In My Unprofessional Opinion

My PLN

abodamer — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:29:21 +0000

Throughout ED483, we have been introduced to a myriad of different websites, whether for social networking, or portal-type websites with links to many great teaching resources, or things like GoogleDocs [which I LOVE, by the way]. I haven’t attached myself to as many of them fully; some I’ve just skimmed and said, “this is not for me.” Others I have clung to for dear life and use every day.

So, what’s not for me? I didn’t really care for Delicious. I think it’s a great idea, but for me it was more work than I wanted to put into bookmarking [not to mention, everytime I wanted to bookmark a website that I Stumbled, FireFox's Delicious add-on would prompt me to add that site to Delicious as well - sometimes they were just articles that I wanted to read later because I wasn't in a reading mood. Overall, Delicious was more than I wanted and I didn't use it more than maybe twice.

I also had a few in-between type sites. My blog is one of them. Don't get me wrong - I love blogging. I'm just more of a personal blogger and less of an educational blogger. I don't respond well to articles and videos: half the time I forget what was happening anyway. As a result, I didn't post as much in my EduBlog this semester as I maybe should have. Maybe in the future I will use it more - I'm certainly not going to get rid of it.

What have I started clinging to for dear life? Oh, blogosphere, let me tell you. I. Love. Twitter. With all of my heart and soul and being. My Twitter is both personal and educational - I follow people from all different groups. Some are people that live across the country, some are from ED483, some are friends of mine in the Marquette area. I see the value in using Twitter in many different settings. Another thing that I couldn't live without is Google Reader. I check my Reader multiple times every day. If I find a blog that I love [like David Pogue's NYTimes blog!], I always put it into my Reader. GoogleDocs is beyond amazing. I started using it right away and sort of never looked back.

I would say overall I have sort of a small PLN. But it’s growing as I’m finding more and more cool stuff on the web.

Response to today’s TED video

abodamer — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:58:34 +0000

I figure that I need to write in my blog more, so why not kill two birds with one stone?

I want to start off by saying that I love John Philip Sousa. Now that I have that out of the way…

Read-Write

Computers and technology are helping to put the “write” back into the “read-write”. I especially liked his use of the slideshow going on in the background emphasizing his main points – my personal favorite was when he was describing kids today and he said something along the lines of “that’s who they are”, and on the slide show it just showed “r”. That encompasses my perception of the new “read-write”. Kids can read, and kids can write. As long as it looks sumthin liek this. When students r riting papers n txt style, sumthin s rong.

But I’m getting off track.

Fair Use

My biggest question is, where is the line between fair use and copyright infringement? Why is it okay to use music that is NOT in the public domain and set it to a slideshow of pictures that YOU didn’t take and put it on YouTube, yet it is not okay to upload TV shows or movies? [I'm not saying I think that it's okay to copy TV shows and movies and put them on the web without permission, even though I watch TV shows through that medium; I just don't understand the difference, perhaps just becuause I don't understand copyright laws as well as maybe I should]

TED, and my new addiction

abodamer — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 04:08:52 +0000

My new addiction IS TED. I watched one video, and then another, and then another, and then another… well, you get the point. The bottom line is, I LOVE TED videos. I downloaded the TED app for my iPhone, added the TED updater to my Twitter… And I don’t just watch videos on one thing. I watch videos on EVERYTHING. I watched some videos that were posted on TED for talks that weren’t given at the TED conference [Mike Rowe and Adam Savage, for example].

One of my favorite presenters, though, was David Pogue. I’ve watched all of his talks that are posted, listened to his hilarious song parodies [which I will post links to at the end of this post], and I’ve been endlessly reading his blog on the NYTimes website [and subscribed to it via Google Reader].

One of my favorite things about David Pogue is not what he’s currently doing, but what he’s done: he graduated summa cum laude from Yale with a distinction in music and spent ten years conducting and arranging music for Broadway. Not only is he a huge tech geek and an Emmy award winner for his tech correspondance on CBS News, but he’s a true musician! What’s more, he’s a very well-known how-to writer. He’s co-authored a handful of Dummies books, and he codesigned and and wrote the manual for Finale, a music program that I use often [and thanks, David... the manual is exceptionally helpful!]. Moreover, he is hilarious to read and watch, but effective as well.

David Pogue’s Website NYTimes Tech Blog TED Talk – Cool Cell Phone Tricks “I Want an iPhone” YouTube Video

So, now you know and [hopefully] understand my David Pogue addiction

Music Theory

abodamer — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:58:11 +0000

Today, while studying for an exam that I have tomorrow, I came across a website that could be very useful to us future music educators: http://www.musictheoryminute.com

Basically, it gives a one-minute lesson on a variety of topics in the field of music theory: cadences, augmented sixth chords, suspensions, etc.

If I were to ever use this it would not be IN class, but a resource for my students to use OUTSIDE of class, after they have been taught the information by me. If they don’t quite remember everything and the textbook isn’t being very helpful [how many times have I been in that situation!] this website gives a verbal AND visual description of various concepts.

My Wikispace

abodamer — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:28:31 +0000

Here is a link to my Wikispace. I’m gearing it toward being an electronic portfolio of sorts, with some personal touches.

HauntedRadio’s Wikispace

Seeking Advice

abodamer — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:09:00 +0000

What would you do…

If you were in a class with an instructor that you did not respect as a professional? Would you drop the class, or would you stay in it? Does your answer change if the class is not required for a major or minor?

