Sunday, October 17, 2010

Blog Assignment 8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream
As I have mentioned before, many things in education are different from my first time around in school. However, things have definitely changed for the better. Writing and presenting with multimedia is a MUST for educators. With all of the resources available, it is not difficult to use multimedia in writing and presentations. Sometimes it takes a little time to find age-appropriate information, but there is always information available.
Because of the technology available in our society, students are used to being visually stimulated outside of the classroom. To hold their attention, educators must be creative and appeal to this sense in order to keep students engaged. Educators must be willing to spend the time to include multimedia in their writing.
I am confident that my students will be able to write with multimedia. Children as young and three and four are using computers. So, by the time they get to my class in first grade or so, they should be pros! Students today do not know what it is like to write a report without doing research on the internet. In a few years, I’m sure they won’t know what it is like to write a report without including multimedia.

Chipper and EDM 310 for Dummies
These movies reiterate the fact that EDM 310 is a different kind of class. At first, this class was very intimidating to me, and I was a little frustrated. If we procrastinate, then it only makes things harder on ourselves. It takes a little time to get organized, but it is well worth it. However, I have really enjoyed the way that the class is structured. We receive guidance and direction from our leader, but it is up to us to complete the assignments and learn the material. This class is more indicative of the real world. Once we get into the real world, we are not going to be “taught”. We are going to have some guidance and direction, but we are responsible for our students and our classroom.
A good idea for a short video would be how to use the Instruction Manual to find the Blog Assignments and Projects. On week two, I couldn’t remember how to get to the Blog Assignments. I felt really silly about this. However, I talked to one of my group members, and she had encountered the same problem.

Why Smartboards Are A Dumb Initiative and Why I Hate Interactive Smartboards
These articles presented very interesting perspectives on Smartboards. I enjoyed the comments on school systems spending money on technology just to say that they had spent it. As a future educator, I can appreciate technology that enhances the classroom. However, school systems don’t need to think of Smartboards as the solution to incorporating more technology into the classroom. As the second article states, “You can’t buy change” because it is a process.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Jared,

    I think you really know how this class works. All of you comments are right on with Dr. Miller, and the EDM videos.

    Smartboards are a very debatable subject, but in real life, the winner always goes to who spends the money in the classroom most efficiently. And with the case of smartboards, right now I don't think they are worth the money, but maybe one day they will.

    Great post, keep up the good work.

    Stephen Akins

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  2. Jared,

    I happen to agree with you about EDM310. It was very intimidating and frustrating at first. However, I did realize the more I understand what Dr. Strange is having us do, the more I want to do with my future students.

    I feel like smartboards could be worth the money, but it depends on the teacher. There is a private school here in Mobile county that says they have smartboards in every classroom. My only concern is how many teachers are using this expensive device like the old blackboard? If this is the case then it is not worth it.

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