Sunday, March 1, 2009

iPods and Education


Could iPods really be used for educational purposes? When i firsts heard of this I was a bit skeptical because I have an iPod and I defiantly do not use it for any type of educational purpose. But according to Duke University they can be. In 2007 Duke University gave 1600 students ipods fully equipped with voice recorders and notepads built in. The purpose of this was "to encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life...". To me this is true because we are growing up in a more technological time and the use of computers and laptops are taking the places of pens and paper. But there are some cons to this. They still play music for one. This is bad because I myself would be tempted to play music in class as suppose to using my iPod for educational uses.
The University also states in on their Mission Statement that there are many benefits to Ipod usage in school. Some examples were the time flexibility, interest level of learning goes up, and the simplicity of it to use for interviews. All these are very impressive and makes me re-think the whole thing, but my opinion still stands that its probably not that good of an idea. I just feel that we have enough technology that helps us in all these fields that we really don't need the iPod for our classes. If this "tool" is that important I am sure Office Depot sells a device that can preform all the functions the Ipod can without the use of playing music. Again i feel its a valid argument, but just not plausible for the uses of education.

Dr. Alice Christie


Dr. Alice Christie received her Ph.D. in Educational Technology and Language and Literacy from Arizona State University. She currently goes around the country and gives workshops about education and teaching younger students. From reading her website it seems that many people have come to honor her wisdom and love going to her conferences and workshops. I must admit after viewing the website for only a few minutes I was pretty impressed with this Professor whom I have never heard of before.
This website could be very useful for me as well as any other aspiring teachers. The website Dr. Christie is designed to give all teachers insight on how to "mold" the students into future teachers themselves. One of the nicer things on this website that I enjoyed were her podcasts that she posted. Each podcast has a different teaching cue and are very simple to follow. And with Dr. Christies open and somewhat humerous delievery, it is easy to listen too as well.
Another great application from this site is the Classes applications. Here teachers can click on a particular class an upload just about everything from Power points, syllabi's, and even tests and quizzes. This is extremely helpful and thoughtful of Dr. Christie to give these things for free. This really speaks of her character and determination to teach all people. She also puts up photos from all her workshops and from others classes which is nice for the kids who visit the website.
I would have to say that this particular website is probably the most helpful site I have been to. This site is really insightful and interesting for anyone interested in becoming a teacher. To visit this website click HERE

Wikipedia: Trustworthy?

Is Wikipedia reliable source for ones school project, english paper, or geberal knowledge? There seems to be two sides to this argument. On one side of the argument, a lot of people (including college students) find Wikipedia a great source for assignments. Me myself find wikipedia a wonder to use. But there are some reputale arguments out there informing people to be aware of possible misconceptions on wikipedia.
One student from the California Institue of Technology named Virgil Griffith, claimed that Wikipedia is faulty because they allow anyone to edit their pages. This is true and I can understand where he is coming from. I myslef know this and always check the sources behind the sources on Wikipedia. The one good thing about Wikipedia is that you can see who wrote the page and even who has been editing it. So if i were to give any advice, it would to use Wikipedia as a starting point. It is a great source when used sparingly. Also, make sure you check your sources so you know who is giving the information because there are some bad pages out there. To see and hear Virgil's podcast click HERE