Blog Post #2

Did You Know? 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott Mcleod

This video really makes one think how fast the world is evolving.  The number of facts that are in an almost 5 minute video is overwhelming.  From facts about China to the number of songs downloaded illegally, there is something in this video that will pertain to viewers on a personal level.  Silly facts about the number of marriages incurred from online dating to serious facts about the number of jobs one will have by the time they are 38 is amazing due to the use of technology and fact gathering.
The use of technology has made this fact finding mission possible.  Without it, encyclopedias would still be widely used of which I still own a set.  Does anyone under the age of 25 even use them anymore?  I mean, physically use them, without the aid of a computer?  I can't even imagine not using a computer to find information.  As those facts were flashing in front of me, they will soon change unlike those Britannicas that are sitting on the bookshelf.  I use the computer to find information quickly.  My parents still go to the bookshelf.
We live in a world in which the use of technology has created, enhanced, and empowered ideas for the better.  It is up to us as individuals to use it.  Or suffer the consequences such as those Encyclopedia Brittanica users.

Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman

As I was watching this video, I thought about the time I was in elementary in the early 1980's.  That period could be when Mr.Winkle was in school.  Perhaps he was a classmate of mine!  Although it has not been 100 years since the 1980's as in the video, technology is all around us.  We cannot afford to ignore it, if we do, we will be left behind as a society.
Mr. Winkle wants to be comforted by something he was familiar with, the classroom.  Unfortunately, the classroom he found was not using a key component that the world is using today.  Technology.
It is amazing that students who are lucky enough to be in schools that have the resources to provide computers, Smart Boards, cameras, and other types of technology to use are much better prepared to go out into the world than what I had in the 1980's.  The resources simply did not exist.  Very much like Mr. Winkle's school days.
We want our children to be better than us, do better than us, and live better than us.  In order for that to happen, we as educators have to adjust our thinking of  "If it was good enough for us, then it's good enough for them." The use of technology will only make education and life better.
Mr. Winkle may need to take another nap.

 Sir Ken Robinson:  The Importance of Creativity

I enjoyed watching this particular video immensely.  Robinson's use of humor was was creative to chastise the demise of education.  He has so many great points in this talk.  Robinson says we must think the fundamentals of how we educate.  Also, that it doesn't mean anything to have a college degree.  We have to have more advanced degrees in order to get out of our parents' home.  Another point was that we must find ways to educate all.  His point was that not all children learn the same way.  The example Robinson used was the ballet dancer.  He said it was so easy to diagnose her with ADHD and just to go on.  Using alternative methods to educate rather than to medicate, this particular student went on tho achieve great things with her life.  This concept is so true.  So many children fall thru the cracks when there are other means to educate them.
Sir Ken Robinson has a realistic view on how education has eroded children's creativity.  It is okay to make mistakes.  From mistakes is how we learn.

Cecilia Gault (Young Student in Finland)  Interviews Sir Ken Robinson

The reporter, a young student from Finland, asks Sir Ken Robinson some questions about his ideas on how education can be improved upon with implementing creativity strategies.  He says the curriculum has to be balanced.  The sciences and the arts have to be equal.  A strategy I would implement in my classroom is to integrate the arts into different subject material.  It is interesting and fresh, versus learning boring information.  It could be a back door learning approach.  As I say, there is always more than one way to skin a cat.
  Robinson comments about knowing technology and having better communication between the schools and the community is also correct. It is our job to speak to parents and to rally them to be involved.  A squeaky wheel gets the grease.  A phrase that is so true.  Teachers have the opportunity to promote community involvement for better education. The American standards of education are ridiculous in the fact the dropout rate is 25% in comparison to Finland's 1% rate.  We cannot accept that, we must change that!


Vicki Davis:  Harness Your Students Digital Technology

Vicki Davis has shown that even in a rural southern town, students are keeping up with technology.  Integrating digital media into the classroom has encouraged these students to keep up with the rest of the world.  They are no longer being lectured on the functions of computers and program software, they are using it.  The students are able to explain what they are doing to other students and to instructors, which is the highest achievement for  them and the teacher.
When I was teaching horseback riding for a living, I would have a summer camp.  At the end of the week, students would put on a show for their parents demonstrating what they had learned.  Watching them ride and be confident with a smile on their face was so rewarding because I knew as a horseback riding instructor, they had mastered a skill.  Vicki Davis is confident she has instilled skills that will enable her students to master education in her classroom.