Blog Assignment 8

This is How We Dream Parts 1 and 2
Richard Miller
This is How We Dream

Richard Miller is an English professor at Rutgers University. In these two videos, Miller is showing how the world of writing is changing. In the first video, Miller focuses on the way writing used to be and is still sometimes perceived. You would go to the library to do research when writing a paper. You would then publish the writing in a book or journal, which would most likely just end up in a library. Finally, you would be at the library again to look at these pieces of work. This is how writing was, not how it should be. Miller also shows how technology is slowly changing the way people perceive writing.

In Miller's second video, the writing of the future is key. No longer are essays and papers just filled with words. Now we can add video and audio to them and create truly amazing pieces of work. The internet and use of computers in the humanities opens up a whole new world. When you write something and publish it, it no longer sits in a library waiting for someone. Your work is out there available for everyone, all the time. What's more is that more people will actually be more willing to read about your thoughts and see what you have to say. Miller talks about how three months after publishing these videos on the web, he had nine thousand hits. He also adds that had this just been a print lecture, it would have taken two years to catch on. This truly goes to show that by adding pictures and audio to a piece of work, you really can reach more people.

These videos make me excited about the future of writing. I look forward to doing papers where I can add something besides just words to paper. I also think this way of writing will be great in the classrooms of younger students. The students will be more eager to write when they can make it truly interesting. I hope to get some practice in this type of writing that way I can pass the knowledge on to my future students. The future is looking quite bright and I can't wait to get there!

The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies
Chipper

The Chipper series was quite an interesting video. When it first started out I had no clue where it was headed. After the first few clips, though, I caught on pretty fast. What a slippery slope our life can be. One day turning a few assignments in late and the next you are a garbage collector! I think this video did a great job of showing students that being responsible is very important in life. No matter what kind of career you chose, you must always try your best and always be on time. You can no longer only think of yourself and you have to start thinking about the interests of others. I did think the video was a little repetitive, but it did get the point across.

EDM310 for Dummies

I really felt like I connected with this video! For the first few weeks of class I thought I was going to scream. It seemed like so much, but with the lab and the tutorials I managed to get a grip. This video does a great job of showing you how to do better in EDM310. With a little common sense and paying attention this class is not as stressful! The only thing I can think of that would be a good video is showing the importance of attending the lab sessions of EDM310. I know without the lab assistants I would be quite stressed out. The EDM310 for Dummies video did not really stress the use of the lab and the assistants, which is vital for success in this class. Another video idea that I have is to show the importance of being a good group member. Since having to do a few group projects, I think it would be a good idea to show students the rights and wrongs of working in a group. Both of these videos were entertaining and educational!

Learn to Change, Change to Learn
Learn to Change...

This is a video that says that we are teaching our students the wrong way, and we need to do something to change that. One of the people interviewed said that the 21st century is the "death of education and the dawn of learning." He could not be more right. It is time to stop simply teaching our students enough to get them to pass a test, and start teaching them ways they can continue to learn for a lifetime. Being able to pass a standardized test is not going to be able to help our students in the future. Our students future should be what is most important, not passing a test. As stated in the video, students do most of their learning outside of the classroom. Whether it is on Facebook, Twitter, or Google, students are seeking out knowledge that is not being taught in the classroom.

Instead of allowing technology to help our students learn, we are banning it from our schools. Why not incorporate the use of all of these sites that students are so familiar with into their everyday learning? This video points out what is wrong with our educational system and gives opinions on how to change it. Maybe we should start listening more closely to how we can change for the better of ourselves and our students.

The Secret Powers of Time
Philip Zimbardo

I really like the way this video was set up. Philip Zimbardo uses cartoon drawings to get his point across about how time can influence every aspect of life. Zimbardo starts out talking about six different time orientations. The first two are past oriented: past positive and past negative. The next two are present oriented: hedonistic and those that say it doesn't pay to plan. The last two are future oriented: those that work instead of play and those that believe that life begins after the death of the mortal body.

Zimbardo then goes on to discuss how being past, present, or future oriented can effect your life. Future oriented people tend to be more successful and harder workers. This has its downfall because these people also tend to put their family and friends on the back burner for success. Also discussed is how much time is spent wasted everyday. We waste time standing in line, sitting at a dentist office, or just having fun. This leads to the discussion of a different pace of life for people in different cultures. Many Americans get mad when they have to wait for their computer to boot up or when waiting for something to download. People that live in this fast-paced life tend to have worst health, which goes to show that time really can effect every aspect of your life.

Zimbardo then goes on to say that we are all born as hedonistic and that it is the school's place to turn us into future oriented people. With the amount of time that students (particularly boys) spend playing video games or with other technology, they are becoming less interested in the way that schools are teaching. Schools teach passively and this is just not the way students are interested in learning. They like things that are hands on and keep them involved. An interesting statistic that Zimbardo gave was that a student drops out of school every nine seconds. This is truly astounding and we must do something to change this. Zimbardo did a great job of showing how we orient ourselves with time can effect every aspect of our lives from birth to adulthood.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
David Pink
Drive

In this video David Pink discusses what really motivates us. He starts out saying that we are not as predictable as we once believed. He then gives two topics that he is going to talk about: if you reward something do you get more of the behavior that you want? and if you punish something do you get less of the behavior that you want? Here is what he had to say on these two topics.

Pink uses an experiment that was done a M.I.T to discuss whether rewards get you the behavior you want. As was expected, when the students who were participating in the experiment were asked to do mechanical work to get the reward the end result was this: higher pay, better performance. However, when cognitive abilities were needed the opposite occurred. Higher pay led to lower performance. The rewards did not work! Pink then lists three factors that can lead to better performance in the work place: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Autonomy is the desire to be self directed and this is usually taken away in the work place. Pink that it is important to incorporate autonomy in the work place to motivate the workers. Mastery is the urge to get better at something. People will work harder to get better at something if they are motivated. The last thing Pink talks about is purpose. People want to work for a company that has a purpose. All of this boils down to one thing according to Pink: let's start treating people like people instead of better smelling horses!

I really liked this video. As someone that is out there in the working world, I felt I could really relate! I am pretty much allowed to work in my own way as long as all of my work gets done at the end of the day (autonomy). This makes my working experience much more bearable. Working should not always be about the money, you should want to go to work because it is something you enjoy doing. It should not be all about the paycheck, and I think that is what David Pink is trying to say.