Blog Post #2

Did You Know?
     Did you know was an informative video on You Tube originally done by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. Dr. John Strange created his own version in January 2012. I watched both versions. The author sincerely stated today's latest facts about knowledge, power, technology, population, social networks, jobs etc.. There were many facts presented from 4 years ago that are very much still relevant to today. This video showed how the world as a whole solely depends on today's latest technology! It showed exactly what technological world we are living in today compared to even the 90's. Additionally, facts were given about IQ levels and honor students showing how much more advanced India and China are when compared to the United States.
     As a future educator, this was an important video for me to see. It allowed for me to understand what an important role I will play for the future. The author of the original video used these words, "Educators are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet". These few statements are the best way to describe the importance of a future educator. This is why it is important to learn to be technological literate and stay updated because we will need to prepare our students for such a technological diverse world!

Mr. Winkle Awakes
     Although I am not sure of what the author intended for the message of the video to be, it was very interesting. This video was about how Mr. Winkle who slept for 100 years and when he woke up everything had changed. He visited an office and found printers, co workers skyping and people all around using the latest of technologies. He did not like the change and felt sick. Mr. Winkle went to the hospital and saw computers and breathing and x-ray machines. He only felt more sick and ran to a school. Here, everything was the same except there was a laptop there, but had definitely not been used.
     The school is where the author's message intent is a bit confusing. As the viewer, I have been trying to figure out whether or not the fact that school had not changed was a positive implication or negative. Positive, because many people may view it as a good thing that no matter what you can always be sure that the basics are being taught at school. Students are still being taught the foundations that will help them to succeed in the future. If you look a bit deeper though, it can be viewed as negative because how can schools remain the same when outside, the world is quickly changing? So, this video may serve as a wake up call to schools, that in order to teach real success to students, they need to teach them to survive inside of the world in which they are going to enter, a highly advanced technology filled world.

The Importance of Creativity


     Sir Ken Robinson expresses his idea of how important creativity is.  He shares that all children begin creative and seem to grow out of or rather are educated out of their creative capacity. He states, "Creativity is as important as literature and should be treated as such".  He explains that as children get older they are educated from the waist up to the head and then slightly to one side. Basically saying that everything is founded upon the grounds that you will never get a job doing anything you like. For example, music, art, dance is not valued. Robimson's idea is that we need to steer away from this way of thinking and form new theories for what we call intelligence.
     I agree with Ken Robinson.  Understanding that creativity is important will help me as a future educator. The story about the 4year old boys and the nativity scene really helped me to make the connection with how important fostering creativity is. He said, "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original". That's being creative. I fully support his idea on changing the fundamentals of what we know now as education. This class alone has helped me to understand that what we learn today can very well be out dated in 5years so students will need to know how to rely on creativity and not knowledge.

Classroom Disruption


     As a student, I have mixed feelings about which class I would prefer.  I enjoyed everything about the non traditional classroom except the fact that the computers were sitting in front of each student during class. I believe the tradional setting without computers creates a better learning environment with less distraction. The teacher however, should include You Tube videos and ways to get in contact with him/her using the social networking sites that his/her students may use. Until now, most of my classes that I have taken have been like the traditonal classroom. It has become more technological diverse over the past few years with the Smart Boards coming into the classrooms. The differences in these two classrooms were the entire way that the lesson was presented. While one class was watching videos, the other was watching the teacher perform like a play! The teacher's presentation was also very differnt. One teacher's tone was very monotone, while the other's voice varied. The objectives in the classroom differ in that in the traditional, the studifyent may be expected to memorize or recite information, but in the non traditional classroom these students are probably expected to perform what has been taught.
     I want to teach so that students are excited about what they are learning and feel like they can relate to the material. This can certainly be done without having them sitting at a computer. I would love to use the Smart Board in my class.  To make my class even better, I will need to understand my students first! Then I will know what type of activities or technologies to add to the classroom. This class is the first step to giving my classroom that technology diverse atmosphere.