Assignment 7

Dr. Richard E. Miller Discusses Writing With Multimedia

This is How We Dream Part 1
This is How We Dream Part 2

Dr. Miller is an English teacher at Rutgers University. In the video, Dr. Miller starts off by saying he believes, " we are living in the moment of the greatest change in human communication in human history." He says we now have the capability to communicate instantly globally, and now is the time to be engaged in a work of literacy. When he began in the profession, he spent his time understanding writing as a solitary activity. He loved books and has always loved books since he was a child. He talks about some incremental changes we as a culture have gone through. One of the incremental changes is how we work with laptops and not pens, pencils, and paper. Our workplace is now at a desktop. We can research the riches of the world because it is stored on the web. We can do an entire project without having to step foot in a library. It is now possible to collaborate using networking technology, not compose with text but with film.

Dr. Richard Miller states that we need to try and teach our students to produce multimedia not just listen and consume it. He says as educators we must be in the business of sharing ideas freely.We can not just look at the material and use it, we can actually go behind it and see how it was put together. We can distribute information globally and freely. I think this is one of the most important things he said. That has been one of the things that I myself am guilty of. I am the one who likes to read everyone else's posts on Facebook and not contribute like I should. I am always searching the internet for ideas and themes to use in my preschool class, but I realize much of what I do should be out there for others to see. Dr. Strange's EDM 310 course has showed me how important it is to not only produce multimedia, but to give feedback to others.

As a teacher, I believe that I am working at being able to write with multimedia, but that I am not all the way there. I believe that with practice, hard work, and actually putting the time into it my students as well as myself will be able to use it. I think one of the most valuable projects in our class has been the comments for kids and teachers. They have enjoyed the feedback and I have enjoyed being able to see how elementary teachers use the tools we ourselves are using and I enjoy seeing all of the writing the students engage in. Dr. Miller says that this networking technology should start with college English teachers, but as we all have seen, it is already happening in the elementary schools!

Wendy Drexler: The Networked Student



This video was a wonderful visual representation of how networking with technology in the classroom should occur. In this video the student who is studying American Psychology is in a class where there is no textbook and a teacher who is a facilitator and a motivator rather than one who lectures. This video shows the steps this student takes to produce a video of his research on American Psychology. He first builds a knowledge base and finds lots of resources on his topic: blogs, iTunes U, documentaries and video conferencing with experts. He then posts a video of the findings he learned and shared it worldwide for others to learn from his hard work.

This video asks a very important question. With this type of learning, why does he need a teacher? The video states that the teachers does have an important role in guiding the student. Teaching him how to build a network, take advantage of learning opportunities, how to get excited when he finds the world of content, and most importantly how to communicate appropriately. When he leaves her class she hopes in her heart that he will maintain his learning network and use it to navigate his future and help the world solve its problems.

This video must have been a model for our EDM 310 course. Just like the student in this video we are learning to be independent learners and to write, publish, and communicate and collaborate effectively using multimedia. I hope to be prepared to do this effectively in the classroom . I hope to be actively engaged with the students through the whole process and make it as motivating as possible. I also hope to be a good model for them and to continue learning with them the new tools that make networking with technology more manageable.

Toward a New Future of Whatever - Michael Welsch



I never really knew that You Tube had such a following and that so many new videos were added daily until I watched Dr. Wesch's video. Dr. Wesch said as You Tube becomes more popular it gives the students the freedom to experience humanity without fear or anxiety. He also states that this type of media not just distance us but it connects us, sometimes more deeply than ever before.

Dr. Strange asked us to talk about how Dr. Wesch's comments in his video fit my life in regards to me personally, as a college student and as a future educator. Personally, I grew up in the age when MTV first came out, and at that time whatever meant "I don't care". I however don't remember actually not caring in school. I took pride in my work and still do as an adult. While I was in college I couldn't afford to have a whatever attitude since I worked and paid for it myself. I do believe funding my own education however gave me a reason to do well. As a former elementary teacher and current preschool teacher I have seen the trend of students "whatever" attitudes progressively getting worse. Dr. Wesch said that the MTV generation were products of short attention spans, materialistic, narcissistic, and not easily impressed. Boy does that describe the children and parents of today. Will implementing technology media into the schools motivate them to care? How do we conquer the narcissistic disengagement? Dr. Wesch says we are not interested in creating the same old conversation we are creating a new one with media like You Tube. We are creating a new future of "whatevers." Moving away from the 60's - I don't care, whatever you think, and the 90's - whatever, I don't care what you think! I hope that Dr. Wesch is right about our future whatever, and I want to be that teacher that says WHATEVER - I care, let's do whatever it takes!

Project 4 My Personal Learning Network

At the moment, my Personal Learning Network (PLN) is very small, but I expect it will grow as time passes. I currently follow or bookmark through Delicious, Mr. C., Mr. Lamshed, and the other teachers on At the Teacher's Desk, as well as the folks at Pt. England School New Zealand. I am also establishing contacts on Twitter. I currently follow Dr. McLeod, Mr. McClung, Karl Fisch, Dr. Baggett, and Dr. Strange. I will hopefully add many more to this list. I have also practiced using Skype to discuss our podcast with team members. We also created a shared document on Google Docs to create our presentation and interview questions. We were able to collaborate without meeting as often. I am adding many more blogs to my (PLN) of preschool teachers who help me with creative lessons for my preschool students. I have often collaborated through technology with Dr. Baggett because I am at an art based preschool. She has helped me to incorporate the arts into our core curriculum.

Week 7 Comments for Kids

This week I commented on Nicholas's blog. He is in Mr. Crosby's class. They are a 4th grade class in Philadelphia that is piloting a 1:1 laptop program using MacBook computers. They blog, Skype, make Wiki pages, produce digital videos, podcasts and vodcasts. Nicholas has been making posts about all types of animals and this week he wrote about the importance of plants. I love that Mr. Crosby is integrating technology with his science lessons. I told Nicholas what a great job he was doing and to keep up the good work.