Blog Post 9

Mr. McClung's blog post do an excellent job of answering some important questions future teachers may have. His first post gives many useful tips for first year teachers. One great point he made was to listen to students and try to take interest in their lives. Many teachers do seem to lose sight of this and generally focus far more on their lesson than each student's reaction to it. Another great point he made was to be flexible. Sometimes lessons need to be altered to better make a point; a great teacher can react to students needs and find creative ways to meet them.

I thought this was a great blog post. I would prefer to read more of these types of posts because they give realistic expectations for young teachers, and they also provide useful tips on how to react to problems that arise in the classroom. Hearing these types of things from a first year teacher was very beneficial

Mr. McClung's third blog post was much different than his first one. It is very obvious that he has undergone a great deal of growth as an educator over the past few years. He focused much less on his mistakes than his successes in this post. His most important piece of advice was to not be afraid to stand out of the crowd as a teacher. Many teachers strive to be accepted by their peers nearly as much as students do, and it is impossible for students to learn that it is okay to make their own path if teachers are afraid to do so.

These posts are some of the best material we have read in EDM 310. I enjoy seeing the pitfalls of being a young educator and how to overcome them. I hope to follow Mr. McClung's advice and never become complacent as a teacher. I always want to push myself and do what I think is right much like Mr. McClung.

Project 13

Blog Post 8

In This Is How We Dream,Parts 1 and 2, Dr. Richard Miller discuses a multitude of ways in which the nature of writing and language is rapidly changing. One of his main points is that soon students will not even be using word processors of computers because projects will require a more varied approach to multimedia. He believes that projects will soon contain a combination of words, pictures, and sounds, to create "beautiful compositions". He sees this as a fundamental change to traditional methods of learning and creation.

Another major point of Dr. Miller's lecture is the notion that these new methods will propel knowledge and opinions into the world much faster than traditional methods. At one point, he mentions that a few years ago he would have had to wait two years to get an article published; now he can send the article on to the web, and in a matter of minutes, receive feedback from all over the world.

I thought Dr. Miller had some valuable ideas in this lecture. I like the idea he had about us living in the most important step for human communication in the history of the world. It is interesting to think that we can be some of the first educators in the process of that fundamental change in human communication.

Carly Pugh's assignment was an extremely creative idea concerning the use of multimedia. She put a great deal of time and effort into this assignment, and her passion for the material really came through. She certainly captures the spirit of Dr. Miller's ideas dealing with multimedia writing.

As a future English teacher, I found her ideas very enlightening and refreshing. The possibilities with the methods she describes are endless. I love the idea of being able to gather different things that interest us and combining them into a useful tool. The thing that separates her idea from many of the other assignments is the fact that it is relevant to every person that does that.

Chipper and EDM for Dummies are two entertaining student made videos that offer some useful ideas. The video of Chipper showed some of the consequences that can happen when people procrastinate and don't put the necessary effort in their work. Obviously it was done in a factious way, but that helped to bring the point across better. I also thought the analogy of flight school was a successful one. It helped to show that teaching is just like any other profession because it takes practice and training.

I thought both videos showed some interesting ways that student's can get involved. I don't consider myself much of an actor, but seeing other students get involved in this way is pretty neat.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn was an interesting video that contained the opinions of a group of forward-thinking educators. They each shared their ideas on what was important in the future of education. Many of their ideas are a summation of what we have been learning and watching so far in EDM 310. The consensus was that education must be radically changed to meet the needs of a changing global job market. Each of the educators stressed the importance of allowing technology in the classroom.

I think this group of people made some valid points. For many job sectors in the future, simple right and wrong answers do not exist and continuing to test young people in this way is counterproductive. I also agree that a greater emphasis should be placed on creative expression in class work because much of what takes place now in a work environment requires out of the box type ideas.

