~Exponential Times~

Did You Know? 3.0 and Mr. Winkle Wakes
These two videos really challenged me to sit back and think about today's technology and how fast things are changing. In the 'Did you Know? 3.0' video I was blown away by some of the statistics and also disheartened by how far behind America is. The amount of new jobs, new words, and new opportunities that technology is providing to people everyday is incredible. I wonder though, are we taking advantage of everything we have in front of us? Are we using technological advances to the best of our capabilities? How amazing is it to think that 50 million people were reached via Facebook in 2 years. The amount of people we have access to is incredible. We could use these resources in our classrooms to help our children connect with other parts of the world. As future educators, we should be taking advantage of all these fun new technologies. They should be the way we are teaching the students of today.

Based on the "Did You Know?" video alone, it makes me anxious to even see what the classrooms will look like in 2 years when I graduate. My hope is that educators would get excited and want to embrace all the technology and fun new ways to get our students involved. I would love to see classrooms connecting with other classroom across the globe. Also, it would be neat to see teachers connecting with other teachers through these technological advances. The fact that we are preparing children for jobs that do not even exist yet is mind boggling to me. That just shows me that we really have to make use of every new technology. We need to challenge students to try new things and not be afraid. The students need to be taught to experiment and try out new ideas and not be afraid to mess up. They are the biggest part of this unknown future! click here to view this video

The 'Mr. Winkle Wakes' video really made me question whether we are using all the advances that are at our fingertips or are we wasting them? Mr. Winkle was asleep for 100 years and when he wakes and goes out into the world he discovers all the new technologies. He sees them in the business world and in our health centers but when he enters the school system he finds comfort. He finds a place that is boring and calm, with no sign of exciting, new technology. It makes me sad because this is so true of many of our school systems today. We find it imperative that the latest up-to-date technology is used in our health facilities, at work, and even in our extracurricular activities but we don't demand it in our schools. That just doesn't make sense at all.

If we expect children to thrive with the exponential times then we as future educators need to be educating ourselves on all the upcoming technological advances. We need to encourage the use of new things and try them out ourselves. How can we expect children to just sit and learn the "old fashioned way" when all around them things are constantly changing and advancing. We need to be providing ways for them to experience these new resources. The truth is, we shouldn't be incorporating technology into our lessons, we should be incorporating our lessons and education into our use of technology. Why would a child want to sit in a classroom and stare at a white board when they could be taking a virtual field trip or could be interacting with a classroom in Australia. It just makes sense that we would exhaust these resources for the futures of our students. watch it here!

The Importance of Creativity
What a wonderful speech that Ken Robinson gave on the topic of creativity. I loved how I was really challenged to step out of the "teaching thinking" and really embrace the thought of creativity being vital in education. Mr. Robinson makes so many great points in his video that are so true of how teachers can so easily just push creativity aside. He says in the video that children are "educated out of creativity". This is such a sad thought but so true in our school systems. Instead of focusing on areas that children thrive, such as art, theater, painting, drawing, singing, dancing, writing poetry, etc. teachers put all their focus on the subjects that are tested on. This is killing the students creativity and probably making them dislike school. To a child that has so much creativity and just wants to let it out, it must be so hard to sit in a class where they cannot shine in what they are gifted in.

Mr. Robinson makes the point that it is our (educators) job to help them make something of this future. The future is unknown and we are preparing them for the unknown. We need to allow them to be themselves and embrace who they are in every aspect. Doing this, will allow them to flourish in the upcoming future. If we value each child and their own special uniqueness and creativity, then they will be more likely to succeed in the future. Even as teachers we can use so much creativity in our lessons. We have so many resources at our fingertips to make learning fun and exciting and out of the ordinary. I am thankful that Mr. Robinson spoke out about this and I hope that this video and speech really encouraged educators to stop killing creativity and invite it into their classrooms.
Please check out this video and website! It has some really neat stuff and really great teaching materials!

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
I wish that every teacher/educator had the motivation that Ms. Vicki Davis has to empower her students through technology. She has taken students in a rural, Georgia community and opened them up to a new world. She has taught them how to explore the digital world and make use of it for educational purposes. She allows them to teach each other, to teach her, and most importantly how to teach themselves. They are learning and ENJOYING it. Ms. Davis makes a great point in the video. She says that with only paper and only pencil that only certain children will succeed. I love that she has made that observation and that she is taking steps to make sure that every child has the opportunity to succeed in her classroom.

Through the digital world, she has connected her classes with the entire world. She has them involved in Digi Teen with digital citizenship and Flat Classroom. These are just a few resources that students have the opportunity to get involved in and have fun learning. Ms. Davis does not try to make the students conform into what she thinks the class should be but instead she customizes each class based on the students. This should be the mindset of all teachers. We should get to know our students and see what all we can do to help them succeed. If that means that we do things that are uncomfortable and new to us then we need to step out and do that. Every step that we can take to help them learn and have fun and feel empowered, we need to take! This website has really fun stuff on it for students and for educators. Check it out! Very useful website!