Blog Post #8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream

In Part 1 one of the two videos, Mr. Miller is talking about how writing has changed. He makes a very valid point by stating that writing used to be a solitary activity. He claims that he was a person of the book when he began his education and always imagined himself spending alot of time around and with books. He describes how writing has changed by calling its transition into the present an incremental change.

He states that writing today is freely available. This I mostly agree with. Unlike text available online( which is almost anything ever published), a library does not allow you to access information whenever you want. We are limited by the fact that the text may not be available due to it being checked out or the library not carrying it at all. The online world allows to have unlimited access to the materials we need and we can share knowledge infinitely.

I agree with his statements on how it is now possible to collaborate using this technology. We can now collaborate with video and film, not just text. I would like to try his example of including text, film, and sound into one publication and see how far it can go. I realized while watching this video that I am gaining a little bit of practice in this because I try to include these materials in my blog post each time I go to publish.

In Part 2 of the two videos, he begins to touch on how we work. There is so much new material that can be published and accessed faster than a few years ago. Not only can we compose presentations through things online, we can now distribute them globally and freely because we have so many free publishing options. We only limit ourselves when it comes to sharing information. Publishing is different than it used to be.

Now we have sites like iTunes, YouTube, Google and many others that making sharing our interests and research possible without having to wait several years to find it on paper. The sharing will go farther and it's immediately pushed into our culture faster.  People are now composing things using the web itself. I find this to be extremely interesting because everything is moving so quickly. Information is literally at our fingertips.

The more I progress through this class, the more confident I feel about using multimedia projects to teach and get a point across. I see more and more everyday how important it is for me to be knowledgeable in the online world because more and more people are using it as their sole source of information. I am hoping that I will pass this information down to my students because they will absolutely grow up in a world that is enveloped in technology. They will have no other choice but to be proficient with networking and multimedia presentations because this will dominate their studies as they progress through school. The world is changing faster and faster everyday. I hope I can keep up.

Carly's Blog Post #12

This was an exceptionally fantastic blog. I feel now that my blogs are incredibly inferior and I think they need some improvement. I loved the way she incorporated links throughout her post and didn't just include one near the end. I feel as if I have tons of improving to do!!!

Carly's post is right on the money. It epitomizes the exact ideals that Richard Miller described in his video. She used every opportunity she could to lead us to something elsewhere and in doing so, gave us more insight in to what she was writing about. This is what Mr.Miller was talking about. He stated that the only limits people have when it comes to collaborating via the internet are the limits they impose on themselves. THERE ARE NO LIMITS! It is truly incredible what she has done here. Carly put real effort into her post and shared wonderful ideas for different activities in the classroom. The amazing thing being that this was all shared at the drop of a hat. It was easy for her to do so because our technology allows it.

The Chipper Series

Haha, how funny! I liked how Chipper's "do the bare minimum" characteristics came through in every scenario. This was a great way to show students that quitting and being lazy gets you absolutely nowhere. My favorite line had to be when Chipper told Dr.Strange in exasperation that he was making her "do all the work". DUH! Students are supposed to be doing all the work. We are the ones responsible for our own learning. Our instructors give us the material and guidance, but we are in charge of where we take that information.

EDM 310 for Dummies

This was a pretty good video. You can tell a good bit of work was put into it and there seemed to be a great deal of editing involved.

One video that I would really enjoy creating would be some type of good teacher, bad teacher mini-film. I would like to show the difference between a teacher who loves her job compared to a teacher who isn't happy with her career. I've had  too many teachers who are burnt out and don't want to bother with teaching their students anymore. I would like to create this video using the following steps:

1. I would first show a future teacher choosing her career choice in the College of Education office. She would be bright, cheery and clearly very confident in her decision.
2. Next, I would show the opposite student. This would be someone who gloomily walks into the office with an "I don't care" attitude. When asked by the advisor why she wants to be a teacher, she would state simply that it looked like the easiest thing to do.
3. Next, I would show the two students trying to find a job as a brand new teacher. I would show how successful the first student is and how hard it is for the second.
4. Eventually, they both find jobs. The first one has a great attitude and never seems to stop smiling. She appears to be in the exact place she wants to be. The second teacher has a poor attitude and this is reflected in her students work and their lack of progress.
5. In the end, we see how badly the students suffer because the second teacher puts barely 50% of her time and effort in to trying to teach her students.

My main goal for this video would be to show people how detrimental it is to children if you have a bad attitude. You must always keep your chin up and no matter what kind of day you've had, always think about how your demeanor effects your students. It is important to put your all into teaching and use every resource you can find so that your students can have the best education they could possibly get from you. Use the internet, use presentations, use blogs, but most of all use your smile and caring attitude to nurture these students into better futures.PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO! It's a great way to view bad habits of teachers!

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

This video was completely right in my opinion. We are 55 in technologically savvy. 55! BELOW COAL MINING. I guess education is stuck in the dark ages. I especially  liked when a lady was stating how phones, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking devices are banned from schools. Facebook is used in almost every business in the world. Every place I can think of right has a sign or sticker somewhere saying "like us on Facebook". So why are children not allowed to use these resources in school. Under a controlled environment, we can teach kids how to use these sites properly.This video is an eye opener and I wish that somehow the members of the Mobile County Public School Board could see this video. Maybe they would push for more of this kind of learning in  our schools.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0

I really enjoyed playing around on the Discovery Education's WEB 20.12 site. There were do many options for different presentation tools, video tools, mobile tools and even a link for community tools.There were many sites that were free and several asking for a fee that was next to nothing.

1. Locate a tool that is similar to Facebook/Twitter...

I found the website classroom 2.0  to be very helpful. It is a free community supported network. Classroom 2.0 is a supportive and comfortable place to start being a part of the digital dialog. They even approve all memberships to avoid scammers so the security is pretty tight. It's a great site to add to any PLN and an easy way to connect with other teachers.

2. Find a tool that you have never used. Summarize it's special features...

I especially liked animoto. This is a site that allows teachers to enhance their classroom with videos and presentations. It goes beyond the regualar slides. It creates stunning quality and wonderful pictures. They even have different options for images, music and sharing. The program is free for any thirty second video and it's only 30 dollars a year for the next step up.Check out what animoto can do with plain ole pics!

3. Find a tool to create a poll anywhere and at anytime.

I loved Poll Everywhere. How fun! This is a site where people can take or create a survey at the blink of an eye. It's the easiest way to give live presentations in any venue: classrooms, radio, tv, print-anywhere. It works internationally with texting, web or twitter. Its simplicity and flexibility are earning rave reviews.










 

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