I Have A Big Head and Little Arms Repeat!

Final Project stuff

Hey guys, here are some links to my final project. What I'm doing is making a website and blog that are linked together for when I teach ENGL 1000 in the Fall.

http://www.wmuwriting.blogspot.com

http://web.mac.com/rmgardella/iWeb/ENGL%201000/Welcome.html

The Amazing Story of Rob and Chopper

Digital Story

Ok, so it's been a while since I actually posted something other than a video. So this time, I'm gonna write a little blurb, then give a like to a video, hahaha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzQx_WNAKs4

Frank Sinatra Jr. on Family Guy

Family Guy

Final Fantasy VIII Waltz for the Moon scene

The Godfather trailer 1 (Video Game)

World Of Warcraft trailer

Fable trailer

This is a short trailer from the Xbox game Fable.

Dr. James Gee Visit

So for those of you who didn't make it out to Dr. James Gee's visit, you really missed out on something amazing. As you guys have probably learned over the semester, I am a gamer. I've been playing and beating video games since I was 2 (don't believe me, ask my parents). Games have always been a part of my life, but it wasn't until I saw Dr. Gee's presentation that I realized how deep video games truely are. Dr. Gee was able to break down video games and how the philosophy behind them can make even the most mundane of tasks seem fun to a person. One quote of Dr. Gee's that I especially enjoyed was when he said, " When you ask a student what it is they like about video games, they'll say 'The competition.' When you ask a student what it is they don't like about school, they'll say "The competition.'" This idea of making competition something that all students should want to do can seem impossible, but with the right mindset, it could work. Allen asked me to give a small demonstration about what Dr. Gee was talking about for this week's class, so if anyone has a particular game that they enjoy for the Nintendo Gamecube, bring it in and we can discuss more about Dr. Gee's ideas.

It's been a while

Yeah, I know, I haven't updated in quite some time, I've been pretty busy lately. Anyways, Spring Break came and went, and let me just say that I had one hell of a time. A group of five friends and myself went down to Orlando, Florida and stayed at my parents' timeshare. We had an entire house with three bedrooms, a pool, and hot tub to call our own for a week. It was such a great time just hangin out with everyone in 70 degree weather, unlike back home (we left Kzoo during a white-out). Great times, that's basically all i can say.

The Joy of Podcasting

So over the weekend, my buddy Chopper and I went on a small road trip to Dayton, Ohio for a fraternity event. We started off, and I got to talking about the Podcasting idea that I had to interview some brothers from all over the country and make it into a big Rush thing. He thought that was pretty cool and wanted to learn more about Podcasting, so I pulled out the iPod and mic and started recording. One thing led to another and soon we were making a new Podcast series about road trips. I posted them on my website:

web.mac.com/rmgardella

They are uncut and some are slightly offensive, but I was running into problems with Garage Band, so I just lazily posted them on my website instead. There is also a lot of unintentional product placement in them, as well.

Threded Discussions

OK, so I'm lazy and using what I posted up on Nicenet about threaded discussions, big whoop, you wanna fight about it? (for those of you who caught the Paddy Tanninger reference, good on ya!)

Having used Nicenet before, I can say that thread discussions are a great way for people to get what they are thinking out of their heads and onto a place where everyone can read and comment on what they wrote. This is also a great way to continue on class discussions after the bell has rung and the students go home. This is exactly what I was talking about earlier when I said that technology is able to give a voice to that quiet kid in the corner or for other students who think that they have to follow what their “role” (preppy, jock, geek, etc.) is in school and not raise their hands in class. The only problem about thread discussions is that it puts a lot of trust in the student to do work outside the classroom. Lazier students may not participate or, God forbid, students aren’t able to get onto the internet at their home. Other than that, I feel that thread discussions are a great supplement to the classroom and I think that I will try to use them in my classes.

Wiki

Instead of working on my own wiki, I thought it would be cool to work with Kim, Meghan, and Lindsey on the English Job wiki that Allen created. Here's the link: http://englishjob.wikispaces.com/

UPDATE: So I decided to work on my own wiki for S'nGs. It's on the history of video games.
Here's the link: http://rmgardella.wikispaces.com/

My Mind Go Boom

HOLY CRAP! Everything that we are learning right now is just blowing my mind away! As Rob is going on about RSS feeds and Google Reader, I just keep thinking about the possiblities that these technologies have. Imagine linking everything that relates to your subjects. Teaching will never be the same, students will be able to instantly gather any and all articles about the topics that you're teaching. I'm very excited about using these technologies and want to become more proficient in them. It's just too cool for words, seriously.