This is the situation that I’m in right now. I’m pretty sure that I know what I’m going to do, but I’m curious about what others think.

Jing

abodamer — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:49:37 +0000

Here is my Jing screencap image with an explanation of everything I’m doing

iFollow

abodamer — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:16:07 +0000

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I bought an iPhone.

See, I’ve been wanting an iPod Touch for a while. Yesterday I was on AT&T’s website looking for a new phone and it hit me – why not just get the iPhone? It’s cheaper than the Touch, and to add the data services to my plan wasn’t an exorbinant amount of money more than I’m already paying [albeit it IS a semi-significant difference]. I only regret it a little bit [mostly because it leaves my fiance, who shares a plan with me, without a working phone for a week because his phone isn't compatible with the Dobson --> AT&T upgrade]. I think as soon as I stop feeling guilty about spending the money on the phone I will be totally happy with it.

So of course as soon as I was able I registered my phone on iTunes and started to browse the App Store. HOLY GOATS. There are SO many awesome free applications.

Being a music major, I checked out the music ones first [only after I had installed the Facebook, TwitterFon, and AIM apps!] to see what they had that was “educational”. I downloaded two different piano apps and an app that quizzes you on key signatures – both major and minor! I also got a tuner and a metronome. There are a lot of education apps too that I haven’t browsed through a whole lot yet.

My conclusion is this – the iPhone is awesome. Anything that can be that fun and act as an educational tool wins in my book [and speaking of books, you can download a few of those for free too!].

25 Thoughts on Education

abodamer — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:01:39 +0000

More teachers need to realize, or at least put into practice, that everybody learns differently. Different teaching styles need to be used with everybody – lecture, hands-on, visual, etc.
Others have said that they hate the phrase “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”. I hate it, too. Why do teachers have to almost constantly defend what they do? Teachers as a whole do not get the respect that they deserve.
I’ve always known that I wanted to be a teacher, ever since I can remember. But I could not tell you why.
Textbooks should be used to supplement in-class work. I don’t learn from textbooks, and I’m sure there are plenty of other people out there just like me.
Everyone should learn how to do a proper PowerPoint presentation, educator or not.
I said textbooks should be supplementary – so should other forms of media: movies, music, magazines, newspapers, etc. Information should come from many sources, not just one textbook that claims “expertise” on a given subject.
Why is it that so many people who teach at the college level have never had an education class? It just doesn’t make sense. I would make it a requirement. I want to be taught by teachers.
Higher-level math shouldn’t be a requirement for all students. The fact is, most students will not use math beyond algebra or geometry in their day-to-day lives. I took pre-calculus and I’m no better a person because of it.
Some of the best classes I took in high school were Social Problems, Psychology, and Sociology. I’m not well-versed in any of these subjects but I feel that I understand people a bit better because of them.
I wish all schools were able to give students the same opportunities.
Why is it that when schools have to cut their budget, the arts are cut first? Especially since students in the arts typically have higher test scores and really, test scores are what it’s all about, right? [/sarcasm]
Standardized tests are not conducive to learning. Teachers who teach what is on the test are doing a disservice to their students.
Education sucks sometimes. For the teacher AND the student.
Not all students are college-bound and should not be treated as such, or made to feel bad when their main goal is NOT to go to college after high school.
If students are given time to work, why SHOULDN’T they be allowed to use their iPods and other MP3 players? If it’s not distracting them or affecting anyone around them, students should be able to use them.
I believe that all students should be part of an extra-curricular activity. It helps teach effective time management.
Parents either need to be more involved or less involved with their child’s education. It just depends on the parent.
If most of the students in your class are failing, I’d be almost willing to bet that it’s not the fault of your students – it’s your fault as the teacher for not recognizing what the students don’t understand, and not accommodating your students so they CAN learn.
I wish that every classroom had a laptop for every student – not for them to take home, necessarily, but so they could use it in the classroom.
I hope that I can get my students as excited about music as I was when I was in high/middle school.
Gifted and talented students need more attention. Disability services are mandated, but why shouldn’t G&T students get the same attention on the opposite end of the spectrum? I realize this opens up a whole ‘nother can of worms so I’ll leave it alone for now.
By the time a student gets to high school they should be allowed to substitute a season in sports for a physical education credit. Sports always did more for me than gym class.
Students should be allowed to have food/drink in their classes [within a reasonable limit] – hunger and thirst are distracting. One of my high school math teachers wouldn’t allow us to have water in the class because it was a sign of boredom. I promise I was just thirsty! It takes far less time for me to grab a drink from my water bottle than it does for you to deny me permission to go to the water fountain.
I hope that I can find an effective way to incorporate more than just “band” into my ensemble classes. Theory and history are important, too.
I don’t believe in homeschooling, unless the student in question has a serious condition that doesn’t allow them to be in public/private school.

This was a lot harder to do than I thought it would be. I actually started asking a couple friends for their thoughts. One of them gave me “Education sucks sometimes” which at first caught me off guard, but then I realized that it’s totally true. I had to reflect a LOT on my own non-college school experiences to make this list.

Wordle! … And More Taylor Mali

abodamer — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:35:56 +0000

And here’s another one of my favorite Taylor Mali poems. English majors, this one’s for you.