Blog Assignment 2

1 Did You Know

I honestly think I may have missed the point of this presentation. It threw quite a few numbers at me some of which had very little relation to each other in my opinion. I am fairly certain the main point was the rate at which our society is currently moving and the exponential growth of technology, which if you are alive today is something you should already be aware of. The first computer I ever owned had a five gigabyte hard drive which is less than the amount of ram I have in my computer currently. When the first terabyte hard drive hit the market I was blown away it was unimaginable and now almost standard in desk tops. Even at my young age I have witnessed the exponential growth of tech and seen the direct effects of it so I saw this to have little value. Science advances, tech advances, and the more people drawn to these areas the faster it will advance. The world changes and I believe this is a pretty widely accepted fact.
Now, if the point was to make you aware of the exponential growth of tech I believe there are much better ways than shock and awe combined with throw away statistics. Price, availability, specific examples and a human voice go a long way. While it is true that a person should stay informed and up to date with technology and communications this is certainly not the way to inform. It may convince some people to seek out the information and spark their interest to learn or it may scare them away with the intimidation of the amount of information that just assaulted them in rapid succession. The presentation is actually a fairly good example of one of the major problems with technology today, that we can so easily be flooded with so much information that we simply cannot filter and process it all. Once you fall behind it can be terribly difficult to catch back up.
I feel I am being rather critical of this presentation because I did grow up in the age of technology. My home had a computer almost as long as I can remember and before that it was word processors and electric typewriters. I still appreciate "the old ways" and like to read real books and turn the pages and I am sure my children will laugh at my bookshelf as they carry more volumes than can be read in a lifetime in their pocket.

2 Mr Winkle Wakes

This was a pretty cute little film. It made it's point pretty clear, schools have fallen behind times with an undertone that technology can be frightening. Mr Winkle has emerged into a world that he would view as chaos and things that he could never have imagined. What great advances will be made in the next hundred years? How will medicine, transport, business, and yes even our home lives change in the next fifty? Will we be frightened of the things our children want us to buy them or will we understand it as well? Will schools ever adapt to society or will they be relegated to the past to gather dust once civilization has realized they are too far gone to be salvaged.
Schools need to adapt to the times and if they don't how can they expect students to succeed. How can they be booted out into a world where tech is common place and taught in a chalk dusted environment! Schools must learn to incorporate technology, it simply is not something that is optional. Students should not and are not interested in sitting uninvolved in the classroom while some authority figures spouts out facts then expects them to recycle these facts into tiny little dots to be fed into a machine.

3 Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Robinson raises some pretty good points. It makes the subject feel very light even though it is very serious. He does a very good job uses techniques to put forth the information he wants to get across in a fun and interesting manner. He understands that the arts are important too. It makes students well rounded and gives them more than one method to look at things. It encourages thinking differently to achieve a desired goal. He points out many of the flaws in our system today and ways that we should look at things.
We simply cannot deny creativity even though many schools are doing just that. The arts are extremely important and should not be abolished. Creativity should be allowed to flourish especially in modern society. As technology advances we need to have people who can find ways of using it. Our society is dependent on creativity and education. We do not live in a colorless world and it will never go back to the way things were.

4 Cecilia Gault

Cecilia asks Sir Robinson very good questions for anybody to ask. This was a good video and article and really showcases the talent that is available out there. It's good that she had the opportunity to do this.
Schools do need to encourage creativity and not stifle students abilities to learn by staying with tradition and refusing to adapt. They also cannot get rid of or ban the things that can make learning fun and exciting for students. No one wants to be bored to death all day only to be sent home to stare at pieces of paper and make scribbles. Learning must be interesting at least a portion of the time or else there is no point.

5 Vicki Davis

This was a wonderful example of how teaching should be done, there is really very little more to say about it. Vicki Davis is obviously someone who has a good head on her shoulders and gets it. Learning shouldn't be boring and neither should teaching. Teachers also are not the only ones who should teach, why else would you have someone give a report aloud other than so the whole class can benefit. Schools and classrooms are communities that everyone within the community benefits from everyone else. As soon as one piece is weak then the whole system gets clogged up. If a teacher is not allowed to use adequate tools to teach how can they be expected to teach adequately.
I really like that she was using second life to teach. I myself have never had a real learning experience in second life but I have used it and explored around on my own. It, just like any other program available, can be used as a learning and teaching tool. It can be used in many ways and a variety of subjects, you could even have students give reports or a presentation which they filmed with avatars. Those of us in EDM310 are using these blogs and our twitters as tools to learn or even teach others in the class. It's things like this that can draw students in and make them want to learn.

My own say.