Special Assignment Due Midnight October 12, 2014

A recent study by Zogby Analytics reports several interesting findings regarding young people aged 18 - 24:

1. 87% say their smartphone never leaves their side.
2. 80% say the very first thing they do in the morning is reach for their smartphone.
3. 78% say they spend 2 or more hours per day using their smartphone.
4. 68% say they would prefer to use their smartphone instead of their laptop or personal computer for personal use.
5. 91% say that having a camera on their smartphone is important (61% very important)
6. 87% say they use their smartphone camera at least weekly. 59% use their smartphone camera at least every other day. 44% use their smartphone camera for still or motion picture taking every day.

Cameras were added to smartphones starting in 2002. The first iPhone also had a camera. It became available in June 2007. Seven years later there are over 1.75 billion smartphones worldwide. (Source: emarketing) This means that 24.1% of the entire world population (7.263 billion as of 3:32 CDT 9/27/2014 - Source: World Population Clock) now has a smartphone. Your students will have lived all their life in a world with smartphones containing cameras.

This assignment has two parts to it.

Part A

Write at least two paragraphs on the implications for education, school, teachers, and learners that flow from the above data.

Part B

Assume that all of your students will have either a smartphone or a tablet with a camera. Generate as many ideas as you can as to how you might make use of these tools for learning purposes for kids whom you will be teaching. Make use of the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards where appropriate.


Doubt the validity of this assumption? Look at what has happened among EDM310 students in the last 5 years. Click the image to enlarge it.

Combine Parts A and B into a single post. The Title should be: Implications and Teaching Opportunities for Camera Use in Teaching and Learning.

This post is due midnight Sunday October 12, 2014.

Book Trailers Do Attract Attention!

The author of the book that I used for my book trailer emailed me and I just thought I would share with you what he wrote!
-Lauren Lee

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sharon Bruder
Date: September 29, 2014 at 9:51:10 AM CDT
To: laurenleeyancey@gmail.com

Hi Lauren:

Thanks for writing. I liked your book trailer. Thanks for sharing the story with others.
I wrote Love You Forever after we had two stillborn babies. For me, it was a fantasy about the life my kids would never have. I wrote it just for myself and didn't think of it as a book. Much later I started using it at storytellings and I was surprised at the response. I decided to try to publish it. My usual publisher didn't want to do it [It's not a kids book"]. I finally went with another publisher. "Love You" got terrible reviews. It didn't get one good review in Canada. Still it sold 30,000 in 1986 which made it the bestselling Canadian kid's book that Christmas. Then it 1987 it sold 70,000. "Wow!" said the publisher, "Don't expect this to last". It didn't. In 1988 it sold 1,000,000 and has been selling about 1,000,000 a year ever since.

I think the book works because it lets people think about what life is all about. I never meant this story to be for other people, but I get great satisfaction from thinking that it may have as good an effect on other people's lives as it has had on my own.

Bob Munsch

If you get a thank you note from the author of the book you used for your book trailer, let me know!

Congratulations Lauren!

To watch the video go to Lauren's post Project 8 Book Trailer or just click the picture at the top of this post.

Mrs. Tharp Requests Your Help

I received the following email today and have made C4K assignments as Mrs. Tharp requested.

See what happens after you start teaching as a result of EDM310?

Hi Dr. Strange,
I'm so glad to see you are still changing the world, one future educator at a time. I have been teaching lots of math and being a Mom for the last 4 years. This year, my administrator awarded me a new elective called "math gaming" where we try to meet a few math electives while having fun. I have turned it into a technology class and my 7th graders are blogging 2 or 3 days a week. They have some pretty great things to say and we've connected with several schools around the world using William Chamberlains comments4kids as a launching pad. You probably have any number of classes to choose from with your EDM students, but if you are looking for new kids to comment on, our class can be found at Mrs. Tharp's Math Gaming.

We would love any feed back from you or your students, along with suggestions of how to take this further. These students will be with me until January, then I will have a new group to introduce to the world. Thanks for igniting a spark so many years ago that has finally become a flame with me!

Your friend,
Kimberly Tharp

Rubrics - What Next?

Individual Performance In A Group - Complete for yourself and all other members of you group for the 3 Rubrics Project. Deadline Wednesday October 1, 2014 midnight.

C4C Blog Post Evaluation - Use starting September 29, 2014 for C4Cs that you do weekly. Do yours as well. We will assess the status of this rubric in our next mandatory classes in October.

Project Evaluation Rubric - Think about the current rubric I sent you. You will discuss further as a group during our next mandatory class (in October) to determine what (if any) changes are necessary before we actually use it.

Alex was Excited!

In case you did not read the message I reTweeted, here it is:

Mr Salsich! Mr. Salsich! Molly got commented on KidBlog by someone in Alabama! That is so cool.

