What is a planet? & Booming Sands

The first podcast that I viewed was, "What is a planet?". I first saw this podcast listed in the k-5 listings. It told interesting facts about how researchers believe there maybe ten to twelve planets instead of just nine. It also revealed a definition of what a planet is. According to the podcast,"A planet is a body that orbits a star, has enough mass to create it's own gravity, has a round shape, and has cleared its neighborhood. This is contradictory however because Neptune shares paths with Pluto. Neptune is considered a planet but Pluto is considered a dwarf planet because it shares paths with Neptune. There are always questions that's why we're glad scientific findings are steadily evolving.

The second podcast that I watched was called "Booming Sands". This podcast was talking about how the sands friction is causing a booming sound. The podcast itself was mainly talking about how Melany Hunt and some other researchers were running experiments on Death Valley in California. They're experiments were focused on finding out why the sand has the ability to provoke acoustic energy when disturbed. This tension is causing the booming sound that is heard from Death Valley and thirty other large sand domes.

I really enjoyed a few of the podcast. I did find that most of the podcast listed where somehow related to science and some type of experiment. I'm sure there are more subjects that podcast could be used in. I believe we could record history lessons or important facts for a specific time during history. This would be beneficial to both teacher and students. Also I believe we could use podcast almost something like a phonics test. We could have different games for the students.

I found a few of the podcast listed under the three grade listings to repeat themselves. I also found that a few were basically just like observation. They involved very little words and not much meaning. The two I am mainly referring to Observe Clouds and Solar Eclipse.

The Edible Schoolyard & A Night in the Global Village.

The Edible Schoolyard was an interesting place to learn about. It's part of Martin Luther King Junior Middle School sent in Berkeley, CA. The garden was started by Alice Waters as a way to improve school lunching. The school now is focused all learning around the garden. The students learn math by measurements done by cooking, science by studying water molecules and photosynthesis, not to mention values such as corporation and teamwork. The students plant, harvest, and eat the foods that are grew from the garden.

I found this school to be a great way of incorporating hands-on with the students. Since all learning comes from planting crops in the garden the students also become more self-sufficient. Working on the garden boost their self-esteem as well as teaches the students to work as a team. I believe there should be more of these types of schools where all of these skills come together and teach valuable lessons that may not be taught elsewhere.

A Night in the Global Village is an adventure for the students involved. It was about students from the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning in Denver. The students are given an opportunity, at the Heifer Ranch set up in Perryville, AK., to change from an American live and life in the live of someone who is less fortunate. On this five acre ranch different living conditions are set up to simulate different countries. The students are put into groups and have to live in the conditions of the country they are assigned. This experiment last one night and is sent to give a better understanding of how the less fortunate live.

I believe this is a great way for the students to learn about different cultures from different countries. They become more aware of how various people live and interact with others. They also are made more appreciative of what they have. Since not all children have it as good as those from the United States.

Podcast

According to the Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, "Podcast is a Web-based audio broadcast via an RSS feed, accessed by subscription over the Internet." So its basically just a conversation which is broadcasted.

The first podcast, SMARTBoard Lesson, was in my opinion not as organized and focused on the topic as the other podcast I heard were. I listened to three or four of the topics listed and thought that the host Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger were spending way to much time talking about the weather, and ways of making changes to the podcast. I did however find some of the information helpful. After all it was meant as a aid for professional development of busy teachers.

The second podcast, Kidcast, was what I thought to be the best as far as interesting and easy to listen too. The topic "Questions Make the World go Round" was the one that I primarily focused on. In this discussion, Dan Schmitt, spoke of how questions are the central focus of a good academic podcast. We need to focus on how to ask good questions and how to go about finding the correct answer. So we should practice having a conversation of only questions. This would be like brainstorming in a way but only using questions. They also discussed how Penn State has 60 second lectures. I found this really interesting. So I kept listening. What Dan said was that a scholar is chosen to discuss a topic and only given 60 seconds to get his/her point across. So basically that person has to narrow his topic to answer one specific question. Dan also suggest that we do the same and practice giving 60 second lectures.

The third podcast, Connect Learning, I found this discussion very useful. The fourth podcast, Ed TechTalk, was also very helpful. It discussed something called Youth Voices. An account is made for each student and mostly is used to introduce students to technology. They also talked of digital photography. The question was raised "Could a picture taken express a person's life?". Is a picture really worth a thousand words? They also talked with a teacher who used Blogs and Youth Voices in her classroom. The teacher had a class blog and the students also had a blog in which they were responsible for commenting on classmates , and posting pictures of their work.

The fifth podcast, MacBreak Weekly, was also one that I believed jump too much from topic to topic. The host were Leo Laporte, Larlin Mann, Scoot Bourne, and Alex Lindsey. Their primarily focus was on cameras. They discussed what they believe to be the best and what to look for when purchasing a camera.

The sixth podcast, This Week in Photography, Alxe Lindsey and Scoot Bourne discussed digital imaging and sharing of pictures. In sharing of pictures I am primarily referring to printers. The host mentioned that a picture isn't a picture into it's in print. They discussed ink jet printers which could be as cheap as fifty dollars. They also discussed dye's versus pigment. Both are great however pigments would be better recommended. This involves my podcast reviews.

Dr. Strange's Photo

 

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

I really enjoyed the video. Randy Pausch is just so full of life and really is a great speaker. He began by sharing some personal information about the fact that the doctors have found 10-12 tumors in his liver and that he has three months of good healthy life left.Pausch found this out a month ago but still has a positive attitude and really shows his humorous personality throughout the lecture. Thiswawa s motivation enough for me to listen to his speech.

His lecture was about: Childhood Dreams, Enabling dreams of others, and about Lessons learned:How to achieve your dreams and enable the dreams of others. Pausch explained about his childhood dreams. His second dream was to play in the NFL. Although this dream didn't come true for him he learned the most from it than any other dream that he achieved. His first coach taught him that fundamentals were important and without them the fancy plays could not be achieved. He also learned that having someone to watch over you and correct you when you're doing things wrong is positive because that means that that person cares. Pausch's coach made this quote:"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." This is also where he discusses what he refers to as a "Head fake". A "Head Fake" is a form of indirect teaching so in other words its what you learn unintentionally. Playing most sports involves an indirect teaching of teamwork, sportsmanship, and perseverance. He also made this quote, ".Brick Walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things". In the end Pausch has achieved most of his childhood dreams and learned favorable lessons from each experience.

His final dream listed was "Being a Disney Imagineer". This dreamed was achieved and he worked one-day week for ten years. He began this career working with the Aladdin VR. This then escalated to "Building Virtual Worlds". This program was set for fifty students from the various departments, the students had two weeks to design,implement, and test, and were responsible for five projects throughout the semester. The students blew him away after the first assignment and Pausch then learned that you shouldn't think less of people cause they will always surprise you.

Under the Lesson's Learned profile Pausch listed some of the people who may contribute to a person's success in fulfilling his/her goals. Some that were listed were: Parents, teachers, Mentors, Friends, and Colleagues. From this section of the lecture Pausch pointed out some really interesting points and suggestions. Among them were: Never Give Up, Help Others, Never Loose the Child like Wonder, Learn from you students. A few suggestions for how to get people to help were: tell the truth, apologize when you screw up, and focus on others and not yourself.
The "Head Fake" was that if you live your life the right way that karma will take care of itself and your dreams will come true.