iTunes Podcasts

In "The Edible Schoolyard" podcast I thought it was really neat that they integrating gardening into the classroom and using organic materials. They were using hands-on activities to learn about soil and photosynthesis, along with many other things. The children were learning to work together and see live things grow from their hard work. The children were able to eat their won healthy food for lunch. The Edible Schoolyard program was started in order to provide better lunches for schools and the children seemed to enjoy eating the things they grew and cooked themselves. The students says that it gives them a warm feeling getting to provide for themselves. The children are the ones who make all of this happen.

In the "Night in a Global Village" podcast the students were sacrificing their status as privilged students in order to help the less fortunate children. Some students lived in refugee camps where they were not allowed to speak in English and had to live like the people who were less fortunate than themselves. The camp in Guatamala had plenty of water but the camp in Appalacia had no water so they had to bargain with the other camp to have water. It was freezing at night and the children were scrambling for resources for food and fire. The students realized they had to stop arguing amd work together to get things done.

Both of these podcasts were really neat. The one about the children growing and cooking their own food was cool because it taught the children real life skills but it also taught them about important science lessons. The hands-on activities seemed to be a good way to get the students interested. The podcast about the children living as less privilged children was interesting because it showed the students struggling like other children do every day of their lives. It allowed them to experience life in a whole new way and be able to appreciate the things they have and to take action to help the people who are less fortunate.

These podcasts would be great for me to use as a teacher. Podcast like these could help give me ideas to use in my classroom to make learning more intersting for my students. I think the students would be very intersted in the hands-on activities since todays society is more of a hands-on society. Children can learn better when they are seeing results of action rather than reading about others experiences. I could even show the podcasts in my classroom to let them get an idea about what I want them to do, or even watch them for information about the specific subject being taught.

iTunes University

Itunes University is a part of the iTunes store used as an educational resourse. The iTunes U has many different categories to select from when searching for information. The categories are as follows: business, engineering, fine arts, health and medicine, history, humanities, language, literature, mathematics, science, social science, society, and teaching and education. There is also a search available to find information from a specific provider, such as university research.

I believe that iTunes University would be a great tool for me as a teacher and a student. There is an abundance of information on almost any topic imaginable. I think the iTunes University would be great from the student perspective because there is a lot of information for research papers available. From the teacher perspective, I think iTunes University would be a great tool because it has a section for K-12 information, and teaching and education section for topics I may need to refresh myself on for classroom activities. Visit http://www.itunes.com for more information.

iPods for Instruction

The use of iPods can be an educational tool as well as a technological tool in the classroom. Tons of information can be stored on an iPod depending on the specific iPod purchased. Although a little pricey, iPods offer a great deal of educational items for learning purposes. Foreign language and music lessons can be downloaded, along with slideshows and podcasts. Podcasts can be valuable because they allow the students to see first hand research on the topic chosen. http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites070.shtml gives a lot of information on sites that can help teachers learn to use an iPod in the classroom. IPods offer all sorts of tips on great ideas for lessons and information on practically any topic can be found in the itunes store. Everything is relatively inexpensive in the itunes store after the initial purchase of the iPod.

Duke University has decided to give all incoming freshman 20-GB iPods to foster innovative uses for technology in the classroom. The iPods will be preloaded with the Duke fight songs, an academic calendar, and freshman orientation information. Students will be able to download course content and they will also be able to record notes onto their iPods. I think that iPods will help foster creativity in the classrooms and that students will definitely benefit from using iPods to enhance learning because of their wide capacity of information.

Dr. Alice Christie

Dr. Alice Christie has a PH.D. in Educational Technology and Language and Literacy from Arizona State in 1995. Before receiving her PH.D. she taught in the K-12 schools. She travels and holds workshops on how technology can be useful for teaching and learning in the classroom. Dr. Christie has conducted a lot of research to show the differences between genders using technology and on teachers as they learn to integrate technology. Teachers could learn a lot from Dr. Christie about using technology to enhance learning in the classroom.

I thought a neat feature to use in the classroom to enhance technology was Google Earth. Google Earth costs only twenty dollars a year and offers all sorts of fun ideas. Google Earth uses satellite imagery to explore different places throughout the world. Things such as maps, buildings, geographic formations, and civilization infrastructures can be searched through Google Earth. Tours can also be designed and saved through Google Earth to go along with geography lessons in the classrooms. Google Earth is a virtual way to get students engaged in learning about different places all over the world and could be a great tool for classroom learning.