Blog Post #2

Did you know? 3.0- A John Strange 2010 Version

Did you know youtube video was very informative. In watching this short video I thought of how my children utilize technology. My girls utilize their Nintendo Ds to text each other back and forth. My son is an electronic butterfly fluttering from his handheld games to taking over the television in the living room with his PlayStation games. It’s amazing how they can pick up on how the basics electronics work to utilizing the more advance electronics that I myself have to ask my six year old what input is the cable on after he’s done playing angry birds in the living room.
It is amazing to learn that the top jobs ten years from now don’t even exist. At the rate of technology’s advancement something’s might cease to exist or be on their way to becoming obsolete.

Mr. Winkle Wakes

This short video, to me, covered a lot about the change in technology and the applications in the surrounding environment. After 100 years Mr. Winkle awakes to a world of technology in an office setting. He then isn’t feeling well and decides to go to the hospital and in doing so he finds that the hospital is filled with electronics. The one place Mr. Winkles decides to go is to a school where everything seemed to be familiar.
What I got from this video is that the world has evolved technologically but the schools are left behind in the “stone age.” The classroom that Mr. Winkles was in had an old computer in the back of the classroom that didn’t appear to be in working condition. I have a very busy schedule with all the hats I wear and one of my hats is the substitute hat. I have been to schools here in Mobile County that has limited technology in the class rooms and the machines are in the classes, half the time, don’t work.
Plainly put, future jobs, not created yet will be more technology driven than the jobs today that require all the bells and whistles. The way classrooms are set up today with respect to technology is not creating the opportunities children today will need for jobs tomorrow.

The Importance of Creativity

In watching the video The Importance of Creativity with Sir Ken Robinson, it has opened my eyes as to how things are and have been perceived by the education systems. I agree that we as educators are “educating children out of creativity.” There are different styles of learning and there should be different styles of teaching when it comes to the classroom. At some point in a child’s day their creative ability needs to be nurtured. As Sir Robinson mentioned inflated academics is what is plaguing today’s ability for college graduates to locate jobs in their field of study.
The questions that come to mind are how can educators today better prepare children for the world tomorrow? If we as educators tailor the children passing through our classes annually to the current academic goals, how then do we expect them to reach their full potential? How then do we begin to customize or adapt if you will, the classroom environment so that it is conducive for creative learning geared towards a more rewarding future.

Pinterest

I found initially that Pinterest was a bit overwhelming but the more I played around with it the more I can see it potential usefulness in my near future. I think as a future educator Pinterest will be extremely useful in lesson planning and sharing information with my team teachers. This would definitely help me in pinning up resources for teaching my future science student. I could pin up charts and find pictures of how to dissect frogs. The possibilities are endless with Pinterest.
In being a parent of three elementary students I chose to pin several different reading articles. I have two well read seven year olds and one struggling six year old. These pins could help me this quarter with my son.
If I could use Pinterest in my class I would require my student to go on and register for Pinterest and have them pin science articles to help them find resources that could be utilized in completing a science project for my class.