Thing #7

I guess I should have named this blog "The ramblings of a frustrated writer."  I am going to post this just like it comes of my fingers. I do nt know why ihave somuch problem wiht writing. it i snot just a typing thing. I make the same number fo mistakes and kinds of mistakes weither i write by hand or type. In additionit is very difficult for me to spot my mistakes onse they are down on paper. As a young person I loved to write and actualy think i had some skills in that area. I have note books of poems and short stories that i wrote back in high school. Unfrotunately eve time i shared my wrings with some onw they spent so much time correcting mey mechanical mistakes i do think they ever co to the content of what i was writing so i just stoped. 

when the internet was just getting started I had one of the earilest e-mail accounts, way back in 1991. In thoes days there were not many people with e-mail accounts.  Thei phsics community had a great preseence onthe net. In thoes days tehr was a premimun on quick communicatioin. If you sent a  message that was perfect, in spelling gramer and puncuation otheres would make fun of you because it was clear yo uhad spent to much time on it. There wer no spell checkers then. I fond freedom in thoes listserves and dialogs like i never had befor or since. 

Sorry about all the errors but that is the way I write. I could go back and clean it up but I just dont whant to spend the tome.   Even as it is and I was trying not to I can not tell you how any timees I auatticlay hit the back spact to corect soem thing. I ownder how many of our students are as frustrated as ME.

Thing #6

I have done some blog exploring and found a few that are interesting.  I am a Tuba player and one of my long time heros is Roger Bobo, to hear him you can click the here.   Well I found his blog and added it to my reader. It is interesting to listen to him as a person when previously I only new his music. (If you want to here the most amazing tuba player out there today check out this link here.  This is not Bobo, it is a Swedish tuba player named Øystein Baadsvik.) Ok enough about tuba playing.   

I also subscribed to my nieces blog. She is a 28 year old CPS worker in Waco who is going through some tough times and has decided to blog her experiences. 

I also subscribed to Techlearning. I was very interested in and article called Online Library for People with Print Disabilities Offers More Accessibility It talks about Bookshare. This is a site that provides print material for individuals with print disabilities. IT indicates that it is available for free to K-12 educational institutions.  I wonder if MISD has access?

Thing #5

Our assignment for Thing 5 was to set up a RSS reader.
I must say my favorite feed is Car Talk form NPR.

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510208

I try to listen to this show every Saturday but often miss it. With this feed I have an opportunity to catch those I miss.

I als0 have been checking out the feeds on infinitethinking.org

The following article. was particularly of interest to me.

http://www.infinitethinking.org/2009/02/lucy-and-lucies-friday-five-cellphones.html

We have to come to term with the fact that our students have more computing technology in there pockets than a major tier one research university had in their entire campus 30 years ago.

Thing #4

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=133

Why I Don’t Assign Homework

March 7th, 2007 by Dan Meyer

I Agreed with this author. I thing this is a discussion that needs to take place in education today. I did not give home work during the last few years in the classroom. I thing it was much better for me and my students.


http://817math.blogspot.com/2006/12/boeuns-scribe-for-december-4th.html

Boeun's scribe for December 4th

This blog was very well done and the student demonstrated a lot of thought and effort. I was disappointed with the comments. They were all about style and form with very little about content.

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/01/spies-like-us.html
Spies Like Us

Ok, good blog with keen insight that brings up a lot of questions.......BUT.. there is is again. An evocative statement that sets the tone of the blog and is clearly ment to prove a point ...but.. no referens to support it. What am I talking about? Here it is....

Arguably, the most highly educated society in history was Nazi Germany. They learned what they COULD do with no discussion of whether they SHOULD do it.

Could be true but the bloger does not give any refernce for the argument.


http://yongesonne.edublogs.org/2007/06/29/the-ripe-environment/

The Ripe Environment

I realy like this post. I think what he is trying to say is that the need for a focus on colaboration is independent of the tools used. All the tools cna get in the way. If the tools of web 2.0 can foster student interest that is fine but the technology is not the end in and of its self.



http://weblogg-ed.com/2008/an-environmental-break-why-cant-we-do-this/

On My Mind 02 Feb 2008 12:01 pm

An Environmental Break–Why Can’t We Do This?

I like that this blog is short concice and makes point quickly and with a minimum of verbage.
The comments are as important as the blog.

Thing #2

I an concerned about the videos in thing 2. They all give various statistics but the first two do not provide any bibliography to back them up. the third has a bib but it list 5 sources, four of which are not primary sources in any stretch of imagination and the one that is to a reviewed site (Pew Internet & American Life Study) takes you to a page that informs you that it provides raw data but you have to have and be able to use SPSS to down load and analyse the data. This is not really an acceptable reference.

One of the references Fisch, K is just a blog talking about video #2.

In other words there is not way to check any of the statistics or claims made in the videos. This is a disturbing trend I see with Web 2.0, fact checking seems optional ye the video clips we saw were clearly developed to impact thinking and persuade. One might argue that they are just meant to start conversations. That is bogus starting conversations with “facts” that may or may not be correct is a very dubious practice.

Lifelong Learning

I am a firm believer in life long learning. As I get older I am becoming more selective about what I am learning. I am deciding what I relay want to learn and what things I can live with out. This is a major shift for me. In my younger days I wanted to learn and know about just about everything. Now I want to learn some things ver well and other things not at all.

The 7 1/2 habits are habits that I have had all my life especial teach others.