Saturday, September 3, 2011

Blog Post #2

Did You Know? by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod is a video that basically lays out an abundance of statistics focused around how we, as a species, are increasing in population and technology. They point out vital stats that are impressive, but they also point many out that are quite alarming. They shed light on the fact that technology is accelerating so rapidly that what most technical college students are learning concepts that will be outdated by the time they graduate!

They stated at one point that there were at least 300 children born in India just in the time that it took for me to watch the video. That is just India... Now if we think about the whole world, that is just too many people. People can't eat computers, so I find it quite alarming that there are so many new people coming into this world. Where are we going to put them? I agree that we do need to lean on technology to help alleviate some of the problems that the world is going through today. Perhaps with the acceleration of technology, we can find solutions to many of the problems of today.

Mr. Winkle Wakes by Matthew Needleman is a video about an elderly man who wakes from an 100 year slumber to find the world very different from when he had left it. He wanders around the city seeing so many new technologies that he never thought possible. He finally stumbles upon a school, and he finds comfort here because the school has changed little from the time that he is from.

What this video is trying to say is that everything around us is constantly changing, but the schools teaching the children that are going to go into that world are relatively unchanged. I support the point this video is trying to make, and I think that the school systems should make an extra effort to involve technology in the schools. If they do not do this then children will be illprepared to face the world of tomorrow. Children need to be able to adapt to the constantly changing world that is around them, and sitting in a classroom that has remained unchanged for over a hundred years is not the way to do it.

Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity is the most interesting video in this series to me. Ken brought light upon the fact that schools crush creativity, and creativity is what the children of today need to survive in the world of tomorrow. The public school system was brought about to educate children in the new time of industrialization, and it trained them to be able to succeed in the workplace.

I agree with Ken when he says that the school systems need to help spark creativity in children. The future needs creative people to help facilitate the growth of technology and the safe passage of the human race through time. I agree with him when he says that all children are born creative, but the problem is maintaining that creativity as one grows up. This man is truly enlightened, and I think his opinion is one that should be of great value to the educators of today.

Scholastic Article is an interview in which Cecelia gault interviews Sir Ken Robinson. She asks him about the three myths of creativity which are 1) only certain people are creative, 2) creativity only pertains to certain things, and 3) you're either creative or you're not; people can be taught to be more creative. He is also asked about the definition of intelligence. He responded by saying that there are so many different definitions of intelligence from so many different sources that we really can't know what it truly is.

I have to agree with him when he points out the myths about creativity, and I think that we should install facilities into the schools systems that help to promote creativity in school children. As a society, we only seem to focus on two major points - Math and Reading. I think that we should try to give extra attention to the curriculum that help to promote creativity.

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts by Vicki Davis is a video that shows us that teachers don't always have to make children use a pencil and a piece of paper to learn. In her classroom, she uses blogs, wikis, and the internet in general to help facilitate learning. She also helps children to "learn how to learn". She does this by not defining every single complicated word that they come across so that the children can learn that they have the tools to find out what words mean without having to lean on the crutch of another person, and this concept can be applied to countless scenarios.

I like the way that Vicki runs her classroom, and I think that all teachers can learn a lesson or two from her for themselves. To me, it seems like far too many teachers use only the classical approach to teaching students when there are so many other resources out there that it is completely silly to use just a pencil and paper. I also appreciate the fact that she is trying to teach children how to learn for themselves instead of depending on the teacher. If you don't know something, find out yourself!

4 comments:

  1. Zack,

    I agree with your opinions in every on of the videos. I had the same thoughts on my blog about the videos. I agree that creativity is nearly being taken out of schools also. Children should not be given boundaries on how to be creative. I also agree with you when you said that, no doubt, all teachers can learn a lesson or two from Vicki Davis for themselves and their classroom.

    Good Job summarizing.

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  2. What specific things can a teacher, a parent, a school, a school system, a culture do to promote creativity?

    Interesting and well written.

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  3. I think the most important thing for them to do collectively is to not hold the children back. Our whole lives we are taught to not take risk and express ourselves. We are taught to conform to a broken system, and we have to help them to not be afraid of creativity. As Sir Ken Robinson said, "I believe that all children are born creative. It is just keeping that creativity as they grow up that is the hard part."

    I appreciate the comments, guys.

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  4. Man, Zack. You're impressing me!

    "Children need to be able to adapt to the constantly changing world that is around them, and sitting in a classroom that has remained unchanged for over a hundred years is not the way to do it."

    Exactamundo.

    Keep up the excellent work!

    - Allie

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