Blog Assignment 8

This is How we Dream Parts 1 and 2 by Richard Miller

This video was really hard for me to wrap my mind around because of the vast network of technology we have available to us. I had to watch the videos twice to really grasp all the information they contained. There is so much technology and resources available that are changing daily and it seems so hard to keep up. I think that it is great topic of moving from the classroom that reads and writes to a more interactive classroom that uses multimedia to write with. Things like video, pictures and articles are all incorporated into creating writing with multimedia. Miller says that documents online are now made freely available and are infinitely sharable. He also states that." An incremental change now is that we now work on lap tops where we have access to the internet with endless resources."
In today's world we are not limited by paper. There are so many ways to present a topic that is being researched. Richard Miller composed a paper about the killing at Virginia Tech without even setting foot in a library. He used resources he found online to compile his information. He also talks about collaborating and using different resources such as video and pictures to "write" with. Making documents more visual and captivating can help to engage the reader and further their understanding of a subject. Miller states, " we can collect together threads of experience and weave them together into a coherent document." Through the use of technology we can make our work available to be view by anyone, anywhere and at any time.
I do not feel that I am fully prepared to write with multimedia although I think I am on the right path to become more comfortable with it. We are learning how to by inserting different things like videos and pictures into our blogs to help enhance them. I also know that this is something that can be put into practice into the classroom and that given the right instruction students will be able to write with multimedia in no time at all.

Carly Pugh's Blog Post #12

I think that Carly's idea is amazing! To create a playlist of all your favorite videos, blogs, articles and all different things is a great way to put all your thoughts in one place. It reminds me of a PLN but it is more about her philosophies and views on things. I think that having a philosophy is important because it gives us motivation to keep going and reminds us what we are working towards. I followed her links and watches some of her playlist and I also liked a lot of the videos she had put up there. I had never seem any of them and I am glad I got to because they really make you think about what your views are and what philosophy you hold. I also see how it comes close the what Dr. Miller talks about with writing through using multimedia because if she were to write a paper about her philosophy and views on teaching it would end up saying pretty much exactly what the videos gave us. This visual writing probably captivated us a lot better than an entire 4 page paper would have. I think that this is a great idea and it really makes me think about my views and philosophy.

EDM 310 for Dummies and The Chipper Series

The primary message of these two videos is to teach about how import it is to stay organized and "on-top-of things" in EDM 310. They both are funny and entertaining to get their point across and in "The Chipper Series" I even detected some sarcasm. I remember watching these videos before the first day of class and they gave me a preview of what to expect and kind of ease any worries about the course. I think it would be fun to create a movie about PLN's and the importance of starting one early. I think that it would be beneficial to let other students know how much more they can benefit from their PLN if they begin early. Honestly when I saw that we needed to start on our PLN project I was like what is that and never looked at it again until a week before we had to make our first progress report post. I think making a video showing the benefits of a PLN and just exactly what it is would be a great way to help out new students in the class.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
I think that the arguments in the video are very valid ones. I was shocked that coal miners were ranked higher that education in IT development. Education needs to change because it is the foundation for everything. Some of the people in the video said that students now are using social networking, emails, text messaging and other forms of technology that are banned from the classroom because we are afraid to explore these "dangerous" avenues of learning. Some of the others in the video were talking about how we are not adequetly preparing students for jobs they will encounter out in the real world. One of the men said that standardized testing is not teaching students anything because jobs do not need people to only know the right answer. Students have to be able to find information, know how to use that information, validate that info, and solve problems. Students cannot just memorize things and expect to get by in the job world of today. I think this is a neat video with some great arguments for making education more technology literate.