Final Exam Part 4

What changes should I make to the class next semester?

This class was supposed to focused on group interaction and I feel like we did more individual work than group work. Maybe an online group assignment or more class discussions would make the experience a little more exciting because just reading articles and blogging every class can honestly get a little boring and redundant. Other than that, this class gave me a lot of free time to get my thoughts out into the open and also to focus on other things that don't necessarily have to relate to school.

Final Exam Part 3

I would like a blogpost or an e-mail discussing your feelings on web 2.0 and the connections you see for education. You can speak from a supportive point of view, a
negative point of view, or a balanced point of view. You can choose to answer the
following questions in your response or not. They are food for thought in case you need it
to get started. Do you think web 2.0 tools can help teachers better engage students in
their learning? What specific tools would you use? What questions, thoughts, concerns,
or insights did you make from your experience this semester? (This should be 3-5
paragraphs minimum)

Web 2.0 is a class that is focused on getting students more active in their classes. This is done by using various programs online. During this semester, our web 2.0 class has experimented a lot with Google docs, twitter, Facebook, and other mini websites. Wallwisher was one of the first tools we have used in this class. We stay connected through Gmail and we post our recent works on twitter. This class was definitely great. It was a little foreshadowing of what is coming next year and I have to say, the students have a lot to look forward to.

These tools that we have experimented with in our class are more than just ways to post thoughts. With a little creativity, these online tools can be used to complete various projects. For my world history class, we made twitter accounts with the names of historical figures and then we had a little class conversation from the point of view of different characters. These programs are limited in what they can do, but we can manipulate them and use them for a completely different reason. I think Wallwisher could be more than a place to post thoughts. I think it could be used for the teacher to post assignments and also a place for class questions. Everything we have used so far can be used for so much more and classes can be better for learning if there is an aspect of fun added from using technology.

Overall, I think the change to 1:1 next year will be a great step into the future. Technology is evolving everyday and we could really use it to make class more fun. It will be great for group interaction because this is a way that even the shy students can contribute their thoughts. The countless programs, apps, widgets, websites, and other things we can use will really make class easier and an overall greater learning experience. I am for this change and the only problems I can see are the wifi running a little slow from everyone being connected at the same time and students playing games more than working. In conclusion, this is definitely something for the students to look forward to.

Final Exam Part 2

Please construct a list of classroom expectations for students for next year when everyone has a device. ( Include ramifications for students who do not follow guidelines. Please look at some other Acceptable Use Policies as a reference - Let me know three that you utilized as a reference, but also remember that most of these are written by adults).



In order for this change to work well next year, we need to use our devices properly. If we all just play games and don't stay focused during class, we turn an amazing change into a disaster. I think the best AUP to follow is to keep the device powered off or on standby while the teacher is talking, in order to prevent distractions. This is a good idea until you realize that the students can't take notes without a device. So I think the teachers should have electronic notes, since we're all going 1:1 anyways, why shouldn't the notes be pre written online? Some AUPs say that the device should be OFF until there is an assignment that needs to be completed. I don't think they should be off, because they pretty much are our textbooks and notebooks. It would be easier just to turn the wifi off during the class. Every laptop gives you the option to turn your wifi on or off. If it's off, teachers can feel safer about what students are doing. Some people put out AUPs that say you can’t use electronic devices at all throughout the day. I think this is just a terrible idea. We are living in a world where technology is constantly changing so why should we shun it from our learning environment? I think, instead of following the AUPs that other schools put out, we should make our own and create a new path for our school to follow. We need to be able to lay down rules that will allow us to have technology and also allow us to learn.
-Akash Patel

Final Exam Part 1

 What are your thoughts on last week’s classes? With each student having a device in our wireless network, how do things change? Also thoughts on the iPad. (e-mail or blogpost)


