This Is How We Dream was an extremely remarkable production by Dr. Richard E. Miller of Rutgers University. Dr. Miller mentioned many important advances that technology has made over the years and how the world will benefit from these technological advances. Dr. Miller's presentation revolved around the impact that technology has had on the world, and he focused specifically on how technology has transformed the way that people write. Before the television was invented information would take weeks to travel across the country, but after the invention of the television information was able to spread rapidly across America. During the radical protests of the 1960’s people would chant the phrase “the whole world is watching”, and like no other time in history the whole world was watching. Because of this new technology the world would base its political ideology on what had been revealed to it through the television. The Presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were the first to be televised, and they altered the way that people would view an American president. Technology changed the way people viewed their politicians, and technology became the most influential aspect that swayed public opinion. People look back at the beneifits that technology has made over the years and wonder how they could ever do without technology such as: the television, the radio, and the cell phone. Just like the invention of the television we are now experiencing an explostion of technology during this age, and the revelation of this technological explosion was the main goal of Dr. Miller's presentation.
Dr. Miller focused his presentation around the vast amount of information that people have access to. Through modern technology we have access to the riches of the world, and with such access who are we to hold information to ourselves? Technology has provieded many benefits for the society that we live in, but the greatest benefit that Dr. Miller brought out was the ability for the world to unite and share information. The art of writing has been around throughout the history of the world, but only resontly has the written language evolved to a universally accessable form of media. Another important aspect of technology that Dr. Miller brought out was the collabrative tools which are so easily accessed and used from the internet. By utilizing collaborative tools such as Facetime, Skype, Google documents, and many others people are able to come together, regardless of geographical distance, and work on a document at the same time.
We no longer live in an age of stagnant information, but we live in an age where information is constantly changing before our eyes. Dr. Miller made this point clear by showing the viewer how updated information helped him access the imidiate American response to the election of Barack Obama. An aspect of the presentation that is extremely benefitial to EDM310 was when Dr. Miller made the statement, “We as educators must be in the business of sharing ideas freely”. I have mentioned in previous blog posts the absolute importance of research in the classroom, and I feel that lecture should be strengthened by updated information which is accessed through student research. The idea of sharing information is vitally important to anyone whose profession is conveying information to students. I am not content with accepting information that someone teaches me, but I always put everything to the test inorder to determine the most accurate information to base my beliefs on. I feel that any person who will educate kids should be passionate, NOT PASSIVE, about sharing information. The idea of sharing information was well stated by Dr. Miller in multiple places throughout this presentation. A few of my favorite quotes from Dr. Miller's presentation are: “Ideas do not belong to us as an individuals”, “We should be at the front edge of putting ideas into our culture”, and “How could we not be interested in making sense of the world that we live in”. This was an amazing presentation!
2. Carly Pugh's Blog Post 12
Carly did a magnificent job with blog post #12. I really enjoyed her suggestion of the Youtube playlist, and I see how createing a playlist could beneit any future educator. Carly's writting technique absolutely fell in line with Dr. Miller's presentation about writing with multi-media. Carly's blog post was extremely thorough, and her blog post was the perfect example of how we as future educators should write. Most of the student blog posts in EDM 310 are what I would call "satisfactory work", but we as future educators should not produce satisfactory work we should aspire to go above and beyond! Carly's post was above and beyond that of her peers, and I commend her for the excellent work!
3. The Chipper Series & EDM 310 for dummies
The first video that I was assigned to watch was The Chipper Series. This video was about a girl named Chipper who disliked how Dr. Strange ran his class. Chipper went through many stages in the video such as: complaining, dropping out of school, starting a school, she was hired at a school, she tried to become a nanny, she became a garbage collector, and finally she returned to school. This video illustrated the importance of submitting assignments on time.
The second video that I was assigned to watch was EDM310 For Dummies. This video was a student production. The video was about two students who were having a hard time in EDM310, but the students problems were solved by reading the book EDM310 For Dummies. There are many different videos that I could see myself creating in EDM310 this semester, but whatever type video that I chose to create will illustrate an important aspect of EDM310. How to develop and maintain a personal learning network could be a great idea for a video.
4. Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Learn to Change, Change to Learn was an extremely interesting film. My view of incorporating technology in the classroom has changed this semester, and the assigned videos in EDM310 have played a large role in my transformation. I believe strongly in the triunity of educating, a theory that I came up with, which consists of lectures, research, and discussion. I am not an advocate for demolishing organized lectures; however, I am against any teaching philosophy that believes in full exclusion of technology, just as I am against any teaching philosophy that believes in full inclusion of technology. Whatever teaching method that provides the student with the best understanding of the material I will be in full support of.
5. Scavenger Hunt 2.0
For the last assignment of blog post 8 I was asked to embark on a technological scavenger hunt. I was ask to find three different things in this scavenger hunt and here are my results.
1) I was asked to locate a tool that is similar to Twitter and Facebook that provides a social platform for teachers, parents, and students. Through searching WEB 2.0 Tools I was able to find the perfect school friendly social network. The social network that I signed up for was Edmodo. There are many different ways that I can see myself taking full advantage of this website. I can see how the site could offer a clearer method of communication between myself, parents, and students. Micro-blogging websites such Twitter and Facebook make it easy for individuals to communicate ideas, but Edmodo takes communicating ideas to a greater professional level.
2)The second thing that I was asked to find was a comic creating tool that I could use in a class.The website I found to be the most beneficial was MakeBeliefsComix. I enjoyed this website because of how easy it was to use, and I could definitely use this tool in a classroom. I do wish that the website provided the teacher with more characters to include their comics, and as you can see from my comic I had to use two characters that were not from Colonial America. Overall this seemed to be a great website.
3) The video website that I found most beneficial was Animoto. There are multiple things that can be done through this website. Animoto creates videos from video clips and pictures that you upload to the internet. Animoto allows you to share the videos that you create through social networking websites. One of the biggest benefits associated with using Animoto is the fact that it is a free program, but charges will occur if you choose to create a video that exceeds 30 seconds. I can see many benefits associated with this website, and I could definitely see myself using Animoto in the future.
Feel free to comment!
Keely, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. You did a great job and I could tell that you took the time to watch each video and carefully discuss them. My favorite thing that you said was "Whatever teaching method that provides the student with the best understanding of the material I will be in full support of." I completely agree! I believe that teaching should definitely incorporate technology but not solely be based off of technology. I believe that technology helps get students interested and engaged and helps them understand the material better. But I do believe it should be mixed in with traditional teaching and not used solely by itself. You did an excellent job and thanks for sharing. My only advice is spell check!! :)
ReplyDeleteKeeley,
ReplyDeleteGreat work. I enjoyed reading your blog post and getting a different perspective than what I am used to reading when evaluating blog posts. I like your idea of not having too much or too little technology. You seem to believe a balance of all types of teaching is the best. I agree. Too much of anything can be bad. My only criticism is as Sarah said, be sure to proof read your post. There were only a few minor grammatical errors. Otherwise, keep up the excellent work!