Blog Post 8

Richard Miller: This Is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2-
I was pretty confused at the beginning of Part 1. It was hard to follow. But I do agree with Miller when he said that we are in a time of change in human history. We are changing from pen and paper to multimedia for documentation and sharing. A desk isn't as valuable unless you have a computer on top of it. Part 2 also made some good points. Miller said "...ideas do not belong to us individually but as a culture." I strongly agree with this statement. People who have formulated these ideas were raised by their culture. If they were raised in a different culture the idea probably would have never been formed. All the tools in the video kind of blew my mind. But in order for teachers to "share their ideas freely" I should get comfortable with all these gadgets. Multimedia writing is becoming so popular that my students will for sure be using it. I may be the one teaching my students how to multimedia write instead of cursive, even though I love cursive so I'll probably teach them that anyway!

The Chipper Series-
Haha Chipper says she can see the future. I enjoyed this video! It's pretty entertaining. It also reiterates the importance of doing your work on time! And the Wikipedia comment... I laughed out loud. Chipper isn't willing to learn by herself which is not how EDM310 works. Chipper is confused but the sarcastic message is great. Timeline Pilot School is a joke. There isn't a reliable way to really check the progress on the students which is really important. As a teacher, Chipper is not prepared or responsible enough to teach any students. Because she dropped out of college, Chipper moves from unstable job to another unstable job. Finally Chipper makes the right decision and goes back to school. EDM310 is helping make me more responsible and I'll be more prepared to teach effectively.
EDM310 For Dummies-
I also laughed in this movie. At the beginning, the girls are SO dramatic! The set up of the movie is great; like an infomercial. If anyone decides to make the book it would make a serious profit! I probably would have bought it! I was a lot more worried about EDM310 than I should have been. As long as I keep up with the work I don't stress out. The book would be helpful, though.
Learn to Change, Change to Learn-
Wow! I was shocked when I heard education was ranked last! Education is so important. Students need to be able to learn in an enriched, interesting environment. Kids love to be with their friends outside of school... so why shouldn't they love to be with their friends at school? A connection for teachers to collaborate with each other will benefit the students and teachers. Setting standards isn't enough. We have to lead our students to exceed these standards. The message of this video agrees with the idea that the classroom needs to adapt to technology for the kids' sakes.
RSA Animate- The Secret Powers of Time-
This video grabbed my attention immediately! The drawings were very neat. However, it was hard to keep up with the information. Basically, the video described that people live in 3 different times; the past, present, and future. People who live in the past will be reminiscing the good times (past positive) or the times they regret (past negative). The people who live in the present are hedonistic, which means they seek pleasure and avoid pain, or say it doesn't pay to plan because their life is lead by fate. And there are two types of people who live in the future: those who have learned to work instead of play and those who believe eternal life begins after the death of the body. When the narrator starts talking about Italy the video gets funny. The video says that in different cultures people have a different pace of life, which is very true! This man believes the purpose of schooling is to take past oriented kids and turn them into future oriented people. This video covered a lot of material in a little amount of time. I really liked it. I never once got bored watching it. I was disappointed to see that only 20% of American families have family meals. The study that asked people "if you had an eighth day of the week what would they do?" gave very interesting results. My first answer would have been relax but the majority of people chose work harder and make more progress. That says that people feel like they can never catch up in the work world.
RSA Animate- The surprising truth about what motivates us-
Another great film! This one talked about motivations. People who were given a simple rule-by-rule task tended to succeed in order to get their prize but people who were given a complicated cognitive task managed to fail more often for a higher prize than for a smaller prize. Money proved to not be a motivator for complicated, critical thinking. I like the idea of paying people enough so money isn't an issue. That way, they will be thinking about the work and not the money. This video states that for better performance self-engagement, mastery, and purpose are all needed in the job description. Basically, if a company wants innovation they shouldn't try to motivate with money. They should just step aside and give the employees a "free day" to collaborate and brainstorm ideas with no pressure. I really liked both of the RSA Animate videos. They had good, fresh messages with research to support them.