This class has been a great experience. It was definitely a little foreshadowing of things to expect next year. There have been some times where people would play games or do things that weren't part of the assignment, but honestly, who wouldn't. There is a source of unlimited entertainment and information right in front of us. We are definitely going to experiment with it with every chance we get. There are a few things that would change with all of the students having a device in our wireless network. Right now, our network works pretty fast, but we have no idea how fast or slow it will work with almost everyone using the network at the same exact time. However, there are positives to this change. Everyone will have everything they need, in one device. This makes organization a lot better and people will always be on task because all of the worksheets and books will be on the device. The iPad is also pretty great. It has the apps and things we could use for class, but it is in no way a replacement for a laptop. I think it would be a lot better if everyone got a laptop because then we could load textbooks on it with CDs and we could also keep our notes organized in documents rather than a note taking app. Also, teachers need flash player. Flash player is especially important in science classes where they normally show examples from the internet in their PowerPoint presentations. This change is going to be a great one and I will definitely have to come back next year to see how it goes.-Akash Patel

More Apps

The musical instrument apps could be useful. They sure aren't a replacement for the real thing but they can be a fun music class tool. I also liked all of the metric conversion apps. They would definitely be useful for science because there are always units that need to be converted in order to find the correct final answer. The fifth and final app that I thought was useful was the scientific calculator app. This combined with the graphing app that I wrote about in the last post would make a great combo. The calculator does everything, even trigonometry functions but it doesn't graph so it would be a great combo. These are the five apps that I think will actually think the students would use in class, other than the countless games of course.

-Akash Patel

Useful Apps For the iPad

iBooks is the first app I looked at and I definitely think it'll be useful for English class. If we do have iPads next year, we won't have to worry about carrying books around. The books we need will be right on the iBooks app. This is good because countless people forget their books and have to run and get one during class or share with someone else. The second app I think was useful were the graphing calculator apps. The lite versions were awful but the pro versions could actually be used in class. They do what most new calculators do and, me being an ap calculus student, think it could come in handy even though we do need the actual ti 84 for the ap exam. Other than this there wasn't anything that seemed useful for the classroom. All of the apps seemed like they were there for entertainment. If you get bored, these apps are definitely your way into entertainment. Other than that, they're pretty useless to be honest. The iPad can be used as a good note taker and a good resource for information but other than that it seems like it will mainly be used for it's fun and exciting apps.

-Akash Patel

Ipad

This is actually my first blog post from an iPad. It's not that bad. It looks like a giant iPod touch but it's a lot better in some ways. I myself have never been a big fan of apple. I don't like having to download a bunch of apple products in order to sync things to your device. This keyboard though is very well made. The keys are all spaced out well and they respond very well. This browser has been running exceptionally fast. I haven't encountered many problems with this thing so far. I've used iPod touches and iPhones so I'm pretty familiar with the way apple products work. I have to say I would definitely pick this iPad over the computer for this class. The computers tend to freeze a lot and it takes A while to get things done but this iPad has been working fine. I'm actually looking forward to experimenting with this as we move forward.

-Akash Patel

LiveBinder

LiveBinders are basically online binders. You can pretty much find any binder you are looking for and they can be useful if you need information on a certain topic. The topics are that great though. It would be easier to just google your topic because you'll take a lot of time just searching through binders that might give you useless informations. These binders are a great way to keep stuff organized but they aren't useful in finding information and resources. If you need a place to organize a bunch of files and data, this would be useful. If you need information for papers, projects, or any other assignment, google or wikipedia would be the better option.

-Akash Patel

A New Year

2010 was definitely a good year for myself. I got my driver's license that year and I also got my braces off after three years. I turned seventeen in August, I went down to Georgia and South Carolina in the summer to visit my girlfriend for the first time. Before this, she would always come up here to visit me. 2010 was just a good year overall and I can't wait to see what 2011 holds. I already know I can't wait until graduation. I'm definitely ready to start my college life and begin pursuing my passions and dreams. I feel like this year everything will just get better. Nothing can get worse. As time goes on, everything just becomes a better experience. This summer is something I can't wait for. It will be an amazing summer and it's going to start a little early for us seniors. This year is going to be absolutely amazing.

