Blog post # 8

In the video this is how we dream, the imagination is stretched to its limit when one discovers the possibilities of writing with multimedia in the classroom. The video discusses how blogs, youtube, and other websites are changing by making sure the audio experience is as good as the written one. The underlying question is: How are we going to use this technology to better the future for our students? The ultimate advantages are the amount of time it saves the author by being able to be published instantly, and the published work is stored on the internet for as long as hosting site is still operational. The publication can also be read by anyone at anytime.

How can this be used education? How can teachers convince their students and their parents that this is a useful skill? While creativity is very important in any student's academic career, it is not always the most understood. Relevance must seen by all parties for this to succeed. Relevance is not always the same thing to different people. To the parents will have to be shown how writing with multimedia will help their child. The child will have to be shown how it affects them personally. The teacher will need to see the positive effects of this over time.

The solutions to these problems will have to be simple yet complete. The teacher will have the responsibility of making an assignment that allows for two things. The first is the student will have to use a tool to embed a movie, sound clip, or picture into a report. The second is that some of the assignments must be able to do without just copying and pasting already published videos off of youtube, in other words they will have to make a video. An assignment like this will satisfy all three parties involved. The teacher will see higher test scores, the parents will be amazed at the publications and see that their child is learning, and most importantly the student will have fun doing it.

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Carly Pugh's Post #12

Carly's blog post is a simple post on the surface. It is when one dives into the links that the post becomes alive. The videos contained within speak volumes that the written word could not. Each video shows something either to inspire us, or simply remind us of the "same voice, same song." To someone who has never heard this song they wouldn't understand the significance this reference makes, therefore if the link to the song wouldn't have been created the reader would have lost that nugget of information. Dr. Miller's this is how we dream discusses this writing style in great detail. He explains that future publications must meet additional requirements to be valid in today's world. The main one he stresses is that the article in question must be appealing to not only the eyes but also to the ears. Carly's post does all this plus more.

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The Chipper Series and EDM 310 for Dummies

"Keep me posted." These words were spoken by Dr. Strange multiple times in the Chipper Series. Each time he said these words he was watching a student travel farther down a path that was harder than the one she was avoiding. In the beginning of the video it shows her being late on a blog post. Instead of bucking up and doing the assigned work, she quits school and opens a flight school. Granted that is a little extreme, but the point is normally the easiest way out of an assignment or another commitment is by doing it. If the energy Chipper used was put into her assignments and not towards getting out the assignment, she would have passed EDM 310 with flying colors. Chipper did however learn a very valuable lesson. Responsibility and professionalism will be required no matter what one is doing in their life, and without proper preparation life will be very difficult.

EDM 310 for dummies is basically two messages rolled into one. The first is EDM 310 is hard. The second is that there is help. The beginning of the video show two girls breaking keyboards in frustration. Later they learn of the EDM 310 for dummies book and they ordered it right then, not sure if they got free shipping. The book radically transformed their experience. The class was now easier and they were enjoying it. The end of the video showed the phone number to order one of these magical books. The number is also the number is to the EDM 310 helpline. So ask you help, the resulting experience is worth it.

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Learn to Change, Change to Learn

School as we know it must change. In today's students are beginning to learn more outside of the classroom than they are inside the classroom. How are students doing this? Where is this fountainhead of knowledge? The answer is online. It is through technology that students are being exposed to the information that they want to learn. How can we as educators afford to ban the tools used to provoke this kind of learning?

This has to stop and it has to stop now. The school systems today need a major overhaul in order to keep with tomorrow's demands. Let's use technology in the classroom so that students will learn how to use technology. Let's reinforce the fundamentals through creative outlets such blogs, or a twitter feed, rather than a pencil and a piece of paper. No more blocking social media sites, especially when student can being following tomorrow's historical figures today. Why not follow other important figures as well? Let's follow Einstein in the science classes, Shakespeare in literature, and Euclid in math. In a world so saturated with technology, teachers must begin teaching responsibility in the digital world as well as the real world. The progress of this will directly relate to effectiveness of the internet outlets that the teachers and the students decide to use. It will be the responsibility of everyone to monitor these outlets. The teacher must teach how to validate sources. The students must use their new knowledge to validate these sites. The future is bright. All that is left is for tomorrow society to reach out and take it.

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Scavenger Hunt 2.0

The discovery channel's discovery education website has many valuable tools compiled for students and teachers. Here's a few.

Make Belief Comix

This tool allows one to make their own comic strips. Behold this amazing comic!

Animoto

This tool is really easy to use. It allow for pictures to be put into a video setting. This is basically a highly entertaining slideshow. It also has the ability to put your pictures to music which can make the dullest pictures suddenly come alive. This is a fine example of what an individual can do with this program in about ten minutes.

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Poll Everywhere

This tool allows for anyone to create poll questions for free. Here is an example.

The discovery channel's education page has many more cool tools for classroom use. Remember a blacksmith reputation is based on the number of tools he has. Teachers, see if any of these new "hammers" fit your teaching style.