Blog Post #2

Did You Know? 3.0

Wow, it is quite amazing how china will be more English speakers than the United States and the reality of technology advancing far beyond what we know today. The thought that technology is going to take over basic learning abilities is somewhat alarming. In my opinion, this will decrease the number of honor students in America more and Americans will rely on computers or their technology devices instead of their brain. Today, the "Jetson" era on television is becoming a reality. Not only that, but computers will eventually be smarter than the average human being and that is even more alarming. Technology has come a long way since just the 1990's and continuing to grow every minute. Text messaging has become the mass media of relations between people as well as social networks like Facebook and Myspace. The interaction between humans has subdued to the Internet instead of face-to-face interaction. Already schools are adding computers to their classrooms to learn basic learning material and this generation of new-comers already know how to use I pods and try to tap on a magazine to flip a page. The newest generation already knows the technologies that our generation just learned existed.

These alarming features of our world are as real as ever. In my opinion, more and more people are relying on technology for everything; reading books, finding true love, teaching our children, and etc. The list goes on and on, but it is up to the consumer on whether they rely on these technologies and mass media networks to find these attributes to society. China will eventually become America due to their attributes to our society and the fact that most Chinese speak English already and the numbers keep climbing. Bermuda is number one largest broadcast network in the world and America is number nineteen. Social networking is the new way to interact among other people around the world, even finding family members across the oceans. As technology grows, mankind is becoming more and more dependent on these technologies to the point that people do not even have to leave their home to survive, just have an Internet connection and everything is just one click away. So, am I ready to be an educator? I am ready to teach our younger generations the basic learning abilities such as Math, Science, Reading, and History without the assistance of an online based program. I pursue the knowledge that is necessary to succeed in life and if technology becomes a necessity, then I must follow what is needed to be taught the next generation of scholars.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

This Video shows that the education profession is not up-to-date with technology, which is how is should be for the most part. Teachers need to know how to use computers, but not let them runt heir classroom and teach for them. Computers are very handy when it comes to taking roll and inserting grades because teachers are overwhelmed with paperwork needed to teach the children. Students need to learn how to read and write and know about the history of the world. Taking into consideration that computers and projectors help students picture what the world was like, teachers are still needed to distribute the necessities of human interaction and lecture on how to do things in the world like read and write and basic math skills to balance a checkbook.

Mr. Winkle Wakes is a video that shows how technology has advanced our societies and that the educational profession has not changed that much and that can be due to numerous attributions. Funding, the lack of knowledge to technology, among other things, but human beings need to know the basic learning skills of 2+2 and understanding how certain things work in the world. Technology helps make things easier like adding and creating a relationship and managing your bank account, but to understand those things, students need to know how they work and why a computer can do those things. Students need to acquire these abilities before they interact with a computer.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson is quite the funny character, but has a key point in education and creativity. I never thought of education blocking or stubbing creativity. Creativity is in everyone, but creativity is lost when education grows. He gave great examples of how we treat creative habits of twitching and unable to concentrate. Today, we would treat it as A.D.H.D. instead of stopping and thinking that possibly, the child is not focused of these basic subjects and instead, focused on a creative trait like dance, art, or music. True, students need to know the basic subjects, but to get them to actually learn it becomes difficult in each individual child because each child has a different method of learning and different creative thoughts. One child may have to be in motion while another sits still and concentrates hard on the subject at-hand.

This video gives educators a new perspective on how to teach their children and how individual they truly are. Students need creativity to learn the basics. Without the creativity senses in a child, they become a person that may see creativity and know it, but not contain it themselves. Education throughout the years practically eliminates creativity and if not, students seem to dissipate the idea or the actual action of creativity. In conclusion, education does kill creativity if teachers do not grasp that creativity at a young age and incorporate in into an aspect of learning.

A Vision for 21st Century Learning

This video argues that mainly we should use video games as an additive to education for a better educational purpose for children. In my opinion, to a certain extent could this be beneficial for everyone, students and teachers. When education becomes that impacted by technology, there becomes this absence of human interaction. Teachers are more than just educators of math, science, and such, they are role models and teach not only the basic subjects, they teach children morals, values, and basic communication skills like how to talk to an adult and respect for others. Put them on a computer and they lose that sense of interaction and some may say the sense of reality. Video games are a big argument topic when they are still games. When they become an educational source in schools, they will be much controversy to parents and teachers. I would rather interact with students with the assistance of technology like creating other parts of the world on a computer and allow them to watch this educational video, but still have that teacher-student interaction of learning.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

The way Vicki David conducted her class is a prime example of how technology can improve education. In elementary education, this would not seem to work well because children at that age should use a method like video games, but to an extent. She was teaching her students to teach, speak in front of a crowd, and how to use technology. Her perspective in her class teaches these kids to be adequate learners and well as knowing what is around the world and what is at their fingertips. TO be able to create avatars and worlds on their own becomes extra knowledge they have for future jobs. Not only does she teach this, she gives knowledge of every aspect of technology and her students teach her things she did not know before. This becomes a great learning environment for students when they learn on their own like EDM310. I have learned that when something is "burp-back education", it truly does dissipates from your brain and forget what was taught. David's as well as Dr. Stranges' way of learning should become a new method of teaching.

I am taking Finite Math right now and my teacher teaches us what to do and then has a booklet that we complete. This is a better form of learning than others. When I was in DS082 Math, it was a computer-based program that was more confusing than helpful. Technology and math do not mix well when math is all computer based. I passed the class, but forgot a lot of the material. In certain subjects, like what Vicki David presented in her class, technology advances education, but in mathematics, it increases that "burp-back education".