Blog Assignment #2

Did You Know?
In the video, Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version, we are given an array of interesting facts, which show our technology is changing constantly and show the United States is a relatively small part of the world. As the video progresses, each fact stems more and more from the bottom line- our society, our children, and our future are becoming increasingly reliant and almost synonymous with technology. Key facts from the video, which suggest how important technology is becoming, are:
•Three years ago, 93% of all 8-18 year olds in the United States had computers in their home;
•Three years ago, 85% of high school (15-18yrs) students had cellphones and today 58% of students (13-17yrs) have smartphones; and
•The top jobs ten years from now do not exist yet and we’ll use technology that does not exist yet.
At the end of the video, we are given two questions. What is your role in preparing your students for jobs in 2022? What is your role in preparing your students to use technologies that do not yet exist?
Including updated technology in the classroom and in the curriculum is a key component to answering both of these questions. However, each generation is going to face different technology. If I use blogs, twitter, facebook, pininterest, SMARTboards, email, et cetera in my classroom to connect with students and use it to their educational advantage, how am I teaching them to use technology that probably won’t exist ten years from now? I feel this video and our EDM 310 class is pushing too much towards including updated technology without facing the issue of how to teach our students to adapt to the constant growth and expansion of technologies and to the decay of other technologies. My role in preparing my students for their future jobs and future technology is to teach them to adapt and be open-minded about change. I want to teach them to use the changes to their advantage.
To be closed-minded and set in your ways, can be a hazard to a person’s career and success. I am set in my ways. I prefer a radio over an iPod. I can honestly say I have listened to my SONY Walkman more in my life than an iPod. I am 19 and just bought an iPhone this past October 2012. I prefer chalkboards and a textbook over online classes. I refuse to update my Internet Explorer 8 to Internet Explorer 9 because I cannot stand change. I prefer what I am use to. I have really missed out on important opportunities. I do not want my students to miss out on opportunities in their life from being close-minded. At the rate technology is becoming more important, being open-minded about technology and creative in how to apply it to your life is required to be successful. My job as a future teacher will be to lead my students toward a successful life.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
Mr. Winkle Wakes is a video created by Matthew Needleman. The point of the video is to show how out-of-tune schools are with the rest of the world. Mr. Winkle presents this point by waking up after a hundred years and feeling overwhelmed by the advances in technology in offices and the hospitals and feels at home in a classroom. To an extent, this is an over exaggerated video. Schools require students to use basic Microsoft Word, use online sources for research papers, use PowerPoint presentation, and so on. However, I believe schools are not advancing as they should. As the world changes, you must change with it. Animals in nature, who do not adapt to the changes in their environment, become extinct. Schools will become less and less effective, to the point of becoming unnecessary, in educating our youth if they continue to fail to adapt at a quicker pace.
The future of today’s education system is not a terrible one. I believe we have enough revolutionary educators influencing future teachers, principals, and parents to make our education system completely change within the next ten-fifteen years. Our schools of today will no longer exist ten to fifteen years from now. There will be better and more advanced schools in their place.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
In his seminar, “The Importance of Creativity”, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how today’s education system crushes children’s creativity. Our schools criticize those who want to explore the arts. Our parents and teachers tell children who want to become artist, dancers, or musicians they will never get a job. Our education system puts math, language arts, sciences, and other main subjects above the arts. This is because our system was created for the industrial times.
Our school’s education system is outdated and hindering our youth from being successful, creative, critical thinking individuals. We are preventing them from reach their individual, full potential because their success does not comply with the “cookie-cutter”-like system. If I do not help my future students reach their full potential, I will fail as an educator. I may be a future math teacher, but this does not mean I cannot instill certain values into my students. I can find ways to show them how dedication to whatever they love, be it music, dance, art, can lead them to success.
Sir Ken Robinson also discusses how children are not afraid to be wrong; however, by adulthood they gain this fear. I am afraid of being wrong. I don’t answer questions out loud in class. I second guess everything I do. I am hindering myself. We teach children to not make mistakes by criticizing them and punishing them when they do. We don’t teach them to learn from their mistakes. The person, who makes the most mistakes in their life, can also be the most successful if they know how to learn from their mistakes.

Pinterest
Pinterest would be a great tool for group work in my classroom! It gives students and teachers the ability to find something that interest them and expand on it, while being able to keep it all organized. I will implement ideas from piterest into my lesson plans, group assignments, and lectures. If a certain way to explain a problem doesn’t make sense to one student, they have the opportunity to find other ways to have it explained. Students can complete assignments on pinterest such as pining current events to a specific board. I think pinterest will give students an opportunity to show what they learn other than writing a paper or presenting a topic and gives them opportunities to use pinterest to their advantage outside of the classroom.