-Akash Patel

Foreign Language App

This article shows an app for the smartphone that instantly translates a language for you. All you have to do is aim the camera at a word or phrase and the phone will automatically translate it for you. There is a video demonstration of the app in the article. There are some people who think that we are becoming too dependent on smartphones and a lot of people won't bother taking a foreign language anymore because there is an app that translates for you. I disagree with this. There are a lot of people who are dependent onsmartphones but this app won't stop people from taking foreign language. This app can come in handy when translating words or phrases, but how is it going to help when you have to talk to another person. It can't translate what everyone else is saying. So even though there is an app that can translate stuff for you, there will still be a bunch of people who want to take a foreign language because they want to be able to speak to a native fluently without having to rely on another source for help. Other than this, I think the app is extremely useful!

-Akash Patel

Open Zine

I haven't blogged at all this past week and this is due to the fact that we have been working on a magazine this week. I can just say right now that my magazine is short and horrible. I feel like I have spent most of this week being frustrated and wasting time. The first day went alright. I got my cover page done and I got some information for my first page. The next day is where everything went downhill. I couldn't log in for 30 mins! I only have 45 mins to work on my magazine and I spent more than half of it just trying to log in. After I logged in, it said I didn't have any magazines. I know I didn't publish it, but why wasn't it showing up on my works in progress section. So I started to work on another magazine and when class ended I saved it and hit save later. After I saved this one, my old one came back up in my works in progress. At this point I was ready to flip a table over, but I let it go and I was ready to work on it the next day. After I finished a page, I realized that you can only have a cover and ONE page. What kind of magazine has one page!? After all of my frustration I decided to give up because now my weeks worth of work is just a waste. I published my first one just so everyone can see what I have been working on, but I think I'm done with that site because I can't take the frustration. Back to blogging for me.

Magazine: http://www.openzine.com/aspx/Zine.aspx?IssueID=15544

-Akash Patel

Passion

Our assignment for this week is to find a passion and promote it. I found this to be extremely difficult. I picked video games for a topic because it's my way to have fun ans stay connected with my friends even when we're physically far apart. The best thing about video games is that it's a way you can meet new people and communicate with people all around the world. After thinking of this topic, it took me a while to figure out how to promote this. I came across Game Battles, which a site dedicated to competitive gaming. This is a great way to challenge players that you have never met before. There are thousands of people on this site and there are also thousands of teams that you can challenge. You can join a team of people that is a thousand miles away. This is how I'm going to promote my passion because I really don't know what else I could do for a passion. It isn't easy to find ONE passion and it definitely isn't easy promoting it, but this assignment sounds interesting and I can't wait to see where it goes.

-Akash Patel

Doing What We're Told

All teachers tell their students what to do, but only a few teachers have a reason why.Every student has to do specific things in their class in order to pass. Some of it seems pointless. I know that every student wonders why they have to do things in a class that are completely useless. Some people are graded on how much they talk in class. I think this is horrible. Some students don't have anything to throw out into a classroom. I know that when I'm in a class that I do not like, I don't talk much because I don't like talking about things I'm not interested in. This goes back to my previous posts. We should just take classes that interest us rather than taking classes that seem useless to us.

-Akash Patel

Laptops and IPads for next year

Laptops and IPads sound great for next year. They can help get information faster and it can help students be more organized. All notes and files for each class can be organized into specific folders so nothing would ever be lost. The only problem could be server problems. At BHS we have had numerous times where our server would just crash and we were left with no riverdeep folders all day. This could happen while we have laptops. Also, the number of people connected to the wifi network could slow it down significantly. However, we do have wifi ports all over the school and I think we are ready to handle any problem we face. This is a great idea and it would be great for students.

-Akash Patel

Useful Classroom Tool

I think wallwisher is the most useful tool out of all of the ones listed on ever web 2.0 tool list because it can benefit both teachers and students. Many students forget test dates and deadlines and other important dates so if the teacher had a wallwisher, they could post all of this important information on the wall for everyone to see. Any questions about subject material could also be asked and posted on the wall for everyone to see. Wallwisher can be great just for reminders but it can also be a learning experience because some people will ask questions that you wouldn't even think about asking. The wallwisher can also be useful for teachers. I know a bunch of teachers who can't remember important dates so this tool can be used to keep teachers on the right track. Overall, I would have to say this is the most useful tool for any teacher to use because it can help the class be more organized.

