Electronic Conversation

For my electronic conversation I emailed Mrs. Mary Garrison from Ocean Springs High School. She is a certified teacher and runs the Career Center there at Ocean Springs High School. She is sort of the "eyes and ears" of the whole school. She helps the students in her learning lab with finding the right University to attend, helps them with schoolwork, and helps them use the technology available at the school. Since she has such a big part in the technology at school part of things I thought she could be a good candidate to ask some questions too. She was really excited about sharing what she knows and has learned while being at Ocean Springs High School. Below I have copied and pasted some of our emails we had between each other.

My first email:

Mrs. Garrison,Hey! My name is Rachel Beaty and I attended Ocean Springs High School where you work. I am a student at the University of Southern Alabama now and I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your school. First off, I was wondering if the teachers use technology in the classroom, and if so to what extent? Another thing I would like to know is if the technology actually helps the students learn or if it hinders their ability to? Does the technology make it easier for students to catch on? At your school I know their are special needs children, do they have access to the technology labs and if so how do they work in that situation? I know you run the Career Center at the school, so how does having the technology lab make your job easier? Do you think technology in the classroom is a good idea? And last but not least, what technology would you like to see used more in the classroom? Thank you so much for helping me out!Rachel Beaty

Her response:

Rachel,It is nice to hear that you are doing well! The University of Alabama is a fine school. As for your questions, I would be more than glad to help you out. The first thing you wanted to know was if the teachers use technology in the classroom, and if so to what extent? Well here at Ocean Springs High School technology is a big part of classroom learning and becoming bigger by the minute. Each classroom has a minimum of two computers. On those computers the students are able to research their studies, type out papers, and complete any assignments given to them by the teacher. The students are also required to visit my lab once a month to keep them updated on college and University information via computer. I help them apply to school online for two reasons. One reason is so that students who are not familiar with computers can get hands on experience, and so that they can someone is their pushing them to apply to college. Technology is a big part of learning here and I would like to see it grow even more. Your next question regarding if the technology helps or hurts the students, I would definately say that it helps 100%. In the world today, technology is everywhere. If the students do not get accustom to using it, they are going to be left to dry in the real world. It is our job here at the high school to prepare the students as much as we can for college and the real world. One major factor in succeeding in the world is to be able to use technology. Our special needs children here at Ocean Springs High School do, in fact, get time in the learning lab. They have special programs on the computers to help them better their skills. They have designated times to come in the lab and they seem to really enjoy it here. Technology makes a world of difference with my job. If I did not have the lab then all students would have to apply to college via snail mail. Nowadays that is pretty much unheard of. Technology is a great idea. I would definately like to see my school using more of it.Sincerely, Mrs. Garrison

My Second Email:

Mrs. Garrison,Thank you so much for helping me out with this. It sounds like technology is really import to you guys over there. I'm glad to hear that the special needs students don't miss out on the lab. For another assignment I had to visit a school here in Alabama to see a lab they have called an ACCESS lab, do you think Mississippi will ever get something along the lines of this? It seems really helpful to students.Rachel Beaty

Her response:

Rachel,I did some research on the ACCESS lab you spoke of. It sounds like a really cool idea. It allows the students to engage in Advanced Placement courses that they would otherwise not have access to. Here at Ocean Springs High School we have "AP" courses available, but we do not have a lab for the students to go to. If the students here score well enough on an exam given at the end of the class, they are able to count that class as a college credit. This seems like it is something along the lines of what they are doing in Alabama. Although we do offer AP classes, I would like to see us get an ACCESS lab. Of course it wouldn't be ACCESS here it would be MCCESS ;).Sincerely, Mrs. Garrison.

My Third Email:

Mrs. Garrison,You are right about the MCCESS ha ha! Thank you for all your help you have given me on this subject. I hope that your students are learning all they can from the technology y'all have available.Rachel Beaty

After this conversation I had with Mrs. Garrison I realized that technology in the classroom is a big deal. Teachers and administrators are becoming more into using technology. I think it is great that the students are getting a chance to use the technology.

Racial Cleansing in America Podcast

The first podcast I listened to was about Thenonious Monk. He is a famous jazz musician from the south. His song "Little Rootie Tootie" has train sounds in it from his heritage. He moved to NYC when he was five, but still remembered the train sounds from his past. He says most people think that Jazz is a cosmopolitan inner city things, but it actually comes from the south. Thelonious Monk lived with his mother from the day that he was born to the day that she died. He grew up playing piano in his church. He says that he learned his sort of "taste" from his mother from her food to her clothing.

