Blog Post #2

Did You Know?


In Professor Strange's YouTube video he poses the questions for the future educators of America. He brings to our attention that technology is changing at a greater pace than most consider. The students that we will one day be teaching are going to be learning with technologies that may or may not have been invented yet. He stated that in 2022 the top ten jobs available at that time do not even exist yet. He also brought to our attention that America is falling behind some countries when it comes to education and academia. India leads us with the number of high IQs. Meanwhile, China is learning English at such a rate that they are beginning to outnumber native English speakers.

With the information I have been shown, I have come to believe that Professor Strange is trying to get us thinking about what we will one day have to face as educators. In his presentation he is preparing us with the realities that we will one day have to overcome. Change is inevitable in the field in which we are wishing to enter and we have to prepare ourselves and adapt accordingly. Technology is ever-changing and America continues to lack behind in academic progress. He asks the question "Did you know" in the beginning of the video so we become aware of the facts. He asks the question "Are you ready" at the end so we can make sure we are ready for the challenges that wait.


Mr. Winkle Wakes


Mr. Winkle Wakes is a short cartoon video about a man that awakens after a 100 year slumber and everything in his world has changed. He walks around a city searching for familiarity. He enters a hospital and is startled by the advancement in technology. He sees machines keeping people alive and machines storing various types of information. So, Mr. Winkle walks and walks as he continues to search for some resemblance of a time he once knew. He eventually comes across a school and immediately feels at ease. Students are sitting in neat rows as they listen to their instructor lecture on reading, writing, and arithmetic. He does, however, notice a similar machine as he saw in the library; but, this machine was dusty and sitting in the back of the room with no user. The machine not being in use shows Mr. Winkle that not everything he once knew had changed.

At the beginning of this video, I thought I could tell where it was going. Mr. Winkle would be shocked at the advancements in technology and it would express how much things had changed over time. However, when he enters the school the message of the story seems to change. It seems to me that this video is pointing out the fact that schools do not properly incorporate the use of technology. It is saying that schools and education systems are stuck in the "stone age", if you will. If I am correct with my take on this video, I disagree to an extent. I disagree with the fact that school systems do not have enough technological interaction. Not only do we have computers, we have SmartBoards. We have iPads. All of these varieties of technology show the advancement that has occurred within the educational field. I agree with the fact that it shows students listening quietly to their instructors during a lecture. Even in this day and age, lectures are a necessary part of learning.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity


"As children grow up we only educate them from the waste up. We tend to focus on their heads, and mainly on one side." Mr. Robinson states in his presentation that every child has an amazing capacity for creativity but their abilities are squandered by their education. He says that creativity and literacy are of the same importance and should be given the same status. He used an example with a little boy improvising a line in the Nativity scene and completely missing his line to show that children are not frightened of being wrong. In that, he says that if you are not prepared to be wrong then you will never come up with anything original. He states that the public education systems came about in the 19th century to meet the needs of industrialism. When those needs of industrialism were met it brought upon educatinal inflation. A university graduate with a bachelor's degree is no longer as valuable as they were 10 or 15 years ago. The new standard is being set to a master's degree.

I found Robinson not only to be quite comical, but also very informative. He kept his audience entertained while he was informing them on his thoughts of creativity and education. His example of Jillian Lynn, who is the choreographer for Cats and Phantom of the Opera, was absolutely fascinating. He said in his interview with her a doctor told her mother that she was doing poorly in school and couldn't sit still not because she had a learning disability but because she was a dancer. Lynn was prescribed, if you will, to join a dance school. Robinson said if that situation were to happen today she would be put on medication and would be told to calm down. I agree with Robinson completely. Education systems today are in a hierarchical structure with the arts at the bottom, and it is necessary to stimulate both sides of the brain to get optimal progression from students.

A Day Made of Glass


I found this video to be quite fascinating. It showed futuristic ideas of that everyday life could be like in the years to come. The glass was shown in multiple everyday situations from something similar to an iPad or cell phone. It was also shown in an incredible situation in a park with animated animal interaction. Most importantly it showed the possibilities for a classroom.

The classroom scenario, for me, was mind-boggling. I know I had teachers in high school that would not even be able to use PowerPoint if asked to. In this short video it showed the possibility of having full-room participation and interaction with various types of the same device. The possibilities would be endless in an educational setting with technology of that magnitude. It would get students more involved and more excited and, most importantly, more interested in their activities and assignments. Even today, SmartBoards are a very small, minute step in the direction that the technology shown in this video could take our classrooms. I know, for me personally, if I had that type of technology available in my classrooms in grade school I would not have slept through as many classes or lectures. The possibility of having something like that for my own students one day excites me.