Final Refelection

Today is my final class of EDM 310. I have enjoyed this class very much, although those feelings were not always present. I was very apprehensive about taking any class that was computer driven and dominated. But with great relief and confidence I can gladly state that this class was my favorite throughout my fall semester. The material was presented in a logical and coherent manner by Mr. Tashbin. He gave each student equal and fair attention, allowing time for the plethora of questions students such as myself had.
If I was asked to name one learning tool that I obtained from this class, it would be the features of Google. I was simply unaware of the vast capabilities that this search engine brought to the table. This free service allows one to search the Earth by using Google Maps, give presentations, save important information, along with many more features. By using Google Docs this semester, I have not needed to purchase a jump drive, because all my information was automatically saved online. I am very thankful this type class is offered at South Alabama, as I have found it to be one of the most important in my college education learning processes.

Response to: Glut of Google can give you a vitural fever

This article poses the new issue of "cyberchondria." This is a condition where a person with a head ache convinces themselves through individual web research that they have a brain tumor. Due to the fact that people consult to search engines as some kind of oracle it is no surprise to me. This article does a great job pointing to the simple fact that search engines are simply retrieval instruments, not qualified objective medical doctors.As Americans we want to know everything at the push of a button, unfortunately that accommodation comes at a high price. That price as become our sanity, or lack there of. Although the Internet is a great tool and helps with millions of problems, I believe one would do themselves a disservice if he or she diagnosed themselves with a medical condition. The technology is not objective enough to handle such a sensitive matter.

Dr. Miller Post

As Dr. Miller states, his idea of research education was sitting in a library surrounded by little noise and tons of books. But as Dr. Miller recognizes the future involves coffee house and laptops with thousands of libraries and college databases available at the touch of a button. I can't start to imagine where, and how this new technology will expound, and how long its fingers will be. The fact that a person can be transform his or her lesson plan, or subject material wit hen a matter of minutes is amazing, and extremely beneficial to the students. In my opinion today's' students are adapted to passive learning, which involves hearing a lecture, rather than reading to obtain the desired curriculum. With the podcast, and youtube frenzy and the ability of free access I believe students will excel like never before.

Wendy Dexler

As the would of education evolves students who want to work smarter and not harder incorporate "connectivism." This type of learning which interlocks technology and student to student connections is a system of networks. Students must be able to establish a social network, and be proficient enough to rely on creditable sources. My only problem with this type of learning, is that it is very overwhelming to a new be like myself. I do like using technology to be more efficient in my work, but still find comfort in having a teacher lecture me and check up on me. I do not want to do something wrong for a long period of time, but think I am doing something right and develop bad habits.

NML Post

The NML blog emphasised the importance of technology, and how it plays such a major role in the lives of life long students. These eleven steeps were very well rehearsed in my opinion, but still great to be reminded of. I do feel that much information was vague, and would have wanted more substance with concrete examples. But if one was to apply these skills to his or her teaching environment to the best of his/her ability, I am sure they would be nominated for teacher of the year. The fact is that that technology has played and is playing a major role in the education field, and a teacher must be at the top of their game. As future teachers it vital that we be proficient in at least these eleven skills, and more importantly be able to teach them to the leaders of tomorrow.

Mr. McClung

Although Mr. McClug's thoughts and opinion's are valid, they are very broad. He makes very solid and valuable suggestions, but as future teachers about to get thrown to the wolves I need a little more substance. I really appreciate his transparency, and flexibility as an educator, and sets the bar high for us future generations. But as the our edm 310 class points out more tan gable points are needed to really feel the force of his comments.

Dr. Christie

I had a hard time finding Dr. Christie's website, so like any normal American i today I just "googled" it. She is an amazing teacher with over 40 years of experience in the field. The amount to experience lends to a vast knowledge of tools in the field and there importance in the class room. Along with some of my fellow classmates, I consider "teacher tube" to be one of the best tools available as of now. The simple fact that new teachers to be can have so many rookie questions from veteran teachers online is amazing and a great relief.

I tunes U

I think iTunes U is the most captivating tool that students, and teachers have at their disposal right now. This feature also expands the the learning possibilities of those who never got the chance to attend a university, but have a hunger for knowledge. Many times when I walk my dog I will put radom lectures from professes form high profile university's, just to hear what they have to say about things I am interested in. Right now I am learning about the Universe and the many ways Earth will be destroyed by radom events. The absolute best feature about this tool is that it is free to all, the only condition is that one must buy the ipod.

ipods in education

This is a very interesting topic, and one which I just became very enlightened about in here in the recent future. Like the website promotes i believe that ipod technology and its many facets well play a major role in today's school environment. The possibilities of this technology are only limited to the human imagination, and the sky is the limit. The fact that students can simply push a button and hear the teachers lecture from there phone, or ipod is amazing.

The University of Duke experienced many of the problems of new technology, many situations that were never imaged were encountered, but eventually overcome. The is no chance that the university could have expected the success the ipods brought to the learning environment experience for the students. Duke did a great service to the students, and only time will tell to what extent this technology will enhance student education in the classroom.

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.

1st Podcast

After jumping through about a 1,000 different hoops and nearly throwing my sister's laptop across the room I found the ever so important link to "pod cast." I have very low tolerance for computers, and to top it all off my sister's speakers would not make a sound when plugged into the computer. So as the air vent in the back ground blew for long periods of time, I sat with my ear on top of the worthless laptop speaker. Why don't the people who make laptops use speakers that can be herd? As I vent about my computer sorrows, I oddly feel prompted to make a pod cast about it.

