Well after after some failed attempts I have conquered the world of pod casting.https://soundcloud.com/billvasas/bill-vasas-podcast
I found that I actually use some of these products or have used them in the past. In a school district I worked in they made the switch from Microsoft office to Google docs and gmail. It was great. We had access to everything all the time. Best part was that it was free to the district. Even after having left that district I still use the Google calendar and email.
My family also uses a product I couldn't find listed called cozi. It is a family calendar program. It sends out email and text message updates to our family as to what is going on in in the week. Another thing that he did not have listed that I use is itunes radio. It is similar to Pandora or other music programs. I like it because I can select to have edited music during my PE and Weights classes. I hope to one day be an athletic director. I think that due to the increasing use of technology, it will be very important to know how to use it. I have to admit that I am starting to like using twitter. I think as an athletic director it would be so helpful to update fans and boosters as to the happenings in the athletic department. It is also a way for them to interact and give feedback to the athletic department.
As a high school coach and teacher now I can see the benefits of being able to use facebook and twitter to update players and students on things they need to know. I found these articles to be very interesting. I completely agree with the idea of the importance of pod casting in online education. I think that the main thing missing from online classes is the ability to listen to lectures and hear what the professor finds important enough to talk about in the class. It seems that it would be fairly simple for a teacher to record their lectures and post them in a pod cast for students to listen to.
Not only would it be useful in an online setting but also a regular class setting. In the same situation a teacher could record a lecture and post it as a pod cast for students to access later at home. This could be useful to students in their homework and also to students who might have had to miss class for some reason. They could still have access to the lectures and not just have to read the assigned work to get the information. In addition to posting their own pod cast a teacher could post other lectures on the same subject form other teachers. In this way students could have another avenue to learn the material or hear it from another point of view. I have found as a high school teacher that students are truly always on. They can text and tweet without even looking at their phones. Just as the article states though they are losing skills. They are lacking in patience and deep thought. I have found that they have a hard time staying focused if they don't get the answer right when they want it.
I think the trick is going to be getting them to use this technology and develop into deep thinkers. After all they do have access to so much more information than any other generation. The question is how to get them to use this tech savvy brain? How do we help them learn to not get easily distracted? At the beginning of the school year we as teachers were presented a cartoon on technology. It was about the invention of a new technology, the pencil. It went through all the reasons why the pencil would not work in education. It was funny to hear the excuses, yet they struck so close to home as we enter a new era of educational technology.
I thought the article was interesting. I realize that students now are so plugged in to social media. I hadn't had my twitter account five minutes when I started being followed by my students. They just know. As educators I think it is important to use technology in classes and in coaching. It is so important though to teach proper use first. I think that posting assignments and other things on Facebook and Twitter would be very beneficial. You could also use twitter to send homework reminders. I do agree with the article in that there are better platforms to use in education. I really like model. I think it gives the teacher more control over the site. There is no doubt these students today are able to learn better by these methods. I chose to use pearltree as my PLN. I liked how easy it was to link with people about information and things I am interested in. It was nice to see the different people that are interested in the same things as me, and to start building a network of ideas with them. It is nice that all I have to do is click on a pearl to get information on a subject and that I don't have to look over other websites that do not have any relevance to my topics.
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