This is How We Dream

I watched and listened to both of the videos of Richard Miller's, "This is How We Dream". It is about how much technology has changed the very idea of "our world". What I mean by that is that technology has created an entirely new lifestyle that simply did not exist 20 years ago. Because of this technology, the workplace is not the tiny cubicle or crowded office building it has always been. Now, the workplace can be a secluded park bench. The office desk covered in stacks of papers and memos has become the desktop computer or a laptop. Research can be done without ever leaving your bedroom. Company business meetings in the United States with colleagues in Japan can take place in real time on a computer for free. Richard Miller shows us how technology has changed and WILL change society. Richard makes a good point right from the start. He states, "...we are living at the moment of the greatest change in human communication in human history." I agree. Before recently, the only way to communicate with someone on the other side of the planet was by traditional mail, or as we call it today, "snail mail". We are more connected to the world now more so than we have ever been.

This presentation is not just about the ease of working and communicating through technology, though. It also covers the very idea of publication in academia, as well as in culture. Before this technological age, an article would be composed of only words. This article would then be published in a journal, that would then be available for purchase. Now, articles contain pictures, video and links to other articles of the same topic. These publications and presentations are then posted on the internet, where many are free for public view. Miller describes this as an "incremental" change.

What is interesting is that, as Richard explains, we do not have a way to teach this new form of publication. We do not have the types of resources necessary to be able to present this idea to students. Richard refers to the need for a pedagogy that teaches this new style of writing. Pedagogy, by definition, is the study of being a teacher. It usually refers to the study of the many styles and techniques used in teaching. Once again, teaching as a profession is falling behind technology. Technology has pushed so far ahead that it has almost forced us to realize that, to be able to teach this new technology, jobs and teaching techniques have to first be INVENTED.

So now we come to the proposed questions: Are you prepared to write with multimedia? Will your students be able to do this?

First I feel I should make one point. I think that my students will be able to do this before I will. To be more clear, they will come into my classroom having used this type of writing before. The world they are growing up and learning in is so very different than what I grew up in. My cousin, for instance, is only 3 years old. She is currently attending preschool. At the age of 3, she is beginning to grasp the English language, but she can use the internet. With help only with spelling, she did a search on Google. I watched her log onto her favorite website. I find it incredible to see that she understands the concept of websites and the internet before she can write. That being said I think that students will come into my classroom knowing how to create this type of writing. I really do not feel I will need to teach them how to create it. I will simply show them how to apply it to academia.