Blog Post 8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2

I think this can be extremely beneficial for learning for several reasons. All information is updated around the clock, so the information you are currently viewing, is completely up to date and the most accurat information available ANYWHERE. You are never exposed to outdated, innaccurate information. The facts are always right, and always a click away.
What I really like about the multimedia writing is that film is such a powerful tool to convey messages, infinitely more powerful than text. Watching a video that is interactive and eye catching that you can manipulate as you go along, always keeps the learner on the edge and makes it possible for the learner to follow whatever facet is of interest concerning the topic. You are learning by your own freewill and tailoring your learning experience to your own particular strengths and interests making for a better educated individual thuc creating a better society.

It is so interesting to me personally to be able to see the "mood" of cities and as our country as a whole. That means when something happens, globally, politically, socially, anything- we have the power to see how anyone and everyone else is reacting to it. No longer would we have to rely on news stations to accurately or inaccurately portray people's stances. News reports are most always reported with a specific party or agenda in mind. Being able to have access to the truth for yourself is a liberating and enlightening accomplishment.

Also, one cannot deny the power of collaboration. No one has all the pieces to the puzzle. Not one person has all the answers, but here is the deal: we all have a piece, a way or perspective that helps things make more sense when looking at the big picture. If humanity has the opportunity to put all of our knowledge, our puzzle pieces, together in one place- we have the power to uncover great things. One piece from one person can uncover a whole domino effect of answers that we previously didn't have access to before. I don't think it's a question of if we are able to do this, or if our students are able to. The question is how will our society change when we are no longer in the dark and everyone has equal access to all knowledge?


The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies

I took away from these videos that you can try to find away around doing things the right way, or try to cheat the system- but you can't. It's frustrating when you don't understand how something works and you don't know how to use something. But that is the purpose of this class. It is for us to discover new and useful tools to make our educational experience as productive and effective as possible. It also shows us some of the advances being made in the educational realm so that we can be ready for change. It gets easier, but it requires you to learn. You actually have to learn how to use the sites because this is a project based course and you have to do the work alone. So EDM 310 is a different kind of learning experience. It's not based on memorization or tests, its based on learning programs and completely assignments.

For me, I think a good video to make would be like "Where in the World Do You Find That?" There are so many things that I know we are supposed to do, that I can't find anywhere. Or I'll find it once, then I won't be able to find it again. For instance, I heard that we are supposed to put pictures in all of our blogs. I also heard this is in the instructional manual. BUT I can't find where it says to do this ANYWHERE! It's like a link comnnects to a link that connects to another link that connects to another link. Then 50 links down the road, you forget where you even are or what you are even looking for. So, I think it would be useful to put all the common questions and problems in a video and address them with step-by-step instructions.

Critiques of Smartboards

Even before watching these critiques, I have NEVER seen what is so great about them. Aren't you really doing the same thing as writing on a chalkboard with a fancy pen? To make matters worse, ALL the teachers that I have ever had, did not even know how to use a smartboard and the students had to come up and assist them. If the primary goal of a smartboard is to 'wow' the students, how do you do that when you don't even know how to use it? Here is my link to a pro-Smartboard user blog: http://smartboardchat.blogspot.com/. I definitely agree that there are much better ways to spend the schools' money. I know from a learning perspective, Smartboards do not make any difference. It may make you look technological (if you actually know how to operate it) but still, in the back of everyone's mind- it's just a fancy chalkboard and let's face it- we all know WAY too much about those.