My Final Reflections (Week 8)

My new blog is located here. It is a work in progress, so do not expect much until Saturday or Sunday. I have a social date on Friday night with the most beautiful girl in my world: Anna, my 6-year-old granddaughter. We are both so very excited.

Rick Burd, EDU 255

Jing deaux

How to call using Google.

I think I've spent the entire week on some of these projects, and I'm still not sure I have it all. Was I supposed to embed the video, or link it?

What's the next assignment? No. Wait. Don't tell me until Monday.

Rick Burd, EDU 255

Podcast

OK, that British bloke on the Audioboo welcome message is just creepy.


And, oh my, I just couldn't help  myself.

Thatch?

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Jing

I used Jing to capture my last post on my blog. For some reason, I had a problem embedding something from somewhere, somehow. And, on we go.

Rick Burd, EDU 255

YouTube Video

I created a video that I believe I must have saved at a high resolution, based upon the amount of time it has taken to upload it to YouTube. Another mistake I made was attaching the out-takes to the movie, thinking they would not add much upload time; I was wrong.

So, I must say that I am no Thatcher, but I got my message out.

Welcome to Mr. Burd's class. (link)

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/l3ZGusQUi2Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rick Burd, EDU 255

Video Lesson

  I found this video on TeacherTube. I used it this week for my Intro to Biz class. We have been discussing the pros and cons of credit, credit pitfalls, consumer protection laws, etc. Although we reviewed about 7-10 videos for a Public Service Announcement the students are creating, most students found this one most dramatic.

Credit explained with water.

The thing I really like about video is the emotional impact that can be transmitted through vocal inflection and body language. This cannot be done through any other medium. This practice coincides with a marvelous book I am reading: The Heart of Change, by John Kotter. Kotter's approach to change is "See, Feel, Change," as opposed to other approaches that teach "Analysis, Think, Change."

Rick Burd, EDU 255

Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door

Wednesday morning in Sedona. My daughter's house is located on the 3rd hole of the Oak Creek Golf Course. Cathy and I are watching the grandkids while our daughter visits family in New York.

Rick Burd
EDU 255

Photo Sharing, Technology in pursuit of a purpose?

Even though I teach computer applications, I am having a real struggle designing photo-sharing activities that I could/would use in my classrooms, beyond exposing the students to their ability to store and share such photos. That would fall under the category of a computer application—one which many students in ninth grade are probably not too familiar with.  I will demonstrate to the students the two photo sharing networks that I’m familiar with: Flickr and Picasa. I use these sites as storage and feeders for the pictures that we take of students and related photos on our campus. However, to design an activity that would make this a learning experience or teaching activity seems to me that I’m trying to find an educational use that does not yet exist for a technology that does. I rather think I should be trying to teach students certain curricula and, if technology helps me do that better, then I would/should use it.

Obviously, when I taught journalism, this was not the case. The need for photo sharing was already there, and Flickr and Picasa were the vehicles we used to do a better job. Trying to make our teaching practice fit the technology, rather than using technology when it helps engage the students seems to be a very backward approach. I don’t want to use technology simply because it’s cool. If I teach a course or subject that lends itself well to the technology that’s available, then I am highly in favor of engaging the student in that manner. If not, then why bother?

Rick Burd

EDU 255

Social Networking: Ning

Ning: Create your own social network for anything. ©

Perhaps I’m taking the easy way out here, which I find rather disconcerting on my part. The disconcertment comes because I have started sending my e-mails to students with the sign-off signature “Do Hard Things,” which is also the title of a book I’m reading. Nonetheless, I chose to do my assignment on Ning because we are using Ning in our EDU 255 course, I knew nothing about it, and I think it is a platform that I can use at my high school.

Day of Rest?

It's Sunday afternoon. I just got back from Sedona, where our daughter lives with her son (8) and her daughter (6). It was a pleasant 24 hours for all of us.

I saw the new posting for EDU 255 on Facebook. I'm sure there will be a flurry of activity there, although I found myself becoming really bored with FB about seven months ago and took a hiatus.

Another Week Gone

It is flying by, this EDU 255 course.

I was speaking to one of our library aides at the high school today. We were talking about my class blog and how some students have really taken a liking to it. If I post the assignments and lesson plans early, I have students who have their work turned in before class starts. (Should I penalize them by making them listen to my lectures while in class, or reward them by letting them play games on the computers in class?)

Something New?

Granted, I stole this idea from someone else, but I rather enjoy it.