To start my pod cast experience was tuff to say the least. As I listened about “smart board” I could not help but agree with the rest of the class. This subject may not be boring, but those who presented this pod cast were not so good. So as to not get perturbed about my first trail run, I choose some topics that I could relate to. Although I must same some covers to the topics are misleading. For example I choose “Get-It-Done Guy’s Quick and Dirty To Work Less and Do More.” There were many to choose from so at random I clicked on one about the middle of the page. This topic covered the importance of saying “NO.” I guess this is important, but I have that skill so next please. I stayed with the same topic because I thought it would not be fair to judge by only one topic. The next pod cast had to do with public speaking. I want to have great public speaking abilities in the future so I clicked and listened. To my surprise this lecture was rather interesting, and I learned some examples of what not to do. One such example is the importance of removing the “umm” in between thoughts.

My next series of pod cast were from the “onion.” I had no idea what this link was and what was going to be said, so that is why I chose the onion. Upon opening the content I quickly closed it and moved to the next. The next series was under the title of “how stuff works.” I listened to a pod cast about the first Olympic Games and how they worked. To my surprise it too was interesting, and very educational.

I have a great fear that one day a shark will eat me. I found a pod cast with that very topic in mind, except it was teaching how to defend oneself from an attack. I learned that a person if attacked must do everything he or she can to hit the shark on the snout.

My over all experience regarding pod cast is an A+. I sill am horrible with computers, but this gives me incentive to learn fast.

My Report on: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

This video is very encouraging to me because young students are being introduced, and becoming proficient in the world of computers and other technologies. This new type of training is a prime example of the old proverb, "Give a man a fish, his family will be hungry the next day. Teach a man to fish and he will feed his family for the rest of his life." This new form of "digital citizenship" is here to stay, it would be in our best interest to become as well rounded, and fluent in it as possible. These teenagers are being afforded one of, if not the best opportunities to gain a foothold and solid direction on their future.

When I was in high school, what little we used the computer simply just informed everyone how to properly log off, before pushing the power button. Heck, way back in the day (2002) when I learned to type in high school, we used new age typewriters (electric). These students now can teach themselves, and each other once given a gentle push in the right direction. Is this not the ultimate goal of every educator?

My take on: Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

When I first saw the title of this speech I immediately rolled my eyes. Not to my surprise when I pressed play I herd the voice of an English man. Without hesitation, I put my head down to fall asleep as if exhausted, but still I listened because I was assigned to hear him talk about the education system. To my surprise I actually liked many of his thoughts, at least where he is going with them. But I don't necessarily agree with how he gets there, the "vehicle" he chooses to word it different. I think Mr. Robinson, wants radical changes to the education system across the world, not just a few liberal changes. I believe that the education system must evolve over time, but I do not believe that all should be scraped and just start a new.

Speaking only for American schools we need to get measures in place to allow children to be pushed, and allowed to be creative at an early age, so as not to take from them talents. I do not believe that schools detour away from certain children only because they show less potential in a higher-level work force, as Mr. Robinson points out. Simply some children will inherently excel, and some will struggle for “C.” I believe part of school curriculum should be inactive. Allow students to go “dancing” whatever it takes to have the children learn. But some parts need to be strict and rigged, because that’s how many business meetings are along with other “grown-up” adventures.

Response to Mr. Winkle Wakes

This short film brings to the surface many issues that concern our culture, and our future culture. In my opinion this film raises 2 main questions: 1. what is the government doing with our tax dollars? 2. When I have children, should I send them to public school? I am a product of both private and public school, but without skipping a beat if put on the spot I would choose private schooling for my children. In my opinion the facts are simple and obvious, public schools are all about quantity, and private schools are about quality. I believe that all children should be given the chance to reach his or her potential no matter what school system, but the fact that public schools do without hampers the graduates.
This short film brings to the surface many issues that concern our culture, and the culture of our future. In my opinion this film raises many questions, but 2 main questions: 1. What is the government doing with our tax dollars? 2. When I have children, should I send them to public school or private?

I am a product of both private and public school, but without skipping a beat if put on the spot today I would choose private schooling for my children. In my opinion the facts are simple and obvious, public schools are all about quantity, and private schools are about quality. I believe that all children should be given the chance to reach his or her potential no matter what school system, but the fact that public schools so often do without new technology only hampers the graduates from “being all they can be” to quote the Army.

Along with many other frustrated people from the great city of Mobile, I must beg the question from my Mayor. How is it that he can drop a $10,000 moon pie, at new-year 2009, but not get the students’ better technology in public schools? Older people say that younger generations need to “tighten up” because they are going to run this country down. Well give us what we need to excel. The fact is no longer is a computer a luxury, but a necessity for a productive life.

My responce to the: 2008 Latest Edition - Did You Know 3.0 - From Meeting in Rome this Year

2008 Latest Edition - Did You Know 3.0 - From Meeting in Rome this Year

This information is amazing, almost too much to really wrap ones mind around. As stated in the video, “It is estimated that a weeks’ worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.” The fact that people are being trained for jobs that are not tangible today is just incredible. This video really does two things to me: 1. it encourages me of the human potential, 2. it scares me because I am not good with computers.

It was also stated in this presentation that what information we know now will double every two years. The fact is as a human race we are not drifting towards a future like "the terminator" movie. We are being swept away with all kinds of possibilities. I am not saying that this world will turn in a movie like the "terminator," but it might not be long before very human like robots are created. It is a poor comparison but some people have robots as house hold vacuums. I just hope the USA, has a great back up plan, because India, and the Chinese are closing in.

About Me

My name is Josh Burks, and I am 24 years old. I am married to the most wonderful woman in the world and her name is Sarah Beth. I think I am a Jr. at South Alabama and working towards my education degree. I am currently working at my Church, and feel that God has called me to be a full time minister. I do not have any kids, but I do have a wild dog that is less than one year old. I enlisted in the Marines immediately after high school. I served four years in the Marines and now I am completely out and pursuing my college education, I hope to graduate in two years.