"What I've Learned This Year" by Mr. McClung

I think that what Mr. McClung said was true. A lot of teachers don't care about their students and just give the lesson, and then they expect you to know it automatically. Therefore, it is important to be reasonable with your students. Also, to not be afraid of technology and never stop learning is important. Like we've already covered, how are you going to be able to teach your students new things if you aren't willing to keep learning?

See Who's Editing Wikipedia

During high school and my two years at Faulkner, I was told to never ever use Wikipedia for a resource for any papers or projects. The information was all supposedly wrong and we'd be failed if we used it. I think it's good now that people who edit information on the website can be caught and their IP addresses can be identified. The people that log in can be tracked by their user name. Maybe this way, you can trust Wikipedia a little more. Now that they're cracking down, I don't think that you shouldn't be able to not completely use it all, but just definitely make sure that you compare it to other websites when doing a paper or project.

Did You Know? 4.0

Again, I just have to laugh because it's just all so true. The facts are crazy! It's weird that the news channels only get about 10 million visitors every month, while popular websites get about 250 millions visitors every month. I don't know why that seems like a shock for me, but it is. I guess I assume everyone still watches the news for information, when even myself looks to the Internet for some news. I can believe that the average teenager receives about 2,272 texts a month. I myself love to text. I don't know what I'd do without it. Then again, what did we do before cell phones?

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Randy Pausch's speech is so inspirational. One thing he teaches is that there are "brick walls" that show you how much you actually want something. Sometimes they're flesh; other times, not. They show you who really want to achieve something and those who don't and they let you push forward.
He thinks and teaches that you should have fun while learning. With his projects, his students didn't know they were learning anything because they were having so much fun with everything they were doing. The main thing he wanted to have was fun.
He also teaches you to never give up. He didn't get into Brown or Carnegie Mellon, but he found other ways to eventually be there. If at first you don't succeed, try again. He also believes that you should always tell the truth and to help others along the way. You should always apologize and you should focus on other people, not just yourself.
He also teaches that you shouldn't complain and you should just work harder. Also, take the feedback that people give you and don't fuss about it. Put it to work. I think his main thing is just to not ever give up. He didn't, that's for sure.

Fisch: Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

I don't think it's okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher. Basically, it is the same as being a teacher 30 years ago who couldn't read or write. As he said, in order to teach it, we have to learn it. If we don't know what we're doing, how can we expect to teach other people about it?
Also, like Fisch said, back then you could be technologically illiterate and still get by. Now, if you don't have any kind of "technological training," you're going to be completely lost. You most likely will not be successful in whatever you're trying to do. We need that 20/20 Vision.

It's Not About The Technology

She makes a point whenever she says that you have to be a learner, as well as a teacher. I never thought of it until she said it, but if you put all the teachers into a room together, their experiences would be different. I can't imagine what some of the teachers who started teaching twenty years ago have to learn or have had to learn. To us, I think it comes second nature. To turn on the computer and do stuff comes naturally, I guess. She also made a good point when she said that technology is useless without good teaching. If you don't have a teacher that is willing to learn new things, how are you going to be able to learn any of it?

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today

I had to laugh whenever I saw the statistics, because they are SO true! College kids do multi-task, and have to, for that fact. We do buy books that we never use and some people don't even come to class...their parent's money down the drain. It said that you could be $20,000 in debt whenever you graduate. That seems like alot and can be depressing when you think about it, but at least we are lucky enough to even have the chance to go to college. As the video said, some people make just $1 a day. Like it said, some of the things we come into contact with won't help us out later on (the scantron sheets). It's just amazing to see the statistics and to see how true they are.

What I Learned...

I learned alot from watching the other podcasts as examples. They were very informative. The podcast done by the third graders was very cute and they did a great job.
Some things I learned were to speak up and sound excited. Also, you can use sound effects to mark transitions in your podcast. You can also give credits at the end. Also, give yourself plenty of time to create your podcast! It doesn't seem like it'd take alot of time to create, but it really does, especially if you want it to be good!

Last Semester's Podcast

After watching last semester's podcast, the main thing I thought that could maybe be improved was to look at the camera. I'm not sure if the students were supposed to or not, but if they were, that could be an improvement.
Also, it would also help if some of the students could've spoken up some. That would be another thing I could do to improve my own podcast when I do it.