Blog Posts for January 17, 2010

Mr. Winkle Wakes

Mathew Needleman used a creative way to get the message across on technology in education in his YouTube video "Mr. Winkle Wakes". It is an amusing video and to the point. The video definitely rings true to some extent as it portrays how far behind in computer technology our educational system is.
We all know computer technology has come a long way, but as the video portrays, it is not at the forefront of public education. I believe teachers need to learn how to better utilize the technology they do have and teach students to become independent learners so they may apply technology as a tool to assist their learning. Until public education catches up with the rest of the world, schools and teachers need to make the most of the technology they have in creative ways so that our classrooms do not look like the classroom Mr. Winkle was in.

Did You Know?

The You Tube video “Did You Know” by Karl Fisch had some very interesting information, though it had me asking more questions after viewing it several times. I would’ve liked to have seen more facts. For instance, why does Bermuda have the largest penetration of broadband internet? Not sure I quite understand their point. Is it that they are just now catching on to broadband internet in comparison to other countries? They are a smaller country. Are they comparing it to population? I just don’t understand where there statistics are coming from. Why will China soon become the number one English speaking country in the world? Is it because they want to speak English or are they forced to? I was amazed to learn the amount of honors students in India verses the US. India has more honors kids than America has kids! Although in comparison, I wonder what is the percentage of honors students the US has as to total students. I wonder what those top ten in demand jobs are for 2010 that did not exist in 2004. I question if we are really preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet. How are we preparing them if we don’t even know what they are yet?

A good bit of the information does make sense though. For example, the video stated there are 31 billion searches on Google a month and where did they go before Google. Well, there were other search engines before Google and now Google is the number one search engine. Of course, more people today have access to internet, especially in rural communities that didn’t have it a few years back. You could also look at the prices of electronics, computers and internet devices. As prices came down, these devices became more affordable to the public. We have more population than we did when radio and TV came out, so it makes sense that it wouldn’t take as long to reach 50 million people as other earlier electronic devices.

Overall, I found this video interesting though not enough details. It left me asking more questions about the information it gave. I want to know more details. I guess I will need to access the internet and search Google if I want more details.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson's humorous approach to his talk on the importance of creativity was entertaining yet accurate. I especially enjoyed when he spoke of the young boys playing the part of the three kings in a nativity play. The third child playing one of the three kings said, "Frank sent this". As Ken Robinson stated, it portrays the chances young children will take and they aren't frightened of being wrong.

Sir Ken Robinson stated, "... that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it." It brought to mind my own experiences as a teacher of Kindergarten students. As the students were beginning readers and writers, I would encourage them to sound out and write using inventive or phonetic spelling. In the early stages of their writing I would display their work. I was proud of them for writing sentences using their sight words and phonetic spelling. It showed their progression and encouraged them to continue writing without restrictions of correct spelling patterns. After all, they were in the early stages of writing and I did not want to stifle them from sounding out and writing on their own. Years later we were told not to display unedited work. I had no problem with this as they progressed. Although, in their early stages of writing I felt I was stifling their creative writing. Another words, you would praise them for spelling phonetically and writing good sentences. On the other hand, you'd tell them you can't display it until you rewrite it with correct spelling. It just seemed to me to discourage them from writing creatively and phonetically for fear of being wrong. Of course, that's just my thoughts on it. I could be wrong (I do have this fear of being wrong). In conclusion, I can understand what he meant when he said, "we get educated out of creativity".

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis has an excellent teaching philosophy. The fact that she believes all students can learn is shown in her video. The students are actively participating, learning, brainstorming, sharing ideas and teaching. She stated that she teaches based on their strengths and interests, keeping the curriculum in mind and also encourages them to be independent learners. It's quite evident when you view the video of her students in action.
I was amazed to learn of the activities the students were involved in. Students were leading or teaching the class and creating their own Teraform, a term I had never heard of until I watched this video. A wonderful way to network with other students all over the globe is the use of the The Digiteen Network where they learn about digital citizenship, research, write and share their writings by blogging and wikis. I found the most interesting activity to be the Flat Classroom Project where students can learn and keep up to date on information technology trends. They collaborate, research and experience many of the trends they learn about. With technology moving as fast as it does, this activity is an excellent way for students to keep up with the new trends. It would be great to see more classrooms incorporating this format of teaching.