Podcast Response

I was kind of familiar with Podcasts and Video Podcasts even before listening to these podcasts. I subscribe to some surfing video podcasts, The Soups podcast, and few others that spark my interest. I don't know how some people don't use these or haven't even heard of them before! They are so cool! I like downloading them to my Ipod and listening to them when I am driving to my parents house across the bay. I didn't know how to search for specific podcasts. When I first started looking up the podcasts I was a little bit rusty, but then I caught on.
I listened to all of the recommended podcasts and gathered many ideas of what I liked and what I wanted to put on my own podcast. I liked the SMARTboard podcast the best. It was entertaining, had upbeat background music, and had clear microphones. I also liked the tone of voice that the main guy had. His voice was very smooth and overall I liked that podcast the best. It was also very easy to find. I had trouble finding some of the others, maybe they weren't as established as SMARTboard. In other podcasts, I liked how there were interviews and there were guys and girls on the podcast. I liked when they changed things up because I could see how listening to one person talk for an hour could get boring.
I got a lot of ideas I want to incorporated into my podcast and also some that I want to avoid. First off, I want to buy a really clear microphone! I listened to one podcast where their microphone made them sound like they were in a tunnel, I think it was the Ed Connect one. Anyway, I thought that it didn't sound professional and maybe like they made the podcast in a garage or something. I also didn't like silence in the background. I am going to try to put some music into mine. I didn't like how some of the podcasts were really long and rambled a bit. This made me want to turn it off or focus my attention somewhere else.
Overall, I really enjoyed the podcasts that Mr. Sullivan selected for us to listen to. I found out what I liked and what I didn't like and what I would do differently. I want to invest in a clear sounding microphone, do an interview, and definitely have more that one person on it. I am going to try to make it easy to find on itunes, and with a cool picture by the title.I am so glad that I learned a lot from listening to each of these podcasts!

My First Picture

My First Link

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Response to Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

A couple things struck me about this video! Vicki Davis is a very effective teacher. She is so open-minded and knowledgeable about the things that are happening around the world by using technology. Although she isn't young enough to have grown up with computers, you wouldn't have known it by the way she acts. She is a very good teacher and you can tell the students learn a lot. She adapts what she teaches to whats going on in the world or what new technology has come out. My computer teacher in high school made us stick to learning word processing from a book the whole year and it was every one's least favorite class. These kids are learning how to learn and they are enjoying it! She is thinking about the future and where the jobs will be and equipping the kids for them. She doesn't stick to a manual that has been around for years, she evolves with technology.

Response to Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

I have never heard of Sir Ken Robinson before this assignment and I was pleasantly surprised. All the things he said about creativity and how the arts should be just as important as math are what I personally believe in also. I like how he said that we view college professors as the job to reach for and it shouldn't be like that. They are just doing their job and being a part of the life cycle, like everyone else. That's just their gift, it's not every one's.
I have grown up going to private schools so I have always had art and music as part of my education. Because I have had access to these creative outlets I have discovered my own talent and passion for art. I hope to one day be an art teacher and help all kinds of children discover their talents just as my teachers have done for me.
My mom is an art teacher and I have been helping her teach summer camps for about 5 years. I also babysit a few times a week, but whenever I ask a child what they want to be when they grow up, its usually a ballerina or an artist. Children crave being able to be creative. I don't understand how educators can be alright with doing away with an art or music program. What if they took away a reading program? The parents would be furious and the state would go crazy! So if research has shown that creativity in schools help children at life then why do we put so little value on it.

Response to "Did You Know? 3.0"

Wow. I loved this video. It really made me think about the future of the human population. I think it's absolutely insane that people are building computers that are smarter than their creators. Have they not watched 'Eagle Eye'? Technology has become so mainstream that people don't even question the long term effects of it on their mind and overall well being. Yeah it make life easier, but at what cost? Do we not realize what we are losing? Now that I think about it, everyone I know owns a cell phone, lap top, and an Ipod and it has just been in recent years that all of this technology has come about. If people have gone thousands of years without a supercomputer with a brain smarter than a human, why do we need one now? I would be happy with the bare minimum of technology, getting away from man's creation, and just enjoying the simplicity of life.

More About Me.

Like I said in my previous post, I am a junior at the University of South Alabama majoring in Elementary Education. I want to be an art teacher, but if I can't find that position after I graduate I want to be a first grade teacher. I originally was a Visual Arts major, concentrating in ceramics, but I recently changed.
I am from Fairhope Alabama, which is just across the bay. I chose to go to this university because it is close to my family and it isn't a very big school.
My interests include surfing, kayaking, watching my boyfriend skim board, making things on the pottery wheel, babysitting, cooking, wandering around Super Target, and doing my EDM310 homework.

Welcome to my EDM310 Blog!

Hi, my name is Julie Szteiter. I am a junior at the University of South Alabama and my major is Elementary Education. I chose this major because I love kids and couldn't imagine working in any other field.
I created this blog for my Microcomputing Systems class. I have had a personal blog in the past, but I haven't kept up with it because my life just isn't that interesting. Because this blog is for a class and will be graded, I will keep up with it and make posts regularly. Thanks for reading and check back often for updates!