Blog Post #2`

Did You Know? 3.0 YouTube video

This video really opened my eyes. China becoming the #1 speaking language is unreal. It makes sense with them having so many more people, but it's just something i've never really thought a lot about. The part about 25% of India's population having higher IQ's than the total population in the U.S. is unbelievably alarming. Growing up in our educational system, we've always been told how much smarter China and India are, but I had no idea the gap was so huge. The individual with internet access no longer has to ask the people in their lives personal questions to find out the answers. They can just google it.

The biggest thing I took from the video though, without nitpicking through each stat it gave, is that our world is now evolving at such a rapid pace. And it's able to do that because of the equipment/machine's humans have created and their capabilities. I think it is imperative that, as a society, we don't let the world evolve at such a fast pace that we can't keep up anymore. It makes one wonder what direction our world is heading in. And with all that goes on every second,minute,hour,day,week,month,year,etc how long will this world last? As teachers I believe we need to do the best job we can at staying on top of our profession as much as we can with how fast everything changes. These are exciting, but also scary, times we are living in and one of the reasons I'm excited about being a teacher is because I can help shape the future generations leaders and make a difference.

Mr. Winkle Wakes Video

This was such a wonderful video to watch. Poor Mr. Winkle. It's amazing how much the world has changed in the last 100 years. It's frightening to think what our world will be like 100 years from now. So many things have changed that it's hard for people to keep up with everything that goes on around them. It makes total sense to me that older people don't understand the internet, how it works, etc and their fascinated by it and technology in general but most of them don't know how to use it themselves.

Mr. Winkle depicts this in the video. One glaring thing that the video points out however, is how school operates for the most part has not changed in the last 100 years. I believe that's good and bad. And regardless of what I believe, it won't be that way much longer. College has already changed. Everything is online. Just about everything is there for everyone else to see, like, or comment on. School doesn't need a total revamp, but it does need to be more modernized and take advantage of the tools that are out there for better learning.

The Importance of Creativity Video

Education means a lot to people. It's a very personal subject. As teacher's our job is to educate our students and help prepare them for the future. But one thing this video pointed out is we don't have a great idea of what the world will be like 5 years from now much less 20 years later and beyond. The video also mentioned that music and arts have always been viewed as not as important as the other main subjects. It's usually the last two in order of importance. I've often wondered that myself and this video rekindled some old thoughts. I don't exactly express myself through art or sing in music, but the few things that I do in each are very special to me. They are a direct reflection of who I am. I agree that a bigger emphasis needs to be placed on music and art.

Another thing the video talked about, and I agree whole-heartedly with is how the entire curriculum is designed strictly for the ultimate goal which is to determine what you will do. Where you will work. It classifies human's as grades. It shows our mistakes. We're educated to limit/eliminate mistakes which ultimately kills creativity. We must find a way to place a bigger emphasis on how people express themselves and stop funneling everyone down a path that limits their creativeness.

Cecilia Gault Assignment

I think in order to make the U.S. more competitive we have to think outside the box. We have to push creativity to the maximum. In my opinion, and judging by the article it would agree, that we need an overhaul in how we judge success in the United States. Grades are important. In my opinion they need to remain as the most important aspect in judging someone's educational success. However, creativity, arts, music, ways that people express themselves should be right up there with grades.

We need to find intuitive ways of incorporating technology in the school system. Find ways to use this technology and make it actually useful for students in the real world. I believe in order for the U.S. to get on par with the other elite academic countries we have to practice what we preach. I think to get there, the leaders who orchestrate our system have to do exactly what I'm talking about right now. Think of creative ways to achieve the success. Creative ways to express the educational ability of our country. Be innovators, not followers.

Vicki Davis Assignment

This video is exactly what I've been talking about throughout this entire post. What the teacher was doing in the video I believe is only the beginning. What she did with her students was awesome. I think it's crucial that we show our student's the world and connect them to it. I think it's helpful for them to know how to do this and beneficial for them as well. It opens up the mind. There are many, and I believe I belong in this group, that learn so much better by working on a computer, doing things ourself without a pencil and piece of paper. It allows us to flourish where maybe before, we weren't being reached.

I personally believe video blogs are next and they'll be a huge way of the future, as well as video conferencing. Perhaps in Spanish class in America for instance, speaking with a student that's fluid in Spanish wanting to learn English, connecting them via video conference, partner each with a teacher beside them to help each student out and I bet each student would progress so much faster in each study. That's just a starting point. The possibilities are endless in ways you can integrate technology in the classroom and what the teacher did in this video is wonderful and the start of it.