Grades 9-12 Podcats

The iTunes store is a very useful place. I downloaded two video podcasts for education from the iTunesU. The two podcasts that I chose to view were high school level, grades 9-12. The first podcast that I watched was Function of Sleep. The seconds podcast was Frozen Frogs. I found both podcasts very interesting, but I like the one about frogs the best.


The Function of Sleep podcast was a video about sleep. The researchers think that sleep and memory are connected . They believe that when people and animals sleep they are process things that went on that day. So they performed a test ran on a rats. The rat on the video was wearing a hat that had wires about the size of hair connected to its brain. They put the rat on a maze were he would find his way to the center and each time it would receive chocolate syrup. The rat continued to go round and round the maze. The researchers were viewing the activity of the rat's brain during the maze. After the maze, the view the function of the brain during the rat's sleep. The function of the brain was similar during the maze and during sleep. But during sleep the brain was functioning a lot faster than when it was in the maze. It was as if the rat was remembering certain images from earlier in the maze. Two different parts of the brain was functioning. The part of the brain for long term memory was functioning during the rat's sleep. The researchers think that this helps them to believe that people and animals are processing memory. But this is all speculation. I liked this podcast, but I was not very comfortable seeing the hat on the rat. The video announced that is was painless putting it on so that made me feel better about the animal.

The second podcast was Frozen Frogs. It was about North American Wood frogs during the winter. The camouflage themselves. When it gets cold at the first touch of an ice crystal, it sets off signals that pulls water from the center of the body. The frogs internal organs will be rapped in a puddle of water and then it turns to solid ice. The is no function of the frog's organs. No breathing. No kidney function. No heartbeat. The frog is completely frozen for a long period of time. The frog is not dead, but it is about as close as it could get. It feels like a rock. The blood sugar of the frog acts like an antifreeze until the spring time. The frogs begins to thaw and within a day the frog will come back to life. The inside starts first and then the outside follows. It all happens in the right order each year. I really liked this podcast. I like to learn about different animals and I found this kind of unbelievable. This was really good information about frogs. Do you know that this happened to frog?

Even though both of the podcasts I downloaded dwelt with Science, I think that video podcasts could be very useful in my Mathematics class. I think that podcasts would really help Math students. Each and every type of Math class could use podcasts, whether it be Geometry, Algebra, or Calculus.

I could post podcasts on many different things in my class. I could do different videos on how to solve problems, definitions of the words, theorems, different rules in Math, and many other things . My students could download the podcasts to help them while at home. They could provide their parents with information if they are trying to help their child. I think I will be willing to use podcast in my class. I think it would help my students especially if I was no available at that certain time.

The Edible Schoolyard and A Night in the Global Village

The Edible Schoolyard video was about students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California learning how to succeed outside of the classroom. The students would garden the first period of school time. This program was actually created by a lady that wanted to improve school lunches in Berkeley. This helped the students learn about planting, harvesting, and eating. It also helped with subjects such as social studies, math, science, and even life. The teacher uses everything to teach the students. The teachers are trained to make the garden the center of their teaching. The students learned to cooperate to do projects together. The students would grow the food and cook the food and this made them want to eat the food. They learned to use concentration and they learned how to be generous. The benefit of growing the garden comes to the students senses. This is basics for students to learn, which students used to be taught at home, but they are not anymore. Not always the book smart students excel when it comes to hand-ons activities such as this. The students that struggle in the classroom may adapt better to this because it is something that they can achieve.

A Night in the Global Village is a video on students at Rocky Mountain School Expeditionary Learning in Perryville, Arkansas learning how to live as other countries. There were homemade villages created for the students to stay in. All the students voluntarily traded their privilege as Americans for the less fortunate. This program allows students to walk in others shoes. They learn about poverty, hunger, and development. The students were separated into groups and each group has an adult with them. The adult got to choose whether to act as an adult or act as a child. This helped the children to stand up. Each group is sent to a different homemade village. All of the groups received resources for their stay, except for the refugees. They received nothing at all and they could not speak to other groups. The students all received resources but not all the resources that they needed for survival. The students had to begin to cooperating with each other to provide each group everything needed. Students learned to work together. The students also had to do chores such as cutting wood and feeding the animals. Each student had choices to make to survive. This helps the children learn how other countries live and nothing beats living a lesson.

