The Article "Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner was about what the people who run businesses are looking for when they higher on new workers. The article then showed how well teachers are preparing students to get 21st century jobs. From reading this article I can tell that Wagner thinks that students are not being thought the right skills to get a 21st century job.
The skills that business leaders are looking for are:
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Collaboration and Leadership
Agility and Adaptivity
Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
Effective Oral and Written Communication
Accessing and Analyzing Information
Curiosity and Imagination
All of these things to me are basic skills that we are just not taught to use for ourselves. We are taught what all of them are but not how to use them. In the article a lot of the leaders said that it is easy for them to give the new workers the technical information, but the workers have to know what to do with the information. I agree with this, because they can teach them the technical information, but it is up to the worker to know what to do with it and be able to make it into something bigger. There was a quote in this article that really got me "Yesterday's answers won't solve today's problems." This is so very true in my opinion, and it really goes along with the new 21st century workplace. The quote goes with the 21st century workplace because information today is always changing and old answers don't cut it. So workers need to be able to come up with their own solution to the new problems. The whole workplace has changed, and there is more competition for jobs then ever before. So if students can learn some basic critical-thinking,writing and reasoning skills, they will be much more likely to get a well paying job.
I liked reading this article, because it seems that at least a few of the teachers at my school have taken articles like this to heart. They have changed their ways of teaching to help the students better succeed. Especially my English class where our teacher is really focusing on helping us to think for ourselves. Thinking for yourself seems like the base of all the things business heads are looking for. If more teachers would realize what its going to be like when we students do get in the real world, they would change their teaching styles to help us make it.
In the end its not really all up to the teachers to change their ways of teaching. We students should change our ways of learning too. By reading articles like this we can see what we need to know how to do. Then change our learning, so that no matter how the teacher teaches, we can take what we need to from the lesson.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
New meaning for Homesick
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2009/09/h1n1-skype-and-possible-tipping-point.html The article I read was from Mr.Fisch's the Fischbowl. This article was about how some students from our school, who had been sick. Were Skypeing into class from home.
This blog says a lot about students dedication to school and not wanting to miss anything that they absolutely don't have to. I have known that some kids who home school will watch a live class on a computer. But never have I thought of someone who just misses a few days to want to get everything set up so that they can watch their own class. To me this seems like one of the most useful tools all students have, that they can easily use. For some older kids especially, this would be useful because sometimes missing a class is not something you can easily make up. I would love to be able to try Skypeing into class someday.
Another reason why I was interested in this article is because it is just another way of showing how much technology is involved in our world. Some people don't even know that this type of technology is being used. Yet right here in our own school its happening. Most of the time this type of technology is being use to chat among friends or make videos, but here it is used in the most useful way possible. To me that is amazing.
Also when I read this blog it brought the 2020 video to mind because it had a lot in it about students going to school through a web cam. The students Fisch mentioned attended physical school, but think. Someday kids might be able to just watch all eight of their classes. I personally would not be interested in this, but I am sure many people who would be.
I liked reading this blog because it showed me a different level of commitment from students that I had never seen before. It also furthered my interests on how technology takes a big role in our lives.
This blog says a lot about students dedication to school and not wanting to miss anything that they absolutely don't have to. I have known that some kids who home school will watch a live class on a computer. But never have I thought of someone who just misses a few days to want to get everything set up so that they can watch their own class. To me this seems like one of the most useful tools all students have, that they can easily use. For some older kids especially, this would be useful because sometimes missing a class is not something you can easily make up. I would love to be able to try Skypeing into class someday.
Another reason why I was interested in this article is because it is just another way of showing how much technology is involved in our world. Some people don't even know that this type of technology is being used. Yet right here in our own school its happening. Most of the time this type of technology is being use to chat among friends or make videos, but here it is used in the most useful way possible. To me that is amazing.
Also when I read this blog it brought the 2020 video to mind because it had a lot in it about students going to school through a web cam. The students Fisch mentioned attended physical school, but think. Someday kids might be able to just watch all eight of their classes. I personally would not be interested in this, but I am sure many people who would be.
I liked reading this blog because it showed me a different level of commitment from students that I had never seen before. It also furthered my interests on how technology takes a big role in our lives.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Eee Pc's and you
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2009/08/linux-on-netbooks-and-whiskers-on.html
I read a blog from Mr.Fisch's The Fisch Bowl. The blog was mostly about the Eee Pc's that we have at our school. It was also about the software on them and how it came to be.
I thought this blog was relevant to education and our school. It is relevant to education because these lap tops are teaching us a new type of education mostly based on technology and Web 2.0. The lap tops are also very important to what I am doing right now. Our PLN's. It seems to me that the PLN's would have been much harder and more of a hassle if we did not have the Eee PC's. PLN's are very important to our education because they are all about being more technologically advanced. They are also a big part in Web 2.0, witch is obviously something that is a big part of our new age learning.
