Blog Deux

Did You Know?
This video blows my mind every time I watch it. Although I am not interested in technology, especially computer related ideas, I still think it is amazing that we, as the smartest beings on the planet, cannot fully fathom how the internet works and reaches billions. I believe their statement that by 2013 a supercomputer will exceed the abilities of the human brain has already been surpassed. It is almost frightening to try to imagine how much is going on in a computer/information flowing through...the air? and the power it has over our lives. When I was young, there was a movie called Smart House on the Disney Channel (you've got to love those Disney Channel Originals). Although it was not the goal, the movie always scared me to think one day my house could be self-sufficient (cleaning, cooking, etc.) but would try to overrule my family. That is essentially what computers are doing, right? A lack of freedom.

Some facts from the video that stuck out to me were the enormity of the Indian race. "Smart" or "intelligent" are definitely relative terms, but it is difficult for me to imagine that being at the top of my class in America would essentially put me at the bottom of a class in India. The teacher I have been assigned to follow () posted a blog that included information from a fellow teacher in India and his classroom. He said that there are 50-60 students in a class with one teacher, leaving them no choice but to have the students sit in rows quietly and be completely focused on the lecture the whole day. If schools in America adopted this technique, I feel like our students would be much more advanced (as well as much MUCH fewer children that could actually make it through school). I also thought the fact that there is more information in the New York times than a lifetime of knowledge in the 18th century accurately describes our knowledge hungry culture. The desire to know and have control of our surroundings. Think about the information that is in a newspaper today though; I feel like people in the 18th century knew there were more important things in life that celebrity break-ups and make-ups and police beat. I think that's important to remember.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
Hospitals, business buildings, roadways, schools. I cannot imagine the amount of change in just these 4 common places in the past one hundred years. Sure, we know much more, but is the information we boast about knowing really important or necessary to live a successful life? Even in a cartoon like Mr. Winkle, it is obvious that he did not see the use in it. I really enjoy the company of older people just for this reason. Their lives are simple; there is no competition to know more than your neighbor and stay updated on the latest technologies.
I wish people still had the desire to learn, just for the satisfaction of knowing- not to fit in with society or appear better than those who cannot afford a $1000 computer. I love answering my grandfather's questions about different fads in life today , including but not limited to why everybody likes that "damn rap music," drugs that are popular, and how to smoke/inject them. He does not want to fall behind, but he also wants to know just to know. I guess it's the same reason so many people used to memorize poetry, books in the Bible, and scientific articles.

Sir Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity
The best advice I have ever heard as an avid runner of eight years is "Run like a child." Don't worry about how straight your arms are, how often or hard you breathe, or how you look. Have fun being free and feeling the wind. Children really are brilliant, aren't they. My favorite idea of Robinson's video is that children are not frightened of being wrong. It's not a complicated idea. We can even do that as adults. Sure, it may take more effort to fix, but in the long run it is exponentially more beneficial to everyone. I loved this video. My mother used to be an advocate for the Juvenile Justice Initiative as long as on the school board as long as I can remember. The most important thing she learned from conferences, meetings, senators, and beyond is that children learn better with activity, physical and mental. Who can argue with that in a society that one in three people are overweight and stores sell more L/XL clothing and junk food in a week than third world countries have seen in a lifetime. I have every reason to agree that dance and math should be equally incorporated into school. "Creativity is as important as literacy." What use is being able to read if you cannot imagine the possibilities reading can do for yourself and changing the world. the pinnacle of education- to become university professors
I never knew that the public school system essentially came into being to meet the needs of industrialism, but it makes perfect sense. However, Robinson's terminology that we are currently and since been "engulfed in revolution" does also. How far do we have to advance, and how much control can we superficially have on life before we are content? We are coming to an age that COLLEGE degrees are no longer worth anything, but 8 more years of school and a lifetime of loans might get you somewhere? College, much less high school graduates were rare less than 100 years ago. I totally, 100% agree with Robinson that children today are being carried through school. Let kids be creative, they can teach us more about life and learning than we can teach them in any school subject.

Cecelia Gault Speaks with Sir Ken Robinson
Robinson's 3 Myths of Creativity:
1.Only certain people are creative. Sure, this is true if you look around the world today. People give in to believing they are nothing special and nothing they could create is any different than their neighbor. It's unfortunate.
2. Creative is only about certain things. If so, then how did ideas of electricity, the Pythagorean theorem, the automobile, the planets' orbits around the sun, great Romantic Poetry, and Freud's theories come about. Those are about as different as you can get, right? But they only work because people believed it was doable. No one came before them that showed them the steps to take or extensive research into what had been tried before and what did not work.
3. There is nothing we can do about it. Ha. I would really hate to continue to live in a society that people believed this was true. America is the best country, most advanced and blah blah blah, but it is the lower countries that fascinate me. They are content with their living, however lowly in our eyes, but they still have hope that there is more. Things can get better (anything!) and something new can be found in every day. Can you remember a time when this was common thought for any common American?

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
I applaud this teacher for breaking beyond what is expected of rural school teachers. However, the use of avatars kind of makes me sick, especially for students. Coming from a first-hand Sims ex-addict (before avatars and online role playing), I know how this superficial control over another person's life can skew a child's world view. There are many more ways to connect to the world than meeting avatars that may have someone completely opposite hiding behind the computer screen.
Even in rural Georgia, I feel as if kids can become involved in the world around them, and on a personal level. The computer is extremely efficient, but I would rather be sitting around coffee talking to someone than looking at a million pixels. There are people in our community, every community from different areas of the country or the world that can enlarge one's worldview just as much as anything else.