Sunday, October 21, 2012

Blog Post #8

Student Success: Learn, Engage, Change



This is How We Dream (Parts 1 and 2)
In these videos, Dr. Richard E. Miller, of Rutgers University, talks about how writing in the academy and our culture has changed. He says that this is the greatest change in human communication in human history. We now have the opportunity to communicate with each other instantly and globally. Dr. Miller states that we need to be engaged in the work of literacy now. He said that he grew up in a house filled with books, he wanted a career that involved working with books, and the end result was-a book. It was a print based document that was put in libraries, but now, like many other academic works, has ended up out of print and digitized.

We carry our laptops and use word processing instead of notebook paper. Our desk is now our work space. What has become possible with the use of our computers is that: we now can not only research our University libraries, but we have access to any library in the world located on the internet. Dr. Miller had the opportunity to write about the shootings at Virginia Tech, and he wrote his whole piece without stepping foot into a library. This speaks volumes of how much we have access to on the Internet. It is now possible to collaborate using technology. We not only have to use text, but we also can use images and/or video. Another change, is that we can now collaborate using different network technology and can compose with, not just text, images, video, or whatever else you find on the internet.

Dr. Miller states, that we are working in this digital environment right now. He show us how iTunes U is a great site to use for academic lectures and different kinds of information. He says that ideas do not belong to us individually, but as a culture, and we as educators must be in the business to share ideas freely. Not only can we look at the information given on the Internet, but we can get behind it and go further into research and see how it is put together. This way we can put alternative information together and share it globally. Sometimes this may be presented as a challenge, however Dr. Miller states: “The largest restriction we put is on ourselves”.

Comments for Carly
Carly's post and comments show readers that a teaching philosophy, or philosophy for any career, is extremely important. The only thing that is more important than the philosophy is the way that the teacher carries it out in his/her classroom each and every day. Creativity was an aspect that Carly included in her philosophy and her blog post clearly showed ways that she could carry out her philosophy to inspire her students to be creative with their assignments in her classroom. This desire for creativity shows exactly what Dr. Miller was searching for in his videos, linked in the section above. Carly showed ways to be creative through technology in her post, where the students' hard work on posters, papers, and /or science experiments don't just end up in a landfill, rather can be found through technology decades after the project was assigned. Carly did a great job incorporating Dr. Miller's views of the future classroom in her blog post.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies
The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies are both videos that encourage students to fight procrastination and get things done. This is an issue that I often struggle with on a daily basis. I work full-time and I go to school full-time, so I often struggle with time management. Every Sunday is spent doing homework and every Sunday I tell myself that I am going to get ahead on school work, but it hasn't gotten me anywhere. Here I am, another Sunday, spending my day working on school work and getting distracted by the urge to watch football (which is why nothing gets done on Saturday). I know that I am not the only person who struggles with procrastination and time management, so I can show these videos, and others, in my classroom to fight the urge to wait until the last minute to do assignments. I also really like the idea of previous students sending messages of encouragement to future students with tips on how to succeed in the class.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Learn to Change, Change to Learn is a video about how schools need to change. Education received the lowest ranking on the Department of Commerce's IT intensiveness list in 2008. This shows how education desperately needs to change and integrate more technology in the classroom. Schools in Mobile County are slowly beginning to integrate more technology into the classrooms. We live in an era where students would rather carry on a conversation through SMS messages and social programs, like Facebook and Twitter. I have learned that education, along with many other things, swing on a pendulum. Currently, our education system had a big emphasis on Reading and Math, both which are assessed through Standardized Testing. 
 Unfortunately, I do not think that the pendulum will swing away from standardized tests, which are an inaccurate way to assess students' knowledge because of all the pressure placed on them through administrators, parents, and school staff. The focus on standardized tests take away from teachers having time in the day to teach our students how to use new technology and show their knowledge through projects. The legislators making the laws for education need to have more education on effective teaching and change the education system to where students can really learn and show that they have learned through the use of technology.

Scavenger Hunt 2.0
I went to Discovery Education's WEB 2.0 for 2012 website and used links to create the following:

3 - Find a tool to make-your-own Comic strip. Create a comic. Post a picture of it in your blog.

5 - Find a tool to create a poll anywhere and at anytime. Create your first poll and post it here.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Michael! Great job on your post. I really enjoyed reading the part in your post where you talk about procrastination and how students from EDM can learn from student blogs and videos. I thought you did a great job overall on summarizing each part of the assignment and it was very well written. Awesome blog post!

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  2. Michael,
    Great job! Your post was very well written and reflective and I saw very few grammatical errors! I would not have guessed that you had written this last minute on Sunday because it was very thorough and detailed. Thanks for the feedback! I really liked your description on and identification with my post!
    Keep up the good work,
    Carly

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