Blog Post 8

EDM for Dummies

The first minute of this video is exactly how I felt the first couple of days of EDM 310. I felt so overwhelmed and even a little CRAZY- although I never actually smashed any computers! But there really isn't an excuse for not becoming familiar with the class. Everything is written out step by step for us in the instruction manual. Dr. Srange are pretty much always available. I enjoyed the video! I like the fact that it's so simple, but yet it holds so much information in the short span of it. I really like and appreciate it!

http://gallery.me.com/jstrange/101120/Chipper%20-%20Medium.m4v?disposition=download

This was a really interesting video. I like how the common ways of thinking of lots of college students was played out so easily. I don't know about others, but I get caught up in the outside world at times and end up becoming a little lazy with my school work. We make all sorts of excuses for ourselves and come up with ridiculous scenarios with how to get out of doing work. I liked the whole thing and enjoyed it. I think it would be fun and rewarding to take part in a video something like this. It's definitely something to think about!

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-smartboards-are-dumb-initiative.html

I became really interested in this post when the author said: " Smartboards are an administrative cop out". Wow!! Someone who can say this openly is someone who probably very educated on the topic, and that is what made me start over from the beginning and read again. I also appreciated the fact that he slimmed his points down into two points; he cut straight to the chase.
I struggled a bit with this. I've decided that it is because I was under-informed about smart boards. I didn't realize the cons of them, only the pros. The pros are that they do look good in classrooms, and they are 'neat' gadgets. But does this neat gadget improve students' learning environment? Maybe they do, but do they improve the environment enough to pay THOUSANDS of dollars for? Not!


http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/01/27/tln_ferriter_whiteboards.html?tkn=Q[RFGmQux6XnMebDMl4nddRDutTae13KtmNE

The writer of this post seems to have 'beef' with smartboards because they cost so much money, but they don't promote collaborative work with students or critical thinking skills. He says that the whiteboards are neat, but they didn't make his job of teaching a required subject any easier. I don't really like that he listed that part as a reason- who said educating was easy? But, he did have another point that I liked. He wrote that if one was to ask a principal what the best classrooms looked like, he or she would say something like: " In the best classrooms, students are involved in creating knowledge together. They’re studying topics, designing experiments, collaborating with peers, and challenging one another’s preconceived notions. While the teacher is always present to guide and to facilitate, the students are empowered to discover and to grow independently.” I like this point, alot.


http://techliterateteacher.blogspot.com/2009/07/dr-richard-e-miller-discusses-writing.html
"This is How We Dream" Part 1 By Dr. Miller

He caught my attention within a minute when he started talking about how we use our laptops in place of pencil, paper, books, etc. This is so true! In the technology world, this is probably a good thing. He went on to talk about how we can learn anything we want within a few seconds and a few clicks on the internet. We can also collaborate on our computers now. We can all get together with a colleague or 2 and collaborate any kind of report using the technology today. And this is how we learn now. I really like videos that are made like this. What I mean is, the speaker is demonstrating what he is also saying.

"This is How We Dream" Part 2 By: Dr. Miller
Dr. Miller continues to talk about all of the things technology gives us, all of the opportunities are given to us from technology. We can compose music using itunes; we compose videos online. We can not only produce them, but we can go behind the scenes and see how things are done. We can then demonstrate that information anyway we want. He starts talking about how he understands that the resources we have here aren't available everywhere; but he sees it in the future.

Dr. Miller says that at the University he teaches at, he doesn't have the ability to teach this way because it has not yet been invented. He says that a "building that is united is better. The future can only be a bright one if it is realize through the shared labor of those who work in the humanities AND the sciences." Dr. Miller says that the goal is not technology in itself, but what technology has to offer.