After watching Did You Know 3.0?, it is astonishing to me how far technology has come along. In just a single year, 365 days, so much can change. This video brings your attention to how much our society has become reliant on technology for almost anything. While these technologically advances are useful, what is it teaching society?
The video asks, "To whom were these questions addressed before Google?". I find it sad that I actually had to think about the answer to this question. It seems as though our society relies on the internet to just spit out an answer to everything rather than actually finding it out for ourselves. Technology is forever changing. Changing the way we think, changing the way we get through the day, changing the quality of our education.
Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman talks about how different our world is from just one hundred years ago. Not only has technology changed the way society's young people are educated, it has also greatly changed the way our world makes business transactions and manages health care problems.
Business transactions can be accomplished much faster and more accurately than they were done years ago. Instead of having to actually meet in the same location with a client or business partner, you can simply download a program, push a few buttons, and all of a sudden you are talking face to face with someone from across the world, or just across town, without having to get out of your chair. Mr. Winkle was understandably overwhelmed with how much things have changed. Sometimes, I even find myself overwhelmed with the forever changing technology and find it difficult to keep up with everything.
I must say, I agree 100% with Sir Ken Robinson, that it is very important to embrace one's creativity and to encourage creativity in children. He is without a doubt correct that our education systems discourage creativity; I have personally experienced this. Schools teach children that there is a right and wrong answer for everything and there is not. For example, having a multiple choice question on a test that begins with the phrase "in your opinion". Opinions are never wrong. Opinions can only be different. So, to ask a question like that and then tell the student they are wrong is absurd. It is very important to remind people, especially young people, that it is more than okay to think differently than the majority.
Robinson mentions that art's are at the bottom the curriculum in most education systems and he is very right. When schools have to make funding adjustments, the arts are the first to go. However, arts are just as important as your maths and sciences. Arts embrace a child's imagination and creativity and we really need to encourage those in our young people today.
Robinson points out a very valid fact that the majority of adults are so afraid of being wrong. We tend to conform to what is "right" or "normal" just to avoid being different or shamed. We need to start reminding people that different, is not wrong. Different is what get's us to where we are now compared to where we were twenty years ago. Because someone challenged opinions and thought differently, we have better technology and better medicine today. Many people could benefit from listening to Sir Ken Robinson's video on creativity. I think any teacher or teacher in training could benefit greatly from this and when I start teaching, I will, to the best of my ability, encourage imagination and creativity.
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Mr. Winkle Wakes by Mathew Needleman talks about how different our world is from just one hundred years ago. Not only has technology changed the way society's young people are educated, it has also greatly changed the way our world makes business transactions and manages health care problems.
Business transactions can be accomplished much faster and more accurately than they were done years ago. Instead of having to actually meet in the same location with a client or business partner, you can simply download a program, push a few buttons, and all of a sudden you are talking face to face with someone from across the world, or just across town, without having to get out of your chair. Mr. Winkle was understandably overwhelmed with how much things have changed. Sometimes, I even find myself overwhelmed with the forever changing technology and find it difficult to keep up with everything.
I must say, I agree 100% with Sir Ken Robinson, that it is very important to embrace one's creativity and to encourage creativity in children. He is without a doubt correct that our education systems discourage creativity; I have personally experienced this. Schools teach children that there is a right and wrong answer for everything and there is not. For example, having a multiple choice question on a test that begins with the phrase "in your opinion". Opinions are never wrong. Opinions can only be different. So, to ask a question like that and then tell the student they are wrong is absurd. It is very important to remind people, especially young people, that it is more than okay to think differently than the majority.
Robinson mentions that art's are at the bottom the curriculum in most education systems and he is very right. When schools have to make funding adjustments, the arts are the first to go. However, arts are just as important as your maths and sciences. Arts embrace a child's imagination and creativity and we really need to encourage those in our young people today.
Robinson points out a very valid fact that the majority of adults are so afraid of being wrong. We tend to conform to what is "right" or "normal" just to avoid being different or shamed. We need to start reminding people that different, is not wrong. Different is what get's us to where we are now compared to where we were twenty years ago. Because someone challenged opinions and thought differently, we have better technology and better medicine today. Many people could benefit from listening to Sir Ken Robinson's video on creativity. I think any teacher or teacher in training could benefit greatly from this and when I start teaching, I will, to the best of my ability, encourage imagination and creativity.
Creativity and imagination fall hand-in-hand. In his interview with Cecilia Gault, Sir Ken Robinson states that one of the "three myths of creativity" is that only certain people can be creative. I very much agree with him. Every single person is creative in different ways, with different things. Cecilia also asked Robinson how he defined intelligence. In my opinion, intelligence can be defined in so many different ways. All to often, people are categorized as "not intelligent" because they are not good with math, or science, or history. It is important for people to recognize art as a matter of intelligence as well. People are different and we all succeed at different things.
