iPod's in education

iPod use in education is something that is certainly on the rise. An interesting study was done by Duke University in 2004. They gave iPod's to all the first year incoming freshman and evaluated their use and response in the classroom. They found that this certainly increased student participation and learning uses of the iPod. The Study was titled iPod First Year Experince
I think that iPod's can definitely increase a students learning because it can give students access at anytime to audio and sometimes video of educational use. This comes in handy during a car ride or when working because it is hard to study when you are busy but your ears can certainly listen to what is going on.

Alice Christie

This lady's website is very resourceful and useful for teachers. I loved the educational technology part. I think that I chose this because this is almost the theme of our whole class is that technology is changing and it can be used in the class. This part of her site list many resources and information on how to use technology effectively in the classroom. Many teachers are ignoring this movement of technology because they do not want to learn. Mostly because they do not know how to use technology. Students are beginning to use computers at younger and younger ages and are using them to handle almost everything that comes there way. My favorite links were the website development toolkit and the podcasting. I think that these are important parts of todays classroom. Especially the Websites. That gives students instant access to what they may have missed in class for a particular day or more information to a project. I hope that people will become more aware of technology in the classroom and start applying what they have learned.

NPR Blog on Wikipedia

This blog was very informative on something that college students are always being reminded of. That is the fact that Wikipedia is not always reliable. This open policy that Wikipedia allows anyone to edit its contents makes this very people to change post that will help them or their business or even there public appearance. The Walmart post was especially obvious and definitely a way to persuade future employee's to consider what walmart has to offer.
Many questions can arise as to how can wikipedia regulate who can edit and change what is written about particular subjects. I think that if there is substantial proof that if someone has changed an entry in wikipedia that can benefit them or a particular person that is completely false that that person should be punish by the american judicial system. This must be regulated because it can hurt particular businesses as well by competition and disgruntled former employees.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

This is a great lecture. The main thing that I loved was that we should have fun no matter what we do. I loved how he used his childhood dreams to teach about life and to really just tell his story. This is an amazing man who has accomplished many things over the years. In case you do not know what I am talking about, Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. He gave his "Last Lecture" when he found out that he had, at that time, been diagnosed with cancer.
Many of his teaching methods encouraged life lessons that all his students could apply throughout life. While watching the video I was captivated by his motivation even though he knew that he was about to die. That is truly amazing for a person to be so enthusiastic and to still continue to do what he does even in such bad circumstances.
My favorite lesson was the brick wall illustration. It showed me that there will always be obstacles in life. They are meant to make us better and to let you only get what you really want. I would recommend this lecture to almost anybody that i know. It is very uplifting and encouraging! In fact i have already emailed it to a few people. I would give this lecture an A+!