Blog Post #2

Did You Know?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY
The Did You Know 3.0 video makes you wake up and realize how valuable time,people,and resources truly are. This video gives great and interesting statistics that are real and a little bit scary when you think about it. But scary is real and real is life. To think that the United States is the most technologically advanced Country is clearly wrong. The United States is the nineteenth country to have the fastest Broadband Internet Penetration. If we thought our computers and resources were quick,we thought wrong. According to this video,we live in "exponential times". We are preparing ourselves and others for careers that do not exist.

Another great question is what in the world did we do before Google? Who did we turn to when we had a "dumb" question or an illness we wanted to check up on. All of the statistics and facts given in this video made me really think about what did people do without technology. I thought it was interesting that the first text message was sent in 1992. Now, all we depend on is text messaging. We have completely cut out personal contact or telephone conversations out of our lives. Texting seems to be the easiest and simplest way to let someone know something without having to speak or come in contact with someone. Time is everything. But what does it all mean?

Mr.Winkle Wakes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm1sCsl2MQY
This video is really cute and has a cartoon character named Mr. Winkle. This video by Mathew Needleman is about Mr. Winkle, who wakes up after one hundred years to realize that the whole world has changed except for in one way. To Mr. Winkle everything around him has changed. From cars to hospitals, to technology and streets. But when Mr. Winkle enters a school, he is relieved and remembers the school being the exact way it once was when he was in school, and he likes this.

I would actually have to disagree with the video for the most part and say that the video is completely false. Yes, I am sure that technology has changed over one hundred years, but to say that school has not is a little far off. I guess you could say that the overall way of kids sitting in a row and the teacher standing in front of the class is the same, but the way kids are taught and teachers teach is completely different. Teachers have new ways to teach kids in multiple ways. This video makes a point that technology changes over time, but they forget to add that school has also advanced.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

I absolutely loved this video about how creativity is taken for granted in schools and in every other way possible. Ken Robinson says that schools kill creativity. Until watching this video I would have never agreed. Ken Robinson talks about the ways in which students are overlooked or considered a mess because of a learning disability they may have or a lack of interest in mathematics. Children today who are creative think they are not creative because what they are good at is not valued in the school environment. Robinson defines creativity as the process of original ideas that have value. Children have the greatest creativity because they are not afraid to be wrong and explore the wrong.

It is obvious but definitely overlooked that if you do not make mistakes, you are not being an individual. We are experiencing academic inflation more and more as the years go by and the technology advances. Kids go to school to get a job to do one thing, but when they achieve a four year degree to undertake that job, a Masters degree is now required and the next thing you know you will need a PHD. Robinson says that the three main components of intelligence are: 1)diversity, 2) dynamic, and 3)distinct. It is our overall goal to see our creative capacities for the richness they are and to see our children for the hope that they are.

Cecelia Gault(Young Student in Finland) Interviews Sir Ken Robinson
http://blogs.scholastic.com/kidspress/2010/09/breaking-creative-myths.html

A young girl from Finland interviews Sir Ken Robinson on intelligence. She starts her interview by asking how the schools can change to make kids learning experience better in the long run. Robinson responds by saying the curriculum needs to change and become more balanced and also to make better use out of the technology we are given. Robinson then goes on to explain what he thinks are the "three myths of creativity". The first on is that only certain people are creative. The second is that creativity is only about certain things. And the third and final myth is that you are or you are not creative and you can not change it. Cecelia goes on to ask what he thinks the definition of intelligence is. He responds by saying intelligence is diverse and is a process of making sense of the world around us. I agree with Robinson's three myths completely. I believe that just because every person is not creative in the exact same way means that they are not creative enough or at all for that matter.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-teachers-vicki-davis-video

Vicki Davis is one amazing teacher who has created a source for teens all over the world to learn from one another and teach themselves as well new ways of learning. Davis believes that every student is fully capable of learning. The way children are taught to learn has to be more than a piece of paper and a pencil. I completely agree that every child has a different way of learning in order to succeed. She has taught kids to be comfortable with technology. If you empower you will have a better environment. The things Vicki Davis has taught her classes and is learning herself is absolutely amazing. Her Digiteen program is awesome that her and another lady created.This gives teens the opportunity to write about what they are learning and to learn about what other teens are learning.