Are We Learning the Important Stuff

          The article I read, abut future jobs and if students we’re learning the right things in school to be successful was called “Rigor Redefined” written by Tony Wagner.  This article points out many things that schools are, and have been doing wrong.  Students are being taught so much history and from writings and so many things that don’t even sink into our brains.  When questions are asked and no one knows the answer, it is just given to them.  Spoon-feeding answers does nothing to force us to actually focus and learn something.  This problem is not just because of the way we are being taught it’s also what we are being taught.  The study in this article shows that all the most important things looked for in getting a job, are about who you are and how you think.  There are 7 things jobs look for in a person:  Critical thinking abilities, leadership and collaboration, adaptability and flexibility, trying new things and taking risks, effective communication, analyzing critical information, and lastly questioning and imagination skills.  Rarely, any of these are brought up in classes.  School isn’t really enhancing any of these skills to really help us in our future careers.  So many of our classes just give students the answers the minute they don’t know them.  Doing this is not making us focus and work our mind the way we need to know how to in the future.  If schools really want us to be prepared they should be balancing the academic teachings along with the life skills that will bring us true success.  “It’s time to hold ourselves and all of our students to a new and higher standard of rigor, defined to 21^st- century criteria.”  This is a huge issue in the world today, and possibly an issue that can make or break many of our futures.

The MInds The Web

        In the video The Machine is Us/ing Us, Michael Wesch makes the point that we are what makes up the web, the web is using us.  The web uses the ideas of every individual in the world and shares it with everyone else.  The web isn’t anything without us, we made everything on it.  It is constantly changing as we change. The web is there to share personal ideas with the world and make them known.  One personal idea shared can lead to more ideas all over.  Eventually it will lead to something no one would have been able to think of on their own.  In the last line of the video Wesch makes a fantastic statement that really made me think.  He wrote, “We’ll need to rethink a few things…copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, aesthetics, rhetoric’s, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, and ourselves.” These are all ways we are linked to each other through the web.  The web can truly change who we are.  It gives everyone new ideas, even simple ones.  Ideas like how to dress, what to eat, what movie to see tomorrow, what books to read, anything and everything.  The ideas are endless when it comes to the web… and more ideas are yet to come! Without the web people wouldn’t be gaining any new ideas.  They would just have their own along with everyone else.  Nobody could add to it, or make it better.  The web is using us for each other.  People have ideas right now that are being shared, and added to… Maybe tomorrow because of the one small idea, one of the greatest inventions will be thought of.  We all have ideas that can be linked to other ideas, which can be linked to other people, which is a link to our future.

I believe...

          In the article Gays Win Rights Case Against Russia written by Thomas Grove and Amie Ferris-Rotman they talk about Nikolai Alexeyev; the gay rights activist, and how he made three cases with the court arguing that Russia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights.  This article caught my attention because I think everyone should fight for what they believe.  Especially something like Gay rights, if this is how these people want to live their lives, then it is their choice.  The government shouldn’t be able to take away their happiness.  What if the laws were switched… what if only gay marriages were legal?  What if you weren’t allowed to marry the person you loved because of gender?  I think if the government was affecting your happiness, the way it’s getting in the way of the gay couples, we would be unhappy to.  I would hope that rights were fought for in the same way they are being fought for now… If you believe in something get out and make it happen.  Don’t let anything hold you back!

          Some of our families best friends are homosexuals, it doesn’t change who the people are inside.  Why does it matter who they love? Personally I would rather be around someone who is happy in life.  Rather than be around someone who doesn’t enjoy life anymore, because of laws that say they can’t be with the one person he/she loves.  It’s almost like a different form of racism in the world.  Although most of my blog has a positive view on gay relationships I still don’t think it’s completely ok.  The Bible actually sees it as a sin deifying the way God created us.  God wanted man to be with a woman.  So I personally am against gay relationships, but I do believe people should do what makes them happy and fight for what they believe.  

