Blog Assignment 8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2

I found Mr. Miller’s videos to be intriguing. Before this semester, I had not really noticed how much technology actually influences our lives. I remember as a child reading books and handwriting papers. Now, students use the internet to research things and they type their papers. I can’t even begin to imagine what writing with the web, as Dr. Miller mentioned, would be like.

I love that with technology so many things are possible. You can work on a ton of different things all at the same time. You can get so much more done than you could have if you had to research things in books. I do not have anything against books, in fact I love books, but technology definitely makes things much easier.

I do believe that we need teachers who can teach these new technologies to students. Teachers need to be up to date and flexible. They need to constantly be learning new things and sharing these new things with their students. I believe the only way our future generations will be successful is if our teachers learn to teach this way.

EDM 310 is Different



The primary message of these two videos is that EDM 310 is overwhelming, but it can be done. You have to be motivated and basically just do your assignments. (In other words…grow up.)
I could see myself doing videos like these to help others with this class. I had all of those feelings in the beginning, but once you get used to it, it isn’t that bad. I have actually learned a lot of valuable things from doing the assignments Dr. Strange has assigned.

Critiques of SMART Boards

After reading Michael Staton’s "Why Smartboards are a Dumb Initiative,"
Bill Ferriter’s "Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards," and Emily Starr’s "The Reasons Why Interactive Whiteboards Are Being Attacked," I would have to say I agree with Emily. In her blog, she states things that people dislike about Interactive White Boards and then she tells us why these statements are irrelevant. Of course there are cheaper ways to do some of the basic things that IWB’s do, but at the same time, cheaper is not always better. Emily states that the problem does not lie with the IWB, but with the teacher who does not use the IWB effectively in their classroom. I think this statement best sums up the issue at hand.