Dr. Richard E. Miller talks about how writing in the academy has changed and how writing in our culture has changed. This is the greatest change in human communication in human history. We now have the opportunity to communicate instantly, globally. Dr. Miller states that we need to be engaged in the work of literacy now. He considered writing as a solitary activity. However, incremental change is where we work now, it is not so much in libraries anymore. We carry our laptops and our desk is our workspace. We do not have to research at just our University libraries, but we have access to any library on the web. Dr. Miller had the opportunity to write about the shootings at Virginia Tech, and he wrote his whole piece without stepping foot into a library. This speaks volumes of how much we have access to on the Internet. It is now possible to collaborate using technology. We not only have to use text, but we also can use images and/or video.
We are working in this digital environment. We will approach a new material, material that is changing before our eyes. iTunes U is a great site to use for academic lectures and information. Dr. Miller states something that rings so true. He says that ideas do not belong to us individually but as a culture. And we as educators must be willing to share ideas freely. Not only can we look at the information given on the Internet, we can get behind it and go further into research and see how it is put together. That way we can put alternative information together and share it globally. Sometimes this may be presented as a challenge, however Dr. Miller states: “The largest restriction we put is on ourselves”.
When Dr. Miller speaks about foreseeing a time that students will not just use word processing but use the other methods he speaks about in his video, we are already here! The video was created a short four years ago and we have come so far. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the world of communicating through technology. Almost everyone is connected someway through this wonderful thing called the Internet. I can only imagine where our future classrooms will be at the time we arrive to teach them. I do not expect there to be many books in the classroom when I take my place as an educator
Watch the video here!
Comments for Carly
After reading Carly’s post and the comments following, I have come to the conclusion that having a teaching philosophy is key. Teachers need to be able to live out their philosophy into their classroom for their students to see. Carly’s creativity was very transparent, nonetheless in her post! I also think this is crucial to implement into the classroom. Carly had said in her post that instead of making her students to the same-ole-same-ole read a book then write an essay on it, allow them to research! Just like Dr. Miller stated in his videos about writing with multi-media, there are tons of ways for students to access information.
I think Carly nailed it when comparing her post/assignments to Dr. Richard Miller’s video. Everything she wants to incorporate into the classroom is what he was saying our classrooms would soon be like. Her ideas were so creative and gave me something to go off of as a student and a future educator!
The Chipper Series/EDM 310 for Dummies
Both of these videos were very creative and helpful! These types of videos are great for implementing into our future classrooms. They could be used for introducing a new concept in math, science, English, etc. Not only are they great for explaining more in depth, but they are also engaging for students. It is way more engaging/entertaining for students to visually watch something be explained than have it just be taught to them verbally by the teacher. Both videos were great for getting the creative juices flowing!
Learning to Change, Changing to Learn
It is startling to believe that Education was ranked number 55 on the level of IT intensiveness, under coal mining! Students are able to have a much more stimulating and rich environment outside of school than they are in school. Students are able to communicate very well through IM, Facebook, and texting; however, these things are banned from their school.
Because the time we live in is changing so rapidly, school just might become a place where students meet for group projects. They have so much access to data at their fingertips and are unknowingly learning how to do that themselves. They do not necessarily need to know facts to survive in their culture, they need to know how to access information. The times have completely changed. Even from my time being in high school not long ago, everything is much different now. Therefore, I have to learn to change, and change to learn so that way my students will be taught properly to survive in their thriving technological world.
Scavenger Hunt 2.0
1.) The tool I found similar to Facebook/Twitter was Classroom 2.0. This is a network for those who are interested in Web 2.0, Social Media, and Participative Technologies for the classroom. It is a free community-supported network. It is an online community for teachers, somewhat like Facebook, but strictly for teachers. They have their own blogs, they can post, and comment to other teachers also. I think this would be an awesome tool to have once I become a teacher. It would be nice to be able to interact with other teachers from all over and get ideas that they are using in their classroom with the Web 2.0.
2.) Prezi gives students and teachers a free license and it is called the Edu Enjoy Subscription. It allows you to have 500mb of storage space, all of your presentations will be private, and you get to use your own logo instead of Prezi's logo.
