Blog Post 8

This Is How We Dream

In 2008, Richard E. Miller from Rutgers University created a video called This Is How We Dream. His video discussed the impact that multimedia has on today's society. In his opinion, we are no longer a reading/writing culture, but, instead, we are now a listening/watching culture. The issue that rises today is whether our students are producing their own multimedia or just consuming the products of others. He challenges teachers to teach their students how to produce their own multimedia and establish their own personal learning network.

In Part 1 of his video, Miller discusses the incremental changes that multimedia has placed on our country. We no longer have to work with a pen or pencil at a desk in the library. The use of laptops, personal computers, and the Internet, have redefined the requirements for a "work space". Students no longer have to go to the library to write a research paper or to discover the history behind a famous author, president, or scientist. Most libraries now have an online virtual library which allows you to search topics and books with the click of a mouse. Also, if the online virtual library does not meet a student needs, there are many educational websites that do. Many universities, such as Harvard and Stanford, are now posting their research to the internet in the form of a word document that can be downloaded for free.

As a future educator, I believe the world we live in today is one of the best generations to learn. I want to make sure my students know how to use the Internet to its fullest potential. In order to do this I will make sure that they know how to search the online library for the school or city in which I teach in. I will also help them to identify and differentiate between reliable and non-reliable sources.

Part 2 of "This Is How We Dream", showed me some of the fundamental changes that multimedia has brought to this generation. Richard Miller believes that it is the duty of educators to be in the business of sharing their ideas and resources freely. If all educators came together and developed their own ideas from another teacher's idea, imagine how talented and creative our education system would be. It is important that we, as future educators, help and encourage each other.

There are many resources that teachers can use to help teach the basic fundamentals in the classroom. One example is iTunes U. Teachers can use iTunes U to download and share academic lectures with their class. They can also use it to find educational videos or speeches to broaden their lessons. The use of multimedia allows ideas and topics to be pushed to the top of our culture. If we were still writing and publishing every single document that was written, it would take at least two years for these documents to reach the people. Multimedia sources also allow us to be environmentally friendly which I believe is highly important because we already create so much pollution each year from cars, airplanes, factories, etc.

Carly Pugh's Blog Post 12

Carly Pugh is an amazing writer and such an inspiration to Dr. Strange's EDM310 class. Her Blog Post #12 opened my eyes to a new resource that I did not know even existed. For her personal post, she taught viewers how to create their own personal YouTube playlist. By creating a YouTube playlist, teachers can organize different videos that they would like to use in their classroom by categories.

This really caught my attention because I did not realize that this was even possible. I obviously have not been using YouTube to it's fullest potential. I was thrilled to know that I could create a YouTube playlist because I am constantly watching YouTube videos for my education classes and, literally, copying and pasting the URL links to each video into a word document so that I will not forget the video that I watched.

Carly challenges teachers to create playlists that are motivational, educational, or just plain fun! Her personal playlists are outstanding. She is going to make an amazing teacher and her categories of playlists will surely continue to grow. Today, I established my own series of playlist. I created one for videos based on mathematics because in my math classes, I learned how fun and resourceful these type of videos can be. I also created a playlist specifically for videos of historical speeches or lectures that were taught by other teachers. Another playlist I created was an inspiration playlist that I will use to store videos that are encouraging to me and help to further my understanding of my purpose as an educator. I believe these type of videos are important to have for whenever I need a "pick-me-up" on a bad day.

At the end of her blog post, Carly leaves viewers with an influential video. This video asks bloggers to think about six different questions. It encouraged me to live my day to its fullest potential and to re-evaluate where I am on my educational journey. The question that stood out to me the most was, "Do you approach life with the magic, the vulnerability, and the curiosity of a child?" I believe that since I have been in college, I have been so focused on achieving my degree that I often forget to take a second and live in the moment. To be a teacher, I do not just have to know what to teach to my students, but I must be sure to be an enthusiastic learner so I always know how to teach my students. Our community, culture, and country is constantly changing and will be never ending in change. It is necessary for me to stay up-to-date and be accepting to the changes I will have to face.