The next podcast I listened to was Racial Cleaning in America. Corbin, Kentucky is a very white run town. Laura Smith tells a story of when she was a child and they ran out of gas, so they got picked up by an African American. His mom lied to the man and told them they were actually from Williamsburg. This was because they didn't want the man to know they were from Corbin. Mrs. Boose was born in 1927. She tells a story of getting off the train and being scared to get of because the main train stop was in Corbin. The 1910 census shows that there were a total of 10 African Americans living in Corbin at the time. The blacks commuted there just to work on the railroad. There was a time called Red Summer when there was 25 race riots against the black. After this all but 3 African Americans were sent packing. This just goes to show you how bad the racism was back then.

Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper has 40 years of experience being an educator. She created this site to help teachers and let them see her ideas she has come up with in her experiences. She gives numerous ideas to teachers on how to use technology in the classroom. She gives workshops and seminars to help teach the teachers. She also teaches classes as a college. One of her ideas she has come up with is Constructivism. She beleives technology should be used to facilitate learning, not the be the focus of the learning. She beleives students should learn by doing things within a specific context. Learning is reflective and incorporates feedback from the teachers. She believes that students as well as teachers learn from their mistakes.

Another part of her website gives information about Digitial Media and Photography Resource. This is a cool part of her website. She gives ideas and help to teachers who wants to incorporate digital cameras, camcorders, iMovies, podcasts, or digital photos into the classroom environment. This part of the site would be very helpful for up and coming teachers who want to use technology in the classroom. It gives them ideas on how to introduce it into the classroom.

Suggested improvements on podcasts

I listened to my groups podcast first. I think all in all we did a good job, but there was room for improvements. First off, I said "um" entirely too much. Maybe if we were to do it again we could have practiced more and gotten all of the kinks out. We also could have been more conversational in our speech. We all took turns talking about what we had written down and didnt really have a conversation about it. On the lighter side, our information was accurate and thorough.

The next podcast I listened to was group number 3, Access Labs. They did a really great job first off. Their information was very indepth and detailed. They covered every aspect of the Access labs. They could have been more conversational in their talking though. Instead of each person just reading off what they wrote, they could talk amongst themselves about the topic. The fact that Susan experienced access lab is really cool.

The last podcast I listened to was group number 2. They talked about blogs in the classroom and how they can be used in education. They did a really good job also. They spoke clearly and loudly. Their information was very informative. If someone didn't know anything about blogs, then they would after listening to this podcast. The only thing they could have done different would to be more conversational. I think since this was our first podcast we were a bit nervous and just read off our papers. On the next podcast everybody could just talk amongst themselves more.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. Although it is an online "encyclopedia" it is not a very valuable resource. It allows anyone to make edits to the information that is available. People do not need to be informed on the subject at hand or anything. Anyone can go in and delete information or just add anything they want, whether its true or not. All in all I think wikipedia is a very untrusting source.

Although wikipedia does let anybody edit the information they do have a couple of things that they do to try to keep the correct information at hand. There is something called the Wikiscanner and it lets the public see who has edited the information that they are reading. If they can see who has written the information then maybe they can differentiate the true from the lies. Next they have a thing called Wikipedia scanner. Its a search tool that traves the comments and edits on Wikipedia entries back to their source IP address. Even with these tools I still think Wikipedia is not very useful for accurate information.

Using mathematics in the classroom

Judy Chandler is a mathematics teacher and incorporates technology into everyday class. She really recommends teachers using technology to enhance the learning quality of the children. Technology used in everyday classrooms in unison with mathematics can enhance the students learning quite a bit. It teaches the students to use math skills learned in the classroom in everyday life. Nowadays children just learn what they have to in school and don't feel the need to use it. Technology can show them that is fun and very useful. Technology really opens a lot of doors for children that they wouldnt have had in the past. It lets them see how mathematics and other things tie into reality.

Judy Chandler also gives a lot of free resources available to teachers. These websites should be very beneficial for children. Technology has become a really important part of life in today's society. If children are not getting the proper experience with it they are being cheated out of something really wonderful. All teachers should research how they can start bringing in different learning tools with technology.

"growth" vs. "fixed mindset"

I watched this video starring Carol Dweck. She talks about two types of students, those who beleive that their learning capacity is at the max and they cannot learn more, and those who beleive intelligence can be attained overtime. She did an 8 session workshop with students and half of them just had study skills classes and the other half had growth mindset classes. The students who had the study skills classes their grades decreased and the study was show to be a failure. The students who had the growth mindset classes increased intellectually. Their grades rebounded because they learned that the brain is a muscle and the more you use it the more you can learn. The teacher, who remained in the dark about this workshop, could pick out the students who went to the growth mindset workshop compaired the ones that only had study skills classes. Carol Dweck emphasizes that students should keep neurons connecting and use their brain as a muscle.

This movie is a very good thing for teachers. It can show them that if they administer the right kind of motivation for their students that the sky is the limit. If the teachers let the students know that the brain is in fact a muscle and that the more they use it the bigger it gets, the students will want to learn and see this effect happen.