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This class has been very helpful to the improvement of my professional career. Mr. Wakeman is a very skilled and knowledgeable instructor who has plenty of experience. one area upon which i improved dramatically, is the use of spreadsheets. In using Microsoft Excel and Google Docs Spreadsheet, i have learned how to set up a budget sheet, a class grade book and i have also learned of the various charts involved with spreadsheets.

I have also learned about Word documents and how to set those up effectively and efficiently, this will help me to put large amounts of information together, and to make it visually stimulating and interesting. The presentation is something that I've never done until i enrolled in this class. I've learned that presentations can be the perfect tool for teaching a class or educating a business seminar.
the blogs have also helped me and i have a feeling that they will continue to help me throughout my career.

The Sky is the Limit

The podcast I viewed was “clouds in the Sky” and it was a relatively short film that is to be used to aid teachers in the classroom. There were three categories to choose from, being K-5, 6-8, or Grades 9-12. This video was found in the K-5 section and is a learning tool for youngsters to learn the importance of clouds moving. This can be the basis for getting them motivated for learning and ultimately lead to more intelligent children.

It is important for children to get exposed to as much technology as possible these days. Hopefully if we use these tools on itunesU, we will acclimate the next generation to the technology age and they will solve the problems that we have created.

This itunesU will help me and be invaluable to my progression as an educator. It will certainly help me in the teaching environment, even though I am a physical education major.

Designshare on Fischbowl

The blog 2020 vision on Designshare was fairly interesting. It was on the FischBowl blog site, and Mr. Fisch wrote it. In this blog he tells how he gets in contact with an educational architect out of Texas (Mr. Fisch is in Colorado). The architect’s name is Christian; well he read Fisch’s blog on Designshare and decides that he wanted him to make it into a presentation to show to a convention of educational architects.
This is all pretty amazing to me, and Fisch. He says it when he states that just five years ago this wouldn’t have happened, Christian never would have seen the blog, and they would not have been able to work on it together. this blog can be found here

the Last Lecture Of Randy Pauche

The Last Lecture of Randy Pauche was very interesting to me. Randy Pauche was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and also a very brilliant mind. He was also very compassionate towards his family and anyone willing to learn. Even after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and only given a few months to live he was still upbeat and cared about his job enough to give us his last lecture.

In this lecture Mr. Pauche shared many of his life experiences, and things that he did not get to do. He spoke about how one of his life goals was to become a NFL football player. Even though he was not physically built to play football at such a high level, he said he learned more from trying to play than actually playing. One of his great quotes that he said from this is “experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”

It is also amazing to me at how upbeat he was during the whole lecture. I honestly thought it would be almost painful to watch his last lecture, but in reality it was quite the opposite. When he first started the lecture he said he didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him and cracked a few jokes to ease the tension. He even did a few push ups on stage to show that he had not given up on himself at all.

Towards the end of the lecture he really showed what kind of man he was. He wound the whole 76 minute lecture down to say that the whole thing was meant for his kids. He wanted them to learn from his experiences, both bad and good. Throughout the whole lecture he gave credit to others that he met throughout his life. He never really took credit for anything. This is just the kind of man that Randy Pauche was.

pod casts

The first pod cast that I listened to was the Smart Board Lessons pod cast. This pod cast was pretty informal and I listened to various parts of it. According to the description of the pod cast it is supposed to be about smart boards and their applications in the classroom. The various portions of this pod cast were things like joking around and talking about random conferences to reading mail from various listeners. I honestly was not interested at all by this pod cast; however it did give me a good look at what they are all about.

The next pod cast I listened to was titled This Week in Photography. This pod cast could be related to a radio show that is focused on tech help for all things related to cameras and photography. The hosts of the show used many technical terms related to photography that I really didn’t understand, partly because I have never really picked up that hobby. Despite this they kept the interviews and discussions interesting, and unlike the previous pod cast this one was more organized. I actually listened to what was said instead of staring at the wall wondering what they were trying to say.

The MacBreak Weekly pod cast was not that bad either. They did wander off the topic several times and reminded me of a radio show at times. These guys love everything that Apple has done or created, and it definitely showed. I did learn a thing or two and also realized that pod casts are really close to radio shows that try to focus on a topic.
The last pod cast I listened to was Kid Cast and it was run by one man. He started with a brief introduction, then he spoke about students pod casting and how there is not enough being done to get kids into it. At times it seemed like he was just rambling, and more than once I just wanted him to get to the point. Although I could see where he was just trying to paint a picture, but I thought it was excessive at times. It was fairly formal and I could understand using this pod cast in the classroom.

International Blogs in the Classroom

i found a blog titled Mrs. Cassity's Classroom Blog and it was made in Canada, which isn't too far from home compared to some other places. Anyways this blog had it all, she used videos, pictures and games on here site to keep both the students and their parents interested on the blog. Click here to view this blog. Mrs. Cassidy did an excellent job on editing her site with plenty of videos and many links to check out.

the next blog was also great. It was from a canadian class in Ottawa. the class was for 10-11 year olds and these kids were actually making animated movies, which is something i have not even figured out yet the link for this site is here. i was very impressed with the technological prowess of the students in this class and it made me realize that our country may be behind on these types of things.

International Blogs in the