      The article I read called “The Spoils of Happiness” written by David Sosa was about whether happiness is a state of mind or not.  This is a very debatable topic, but I believe it is not a state of mind.  What is happiness exactly? This is a question even philosopher’s struggle with.  The answer is completely different for everyone.  In the article, the author thought of a very unique example of showing happiness being a state of mind. “Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Super-duper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences? Of course, while in the tank you won’t know that you’re there; you’ll think that it’s all actually happening.” (Sosa)  So the main question through out the article was… would you plug in?  If you did plug into this experience machine, what would you get from it?  The only form of happiness it gives is false.  The only happiness we would see if we did plug in would be our aspirations, or what we want to be happy about.  We aren’t really making new friends, or making a real family, or going to your daughter’s ballet performance, it would all be false.  This unreal happiness which is just a state of mind comes nowhere close to the value of real happiness.  The moment you unplug, you wouldn’t have those friends in your mind, or the family in your mind anymore.  They would be gone because they weren’t ever really there.  The point I’m trying to make of all of this is, happiness isn’t a state of mind.  Happiness has everything to do with your surroundings.  Happiness comes from things that actually, physically happen.  If absolutely nothing was going on, the world was completely blank what would you be happy about? Although what’s going on around you affects your emotions, you do have the choice to look at the opposite point of it.  In happiness there can always come something negative, It just depends on what side you want to look at.  In conclusion I believe that happiness doesn’t just come from nowhere, it comes from the world around you it just depends on whether or not the mind wants to perceive it as happiness.

Stepping into the World that Everybody is a Part of

     I was just reading an article called “Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson.  In it there were some excellent points about how the internet can be a fantastic way for kids of all ages to enhance their learning.  One of the best points made was how networks can help kids share their passions, and connect with others with the same passions.  For example: A teacher in Atlanta stood up and shared his passion for mountain biking, on a unicycle; although he is not a child, his network helped him connect with others around the world that had the same interests and passions as him.  One more fantastic example of sharing passions and later connecting is, Laura.  Laura made a blog to honor her grandfather that died.  Her blog was called “Twenty-Five Days to Make a Difference” and she decided to do one good deed a day.  Later on, other bloggers saw her posts and soon enough, she had communities around the world supporting her.  

            There are also many other educational, good, reasons for kids to get involved online and with networks.  One reason, to work technology into a student’s life is to teach them how to use it properly.  It can help students create certain networks in their mind, and online that help them learn more efficiently.  Teaching them how to be ethical and safe while doing this is also a huge part.  Information put online can never be completely erased; it will somehow always be there for people to see. For example: Facebook, even though it says you’re deleting the picture or the status, it isn’t really gone.  It just went and hid so it couldn’t be seen easily, if someone wanted to find the “deleted” picture it would be there for them still.  So safety and caution while building a network is very important.  In conclusion, using the recourses we now have to improve our learning is mandatory,  we still should build our knowledge with writing and reading normally, but  being able to connect with others and see things in a different way can really help us in the long-run.  

Don't Blink! You Might Miss Your Childhood.

