Did You Know--The Strange Version
Did You Know by John Strange was a little disconcerting. The video gives a number of facts regarding technology, mostly. The opening fact in the video, however, was that the 25% of people in India with the highest IQs outnumber the population of the entire United States. The video goes on to point out the staggering number of Google searches made, YouTube videos watched, and text messages sent per minute.
The overall message of the video is that we live in a changing world; statistics from only two years ago have changed drastically. As future educators we have to stay ahead of the learning curve--which will be incredibly difficult due to the fact that what we'll be teaching someday will involve technologies that do not yet exist. The closing question of the video was, "Are you ready to be an educator?" Teaching now seems to be a more daunting task than I'd ever expected!
Mr. Winkle Wakes
Mr. Winkle Wakes is about a man who wakes from a century of sleep to find a vastly changed world. He's uncomfortable with all the machines he sees everywhere around him. He eventually wanders into a school and is comforted to see that the only machine in the room is covered in dust. School was the only thing that hadn't changed during his 100-year slumber.
It's true that the structure of school hasn't changed much. Technology has found a way into the classroom, but not in the same way that technology has permeated every other field. It's difficult to change an institution that has no funding, however! Schools can be expected to remain relatively the same for the next 100 years if there's not more money.
Sir Ken Robinson: The Importance of Creativity
Sir Ken Robinson's speech, The Importance of Creativity , is a great thing to consider as a teacher (or future teacher). The message of the speech is that teachers are educating the creativity out of children. He begins by stating three things that are agreed upon in the education community: human creativity is extraordinary, we have no idea what the future will be like, and that children have a great capacity for innovation. He then states that no one seems to know what exactly to do about all that. Sir Ken defines creativity as the ability to create something original, and he believes that creativity should be as important as literacy. He says that because children aren't afraid of being wrong (and are therefore not prepared to be incorrect), they're not inhibited from making something original.
Sir Ken goes on to say that education systems across the board rank the arts as least useful in curriculum. He says that, instead of focusing on academic ability, educators should recognize different types of brilliance. Dancers, musicians, and artists should also be looked at as 'intelligent,' even if the proof isn't in the academic pudding. Sir Ken describes intelligence as diverse, dynamic, and distinct; and should be acknowledged as such through creative outlets.
Think about Glass
Watching A Day Made of Glass by Corning was like watching Minority Report or The Matrix. The video displays unthinkable technologies with unimaginable capabilities. These types of technologies, however, are the future of education. The video goes through the day of a young student. She starts her morning by choosing her outfit via a virtual closet. She and her friend listen to music on the way to school by 'flinging' a virtual track to the radio of the car, which then plays the song. In her classroom all the students use tablets to interact with the teacher, whose board is a huge glass screen. Later, the girl and her classmates go to a state park, where glass is used to create virtual dinosaurs or identify animal tracks. The video also shows uses for this technology in a hospital, where great detail may be examined and photographed with the glass.
Mr. Winkle definitely wouldn't have felt comfortable in school if these technologies had been present! One day in the not-so-distant future, schools around the world will be using gadgets like the ones in the video. As educators, we have to prepare for that kind of innovation.