Would you like to learn something new each day? Make this link your home page. It's Wikipedia's random encyclopedia page. I am so much smarter than I was four weeks ago. Jeopardy, here I come.

Peace,

Rick

Along Those Lines

One of the reasons I chose this class is to become more savvy than the average teacher at a local high school. Within the first few days of starting EDU 255, I got two blogs up and working for the classes I teach. (See sidebar)

If you have been to the classes' blogs, much of what you can see cannot be viewed on the school campus. Links, slideshows, photo albums are all blocked. One of the frustrating things about working at the high school is the cumbersome manner in which things need to get done. Perhaps it's my personality; perhaps it's my business background. But I can get rather testy and impatient waiting for approval to demonstrate slideshows of my students' work.

Feedback, as Tom Hopkins said, is the breakfast of champions. And if the students must wait days to (proudly) show off their work, then they lose a lot of their enthusiasm. Disappointment can set in. Motivation can wane.

Anyhow, that's my rant for the day.

Peace.

Rick

Wikis in the Classroom

I heard about wikis several years ago, but I honestly did not know what they were or how they worked. I assumed that, like Wikipedia, they were large repositories for professional communities. 

After watching the Richard Buckland video, I now have a better understanding of a wiki's use. I believe that wikis can serve a valid and valuable use for an educational classroom. Buckland teaches at a University, so his students are much mature than the 14-15-year-olds that I teach. What he does in his courses, however, should be easily adaptable to any post-secondary school.

In a high school setting, I need to be much more cautious. I am dabbling with the idea of trying a wiki in one of my business classes. The business students are more responsible and seem to take more pride in their work. However, I will not have one ready for testing until after spring break (March 14-18).

My Wiki

I can't believe how tired I have become. But I thought I would post my new wiki on my blog before I forget that I did this.
BMHS Computer Apps Wiki

I enjoyed the 55 minute video of Richard Buckland, but I think I learned more practical stuff from the 2:45 minute video from wikispaces. I also learned from the 2:30 minute youtube video of Wikis in plain English.

I'll straighten this post out tomorrow.

OK. Tomorrow came and went. I've had more time to look at some wikis (which, by the way, are still a new concept to me). However, I can say this: I have wiki-envy. And I'm trying to fend off what Todd referred to on his blog as tech performance anxiety. I've looked at Ruth's wiki, and I feel like I'm at least several years behind her.

I think I am going to be either incredibly delighted or overwhelmingly disappointed when my wiki goes "live" in my classroom. I will try to incorporate some of the great suggestions that Buckland mentioned. One that I won't be able to use, though, is the practice of making the wiki part of the course from the first day. That opportunity is gone. However, young adults are very malleable, and I'm sure there will be some marvelous students whose work will amaze both me and their peers.

Rick.

A New Culture of Learning

Richard Burd

Mr. Conaway

EDU 255

20 February 2011

A Culture of Learning

I’m quite sure that my second week’s assignment is going to include some rather scattered ideas. I say that because as I got more and more involved about what I thought was going to be an excellent resource for my assignment—Will Richardson’s older blogs--I found myself becoming more interested in the actual learning part than in finishing the assignment.

Well, that's all folks.

I tried...honest. I actually thought my wiki post was working, but after I hit "post," I couldn't find it anywhere. It's been a rather frustrating evening. I left my laptop at school and had to drive back to get it. I couldn't find our reading,

Teacher's rant on blog gets her suspended

This might be considered more of a tweet than a blog entry. But, I read the article today on a teacher in Pa. (my home state) who got suspended for her postings about unnamed students on her personal blog. Apparently, this event has caused a sharp divide among teachers, parents, students, and others. Half the nation thinks she should be fired and never teach again; the other half thinks she should be honored for having the courage "to tell it like it is."

What do you think?

Read about Natalie Munroe.

Thank you,

Rick

Philosophy of Education

Richard Burd

Mr. Conaway

EDU 255

8 February 2011

Philosophy of Education

I was a philosophy major in college, and in all my studies, all my readings, all my musings, I have never found a better approach to life than the one I learned as a small child in Sunday school: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

New Day

It's Sunday morning--some would say it is "Super Bowl Sunday" morning. But, not me.

Although I have blogged before (http://asnereynoldsphoenix.blogspot.com/, and http://wranglernews.blogspot.com/), I still find myself excited about the new blogs that my classmates and I have created for the EDU 255 course that began Saturday.

My Test Blog Post

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. 

"Say a prayer for the pretender." (Jackson Browne)