Blog Post Assignment #2

The video that was created by Karl Fisch, titledDid You Know? was incredibly interesting! The numbers and statistics that were shown throughout the video were facts that I never would have believed to be true. While I am well aware of the fact that things such as the internet are becoming a huge part of everyone's life in the United States, I never realized how much of an impact the rest of the world was experiencing also. I truly cannot remember what my life was like without the internet, and that proves to me that it has significantly impacted my entire life and way of thinking. Any time I have a question about something, all I have to do is go to google, type it in, and I will have the answer within a matter of seconds- that's pretty amazing to me.

It was also quite surprising for me to see that numbers about population that were shown on this video. It is so amazing that so many Chinese people are English speakers because I personally do not know any Americans who can speak Chinese. This just proves that these people are opening up tons of new opportunities for themselves, such as job offers in the United States. I have been told that the English language is one of the hardest languages to learn, but that obviously is not discouraging them. I feel like it would be great if there were more strict rules set up in our school systems about learning and becoming fluent in a second language. This video really made me think and I am glad that it was assigned for us to watch!

The video Mr. Winkle Wakes was also quite interesting and very unique. I had never thought if schools in such a way until I saw this video. It is sad to me that many teachers would still lecture and have their students take notes all day long instead of opening up to some of the many opportunities for teaching that we have available to us these days. Teachers like this are more likely, in my opinion, to cause their students to become bored and withdrawn from their school work, which in turn will likely negatively affect their grades.

While it is not a good thing for teachers to have their students become bored with learning, I do not really feel like this is a problem these days. It seems like almost all of the teachers that I have known or who have taught me are embracing the new ways of technology and using them to their advantage. One perfect example of this would be the new Smart Boards that are going up all over in schools. I think that teachers are thrilled to have these types of things to assist them in teaching and to get their students more excited about learning!

The Importance of Creativity was a nice video that made me laugh, but it also taught me a few things and made me think about ways to encourage students to use their creativity. I know that creativity is an incredibly important thing for children to keep as they grow older, but it seems rather hard to get them to do this. It is so true that children are born with a ton of creativity, but then they seem to begin to lose it as they age.

I totally agree with the point made in this video when Mr. Robinson stated that children are afraid of being wrong. This could completely ruin a child's creativity because they might be scared to react in the way that they want to in fear that they will be told that what they have done is incorrect. It is very important that we as teachers did not discipline or scold a child for being wrong because this could unintentionally hurt them in ways that we are unaware of at that time. I feel that teachers should encourage all of their students to let imagination run wild, even if they feel like what they are coming up with is silly or not accurate.

Mrs. Davis' way of teaching with technology was something that I have never seen before. While almost all teachers use some form of technology to teach, I had never seen anybody use it as much as she did. I wish that all teachers posted blogs like she does because it helps students to connect with their teacher on a different level. Most students will think that posting blogs to their teachers is fun, therefore will be encouraged to do so.

This class is actually the first course that I have ever taken that was so involved with technology, and it almost reminds me of the way that Mrs. Vickie was shown teaching in her video. All of her students in the video seemed connected to what she was saying and how she was using technology to teach. As I stated before, probably the biggest advantage to using technology when teaching is that students are so interested in it that they will be happy to learn by using it!