Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Blog Post 2

Dance in a Distant Land by Paul Eade

DID YOU KNOW 3.0

So what does it all mean? The information this presentation gave us means many things. To me, it says that technology is progressing at a mind blowing pace and our education system is lagging far behind. The presentation points out that we are supposed to be preparing students to step into this technologically advanced world. Our students should be prepared to be the inventors and innovators of new technologies but how can they do that if our education system is lacking? Besides that frightening and depressing thought, I was mesmerized by the video and each fact seemed more unbelievable than the one before. This is definitely something everyone should see.

MR. WINKLE WAKES

Mr. Winkle, poor man, slept too long and upon waking up, does not recognize the world he is in. The message that I got from this video was similar to the Did You Know 3.0 video. With all the technology we have today, why do we not see this in our schools? Mr Winkle had been asleep for 100 years and yet the classroom he visited made him feel comfortable because it was a familiar place. The grain of truth that this video is based on is a sad one. I had not given much thought about the fact that our styles and methods of teaching have not changed very much over the years, until I began taking Education classes. I want to have the kind of classroom that Mr. Winkle would be uncomfortable in.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY

Sir Robinson talks about creativity, the unpredictability of the future, education and the capacity of children to grasp innovations. His belief that creativity is as important as literacy would be considered heretical to some but I believe that here is something to it. Instead of giving our children structure, we stifle them. The system we have doesn't allow or foster true creativity in students. When Sir Robinson said that we teach our children to be afraid of being wrong, I immediately thought of myself and how I grew up terrified to mess up or make a mistake. I never thought of myself as a creative person. As I think about it now, I don't ever want my son or any other child to feel that way. We have to find a way to encourage creativity and show our children that learning can be fun.

CECELIA GAULT

For being so young, Cecelia Gault asked some very important and meaningful questions. Her article on the Scholastic website gets right to the point, to the heart of the matter. The United States is sadly lacking in the education department despite millions of dollars and many laws, rules, and guidelines being passed by Congress and our individual states. I believe that in order for our education system to be successful at educating, we need to start from scratch. In order to make a difference in the classroom, it will be important for me to continually learn new things to pass on to my students and to find new ways of reaching my students.

Vicki Davis

When I watched the video, all I could think of was WOW! I wish I had a class like this in high school (or college, for that matter). She is giving her students a great education, teaching them to think for themselves and exposing them to the world through technology. It made me smile to hear Ms. Davis say that she didn't need to know everything in order to teach her class.(Doesn't this sound familiar to one of our class motos?) She is not afraid to admit to her students that she doesn't know the answers to everything and shows them by example that you can either look up the answer to a question or learn how to figure it out on your own or in a group. This is a great model for future educators. Ms. Davis' class will serve as a great example for us and give us a goal to shoot for.

2 comments:

  1. Jennifer,

    Technology is expanding at a rapid pace, and as teachers, we definitely need to be prepared for the classrooms. You raised a very important question, "Our students should be prepared to be the inventors and innovators of new technologies but how can they do that if our education system is lacking?" What can we do as teachers to help our students despite the many issues we are going to face?

    I think that we must provide updated lecture materials and resources. As teachers we should incorporate many learning strategies, and like Ken Robinson believes, we must encourage creativity. We have to believe in our students, and we must look for innovative ways to teach them.

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  2. Jennifer,

    I really enjoyed reading your blog this week. I agree with you about the thought of education is behind in the technology world. I think it is not a very good situation as future educators to be in. We are teaching the children for tomorrow but were still years behind compared to the rest of the industries.

    I also agree with that we should not take away a students creativity. I as well was always afraid to make a mistake. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to embrace it when a student makes a mistake to show them that it was okay and that they can learn from their mistakes. I strongly believe that educators need to be creative to get their lessons across, so why would we discourage students from being creative?

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