Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know 3.0 was a pretty shocking video to me. I had an idea of how much information we as humans are now able to access, but this video blew my assumptions out of the water. As a history fanatic its neat to know that in one weeks worth of the New York Times, there is more information than was available during the 18th century.

It is also interesting to find out that China will soon be the largest English speaking country in the world. To me this says were behind the eight ball here in the states. Since we are living in a time where it is so much of a global community, maybe we should make more of an effort to reach out to other countries and cultures. A way of doing this would be to start teaching children a foreign language at an earlier age, and use technology to expand the classroom beyond the walls of the school and into other countries through technology.

Mr. Winkle Wakes was one of those things you see that hits you with two messages at once. My first thought was, "Wow! How things have changed." It makes me think of what our ancestors would think of the world they left behind. Benjamin Franklin once said, "The rapid Progress of true Science now occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born to soon." I imagine if he woke up today to find the world we now live in that he would be excited and overwhelmed just as Mr. Winkle was.

The second thing I thought was, "Man, our school systems are way behind the movement of society." We have a responsibility as the future educators of the world to teach our students how to interact in the real world. Gone are the days where sitting in a desk and listening to us talk is going to help a child make it in the real world. We have to learn how to move with technology, so we can teach our children to do the same.

The Importance of Creativity was a absolutely fascinating speech. Mr. Robinson gave a brilliant presentation. He was very funny and quite profound at the same time which is very hard to do. I hope when I get in front of my students that I'm able to speak as well as he does.

Mr. Robinson has a great idea. We should quit saying children are just A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. we should figure out which way their creative juices are flowing and help them. Some kids may learn like the young girl he spoke about that learned better by moving. She eventually turned out to be a great dancer and choreographer simply because someone took the time to figure out how her brain worked instead of just writing her off as sick. We need to quit giving kids medicine to make them sit and listen to something there not interested in. We need to find the way to make it interesting to them by using unconventional methods.

Cecelia Gaults Scholastic Article is amazingly done. She did a great job with her interview and blog post. I hope to be technologically literate enough to allow my students the same opportunities Cecelia was given. I think that allowing children to be creative in their own way will allow them to learn more than if they just follow a strict set of parameters for expressing what they learn.

The Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts video shows how kids from a small town can interact with the world in today's society. Children being able to reach out to others in the world is very important and may some day help promote a global community that understands each other better.

In EDM310 we are doing now what these children are learning to do in high school. We are being given the tools to interact with our peers from around the world. We will be able to help our students reach out and discover their world like never before. I am excited to learn more ways to make this world a better place through education.