Visit The EDM310 Alumni Blog Amazing! An Alumni Blog! Thanks to Jackie Gorski and all of her co-authors!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Comments4Classmates Week 4

Comments For Kids Icon
You should now have in your Google Docs the commenting assignments for your classmates you are to do in Week 4 (between midnight 1/31/10 and midnight 2/7/10. The comments are to be on the assignment due 1/31/10 (Podcast Reviews).

Your Comments4Kids assignments will follow soon.

If you do not find your Comments4Classmates Week 4 Assignments in your Google Docs, email me immediately from your Google mail account.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Clarifications

question mark
Several students have asked important questions that lead me to want to clarify several things:

Podcast Assignment for Sunday 1/31
Objective
I want you to dabble in as many podcasts as you want - at least 6. You do not have to listen to an entire podcast. Just get familiar with the various approaches, styles, etc. You will be doing a podcast in 3-4 weeks and need to understand the wide range of ways people develop podcast.
Your Post
One post describing your reactions to all podcasts and referencing which podcasts you thought were better and which ones you thought were worse will do fine.

Presentations
I have abandoned my strategy of splitting the class into some students being present and some being virtual. We will determine who goes first by lottery. Everyone has to be ready to present in the first meeting of the class. Everyone must be present at all sessions of their Class Section in which they are enrolled. If you cannot attend both of your sessions, make it up in a session of another class. If you have switched sections, come in the section which you now attend.

Your Picture on Your Blog
Your picture should now be on your blog and it should be at the top of the column in which it resides. Complete instructions are available on the syllabus. To move it to the top, go to Layout and drag the About Me gadget (that's what the elements in the column are called) to the top.

Friday, January 29, 2010

We Are Always Learning - Vocaroo

a tiger
Add audio to your blog! Try Vocaroo. Watch and listen to Mr. Chamberlain's instructions. Then try it!

Why the tiger? Mr. Chamberlain teaches at the Noel Elementary School - the Tigers!

Check out Mr. C's Faculty Development site for his teachers. You may find just the help you need there!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Wrap Week 2 Podcast

screen capture from USA iTunees

I have begun a podcast which will be a weekly wrap of what we did in the previous week and what to expect in the following week. The first actually covers Weeks 1 and 2 and looks ahead to Week 3. I will prbably add a text version soon.
You can listen to this podcast on the University's iTunes site or by clicking the link Wrap Week 2 below. If you want to try using the USA iTunes site, which I recommend you try, go to the South site, add /itunes after the URL. Click on Open USA iTunes. Click on Instructors under College of Education. Click on Course (will change to EDM310 soon) under Dr. John Strange. Or just CLICK HERE

Here is the direct link to the podcast: Wrap Week 2

Friday, January 22, 2010

They Are First Graders! Are You Ready?

1. Media Literacy in the First Grade

movie on the media literacy of first graders
They will be your students soon! Whether you are ready or not. I hope that you are ready!

Leave comment AND include in your blog post for 1/31/10.

2. First Graders in Ms. Cassidy's Class using blogs, wikis, web pages, and Skype to collaborate and learn. They are already in school and will be in the 3rd grade when you start teaching! Are you ready?



These two videos are ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS for Blog Posts for Sunday 1/31/2010

Also leave a comment on the web page. You will be returning to this blog for the comments4kids assignments!

Belinda Flucker Keeps On Blogging

Blenda Flucker, EDM310 student in the Fall 2009 semester keeps on blogging. Check out her blog Belinda Flucker Future Teacher.

And leave a comment for her! It's blogging AND commenting.

Here's What's Coming!



This child will be entering school shortly after you start teaching. Will you be ready?

This is an ADDED BLOG ASSIGNMENT. Due in posts for January 31, 2010

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

You May Be Wondering About the Same Things

On Jan 19, 2010, at 9:37 PM, Charlotte A. Elmore wrote:

Dr. Strange,
I had a couple questions regarding our Google Presentation.
1. Is our presentation just a random story about ourselves, like your France presentation? Or is ours supposed to be kind of a story of our life?
2. On the syllabus it mentions about doing an Audacity recording of our presentation, is that to be presented in class as well separate or somehow put into our presentation?

Charlotte and EDM310 Students:
1. You can take any approach you want. One way would be to prepare your own introduction to an audience of your peers. Another would be to introduce yourself to your potential employers. Another would be to tell a club about your special interests in ... Any way you want to approach it. My France example was a quick demo of technique, not a recommendation of an approach to take. The goal is to get you using Google Presentations. Much better, for many reasons, than PowerPoint. Free, collaborative, stored in the clouds, can be presented to and from on line audiences (we will do this), etc.

2. If we can find a free tool that will combine the two (audio and presentation), then we will do that. Otherwise the audio assignment is to get you to practice and to give you a way to learn Audacity which will be very useful to you in a number of contexts.