Project 11

Blog Post 7

Randy Pausch's last lecture is an emotional speech that covers a variety of topics and is full of useful advice for people in almost any profession. Dr. Pausch describes, in great detail, his childhood dreams and the various ways he achieved each one of them. Even in a failed dream, such as his NFL aspirations, he found a way to become inspired by simply playing football, and he carried that inspiration throughout his life. He consistently listened to advice from people he proclaimed as smarter than him and used that advice to become the successful person that he was. Another major theme of his lecture was to enjoy life to the fullest; even mere months away from his death, Dr. Randy Pausch showed a much more positive demeanor than most healthy people do. It was an extremely inspirational lecture.

Some of Dr. Pausch's best advice can be specifically applied to the teaching profession. Probably the most thought provoking advice he had for teachers was the idea of "head fakes". A head fake is when a teacher essentially "tricks" students into learning by hiding the learning inside a fun activity. Nearly every teacher at least attempts to do this but not to the degree that Dr. Pausch was discussing. Almost his entire curriculum was devoted to fun activities that also educate. Obviously the subject matter that he taught lent itself well to this methodology, but every subject could use some "head faking" to create interest from students.

Dr. Randy Pausch also had some great ideas for the use of technology in the classroom. His class was centered around technology and virtual reality; that is far more advanced than most people will ever teach, but there are several principles that can be taken from the lecture. He approached his class with a few broad goals and allowed them freedom in attacking them. This could be a useful application in a normal classroom. Giving students long-term goals and allowing them freedom with technology to accomplish these goals could be helpful in promoting interest in any subject. These type of activities along with a traditional curriculum could help a wide range of students.

I thought this was by far the most useful video we have watched so far in EDM 310. Dr. Randy Pausch covered a vast array of topics that are applicable to numerous situations in life. Instead of radical and specific ideas, like many of the videos have been, this was an inspiration to anyone who watched it. Many of the ideas can be applied to the education field as well as any other field.

Blog Post 6

The Networked Student is a video that depicts a student's work in a high school Psychology class that adheres to the principles of connectivism. The video discusses in great length the approach that this particular class uses to give students a new way to learn. This particular student was very successful in the class, and he was able to develop a personal learning network that included a Dutch filmmaker and some top professors across the country. He was able to develop methods of learning to help him in this particular class and the future.

This video made some interesting points, which attempt to convince the audience that books and lecturing are essentially obsolete in today's rapidly changing world. I agree that a great deal of learning today is done independently, and some of the techniques in this class could aid in that. Lecturing directly out of the book does not seem to be the best way to inform students in our fast paced society, but I don't believe that relying on technology exclusively is ideal either. It requires a mix of the two to keep students engaged and to accomplish a goal of teaching skills as well as actual knowledge to young people.

There were a couple of problems that I found with the video that should cause some hesitation with relying solely on this method of teaching. First of all, the video only explains the success of one single student with this method. I have a hard time believing that keeping ninety high school students motivated is as easy as handing them a computer and gently guiding them. Many students may not respond nearly as well to these methods as the one in the video. I also believe books and actual, physical manifestations of work are an important part of learning especially in English classes, which I will be teaching.

The Teach Web Blog shares some concerns with the connectivism approach discussed in The Networked Student. Several obstacles that are mentioned are also concerns that I had with the idea. One of the main concerns that I didn't really consider was the amount of time it would take to teach all the skills necessary for the connectivism approach. All that information has to be taught and mastered before any of the class subject can be taught, and this could cause the entire class to be put behind by days of even weeks.

Welcome to My PLE is a video describing another seventh grader's learning experience with the connectivism approach. She details the ways in which she developed a personal page with all of her materials for the science class she was taking. She also talks a great deal about how the class works and some of the interesting things she was able to accomplish because of the class setup.

I thought the video highlighted some good things about this approach to learning, but I also still have some questions. It was obvious that this particular girl became engaged and motivated, and she took what she learned and used it to gain more knowledge. This domino effect of learning is probably the most beneficial part of teaching certain subjects this way. The main question I would have is how typical these types of results are. I also saw some similarities in what she was doing in her science class and what we are trying to accomplish in EDM 310. Her personal learning network helped her to expand her knowledge beyond the scope of the class, and hopefully ours will do the same.