Alex


Your comments make a difference!

Everyone Read This Post!

I have opened the previous pages for C4K and C4T.

You MUST be sure you are looking at the correct page.

At the bottom of every page there are tabs which allow you to choose the page you want. Here are pictures of the tabs:

After you have used the page, PLEASE RETURN TO THE MOST RECENT PAGE (C4T #2 or C4K#3 Due 9/28/14).

These will be open until Monday morning at about 6 am. They will then be closed and not opened again except for the most recent page.

TT2 Test Creating Link in Comment

Leave a comment on this post. In that comment create a link that works and that takes the reader to YOUR EDM310 Class Blog (not the Class Blog). Use either Your Name's EDM310 Class Blog or My EDM310 Class Blog as the item you can click on to go to your blog. Post your comment. CHECK it. If it does not work, figure out why and try in a new comment.

TT11 Test Creating Link in Comment

Leave a comment on this post. In that post create a link that works and that takes the reader to your EDM310 Class Blog. Use either Your Name's EDM310 Class Blog or My EDM310 Class Blog as the item you can click on to go to your blog. Post your comment. CHECK it. If it does not work, figure out why and try in a new comment.

Thank You for the Comments on C4K!

I wanted to thank all of your students for commenting on my students' blogs. As an 8th grader it is so exciting to have adults from another state read and respond to your writing! Their faces truly light up when they see others' responses. Thanks again! Allison
@allison_freitag
afreitag@n-tama.k12.ia.us
Traer, Iowa

W6 Test Creating Link in Comment

Leave a comment on this post. In that post create a link that works and that takes the reader to your EDM310 Class Blog. Use either Your Name's EDM310 Class Blog or My EDM310 Class Blog as the item you can click on to go to your blog. Post your comment. CHECK it. If it does not work, figure out why and try in a new comment.

MW 4 Test on Creating Link in Comment

Leave a comment on this post. In that post create a link that works and that takes the reader to your EDM310 Class Blog. Use either Your Name's EDM310 Class Blog or My EDM310 Class Blog as the item you can click on to go to your blog. Post your comment. CHECK it. If it does not work, figure out why and try in a new comment.

You Must Be A Self Directed Learner

We discussed in class this week why the staff has been instructed by me not to do your work for you. Lindsey and Becca explained that many students exert no effort on their own before seeking help in the Lab. I have experienced that myself.

I talked about an example of the opposite kind of behavior. Edna Montgomery came to the lab seeking help. Her problem was that could do, and had done, her sentence videos on the Macs in the lab but she could not repeat that process on her personal iMac. She asked me why that was the case. I did not know. I asked her what she had done. She had taken all of the steps that I thought were reasonable. No Lab assistant was there who knew how to solve the problem which was how do you record yourself using iMovie using the new iMovie software on a new iMac.

I had to figure it out on my own, just like you will have to do most of the rest of your life. You may encounter problems, like Edna did, and it is absolutely appropriate to seek help. There are lots of sources, including the Help button, Google, Lab Assistants, and other students. I was standing there and she asked me. That was quite appropriate. She had experimented with several things which she thought might solve her problem. They did not. I expressed great curiosity in the problem so I joined her in the quest for a solution.

What did I do? I repeated Edna's approaches since they seemed reasonable and I wanted to make sure that there was nothing in that effort that led to the lack of success. I got the same result she did. I then tried several ideas of my own. They did not work either. After having made a sincere effort to solve the problem, I clicked on the Help button. I reviewed New Things in iMovie. None of that applied but there was a link How to Import A Movie. Since that was what we were trying to do, I read that article. I then followed the prescribed steps. It appeared that that effort did not work either. I tried again and Edna checked off the steps on the Help page as I did them. Still no success it appeared. Several more tries with slight changes yielded no result. I then looked carefully at the screen and scrolled down on a portion of the screen where I expected to see the movie. I found most of my movies that I had done while following the directions on the Help screen. I then threw all of that away and arched while Edna did it by herself. She was successful and literally shouted for joy.

What does this tell us about what we expect from EDM310 students?

You have to have made a good faith effort to solve the problem before you ask for help. One of the objectives is to prepare you to be an independent, lifelong learner.

You must be seeking to learn, not to complete a task which is what a lot of students seem to be seeking.

Even when you follow directions, you may have to explore some more.

Insisting that you work on a solution before we help you is an absolutely necessary teaching approach which you must incorporate into your practice. Some EDM310 students seem to think that is rude, or inappropriate. That is not the case at all. Teachers can demonstrate but they must not do the work. Students must be learners, not a scribe. We all learn by doing.

In addition, you must understand that you, as a teacher, will never "know it all" as some EDM310 students insist is the case. That will never be the case so prepare yourself to be a lifelong learner.

Oh My!

