Blog Assignment 2

     For this weeks assignment, we were required to watch five different videos dealing with the current education system and technology. These videos spanned from discussing the exponential rate at which technology is growing and the fact that educators are not keeping up with this phenomena, to the current education system stifling student's creativity. Some of the videos also talked about examples in which classes greatly used technology, and showed the benefits afforded to these students. One recurrent theme through these videos was that most classrooms are not making full use of resources to enhance their student's educations.

Did You Know? 3.0 
  This video, by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, had an astounding amount of facts. Most of these facts had to do with the expanding population of the world and the exponential rate at which technology is growing. This boom in technology allows the entire planet to be connected through various resources. One of the resources discussed was the social networking sites Myspace and Facebook. If  Myspace were a country, the video states, it would be the fifth largest in the world. Facebook only took two years to go to mass market status, compared to the radio which took thirty-eight. Another part of the video looked at the massive amount of information that we have access to now through technology, while wondering how people got the answers to their questions "before Google".
     One of the most interesting parts of the video had to do with educating students for their future job market.  For example, the video states that the top ten jobs that are in demand now did not even exist in the year 2004. Educators are in the difficult position to teach students skills that may not even be in demand yet. Because of this we also have to deal with the fact that skills we are teaching now may be obsolete by the time students enter the job market. With the current advances in technology, most things are becoming obsolete after about two years, meaning that a student pursuing a four year degree must constantly work to stay ahead of the curve. This also means that educators must prepare students by exposing them to technology and the benefits of it so they will seek independent learning and use resources to further their careers.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
     This video, by Mathew Needleman, was one of my favorite videos that I have watched for class so far. It tells the story of Mr. Winkle, who has been asleep for one hundred years and just suddenly woken up. He walks into a huge skyscraper and is overwhelmed not just by the size of the building, but also by the technology inside. He is uncomfortable with all of the changes, screens, and by how readily people communicate over great distances. Feeling sick, he goes into a hospital. The hospital does not help him at all, because once again he is taken aback by all of the machines used to treat people. Leaving the hospital, he walks along until he finds a school. The school reminds him of his education and old life. The students take notes on paper and listen to the teacher lecture in the same way that they did while he was in school.
     This video shows a very disturbing trend within the school system, the fact that it has not changed in so many years. We now have so much technology available to us on a daily basis, yet most schools make little to no use of it. Why should the education system stay the same when everything around us is changing at an almost constant rate? Mr. Winkle described the school as completely undisturbed by the outside world, but we should be preparing students for the outside world and give them as many skills as possible to succeed in their future. We should also take advantage of the fact that we can communicate with almost every area of the planet, and we should implement technology to do so within the classrooms.

The Importance of Creativity
     This talk was done by Sir Ken Robinson dealing with creativity within the school system. One theme used commonly throughout his speech was that the current education system is killing the creativity of the students. He also states that everyone has an opinion on the education system, this can be brought out by positive or negative experiences. One of the reasons why the school system needs to be reformed is because teachers are preparing children for futures we cannot even imagine yet. Most educators are not using most forms of current technology to help students prepare for this future.
     He also states that creativity should be as important in education as literacy, because it necessary for problem solving. Because of the current schools system's emphasis on science and math, subjects like the arts are looked down upon, if they are even taught at all. Another way the current system is failing students is because by the time they are out into the world they are so terrified of getting a wrong answer that they rarely think outside the box. This fails students by teaching them that solutions outside the norm are always wrong.

Cecelia Gault's Interview with Sir Ken Robinson
     This interview was done by a young student in Finland who wondered what things Ken Robinson would change about the current education system. The main changes that he would like to see are a more balanced curriculum between science and the arts, better use of technology for younger people, and a stronger link between schools and the community. He also talked about the three myths of creativity: only certain people are creative, creativity only extends to certain things, and that creativity is something you must be born with. I believe that schools should take greater steps to insure that students are exposed to as many outlets for creativity as possible, and that implementing more technology in the classroom is a great way to help accomplish this task.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
     This video is about Vickie Davis' classroom and her extensive use of technology to provide a better learning environment for her students. She is an IT director and firmly believes that technology is one of the main keys to increase the learning abilities of her students. She believes that her students are allowed to express their areas of interest and creativity more so than they would through only pen and paper. One of the main things that she wants for her students is for them to be comfortable with technology.
     She has her students work on projects that connect them with the entire world, and this allows them to have experiences that they would otherwise never be afforded. She commonly makes use of group projects and collaboration, which helps the students with their social skills. This classroom also allows students who are more proficient in certain areas to help students with problems, and also allows students to help answer each other's question. This also serves to make them more comfortable in groups, not just within their own classroom but with other students through out the world.