Blog Post 2

 Did You Know? A John Strange Version 2012

By: John Strange

In the video Did You Know? John Strange Version Dr. Strange highlighted statistics on technology and education. Dr. Strange pointed out that by 2025 the number of English-speaking Chinese will likely exceed the number of native English speakers in the world! Wow! Can you say universal language? He also stated that within one minute two days of videos are uploaded to YouTube. That’s a whole lot of “how to” and “hey ‘ma! Watch this”. Another fact was on average an EDM 310 student would send 95 text messages a day resulting in one hour and sixteen minutes of SMS messages. That’s a drive to Mobile for me! All these facts are almost breath taking. I mean what would we be doing with all our time without technology?

In Did You Know? 3.0 Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod emphasized the importance of technology and how it has swept the world. One fact in the video stated that by 2049 a computer will exceed computational capabilities of the human race. That’s pretty exceptional to me! Can you imagine a computer that is a million times better than Google?  Another fact stated that it took 38 years for the radio to have a market audience of 50 million whereas it only took 4 years for the internet.  That tells me that every “new gadget” invented reaches more people faster than the previous one.

What does this all mean? Technology is growing rapidly and we (the human race) are too. On top of that we are consumers.  We will always want the newest technology available and why not? It makes our lives easier and soon the old paper and pencil may be nonexistent.  Dr. Strange’s final question was “are you ready to be an educator?”  Yes, I am. I plan to incorporate technology to my best ability. Sure, everything in this world has its pro’s and con’s but, if the statement is true that in ten years we will have new jobs with new  technology we need to stay on our tech toes! Am I prepared? Yes, to the best of my ability. I am going to teach our future with the technology of not today but, tomorrow.

Mr.Winkle Wakes

By: Mathew Needleman

In Mr.Winkle Wakes my first thought when he was feeling sick was he has got a headache from Electromagnetic hypersensitivity which according to pri.org is a range of symptoms that sufferers feel when they are exposed to electromagnetic fields including acute headaches, skin irritation and chronic pain. But, then as I watched I began to realize our schools need technology! How are we as future educators going to prepare pupils for jobs that will in ten years suddenly exist that use technology not yet invented?

I live in Bay Minette, Alabama where students at my local high school, Baldwin County High, have been given Mac’s to use for their work and to use as their own personal computers. I think this is awesome but, what about the other 42 schools in Baldwin County. Do they have a classroom like in Mr. Winkle Wakes?  Are they able to explore and find information out on their own?

I believe the moral behind Mr. Winkle Wakes is our youth will be the next business man or woman making calls via Skype and they will also be the next x-ray technicians and etc. Why are we limiting our youth, students, children, and our future of this world by not allowing them to use and access technology in the schools? When we know for a fact technology is a constant in one’s life today. The jobs that they will need to support their families depend on having the knowledge to effectively use technology. If you do not understand my reasoning for using effectively instead of efficiently read this article I found Effective is Not the Same as Efficient .

Schools Kill Creativity

By: Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson’s Schools Kill Creativity was a wonderful video. He works by hooking you in with humor and building his lecture. He mentions how important education is and how deeply people believe in it. He also mentions how if an alien was to visit public education and ask “what is it for?”  The final conclusion would be to produce university professors.

When Sir Robinson pointed out how academics are the focus in schools it caught my attention. He is completely right. As students we are told when taking SAT’s, OlSAT’s, and ACT’s that these would affect our lives. We would have a score at the end of each that would determine where we should be. All our lives we study and stress about tests that will determine our future.  

I believe that educators should allow students to use their creativity. I believe if the arts were integrated into the curriculum dropout rates would decrease. Students dread going to school now because it is “burp back education”. Give the kids something to be excited about. Something they can put their hands on and explore. Something like this EDM 310 class. It gives the students an opportunity to express themselves on their blogger by customizing their backgrounds and the tools needed to explore new things that are helpful and educating. It gives us students’ freedom with boundaries yet, fun and educating videos and more.

A Vision for 21st Century Learning 

The main argument in A Vision for 21st Century Learning was that our world, for the most part, is technologically literate. We use technology in pretty much every aspect of our lives. Our classrooms on the other hand consist of sitting there grade to grade cramming facts (or as Dr. Strange would say using burp back education). However, the students need to be prepared for the 21^st century work environment.

I think that the classroom should be student based rather than teacher based. The teacher should not sit and lecture on and on. Instead the students should be exploring and interacting with each other. I think that blogs would be a wonderful way to monitor student’s progress in English, reports, history, and more. It would be a great tool to have so that the students could gain feedback from each other, the teacher, and people around the world. YouTube videos could be great instructional tools. Skype could be used to keep a student that has been out for some reason caught up on work.  I believe that it is time for the classroom to revolutionize!

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

In Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts Vicki Davis has taken her classroom to another level. Although her classroom seems to be more of an elective that students choose to take rather than a core class I believe they should incorporate technology in all classes. I love how she learns with the students. She made the statement that teachers feel as if they need to know everything before they teach it and that it is the wrong approach. It empowers the student when they figure it out on their own. I also like that she uses words that the students may or may not know and expects them to look it up.

I think that if more teachers would get off their high horses and quit shunning upon the internet because "it can be used in such bad ways" and teach the students the right way to use it, classrooms would finally come together with the real world. A teacher must have the will  to be a lifelong learner in order to be an effective teacher. We can’t stop with just what we know and we most definitely can’t stop with what is in the textbook.