Response for Randy Paush

I must start this reaction blog, with the one statement: "impressive." This lecture was more than I thought that it ever could be. Is was worried about the length at the beginning, but simply I was wrong to worry. The leadership, creativity, ingenuity,life lessons were amazing. I don't even know where to start summarizing this lecture, but I will give it my best effort.

This man's life was spent doing what he loved to do, and he seemed to have no regrets, in football terms he "left it all on the field." Mr. Paush, opened his lecture with another football illustration one in which I am familiar and have herd before, but still believe in very much."Fundamentals must be perfected, or else fancy work won't work." This presentation is loaded with a plethora of information, and one liners that motivate me, and encourage me in my future. The fact is that no matter what came down the turn pike Mr. Paush, kept his head up and conquered the "brick walls" he encountered. Describing the brick walls as obstacles on the road to achievement not barriers that last forever, was especially motivating, truly they are for someone else problems but not for the inspired.

His dreams were well suited as a child during the 1960's as unmanageable events in the world were happening world around him. He felt that nothing was impossible if one truly put their mind too the task. I liked his example of Capt. Kirk, I never though of him as a a great leader before this presentation, but now I see where Mr. Paush is coming from. The Capt. was not the smartest, strongest, or best looking, but he had the leadership skills, and that is what mattered. Another sports related illustration "when your only in for one play, you have the freedom to knock some one's head off." I am a hug fan of statements that are short and concise but pack a big punch. This man's life was just that, short lived, but knocked people like myself out.

Mr. Paush, second life view in the helping of others was encouraging to hear. I also believe that helping others is one of the fundamental opportunities that we have a educators. In my opinion I believe that this world is run most effective when people learn servant leadership roles, this applys to any field.

His final outlook on life, encompassed remembering to where you came from, and who played a part in getting you there. Although his attitude was that of "Tigger" I know that he did have some days when he felt like "Eeyore." So never complain just work harder. Or my personal favourite, "Don't bail, the best gold is at the bottom of the barrels of crap."

Response to Michael Wesch

I posted my objectives this week in reverse order by mistake, but I am glad I did so. I think that this video was the best and got me thinking the most. As I think about my classes here at South Alabama, and the structure most have taken I see some room for improvement. I can think of a freshman class that was so impersonal, and felt like Darth Vader was teaching me, and moreover grading me. The class as a whole seemed to care less and the material was presented in the driest format. But to contrast that class with my classes now, some teachers stand on their desk's or do things such as that to interest us. We are allowed more hands on activities, and opportunities to mess up or for that matter get things right. The basic rule for education or learning has always been the same: if it's fun then people will learn more.

Response to Kelly Hines

All professionals that want to be taken seriously must be continues learners. I completely agree that teachers should be up to date, and always striving to know more about their field of study. The concept of teachers is the same for doctors, I do not want my surgeon to have graduated in 1986 at the top of his class, and then never crack a text book again. Although I am on the low end of technology awareness, and much of it seems over whelming, I must over come my disposition. I tend to have many thoughts that are predestined to shy away from media related objectives, but if I do so then I am just robbing a child from their education. Since the beginning of my EDM 310 class I have over come my hatred of twitter, and plan to fully embrace all that Google has to offer.

Response to Mr. Fisch

In my opinion I believe that Mr. Fisch, was accurate in his observation about people and their lack of desire to be educated about new technologies and common skills. Although prior to this class I would have counted myself as a proud person of ignorance. Those who do not know as much about subjects can fell as an "lesser," and therefor take pride in their ignorance as a form of stability. I do not think that teachers, or parents, much less students should get into the habit for settling, and not knowing the ever advancing world they live in.

Blog Topics Part 1 Comment

As I began looking for a topic to direct my efforts towards I came across one in which students from a mid west high school were apart of. Since I am a secondary education major I decided to listen to the "Sound Off" audio of the students. As the name suggest this piece was one in which various students discussed their opinion's on subjects ranging from books they have recently read too high school shootings. This type of creativity from the school and students is amazing to me. I have never heard of students using a pod cast to encourage learning, and promote awareness of personal topics of interest. I can tell that these students have a real desire work hard and present as much knowledge of whatever subject is at hand. I can simply hear the enthusiasm in the voices in the young students which is encouraging to me.

Pod Cast Comment from Mr. Bob Wakeman's Class "Can Wikipedia be Useful to Students and Educators?" BW0430W

From my first day at the University of South Alabama, I have been told and almost threatened not to use the web resource of wikipedia for anything. The reasons were few but sound in nature. I was warned that this website contained some true information but one never knows if all the facts are presented. I though that this pod cast by these students did a fair job in presenting both pros's and con's regarding wikipedia. As an education major I want to have all my facts correct and triple checked before I present them to my students. I learned from this pod cast that wikipedia is a open and free web resource, but one in which I would never use as the foundation of my information. So I believe that the professors here at South Alabama saved me form buying into all wikipedia had to offer me, because I would have taken it all for truth.

Pod Cast Comment from Dr. Strange's Class "Burp Back" Education

Having no idea what a "burp" style of learning was I chose this pod cast as a means to educate myself, and those whom I will be teaching. As described by the students performing the lecture, this type of learning is passive and involves little to no effort from students. As pointed out by the speakers of this pod cast we as teachers should "inspire not require" students to want to learn. Any person can stand in front of a class and read a book, then administer a test. But a true educator, has a passion to go above and beyond just getting average test scores on a standardized test. This pod cast is helpful in that it encourages its listens to actively teach those whom will inherit the world after us.

Pod Cast Comment from G. Tashbin Class Last Summer

For my first pod cast listening assignment I chose "Use of You-Tube in Education gto3summer09." This pod cast described the basic functions of You-Tube, along with the two main sources of information provided on the website. I agree with the students, and believe that in some capacities, the website makes a great resource for furthering a students education. This tool is one of the most used and reliable on the Internet. With the addition of You-Tube edu students can watch professors teach as if he or she was having a private tutorial session. With technology expanding in many different ways You-Tube is leading the way with free advise to educators, and students. These students did a great job on their first pod cast, and have very good information.

Fellow classmate #3

For my final blog I chose Miss. Rachel Kinard. She is working on her 2nd degree at South Alabama. She loves to travel and take care of animals of all kind. She will make a great teacher, and seems to really have the heart for it. I wished her well in her studies, but I am sure she will do fine.

Fellow classmate #2

For my second blog assignment I chose Miss. Kimberly, from Dr. Strange's class. She is a very interesting student, who really likes to read and write all kinds of things. She uses a PC, so I guess she likes them better than a Mac. She has 3 pets and the are posted at the end of her page. I wished her well in her studies at South Alabama, and believe she will do fine

Fellow classmate #1

As assigned I chose a fellow classmate from another EDM 310 class today. His name was Jim Fawcett, and he is from Scotland but moved to the U.S. when he was 20. He has a passion for technology and seems to like learning new things in that field. I wished him well and hopes he succeeded in his studies.

How the internet impacts my life

Although I am on the low end of the Internet food chain, my life is effected by the world wide web in a radical way. I have always had a difficult time giving anything my undivided attention, so actually I find the ability to search the web for information useful not distracting. I feel that the plethora of information is to much at times, almost overwhelming but I would not trade the ability to sit in my living room and know the weather in China for anything. I believe for many people the Internet has made them lazy and caused them not to work at their full potential. As for myself, I believe not only has the Internet enabled me to work at full potential, it has more than tripled my knowledge.