February 21st Blog Posts

Dr. Christie's Site
I began exploring Dr. Christie's website with the "We are all co-learners" video. I really enjoyed the different student's and Dr. Christies statements about their interning and their thoughts about incorporating technology in the classroom. I really liked the part where it stated, students and adults are learning together; I found it enlightening when one of the teachers said that she learned something about photo shop that she had forgotten that previous year, and an intern helped her with it. So, even if your "older" you can still learn the technology!!
I further explored Dr. Christie's Constructivist Learning Resource page and the first thing I read was the very first bullet that stated, "Learning is an active process facilitated by an environment that encourages: risk-taking, creative thinking, and critical thinking." I couldn't agree more! I loved the art below the listed bullets about Our Sole Design, what a great idea! I found Dr. Christies' website easy to follow, unlike some other websites that I have visited in the past, it had some great features. I really enjoyed visiting this website, and I will definitely be visiting this in the future!

I Tunes University
I explored I Tunes University, I found this very awkward at first because hello, this is on I tunes made for ipods, etc. I guess it's just me that found it awkward, but after I started looking around at the different podcasts and such I found it very helpful. I looked at the link with Teaching and Education and found many different podcasts that were actually very informative. I looked at the different universities that are using I tunes U, and I looked at the University of Alabama and I clicked on the movie about the "ABC's of Education: School Bus Safety," I just found it amazing that the University of Alabama is using I Tunes U, how great is that!
click here to visit the University of Alabama
I think that Itunes U could definitely be a useful tool in the classroom because a teacher could post their lectures for the students that miss class that day, if they want to and if they care. It could incorporate the different learning styles of the students as well. I am a visual and kinesthetic learner so show me how visually and then let me do it! I thought this was a very useful tool to be used, now that I am a student as well as in the future as I will become a teacher. Technology is amazing and it has so much to offer!

The Use of Ipods...in school!
Click Here to visit Duke ipod First Year Experience. I googled this topic and I found this article about Duke University incorporating ipods in their school. How great is this that we can listen to ipods and still learn the material! Even engineer majors used ipods for some of their courses. If we could get all colleges to do this, think of how much money the students would save (kind of) with NOT having to BUY useless textbooks that some students NEVER use!!! Although, the price would be that either the schools would have to require students to have ipods and such or the school would have to provide such technology to each student, which could in time be costly. But, if learning is happening, would it necessarily be a bad thing?

Check this link out.
I found this article and I found it very interesting about the usage of ipods at Duke University! 280 students used ipods in 19 courses, this is such a remarkable thing that is happening!! I wish I could go to Duke University just so I could try using my ipod as a way to learn! Fall of 2009, Duke University issued about 1,600 pre-loaded ipods with orientation information to the first year students, what a great idea, instead of a BORING orientation, you can listen and watch orientation on ipods. I cannot express how wonderful this idea is. I think more schools need to catch up with Duke University with the use of technology!