In the article “Kids Today Are Growing Up Way Too Fast” by Kay S. Hymowitz is about how the statistic in non-physical growth of kids has changed.  Kids have increasingly matured over the years. "The 12- to 14-year-olds of yesterday are the 10- to 12-'s of today," says Bruce Friend, Today by the time kids are12 years old they are describing themselves as being "flirtatious, sexy, trendy, athletic, and cool.”  Says The Nickelodeon-Yankelovicht Youth Monitor.  Things like brands and styles of clothes, perfume scents, and names of make-up.  These things are part of what is influencing the average child.  This gradual change is not just about fashion though, their is stage of life that most 15 year olds start going through.  “The rebellion stage” and now 7^th and 8^th graders are going through it.  They are about 3 years ahead of schedule on this.  Also the ages kids start getting into sexual activities is ridiculous!  Kids don’t realize the dangers of these things, most of them think of it as “just fooling around.”  I think the idea that it is ok to do things like this, comes from all the media, the song lyrics, the movies and the magazine headlines that tell us that “it’s ok”, and “who cares if its dangerous, it’s still fun.”   The sad thing is, kids believe it, and buy into, without giving it a second thought.  Just like the abuse of drugs and alcohol.  In the past ten years the statistics of 8^th graders that have smoked marijuana has doubled! The even worse part is they don’t find anything wrong with that either.  They don’t care that they could be fined thousands of dollars, or charged as a juvenile delinquent.  They don’t care that they are putting their bodies in jeopardy with each drink or each breath.  Sometimes I wish I could just make others realize what they are really doing.  The change isn’t just about the kids rebelling though.  So many girls these days see the girl on the cover of the magazine and want to be just like her.  They don’t look at the fake air brushed skin, or the ten pounds the camera took off of her.  They just get more and more insecure, which leads to anorexia and eating disorders, which leads to not having the nutrition to grow correctly.  This also is extremely heart breaking because what they want to look like is impossible!  Nobody really looks like that! In conclusion what I’m trying to say is that the youth today is trying to be so much older than they are.  There are so many reasons for it too, the lack of parenting in some children, the media that they see everyday, and the pressure put on them by their friends to do things they know isn’t right.  A middle-school science teacher from Harrisburg, Pa. "That's two years less time to discover what they are, what they believe, to experiment with identity. Instead, they want to be like their friends."  Parents are right… we are growing up to darn fast. 

Our Brains Could Be Taken Over!

      In the article by Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” was about what the internet is doing to our minds, and if it’s really helping us or if it is just giving us artificial intelligence.  The very first point the article gets into is how the internet is making it harder for your mind to get into long texts, or long books.  The article was saying that we lose interest and get bored after reading 3 or so pages of a book.  Our minds have gotten so accustomed to short to the point texts, and our minds lose interest after reading too long.  So I started thinking about this and I thought, if we are given the option to go read 4 huge books to finish your history research, or get online to quick search exactly what you need, what do you think you’re going to do?  Of course you’re just going to get online and search what you need.  Some people are saying that making things so quick and easy now, is altering our minds, and making them unable to focus and comprehend text for long periods of time. I personally think that search engines make our life a lot easier, because without them, we would get so much less done.  For example in an earlier video “A Vision of Students Today” by Michael Wesch, one of the girls in the video made a very true point.  She said that we all have to be multitaskers, if we weren’t we couldn’t get half the things we have to do, done.  Another girl said we have 24 hours in a day and there is more than 26.5 hours a day worth of stuff to be done.  So in my opinion I think search engines are one of the best things created, they help us get done the things we need done. 

            Later in the article it talks about Google creating artificial intelligence, and I don’t really agree with that.  Firstly, I don’t believe there is such a thing, because someone has to know what they’re talking about to put it online.  If nobody knew what something was, it wouldn’t be on the internet, so I think it is impossible for a computer to be smarter than human brains, everything online comes from human brains.  The other people that didn’t know, now are learning the exact same facts the first person knew, just through the internet, learning was made easier and makes the use of time more efficient.  Without it everyone would reading a 400 page books, to learn the exact same thing.  Now thanks to the internet, and the person that read the book it is just shortened down to save time and keep us interested in it, and we learn the exact same things. Secondly, I don’t think I could ever sit down and read 100 pages of a book in one sitting, and actually comprehend what I was reading even if internet wasn’t created, I don’t think internet is really affecting that, that’s just how my own, individual brain works.

