Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch delivers an wonderfully inspirational lecture on achieving your childhood dreams. What makes this lecture so powerful, is that the speak is terminally ill. He is not only an entertaining speaker, but has a powerful message on not just achieving your own childhood dreams, but also helping to enable the dreams of others.

He tells his own list of childhood dreams and goes through them discussing how we accomplished them or in some cases, found more valuable learning from his experience trying. One of the points he makes that stand out, is that he says brick walls are there to remind us of how bad we want something. That's such a great statement. Our willingness to find a way, is often directly tied to how bad we want the accomplishment.

After he talks about his own dreams, he talks about the importance of enabling the dreams of others and how powerful that can be. He was a professor, instructing students in the technical field of virtual reality. He gives a great example, when his students immediately reach his expectation of them, yet he still says to press on. We all need to feel that there is more to obtain, to see how much we can or will push ourselves.

He says you can't always get their alone, sometimes you need help. His advice is to always tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you screw up and focus on others not yourself - this is words we can all live by. Even in the middle of his speech, he takes a poignant moment to recognize his wife and have the audience sing Happy Birthday to her. What a wonderful speak and a man who may not have it all figured out, but certainly leaves a legacy with what he did discover.

The Fischbowl - Best of 2007, "A Formula For Success?"

I reviewed an article from February 2007 called "A Formula For Success?" from The Fischbowl blog. This article was a great piece written on how we need to rethink the way we teach mathematics to students. He brings up many interesting points, all of which I agree with. He talks about the idea of "one right answer" in math and how that is not always what the concept should be. He believes we need to teach our students practical applications for math and ensure they actually understand the concepts rather than be able to calculate a memorized formula. He gives a great example where he asks his readers to take a simple quiz. The first question asks the reader to explain the quadratic equation and then subsequent questions regarding the equation. His point is that how many of us possibly remember this, regardless of whether we learned it or not in school.

Why do we think it's important to teach students mathematical problems and test them until they can spit back answers, but never delve into whether they actually understand what they are calculating or teach them what they can do with it? If we taught students practical applications, ones that can be applied to what they really need to know, wouldn't they be better off? Maybe they would then be better able to retain what they learn, which would help them more in the long run.

My EDM Presentation About My Family

EDM Fall '08 Podcasts

I listened to a discussion by Sara Large and Tina Dillen about the use of technology in USA's College of Education. They covered several topics, including the use of Foliotek and the USA Online eCompanion site. I thought they put together a very informative segment and did a great job.

The second podcast I listened to was Adrienne Lynch, Joylyn Reese and Brian Stevens' discussion of the use of You Tube for Educational purposes. They also seemed to have researched their topic well and brought up many good points regarding pros and cons.

After listening to these examples and comparing them to the more experienced podcasters, while both were informative, the experienced discussion flowed more smoothly and resembled an actual conversation. I think the participants need to talk to each other, as they would in a normal conversation, rather than a rehearsed speech.

Preparation seems to be the key, but in a sense that you are familiar with your subject so you freely contribute to the conversation. I also noticed that we need to watch the filler words such as 'um' and 'uh'.

Overall, I think they did a good job.

Teachers and Technological Literacy

"If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write."

This is a statement written on Karl Fisch's blog in an archived article from September 2007. I completely agree with it. Not that I believe every educator must be able to program computers and be able to spit out whatever information they want in a 20 second speed drill, but I do believe they should be familiar with technology and be willing to learn more. He raises an interesting point though, teachers who cannot read or write would not make an effective teacher today or 30 years ago. We know that technology is growing each day and the future of our students, if it is not already, will be centered around it. How can we adequately prepare our students, in areas in which we are illiterate?

Not understanding technology cannot be an accepted excuse these days. We force our students everyday to pursue in areas they may not be comfortable in and then we measure their intelligence by grading them on these areas. Who forces teachers to be better? Such excuses are weak and unacceptable when so much instruction and help is available to us. We need to push ourselves to be better equipped to push our students. When we step out of our comfort area and remember what it is like to be immersed into an environment where we know nothing, we can better relate to the needs of our students.

Technology can help us gain their attention, reinforce information and drive home concepts in a way that can relate to practical purposes. Above all, it makes learning more interesting and fun! Shouldn't we use every possible tool available for our students advancement? Sometimes it is hard to step outside the box and most of us dislike the feeling of ignorance in an area, but we must force ourselves to become better educators.

Podcasting

This is my first experience with listening to Podcasts, which I would equate to listening to talk radio, but you get to pick the subject. After listening to a few, there are various styles, but most just flow like conversations. The array of subjects seems almost infinite, the listener can select any topic they want to learn more about.

SMARTboard Lessons is a weekly show that talks about SMARTboards as the title suggests. There are two hosts, who basically converse with each other about new information they have discovered and outline various links that can be helpful to the listener. One aspect I liked, was that they would give you the web address of the link they discuss, and then almost walk you through the features while you can follow along. It is almost a tutorial like display while you listen through iTunes and follow in your interest browser.

The KidCast series is hosted by one person who talks directly to the listener. These are informative, but if you're not interested in the subject, you can be easily distracted. Some Podcasts are a group effort, such as MacBreak Weekly, where a few individuals bring their thoughts to the table and then discuss. I probably prefer this type of Podcast the best, because it seems fast paced but also informative. You have several people bringing thoughts together while the others agree or disagree, but you get several points of view.

Some Podcasts such as EdTechTalk are conducted like interviews, where there are weekly guests that talk about various subjects. Tuning in each week, the listener has the advantage of hearing from people located anywhere in the world, who can contribute to an interested topic.

Podcasts are a great way to keep up with moving technology or for learning new ideas from a central location. They allow the listener to follow along with their computers or listen to subscriptions when they have time. Considering possible benefits for use in the classroom, what a great way to post notes for students to pick up, or information for parents that can be downloaded. There are endless possibilities to what you can do, or information that you can provide or take advantage of.