Blog Post #2

Did You Know 3.0

Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod's video "Did You Know 3.0" has very interesting facts that really shocked me. First of all, it made me realize how small America is. According to the video, India has more honors kids than America's total number of kids and China will soon be the number one English speaking country. Technology is advancing so quickly that we are currently preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist. The number of text messages and tweets that are sent and posted daily are exceedingly high and mind blowing. Seriously, approximately six hundred tweets are posted on twitter every second. My little sister told me she posts a tweet about every three hours so there are about 6, 480, 000 tweets posted between every time she post. WOW!

Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod say by this year, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain. Predictions for the year 2049 say computers will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species. Computers are already extremely smart and technical; I can't imagine one that can work as my brain does. Population is also growing rapidly across the world. During the four minute and fifty-eight second video, sixty-seven babies were born in the United States, two hundred and seventy-four babies were born in China, and three hundred and ninety-five babies were born in India. That is only three countries out of the entire world! So what does this mean to me? As a future educator, it is my responsibility to keep up with the times. Learning to be technically literate and understanding the futures inventions and discoveries is very important. Young students are learning in new ways and using tools that adults may be unfamiliar with. By the time I am a teacher, i Pads may be a requirement on the school supplies list.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

Matthew Needleman's "Mr. Winkle Wakes" was about an old man that woke up from an one hundred year slumber and walked around his town. He first went into a building where he saw machines that instantly printed out copies of scanned documents. He also could see and talk to people half way across the world on the small screens of the computers. He was very confused and had to get out of there. Mr. Winkle didn't feel very well after seeing all the new technology so he went into a hospital. When he got in there he saw people being kept alive by machines. More computers were in there that were hooked up to the patients and could display their heart rate and such immediately. He then left the hospital and went into a school. Inside the school, Mr. Winkle was familiar with what was going on. Students were sitting in rows of desk, taking notes as their teacher lectured them on a specific subject. He did see a computer in the classroom, but it was dusty and unoccupied. This made Mr. Winkle happy to see that after one hundred years, some things still remain the same.

In my opinion, "Mr. Winkle Wakes" wasn't entirely true. If someone wakes up after one hundred years, not just some things will be different, all things will be different. Computers will be able to accomplish new task, hospitals will be able to find new cures, and schools will be learning in a different way. I do believe it is important to interact and talk with your students as a teacher, but computers are advancing and will be highly involved in the school systems before long. Some teachers aren't skilled on a computer or the internet but I believe it is very important to be skilled with technology to become an educator. Young students will be living in a completely different world within the next 10 years due to technologies advances.

The Importance of Creativity

In "The Importance of Creativity," Sir Ken Robinson explained how he thinks creativity is just as important as literacy in the school system. He said that everywhere on Earth is taught the same way; mathematics and languages are on the top of the requirement list and arts are on the bottom. Why is this? According to Robinson, creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. Education has taught children that being wrong is embarrassing, but if your not prepared to be wrong then you'll never come up with anything original. Dr. Strange stated, "We are being taught by burp-back education in today's time." If students are only "burping-back" what they have been told to memorize, then they will never have a personal opinion on any subject. Children are now scared to have an opinion because they don't want it to be "wrong." They are educated out of their own creativity.

All children are born with talents but we squash those talents due to the education process. When children are not sure about something they are suppose to do, they find a way to make sense about it. They will say anything if they are not sure. As children grow up they begin to think they aren't good at anything if they aren't interested in mathematics and language. Dance, art, and drama classes are not requirements in any school system, but why not? Robinson stated "When children can't be still or concentrate in class, it's because they have something called Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD); or at least that's what society and doctors believe. But in reality, all they need is to be put in a dance or drama class because some students just need to move and exercise to think." Children don't need to be given a medicine and told to calm down. What they need is something to exercise not only their minds, but their bodies also. Creativity is important in the learning process and we need to begin including it in schools because as Robinson said, "We may not see the future, but children will, so our job is to make something of it."

Pinterest

Pinterest seems like it would be a very big help in my classroom. There are all kinds of ideas to decorate classrooms with, such as ways to make charts and monthly calenders. The organization category could help me out a lot by keeping all of my activity ideas in one folder online so I can go back and look at them as needed. I believe that students can also benefit from Pinterest because it would be a good tool to use for project or studying ideas.

All the profiles listed under "The 20 Best Pinterest Boards About Education Technology" seem very helpful to a teacher. I liked Vicki Davis because she has a lot of classroom decorating tips and activities for the students. Rachel Friedrich was one that caught my attention quickly because when I was in school, songs and rhymes always helped me with memorization. She has catchy songs and poems that could really help young students. Teacher Vision was another board I chose to follow because they had pins with tips for new teachers that were just beginning. They also included blog ideas for young students. Kathy Schrock was the last board I followed. I was immediately drawn to her board because it was so organized and neat.

I do believe that Pinterest would be very helpful for my future classroom. Pinterest would give me creative ideas for activities for my students. Hands-on activities are very important in my classroom. Also, decorating my classroom might be challenging at first, but Pinterest has ideas for all kinds of educational things to put on the walls of my classroom. The organized part of Pinterest would be a big help for teachers like me. Sometimes I tend to forget ideas I have for the future but Pinterest will hold all of my ideas in specific organized folders until I am ready to use them. My students could also use Pinterest as a helpful tool. They could search for project or studying ideas when they are having trouble doing it. Blogs could also be available for my students, especially since technology is advancing so quickly.