Blog Assignment #8

Dr. Richard Miller

Dr. Richard E. Miller discusses how writing in our culture is undergoing the greatest change in it's history in the video This Is How We Dream - Part 1.  His presentation begins by sharing the importance of books in his childhood and how he always dreamed of working in an environment filled with books.  He was able to accomplish his dream by publishing two books of his own; As if Learning Mattered:  Reforming Higher Education and Writing at the End of the World.  

The idea presented in the video is that the way of teaching has forever changed.  The use of the computer and world wide web gives us the capability to communicate instantly with others across the world.  Though I am only 28 years old, I have seen the way in which we write go from an actually physically manipulating a pencil to now, using word processing software on a computer.  In a few short years, the technology that we use to write has changed drastically.  So what does this mean for my own children?  Will they ever have to write a paper by using pen and paper?  The answer is, probably not.  My oldest child is in first grade.  His classroom has 2 desktop computer and four iPads.  I think that's pretty incredible.  There is even one student who does every bit of his work on the iPad.  He has problems manipulating an actual pencil, so his writing is done by using his fingertip on the iPad.  

I love the use of technology in the classroom and find myself to be a big advocate of it, however; I do believe that basic skills such as reading an actual book and writing with pen and paper are vital skills that need to be taught in elementary levels of education.  I believe that these skills set the foundation for all other educational skills that our children will acquire over time.  Technology is now becoming part of the foundation for our students.  It is our responsibility as educators to help guide our students by using multimedia tools so that they can achieve their academic goals and be prepared for the "real world".

Carly Pugh - Blog Post #12
Carly Pugh, a fellow student at the University of South Alabama, published a wonderful post on her take on an EDM310 assignment.  Carly created a playlist of YouTube videos that basically define her teaching philiosophy.  Her idea is a way to show her beliefs as a teacher and what she expects from her students.

When you compare Carly's post to Dr. Miller's post they have similarities as well as differences.  I think that Carly's approach to teaching combines technology projects such as blogging, podcast, and audio books along with written essays and reports.  Dr. Miller's video to me, is geared toward doing everything on a computer.  I think that my own teaching philosophy is more similar to Carly's.  I am an avid fan of technology, however, I think that by utilizing a combination of traditional teaching techniques with the new modern way of teaching, we will produce a stronger learner.  The expectations that are placed upon students of today are more challenging than in the past.  Carly clearly defines how she will "run" her classroom.  I believe she will be an excellent teacher.

The Chipper Series & EDM Is Different
The Chipper Series really had me laughing.  Chipper is a student who thinks she can "one-up" the system and breeze through life without really giving any effort and still succeed.  She is just looking for the easy way out. She does not believe in deadlines, thinks that she can work when she wants and attempts to just breeze through a series of life events.  Now, we all know that doing that will not get you far at all.  Life is not just served on a gold platter.  To be successful at any career takes time, effort and plenty of hard-work.  Chipper finally comes to the realization that she was going about a career the wrong way.  She finally sees that their is a method to the madness of EDM 310.

No, this class is not a piece of cake.  It is completely different than most other classes that we have taken over our education careers, but look at what all we can do now.  For me anyway, I can start a blog from scratch, make podcasts, tweet, use Google Docs, and several other new programs.  EDM is different, but I am so glad that it is.  Thinking differently makes you stand out and helps us to create new ideas.  Every piece of technology we have is because someone chose to think differently.

I have watched every video assigned to us (to the best of my knowledge), and I believe that the previous students have done a fantastic job of creating How-To videos for myself and my fellow classmates.  The videos created have been instrumental to my success in EDM 310.  Though I do not have an idea for a video right now, I do hope to create one in the near future.  One thing that I have done, that I am proud of is my Prezi presentation that I did for my podcast.  One of the requirements for our podcast for Project #8 was that it had to be created in iMovie.  I had a bit of a challenge, but with guidance from Stephen, I was able to record the audio of my Prezi by using ScreenFlow on the Mac.  From that point I was able to import the file into iMovie and then I was able to attach it to the rest of our podcast clips.  Here is the final product of my Prezi.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
The time for change is now in our educational system in the United States.  The video Learn to Change, Change to Learn is comprised of a variety of people who are knowledgeable of education of today.  The thing that caught my attention right off the bat in this video was a statistic given by the U.S. Department of Commerce.  They ranked 55 industry sectors by their level of IT intensiveness.  Education was ranked number 55, the lowest below coal mining.  That says it all right there people.  It's time for our education system to step up to the plate and get on-board with the new way of "learning"!

Every afternoon, I pick my son up from school.  The first thing I ask him was if he had a good day.  Typically, he says, "Yes ma'am.  I got a G".  The second thing I ask is, "what did you do today?"  Almost always, I get the same answer in some sort of mumble...."I don't know".   I know that he does not do the same thing every single day, and we are blessed with a wonderful teacher; however, I want my child to get in the car and be excited to tell me something exciting that he learned at school.  This is every mother's dream to listen to their child tell a new and exciting thing that they learned.  We have had those moments, but I am eager for more.  I believe that there is so much more that we can do for our children to get them excited about learning.

I am on the edge of my seat, waiting for the day when I can walk into a classroom that's mine with a class full of elementary students.  I want to be the teacher of that student who cannot wait to get into their parents car to tell them all of the exciting things that we did in school that day.  Not just once every now and then, but every day.  Everyday is an opportunity to learn.  I would like to close by quoting Ken Kay, President of Partnership of 21st Century Skills, e-Luminate Group who said, "it's the dawn of learning, that makes me very happy".

Scavenger Hunt 2.0
So I absolutely LOVE this assignment!  Thank you Justin Cometti for suggesting this as an assignment.  After viewing the video on Justin's blog and then venturing over to Discovery Education's Web 20.11 site, the sun-light become a little brighter for me.  I am one of those people who gets very excited when I discover new tools that can help me be a "better" me.  Better me equals better teacher equals better students.

Here is my list:
1.  The social networking site that I found that holds a platform for teachers is SMART Board Revolution.  I happily joined this site because I know that it will be beneficial for me not only as a teacher, but as a student at South Alabama.  Within this site there are forums, blogs, videos, document sharing files, chat rooms, groups and other helpful tips and links for educators to communicate and collaborate with one another.  By creating these online communities we can assist one another and improve on so many areas of teaching in the classroom.

2.  The presentation site that created the Teaching in the 21st Century video, I believe to be Prezi.  I have used this website several times already for this class and I will continue to utilize this site in the future.  What I love about Prezi is that it gives you the opportunity to create a unique and memorable presentation.  Its not just slide, slide, slide.  It creates movement, which engages the mind to pay better attention to the material.  I believe that mixing up presentation sites will help keep our students on their toes.

3.  I decided to create a poll by using Poll Everywhere.  Check out my poll and tell me what you think.

Make a live audience poll at Poll Everywhere