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26 March 2012

Blog Post #8

21st century communication

This is How We Dream Part 1&2
"We can now communicate globally, instantly." This quote, at the beginning of Richard E. Miller's This is How we Dream pt. 1, really caught my attention. I don't think I ever realized that fact. When something is posted on the internet, not only can it be seen in our community, city, county, state, country, continent, hemisphere, but WORLD WIDE, instantly! Dr. Miller is right when he said that we are living at the moment of the greatest change in communication in human history. When he said this, I thought about the telegraph and telephone. While these two inventions were world changing, the impact of the World Wide Web on mankind has only begun to be realized. It wont be long and print will be totally obsolete. I don't mean that printed materials will be limited, I mean they will no longer exist. Everything will be published digitally and will be accessed by a few key strokes. This is a possibility with in my lifetime and it is exciting!

einstein

Carly Pugh's EDM310 Blog Post #12
Wow... Talk about going above and beyond! Carly really took this assignment seriously and put her heart into it. I think she is getting very close to Dr. Miller's ideas about writing with multimedia. This blog post is what it is all about. Spreading your ideas, sharing your thoughts with the whole world.
Carly's "Six Questions for Every Day" video made think about a video we watched in blog post #2 from Sir Ken Robinson about how schools kill creativity. I absolutely, whole heartily, believe this. Students today are not allowed to explore their creativity because of all the emphasis placed on state testing. The public schools are more interested in their funding than teaching their students. I realize that with out funding, there will be no education, but something has to be done. It may have to start with the teachers, but due to the fact that teachers make their living by doing what they are told to by the school district, that may be a tough proposition.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies
These two videos by Jamie Lynn Miller are well designed and delivered. I would enjoy doing a video on the statistics of the technology used in the education system of Mississippi. I don't know if there would be very much content, but I guess that is half of the point.

the future we don't know


Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Why am I not surprised that the education system ranked last in the Department of Commerce report of IT intensiveness? The only thing that surprised me was that the coal industry was ranked higher! I guess that has to do with funding more than anything else. Industries, like the coal mining industry, make a product and turn a monetary profit. They have the funds to make their businesses run more efficiently. The education system is funded by the national government and the $1,000,000,000 per day that was being spent in Afghanistan was way more important than the futures of the future tax payers, right? It sure does seem that way...
The "nearly now" time frame that the second orator, Greg Whitby, mentioned is fascinating. The social world is no longer dominated by telephone conversations or face to face time, which requires both parties to answer immediately. Now, each person involved in the conversation has time to perform the "Rs" as the man said. People are not pressured. They can reflect, retract, research, and repeat before answering. I agree with him that this "time" or "space" is an excellent place to learn.
The next to last orator, Ken Kay, really hit the nail on the head for me. He said, "...it is not memorizing the facts that they are going to need to know for the rest of their lives... ...it will be: Do you know how to find information, do you know how to validate it, do you know how to synthesize it, do you know how to leverage it, do you know how to communicate it, do you know how to collaborate with it, do you know how to problem solve with it. That is the new 21st century set of literacies." In my opinion, he is exactly correct.


Scavenger Hunt 2.0

google plus

#1 I think google+ is not only a social tool like twitter.com and facebook.com that teachers, students, and parents could use, I think it is a better platform with WAY more options and tools to make the environment easier to use and a much more effective sharing device.
The google docs tool is a web based word processing tool at it's base, but can be used for document storage and so much more.
The google+ hangout is a video chat tool that could be used for parent/teacher conferences or whatever is needed between the student or parent and teacher.
The fact that google+ allows the user to place their "followers" in circles and can choose which circle or circles can see certain posts is great! The teacher can communicate to just the students/parents or even certain students/parents.
With google+, the options are limitless.

prezi

#2 Prezi - For the general public, a Prezi account has two different pricing options. The "enjoy" option is $59 for a year subscription. The "pro" option is $159 annually. Both of the options are free to try for 30 days. The Prezi website also offers a discount for students and teachers. The discount is huge. For students and teachers the "enjoy" option is absolutely free and Prezi knocks off $100 for the pro version at $59 for a yearly account. With the "enjoy" version being free, Prezi really hits home with the student base. It is good to see web based tech tool companies making an effort to keep their programs affordable for teachers and students.

#5 blogpolls.com is a great, free, tool to create a poll anywhere at any time.



2 comments:

  1. Hi Robert.
    My name is Mckinley Kennedy and I was assigned to read your Blog Post #8. I really enjoyed reading what you thought about certain subjects in "This is how we dream Part 1 and 2". I myself really enjoyed reading and learning about what Richard Miller had to say. Did you have fun doing the Scavenger Hunt? I had a lot of fun finding out about all the neat tools that are out in the world now. I never knew there were so many out there. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.

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  2. Hello Robert,

    This was a great post. I enjoyed your comments about the topics and your pictures. Keep up the great work.

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