Blog Post #2

Did You Know 3.0

I love this video! I was first exposed to it a year ago in a college classroom. An economics teacher at UAB first showed the Did You Know 1.0 video to my classroom and then showed us this one. The differences in the two videos are unreal. I remember right after I watched this I went straight home and showed it to my husband, who didn't understand why I was so impressed. I think the reason I was so excited to first see it is because it truly hit home to me with my job at the time. I was working at Best Buy to pay for school and I had been there 4 years. In my time there I watched as VHS tapes and VCRs became non existent, the Motorola Razor went from our best phone to our most basic phone, and our media department was completely reworked to reduce the CD section by 60% and make room for more "digital music and devices". It is truly amazing to me how quickly technology moves.

This video opens your eyes to several advances going on around us. When I first watched this it seemed unreal to me that a computer could exceed the computing capabilities of a human brain, and now guess what? The Watson computer is going to be on Jeopardy! That being said, I think the most important message for us to take as teachers is that we have to train our students to put learning above all else. If the majority of what we teach them is irrelevant by the time they are in the work force what good have we done? We must direct them to develop a love of learning, that is something that will truly be invaluable.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

This video brings up a point that I have always found fascinating. Why, as everything else in our world is advancing, are some school systems downright refusing to stay up to date with technology? As I stated earlier, I have worked with technology for a long time, my current job being an AT&T representative. At work I'm around technology all day long, learning what's new and how it works. But in a classroom, the minute I pull my iPad out of my purse to read a textbook, a teacher generally looks at me like I speak another language. And maybe I do? I understand the benefits of technology and know that being technology literate gives me unlimited possibilities!
This video shows that we have come up with so many advances, rather it's in the workplace or in the hospitals. I hope that as my generation moves into the workplace as new educators we can reform and update our classrooms. I want to be able to teach my students ways to use electronics and the internet to their benefits. If a business can have a video conference with associates across the world, why can't my third graders video chat with children and teachers around the world? It's incredibly exciting what our future holds.

The Importance of Creativity

What an excellent speaker Ken Robinson is! He brought up so many points that I've never even begun to think about, but completely agree with. For example, his illustration of the fearlessness in children is a concept I've never viewed from his prospective. It's true though isn't it? Children seem to have an answer for everything, and if they don't they will at least try. As college students, not only do we fear being asked a direct question, but if we don't know the answer we will shy away with out even an honest attempt. What happened along the way? This video showed me that, as a future teacher, I want to be responsible for celebrating the creativity and fearlessness in my students, not reprimanding them for it.
Towards the end when he described the dancer that would have been diagnosed with ADHD in today's world really caused me to think. How many times does a child get told to "be quiet", "stop fidgeting", "stop doodling", before we drain them of creativity? The quote "We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it", is true and tragic at the same time. This speech really was an eye opener. I plan to put his ideas to use in my own classroom one day.

Cecelia Gault

I read through this article and was shocked when I got down to the video to see it was written by such a little girl. She brings up several points that make her sound much wiser than her age. The points she made about the US at the start of her article were shocking. I guess I'm ignorant to statistics but I never realized the dropout rate in the US is 25%! That's one out of every four! Our statistics compared to Finland were really sad. We as future teachers need to learn how to encourage students in learning and creativity from the first day they enter a classroom!
The site that this interview is posted on is really interesting. What a neat concept, to allow the students to be the reporters. It's obvious in Cecelia that her creativity is flourishing! She asked excellent questions and put together a very good piece. I want to allow my students to learn in ways that encourage their creativity and spark their interests, like this site is doing.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

I wish they had a class like this when I was a teenager! Vicki Davis really is taking technology to the next level. It was very interesting the projects that she has her students working on and so encouraging to see how they are putting technology to use! It is such a different concept to allow your students to teach the class. They seem to learn so much more by doing it themselves and then presenting their findings.
I really liked her comment that we must help students "learn how to learn". That's an idea that I believe most teachers never take into consideration. It seems like the typical teacher focuses on feeding you the material and then let you repeat it back to them. How does that help us in the future? We need to take Vicki's approach. If a student can use technology to find ways to discover and learn, that will last them a lifetime!