Blog Post 2

Did you know?
The video made by Dr. Strage, on YouTube, was very eye opening. All the topics that were pointed out were mind blowing. Knowing that China will have more English speaking people than America made me really think about how our country is so behind on most things, education especially. India having more honers students than all students in America made me want to be a better teacher, and help my future students learn more.
Karl Fisch and Scott McLeo's version was also eye opening. When they said how many babies were born during the corse of the video I was in awe. The text messaging statement was not that surprising to me. The video was done in 2008, so the amount of text messaging sent in 2012 would probably be greater than in 2008.

Mr. Winkle
Mr. Winkle Awakes made me think how much our schools have not changed technologically. Our schools have changed some, but not as much as office buildings or hospitals. Schools should be the first with updated technology, so we can use it in the classroom as often as possible.
Students do not need to just sit and listen to the teacher throw information at them and try and throw it back at them on a test. Mr. Winkle should have seen the same, if not better, technology in the school.

Creativity
Ken Robinson's talk on creativity in schools was ver interesting. When he talks about creativity being as important as literacy I believe he is right. We tend to under-mind and down play children's creativity. As teachers we should be inducing and feeding our student's creativity. When he states that "if you are not prepared to be wrong then you will never come up with anything original", it really got me. As teachers we are so set on our students being right and wrong that sometimes we do not think about them being creative with their answers. We should teach them that it is okay to be wrong sometimes.
The main point that really made me think was the statement, "we do not grow into creativity, we grow out of it". I agree with this statement because we teach children to be a certain way, to live a certain way. Most of the time we make them think that it is not okay for them to be themselves in certain situations. We should, as teachers, let them show their creative side in every subject, not just the arts.

A Vision for 21st Century Learning
The main arguments that I got from this video is that our students really are not learning a whole lot in schools, they need to be more integrated with their learning. The makers of this video seem to think that we should integrate this video game into our schools. By doing that the students will learn more with out even knowing that they are learning, is their argument. My response to this argument is that I do not believe that it will work. Students need to have a more structured learning environment and interaction with other students and teachers, not just a video game.

Vicki Davis

I think what Vicki Davis is doing in Georgia is great! I really like the idea of her student's using their creativity in her classroom. When she states that students get bored with a pencil and paper, I think she is right. She is there to help them whenever they need her, but it is great to see them doing it on their own.
I also like that she has taken a rural town and placed them online so they can experience cultures around the world that they might not be able to experience other wise. It is important to expose your students to different cultures, and she has done that while teaching them something also.