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds

A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds is the third in a series of large-scale, nationally representative surveys by the Foundation about young people’s media use. It includes data from all three waves of the study (1999, 2004, and 2009), and is among the largest and most comprehensive publicly available sources of information about media use among American youth.

The above is taken from a press release from the Kaiser Family Fund Foundation where you will also find links to the complete Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds and other related studies.

Here are some highlights from the full report that I have selected for you to consider:
Cell Phones
Today, two-thirds (66%) of all 8- to 18-year-olds own their own cell phone
Overall, 8- to 18-year-olds report spending an average of 33 minutes talking on a cell phone in a typical day.
Texting
On average, 7th–12th graders report spending about an hour and a half (1:35) a day engaged in sending and receiving texts.
iPods/MP3 Players
Of all 8-18 year olds, 76% own an iPod or other MP3 player
Internet Access
Among all 8-18 year olds, 84% have home internet access, 59% having high speed wireless access and 33% with Internet access in their bedroom.
Computers
Of all 8 to 18 year olds, 29% own their own laptop.
Print Media
Time spent reading books for pleasure has increased slightly, but time spent with magazines and newspapers, which held fairly steady from 1999 to 2004, has declined substantially since then.
The total amount of time 8- to 18-year-olds spend reading hard copies of books, magazines, and newspapers for pleasure has decreased by about five minutes a day (from an average of 43 minutes daily in 1999 and 2004 to 38 minutes in 2009).
Schools
Of 8-18 year olds who are heavy media users, 60% report that they are often bored in school; moderate users 53%; light users 48%
Racial and Ethnic Differences
Black and Hispanic children consume nearly 4½ hours more media daily (13:00 of total media exposure for Hispanics, 12:59 for Blacks, and 8:36 for Whites). Some of the largest differences are in TV viewing: Black children spend nearly 6 hours and Hispanics just under 5½ hours, compared to roughly 3½ hours a day for White youth. The only medium where there is no significant difference between these three groups is print. Differences by race/ethnicity remain even after controlling for other factors such as age, parents’ education, and single vs. two-parent homes.

And the changes in all of these numbers over time are astounding.

So now you know about the kids you will have in your classes. Are you ready? I think you will absolutely have to be a tech literate teacher if you and our schools are to survive. But that's just my initial thought. I will read the full report and tell you more. I think you ought to read the entire report also.

Monday, January 18, 2010

A Day of Giving

Jarrod Lamshed in Adelaide Australia held an event called Clippers for Cancer at his Boys School last year. It was a great success, raising over $1800. Read his post describing the event.

Mr. Lamshed, Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. McClung and others have emphasized giving in their classes. (You may not be familiar with these names yet, but you will before the semester is over.)

What do you think of this idea for EDM310. Could we do something, say for the victims in Haiti, the Susan G. Kopman Breast Cancer Foundation, or another charity?

Are you interested? Do you think it is a good idea to include sharing and giving as objectives in a class? Would you help?

The date has been set: Monday March 1. Leave your reactions and ideas as comments to this post and I will discuss it further with you.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

An Added Requirement for Blog Posts Due Sunday January 24, 2010

Gary Hayes Social Media Counts
Watch the Social Media Count change every second when you click on this sentence. Think about these changes that are happening at such an astounding rate. What do they mean for your professional career as a teacher?

Friday, January 15, 2010

Bring Your Portable!

If you have a personal portable computer, you should bring it to EDM310 from now on. We will load it up with the programs and materials that you will need in this course. If you do not have your own portable and will be using another computer, you will get practice doing the loading next week.

Any questions about anything? Call, email, Skype, SMS or Tweet any of us!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Syllabus Is Revised and Other Messages

As I said, this course is experimental. We are already at Version 5 of the Syllabus. Expect more changes. When you open the Syllabus, you will get the latest version.
Google is being somewhat uncooperative in facilitating the establishment of your Gmail account and your Blog. Please contact me if you continue to have trouble getting a gMail account.
The primary objective in classes this week is to get your gMail account established and your Blog created so that you can do your first assignment form the Blog Assignments prior to Sunday 1/17/10.
Work on other materials and preparations as listed in the Syllabus and Preparing for Your Intellectual Journey as homework. Our goal is to have all preparations completed by the end of Week 2. We have gotten off to a bit of a rough start so we may have to push that goal back a bit. But let's try and make it.
Thanks

Friday, January 8, 2010

Manage Your Time

Manage Your Time movie
Students: You will have to carefully Manage Your Time now that EDM310 is a hybrid course. This movie offers suggestions about how to do that.

EDM310 Is Different This Year

EDM three ten is different
EDM310 Is Different This Year. Watch this video to get an understanding of how EDM310 will be conducted as a hybrid course.