Blog Post #8

This is How We Dream

The videos by Dr. Miller, This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2, pretty much just reemphasized the views I already have on learning. Throughout the videos, Dr. Miller stresses that teachers don't need to just teach through reading and writing informations, but through videos, audio clips, presentations, ect. as well. Visual and auditory resources can be better learning tools for students than the boring, everyday method of reading and writing everything. I feel this gives students a much needed break. It also provides diversity in the classroom, and that diversity will prevent the students from becoming bored and uninterested in school. Also, I think it is important for educators to realize that not all students learn the same. Yes, some learn effectively by reading and writing the information. However, some students learn better by having a visual or auditory aid. Using multimedia is a great way to cater to all the students' needs.

I love the idea of collaboration while producing videos and multimedia. I believe educators should work with other educators, whether it be educators in the same school or educators on the other side of the world, to develop new ideas for helping students learn. Surely of all the teachers in the world, one of them has come up with an effective way to teach students about a particular subject. Educators can rely on each other for new ideas and insights, and also how to produce these videos and media presentations.

I feel it's important to incorporate as many different resources and media as possible. Like I previously stated, reading and writing everything everyday can get boring; yet, watching videos every day can too. Teachers should be able to develop a curriculum that uses an equal amount of each. Teachers should approach each lesson in a different way so students can be exposed to different types of learning.


Carly Pugh

In her blog post, Carly writes about ways to get students more interested in the teachings. I thought this post was amazing, and her ideas were magnificent. Two of her statements really stuck out to me. The first was "I know it's a long shot, but someone needs to push kids and make them think, what if they were the next Steve Jobs or Einstein or Arnold Schwartzenegger the Governator, even?". I'm a firm believer in pushing kids to their fullest potential. All children are capable of being great, but without someone there to encourage, challenge, and motivate them, they will slowly just settle for ordinary. I want to treat each of my students like he or she is the next big thing. The second statement I really enjoyed was, "Not everyone loves to read as much as I and some others do, maybe it takes getting them interested in the story and the characters, and then the words that paint that picture". I personally LOVE to read, and I honestly get really annoyed with people who don't like to read. If I find a good book, I want to share it with others. So when I come across someone who simply doesn't like to read, it gets to me because I know what they're missing. For that reason, Carly's statement about getting people interested in the story and then the words really stuck out to me. It changed my way of thinking. I feel I have really gained from reading her post because of this one statement. She has shown me a different way to handle those people and ultimately my future students.

To get students engaged, one has to use something engaging. With the tech saviness of today's world, there is nothing more engaging than media resources. In my opinion, Carly Pugh did a great job expressing this and giving resources to use in her post. I really enjoyed how she included more information that one would generally give. The vastness of the information allows for one to definitely find a video that suits him or her. Dr. Miller would be very impressed.


EDM 310 is Different

I absolutely loved the videos for this assignment. They were so humorous and really had me engaged the whole time. Although I loved the Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies, I can honestly say I don't really know how they feel. I've actually really enjoyed this class and never felt overwhelmed with the work. I've surprisingly caught myself several times eager to see what the next blog post is going to be about. Yes, at first the amount of time I had to put into EDM 310 was nerve racking, but by the second week I wasn't too worried about it. This class has allowed me to start writing and thinking for myself again. For three years I've majored in biomedical sciences. You can't really think for yourself and come up with your own ideas in the subjects of that degree because it's either this certain way or you die. It's refreshing for me to be able to come up with my own conclusion about something rather than having to know the conclusion that has to be made or I am wrong. I also think a lot of the reason I haven't thought this is the class from hell is because I've already been in those classes! I would rather do a blog post than physics or chemistry homework any day!

I really liked the Chipper Series. The moral that I really took from it was you have to take responsibility for your own future. Your success depends on no one but yourself. You aren't always going to have a teacher holding your hand every step of the way, and that is one concept I don't believe students understand. They depend solely on the instructor for everything and don't learn how to take things into their own hands. It really makes students lazy. The Chipper character portrayed this extremely well in this series. She went from being in school to being a garbage lady simply because she didn't take the initiative to do things for herself. The real world was hard for her because she was never taught to be responsible. I hope every student who watches this video gets a lesson out of it.


Learn to Change, Change to Learn

In this video, the statement is made that in this day and age, children do not learn just at school but in many places. These places giving children information can range from the home to communities to the internet. School should be a place where students can validate all this information and learn how to use it in the real world. I cannot agree more.

The truth is, most students know how to use a computer better than adults. Also, we live in a technological world. One cannot escape it, and it is only going to get more technologically advanced. With that being said, educators have a duty to teach their students how to use this new way of learning. They need to show their students how to use a computer as a resource for finding information rather than simply as a way to update a Facebook status. As an educator, it's your job to teach your student how to not only succeed in your class, but also how to take that information, apply it, and succeed in future tasks. If educators don't start teaching their students how to succeed in technology, they are failing as educators simply because no matter what profession those students go in, the chances of them being required to be technologically literate is greater than not.


Scavenger Hunt 2.0



Edmodo

Edmodo is a social networking site for teachers and students. All I can say about it is WOW! It's set up a little like facebook is, and I absolutely love this site. I signed up as a teacher and clicked the 'Discover' tab once I got on my homepage. From there, I started exploring and typed in human anatomy. Tons of resources from science experiments to digital models of the body came up. I looked through some of them and they were all very interesting. I will definitely be using this site! You can follow other educators and see what resources they are using as well. I'm very glad I found this!



Animoto

I chose this video tool because it seemed like an easy and fun tool to make videos without being very time consuming. I feel using videos to teach can be very beneficial because it gives kids a break from the books. I watched some of the videos provided about ways teachers are using Animoto in their classrooms, and I loved them! Animoto automatically analyzes music, pictures, ect and orchestrates the video for you. This allows for the teacher to focus on how he or she wants to present the video which takes a lot off the educators plate. It seems like a very useful resource!

Poll Everywhere

I created a poll using Poll Everywhere. It was really easy. All I was required to do was enter the questions and how I would like for the answers to be set up. It's a quick and easy way for teachers to create and share polls.