Sunday, January 27, 2013

Blog Post #2

Did You Know

Dr. Strange's video Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version was quite an eye opening experience. I never believed that the United States was number one education and technology advancements, although I had no idea we were so far behind. It is hard to imagine that India has more honors students than the United States has students. These students in India will be much more prepared for unknown future jobs that may require technology that has not even been established today. The original video Did you know 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod paints a bigger picture of the advancements in technology that we have already experienced and will experience in the near future. There was a time before people were preoccupied with Facebook and text messaging, and I am interested to see what is in store for the future.

In the video Dr. Strange asked a few questions about our roles as future educators and if we were ready to be an educator. My answer is yes I am ready. I feel that my role as an early educator would be to introduce different types of updated technology to my students at a young age. If younger students are comfortable using new technologies then hopefully they will utilize these skills in future schooling as well as life itself.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

Mr. Winkle Wakes is a video that portrays the continuous improvement of modern technology in our everyday lives except in schools. Mr. Winkle wakes after a 100 year nap, and finds the world very unsettling. School was the only place he visited that had not changed drastically or much at all. When actually put into perspective it was sad to see the lack of change in our schools.

I understand that a lecture with pen and paper is comforting to some people, but what if we changed what was comfortable. How much would it take to train our brains to take notes from a computer? I feel that utilizing a computer especially in high school would save a great amount of time that could be used for studying, other activities, or even homework. Major changes take time, but even something like online books for the classroom would save money room in those book bags.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson speaks in his video The Importance of Creativity about how creativity in schools is becoming nonexistent. He made a statement about how dance could be just as important as any other subject, yet we don't teach it everyday like math or science. Students aren't encouraged to have a career as a dancer because schools do not think it is a valuable subject. As an educator we should never limit a student's ambitions and dreams. The world has changed and professions such as a dancer do exist. Student's are scared to show their creativity and show an interest in these different professions or hobbies in fear of being wrong.

I watched Sir Ken Robinson's video in a previous class last semester also. I enjoy his views on encouraging students to express themselves, and creating a different learning environment than the normal. I also watched his video Bring On The Learning Revolution and in this video he says that people think they can not do anything any other way because that is the way it has always been done. I felt that this statement was very true, and that it goes along with my opinion on people being "comfortable". If schools would be willing to stray away from what might seem comfortable then students might be more willing to show their creativity.

Pinterest

Four Ways to Use Pinterest in Education

In my future classroom I will definitely use some of the ideas for lesson plans from Pinterest. I have already used some ideas to help with lesson plans that I needed for my college classes. I would also like to use the sharing tool to help other teachers if I find useful items. I will also share projects and ideas that I have personally used in my classroom.

The 20 Best Pinterest Boards About Education Technology

I love using Pinterest. I had an account prior to this assignment and I have already been following multiple education boards. After browsing through some of the boards I really enjoyed the board by Charity Preston it has pins involving technology in elementary education. I found this very useful because I plan to teach kindergarten or first grade if possible. Charity Preston's board had many helpful tips, games and websites for technology in elementary classrooms.

Pinterest will be extremely helpful in my future classroom by providing new ideas for activities, classroom decorations, and using technology. It also provides a way for me to stay informed on new trends and ideas in the education world. I have already began to pin to my own education boards for future ideas.

3 comments:

  1. You misunderstood the comparative data on China, India and the United States. India has four times the population of the United States and China has five times the population of America, This means that the size of the population leads to the large numbers of "honor students" or English speakers when India or China are compared to the United States. You could also say that the 20 % of the population in China with the largest ears (or 25% of the population with the largest ears in India) outnumbers all of the people with ears of any size in the United States.

    "I understand that a lecture with pen and paper is comforting to some people,..." Should the goal of an educator be to make people comfortable or should educators help students become learners even if that is uncomfortable?

    Interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Mary, after watching Mr. Winkle Wakes, I was also disturbed by the fact that education is so far behind with their use of technology, but be encouraged that some schools are making changes. There are high schools who distributed Macbooks to all of their students in the Fall of 2012. I have a 9th grader and he has a Macbook which includes most of his textbooks and assignments. Many of his classes operate much like the EDM 310 class we are taking. At the elementary school my youngest son attends, they have a set of ipads for every grade level. So changes are being made although there are some teachers who still resist to use the technology they have been given, which is sad.

    I also love Pinterest! I am so excited to learn of all the educational resources available. I think it's wonderful that you have already found a teacher to follow. I need to find a high school math teacher to follow, so if you come across anyone fascinating, please let me know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Mary. I am responding to your post again because I seem to have gotten the cart before the horse. I posted my reply before I read the section on peer editing so I'm going to try this again according to the information I have gained.

    I enjoyed reading your post. I especially liked the question you presented about, "what if we changed what was comfortable?" This is so true when it comes to learning. I've always learned more through an experience which was not in my comfort zone. I thought your post was well written. It included interesting details and was well organized. I normally would not point out such minor details for fear of sounding like a "Picky Patty" but there are a couple of things I noticed as I read your post. The second sentence in your post is missing a word which makes it a bit awkward. The last sentence in the Mr. Winkle Wakes section needs to be adjusted as well in order to be completely understood. Overall, your post was great and I hope that these suggestions will be helpful in your future writings. I look forward to following your posts.

    ReplyDelete