-Akash Patel

"Pencil Ban" - What's Next

I have heard some crazy things in my lifetime but banning pencils has to be the craziest thing I have ever heard. This teacher seems misguided in what he's trying to prevent. I'm not trashing his prefession or abilities in any way. I am just saying that banning pencils seems a little bizarre. Pencils can be used as weapons, but so can a lot of other things. A classroom can be deadly if you actually look at it. Pencils are the least of the worries when it comes to danger. Everyone needs a pencil, especially a person who loves to write in their free time. If someone bans pencils, they ban a writer's ability to follow their hearts and passion. The goal of a school is to help students follow their passions to a successful career. Aren't they stopping writers from doing this by banning pencils? I think the teachers just got a little carried away with this. I mean what's next, banning costumes on Halloween because they "might cause us danger" or because the accessories "can be used as weapons." Or should we start eating without forks, knives, and spoons because they can cause serious damage in a restaurant. School without pencils is like a eating soup with a knife. It just seems silly to ban pencils in a school to me.

-Akash Patel

"Why Does School Have To Be So Boring?" Response

Why exactly does school have to be boring? School is just the same thing over and over again. We listen to teachers, take notes and then take a test on the material we "learn." After the test, most students forget what they learned because they feel like they're done with it. I don't think anyone is really learning. I just think they memorize things long enough to pass the class. So what does the honor roll mean? It just means a student is able to memorize well. There are students that don't make honor roll but they are able to do well in the classes that apply to their future careers. There might be a class that a student does not need in the future and that's the reason they can't make honor roll. Honor roll just means you're good at knowing what the school wants you to know. If you miss the honor roll by a few grades, you are good at what you are passionate about. If you don't make honor roll by a long shot, you aren't trying to do well in any of the classes. We need to start learning. And if we want to do this we have to follow what we're passionate about.

Why Does School Have To Be So Boring? - Link

-Akash Patel

"Should we be good at school" response

Schools have always been taught the same way, but why is it that we can't remember half the stuff we learned throughout our school career? I can't remember anything that I learned in elementary school or middle school right now. Why are schools still teaching us this way if almost all of us can't remember anything from previous years? I think blogging and social media can help with learning because they supply us with resources for certain subjects.This article addresses this problem. I think we should be taught in a new way. We need to be able to learn something in a way that is memorable. If something crazy happens, I know I'll remember it in the future because something bizarre will always stay stuck in my head. When we are able to to make learning fun and exciting, we wont have to worry about students forgetting how to do things. Students will definitely remember how to do a problem if there is something fun about it. Even in calculus we made finding derivatives somewhat fun by making catchy phrases. If calculus can be fun, anything can be fun. Learning isn't supposed to be about knowing things for a short period of time. It's about getting some sort of information and keeping for as long as you live. If you forget how to do something after such a short period of time, you didn't actually learn it. All we have to do is change this boring way of schooling and learning.

Link to blog 4 edu article: http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/

-Akash Patel

AP Statistics

AP statistics is something we have never seen at this school. I think it would be a great class. There are a lot of people who don't take AP Calculus because they think it will be too hard so they tak regular Statistics and regular Calculus. Statistics is too easy for some students and they want to take a class that is a little more challenging for them. AP statistics would be a great class for the people who don't want to take AP Calculus or the people who just want another challenging math course. Mr. McNeill found an ebook that shows what AP Statistics would be like. This book looks pretty interesting and I recommend checking it out because this class would be a great addition to our school.

-Akash Patel

"10 iPad Apps for the Classroom" Response

Having a iPad for classes would also make class easier for the students here. This article shos the useful apps that a student could use in a classroom. The one that really caught my eye was the calculator. This specific calculator included the trigonometry functions and their inverses. I have seen many students who use calculators without these functions because they don't want to throw money down for an expensive ti-84 or 89. This calculator will definitely be useful for students taking calculus or pre-calculus. The science apps were also very useful. The english reader app would make looking at books easier for all the students. Also, the note taking app will definitely help students keep track of notes rather than losing them in their notebooks. I definitely think we should have iPads in the school because it would make the lives of our students easier and it would help them stay organized.

-Akash Patel