Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod

This video presents a lot of facts about the world we are currently living in and how technology is affecting our society.  It also presents some facts about the United States in comparison to other countries and their population.  The video states that the amount of technological information is doubling every two years.  So what that means is if a student is pursuing a four year technical degree by his/her third year half of what they studied in their freshman year will be outdated.  This challenges educators to not only keep with with technology but tech technology.  The video suggests that we will be teaching students how to use technology that has yet to be invented in order to solve problems that have yet to present themselves.

There are a number of remarkable things presented in the video.  Some that challenge us like when it said India has more honors kids than America has kids.  The video was a bit dated suggesting that MySpace has 200 million users, which it probably no longer does.  That also brings the question how much of that information has already changed.  It said that in 2006 there were 2.6 billion Google searches per month but when the video was made it was a staggering 31 billion.  I think that video was made in 2008 so by 2011 that number has to at least doubled.  It also raises the question who answered all the questions before Google?

Some other things I found interesting: The top 10 on demand jobs didn't exist in 2004. Students will hold 10 to 14 jobs by the time they are 38 and 1 out of every 2 people at most companies have been there less than 5 years.  By 2013, a super computer will be built that will exceed the computational capabilities of the human brain, and by 2049 there will be one that exceeds the capabilities of the entire human population.  Wow, what a great video! It opened my eyes to a lot of new things and also challenged me to learn as much as I possibly can about this world and our society.

Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman

In this video Mr. Winkle wakes up after a 100 year long nap.  At first he goes into a business and sees all the new technology, computers, fax machines, copiers, and people having business meetings over webcam.  He can't believe it and gets lightheaded and has to leave.  From there he goes into a hospital and again encounters technology the likes of which he's never seen like heart monitors, x-ray machines, and again computers.  He can't seem to get comfortable here either with all the new technology so he goes into a school.  He notices that all the children are sitting in rows like he was used to.  He also noticed that the teacher just lectured and everything was like it was 100 years ago.  He sees a computer in the back covered with dust and rarely used.  Mr. Winkle likes school.

This video made me think about how I was taught in school. Most of my teachers were reluctant to change and for the most part had us do little to no assignments on computer.  With the way technology is taking over our way of life teachers must teach with technology.  It is without a doubt the greatest resource an educator has.  I am learning a lot in this class by have to actually do things and not have to memorize them and spit them back out.  Knowing these skills and putting them to use will make me a better teacher.  The world is changing, education is changing along with it.  The video said "Even after 100 years everything remained the same."  This should never be the case in any classroom.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

I found this presentation to be exceptional. The just of it is that up to this point the education system we have is flawed because it does not promote creativity.  He says that formal education was brought about by the industrialization era and that because of that education is predicated around two things.  One, that the most useful things are it the top(i.e. math and language)  and the second is academic ability.  He illustrates a story about a famous choreographer who as a child could not sit still in a regular classroom and the teacher tells her mother, after discovering her affinity for dance, to send her to a dance school.  Rather than stifle her in a regular classroom she was sent where her creativity could flourish.  Now she's very successful. Sir Ken Robinson also says in his presentation that "If you're not prepared to be wrong you'll never come up with something original." Because being wrong is such a stigma in education today he says we are educating people out of their creative capacity for fear of being wrong.  He encourages us to educate the whole being because the future is unknown and education is taking us into a future we can't grasp.

This presentation taught me a lot.  It will definitely be something I watch again, probably a number of times.  It encouraged me to, if in a future classroom, to promote and accept creativity because I feel it was missing from my education.  This class has and will challenge me and my creativity.  I have often though that was one of my better academic skills, being creative, but it never seemed to find it's place in most classrooms.  I will be using my creativity as much as possible in my academic efforts and will encourage all those around me to do the same.

Cecelia Gault Interviews Sir Ken Robinson

This video and the article that partners with it helped me learn a lot about how important creativity is in education.  It makes me sad that as Americans we believe our country to be the best in the world.  Yet, we are not first in education, I don't think we're even in the top ten.  It also raises the question of the importance of education in our society.  As American's we love winning.  Take the Olympics for example, our country usually is at the top of the metal count list in both summer and winter olympics.  We take pride in that, we revel in the fact that our country has superior athletes to others.  Yet, we seem very complacent to the fact that there is a twenty-five percent drop out rate in our education system.  Should we not too take pride in our public education system and want it to be of this highest worldly standard as we expect our athletes to be?

I feel that there is a lot we can learn from other countries in all aspects of life, not only limited to our education systems.  In the interview Sir Ken Robinson encourages people to travel to learn, he says it is one of the best ways to learn.  He also discusses myths about creativity, he says everyone is creative and can be taught how to be more creative.  I know I am going to be doing more research into Sir Ken Robinson and learning more about what he has to say about the future of education.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smart

In this video Vicki Davis talks about some of the technological resources she uses to help connect her classroom in rural south Georgia to places all over the globe.  She is teacher he students using a lot of the same tools that we are using in this class including Google docs, Twitter and blogging.  She has them make YouTube videos and work with other students making those videos in other parts of the world.  She says that if you have a classroom where there is only paper and only pencil then only certain types of students are going to succeed.   She's teaching them the importance of technology and how it is a portal to the world.  With a smart phone or laptop computer there is literally a myriad of information at your fingertips.  It is important to be able to know how to access and utilize that technology in our growing world.

I really liked this video.  I think it is very encouraging to see emphasis placed on technology in the classroom.  It is inevitable, our future will be and to an extent already is focused around technology.  Being able to use this to our advantage and use it successfully will pay back dividends in the future.  It is the way the world is moving and it is very important that our educational system recognize how important technology is to the advancement of our society and our societies intellectual capacity.  Using technology in the classroom I feel really reaches out and gets to people on a completely different level.  I think it would help more students learn and learn how to learn as Vicki Davis says in the interview.