Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Blog Post 8

This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
I liked how Richard Miller incorporated Martin Luther King in his videos “This is How We Dream.” To me this sent the point home that changing from the reading/writing culture to a listening/watching culture is a big dream. That it is not something that can be done overnight but it is something that can be accomplished with a lot of hard work.

Richard Miller touched on some very good points about why this is an important idea. The fact that you can now buy is book for $.59 on Amazon.com was a great message. It shows how quickly technology is changing. That printed books are soon going to be obsolete. We are going to continue to move forward to find new and better ways to get information out there.

Whether I am prepared to write with multimedia, I am not sure. I am not really sure I completely understood the whole concept of it. To me in some ways it looked like a wordle. Whether my students are going to be able to write with multimedia, I think they definitely will. I think if that is how they learn from the beginning that is all they will know.



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The Chipper Series
EDM 310 For Dummies

If I were going to create a video for this class, it would be a video on how to filter all the information that is available. As I have said in previous posts, I struggle staying on task with so much material out there. Some of it is necessary but some of it is not. It is almost like when cable TV was first introduced. People became like crack addicts with all the different channels they could access. Gone were the days of 10 basic channels. I think a lot of the programs we can now get are pretty useless as well but it still easy to get sucked in and lose hours at a time.

These videos send me the message that I am basically not alone. In being overwhelmed or understanding the class. If I can learn to manage my time successfully I should be able to master the class. This unfortunately is easier said than done with all that crack, uh I mean information waiting for me.



Learn to Change, Change to Learn
I think this video made some bold statements. The last statement “the death of education but the dawn of learning” really summed up the video. The only thing that concerns me is that when something dies to make room for something else, SOMETHING is always lost. The death of the small town is a good example. When small towns died, a lot of people felt that the closeness of a community went with them. So what will be lost with the death of education? I think as educators, parents, and students this should be considered before completely killing off the education system as we know it. It may not be visible right now but I guarantee something will be lost.



The Secret Powers of Time
Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

I really liked both of these videos. My way of thinking I think is pretty obvious from some of my previous posts. I am a past thinker. I am pretty sure I am a past positive thinker. I struggle with moving from the good ole days. I think this can definitely effect how I think about things and my drive for success. If I am content with what I already have it is harder for me to move forward and accept change. I feel I am already successful so why change what is working. I need to be willing to look at new ideas and listen to them with an open mind.

I found it amazing that people really are not motivated only by money. In actuality I think it is great that people are motivated by something else. I really don’t find it that hard to believe that people are motivated by other things. I don’t think that being motivated by the feeling that you get when you succeed is a bad thing. To me it also promotes a sense of self-respect.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Project # 10

My PLN is progressing but slowly. I am not sure I am completely up to speed on all the technology that a PLN entails. The technology is very overwhelming but I am slowly getting a handle on it. I am hoping by the end of the semester I will have a complete PLN in place and will be able to utilize it to the best of my ability.

Blog Post 7



I found Randy Pausch ‘s lecture very inspirational, I also found it very disconcerting. Randy was a great speaker. He had so many great ideas and aspirations that reached so many people. Yet he is all across the board. Until the end of his lecture you cannot appreciate where he was coming from.

Randy coined a great term “head faking.” Nothing is truer, “the best way to teach kids something is to make them think they are learning something else.” Of all the things he spoke about, this was definitely the focus of what Randy believed.

Randy believed in setting goals and following his dreams. He decided early on what he wanted to achieve. This is a very important in life. No matter what lies in front of you, you keep striving for what you want. And as he says when you hit a brick wall, you keep on going. The brick wall only stops those less determined.

Randy spoke of so many ideas going in so many directions. Never lose your child-like wonder, help others, never give up, were just a few. But the real kicker was the whole video was just a “head fake.” It was all the many life lessons he wanted for his children. While I felt he was going in so many directions, it was all just the things we would like our own children to understand. But it all was wrapped up in the most important lesson he could give to educators,” head faking.”

Comment C4T


I have been commenting on the blog of a teacher from Melbourne, Australia named Edna Sackson What Ed Said. In both of her blogs she was discussing change. In her fist post she commented on introducing technology in the classroom and how to get all teachers on board. She listed 10 steps to help achieve this goal. These steps even included ideas on how to persuade the most resistant teachers. I told her how much I liked her post because I am one of those people that struggle with change and I thought she had some excellent suggestions that even I would accept.

Her second post again was about change. This time it was about change in a how a teacher thinks about her classroom. She feels like the lessons should focus more around the students than the teacher. I commented that I thought this was an excellent idea and would definitely keep this in mind for my future classroom.

Project 11





Goodnight Moon