Blog Post Assignment #2

Did You Know? 3.0 - A John Strange 2012 Version
In the You Tube Video published by John Strange there are several interesting facts that he presents to us. It is truly a "Did You Know" video. Did you know that technology is what this world is coming to? Technology changes every day, every hour, every minute, and even every second. Owning the "high tech" version of today's technology is the cool thing to do. Sadly, most technology gurus can not keep up with the technology themselves.
Here are some of the facts that Dr. John Strange presented in his video.
1. India has more K-12 Honor Students than ALL of the K-12 Honor Students in the United States.
2. In ONE single minute 1, 097, 220 You Tube Videos are being watched. WOW!
3. Google processes 1, 393, 519 searches every MINUTE!
4. Texting is very popular being that 11, 453, 577 messages are sent every MINUTE!
These are only a couple of interesting facts in this video, I encourage you to check it out!
Mr. Winkle Wakes by Matthew Needleman
Poor Mr. Winkle just did not know what to do in this new day and time. Everything changed while he was sleeping and whenever he woke up he did not like anything he saw or heard. This included the noise of telephones and fax machines, communicating with someone overseas by a computer, and even life-saving tools in hospitals. Everything changed since he had fell asleep 100 years ago. The only thing that stayed the same was schools. The children were in boring rows, with a teacher lecturing everything into their brains, and they were having to take handwritten notes. He did notice one new thing, a laptop, but it was very dusty and unused.
This is a great video on how new forms of technology are being placed into different areas. Mr. Winkle was over a 100 years old and did not have a clue about new technology and he did not like change. Whenever new technology is brought into classrooms (ex: Smartboards and Elmos) most teachers do not want to incorporate them into their lessons. They either do not like change or have not been taught how to use these gadgets in their room. Little do they know, but they are hindering their students from learning about new ways to learn and study.
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
Sir Ken Robinson presented a great lecture on creativity and had some very good points on expanding how children think. Creativity comes in various shapes, forms, and ideas. Some kids may not show their creativity as much as others, but that does not mean that they are not creative. These kids may need just one tiny spark of encouragement to open their eyes to their creative side.
In Sir Ken Robinson's lecture he shared a story about a girl who could never sit down in school and always had to be doing something. This sounds just like ADHD, right? Well like he said ADHD was not "invented" whenever this story took place. The principal called the child's parent to come to the school so they could have a conference. During the conference, the principal, student, and mother was present, the principal told the mother everything the child was doing wrong in school. Once he was finished, the principal and mother stepped outside the office and left the girl in there. Before the principal shut the door he turned the radio on. Only a couple of seconds went by and the girl, who sat so still during the conference, jumped up and started dancing. The principal looked at the girl's mother and exclaimed that she was a dancer and need to go to a dance school. The mother did as she was told and her daughter became a brilliant dancer. This girl who was labeled as a "wild child" opened up Julliard Dance School and is now a millionaire.
In school systems today, if a child cannot sit still in class or cannot finish their work because they are "zoning" out teachers think something has to be wrong with them. They are automatically labeled with having ADHD and not given a second chance. Having ADHD means the child usually has to be put on medicine and therefore their life and actions are changed. If one person could just sit down and see what is going on in this child's life he/she could become the next millionaire in some creative field.
A Day Made of Glass Two
A Day Made of Glass. Whenever I read this title I had no idea about what it was talking about, once I watch the video I was amazed. The technology presented in this video is mind-blowing. Everything is made of glass. Glass is in vehicles, schools, and hospitals. It not like the glass that makes up our everyday drinking glasses, it is way smarter! You can select different types of music on it, teachers can teach lessons using it, and hospitals can use it to look inside your body.
Glass is what the world is coming to. In the video Project Glass: Live Demo at Google, a bird's eye view of someone sky diving was videoed and also viewed LIVE by the audience. This is just 2012, I cannot imagine ten years from now, in 2022, what other uses of glass we will have! I believe by the time I start teaching kids will enjoy school more, because us teachers will have COOL ways of teaching reading, math, and science.