The videos "Did You Know? 3.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod" and "Did You Know? 3.0 A John Strange 2012 Version" were extremely interesting to me. Before watching these videos, I had no idea that China and India had smarter students than the United States. I knew that there were more people that lived there, but I had no idea that they were so much more developed in education than the United States. It scares me to think that in China, there will be more English speakers by 2025 than any other place in the world. Also, I did not know that India had more honor students than all the students put together in he United States. We, as a society, need to open up our eyes and start to deal with these matters as soon as possible!
The fact that technology is becoming more innovative every day should make us as Americans strive to keep up with what's new. As a teacher, I will for sure have to stay up-to-date with my teaching methods because I am in charge of teaching the people that are responsible for controlling our future. I did not know that technology was getting to the point that by what a person learned one year could be totally useless within the proceeding two years. I think it is important to stay updated on technology so we will not fall even further behind other countries than we already are.
Mr. Waking Winkle
In the "Mr. Winkle Wakes" video an old man has been in a coma for a hundred years, and when he wakes up nothing is the same. So much has changed over the time he had been in a coma that he feels overwhelmed. Mr. Winkle first goes into a building which had all new sorts of technology; the sight of everything new made him so uncomfortable thathe felt sick. Mr. Winkle decided to go to the doctor since he did not feel well, but going to the hospital only made matters worse. Everything at the hospital had been technologically advanced, and this made Mr. Winkle feel even more uncomfortble.
Mr. Winkle walked until he couldn't anymore and ended up at a school. At the school there were kids in a classroom facing a teacher that was giving a lecture. Mr. Winkle loved the school because he felt comfortable there; not one thing had changed. The class was just as class was a hundred years ago. The fact that we still teach class the way it was so long ago is ubsurd. I now understand why the United States is so far behind with everything compared to China and India now. How are we suppose to grow and develop new and better things if we are stuck in the past? I think it is extremely important that we start changing the classroom settings in the United States now!
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
The Importance of Creativity video by Ken Robinson gave me a new perspective about how to view the different ways people learn. I know all people learn differently; is it really fair to force students to all learn the same way? Teachers are forced to smother kids creativity in the class room so that each student learns the same thing in the same way. Creativity in schools will become non-existant if we don't change our outlook on the way we teach each student.
I think it is wrong for students to not be able to express themselves in their learning environment. We might be constricting brilliant ideas that could change maybe the development of our future by not allowing students to actually use their minds and be creative. I think the basic teaching methods are outdated, and we should be encouraging kids to be different and creative instead of trying to mold them into the image of what we have in our minds of an average student.
As a teacher I could use Pinterest to help give students assignments or extra material to study. I could tell my students to go to my Pinterest and look at certain material I had repinned. I could tell them to write a paper or brief summary about how they felt about what was assigned. I could pull my Pinterest up on my smart board in class , and I could easily show them material I saved to my board. I am new to Pinterest, but I am sure the more familiar I get with it, the more ways I could find to let it benefit my students.
