Blog Post 2

Did you Know?

"Did You Know", by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Jeff Brenman, discusses two main points: Firstly, The job market is rapidly changing. One of the first statistics given in the video is that the top 10 in-demand jobs of 2008 didn't even exist in 2004. The video also shows how people generally don't say at jobs very long - 25% of employees had been with their companies less than a year and 50% had been there less than five years. Second, the video touches on the impact of information technology on the world. There were two stastics that shocked me more than others, though. One was, "If MySpace was a country, it would be the firth largest, with 200 million users.", and the second one was that the total number of texts each day exceeds the population of the planet. That simply blows my mind.

So what does this mean for the educator? We have to stay on top of the ever-changing world of technology. While we may be on top of it right now, we must also remember that we are the generation these technologies aim for - as we grow older, we must make an effort to stay familar with the same technologies our students use. Some of the best teachers I had in high school used Facebook and were accessible through Facebook outside of class - including occasionally to call us out for posting during their classes. We should strive to do the same - use the technology available to us to be the best teachers we can be.

"Mr. Winkle Wakes", by Mathew Needleman

"Mr. Winkle Wakes", a cartoon my Mathew Needleman, follows the fictional character Mr. Winkle as he wakes up from a one-hundred year sleep and begins to explore the world. Mr. Winkle is overwhelmed by the new technology in an office building and hospital, but feels right at home at school, which has changed only minutely.

The video shows Mr. Winkle as being quite happy with the school; however, this is very clearly a satire on how little our schools have advanced technologically. Yes, we use computers and have some modern conveniences, but not as much as the outside world.

Why? I see two reasons - money and fear. The money reasoning is obvious: technology is expensive, and in a budget crunch, the money is simply not there. However, the fear is inexcusable. I actually created a classroom website and forum for my 7th grade Gifted Class. It was private except to registered users, who had to be approved through myself or our teacher. What happened? The county IT department shut us down because it was "dangerous". I feel that the true danger is our fear of new technology.

That said, we are moving in the right direction. I know of a couple of Baldwin County schools that will be equipping all students with laptops in the Spring of this year. So there is hope - let's just hope our leaders see it through.

"Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity"

In the video "Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity", Ken Robinson talks about the tragedy of schools stifiling creativity. Why? Mr. Robinson asserts that one cannot be creative and original if he or she is afraid of being wrong. The problem? Schools quite strongly discourage being wrong, and therefore students are afraid to be creative at the risk of being wrong.

Mr. Robinson makes the bold assertion that "creativity is just as important as literacy and should be treated with the same status." He further goes on to speak about the hierearchy in education - every school puts math and language arts at the top, and it trickles all the way down to having fine arts at the bottom. Specifically, drama and dance are at the bottom. He asserts that this hierearchy is based on two ideas - what would be the most useful for industry and academic ability.

He further says that the primary and secondary education system is simply and long pathway to the universities; thus many creative children have their abilities stifled due to the hardcore academic priorities of the schools. He cites an example of a woman who is now a great contributor to musical theatre who couldn't sit still in school and was fortunate enough to be taken to a dance school. In the wrong hands; however, she might have been simply told to sit still and pay attention.

Finally, Mr. Robinson asserts that we should be educating the "whole being" of our children, not just the head and that we should not stifle creativity, but encourage it.

Mr. Robinson makes some excellent points in his video - creativity is not given much emphasis in school, and it's certainly understandable how students would fear being wrong - but I do have to respectfully disagree on one big point.

Creativity is not just as important as literacy. Call me old fashioned, but I do not buy into that. Why? As of the moment, one has MUCH more of a chance of getting a job if he or she is "book smart" in areas such as reading, math, and science, than if he or she is wishing to be a performer. It's sad, but it's true.

Furthermore, the jobs of schools should be to prepare students for life, correct? If that's the case, than we should be helping students attain skills needed to earn a job later in life and support themselves. While I wish that was possible through simply music or dance, I do not feel like it is. The jobs simply are not there.

That being said, I do hope that as a teacher, I never discourage creativity. I'd like to do many hands on projects where students are asked to choose the best way to model something, or perhaps even write a rap or a song to help remember some science conept. Creativity has a very good place in the classroom, we should just keep it in perspective with what is truly the priority.

Can U.S. Students Compete?

In the article and video "Can U.S. Students Compete", student Cecilia Gault of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps speaks to Ken Robinson on what we can learn from other countries that do well in education. Robinson feels that there should be more of a balance between science and art curriculum, that technology should play a greater role in classrooms, and that everybody is creative. He also stated (in the video) that he felt that everyone could be taught to be creative.

Sir Robinson says that intelligence is "very diverse" - it can be anything from solving problems to understand the world around you.

Gault also spoke to David Livermore, who is a research consultant at the Cultural Intelligence Center, who said that he wishes parents were more involved and that students traveled more to understand other countries.

I do agree with Sir Robinson on all of his main points - though as I've stated previously, I do see "traditional" subjects in education as more important, I do wish we had more arts and creativity interpolated in our core subjects. As stated previously also, I wish that we had more technology in our classrooms. I absolutely love his point that everyone is creative or can be taught to be - I've never thought of it before, but it is so true! Have you ever seen a kindergarten student who wouldn't draw pictures because he or she didn't know how? No! Some students simply become afraid of making mistakes and stop trying.

I also love the idea of student news reporters - perhaps as a science teacher, I could bring in an expert in the field to my classroom (such as a college professor) and allow students to interview him on upcoming topics of discussion - this allows for creativity and learning science all at once.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

"Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts" follows Vicki Davis, a teacher and IT Director as Westwood Schools in Georgia, who tries to connect students to technology and to the ouside world. She makes a very good point that when students are only taught with paper and pencil, only some students are going to succeed. She likes teaching several online skills, such as blogging, using wikis, and collaborating on products.

She encourages students to think for themselves instead of simply being taught by a teacher. She likes to allow students to think for themselves instead of simply being fed all of the content. Davis and another teacher (Lindsey) actually founded "Digiteen", an online program to teach students citizenship by connecting them online. It's a lot like a social network, in the sense that teachers and students connect and blog to each other.

Furthermore, Davis and Lindsey founded the flat classroom project, which allows students to collaborate write and create videos with other students all over the world. They even had a conference in the Middle East, which Davis and many of her students traveled to.

Ms. Davis actually reminded me a lot of Dr. Strange in her thinking - she seems to be firmly against burp-back education, which is commendable. The idea of having students teach each other is fantastic and encourages teamwork, which we all know is a very necessary skill in today's workplace. I wish that all schools could afford the technology to teach like this, but we are on the right track.

I also would commend the school district for allowing this to happen. As I've previously said, many schools are terrified of new technology and would never have allowed something like this to happen - they would claim blogging is too dangerous for students! Nothing is further from the truth. The real danger is the fact that we're producing technologically illiterate students who lack many skills needed for today's jobs.