Thursday, April 3, 2008

Tuesday's Speaker

I thought it would be important to write about my thoughts on what I thought was the best speaker we have had thus far. The presenter showcased some serious grasp for getting his feelings across to students. It would be nearly impossible not to pay attention to what he had to say even if the subject matter wasn't interesting, but in this case it was. He brought up a lot of points that you tend to take for granted in today's age of computers and technology. Just the simple idea of multitasking on AIM, its something I have been using since middle school and have never even thought about it as being multitasking. The program they have at carnegie mellon appears to be one of the best in the country and I think our program is on the right track.

Thank you for all those involved in bringing our speaker in for last class.

Schilling

5 comments:

GCP Girl said...

I completely agree with this post. I haven't been keeping up with blog posts as much as I should, but Dr. Marinelli certainly warrants a post (or a slew of them). I've been Googling him the past few days (and even added him to my Linked In profile which btw is a great website), and will add some of the interesting things I've found in another post later today.

Thank you so much for bringing us such an inspirational performer/presenter!

Brandon said...

I'll agree somewhat to the above. He certainly was the most engaging speaker we've had so far. The booming voice definitely made it easier to pay attention to him, but I think he got a little carried away at times. Tuesday after class I was chatting with Donna and we both agree that he was a bit "over the top." I think he would benefit some by taking his (over)acting down a small notch.

I don't mean to sound like I'm unappreciative. I do want thank those involved in bringing him here. He was definitely the best we've had, and the program he's in has some very impressive accomplishments.

Anon said...

I agree that Dr. Marinelli was the most engaging speaker we've had so far. Certainly, his booming over-the-top voice captured our attention. I am a bit more cautious in following his ideals, though. I would have liked to know more about how he plans to bridge the gap between "old-timers/anti-technology" people and those who are "technologically savvy." Certainly, it is not effective to completely abandon those who are hesitant about learning new technology. I think it's a matter of making the technology more accessible to beginners. For example, I never could have imagined my friend's grandmother using the internet, but after getting her used to the mouse by playing Solitaire, she can at least figure out how to check her email and view digital pics. This is a simplistic example of how technology was made accessible to one person, but I think it illustrates my point.

Jhih-Syuan Lin said...

This discussion just made me think: Beside the speaker's personality, maybe the reason why we feel so engaged in the last lecture was because the virtual world can't provide the feeling of live that we experienced in the real world.

Some of the guest speakers gave their lectures in-world before. I believe we were blown away by the application of the new technology at the first time. However, the truth shows that we still feel more engaged when meeting a speaker in person. It could be a thinking when trying to improve the SL applications. How to provide the feeling of live in SL? I think we all have contributed to and been part of the transition.

Javahawk said...

I had the unfortunate pleasure of listening to the speaker on SL last week, he sounded very enthusiastic and I agree about how he brought up a lot of great points... Although I felt as though he was a little over the top on some issues.