Blog Assignment #2

Did you know? 3.0 A John Strange 2012 Version
If you want some interesting facts about students and technology? Well, Did You Know? 3.0 A John Strange 2012 Version would be a great video for you to watch. The original series was created by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. It has really cool facts about the intelligence of students around the world, to the future of technology. The most interesting facts about technology were the ones that discussed what was happening per minute. In one minute, 1,097,220 YouTube videos have been watch, 1,393,519 search are made on Google, and 11,453,577 SMS messages are sent!
One of the facts the really stuck out to me was the one about 7-12th students for spent about 2 hours texting a day. That report was published 2 years ago. I know that fact has changed because teenagers have other options on their cell phones now like Facebook, Twitter, and games.They also found that 85% of students have cell phones now, and with companies making 4G phones more affordable, the option of activities on the cell phones are becoming larger.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
This was a creative video about an old man who is asleep for 100 years but finally wakes up and explore. In Mr. Winkle Wakes , Mr. Winkle goes out for the first time, he goes to an office building where he’s a lot of new technology which makes him very uncomfortable, and leaves. He then ends up at a hospital but sees doctors using more machines that are hooked up to patients. He again becomes uncomfortable, leaves, and ends up in a class room. Here, he sees that the teacher is standing in front of the classroom, and the students were sitting in their desks paying attention to her as she lectured. He noticed a computer in the back of the room that wasn’t being used. He liked the school and was very happy to see that it had not changed.
The video was kind of sad because Mr. Winkle was asleep for so long and so much had changed. When he finally came back around, he couldn’t relate to anything around him. He also didn’t know how to use anything, like computers. I can understand how he became very overwhelmed and wanted to leave. It was like waking up on a new planet.


Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
Ken Robinson is a very eye opening man. In his video Sir Ken Robinson: Importance of Creativity, he explains to his viewers how children are born to not be scared of being wrong. He says “ If your not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.” He feels that students are being educated out of their creative capacities. I agree with Robinson about this because primary focuses in schools are only academic topics. Creative things like art, dance, and drama are only options and not stressed.
The story that I enjoyed the most was the one about Jillian Lyn, a famous choreographer. He discusses how her family thought she had a learning problem because she couldn’t sit still. She was examined and they found that she didn’t have a learning problem, she was just a dance. So, she became one of the most prestegious choreographers in the world, because someone saved her and didn’t just throw some medicine at her and tell her to calm down.


Vision for 21st Century Learning
21st Century Vision of Learning really opened my eyes of what future classrooms are going to be like. The first contact of a computer of game console for children in America is in or before Kindergarten. These devices already play a central role for this generation and now it is very important for students today to be technologically literate to be prepared for the 21st work force. Therefore, The United States is planning to innovate method for teaching, virtual learning and teacher becoming more of mentors compared to old school lecturing.
 I think this is a great idea because as a future teacher, I want to know that I am not just educating my students, but preparing them for the future also. Because technology is becoming so prevalent in our society, that would be the best option for the future students to become successful. I’m not really a big supporter on teachers becoming more of mentors because it cuts down on the purpose of the job. They should try to come up with a way that students and teachers can become more virtually interactive.

Vicki Davis: Harness Your student’s Digital Smarts
Vicki Davis is a innovative teacher is Rural Georgia. Vicky Davis: Harness Your Student's Digital Smarts shows how this teacher uses many types of technology to connect to the world.She mainly focuses on teaching her students new software and making them comfortable with any technology.
I do like her methods of teaching by giving the groups of the class terms to look up and practice. Some of the terms she may not know what they mean, but by the time the students are finished, they are about to teach her, and it proves that the students are actually learning.