Blog Post Assignment 6

Dr. Alice Christie
Dr. Alice Christie created her site to share what she learned as an educator. She had one section on web design which was very informative. I personally have always wanted to be more creative with my networking pages such as myspace but never really knew how. She mention how educators can take advantage of the internet to create purposeful and well designed web sites, targeted for their students, parents, other teachers, and also the community. I feel that having a site for your classroom students and teachers is a very neat and exciting tool. As a teacher you can use it to incorporate the parents more and let them know when assignments are due and also things that are going on inside your classroom or school.
For students I think having a site is great for short quizzes, class room lectures, homework assignments and even some podcasting that may be done in your class. Dr. Christie gave some great web sites as references to go and checkout to help with your web design. She broke each section down well sharing with us things to remember when doing a site. I feel one thing great about her is that she not only does this for her students so they get the maximum out her classroom but also the general public has the chance to grab some extra knowledge on things they may not know. I enjoyed her photography section as well how she took a group of pictures and made them one picture it was very neat.

iTunes U
iTunes U helps make education a little more simple to distribute information to your students and teachers in the comfort of your own home. Itunes U is simple to use accessible through itunes, students can download podcast or videos. Its accessible to everyone including those with disabilities. It can be used on iphones and ipods. Itunes U brings the classoom to you, so people can learn at their own pace. I think this can be used well in special education another method for kids to get the best knowledge available some people may learn better through a computer rather than a chalk board.
Each institution can create a site so teachers are able to upload lectures, lab demonstration, and historical footage, and whatever they choose. Each institution has control over who is able to view the information. I think itunes u is a very creative tool to use for a teacher to be able to communicate better with students through this type of technology. If a teacher is unable to attend class this site becomes even more valuable because she can always just post the assignment or lecture. Some universities have already adopted this site to use.

The use of Ipods
Duke University decided to incorporate digital technology with academics. They even distributed free ipods to incoming freshmen in 2004. Duke University really gave you everything you need to know about ipods in the classroom on this particular site, it broke everything down from the good to the bad and also the challenges with incorporating it into academics. I would of never imagined the use of ipods in the classroom because of how many students would actually use them for what they were actually distributed to them for.
On one site it have me four interesting ways to use an ipod: math apps, fantastic contraption, voice memo, and collect data with google forms. So many parents look at ipods as just another way of listening to music and playing games. Not many parents or even teachers have viewed ipods as an educational tool. I think ipods and itunes have now really made a way for many educators to enhance there classroom. Another way of receiving research now because with so many loop holes in wikipedia, I think with itunes you can get some better trusted information.