Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know? 3.0

After watching "Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version" and "Did You Know 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod", I was amazed at the statistics I saw on these two videos.

The first video was by Dr. Strange. One of the main things that caught my attention was that it is estimated that by 2025 the number of English-speaking Chinese is likely to exceed the number of native English speakers in the rest of the world. This was mind-boggling to me because, as Americans, we tend to think we are educationally, financially, and socially better off than the rest of the world. This is not so though, and if we do not start taking action, we will continue to fall further and further behind other countries. "Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version" also pointed out that it is estimated that 18 million Chinese speak English and 300 million are "learners." In the United States, it seems that we are more concerned with getting non-English speakers out of our country than we are concerned with broadening our knowledge of other languages. When I was in middle and high school, I studied four years of Spanish... FOUR years. How much Spanish do I remember now? Very little. I am not even fluent in two languages; whereas, people my age and younger in other countries can speak several different languages. Dr. Strange's video has helped me open my eyes to how we should probably start focusing on how we can use technology and education to further our knowledge about the world around us.

A few other things that quickly caught my attention were all of the statistics of how rapidly technology is growing and expanding. Along with Dr. Strange's video, "Did You Know 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod" described how teachers in 2012 are preparing their students for jobs that do not even exist yet, to use technologies that haven't been invented, to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. If you think about that last sentence for a while, it will hit you like a ton of bricks. Technology is incredible and can be used for education in ways unimaginable. Most of us have the world literally at our fingertips, and we are able to connect with someone down the street from us or even someone on the other side of the world. I really enjoyed learning this fascinating information from the two "Did You Know? 3.0" videos, and I look forward to witnessing the continual uprising of technology as we dive headfirst into the future.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

"Mr. Winkle Wakes" is a modern-day version of Rip Van Winkle, who awoke from a 100-year sleep. Mr. Winkle wakes to find that the world had changed drastically from what it was before he fell asleep. He first goes into an office building and then into a hospital, only to find machines and noises that are completely unfamiliar to him. He doesn't like the change around him because it is not what he is comfortable with. There were people using machines to talk with other people halfway across the world, and doctors and nurses had patients hooked up to a variety of different machines. Mr. Winkle finally ends up in a school, and to his delight, it was just like it was over a century before.

Mr. Winkle noticed that the students sat in neat rows with the teacher lecturing at the front of the classroom. The teacher taught reading, writing, and arithmetic all day long without any intrusion from the machines and noises Mr. Winkle didn't like. He found comfort in the fact that even after 100 years, school had remained the same. Though Mr. Winkle did not find much change in the school, I personally believe there has been significant change in the school from 1912 to 2012. Teachers have the opportunity to integrate technology such as computers, smart boards, and the Internet into the classroom. Technology is such a vital part of a student's learning nowadays, and I hope that teachers across the world use it to positively impact their students' lives. Just like Dr. Strange says, I believe teachers should use technology to help eliminate burp-back education.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

In Sir Ken Robinson's video "The Importance of Creativity", he discusses how creativity is as important as literacy in children's lives. I really enjoyed and was inspired by Sir Robinson's video because he used humor and wit to describe a topic that is essential to all of us. He uses stories and examples that we all can relate to. He notes how educators in today's school systems are stifling children's creativity, but he focuses on how we can change that. He goes on to mention how kids are naturally not scared to be wrong, but as they grow older, they stifle their creativity because they have been taught creativeness and uniqueness is just that, wrong.

Sir Robinson describes creativity as a process of having original ideas that have value, and he expresses a need to use different ways to integrate creativity into the lives of our children. For example, creativity can come in the form of dance, music, singing, drawing, writing, etc. He gives an example of a little girl who was extremely hyper in her classroom and who got in trouble frequently for not sitting still. Her parents took her to a doctor who wanted to put her on ADHD medicine. Another doctor suggested taking the little girl to dance class to see how she adapted there. After one class, this child came out saying she loved dance because there were other girls who couldn't sit still too. This story is an example of how that child could use dance as her mode of creativity. Sir Robinson concluded by saying that we, as educators, should see creative capacities for the richness they are, and he emphasizes that our job is to help children make something of their natural creative natures.

Thinking About the Future

After watching "A Day Made of Glass 2", I was utterly amazed at the advancement of the glass technology portrayed in this video. It was so innovative that I had a hard time even imagining a time when this type of technology could be available. It wasn't until after I watched "A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning's Vision." that I realized this glass technology could very well be readily produced just around the corner. With the rapidity of advancing technology, it could be within a few years that this technology is accessible. It may not be available quite to this magnitude, but the possibilities are seemingly endless. One of the main things that stuck out to me was the technology used in the classroom and hospital. With these types of innovations, the world as we know it is on its way to an advancement like we have never seen before. It was also very interesting to watch "Project Glass: Live Demo at Google" and see how Apple, along with Corning, is experiencing with glass technology.

After watching "A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning's Vision.", I was so interested in the technology used in the classroom in this video. It was amazing that each student had their own thin, glass tablet that connected to the teacher's huge glass screen in the front of the classroom. The students seemed so interested and willing to learn because the technology was available to them. I don't think Mr. Winkle would enjoy the craziness of Corning's glass technology, but I think the modern-day student would absolutely love it. Though this type of advanced glass technology isn't quite ready for us to use in the classroom yet, I still believe we should use the technology we have ready for us in 2012. I know I personally enjoy being able to use computers and tablets in my college classroom, so I know that younger students would have more fun learning with the opportunity to use technology in their classrooms as well.