The article about “Rigor Redefined” by Tony Wagner made me think about the kinds of skills I am being taught in school. The article talked about the seven skills needed to survive in a 21st century work environment.
One skill in particular stood out to me was the first one critical thinking that is exactly what we are focusing on in my Freshmen English class. The article focused on the work part of critical thinking but it started in my mind to think about the life portion of thinking I remember when I was taught to think very linearly that is very superficial thinking. For example when doing my history homework during the 2008 election the homework was to write my thoughts on the election I was surprised to see that I didn’t really have an opinion since I was relating the election to homework I didn’t make my own opinion all I did was memorize the information to regurgitate it 3 months later for a final. Now that I have been through part of the course focusing on critical thinking and asking questions to formulate my own opinion I feel that now I am real human being since before I was just a person who was trained to listen memorize regurgitate and repeat instead of applying my knowledge to solve problems.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
I really must concur with Alex on his thoughts about video games and the emotional release they provide for people. About Mr.Thompson i do believe he is biased on his reports since 63 percent of the US's population plays video games. Link Here. Sure we have had incidents where kids have killed fellow class members it is very clear that video games alone weren't the only contributors to their madness. But their is also another thought that i want to share about video games and violence maybe someone who has been playing extremely violent video games and wants to take them to the next level would commit an act of violence. Notice these are people who have committed virtual crimes so much that their conscience has degraded so much as too not see the difference between reality and virtual video games.Anyways it is clear that if you play videogames that much as to not know the difference if you are commiting a virtual crime or a real one then you need help.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Power in Money
Today I was perusing my google reader and I came across a supposed insignificant topic the title read “Apple Battles Entrepreneur Over ‘Pod’ Trademark” by Brian X. Chen. The article was about a small business man who was fighting Applefor the right to use the 3 letter word pod on his video projector.
While I was reading this one question stood out to me “am I at a disadvantage because I have no money and therefore I’m supposed to be wrong?” This question about wealth struck me as being true since in common life the person with more money gets better education, treatment, and social status. The question implied about people with wealth deciding the rules and laws I also believe is true since the person without much wealth can’t really decide the social ethic and therefore the socially acceptable laws. This is why I am so glad I live in a country that allows the masses to vote on decisions even though the wealthy still dictate what is acceptable.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Mr.Fischs article about a Low Fidelity Education made me think about the education American kids get not as individuals but as a nation. As a nation are we incorporating online and hybrid classes to better American kids education because as Mr.Fisch pointed if someone else creates a better education system we might not like the outcome. I think that if Mr.fisch’s outcome comes true then the U.S. as a whole will not be capable of maintaining our status of a world power. This is because if we have smarter people from another country with higher education the people with the better education will get the better jobs and therefore that country who reinvented education will have a better economy and the country with more money will be the new ultimate world power.
Another point to consider is Mr. Fisch comparison of “low quality” mp3 compressed files with “high quality” uncompressed files in this example he compares the mp3's to online hybird classes and high quality files to our current face to face system. I must agree with Mr.Fisch that if we did make an education system right now our current system wouldn't look like the one we currently have. Although we can't really redesign our education system right now Does anybody have any ideas what a system outlined by Mr.Fischs article look like?
Another point to consider is Mr. Fisch comparison of “low quality” mp3 compressed files with “high quality” uncompressed files in this example he compares the mp3's to online hybird classes and high quality files to our current face to face system. I must agree with Mr.Fisch that if we did make an education system right now our current system wouldn't look like the one we currently have. Although we can't really redesign our education system right now Does anybody have any ideas what a system outlined by Mr.Fischs article look like?
Thursday, September 17, 2009
“Fed Ex lifts rates as Profits fail” that was the title of a BBC’s article which struck with awe because even though the economy is in shamble I hadn’t heard any news of shipping companies changing their rates.
As I kept reading about how Fed Ex has had problems with fuel surcharges my initial reaction was panic because most of the things that I buy are shipped to through Fed Ex or Us Mail with these prices going up so will the prices of the products. But I slowly realized that everything else has gone up too and maybe shipping rates won’t hurt me that bas after all.
As I kept reading about how Fed Ex has had problems with fuel surcharges my initial reaction was panic because most of the things that I buy are shipped to through Fed Ex or Us Mail with these prices going up so will the prices of the products. But I slowly realized that everything else has gone up too and maybe shipping rates won’t hurt me that bas after all.
