Blog Post 8

This Is How We Dream

Richard Miller recognizes that we have made the greatest change in communicating our ideas. We have moved away from print based works found in libraries and onto something more readily available. Something more widespread. Global, in fact. We are now part of a digital environment. We have all of the information we could ever want or need at our disposal. We don't have to leave our house because our work space is our desktop. We are not just limited to our university library, but we can "research the riches of the world as they're stored on the web." Better yet, it's free!

We are not limited anymore to compose with text alone either. We can incorporate images, videos, and sound. This adds life to our work and makes it more appealing. And although we are moving very quickly through this digital age, that doesn't mean what we publish will ever go outdated and become useless. We have the ability to update the information instantly. It can happen right before our eyes. This shows the power and the pragmatics of composing material digitally because our world and its ways are ever-changing.

Am I prepared to write with multimedia? The thought never really crossed my mind until I began EDM 310. This class opened my eyes to countless, useful methods to do so. I may not fully understand everything just yet, but it takes curiosity and dedication to want to expand my realm of knowledge. That is something I cannot risk either because future students will be counting on me to guide them. Who knows, they may even have something to teach me.

Blog Post 12 by Carly Pugh

I really appreciate Carly for creating this post. I think she is a very good example for Richard Miller's idea of learning through the internet. I agree with Carly that visuals are a great help. Depending on the subject, I may learn better with videos or some other digital aid. There are many resources that can help us incorporate these tools, and we should because we need "to keep the attention of our digital learners."

Carly created an extensive playlist on YouTube that included inspirational videos, videos on diversity, and videos on student teaching to name a few. It was all very inspiring. One video on her playlist that touched me was disability meets possibilty. I'm currently taking a class for exceptional children and youth and it made me realize that although kids with disabilities have special needs, they are more like other kids than they are different. A quote from our text by William L. Heward says, "It is important for everyone...to speak, write, and think about exceptional children and adults in ways that respect each person's individuality and to recognize strengths and abilities instead of focusing only on disabilities." People with disabilities deserve the same quality of life as we would expect for ourselves, and it's not our place to judge them and deny them of that.

Six Questions for Every Day was a great way to wrap up the post. It was yet another video that I've come across this semester that was cause for self-reflection. A little disappointed after answering "no" to some of the questions, it made me realize how much we complicate life. How much we over think and try to control it. At least, that's how I tend to function sometimes. I think if we live a little more simply, lovingly, and with that child-like wonder, life would be a little more fulfilling.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies

These videos were quite amusing, but they really portray what it feels like to be an EDM 310 student. In this class, it's important to be an active participant and stay on top of your work because we are part of a learning community. I'm always looking at my classmate's blogs outside of the assigned C4C, so I just assume others are looking at mine. It's encouraging when I find inspiration from my peers, or to see something in a different light. This class gives me a deeper appreciation for online learning.

If I were to create a video, I might focus on time management for these assignments. I was actually told by a classmate today that he was assigned to my blog once, but I didn't have anything new for him to comment on so he had to find another classmate's blog. I felt like I let him down. As I said before, we are part of a learning community. What we post isn't just busy work. It's there to show our development, and hopefully to inspire others.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

The United States Department of Commerce ranked 55 industry sectors by their level of IT intensiveness and education ranked last, below coal mining. This piece of news is quite discouraging. "Technology is not a choice." Technology today is advancing at exponential rates, and we need to advance right along with it. Another quote that stood out to me was that "every turned off device is potentially a turned off child." In the classroom, children are told to put away their cell phones and forbidden from logging onto social networking sites. I once thought that they would be distracting from the lesson as well, but surprisingly you can learn a lot. After seeing the benefits from networking, these technologies could enhance the classroom experience. Let's use what the student's know in a way that's appropriate for the classroom and show them how much more productive they can be.