Blog Post 8

1. In watching the videos, This is How We Dream, Parts 1 and 2, I became very excited. I am excited to see where writing is headed. No longer are a pen and paper the only tools you need to write a fantastic piece. By taking your writing and adding a visual and auditory effect to it, you will be able to reach and attract a much larger fan base. What I mean by that is, people of today are hypnotized by the way that sights, colors and sounds are portrayed on the web. These features capture our attention. To be able to capture our reader’s attention is our ultimate goal.

Writing in our culture has changed and we are living in the time of the greatest change in human history. We can now communicate instantly and globally. Richard E. Miller stated that we aren’t changing the fundamentals of writing, but it is only an incremental change. Whatever writing we produce on the web is always available, unlike checking items out at the library. He stated that when we write a paper, we can do our research all online and that the information is readily available to use and apply.

Being able to compose a paper with not only text, but with images is another incremental change. We can also collaborate with others to do this. Being able to show my students this way of writing will ensure their success. My hope is to be able to teach them how to do this and allow them to collaborate with each other and possibly with other students across the globe. I think that I am ready to write with multimedia. Since I am an aspiring English teacher, I hope that leading by example will allow my students to be successful writers, as well.


2. Carly Pugh’s Blog Post 12 was both humorous and informative. I think that her idea of creating a YouTube playlist is a fantastic idea. It allows us to take a look at ourselves and see what kind of teacher we want to be. She has also set a good example on how to write with multimedia. By inserting the links, it made it so easy for me to be able to “see” what she is talking about. In the past few weeks, I have been hesitant to insert too many links, and/or pictures. I thought that maybe it would look too cluttered. But now I see that it is being encouraged. I’m glad to see this. It makes our writings much more interesting and allows us to take full advantage of what the web has to offer. It is a fine example of the direction writing is moving today. I enjoyed her post.

3. The video, The Chipper Series has great message behind it. I thought that Chipper’s video was hilarious. She did a great job in getting the point across that staying on top of our work and not procrastinating is important. It is apparent that she learned her lesson. But that is the point of EDM310, to teach us that we need to keep learning.

Chipper learned that in order for us to learn, we have to do the work. I thought her example with the pilot was perfect. No one wants to fly in a plane with someone who has never flown before. This concept applies to our students. They don’t want to learn from a teacher that has never been on the web or knows what tools are out there. One month ago, I wouldn’t have been able to teach my students how to blog, because I had never done it before. Nothing beats hands-on experience.

In EDM310 For Dummies, it was interesting to see how the attitude of the women in the video changed. They soon figured out that by going to the tutorials to figure out the tools introduced in EDM310 was the key to success. Dr. Strange has coined the phrase, “I don’t know. Let’s find out.” I love this. That is something that I will carry away from this class with me. I would probably be interested in doing a time management video. I’m not the best at managing my time, but I think this is something that is important.

4. Wow! The video, Learn to Change, Change to Learn was great! I’m excited to see that there are others out there that can see where education is headed today. I feel that the use of technology is inevitable. We as educators need to be prepared to use the tools available. I thought that it was interesting that one of the women stated that if she were to build a classroom today, she would not build it with brick and mortar. I think she is referring to building a classroom that uses online tools, such as; Wikipedia, Google, iTunesU, Twitter, Blogger and others. We no longer have to go to the library to find information. Building an online community of learning is happening now, and we need to be sure to get on board.