Blog Post 8

The blog assignments this week seem to be urging us to look at individuals and see the potential they have.  As an educator seeing potential is important because we have to set goals in such a way to allow students to achieve their best. I have included links in all of the titles just in case readers may wish to see the videos for themselves.  My favorite ones were the last two RSA Animate productions.  They will certainly turn how you may perceive motivations of others and how best to motivate them.


Richard E. Miller's This is How We Dream

In this two part video presentation Richard E. Miller describes how we used to research, compose, and publish literature (ideas).  He then talks about how the compositions then went to libraries waiting on shelves to be accessed by one person at a time until they became outdated.  That is the world I was born into in 1979.  While the use of the computer for research was on the horizon, I graduated high school before the dawn of idea sharing on the web shone on my education.


Miller discusses changes that occur in regards to how we write, where we work, where we publish, and finally where our publications (ideas) end up.  He says that incremental changes have brought us to using word processing then video, audio, and visual aids.  Miller also goes on in part two to say what he believes is the future of composition.  With Emphasis on Ideas being shared, research being collaborative,and sources being global.


This is a LEAP from where we were in 1979.  Learning has snowballed in the best kind of way.  Having a variety of sources from different people and universities around the globe has yielded more efficient use of time and better conclusions drawn.  Always up to date.  Always available to millions at one time, anytime,and from just about any location.  The sky is not the limit.  There is no limit.  Learning and teaching can go hand in hand an never end.  They can just go on, happily ever after.


The Chipper Series and EDM310 for Dummies


I think that both of these videos illustrate different approaches we can take when we are in college and life in general.  Most tasks do seem impossible when we do not have the proper tools to do them with.  The difference in those who succeed and those who do not is found in a person's attitude.  If we begin a task with a closed mind and an attitude of defeat then naturally we would feel frustrated. 


In EDM310 for Dummies I think the students making the video were probably speaking from personal experience.  I know when I first began to explore the several instruction manuals for the different types of assignments that are given I was overwhelmed and wondered if I could do it!  I now feel much more confident in my problem solving capabilities when it comes to technical operations and also have learned that I am capable! 


Learn to Change, Change To Learn


This is an excellent video.  It captures the essence of the revolution in learning, teaching, and living in the 21st century.  Right now schools are fatally behind in access to technology.  But if what I am learning in EDM310 is any indication of where education is headed then change is destined to occur.  In Learn to Change, Change To Learn there is a description of what students are capable of with access to global information.  To achieve this teachers need to be connected as well.  I see the use of social networking and instant information as a great leap in what students can achieve in terms of creation, collaboration, and independent learning as well.  Allowing a new form of learning that can tap into students unique talents and creativity is going to yield amazing individuals that do amazing things.  

RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time

In this video the issue is time.  Not just time but how one perceives it.  Something called time perspective is discussed and how it impacts  behavior.  The speaker in the video is drawing connections between time spent and time perception and how it effects everything a person  does, thinks, and even feels.  The culture humans live in now is primarily one of instants.  One of the most disturbing things mentioned in the video is the statistic that a student drops out of school every nine seconds.  The majority of these students are male.  Lack of engaging learning is hinted at as the cause of this by siting the average amount of time males spend engaged in video games and how the type of stimulation they are most responsive to is only available outside of school.  Creating and becoming involved in what is going on in the learning process through the use of technology may decrease the number of disinterested students.  


I thought this video was very illuminating in regards to human nature as it is associated with time perception. 

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

In this video the speaker describes "motivation schemes".  He analyzes performance based on reward.  People's behavior according to the experiment shows that people will try less to achieve a large hard earned reward than they will a smaller easier to achieve reward.  

To achieve an individual that is engaged in the work place the speaker says the individual needs to be allowed to be more independent and self directed.  And to achieve an individual with a desire to improve in the workplace that person would need to be allowed to create something that is done for the purpose of creating not economic reward.  Why?  It is what the video calls "a purpose motive" instead of a "profit motive".  

The idea I took away from this video is that people genuinely want to do something great for other people.  They want the freedom to do it the way that they feel is best.  And they desire to make a contribution.  People are very complicated beings that not only desire gain for gain's sake but deeply desire to add their stamp on the world around them in a profound and positive way.