Blog Assignment #8

This is How We Dream Part 1&2
To answer the question of weather or not I am prepared to write with multimedia, no. All of this technology scares me to be honest. It puts me in the mind frame of the movie IRobot. Weird, I know. But, Richard Miller seems to think different. In the video This is How We Dream he presents the idea of multimedia as a perfect way for kids to learn visual literacy. He starts off with addressing the particular ways that writing in the academy and writing in the culture has changed and that is one thing that I would have to agree with him on. Certain technology with the help of the internet has made communicating instant and global. How we write, where we work, how we research, and how we publish is so much different than before. Everything is done with the click of a button.
Williams goes on to talk about the incremental changes. For example, most 21st century classrooms does not use pen, paper, or books; but desk tops instead. It is now possible to collaborate not just with text but with the web. People are able to work on projects for school or even have study sessions from home using their web cam. It is now possible to create visual and sound documents such as the one he made himself on the great Martin Luther King Jr. He even informed viewers on how the government is able to keep up with voting records through using technology.
One thing that I did think was pretty cool was the visual representation of the whale hunting. I think this is a great way for others to learn about nature and with the right resources and equipment, people could actually learn and get to experience the outdoors for themselves. Williams made a perfect statement that I also agreed with. He said "Ideas do not to be used individually but culturally and as educators we must be prepared to share our ideas." We as teachers are at the front of pushing ideas into our culture and we should not be afraid nor selfish when we have ideas. They could possibly change society.

Carly Pugh's Blog Post #12
I totally agree with Carly Pugh in her effort to bring change and inspire aspiring teachers. I really enjoyed her enthusiasm in her blog and hope that the same excitement come to viewers when they read my blog. She seems like she is a very smart individual with a lot going for herself. It also seems as if the A.D.D. helps her move forward rather than hold her back. I do see why reading/watching her BlogPost#12 was assigned. It gives us soon-to-be teachers a chance to come up with an assignment for our students. Practice makes perfect. We must be prepared because we are no longer looking out for our own education, we have a whole generations to look after and educate.

EDM310 is Different
I like the videos that were assigned to us by Dr, Strange. Mainly because it is something that anyone who has ever taken this class can relate to. It is frustrating at times but college is not made for students to fly in and out of. With that said, my idea for my video that I would like to create. My video is going to be of a high school graduate who is indecisive on weather or not she wants to go to college. She falls asleep on the high school graduation exam and dreams that she is working at McDonald's, living pay check to pay check, hanging with the wrong crowd, barely making it through life, and she feels behind because all of her high school friends are living life to the fullest while she works to pay bills. She wake up and understands how important college is. She knows it is tough but she decides to sticks through the tough time that a college student encounters. It pays off in the end and the student is able to live better and has a happy ending.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
The arguments presented in this video are really good arguments. The world has changed and the educators have to keep up with it or else the youth will get bored with learning. I think it is a wonderful idea to take their entertainment and put a twist on it. To make it where they are social networking, gossiping, and finding what they are interested in at the same time as learning. Although it may have its flaws, they are minor compared to the major impact this has on the education system.

Scavenger Hunt
I love the WEB 2.0 site. This seems like it will make a teacher's job easier. It provides lesson plans and ideas for each subject. The tool that teems to be most like Twitter/Facebook is the community tool Edmodo.com. It allows students to only communicate with their peers and teachers. Filtering out all others who are not social networking for education purposes. This is an excellent idea and will allow me, as a teacher, to post class notes for those who were absent, leave notifications to my students and their parents, along with a variety of other things.
The tool most likely used to create the video we were assigned is PhotoPeach.com. Its an ideal tool for creating slideshows and presentations that makes your classroom lecture a lot more bearable. It also gives teachers a chance to give quizzes in the same fun environment. Although to visit the website is free, the feature that Photo Peach offer is not but the prices are certainly reasonable. For a classroom with one teacher and fifty students the cost is only $9! Cheap, I know. The website offers more than just that deal, it offers a lot more deals for larger classrooms.

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Video Tool
One of the video tools that I have never used is Animoto.com. This is a cool, neat feature that Web 2.0 offer as an additive for educators. Some of its features consist of choosing any image from any social network such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc and adding your own words to tell your story. Another cool feature is accessible uploading of your own personal music and video in order to create a memorable attraction for your viewers.

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