Last week there were 63 instances in which C4T#1 and Project #15 were not completed on time. I extended the deadline to Wednesday midnight and 12 (19%) were completed by then.

This week there were 113 missing posts for the 2 videos due and the Google Presentations. Wow. Oh My!

If it were not for the sermon my priest gave this past Sunday (the Master pays the workers the same after differing hours of work - everyone was paid for an all day shift even if they worked only 3 hours), I would not have extended any of these. But the sermon seemed a message to be lenient once again. So the Presentations and two sentences will be accepted without penalty if submitted by Thursday Midnight 9/25/14.

Not Many Took Advantage of the Extension

I just do not understand. I offered to not penalize all 63 late Project #15 and C4T#1 posts if they were completed by Wednesday night even though they had been due Sunday midnight. Only 19% were corrected in time to avoid the penalty. I just do not understand. And students in EDM310 hope to be educators!

Are Your ALT and TITLE Tag Modifiers Working?

They should be!

To check the TITLE tag modifier, place your cursor over the image on your post. Your source (which you put in your TITLE tag modifier) should appear.

In addition, GOOGLE is never an appropriate source. Look for the original source. Google always provides it and you must use the original source NOT Google!

To check the ALT tag modifier, go to W.A.V.E. (Web Accessibility Tool) and paste in the url for your blog. Green tags should appear next to all your images.

The use of these two tag modifiers has been a requirement since Blog post #2. If you do not have these working, learn from third graders in Mrs. Yollis' class. See p. 12 of the Activities Instructions.

You must have them working for all your posts by next week. We will check them in class. In addition you must know how to write the code to create a link in a comment. You will be tested on this in class next week. Practice!

In addition, you MUST have your picture on your blog. It must be a head shot of you and you alone! If in doubt, use the one I took.

A Lot Missing

There were three posts due yesterday at midnight:

Blog Post #4

Project #15 (Search Engines)

C4T#1

How many students did not post their work by 6 am this morning?

Blog Post #4 - 6 (not too bad based on historical figures)

Project #15 (Search Engines) - 23 Not so good (20%)

C4T#1 - 43 Terrible (36%)

Why so many missing projects?

Since this is the first time you have had a project due and also the first time C4T had to be posted, I will allow you to post C4T#1 and Project #15 by Wednesday midnight and give you one quarter the penalty you otherwise would receive. If not corrected by Wednesday midnight the regular penalties for late or missing work will apply.

Blog Post #4 is not affected by this extension of time with a modified penalty.

Only C4K #1 This Week

My Mistake. You only have to do C4K#1 this week. We will catch up two weeks from now. I just changed the Checklist.

Sorry about that!

Kids Having Technology

Here are some new data which should convince you that you cannot escape the technology revolution in our schools.

Percentages of 0-8 year olds (third graders) who have access to the following :

“72% percent of children age 8 and under have used a mobile device ... up from 38% in 2011.
38% of children under 2 have used a mobile device for media (compared with 10% two years ago).”

Source: MarketingProfs.com

Read more.

You will NOT stop this, whether you like it or not and whether it scares you or not.

My guess is that much of the time kids (and adults) use technology for entertainment purposes. Educators must find ways to encourage kids to use technology for educational purposes. It can be done, but educators must know how to do that. That is one of the objectives of EDM310.

Think Your Comment Was Not Posted?

Let me refresh your memory. From p. 14 of the Projects Instruction Manual:

Some teachers moderate the comments left on their personal blog and/or on the blogs of their students. This means that you may not see your comment until it has been approved. That may take one day or many days. You do not have to worry about it whether it ever appears since you will summarize the post and your comment and you will post these summaries to your blog on a regular basis. This also applies to C4T and C4K.


Do not worry if you do not see your comment!

C4T Assignments Now Posted

C4T Assignments Now Posted

Mandatory Meeting Dates - A Reminder

Tuesday Thursday Classes Meet Both Days This Week (9/2 and 9/4)

Monday Wednesday 4 Class Meets Wednesday This Week (9/3) and Monday (9/8) Next Week

Wednesday 6 Classes Meets Wednesday This Week (9/3)

Almost Time to Celebrate - But Not on Wednesday Night

So close....!

We now have 119 students in EDM310. Two have never shown up for class and do not have a blog. So let's say we have 117 enrolled.

Of those all but 12 (10%) posted Blog Post #2 on time. That is the best Week 3 performance ever (except for summer semesters).

Of those 12, eight are enrolled in the Wednesday night class. That means 33% of the Wednesday night class did not post Blog Post #3 on time. Why so many? I wish I knew. So our celebration is slightly undermined. But in the other three classes only 4 students out of 93 students (4%) failed to post Blog Post #3 on time.

Time to celebrate, except on Wednesday night.

Keep it up MW4, TT11 and TT2! Get on board while you can W6!