February 21st Blog Assignment

DR. CHRISTIE

One of the sections I looked at on Dr. Christie's site was her section about integrating digital media. I think this is a wonderful idea and that teachers could get a lot of use out of it. Digital Media could be used in the classroom in many different ways. Pictures could be taken of a variety of projects to teach future students and give them examples. This could also be used for the teacher, if they wanted to remember a certain way they did or taught something. Filmed video or tapes on a camcorder could be taken for documentation and future learning. I just really believe that digital media could change and help things in a lot of ways.

Another thing I really enjoyed on Dr. Christie's website was her emphasis on internet safety. This is such a big deal and so very important. The internet is huge and can be accessed by anyone in the world that wants it. This is a VERY scary thought! Especially when we are talking about kids being on and using it constantly. Dr. Christie however gave many good example on how to make the internet a safer place for our children and how to be aware of what might be out there! Reading this was very helpful in my opinion.

ITUNES UNIVERSITY

Well on this subject I have to start off by saying this could be both helpful and hurtful. I however believe that if you use this the right way it can be very successful and helpful. The only bad thing that could come of using this is, if all lectures are done by podcast and class is just voluntary, who is to say a student will actually watch them? Ill be the first to admit if all my lectures were available online and I didn't have to go to class I probably wouldn't. Now I know not everyone would abuse this, but I would stand to say it would happen a lot! Another thing is if you are only watching podcast, and aren't actually having a class period how are you going to ask important questions that need to be answered right away and you can't wait for and e-mail response? You would be so stuck!

On the other hand I believe iTunes U could be very helpful if used the right way. By this I mean if a teacher were to do all their lectures by way of podcast, the teacher could also hold a class period once or however many times a week just for questions and further explanation. Or maybe in a college setting make one day a week no class for watching podcast and the second period a week be mandatory but focused on building off what the students already watched and answering any questions they might have.

IPODS IN THE SCHOOLS Dukes iPod Article

I found this very interesting. I think that students and teachers could both greatly benefit from the use of ipods in the classroom. Students could use and listen to the podcast to make sure they didn't miss anything in class or just to refresh their memory. Something that you first think of is how can schools afford this. This is tough but I believe it is possible. I mean think about how many kids already have or have access to an iPod. If i were going to do this in my schools and needed to cut dow on expenses you could simply have available ipods for student who might not have one, and for the students that do have one or access to one could just use their own. Though I really believe there would be more to work out than just that, I do believe it could be useful and beneficial!