Blog Post 14

David Streitfeld's article The Teacher Knows if You Have Done the E-Reading can be summed up as a software program at Texas A&M that tracks whether or not the students in the course are using the eBook. Developed by Pearson McGraw-Hill this software is called CourseSmart. The software actually allows the professor to see which of his or her students, opens the eBook, the chapter and pages in which they view and the amount of time in which the student reads or stays on those pages. The software is developed to give professors what they call, an engagement index. I think this would be a fabulous program for teachers and students to use! Students would be pushed to create a time management schedule so that they had access to the eBook. Some programs at South Alabama are currently similar to this one in the sense that teachers are able to see if you watch the videos and view the lesson plan. As far as notes go teachers are not able to view that portion. Granted when I took these classes, I had to have extra help because the eBook portion was not enough for me learn all of the components.

Teacher:
How well did this program work for you?
Did the students complain a lot about this new program?
Was it very successful?

Students:
Did you like this program?
Was it complicated to learn?
Was it beneficial to you, or would you have had a regular textbook?

This would be a very successful software I believe. It would help both the students and the teachers. As long as the students were given a schedule and enough time to plan at the beggining of the semester, then I see no problems with this software.

Project #13

Through EDM310 I have learned many new forms of technology and how to use them but more importantly, how to create a collaboration using them. I was already aware of how to use Skype previous to the class. Google Doc along with Google Drive were both equally new for me but have been lifesavers in this class and every other class. I will most definitely use Google drive if anything in the future. I do not know how I have made it this far without using Google drive. I made a Google+ hangout but I myself was not a fan of it, but I tried it. I have never used FaceTime for an academic purpose but I can certainly see how it could be helpful.

For Project #15, my group mainly used Google drive and email to piece together our iBook.

Project #15

Blog Post 13

The video Mr. Chamberlain suggested, "Brian Crosby's Presentation at TedX" would be a great video for classroom learning. It could demonstrate how to bring topics in to discussion through different topics. I believe this would be a video better fitted for the upper grade or gifted students because it could be a complex concept for some students. If this was shown to younger students or wanted to be shown to younger students, then it could be altered by the teacher individually to fit the needs of that particular classroom.

Mr. Paul does have many interesting post and related articles in his blog. The only problem I would have with his blog is that Mr. Paul Anderson is a high school AP Biology teacher.His teachings and post are very helpful, for high school. But not everyone teaches high school. I myself am an Elementary Education major and many high school concepts would not even be able to be applied in an Elementary classroom. But Mr. Anderson's blog is a positive source for high school teachers.
Watching "Blended Learning Cycle" by Paul Anderson, I thought it was short sweet and to the point. I think his strategies are a great idea! They are wonderful for the students and the teachers for many reasons. The students get more one on one time and teachers get to know students more and have a personally level with them to build trust and learning. Unfortunately, like many suggestions from EDM310, I do not believe these are all changes that a teacher could make. Many of these decisions would have to be district wide and that would be very complicated BUT possible to accomplish.

C4T #4

My final C4T is on Beth Knittle. She lives in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She expresses different views of learning throughout her blog. For example she refers to formal as well as informal teaching styles. She says she blogs to help her keep track of her learning experiences which I believe is a great idea! If you blog about your experiences and put it out to the world you can receive feedback to better your teaching and even learn more.


I commented on Beth's blog post from March 30, 2013. It is entitled "Where are we going?". She explains how different the schools are now. She mentions how technology is not essential and I commented about this in my comment on the post. No matter where we go in the future with education and curriculum, the technology is not going anywhere. It will only become more involved I believe.

Below I have posted my comment I left for Beth:
"Hi Beth! My name is Shelby Day from the University of South Alabama. Like Erin above me, I am also studying to become an Elementary Education teacher. For my class EDM 310 I was assigned your blog to follow. When I first came to your blog, I noticed you are pretty open. You tell the story (classroom) how it really is. It is interesting when you say "I am not sure I agree that technology is essential to achieving Education 3.0" because I am more on the technology side. I think technology is a great resource if the classroom have access to it. On the other hand, I do agree with you on the fact that based on technology integration I am no sure where education is going or where it will be in five years. Thanks for the interesting post! I look forward to future post on your blog regarding technology.

Shelby Day
Twitter: @Miss_ShelbyD
Blog: http://dayshelbyedm310.blogspot.com/"

For my second C4T on Beth Knittle I looked through her blog to see if she had updated much and noticed that she blogs in bulk. She might have two or three blog post for one day then nothing for a few days or a week. This is not always a bad thing but in my case, I just had to go back further than March 30, 2013 rather than forward from March 30, 2013. The post I actually commented on was also on March 30, 2013 but titled "Losing Focus". I choose this post because I am most definitely feeling Beth on this one.

