Blog Assignment 2

1. Did you know? 3.0
In the video Did You Know 3.0, Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod outlined many of the technological advances made throughout the past 25 years or so. It is hard to comprehend that our world has advanced so quickly in such short period of time. The fact that I found most fascinating was that the top ten jobs of 2010 did not even exist in 2004. It is almost scary to think that some of the technology being developed will be smarter than the human brain.
Also, the world population is developing so quickly. During the video 395 babies were born in India. This is a baffling number. The video shared so many interesting facts and really puts into perspective how far the world has come in just the past twenty years.

2. Mr. Winkle Wakes
When Mr. Winkle woke up after 100 years everything was different. The way buildings were built, the technology, hospitals, everything had changed. The technology shown in the video Mr. Winkle Wakes are things that I don't even notice as new technology. For example, in the hospital where there were machines keeping the people alive. This is something that I have grown use to seeing in a hospital so I don't even realize how amazing the technology that we have is.
Mathew Needleman did a great job capturing the advancements that we use everyday and take for granted sometimes. Talking to someone on Skype for example is something that we have become accustomed to using. Seeing someone on a computer screen, or these days a cell phone, from as far as another country is an everyday occurance.

3.Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
Ken Robinson's video, The Importance of Creativity, is very entertaining and also enlightening. I really like how he put "children are educated out of creativity". I agree with Sir Robinson to a certain extent. I do believe that in public education today there is a lack of focus on developing creativity and is more focused on the intellectual aspect of education. I believe Sir Robinson put it as they are being molded into college professors. Students need to be encouraged to practice their creativity and feel that they are good at something and proud of anything they create on their own, whether it be a painting, music or performance.
Considering that the whole entity of public education was created to meet the need of industrialism. Students were persuaded to not study to be a musician or artist, they were influenced to study the "most useful subject for work". This was because they were told they couldn't make a living doing the things that they enjoyed, they would never make living as an artists of performer. Today I do believe that there are more and more efforts made to enhance creativity in the public school system. There are several private schools based on the arts, we need to take these ideas and put them into the public school system.

4. Cecelia Gault (Young Student in Finland) Interviews Sir Ken Robinson
In the video, Scholastic Article, Robinson says that everyone is creative and he doesn't believe that only certain people are born with creativity. Also, technology should be utilized in schools so that students can understand computers and their many uses. In just the beginning of EDM 310 I have learned how to do many things on the computer that I never would have dreamed of being able to do. I assumed that I was just not one of those people that could understand the ins and outs of a computer and all of its capabilities.
In Cecilia Gault's article she mentions that we as a country need to catch up with the leader in education, such as Finland. This is true, if our drop out rate is 25% and Finland is less than 1% then we need to change something. Why can't we practice the techniques in our schools that are being put into practice in Finland and see if we can improve our drop out rate. I believe that if a problem is getting worse then try something else, quickly.

5. Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
In Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts, Vicki Davis teaches her students how to use technology to their advantage. She believes that when students are limited to pencil and paper then they are in turn limited to what that can learn and achieve. I agree with this. With drastic change in technology in just the past 10 years students should be given the opportunity to learn how all of this new technology can be used to their advantage. Also, using the technology is more fun for the students to use then just pencil and paper and they then want to learn more and more.
The students in this video are connected to other students all over the world and have learned how to interact with them through technology. They have been given an opportunity by Vicki Davis to learn new trends all over the world and they seem to be taking full advantage. When I was in high school we had nothing like this. The only computer course we had was keyboarding, learning to type. This class is an example of how far we have come in just the past 8 years.