nerdy stuff on the internet and now I am satisfied. I have said too much already..didn't want to give too much away so you would have to check it out yourself!
2) Evernote
3) Scribd
4)Google Reader...I highly recommend exploring Google and all the things it has to offer. What did we do before Google? And the cloud thing?
5) Tweetdeck is something that you have, I think, been encouraged to look into by Dr. Strange. If you do not have this, I recommend that you do. It is one page that you can organize with columns and such to keep with all of your social networky stuff like Twitter, Facebook, etc. simultaneously.
6) ALEX: Alabama Learning Exchange is a great way to track available lesson plans, podcasts, and more! Be sure to check it out!

Apps:
Because there's no reason you can't do EDM310 stuff wherever you go. We can't assist you as easily as we can in the lab, but it can still work for you. Why shouldn't you be able to blog from the doc
(*Disclaimer: I have an Android phone, so I do not know if these are available to all phones, especially older phones, and also Iphones.)
Blogger once had an app that was incognito but I recently found it!!
Stumbleupon
Tweetdeck
Peep
Spellchecker (which can help with proofing and editing your blog posts)
FlipShare
Picasa Tool
Groupme (could be great for group projects- group message forum)
TED Talks
Google Earth Blog
LinkedIn
Foursquare

Come visit us in the lab! :)

I leave you with something really cool I found on Stumbleupon just to brighten your day!
Happiest Sheep in the World

Yay for EDM310!

I am very excited to now be a part of the EDM310 team! This was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding classes I have taken at South, and it really made me realize just how much I care about education. I was sad for the semester to end because I was enjoying this class! I feel honored to be working with Dr. Strange, Anthony, Allie, Steven, and Jacey-Blaire! I look forward to helping future students of EDM310 :D

Final Blog Post #16

PLN Update!!

So, I am still using Symbaloo alot, and still find it useful. The color coordination thing is ridiculous. So cool.
I am also using my TweetDeck often to keep up with my multiple accounts (like Facebook and Twitter) at the same time. Some new things I have discovered that you may have noticed on my blog are:
My Grooveshark Widget
My wibiya Toolbar
Shelfari
Stumble Upon
**For instructions on how to use any of these things, see my Final Project: Carly, Chelsea and Kristen's Final Project
-Grooveshark
This is my favorite music website because they have literally everything and it is all free! I don't have to download stuff because I do not have time for all that, I can just add it to a playlist and keep up with it. I have different playlists for different moods actually. If you have a smart phone you can download the app and try it out for a little while and then I think it's like $8.95 a month which is actually cheaper than Napster, I believe. I wanted to enhance my blog with this!
Music is important to me.
Recently my friend was talking about being restless and I told her how music helped me through so many sleepless nights, inspired me to act like a grown up and be brave, brought back memories without reducing me to tears, reminded me that I was not alone, and just brought me joy. This seemed to do the same for her. It was a relief to see her so much calmer again.
Can anyone really define the power of music?
I want you to think this week about what music has done for you.
As a teacher, I think I can use music to teach poetry, meter, rhythm, rhyme, things like that. But I would like to play soft music without words to calm my students while doing class work or maybe a test. I think it soothes nerves and lets out inspiration we may otherwise hold back.
My widget by Grooveshark came out of this. I felt the need to share this with viewers of my blog.

-Wibiya toolbar

I recently developed a slight addiction to Stumble Upon, and one of the blogs it "stumbled" for me used this feature. I thought it was very cool because it's not just for you, it's convenient for the people viewing your blog. I know I post a lot on my blog. I'm talkative and witty and opinionated so I have a lot to say. If someone happened to feel chaotic, they could join me in live chat to ask any questions they had directly. Say, if you were a teacher, a parent, member of administration, or student could ask you anything they need to momentarily. Also, you can translate the post if you need to, view recent posts, share on twitter, like on facebook, watch my YouTube Videos, and also view my latest twitter updates. To me, this is useful, but especially for a teacher. Being reachable and available at the time that questions arise or help is actually need is vital.
Go to www.wibiya.com to get and customize your own for free! You can customize what websites or features you would like to use. If you need any help, you know how and where to reach me!

-Shelfari
Imagine a book nerd having all sorts of books to show off to the world that they have read, want to read, or are reading. They are able to participate in open discussions, talk about the edition of the book they are reading, write descriptions, and many other things. As a teacher, you could also have a class shelfari to keep a record of what your class has read and let them write their own descriptions or reviews.  You could even encourage them to do their own (extra credit?) to keep up with Accelereated Reader books as well as class readings.  I could see students who get readings confused easily being able to immediately record their recollections, impressions, and a general overview of the book and keep up with it.  It is also available on most smart phones, iPods, as well as iPads.
Would you like to view my shelf?: http://www.shelfari.com/o1515079450/shelf




-Stumble Upon
I spend hours on this website.  I find the coolest things.  I have found amazing photography website, sites for resources in education, sites about different countries, sites with poetry and graphics (these were my favorite!)
You can follow this link to view my favorites that I have been acquiring over a few days! This site is pretty self-explanatory as far as usage goes, but I would love to answer any questions you may have.  As far as its use in a classroom, I guess its more enjoyable than academic; but if your kids are goofing off on the internet, they could find a lot more use out of this than, say, facebook.
Here are some links you can check out that are from stumbleupon:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/198bOF/candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2TRXnp/www.whatshouldireadnext.com
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6Bqhby/www.graphicpoetry.net

To me, my PLN is the sum of all the things that help me learn and keep up with what I'm learning but that also enhance that, like the Grooveshark Widget. I have also used Evernote a few times and like it quite a bit, as well as Tweetdeck, Glogster, and Symbaloo.

Project #16: Final Group Project

I already posted a progress report on my final project, but in case you missed it, I have created a blog with Chelsea Krail and Kristen Whitehurst.
You can find us here: Digital Native Classroom
Our objective in creating the blog was to guide teachers, future teachers, administration, and students on using blogs in the classroom. Teachers just getting started with blogging can learn from some of our posts, their students can use our instructions to complete assignments, future teachers can weigh this idea, and administration might be more convinced to support blogging. The posts on our blog:
-Talk about iMovie, our experiences with it, supply links to Anthony Capps' instructional videos
-Define Personal Learning Environment
-Show examples of how well blogs are being implemented in some classrooms
-Direct bloggers' attention to Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)
-Give examples and directions for Glogster Interactive Poster Pages
-Discuss programs and resources to enhance your blog
-Provide some helpful HTML on creating alt and title modifiers and creating a button
-Has links to some blogs that we learned from that might help get them started blogging!

We started off with a few ideas and as we thought about all the things we had needed to know about our class blogs and the things we learned, it became clear what things we should share! I hope you will share our blog with anyone who needs it or can benefit because that is why we made it: collaboration. Thanks guys!