Blog Post 2

Did You Know?

     As I watched this presentation, I began to question some of the issues mentioned. Although many of the topics presented sparked my interests tremendously, there were a few that stuck out. First, and one I find to be most intriguing, the fact that we, as a population, are preparing students for jobs that do not even exist. I can agree that over the course of time, new jobs arise in society. What baffles me is how can we prepare others to do work and learn proper techniques to perform tasks that they do not even know they will be doing yet?  In relation to this statement, claimed within the presentation, another assumption was made. The fact that students, studying for a four year degree, can learn information about a particular subject, but two years later, the information will be outdated. If this is accurate, how can anyone graduate with the most current information?

    Also, I find it rather astonishing how much faster technology reaches the population as time goes on. It was mentioned that, in the case of the radio, it took 15 years to reach an audience of 50 million. Yet today it only took three years for the iPod to reach the same amount of people. It boggles the mind to think how soon tomorrow's modern technology will be obtainable by consumers.

     Speaking of technology, how can a supercomputer be constructed to exceed computational capabilities of the whole human species?  After all, humans are the ones who program computers. It is general knowledge that we do not execute full potential of the human brain, and knowing this, could a human brain actually create software for a computer to "think" more than a human can?

     The title of this presentation is "Did You Know?" I feel that maybe it should have been titled "Can You Believe?" Much of the information presented seemed plausible and could, indeed, be quite accurate. However, some, to me at least, seems far fetched. But too, if the' entire presentation is 100% accurate, then I must answer the title. My answer would be "No, I did not know."

Mr. Winkle Wakes
     "Mr. Winkle Wakes" closed with a statement worth pondering. The closing statement suggested that even after 100 years, which the folk tale suggests Mr. Winkle had slept, the one thing that stayed the same was the fact that people still valued learning. Okay, maybe not the young students as much as the adults value learning, but the fact that society values the need for education is quite comforting to the older population. Nonetheless, learning is valuable, plain and simple.

      I feel that Mr. Winkle represented the elders of today's population. If you really think about it, the older generations still among us today, for the most part, are not up to date with technology. After all, how many grandparents have home computers, the Internet, or even cell phones? Most of the elders of society are set in their ways, and are not open minded to today's technology. In this video, Mr. Winkle's confusion of modern day life was illustrated. After all, do we not see ripened adults sit in confusion while using technology of today?

"Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity"

     Until watching this video, I had never thought about what schools actually do. Yes, it is evident that education is primarily focused on Mathematics, English, History, and Science. However, it is less evident that they neglect to focus on the Arts. The only other thing in this area of the country worth spending adequate time on perfecting is football, which is a shame. Too frequently, we hear of budget issues, and the first mentioned budget cuts are those funding fine arts courses, instead of the funding of sports programs. I feel fortunate that when I was in school we could choose to take an art class.

     But why are the Arts the first to suffer? Well, it is like Ken Robinson suggested. He described how schools focus on educating children, but only the left hemisphere. (The right hemisphere being the creative side.) We, in today's society, do not promote thinking outside of the box, which is a shame. Instead, we promote thinking in unison. Also, how many great artists have we robbed this world from knowing by putting children on medication? If we do not learn to accept people for having creative minds, and who, as Robinson put it, "...need to move in order to think..." how can this world ever grow in a constructive manner? How can anyone have a new idea if we don't take chances and do things out of the norm?

"Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts"
     The one thing in this video that really grabbed my attention was how the course instructor admitted how she was being taught by her students. Most teachers would not admit how it was their students who taught them. I think that had the instructor not offered all means of technology to her students, she would not have had quite the success. I believe that harnessing a student's digital smarts is far more productive than traditional teaching.

     How wonderful is it that the Internet can connect people across the world? Even more wonderful, the fact that this particular teacher is offering this access to her students. I feel that too many people are closed-minded and anti-technology, especially when trying to connect with people across the world. In order for civilization to succeed, do we not need to take advantage of the technology available to us? More importantly, being able to understand what technology has to offer, and teaching it to children today, while simultaneously them teaching it to us. The world is nothing short of a classroom. Everywhere we go, everything we do can teach us new things. Thanks to technology, we do not have to go far, physically. It is all just a click away.