I agree with Sir Ken Robinson and Cecilia Gault that it is time for us to catch up with other countries educational success! We need to develop more ways to keep students in school to lower our drop out rates. We emphasize so much on failure and I think this factors into our countries drop out rate. Why do we punish a child so severely for falling behind? The child is always punished for a "failing" grade but is it entirely the students fault? Maybe the flaw is not always in the student, but maybe in some of the teaching habits our school systems have developed. Instead of shaming the student so much, maybe we, as teachers, can help develop better ways to teach them.
I agree with Sir Ken Robinson and Cecilia Gault that it is time for us to catch up with other countries educational success! We need to develop more ways to keep students in school to lower our drop out rates. We emphasize so much on failure and I think this factors into our countries drop out rate. Why do we punish a child so severely for falling behind? The child is always punished for a "failing" grade but is it entirely the students fault? Maybe the flaw is not always in the student, but maybe in some of the teaching habits our school systems have developed. Instead of shaming the student so much, maybe we, as teachers, can help develop better ways to teach them.
Vicki Davis makes a very good point that not all students can learn with just a pencil and paper. She is doing an amazing thing by exposing her students to a portion of the technological possibilities that are out there. She develops her lesson plans based on how ALL of her students learn and I think other teachers can learn from her. When you think about how technology is so greatly involved in young people's lives today, it only makes sense to embrace that and USE that technology to teach them.
Not only is she helping them learn better in the classroom, she is exposing them to other cultures and how other cultures learn by connecting them with other students all over the world. In my own personal experiences as a student, you always have the teachers who are dead set in their ways of teaching whether if clicks with the students or not. I think it is important to do your best to fulfill the learning needs of as many students as possible. A good teacher wants his or her students to succeed and these days, that involves using technology!
You don't address what Mr. W found in the school. And why it was like it was. What do you think that we need to do about that? What can we do?
ReplyDeletePersonally experienced this "I have personally experienced this. Schools teach children that there is a right and wrong answer for everything and there is not. For example, having a multiple choice question on a test that begins with the phrase 'in your opinion'." Amazing! Sad! And dangerous for the survival of schools!
So will you be a Vicki Davis kind of teacher?
I would say that what Mr. Winkle found in the classroom was good, for him, and pretty sad for today's students. No classroom should still be teaching the way Mr. Winkle was taught. Lecturing is not the way to teach all students. Many students learn better with social and technological interaction. Young people today are accustomed with using technology so incorporating that into the classroom to help them learn only makes sense.
ReplyDeleteWe could use more Vicki Davis kind of teachers today. I will be a Vicki Davis teacher. I could not agree more with her when she says that not all children will learn when given pen and paper. This is SUCH a true statement and if only more teachers would think this way. Like I previously said, young people these days are accustomed to using technology, it only makes sense to incorporate that in their learning.
Video clips on technology was great. I was taken back by the speed at which technology is advancing. By the time i finish commenting on the video, blog is outdated. Might be a good idea to rent whatever technology i buy. That way the selling company will have to handle the expense of updating for the technology needed, if they want to keep me as a customer.
ReplyDeleteOk, now lets talk about Mr. Winkle. This guy reminds me of myself. He is terrified of all the technology created while he was sleeping the last 100 yrs(i was basically sleeping for 32 yrs.). Only thing that put this poor guy to rest was the inside of a classroom. In the classroom, everything was just as he remembered. Its ashame, all the technology going on, and the schools wont adapt. I guess thats what the punch-line is about, the computer doesn't need to be in the back of the classroom with dust on it, the students should have been using it. This story is a description of me enrolling in DR. Strange's class.
Boy, that young lady interviewing Sir Ken Robinson, really put some meat and potatoes into those questions. I think Sir Ken was taken back by the maturity of the interview. He spoke very highly of the youth of today, and how they are born with the full package. Problem is, as soon as adults step in to try and show them the proper way of doing things, they basically de-program the kids. If society ever wants to make progress, they need to ask the kids why?
Lets discuss this Vicki Davis story. You talk about putting a pig-trail on the map!!. This lady has figured it out. If you ever want to accomplish something, getting the community on board would be the best way to start. Vicki, basically took the technology she had and spurn it into an international bonanza. She is regularly in touch with the country of Saudi Arabia, and hold weekly conferences between the students in her class and diplomats. She has made arrangements to even have a field trip. Only catch, the students cant go. Maybe if she keep it up, the Saudis will pick up the tap for the whole class. Maybe they can put in a word for the president while they're their.