Thursday, February 2, 2012

Blog Post 2

Did You Know? 3.0

by John Strange

The mind-boggling information in this video made me want to time travel to the future just to see how all this shakes out. Lines of statistical data like 1,393,519 Google searches a minutes; 1,097,220 Youtube videos watched in one minute; and 11,453,577 SMS messages sent worldwide in that same minute, race across the screen with Sabate's Confusion playing in the background. It kinda made me feel like I was already there in the future. The population data regarding India and China was a bit skewed in my opinion. No one can argue with the fact that India and China have more people than the US or that that fact will continue to be true. I do question the stats comparing the IQ of US students to Indian students only for this reason: India's data is not inclusive. Many children in India never learn to read or go to school which means they are not tested. Meanwhile, US testing data would include most all students, and, yes, that means our special education students as well.

However, the Internet-based communication device usage data was phenomenal, especially considering some of it is already "old" information. A generation ago (about 20 years) words like Google searching, text messaging, emailing, and social cyber networking would have been found only in sci-fi movies. Now it is part of our social lexicon. The idea that technical students in their third year of instruction will already have to dismiss their first year of instruction gives us an idea of how fast this technology is growing. And it is not surprising to learn the Japanese are leading the way in providing these technologies faster. As educators, we have an awesome and exciting responsibility to prepare our students for jobs that do not exist yet and working with technology that has not been invented yet. I hope I am up to the challenge.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

by Mathew Needleman

The whole I-woke-up-100-years-later theme has always intrigued me. I read about people who live into their 90s or 100s and think how much the world has changed since they were born. Watching Mr. Wakes scratch his proverbial head at the workplace and hospital's advanced technical equipment made me laugh. I feel like I have fallen into a rabbit hole myself by taking Mr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I almost dropped the course but was encouraged by a former student "to hang in there." I will check back in with my "final reflections" on that subject at a later date.

Oddly, I had a much different experience than Mr. Wakes when I returned to the classroom after only a 20-year absence. Desks are not in rigid straight lines, teachers rarely lecture, computers are an integral part of the learning process, and even Kindergartners know more than I do about posting a Youtube video. Technology is in the 21st classroom, but how effective is it? Will it take another 100 years to find out?


Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity

by Ted Robinson

I have fallen victim to the "old fogey's" disease, the one where you lecture young people about getting math and science degrees and pursue art and dancing as a hobby. I did not start out that way. In college, I bought into the idea that if I learned what I loved, the magic would happen. My innocent belief hit hard cold reality in the 1970s economic turndown. Sometimes I thought my education was a hindrance more than a help in any job market, even and maybe especially, this one. So when Ted Robinson began his humorous and thoughtprovoking talk, I tried to dampen those old feelings of wanting to stand up, pump my fist in the air and say yes, yes, yes. Power to the people and all that!

I nodded when he told Gillian Lynne's story. An eight year old out of sync in an academic oriented classroom in the 1930s whose mother and doctor discovered that the real source of her "problem" in school was she did not fit in, she was a dancer. She needed to be in dancing school. For her, the fairy tale came true. She was the choreographer for the Broadway play Cats, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera.

But I just keep thinking is she the exception rather than the rule?

A Vision for 21st Century Learning

Suggested by Kenesha Brown Fall 2011

Harnessing available technology to give students room to grow and stretch their imagination with the teacher as a guiding mentor is not really a new concept. It just was never available on as massive a scale as it is now. It was once only for the privileged few like Leonardo de Vinci, Sir Issac Newton, Socrates or the Biblical Abraham. For centuries, the tutoring model was the favored form of education with its caveat being the best money can buy. While the "mass standardized response to the industrial revolution" of today's classroom may now in the 21st century seem woefully inadequate, it has educated generations that would never have had the opportunity like a Booker T. Washington, a Thomas Edison or a Maya Angelou.

That said, as the video points out, we have a rare opportunity to meld the best of the past with the technology of the present to create a future once only dreamed up in a science fiction novel. I say let's go for it. Who would not want to walk the streets of Rome in 3D?

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
by Vicki Davis

A rural Georgia class takes a trip to the Middle East to participate in a flat-world conference? Thanks to teacher Vicki Davis and a very supportive school administrator, a "real" world order is quietly taking shape in her classroom. She has created an environment where children are sometimes her tutor, like learning the concept of terraforming, a true high for any educator. We all long for that opportunity to teach someone smarter than we are. Keeps us on our toes.

I see technology in the classroom as just another step in the educational evolution. We are teaching reading, writing and arithmetic in useful, real world application. A child in Bangladesh can reach out to a child in Mexico via technology provided by the United States, now that's a "real" world order.

2 comments:

  1. Hi my name is Audrey Mitchell and I am also in EDM310 at The University of South Alabama. I have been assigned to your blog this week. While reading and looking over your blog I became very impressed. Your blog is very interesting and well designed. I also found your opinion of John Strange's "Did You Know" to be very similar to mine. All of the information was very interesting but I too found some to be misleading. Yes, India and China may have higher rates then us in several things but I believe this to be true only because they are the two biggest countries in the world. So yes his information may be true but it is also not really fair to compare them with the United States in that instance.If you would like to view my blog or email me you can do so by going to the links below.
    Email: mitchellaudrey23@gmail.com
    Personal blog: http://mitchellaudreyedm310.blogspot.com

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  2. " I do question the stats comparing the IQ of US students to Indian students only for this reason: India's data is not inclusive. Many children in India never learn to read or go to school which means they are not tested. Meanwhile, US testing data would include most all students, and, yes, that means our special education students as well." It has nothing to do with education (or special education). It is entirely a matter of population size. You could say that the 25% of the population in India with the biggest ears outnumbers ALL of the people in the United States with two ears.

    "I will check back in with my "final reflections" on that subject at a later date." Great!

    "Technology is in the 21st classroom, but how effective is it? Will it take another 100 years to find out? " I hope not. But it will happen.

    Here are some results from the questionnaire EDM310 students completed this semester: In the questionnaire i asked "What would you most like to do in the education profession?" Out of 142 responses, 0 selected Foreign Language. 0 also said Art! Twenty-eight responded Be a Coach! What does this say about the choices we make, the way we allocate resources within the educational system, the values of the communities in which we live?

    "...we have a rare opportunity to meld the best of the past with the technology of the present to create a future once only dreamed up in a science fiction novel. I say let's go for it. Who would not want to walk the streets of Rome in 3D? " Well, I would rather spend some time there, but I would probably learn more from the 3D model because I could spend more time "in Rome" with fewer diversions (such as eating pasta and drinking Chianti)!

    Thoughtful. perceptive and very well written. Keep up the good work.

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