            Although I disagree with some things in the article I did find some things to be interesting and true.  For example in the article Carr talked about how everything revolves around the internet.  We read on the internet, we listen to music, we watch T.V, we play games, we talk to friends, and share pictures.  Our lives are in these little machines.  Without my computer I couldn’t get half of my homework done, including this blog.  The internet really is almost everything that we need.  I also found it really interesting how real T.V and newspapers are almost like competing against the internet.  They use little blurbs and pop-ups to put little pieces of information out, and grab our attention, so we stay interested in it, just like the internet.  In conclusion, I thought this article was really interesting, and there are things I agree with like the fact our lives are in the computer, and I also disagreed with something’s like creating artificial intelligence.

Only There to Help

     In the article “New Schools in South Africa Serve the Underserved” written by Celia W. Dugger is about the education that’s being given to many African kids on the streets and in urban areas of Cape Town and all over South Africa. In these areas there is not much money to spend on kids educations, so they just don’t go. One of the best schooling systems in South Africa now is called Leap; they have classes that go from 8:15 am to 5:15 pm. In this school they are mainly focusing on Mathematics, Science, English and Life Orientation (L.O). In this Life Orientation class they talk about the personal problems that can derail their educations. For example one of the boys, Gcobani Mndini, a 17 year old now in the school system, was talking about how he has been in a gang since ninth grade. After years of denying that he was even in a gang, Gcobani said it was only in L.O. classes that he began facing the consequences of his choices, and realizing what he was doing.


     Hearing about this is really eye opening to me; kids my age are already getting killed in gang knife fights, just for the purpose of “fitting in.” Earlier on in the article, Gcobani said, “I joined the gang because I wanted to belong.” To me, that is one of the saddest things I’ve read. Nobody should have to risk their life to belong to the right group. What I find to be even worse, is this is happening all over the world, in every single city! People are destroying their lives, and their futures to belong to something. A question I just can’t wrap my mind around is, why would you trade your life to be a part of something for a short amount of time? There is so much potential in every single life! Why throw it away? To me that is just not right. Thankfully, at least in Gcobani’s case, something was there to help him. This new school is helping him and hundreds of other kids all over South Africa get through tough times. This is leading them on to a brighter future, with many more possibilities in the career field. This is also helping them get out of their predicaments.

     I think that school in general helps keep kids out of trouble, at least partially. School gives us less time to be irresponsible, especially if you’re playing sports. Busyness definitely gives us less time to make bad choices, because we’re constantly doing something. I think that the long school days that the kids in South Africa have at least minimizes the trouble they can get them selves into, along with all the other students around the world. Bad things like gangs are all over the world, but thankfully, just like the Leap program there are places around the world to try and correct everything that is happening. They are helping kids all over the world get the chance they deserve, and help them live out their full potential.

What Has This World Come to?!

       In the video, “A Vision of Students Today” produced by Michael Wesch, was portraying the average student, and how today’s technology is is affecting them. This video showed a lot of good consequences and bad consequences of how the technology is used today. The video gave a picture of how distracting the computer, cell phones, and iPods can be in a students situation. The video also showed how computers and other technology can help students learn; like with pictures, video’s, animations, and networks. Just like in class now… if we didn’t have technology we couldn’t do our blogs or watch the videos we learn from and see the important news that’s going on. Technology is a great thing, but if it isn’t used properly it can put us behind. Just like the video was showing, we spend so much time online Facebook chatting, talking/texting, watching TV, and listening to music, that we aren’t using our time efficiently, and the important things that need to be done, end up being at the bottom of the priority list. It almost makes me start to wonder if all the new technology was that great of an idea. I realize that it has a capability of majorly helping us, but if we aren’t using it to our advantage, then why do we need it? Before I saw this video, I never in a million years would have questioned if having a Facebook was a waste of time, but this has really made me think. I still do think that technology is a great thing, and I love my phone and Facebook, they are great ways to stay in touch with friends, family, business, ect… but I think as students we should focus on our top priorities and educations before we turn on the TV or start talking to our best friends about the days latest life news report. In conclusion, there isn’t really a side to choose… technology or no technology; I think it just depends on how we choose to use it.