Week 10 - Extra Credit

Robotics is a field which I am very unfamilliar with, but at the same time an interesting topic. Having students work to build functioning robots for competitions is a great idea. It could build a sense of teamwork, pride in work, and problem-solving. Working together, the students would all contribute to a team effort; thus, when they won, they would have a sense of pride in their work, and the robots they put their blood sweat and tears into, it will give them more satisfaction. Problem-solving and determination would come into effect with trial and error, as well as perserverance being gained from pulling out all the stops to creating a functional robot. The same goes for the Creating Music, all of the above I have just written. Creating and taking pride in their own music will give the students pride and a sense of accomplishment, and a lot of fun.

As for Legos, however, I would not use them in a classroom. Don't get me wrong, I love these little building blocks - but that's the problem. Everyone loves Legos. They are so much fun for kids and adults alike; while the more dedicated cream of the student crop will use the Legos appropriately, I fear they would inspire too much goofing around, with how much fun the Legos. Just as well, some students will likely steal the Legos and take them home for themselves. While it would be fun to use in class, I am afraid that Legos are simply too much fun, compared to something more complicated for - in my opinion - older students like the robotics and music-making.

Week 9

Podcasting is yet another way to communicate for people. As most Web tools do, it helps reshape the way we are able to communicate by long-distance. In a classroom, it could be a way to form a sort of fail-safe in case a student cannot attend class. Perhaps it is illness that prevents the student from attending class, so they log onto and form a podcast session with their teacher (obviously concerning more severe cases of illness such as vomiting, this will not be mandatory, but a choice of the students'). Or even a simple unfortunate chain of events such as no transportation to class, the student can still participate in the lesson via podcast.

As I said, podcasting is another way to communicate long-distance in case physical meeting is not possible. Just like VoiceThread and even common websites like Facetime, Skype, or Google Plus. It is possible for teachers to even record their lessons or important instructions and save them as music files for free download for students. I think anyone would agree with the fact that having more ways to study would be beneficial to any students.

I use my iPod primarily for listening to music, but as I just suggested, perhaps using the Voice Memo application, we could email our lesson and information to any students who require it. I also know a vital way to teach a new language to students - have them learn songs of different languages. Everyone could listen to and learn a song on my iPod and then learn the words, paving the way to learn the language.The Voice Memo will save the breath and time of having to try to reteach a lesson as well.

Week 7

It is impressive that just 17 years ago - when I had my first son Christopher - computers were a relatively new thing, and the digital age was just beginning. Toy Story, the first completely CGI (computer-generated imagery) film, was considered (and still is) a landmark in film-making. And now, 17 years later, we have all these different tools like Wiki's and Voice Thread. The latter in particular strikes me the most, since it seems like a combination of several things we use today: Google Plus, Skype, Facetime, and Facebook, to name a few. In a way, these are preventing the need to meet each other in person; heck, all 30 students of a class could join a Voice Thread "session" so to speak, with a teacher as a host. By shrinking the gap, and proving it is just as easy as clicking with a mouse to get to educational tools, we are making it more convenient to teach.