I think these were really great videos. Only if I could have done this during my school years. I think these kind of experiences need to be experienced by all students. I could use these podcasts as a teacher to show my students how developed our world is, especially the United States. This can help all students begin to learn about different cultures(and don't you know we need that) and help them learn how to survive in real life.

Teaching is a great responsibility. Teaching is not only in the classroom, it is also outside. The videos are great examples of this. Teachers can use these videos to publish to the world that our students are becoming educated through new technology. I think that this is great, but we really need to get all of our students involved so that they are not so far behind that they give up.

iTunes University Can Help

iTunes University can be really helpful for any student or teacher. iTunes University is available through iTunes. It is opened to universities to output information to it for their students.The students can sign in to the Internal iTunes U Site for their information from their teachers. The teachers have to right to assign user ID and passwords to access the Internal iTunes U Site. There is also an External iTunes U site that is accessible to all the iTunes visitors. This can help with finding students to attend in the future or maybe it can be used just to share the university's information and knowledge with the world. Many schools create both internal and external sites.

I think that I could use iTunes University as a student. This could keep me up to date with what's going on at other universities. It could help me to find out information to succeed in certain classes at South. I also think it could be a useful tool as a teacher. I could get ideals from universities to share with my students. This could help with activities and help me to access all of my students need. I could even get ideals on how to help the children with disabilities through iTunes University. I think iTunes University is and will be a very useful tool.

iPods and Teaching

Should teachers use iPods for instruction? I believe the answer is yes. After searching the web I have made that decision. I discovered a blog, Successful Teaching, which is used by a teacher in Greenville, South Carolina. In her blog she has a post about including iPods in her classroom. She noted “If we look a bit deeper, we can also conclude that this will have a positive change in the environment, as paper waste will be reduced because of this. In other words, the potential to learn with the iPod and the ability for it to be beneficial is absolutely astronomical”. I also found that Universities use iPods in teaching. Duke University is a university that uses iPods for its students. Duke is actually giving iPods to freshman students. The iPods will be preloaded for the freshman students with information about freshman-orientation information, an academic calendar, and the Duke fight songs.

I think iPods will be great for teachers to use in their classrooms. I do believe that iPods need to be limited to classroom material only. Using iPods in the classrooms could be interesting ans useful as a teacher.

Dr. Alice Christie

Alice Christie has created an awesome website. She has been in education over 30 years. The website is a lot larger than I expected and it really amazed me. She really knows how to reach everyone, including parents, children, and other educators. She has updated information on her site and it includes Education Technology. The Education Technology involves a section on Instant Messaging.

The Instant Messaging includes different subcategories and they include Lists of Internet Slang Terms, Instant Messaging Article, LeetSpeak, and Instant Messaging Abbreviations. This particular section interested me because the world is becoming more slang than ever. This will help students, parents, and other teacher explore the world of IM. Each subcategory has link underneath them that can be clicked on to learn more on the subject.

I think it would be great if I could create a site as Dr. Alice Christie has done. I think her site has inspired me and amazed me all at the same time. Creating a site like hers could lead me to be a better teacher.

Wikipedia Response

Wikipedia is basically an internet dictionary, or so I thought. It is the main website to pop up when you look up the definition to any word on the internet. I really trusted the Wikipedia until I read the articles “Who’s Been Messin’ with MY Wikipeia Entry?”, “Scanner Tracks Who’s Changing What on Wikipedia” and “See Who’s Editing Wikipedia – Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign”. I also listened to NPR Podcasts relating to changing Wikipedia. Anyone can change Wikipedia, who knew, not me. The articles stated that there have been changes to Wikipedia by companies that are not researching the facts. They list what they want and sometimes they also delete information that has already been posted. Sometimes large companies may delete information; some of the companies have been Wal-mart, Diebold, and even the FBI. This helps me conclude that Wikipedia is not a safe resource of information. Only some statements are untrue, but how can we tell which one.

Virgil Griffith, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, developed a Wikipedia scanner. The scanner helps to track the IP addresses of who has changed the Wikipedia definition. This allows you to know if it or they are reliable sources. We can begin to see by this that everything you count on, may not be as reliable as you think.