Dramatic Facts About Schools (week 1)

Mr. Winkle Wakes

In the movie “Mr. Winkle Wakes”, by Matthew Needleman, you see that n old man wakes after sleeping hundreds of years to a world that is technology. Mr. Winkle wandered into a business filled with technology. He was disturbed by all the technology because it was new to him. He felt ill, then found a hospital to get some help and saw the computers and x-ray machines there as well. He was unable to stay in the hospital because the technology made him uncomfortable if not ill. Then Mr. Winkle found a school and went in. He felt right at home. It was just like his school a hundred years ago. He noticed that the school was using pencils and paper and the computer that was in the class was left in the back collecting dust.

My belief is, despite Mr. Needleman’s suggestion that schools should put technology to use and modernize like business organizations and hospitals, so that people depend on technology too much now when it comes to children. Yes it is good to have the World Wide Web at a child’s finger tips, but the same information can also be found going to the school’s library. Face book, for example, can be beneficial but it also can cause problems. Teens use technology too much. They fail to get outside or do not concentrate on their studies.



Did you know? 3.0

The “Did You Know?” by Kari Fisch gave me knowledge of facts that I never knew about. The fact that many things have increased in the last few years have been astonishing. Another thing that intrigued me was when Mr. Fisch said that technology coming out today can be advanced and updated by the near future. He then continued to say that the information that a freshman student in college learns about technology in school will be updated by the time that the same student reaches his or her junior year of college.

During family discussions, I heard that China and India had a lot more numbers when dealing with people population then of the United States, but it’s hard to picture these countries are much smaller in land size then ours. To also find out that China and India have so many children in cramped classrooms but are able to learn and get an education that can excel the children in the united States, that have so many resources is beyond amazing. This just tells us that every county can learn from other countries. Also, the countries that have a high number of intellectual children do not use all this high tech devices that America does.

An example of how fast technology gets updates is most video game units. By the time you save up the money to buy the unit and some games, the manufactory has come up with a new and improved unit and puts it on the market. Are we realigning on technology to much? You can’t go outside your house without seeing cell phones attached to people’s ears or computers strapped to people’s backs at schools going class to class. When all is said and done, we have to live in a world of technology that advances from one day to the next. It’s your choose if you keep up with it or not.



Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

Ken Robinson talks and gives examples of how children in school show creativity through drawings, plays and words. Mr. Robinson also talks about how in the past before ADHD was diagnosed, they would say that if this girl wouldn’t sit still, they were a dancer. This girl went on and created musical plays that are watched and enjoyed around the world. Children use their creativity towards their imagination, and their imagination is used when they read and write. There are things that a fact that all children and adults should know is true, but when it comes to fiction and imagination, creativity should be allowed in the world and minds of every child. Creativity is a child.

I agree on when Mr. Robinson said, ‘you can’t be creative unless you are prepared to be wrong. ‘Children can make the most magnificent ideas and perception on how they see things. Schools are starting to take more creative classes, like music, art, and drama out of schools and pushing the more academic classes like math, English, History, and Science classes as the major classes. I was in school musicals and chorus from elementary school to college and the creativity that I got by this was entwined with my English and math classes. For example, to help interpret answers I used music and art to help me understand better.


Vicki Davis: Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis talks about how she interacted into her classroom with technology and blogs so they can learn from their classmates and from other students around the world. Ms. Davis’ explains that using Google Docs can allow the accurate material to reach each student to their needs. The part of this that I enjoyed hearing about is that the students are able to learn about technology by themselves or from other classmates as they are able to learn it. It also allowed them to connect to students around the world and see different cultures and how other students in different continents use technology.

What concerns me is, are we allowing too much technology in the classroom? I understand how using certain tools to learn about different cultures right from the mouths of those other students, but I don’t entirely agree with Ms. Davis when she said that using pencil and paper does not allow students to strive. You can turn on news stations and hear them tell parents how to limit their child's computer use in a single day. To me, I think that teaching students to learn this way is keeping an excuse to stay on so long to networks.