Blog Post # 1

My first introduction to EDM310 was when I was in the bookstore purchasing the textbook for the class. One of the employee's assisting me said, "Oh, that's a tough class," and I in-kind responded, "I enjoy classes like that because it means I'm going to learn something." One of my strongest philosophies in life is that if you want it; you have to work hard for it, so having the tip that it would be tough, I got familiar with the textbook. Of course, the textbook didn't make it clear what to expect, but later that day I checked my Google email and Dr. Strange had sent out his introductory email: the textbook made perfect sense after I read his email. I'm convinced that Dr. Strange and Marc Prensky (the author of Teaching Digital Natives) are in fact one and the same person, but if they are not, then their teaching philosophies are a great asset for the students of today and tomorrow.

The only fear I could ever have about EDM310 is that Dr. Strange and his assistants ever say, "Okay, today we are going to do everything for you, so pull out your notepad and pen to take notes for the test." In fact, this teaching style compliments what I have been doing in my former online classes, which meant that you had to be self-motivated, good at time management and required to do all of the research and assignments on time. EDM310 is no different to me and I require my courses to challenge me, so all of my worst fears have already been allayed because I've learned a lot already.

Although this will sound odd at first, I can easily compare and contrast EDM310 with my History of Astronomy(HA) college class. I had taken many classes before taking ISS, but none of them required me to become familiar with so many social media sites, such as Twitter, blogging(not as in depth as what I am now introduced to), building websites, writing book reviews and wire service/newspaper articles. Like EDM310, the idea was to get us technologically literate with what is happening in the real world. EDM310 seems to go more into the social media arena in a technologically instructional manner, and even though I had blogged before, this class made it look foreign to me. I know that taking EDM310 and having the knowledge from HA will be very useful as I pursue my teaching passion.

My difficulties won't actually be from EDM310, because I consider it such a wonderful benefit, but from trying to juggle all of the things in my life to make the most out of it. I am preparing to burn many lanterns of midnight oil, catch up on my sleep when I can, and apologize to my family that I have time for them, but not just a lot right now. Since I like working hard, working with others and making any sacrifice to achieve my goals, I welcome all the difficulty collectively as a motivator. Sorry, but I have this odd habit of staying positive no matter what the circumstances, thereby honestly answering question number 5 of this blog post.

I had many questions about EDM310 after my first class on Tuesday, but having did the necessary reading, research and practice, there is really not much for me to ask. For instance: Where do I find out more about HTML code? I googled(Are we allowed to use this word?) it and got a whole HTML reference guide. And so it went with any questions that I asked myself because I listened to Dr. Strange, the videos, the readings and the other references presented to me. I know this is going to be a technological buffet and I am ready to get stuffed with HTMLs, Youtube videos, tweets, skypes, projects and lots of blogs.





Sources: Jamie Lynn; Joseph Thornton.