Blog Post 8

The strongest argument for Richard Miller’s lecture is the “stunning visual representation” employed in the youtube videos: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2 . It is a composition that is “beautiful, compelling…that pays attention to the auditory details of the experience.” As a future teacher in the humanities (specifically in English Composition/Language Arts), I am ecstatic about the profound changes in teaching/learning being brought about through multimedia! I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Miller’s comment, “Why wouldn’t we be at the front edge of it…how could we not be interested in this attempt to make sense of the world we live in?”

The question posed by this assignment is, “Am I prepared to write with multimedia?” To answer this, I first had to examine the way I currently learn as a student. Let’s take this assignment for example…I used multimedia tools to listen>watch>(write)>reflect>and compose this blog post. Another recent example would be our SMART board assignments. We first had to write/compose a questionnaire to distribute for responses. For me, writing is where I lay out the foundation of my thoughts. Multimedia is the conduit. It has propelled our culture forward, encouraging us to read, write, watch and listen more...engaging every type of learner.

Fast forward to my future classroom. I will, as Dr. Strange has done, assign videos to my students to provoke thought, conversation, reflection and then composition using web tools. I will also direct them to sites that require reading print based articles as part of their research. I know this will require me to be technologically literate, keeping up with the changes that are happening in multimedia “moment by moment.”

In order to be a producer of ideas and not simply a consumer, it is imperative that I learn all that I can about the tools (audio, visual & print based) that are available on the web to produce lessons and encourage my students to make their work visible. These videos have strengthened my understanding and desire to make my classroom a digital learning environment. I will seek every avenue available to make this dream a reality.

Lessons Learned from The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies

1.Don’t procrastinate.

2.Work hard.

I have to admit there are times in EDM310 when I feel like the frenzied cartoon figure you see with this comment. Since the term began, rarely am I seen without my laptop or pc...I’ve even woke up in the middle of the night subconsciously composing a blog post! Will we experience EDM310 withdrawal symptoms after the term ends? Are you addicted yet? I think of scripture found in II Thessalonians 3:10, “He who does not work…does not eat.” Apply this to EDM-310, “He who does not blog, tweet, comment, view, create, embed, skype, PLN it, google doc it, RSS feed it, try it, fail at it, try it again...does not SURVIVE EDM310.” If I were going to make a video, this is the direction I would go - (A Survivor’s Guide to EDM310.)

3.Don’t make excuses.

4.Hang in there…EDM-310 gets better or you get better at EDM310 through hard work, no procrastination and no excuses.


Learn to Change – Change to Learn, The Secret Powers of Time and
Drive - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

I try to imagine the demographic of students in my future classroom. I will be teaching middle and high school aged students. Many will likely have cell phones with media plans, gaming systems, internet access and be “addicted to instant gratification.” One of the comments made on the video was, “School now is about delay of gratification.” The video depicts this as a negative thing. Delay of gratification teaches patience and “patience is a virtue.” That’s a lesson worth teaching. To be successful, one must expect to wait. Nothing worth having is instantaneous! Commitment, hard work, patience, and perseverance bring reward. A classroom can have structure without being boring. We can integrate technology and enhance teaching and learning. For some children, (because of external factors like unstable home and community environments, poverty, peer pressure, etc.) the classroom may be the only source of stability and structure in their day. It’s a bit extreme to say that going back to reading, writing, and math would be “disastrous.” These are essential skills that should be taught. “Their brains are being rewired...they’ll never be able to sit in a classroom and be successful where they can’t control something.” I say, give them control over their own learning. As teachers, we must realize that “technology is not really a choice. It has created a world. It has emerged a completely new environment for learning.” We can mold our classrooms into an environment that encourages autonomy, mastery and purpose (drive for success) and produce citizens who will be “team players, collaborative, gregarious and brave.”