Blog Post #2

Did You Know?

In the above video, Dr. Strange has gathered facts that show what a technologically advanced world we live in. Not only that, but said facts show that the technology is growing! People are learning more and more daily, which has to be happening to keep up with the new items, new jobs, and many other new things that come about! For example, in the video, you learn that jobs that will be in demand ten years from now do not even exist yet. That is amazing! In ten years (or less!) our society will change a great deal; this video, and the original (which can be seen here) prove that in mere minutes!

As future educators, we will be teaching children who will have jobs that aren't even around yet. We will be helping them learn how to solve problems that do not yet exist. We have to form that base education so that the child will be prepared to learn all about new technology! Things we have never seen or used before will be popular sooner than we know it, and the people we teach will be teaching us how they work! In order to be a good educator, you must know that learning is constant, especially in the world we live in today!

Mr. Winkle Wakes, by Matthew Needleman

In this video, Matthew Needleman shows Mr. Winkle waking up from a 100 year slumber. Of course, during those 100 years, the world around him has changed. So much technology has come about, and it makes Mr. Winkle miss the old days. Even the hospitals had changed, as Mr. Winkle visited there too. One place that he found the same was, unfortunately, a school. Even though there was a computer there, it was clearly unused and sat dusty in the back of the classroom while the teacher lectured in front.

Mr. Needleman makes an extremely valid point in his video. Even though we have tons and tons of great technology, it is going unused in classrooms! Children aren't being given the opportunity to learn with such great tools. Instead, they are missing out and have to (if they are able to) learn at home. We should be enriching their lives and minds with these great computers and other types of technology! Hopefully soon this can happen, and children can learn and experience so much more!

Sir Ken Robinson on the Importance of Creativity

Here, Sir Ken Robinson speaks on the education system and how it changes the creativity of our children for the worst. He essentially says that the institution of education is looking to make children ready for college, even if they aren't made for that. His example of Gillian Lynne, a famous choreography known for her work in the musical Cats, is amazing. Because she couldn't ever stop moving, Ms. Lynne's teachers thought she had a learning disability. They linked her creativity to a disability, and that is so unfortunate. Clearly, looking at where she is now, you can see that she definitely did not have a disability, she just learned differently than other children. Regrettably, situations like this happen daily.

In my opinion, schools today are teaching tests. Everything is based on standardized testing and good scores for the schools and/or the state. This leads to our children learning NOTHING. It is simply memorization for a test, then throwing the information out to put in new for the next test. We should, like Sir Robinson said, embrace a child's creativity, not waste it. We shouldn't teach a test... we should teach our children. Expanding their knowledge, and helping them learn whichever way they learn should be our main focus as educators. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk that Sir Robinson gave in the above video. It speaks volumes about how we should work with our children because after all, they are the future!

Glass, School, the Future, and Change!

In this last section, I watched two videos about future technology. One, which you can view here, was about using basically panes of glass as our computers. The creator of the video and idea(s), Corning, make walls of glass, dashboards of cars made of glass, and much more. It is so amazing to think that this could happen, and probably will happen sometime soon. In the video, you can also see children learning by using these glass components. The whole class can get involved and can visually learn! I love this idea because I myself am a visual learner. I have to SEE it to LEARN it, and many other children are this way. This future technology could change the world as we view it today. That would be amazing! No more boring lectures, or boring projects. We could make unbelievable things with this technology, and I can only hope that I see this happen in my lifetime.

The second video was created by Google, and it shows the awesome capabilities of the Google glasses (you can view that here). In the video, you can see the capabilities that these glasses have in and out of the elements. The speaker inside is wearing the glasses, and they work beautifully. What is even cooler is that skydivers and bike riders wore them as well. You can see how they hold up outside, and it is just like you are the one diving or riding. If these are the glasses of the future, they would be amazing! Imagine travel with these glasses! Learning about different places would be ever more exciting and right at your fingertips.

The possibilities that come from the different uses of glass are basically endless, as seen in these videos. They could change the workplace, schools, hospitals, everywhere! I would love to see this happen. To be able teach children with this type of technology would be great!