The New Geek:Everyone
When I got home from school I booted up my computer and started to log onto my google reader and I noticed something which caught my eye in Mr.Fischs Fischbowl blog the title was “Linux on Netbooks and Whiskers on Kittens” being a linux user I was interested to see how schools were utilizing this operating system which I thought was only for advanced computer users and designers.
After reading about how Mr.Fisch modified a linux distro to power the EEE Netbooks. The idea struck me that as illustrated by Mr.Fisch in his “Did you know PowerPoint“change is happening right now. Just one year ago being a linux at least for me made me a computer genius but now the world has changed and everyone realizes that technology will be an essential art of our lives so learning to use it was not an uncross able boundary that only those who gave up their social lives could cross. As for the linux distribution, I have experienced its streamlined and more productive environment firsthand on my pc (I’m currently running Ubuntu, XP, Vista, Xubuntu, and Windows 7 beta on my computer) and I am very happy that the educational experts have decided to use this excellent OS. Maybe when the staff gets more accustomed to the linux terminal there could be a programming class taught by a staff member to further improve the current operating system. There would be many upsides to a class like this because not only would the students be challenged by the current software language but they would be learning essential skills for a 21st century work environment. It is clear that programming will be an invaluable skill in a work place run by computers (which nowadays is pretty much everywhere). I consider myself a technically adept person so the ideas conveyed by al my teachers of a constantly changing world intrigues me because that is the essence of programming constantly improving software and hardware.
After reading about how Mr.Fisch modified a linux distro to power the EEE Netbooks. The idea struck me that as illustrated by Mr.Fisch in his “Did you know PowerPoint“change is happening right now. Just one year ago being a linux at least for me made me a computer genius but now the world has changed and everyone realizes that technology will be an essential art of our lives so learning to use it was not an uncross able boundary that only those who gave up their social lives could cross. As for the linux distribution, I have experienced its streamlined and more productive environment firsthand on my pc (I’m currently running Ubuntu, XP, Vista, Xubuntu, and Windows 7 beta on my computer) and I am very happy that the educational experts have decided to use this excellent OS. Maybe when the staff gets more accustomed to the linux terminal there could be a programming class taught by a staff member to further improve the current operating system. There would be many upsides to a class like this because not only would the students be challenged by the current software language but they would be learning essential skills for a 21st century work environment. It is clear that programming will be an invaluable skill in a work place run by computers (which nowadays is pretty much everywhere). I consider myself a technically adept person so the ideas conveyed by al my teachers of a constantly changing world intrigues me because that is the essence of programming constantly improving software and hardware.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Phones In School
The video made by Michael Wesch and the article new literacy showed how technology is aiding students to become better writers. The video from Wesch clearly showed how the Internet is not only a way to look up information but now is a way to express an individual voice and to get help from people who a person would never be able to get help from because of distance.
The video made by Michael Wesch was imprinted very heavily on me because of my fascination for technology. The thought that we can create a network of people who aid us in our daily lives intrigues me because even though there are social networking sites that sometimes answer questions that we might have there is no actual resource that has experts in that field who are willing to teach us about their area of expertise at no cost to us. Furthermore the new literacy article showed me an unbiased side of texting and social networking and how this improves students writing skills. In Ms. Comp's english class we are implementing blogger to write responses to questions about our education and how we can impact the world this I think is proof that the Internet is no longer just information being looked at but is humans interacting and communicating through this tool. In the end what I actually carried away from these two presentations is that the internet is changing how we learn and how we express our opinion but can still let us conserve our literacy.
The video made by Michael Wesch was imprinted very heavily on me because of my fascination for technology. The thought that we can create a network of people who aid us in our daily lives intrigues me because even though there are social networking sites that sometimes answer questions that we might have there is no actual resource that has experts in that field who are willing to teach us about their area of expertise at no cost to us. Furthermore the new literacy article showed me an unbiased side of texting and social networking and how this improves students writing skills. In Ms. Comp's english class we are implementing blogger to write responses to questions about our education and how we can impact the world this I think is proof that the Internet is no longer just information being looked at but is humans interacting and communicating through this tool. In the end what I actually carried away from these two presentations is that the internet is changing how we learn and how we express our opinion but can still let us conserve our literacy.
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