Below I have posted my comment on Beth's blog post:
"Hello again Beth! I chose to comment on this blog mainly from the title. It is the end of the semester and I am officially losing focus on school an everything in life! Agreeing with the Google article, society is losing focus with everything. Technology is a great resource but when we begin relying on it then we have a problem.

Shelby Day
Twitter: @Miss_ShelbyD
Blog: http://dayshelbyedm310.blogspot.com/"

C4K April

My first C4K in April is on Elijah W in a fourth grade class in Nebraska. He is in Mrs. Geldes class. His blog post are a little short for fourth grade and have grammatical errors (of course I did not comment on his post about this). There are only four blog post on his blog. I chose to comment on "my class". This post is about what the students classroom would be like if they had their own. He discusses how he would have a technology class and have iPads, iPods, and computers. Then Elijah says how he would teach the class how to work them.

Below I have listed my comment for "my class":
"Hi Elijah! My name is Shelby Day. I am from Mobile, Alabama and I attend the University of South Alabama. I love that you would make your classroom focus and learn so much about technology. I think this would be an amazing classroom to learn in! I look forward to future post on your blog! What is your favorite part about blogging? Keep up the good work!
Shelby Day
Blog: http://dayshelbyedm310.blogspot.com/ "


My final C4K is on a student named Paris. Paris is a student in 4th grade in Victoria, Australia. Surprisingly there were two students named "Paris".
The post I commented on of Paris' is describing hat she did on break. I am guessing that she is referring to Easter break because she mentioned spending time with family and a church function.

I have listed my comment below regarding the post:
"Hi Paris! My name is Shelby Day. I am from Mobile, Alabama and I attend the University of South Alabama. It is so exciting that you are able to blog in the fourth grade! I did not learn how to blog until I was in college. It is interesting that you are just getting back from break! We only have two weeks left then we have summer break. It sounds like you stayed busy the entire break and spent time with family. I look forward to future post on your blog! What is your favorite part about blogging? Keep up the good work!
Shelby Day
Blog: http://dayshelbyedm310.blogspot.com/ "

Blog Post 12

My area is elementary education. I have decided to do a blog post on iPad apps.

For this blog post, you should read Best Education Games for the iPad and choose five apps that could be useful in your classroom. List the five apps below and why you choose them.
For the second part of the blog post read iPad Apps for All Areas and comment on his blog with your thoughts and opinion.
The final piece of this blog post is to go to Top iPad Apps Elementary School Children and discuss iPad apps with a comment below on why most of these apps would not be beneficial in the classroom.

Progress Report for Final Project #16

Our group name is Avengers and the members it includes are:
Shelby Day
Stephen Alexander
Laura Carpenter

We are going to do Option A: iBook.

We are using a theme that iBook already had in it. We chose not not use a theme with pictures included already so that the pictures do not interfere or take away from our iBook. We will be including many of the requirements for EDM 310 including but not limited to blog post, project, special blogs, and more.

Project #9 Final Post

Final Post: A final summary your PLN.

As I began exploring and researching more PLN's I found that it is not as simply as it actually seems. It is a series of trial and error periods to find out that the outcome may not even be a true out come. This will be something that will be continuously evolving and we will have to adapt as a society.

David Truss has been such a great resource to helping me with building my PLN and blogging in general! I have learned that like many things in life, you get what you give out of PLNs. If you put yourself out there and ask questions and for help/ advice then you are more likely to get it.

Sue Waters was also a great help on March 6th I began following her and within minutes we had a conversation going and she sent out a tweet to her 13,000+ followers asking them to follow me and mentioned me in the tweet. Within minutes I had gained several followers all thanks to one tweet asking for tips.

I think right now Twitter and blogger are my favorite only because they are so interactive. So many people are using them and it makes the connection unbelievable and unimaginable as to who you will get the opportunity to talk to from day to day.

Blog Post 11

Ms. Cassidy's video is truly inspiring. It showed me that even as younger as first grade students can begin learning about technology. It was odd seeing such young students working on technology because some of the students in EDM310 are on the same level as Ms. Cassidy's First graders. Just imagine what these students are capable of in five or even ten years if they keep up this hard work! Using these technology resources are so useful to the students because they look at it as having fun not learning. So when they have to do a project or assignment then it is not work it is something they enjoy doing. I would love to use all of Ms. Cassidy's techniques shown in the video! Everything from Skype to blogs, to webpages to Nintendo DS (or whatever tool is in style at the time). The only problem I could see with so much technology is not being aware of the sites outside of the classroom. To avoid this, I would go through sites that should be avoided or give a list of approved sites.