Blog Post #8

Richard Miller: This is How We Dream
After watching and listening to Richard Miller's presentations, I am more aware of how much technology has really been a part of my life throughout the years. He spoke of how he used only his own ideas and the internet to write a paper, never stepping foot in a library. I have done this my entire life. All it takes is thinking about your own ideas and collaborating with others' ideas, which are free for all of us. Miller continues to stress the importance of ideas, which don't belong to anyone in particular but to all of us. Ideas are what have shaped technology into what it is now, where the possibilities are endless.

Miller makes the statement, "We as educators must be in the business of sharing ideas freely". It should not be difficult to share our ideas unless we make it difficult for ourselves. I think one of the most important points Miller makes is that we should not only absorb the multimedia, but create our own. I feel this is the only way to truly understand the value of your own ideas and how they connect with others.

I feel that I am able to write with multimedia, but I have a lot of learning left to do before I will be able to use it for the benefit of my students. I also feel writing with multimedia is imperative in today's society. Listening and watching is what we all do much more than reading and writing, so we must go with the flow and learn to fit into the listening and watching era that we are living in. This way all ideas will be heard and contemplated, instead of relying on all of the "whatever" ideas to make a difference. Multimedia is what our society has grown dependent upon. Whether or not the people are conscious to this fact doesn't change it from being a fact. Therefore, we who care about the world and generations to come have to use the resources at hand beneficially and create our own in order to overthrow the "whatevers". I strongly believe two lefts don't make a right, and any good attempt at making a difference will come to light. Multimedia is the key to the difference we can make.

EDM310 is Different
The Chipper Series:
In this video, Jamie Lynn portrays a student who is not willing to do the work she has to do for class, so she decides to take matters in her own hands. She continues to procrastinate in all of her attempts to succeed because she does not want to learn. This sends the message that you have to work for what you want and be willing to learn and change in order to be successful. Otherwise, you will just end up right where you started. This particular video reached the audience through humor, and I feel it worked well.

EDM310 is for Dummies:
I loved this video. While it can feel like you're going crazy upon entering this class, the help of others is always useful. Listening to others who understand better about the networking sites we are required to learn about is a sure way to understand for yourself.
I would like to participate in creating videos that reach people through humor, but I think taking a more serious path would work well also. I think it would be fun to make a movie showing "clips" from eras of the past and how technology has changed the world today.

Smartboards
After reading the evaluations of two men against interactive white boards, I automatically felt their arguments were too strong to be ignored. I searched and found a site which provides a lengthy list of the tools available for a teacher's use of the smartboard. Michael Staton and Bill Ferriter claim that smartboards are just a way for a school to look bigger and better to the competitors, they are too expensive, and that lessons can be taught just as accurately without any help from a smartboard.

After viewing the other website, Smarter Smart Board Use, I believe that the smartboard is useless if it is being used for the wrong reasons. If they are only there for the school's overall image and are used as a regular blackboard, there is no imagination behind it and the purpose is destroyed. However, if the teachers actually care enough to use the advancements in technology handed to them, smartboards can make a major difference. The smartboard holds numerous resources, lesson plans, and interactive games. This particular website tells how the smartboard provides fun, challenging games for the children. The down sides to a smartboard sound pretty bad, but I think if imagination and collaboration is at the center of the smartboards, there is sure to be an uplifting of the learning environment for teachers and students.