Blog Assignment 2

Did You Know?
In Dr. Strange's version of Did You Know? 3.0, developed specifically for EDM 310, based on Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod's version, Dr. Strange informs viewers about how important technology currently is to future educators. His video is full of facts about the uses of technology, not only in the United States, but around the world. This video stresses the importance of educators being in touch with the latest technology for the sake of their students.
In the video, Dr. Strange included facts like "The 25% of the population of India with the highest IQs outnumbers the entire population of the United States." He then continues to explain it in a way that ties it to educators by stating that by assuming 25% of Kindergarten through 12th grade students are designated as Honors Students, then India has more K-12 Honors Students than the United States has K-12 students period. Another statement that stood out to me was "The top jobs 10 years from now do not exist yet." This means that as an educator, I will be preparing my students for jobs that won't even exist at the time. And the technology that will be used in these jobs has yet to be invented as well. I believe that as a future educator is it very important for teachers to understand this and to keep up with the ever increasing technological advances. Dr. Strange closes his video by encouraging viewers to think about their role as a future educator by asking if they are prepared to do so knowing that as a teacher they will be readying students for jobs in 2022.

Mr. Winkle Wakes
Mr. Winkle Wakes is a short video about a man named Mr. Winkle who wakes up from a 100 year slumber to find that the world around him has changed drastically in many ways. the video follows Mr. Winkle around as he journeys into the world and discovers the invention of the computer as well as advances in health care. The one thing that Mr. Winkle finds to be the same is school. The students still sat in desks and the teacher still stood in front of the classroom to teach the students. This was a comfort to him, that through all of the changes that had been made throughout his 100 year sleep, school was still pretty much the same.
While people do take comfort in lack of change, the fact that learning in a school setting hadn't changed in 100 years is a little disturbing. With all of the advances in technology made within the last 100 years, shouldn't children in schools be able to take part in all of those advances, or use them to their advantage by learning in new ways, not to mention learning new things. Educators should use these technologies to help the students grow. This video does an excellent job of illustrating the fact that the lack of technology used in school systems today should be addressed.

The Importance of Creativity
Ken Robinson, states in this lecture his views about school systems killing the creativity of students. He says that creativity is just as important as literacy in education and that it should be treated as having the same status.
Robinson states "If you're not prepared to be wrong you will not come up with anything original." He explains that when children grow up it is embedded in their minds that mistakes are not allowed, whether that be through their job etc., thus shutting off their creative abilities. He suggests that education focuses on teaching children from "the waist up" meaning that all of the focus is put on teaching mathematics and language, leaving the arts out. I feel that it is important to incorporate not only the arts in teaching, but creativity as well. It is important to stress that by using creativity there is no wrong answer, instead of instilling a fear in children that they need always be right.

Think About Glass
The video A Day Made of Glass 2 gives viewers a glimpse into the future by showing a product that could impact not only a person's everyday life, but could also make a huge difference when used in the field of education. This invention and use of highly engineered glass could redefine the way students learn and interact in the classroom. By watching the video A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked you can get a better understanding of the intentions of the company Corning.
The first video follows a young girl throughout her day using a glass tablet to perform a numerous amount of tasks. From everyday things such as viewing her daily schedule to using the tablet to identify what type of animal left a specific track in the forest. The tablets interact with other objects such as glass walls and tables. It showed the interaction with students and their teachers in a classroom and the many uses that the tablet and glass wall could have.
This will be one thing that I will definitely look forward to in the future if I live to see it, or can afford it.
After watching the video about Google Glass, it is apparent that advances have been made in glass and there are computer glasses that can be worn to capture images and video. It is clear through highly engineered glass that the world will one day be the futuristic place that has only ever been available in our minds.