Blog Post # 8

This is How we Dream Parts 1 and 2
Whether in print or on the web, books are the source of the information we learn and interpret; that is a book’s goal. Unfortunately, neither one by itself overwhelmingly has the same effect on everyone. Richard Miller’s Multimedia writing gives substance to interpretation and opens the door to credible collaboration.

Simply reading a book and lecturing about it on YouTube or adding your opinion to Wikipedia is the reason many of my professors despise internet research sources. As someone who works in the humanities, I believe we need a better case for the internet jury. And that is what the multimedia concept offers.

Multimedia writing does not take anything away from a printed book; it only adds to it. It adds to the substance of the text through credible collaboration. It is filtered so as not to be stigmatized as another Wikipedia or Answers.com.

Blog Post# 12 by Carly Pugh
As I read this blog, I found myself guilty of once again being an immediate skeptic. Does learning have to be fun these days? Does everything have to be taught in the form of a video? These are the questions of someone flirting with the idea of not being willing to be creative. Thus, this same person may be robbing someone of their own creativity. I had the same feelings in the opening minutes of Dr. Miller’s lecture.

However, like Dr. Miller’s lecture, Carly’s post reminded me that ideas, such as multimedia, are not eliminating all things in the past; they simply add to their effectiveness. Coming up with an alternate ending to a famous book does not negate what the student learned by reading it. It teaches them to think even more. After all, they have to have understood something to recreate it.

The key word used in education should be creativity. Things like multimedia writing and YouTube Videos are never going to replace anything. Carly understood Dr. Miller completely. And by the end of both of their posts, they reminded me to be willing to add learning tools to my educating tool belt.

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies
After watching these two videos, I would like to see more instructional videos on the procedures for some of the projects. I believe they could be just as entertaining as these as well as helpful. I know the few videos like the one explaining how to do timelines and the one on slide shows really helped me complete the work. The instruction manual only works to a certain point. I have talked too many of the other students and former students (not lab assistants) who believe there should be more instruction beyond the manual. I think making more instructional videos available would eliminate al lot of procrastination.

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
You have to change or you want learn could have been the title of this video. I feel about this video the same way I have felt about most of the videos I have watched or posts I have read this semester. You must be willing to change has become my reaction to most of it. I think sometimes the message is a little extreme. Only a few of the posts I have seen arguing for a more electronic school have clearly admitted that web based schooling is not the only way; it is simply a way to improve the old.