MetaBlogging

Blogging about blogs, who would've thought about that when blogging first came around? The idea of blogging is probably one of the greatest that we have seen in this new millennium. It is a way for any average joe to become just as widely known as Hollywood celebrities depending on what they put on their blog. Blogs have allowed a new breed of media to form, one crafted by every-and-any person that can get their hands on a keyboard. It has revolutionized how we get news and then allows us to debate the topics that interest us with people that can make very good arguments. Now I know that the internet can’t check if your IQ is above that of a child, and that there are some pretty ignorant and uneducated people out there that like to go against what people say in a blog to get a kick. Unfortunately, God put idiots on this earth to “spice things up,” but all-in-all, bloggers come up with very interesting views and opinions on topics that we see in our world. This sharing of ideas can also be incorporated in the classroom, and when it does, learning can happen on a whole new level. Blogging is just the beginning. I have a feeling that it will continue to grow and open up the floodgates to even more impressive ways to connect people together. Viva le Blog!

Teaching with Archives

After searching Allen's Teaching with Archives site, I realized that archives can be very powerful tools to help the students with their research and whatnot. The only problem that I see with it is will the students utilize these archives? I remember another professor of mine putting together a gigantic website with archives to all sorts of different topics pertaining to the subject, but I never used them. In fact, out of everyone I talked to in the class, no one used them. I think that if archives are to be collected for the class, they should be implemented within the course, possibly in the form of an assignment. This would make sure that the students use the archives that you collected for them.

The archives that I thought were interesting were the mythology archives. I have always loved mythology because of the connections between different cultures that are found within each of them. The archive that I enjoyed the most was the Mythography one. It has a very nice layout and it is pretty easy to get around on the site. Also, I thought the quiz was a good addition, although a little too easy at parts. (In one question, they asked which was not a Roman god, and the list included Russel Crowe....come on.) All-in-all, it's a good site, and I think that I could utilize it for the future.

Lazy Saturday

Just as the title claims, I had a pretty lazy Saturday. I woke up at 10:30 and pretty much sat on the couch watching movies, tv, and playing video games all day long. I haven't even changed from my pajamas the entire day. Yup, just one of those days...

Ideas From Class

So, here I am at roughly 9:45pm on a Tuesday, writing about some of the ideas from class last Wednesday night. The only things that I can remember from the class were making the blog and learning how to put together a website using Dreamweaver. While I was getting the thoughts in my head straightened to write this post, I thought about these two things and the potential that they have in the classroom. Using blogs can be a great way to supplement the learning experience from the classroom; hell, they may even be able to get through to kids better than the lectures. With the blog, a student can have time to think about what he or she wants to say, allowing more thought on the topic, it can also give the "quiet" students a voice and help them to express their thoughts on the subject. Websites can be a perfect way to help guide a student by giving them links to helpful websites or even helping the student understand where you (the teacher) is coming from by putting personal information on the site. These ideas are just skimming the surface; these technologies provide limitless capabilities for what a teacher can do with them. I am very eager to learn how to utilize these and more technologies in the classroom.

My Website

Hey guys, just thought that you should check out my new website, I think it's pretty sweet.

http://web.mac.com/rmgardella

The Legendary Neck-Kicking Story

Alright, lets try this thing out. I think i'll start out with what is most likely the most legendary event that ever happened to me.

It all began on a cool night in Kalamazoo. I was walking home from the first WMU home football game, when all of a sudden, I heard from behind me some drunk ass that was making fun of my height. This guy was probably over 6 ft tall, so to him I must have been pretty damn short. I thought for a moment, "Well he's drunk, I'll let it slide." But no, he kept going on and on, so after a couple of minutes of listening to this bastard poke fun at me, I had enough. I turned around and said, "Listen, asshole, if you don't shut the fuck up, I'm gonna kick you in the neck!" With a scoff, the guy states, "You can't even reach." So, I kicked him in the balls, he dropped to his knees, then I kicked him in the neck. Afterwords, I yelled, "YOU CALLING ME A LIAR!?!" Then I heard the clippity clop of the horse cop and I got out of there.

And so ends the legendary story of how I kicked a guy in the neck.