EDM 310 Is Different

At the beginning of the semester, I watched the two videos The Chipper Series and EDM310 For Dummies in order to learn the purpose of EDM 310. This class is not like any other class that I have taken at The University of South Alabama, and it should not, by any means, be taken as a joke. In our EDM 310 class we discover what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century and how to become technologically literate.

The Chipper Series is a cute video that was created by Jamie Lynn Miller to show students the importance of being on time with your work. In the beginning Chipper tried to make excuses for her late work. She wanted to redefine procrastination and make it "okay" to turn in her work late. However, procrastination means that the student turned in his/her work at the last minute, but it was not late.

Throughout the series of events, Chipper continues to live a life without deadlines. She wants to be "taught" so that she doesn't have to learn. This is the wrong way to look at education. Teachers could give their students the answers test, but this would not be "teaching" students. Giving students answers is only allowing students to "memorize". If the teacher challenges and guides their students by assigning projects or lessons that are due at a certain point, the teacher would be truly teaching. It is the job of a teacher to help students to learn from their mistakes and become the most responsible and mature student that he or she can be.

Of course, Chipper learns the hard way that she cannot go anywhere in life without preparing and adapting to deadlines. She is fired from all of her jobs because she refused to follow instructions. While working as a garbage collector, she finally has a change of heart and decides to go back to school. She decides not to procrastinate and go to class. Overall, this video demonstrates the importance of being a responsible student.

EDM310 For Dummies was established to help students realize that the assignments for EDM310 can be completed with patience, time, and help. This is another video created by Jamie Lynn Miller. In this creative video she implemented that is necessary to get help if you are struggling in EDM 310. She listed sources that have tutorials and instructions on how to complete projects in this class. Some of the available sources are Blogger, Skype, Delicious, Twitter, and YouTube.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

Christie Odom suggested that our EDM310 class watch Learn to Change, Change to Learn. This video attacks the education system that exist today. However, I agree with their attack because they are reasoning that the education system is not allowing students to reach their fullest potential in the classroo. Many schools have banned cell phones and the use of texting. They block social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

As a future educator, I have accepted the fact that technology is not a choice, but it is now a part of learning. The social networks that exist today allow students to establish relationships, community with others, and connectivity with various other students. This video amplifies the situation that many students collect more data outside the classroom because it is restricted at school. In today's society, school is only one way that students can learn.

After spending two months in this class, I already know that I not only want to teach my students, but I want to prepare them for life. In order to do that, I realize it will be necessary to help them become technological literate. I plan to incorporate technology in every way possible in order to allow my students to be creative, use their different abilities, and become a resourceful learner.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0

Web 2.0 is interactive, accessible, and collaberative. It is important because it leads to higher levels of engagement, differentiation, critical thinking, new capabilities, alternative learning environments, extending learning, and life long learning. On the website there are many different tools that teachers/students can use. The tools are divided into groups. The groups are presentation, video, mobile, video editing, and community tools. The only negative side to this website is that links come on go. However, each time a resource is lost it is replaced with a newer link to replace it.

Upon my exploration of Web 2.0, I found a website that can be used to create videos. Animito has many different features such as Cinematic A.I., Spotlight, Included Text, Images, and Music. The Cinematic A.I. allows you to focus on the content of the video because it analyzes music, photos, and video clips automatically for you. By using Animito, you can use included text which allows you to mix relevant messages, quotes and statistics into your video.

The image tool allows you to select photos from Facebook and Instagram. This can sometimes be much faster than choosing a photo saved to your computer. It also allows you to choose pictures you may not have taken from another person's Facebook and Instagram. The music tool allows you to upload music from your iTunes. All of these resources make this website unique and creative. I was also interested to know that Animito has an application for the iPhone which allows to upload videos from your phone.

Another website I found on Web 2.0 was Make Belief Comics. This website allowed me to create my own comic strip. Here is the comic strip that I created:

On Web 2.0, I also found a website that allowed me to create my own personal poll. Here is the poll that I created:


Please, feel free to respond to my poll. I would love to see your response! The more responses I receive, the more acquainted I will become with this website. If you have not visited the Web 2.0 website, I encourage you to do so. There are numerous resources that anyone can use.