Blog Assignment 8

Image by jisc_infonet via FlickrWriting With Multimedia- Despite Richard Miller's dry presentation of this subject, he had some very interesting things to say. I believe that we should be on the forefront of this educational shift, as he has presented. It is amazing to me the capabilities that have emerged in the educational realm throughout the past few years. Why would we linger in the past. As Miller said, why wouldn't we want to be on the forefront of this ability to know what our world truly is. We can have connections to any source of information we desire, if we'll only motivate ourselves to learn what is necessary to move forward. As an English major, I enjoyed his final point on the New Humanities. I would love to see the day when the humanities will be united with the sciences, fully. We are yearly seeing the integration as iTunesU and other such programs emerge, but there is still much to be accomplished. 

     As for myself? I am not fully ready to teach in this environment, as I am not fully able to engage in learning in this environment. As Miller said, we don't yet have the resources that we need for such a learning program. But baby steps initialize such movements. I, myself, am willing and motivated to see this become a reality.

     I'm confident that this type of learning will be utilized in future generations. I believe my students will be able to do this, with or without me. However, I think it would be best if I was able to teach them responsible, practical ways to use this technology. That being said, it is important to me that I make every effort to see that this becomes a reality.

The Chipper Series- Wow! Although an exaggeration, it struck me how similar this is to several people I know who are currently enrolled in this class. They talk about this kind of stuff isn't necessary to their future classroom. The thing is, whether they actually use what they learn through the course is trivial and completely up to them. Either way, to be an effective educator, they need to learn responsibility and time management. Without these two qualities, they're in for a life of hardship in the workforce. I think a continuation of the Chipper Series would be a great idea. One where, the newly reformed Chipper uses not only her newfound responsibility and time management, but also the ways to use technology, in her classroom. Also show another student from EDM310 who decided he didn't need what he learned and would rather go with traditional education. This would show others how drab a classroom is without the technologies and how much harder it is to motivate students to learn if you can't spark their interest.

EDM310 For Dummies-  I think what they are trying to say is that this class isn't really that hard if you just take the time to do a little searching for answers on your own. If you do that... EDM really is for Dummies. Anybody can do it if they allot the proper amount of time for its activities.

SmartBoards are a Dumb Initiative- Michael Staton believes that SamrtBoards are an administrative cop-out because they don't really change the learning environment, only make it more attractive. Administrators use this as a way to show that they've done their part to implement technologies in their classroom and its an easier escape than actually re-thinking the classroom.

Why I hate Interactive Whiteboards-  Bill hates interactive whiteboards because they don't make teaching his curriculum any easier. But what is worse is that they promote "stand-at-at-the-board" lecturing. This doesn't promote student collaboration and self-teaching that most progressive educators believe is necessary.

Here is a link for a blog of educators who love SmartBoards with training tutorials and SmartBoard resources. I'll let you make the distinction between those who hate and those who love them. http://blog.scs.sk.ca/ilovesmartboards/