Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know? 3.0 is an interesting video. It explains how technologically advanced our world is becoming and how this will change the world as a whole. This includes jobs, databases, phone calls, and many more activities we partake in daily. It is presumed in this video that technology will, one day, be more advanced than civilization. New technology is constantly being produced while old technology is always being changed, altered, and improved.
The best jobs this year did not even exist in 2004. These jobs were probably produced with oncoming technology. What this means is that technology is such a strong influence today that, without keeping up with it, it will be nearly impossible to get high paying jobs. Did You Know? 3.0 is packed with information on how technology is reforming the way people live today. Without this technology being taught in a classroom environment, people today may not be able to keep up with the high demands of employers and technology in the future. This means more jobs and fewer workers.

Mr. Winkle Wakes is a video about how the fictitious Rip Van Winkle wakes after a hundred years to find technology he's never seen before. He goes to offices and a hospital and finds computers, printers, fax machines, X ray machines, and more. This world that he knows so little of is overwhelming to him. When he comes across a school not using technology, he likes it. This is understandable.
But what about the children in that school not using technology? One day they will be thrown into the same places Mr Winkle found himself. They will one day find themselves in a work environment with technology they don't know how to use. This might pose a slight problem to the people employing them. But if these children grew up with technology, would it be so hard to know more about these strange machines? Would these computers and fax machines and printers be so hard to use when in the work place if people were shown how to use them in schools more often? I think not.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity is a video of what I believe to be truth. Mr. Robinson explains how the educational systems all across the globe don't encourage or even sometimes choose to stigmatize the arts and children's creativity. Things such as fidgeting are today being termed ADHD, ADD, or similar diagnoses when seventy years ago it simply meant the child may have had a different talent such as dancing or playing an instrument. When we are children we lack a fear of being wrong. As we grow into adulthood, however, we are looked down upon for being wrong. Therefore, when the time comes for new ideas or innovations, some sort of creativity, we run. Most people, therefore, lose their creativity as they age.
Mr. Robinson explains how we may not be here seventy years from now but we should know our children will. We may not be able to see the world then, but we should want to make it a better place for them. There seems to be an hierarchy within the educational system. What is deemed "most important" is typically math and science with languages coming next. Then come the humanities and then the arts. Within the arts there are even divisions of importance to people it seems. First come dance and art. Then there is music and room for anything else. What we have failed to see is that we are not making it easier for our children to live in today's society. We are simply making them work harder to prosper in it. By not allowing them to flourish in what they are naturally capable of, we are forcing most children today to become uniform with everyone else with the belief that without math and science they will go nowhere in life. I must fully agree with Mr Ken Robinson on the matter and say he is a very brilliant man and I wish there were more people in today's society with his perspective.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts shows how one teacher, Vicki Davis, has chosen to connect her students to the world through technology. She, as many others, believes that someone cannot teach using simply paper and pen. Some children are visual learners, some are auditory learners, and others are hands-on learners. With utilizing what technologies are available to the students, Mrs. Davis is able to reach a larger number of students academically.
Mrs. Vicki Davis does not believe she has to know all the material to teach it. She believes that when a student finds out how to do something on his/her own it gives him/her a sense of empowerment. I must agree with this belief. Students in her class work together to learn their capabilities with technology, something that has become close to a requirement in today's workforce. I applaud Vicki Davis for her effort to improve and reform education as we know it.