Monday, June 05, 2006

Reflection

I have had ooooohhhhhh so many classes here at OSU, but this is the first class in such a long time that I felt like I had learned something new, and benifeted from it. So many times I take a class, I sit there, I feel like I have learned nothing new, and its the same old transition time after time...........but not this time. I learned many new skills to add to my tool box that I never had before, and it is all because the teacher was willing to take an unconventional step to teaching, really put ourselves out there to sink or swim. Because she never gave up on us and always helped, nobody had trouble staying afloat. So here is to EDUPL 370, perhaps the best class of my undergrad career, "May all who take you learn us much as we did."

Fellow faithful readers, this is the end of our adventure. I will be blogging no more. It is a great tool and I understand why kids use it, but I am no longer 14, so I will look for other ways to entertain myself. Good bye, y vayas con dios.

Lee Smith

FREE CHOICE

FOR MY FREE CHOICE, I CHOSE TO TYPE IN CAPTIAL LETTERS, AND TALK ABOUT ALL THE MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS WE WATCHED. I THOUGHT THEY WERE ALL REALLY GOOD, IT IS SO AMAZING THAT AFTER ALL THIS TIME WHEN SOME OF US STARTED OFF SO BADLY THAT WE ALL PULLED OFF THIS FEAT. HATS OFF TO ALL. THERE WERE MANY ELEMENTS TO ALL THE PROJECTS THAT I VIEWED, ESPECIALLY THE ONES THAT WERE PARTNERED WITH WEBSITES. JONI, YOU MAY HAVE DISLIKED YOUR VIDEO, BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS AWESOME, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DIDN'T SEE IT, IT IS ON REIER.6 .

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Multimedia Project

For my multimedia project, I am doing a longer video on the history of my fraternity, and what it has to offer. Some people in our class may think I have an obsession with my fraternity, but I assure you that I do not. It is just that we are looking for ways to branch out our recruitment strategies, and I see this class as killing two birds with one stone.

So what is it that my video is going to offer? Well like all my work, it will be fantastic. The filming is going to take you around the different parts of the Agricultural Campus across the river, and then it will take you to our current house, the one we have had for many years. It is going to feature our housemother, our advisors, and different active members of the fraternity. This multimedia project will be marketed more towards the parents of potential members so that any stigma of fraternities may be laid to rest. I hope that it goes the way I need it to.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Podcasting...whoa!

First off....my blog is finally posted. After another week of battle with blogger, my blog is now up and available for people to read. So lets talk about podcasting.

Podcasting is a very cool new offering to the digital world on another way not to have to go to class and still survive. How cool would it be to download your classes on to your computer and learn that way instead of actually going to class. Think about it, the classroom was created to offer a center for learning, and in the beginning it was easiest for all the students to come to one room. Now we have the capabilities to not have everyone come to the classroom, because this is the first step in a virtual classroom. With podcasting, and other digital components, we are on verge of finding a new classroom. This is just the beginning of another phase in the evolution of the classroom. And to think, it all started out in a one room schoolhouse.

That is what is being offered, but is it all good? I think Vygotsky would be disappointed if we abandoned the social aspect of education. I too also think that removing students from will cause a downward spiral of education because education thrives when the sense of community is high.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

The great digital divide

The digital divide is a concept that keeps evolving with time. In the beginning the digital divide was a concept that was about the distribution of the material possession of computers. In the early days of computerdom there were realatively few computers distributed across the population. This left a divide among the population because there were those taking advantage of computers and those who did not have the opportunity, thus creating a divide. Now with time and evolution of computers, computers are really cheap and they are virtually everywhere, and the gap of "material possession" has evolved as well into an intelligence gap.

This is a really big problem, I don't think people realize it though. In our competitive world everyone has to have some mandatory skills to be efficient. But when we have this divide, what is it doing for education? I think it is throwing a wrench in and confounding the whole system. But how? Our society throws our education system so many wrong signal. They want this or that, but don't give us the time and ability to implicate processes to reach those goal, so the bigger goal now is how to work together and reach our education goals as well as filling in the hole that makes a great divide.

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Computers and the Classroom: Pew Study

After reading the Pew Study and reading others blogs, I am offering my thoughts about the use of computers in the school. To also make a special note, the lovely people at blogger finally fixed my blog. Anyway, back to the topic. Its obvious that internet and computers are playing such a huge part in educating student in America, but why aren't we utilizing them to their fullest potential? Pretty much I am making the same arguement that I have been making all quarter. The computers are another way to reach to children, so why don't we use it more? So many statistics that you read say that children spend so much time/too much time on the computer, so it is obvious that they enjoy spending the time there, so lets put their education there too. The interactive features of internet allow for less to be more flexible, more interactive, and more engaging to children, a revolutionary practice.

Maybe thats why it isn't being used, because people are too scared to try new things. No one is willing to put the kids out there and try to structure a new curriculum based on the internet, because the old curriculum has already been made. Just my thoughts

Monday, April 24, 2006

Fair Use

I find it interesting that college professors get all excited about properly citing materials, when it is kinda dumb anyway. They want to be so specific on the guidelines, but they change every year. And all because the author wants some respect, and its not like he's gonna read my paper anyway. So here we are having to do this and that and jump through some flaming hoops all so I don't get arrested by improperly representing someone elses work, who probably stole it from somebody else. So why is it that we have to be so strict about it, so people like Bill Gates can be the richest man in the world, and if anyone looks at his product in a negative manner, he will have them removed from living. Copyrighting is good though, because I imagine that it is important that people get what respect they are deserved. Though why can't i just say this is the person heres what they wrote, and this is where i found it.....its not like they are gonna read it anyway.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Fair use: What I think about the official guidelines

Properly citing materials is one of the dumbest things that I have to do, but one of the most honest things to do. Personally in my life any and all papers I have wrote have been no more than assignments due to a teacher. Because of this I feel as though my academic integrity was more so imagined than really relevant. I find it really hilarious that we have spent so much time practicing the proper guidelines, that they will change again before we actually need to practice them. And it is this changing of guidelines all the time that really makes me not care about the importance of properly citing things. How serious can I take an idea when it changes, or the audience wants a different format. Though, the idea of proper citing is really important, I think I would get really "unhappy" if someone stole my ideas so I guess we have to do what we gotta do. But heres the next point: Why do they have to be so complicated, so tedious, and precise, why can't I say here's the author, here's where they published it, page numbers, and all that jazz. But no, it has to be organized, that way the original person who wrote it won't be offended....like they are gonna read it anyway, or even know that they were cited. Thats all I got to say about that.

Fair use: What I think about the official guidelines

Properly citing materials is one of the dumbest things that I have to do, but one of the most honest things to do. Personally in my life any and all papers I have wrote have been no more than assignments due to a teacher. Because of this I feel as though my academic integrity was more so imagined than really relevant. I find it really hilarious that we have spent so much time practicing the proper guidelines, that they will change again before we actually need to practice them. And it is this changing of guidelines all the time that really makes me not care about the importance of properly citing things. How serious can I take an idea when it changes, or the audience wants a different format. Though, the idea of proper citing is really important, I think I would get really "unhappy" if someone stole my ideas so I guess we have to do what we gotta do. But heres the next point: Why do they have to be so complicated, so tedious, and precise, why can't I say here's the author, here's where they published it, page numbers, and all that jazz. But no, it has to be organized, that way the original person who wrote it won't be offended....like they are gonna read it anyway, or even know that they were cited. Thats all I got to say about that.