Blog Post #2

This is Travis Snyder on...

Part 1.) Did You Know - by John Strange - January 12 Version." This is a video he posted on youtube about random statistics of 3 things: technology, the next generation, and future jobs and they all coincide with each other. Mostly saying things like the jobs of the future aren't created yet because the technology that will be used for those jobs isn't invented. He also mentioned something about more people in China speak the English language than people in America. I find that totally fine because the population of China is outstandingly higher than the population of the United States.
I can agree with certain aspects of his message. Of course I understand and agree with the fact that more people in more populous countries than the US will have more intelligent and advanced technology as well as more English speaking people mainly because they have a lot more people than we do over here in the States. I think we'll get up to where they're at eventually but like with almost everything, just give it time. Am I in a hurry to get there? Absolutely in no way am. I am a strong believer that technology is actually decreasing jobs. More and more people are losing jobs to computers and artificial intelligence because Tech and AI give greedy company owners and such people more money in there pockets while simultaneously giving rejects to thousands upon thousands of people searching for jobs. I also believe that people can get certain jobs done better and faster.

Part 2.) In Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman a man wakes up from a 100 year slumber to realize that almost everything has changed dramatically from what he was accustomed to. He wasn't familiar with cell phones, computers, x-rays, or MRIs. The same technology that we are so accustomed to this day and age was unheard of only 100 years ago. This technology that I speak of has been made almost like a necessity to society because of the invention of technology itself.
There was, however, one thing that he did recognize and that was the school environment. Teachers lecturing the students in the classroom and the students taking copious notes trying to jot down the important information to study. Still old fashioned school. But from what I saw in the video before this one, I think it's safe to say that school as we know it is probably going to change a little bit, at least, it definitely has the potential to do so.

Part 3.) In Sir Ken Robinsons “Do schools kill Creativity" you tube video (February 2006 in Monterey, California) he is at a conference and recognizes 3 themes that have relevance to his speech: 1 is the extraordinary evidence of human creativity, the next one is that human creativity has put us in a place where we have no idea what is going to happen in the future because everybody is creating things so rapidly. Nobody has a clue what the world will look like in 5 years time (despite all the expertise that are existent) and teachers are supposed to be educating the kids for it and the third thing is the incredible capacity of innovation that children have because of their crazy and wild imaginations. He argues that “creativity is as important in education as literacy and that we should treat it with the same status. The way the national education systems are education people out of their creativity capacities. He thinks that we get educated out of creativity. Intelligence is diverse, interactive, and distinct…The gift of the human imagination, we have to be careful that we use this gift wisely and that we avert some scenarios. And the only way we can do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are and our task is to educate their whole being so they can face this future. We may not see this future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.”
This video was mind blowing. It totally made me re think about the importance of teaching and education. I am more enlightened to how important the education department really is to the world. I will probably watch this video a couple more times before the semester is over. IT WAS THAT INSPIRING.

Part 4.) In A Vision for 21st Century Learning I thought about how the world today has changed so drastically from when I was in elementary school a little over 10 years ago. Cell phones seemed to be the being thing, then came the mp3 player and the very first iPod. Then the play station 2. Technology is moving so fast and targeting kids at earlier and earlier ages. More and more elementary school kids are using laptops and cell phones and even maybe internet social networking cites out of school. This means that when they go to school and sit in the chair and listen to the teacher lecture facts and takes boring notes for hours on end 5 days a week that they are getting bored and not liking school because it’s not “fun”. The guys in this video have an idea to make school fun via computers and video games. They say that if they do a great job that their system will be teaching kids tools and they won’t even be aware of it.
I think that’s pretty cool, pretty smart idea. The videos I have been watching are all pretty much about revolutionizing the classroom and education system. I am pumped to see how advanced we can get with technology and using it in the classroom making learning fun and easy.

Part 5.) There is a video entitled Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts shot at a small southern rural city of Camilla, Georgia. During this video I was actually surprised at the work that these kids did for their teacher, Vicki Davis, probably because I don’t know how to do it myself yet, but that’s a story for another time. She is in charge of a blogging class, and one of the most well known in the world at that, but she lets the student figure everything out and teach the other classmates on how to do certain things. She, herself, even learns new things in the process. Pretty much the class is set up for the kids to learn how to learn and use technology to their advantage.

I think that this class is pretty cool. It certainly look interesting enough to get me to want to know more about it. Another cool thing is that they are located in a small rural city in southern Georgia and they are connecting with thousands of people across the world to learn and discover what is out there in the world.