Blog Entry 7:

Well here we are at the end of another year. Over the course of this semester I have found that my views and opinions on the overall effect and impact that technology has had on education have changed quite significantly. I started this semester believing that digital technology has already transformed education and the way in which we teaching our students. However, now I find myself with a different point of view on the subject. Now I believe that technology as a whole has not transformed education thus far but rather it has evolved it. I still believe that education will be transformed by technology but that it wont happen anytime soon. Having now spent quite a while researching and reading up on this topic I have found that there is an enormous potential in existing and upcoming technologies and that we have yet to really tap into it. The applications, software and ideas running the existing technology that powers our world today is still very much in its infancy. Until the world starts to expand and think outside of the ordinary and the obvious digital technology will continue to simply evolve the way our world works rather than transform it.

Regards,

James

Posted at 09:51AM Oct 31, 2008 by james martin  | 

Blog Entry 6:

Hi all,

I just recently finished my EDET essay on Will Digital Technology Transform Education in the Early Decades Of The 21^st Century.

When I was first writing my essay, my intention was to basically say yes digital technology will transform education but now having finished writing it I find myself rethinking my initial view on the subject. Im not so sure that it will completely transform education entirely in the early decades of the 21^st century. I think there are certain aspects of education that simply cannot be transformed by technology alone. For example I believe that human teachers will continue to be a crucial and essential part of students learning for many years to come. This is simply because a machine cannot replace basic human interaction, understanding and most of all companionship. I think as human beings one of our core requirements is social interaction with one another as we are by nature social creatures and this is something that a machine cannot possibly replicate or substitute. This fact alone shows that machine integration into the modern and future education curriculum can only go so far and will never reach total saturation or domination.

From James

Posted at 11:34AM Oct 21, 2008 by james martin  | 

Blog Entry 5:

I dont know about the rest of you but Ive been thinking a lot about just how beneficial web 2.0 applications really are for education. Ive spent quite a bit of time browsing through the immense amount of educational web 2.0 applications out there and Ive noticed something most of them are crap or really boring. Now, there are a few decent ones out there that have some real potential but for the most part none of them are even slightly creative or intuitive. Their basically regular day to day tasks but done on the computer. I mean just how many online grading sites or teacher networking sites do we really need? Now admittedly these applications are still fairly new and there are still heaps of ideas that are yet to be exploited but seriously surely someone has to come up with an original idea or come up with something that isnt just an alternative/digital way of doing things.

Posted at 02:50PM Oct 14, 2008 by james martin  | 

Blog Entry 4: My Digital Story

Hi all,

As you can see I've gone ahead and made my digital story. Feel free to leave some comments etc on ways I can improve it or what you like or dont like about it.

I have to say though, I'm really quite happy with the way my video turned out (especially considering I spent about 7 hours making it!)And its apparent popularity on YouTube as its already been viewed 63 times in its first 18 hours of being online!

In regards to making it, I used Windows Moviemaker to put everything together and add all of the titles and transition effects. For the music I obviously used the song "Wake" by Linkin Park as I wanted to build up a bit of suspense and create a bit of mood at the beginning to help draw people into watching the whole thing.

My main goal when making my video was to excite my viewers and make them feel like the future is here by showing them some cool or impressive clips. I also wanted my viewers to be able to relate to what I was showing them and the message I was trying to get across.

I decided that the best way to get my message across in my video was to try and make the viewer relate on a personal level from the outset of my video. I accomplished this by asking the viewer a question about a personal experience I knew they would be able to relate to, that being "Can you remember sitting in school dreaming about what it would be like..." I felt this question would provoke the viewer to remember their own experiences of daydreaming at school and thus they would already be able to relate to what my video was about to show them. Not to mention it would increase the impact my video and message had on them as it would hopefully hit on more then just a superficial level.

While I was making my video I did run into a few problems, my main problem being trying to find a PC equivalent of Garage Band to edit my voice recording and edit my music track. I eventually found a program called Mixcraft.  This program turned out to be very similar to Garage Band but it lacked all of the cool and fun editing features that Garage Band has, but by this time I was just happy to have found a good alternative.

The other main problem I had was trying to find some high quality footage of the sun etc to use in my video. While I was able to find a number of videos on YouTube, none of them were of very high image quality and were not very impressive. I eventually found some very good footage on Google Video which I ended up using in my final piece.

I hope you enjoyed watching my video as much as I enjoyed making it!

Regards,

James

Posted at 01:32PM Sep 16, 2008 by james martin  | 

Blog Entry 3:

Hi all

 Just finished watching the 45 min debate video and reading the My Trip On The Train discussion on Google Groups. The video wasnt too bad I guess both debaters had some interesting view points but I found myself getting pretty annoyed at Andrews point of view by the end of the debate. I personally think he was quite narrow minded on the whole topic and he seems like a bit of a narcissist. If you want to hear more about what I thought of the video you should check out my post on Google Groups! My user name is mart0463.

After reading the My Trip On The Train post on Google Groups I began to think about just how much the world has changed in recent years thanks to advances in technology. For example, I can remember as a child sitting down for hours playing video games on my Super Nintendo and having to use a control pad to make the characters move where as now I simply wave my hand or get up and jump around the room to make my character move while playing my Nintendo Wii. I can also remember every man and his dog used to have a Telstra payphone card and actually having to line up to use the payphone where as now youd be hard pressed to even find a pay phone let alone see someone using one.

But most of all I remember the days when if you saw a man in a suit sitting alone at a table talking to himself youd think he was mad. Whereas now if you saw that same man doing the same thing you just assume hes just talking on his phone using his Bluetooth headset!

Regards,

James

Posted at 01:03PM Sep 10, 2008 by james martin  | 

Blog Entry 2:

Today I have decided to update my me.edu.au page by adding all of you in Multimedia Literacy! I know I know about time hey. Also I finally got a chance to read that New York Times article John spoke so highly about and I have to I am suitably impressed! The article was very well written and did cover a lot of viewpoints. I cant say it really surprised me with any of its content however mainly because I am a heavy internet user and have know that reading on the internet is just as important as reading a book and that it has a lot of benefits for kids with disabilities such as Dyslexia. I know this because a good friend of mine has a lot of trouble reading books because their eyes cannot focus on the page but when they are put in front of the computer they can read for hours on end without any problems at all.

Interesting stuff!

Regards,

James.

Posted at 01:01PM Sep 10, 2008 by james martin  | 

Blog Entry 1:

Hello everyone,

Today I have added some information to my me.edu.au profile and even my Edflin profile. You should have a look and tell me what you think. Everything is still pretty basic and Ive got a fair bit of work ahead of me! But I think itll be good fun and hopefully not to hard!

Ive also added a few web pages to my delicious profile that you might find interesting, a lot of them are about education and the use of IWBs (Interactive White Boards). After all the more we can learn about the use of IWBs the better I say seeing as by the time we all get out and start teaching IWBs will well and truly be pretty much everywhere!

Anyways have a look around my profile! Enjoy!

Regards,

James

Posted at 01:00PM Sep 10, 2008 by james martin  |