School ties into this whole thing because our school is why we have the PC's and why we are learning about Web 2.0. I think our school is very different from a lot of others because of how into new age learning we are. Mr. Fisch is probably a big reason that our school is the way that it is. He has showed us what has to change in order for us students to succeed in the real world when we get out of high school. Which brings me back to the lap tops. It would be hard for Mr. Fisch to teach us all about Web 2.0 if we did not have the Eee Pc's.
The Eee Pc's can bring up a lot of discussion about Web 2.0 and the new way that we are learning to learn. I do think that they are a big part in this new learning but definitely not everything. In the end it is us that using the computers and PLN's to extend our thought and push our writing. So the Eee Pc's are very important to our education and school because they help us to push our writing in new directions.
I read a blog from Mr.Fisch's The Fisch Bowl. The blog was mostly about the Eee Pc's that we have at our school. It was also about the software on them and how it came to be.
I thought this blog was relevant to education and our school. It is relevant to education because these lap tops are teaching us a new type of education mostly based on technology and Web 2.0. The lap tops are also very important to what I am doing right now. Our PLN's. It seems to me that the PLN's would have been much harder and more of a hassle if we did not have the Eee PC's. PLN's are very important to our education because they are all about being more technologically advanced. They are also a big part in Web 2.0, witch is obviously something that is a big part of our new age learning.
School ties into this whole thing because our school is why we have the PC's and why we are learning about Web 2.0. I think our school is very different from a lot of others because of how into new age learning we are. Mr. Fisch is probably a big reason that our school is the way that it is. He has showed us what has to change in order for us students to succeed in the real world when we get out of high school. Which brings me back to the lap tops. It would be hard for Mr. Fisch to teach us all about Web 2.0 if we did not have the Eee Pc's.
The Eee Pc's can bring up a lot of discussion about Web 2.0 and the new way that we are learning to learn. I do think that they are a big part in this new learning but definitely not everything. In the end it is us that using the computers and PLN's to extend our thought and push our writing. So the Eee Pc's are very important to our education and school because they help us to push our writing in new directions.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Three men can make a big impact
I read an article from the New York Times that was about three British men being sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up at least seven trans Atlantic airliners.
This article mostly struck me because three men were able to throw global airlines into complete chaos. They did not even do anything but they were still able to cause panic. I think the reason they caused so much panic is because of many terrorist plots have been uncovered in the past few years. Security levels have increased dramatically in all airports across the country.
This article shows though that the increased security must be working if they were able to sniff these three men out before they went aboard. It is nice to know that all of the increased security measures are actually working to keep people from committing terrorist attacks.
Still it shocks me how maybe just one man could claim to be bombing a plane. And all air traffic could be shut down for a whole day or two. I think that sometimes the US over reacts to things that are not even true. But then again in this story the British airlines may have over reacted but they also stopped three men from blowing up planes. This shows that sometimes it is good to be safe instead of sorry. It also shows that anyone can commit a crime. These men were from Britain and usually you don't hear of terrorist attacks coming from Britain but in this case they were British.
So what I took from this article is that it is better to be safe then sorry and that anyone can commit a crime.
This article mostly struck me because three men were able to throw global airlines into complete chaos. They did not even do anything but they were still able to cause panic. I think the reason they caused so much panic is because of many terrorist plots have been uncovered in the past few years. Security levels have increased dramatically in all airports across the country.
This article shows though that the increased security must be working if they were able to sniff these three men out before they went aboard. It is nice to know that all of the increased security measures are actually working to keep people from committing terrorist attacks.
Still it shocks me how maybe just one man could claim to be bombing a plane. And all air traffic could be shut down for a whole day or two. I think that sometimes the US over reacts to things that are not even true. But then again in this story the British airlines may have over reacted but they also stopped three men from blowing up planes. This shows that sometimes it is good to be safe instead of sorry. It also shows that anyone can commit a crime. These men were from Britain and usually you don't hear of terrorist attacks coming from Britain but in this case they were British.
So what I took from this article is that it is better to be safe then sorry and that anyone can commit a crime.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Textbooks are Hefty
The article from 2cents worth was about how textbooks are becoming a hassle in today's technologicaly advanced world. The one way that David Warlick solve this problem is to make textbooks smaller.
This article was not very long and did not go into much detail but I think that the problem of textbooks being to big is very relevant to the way kids are so into technology. Most all technology that we use on a daily bases is hand held. Kids do not like carrying around a 12 pound textbook in their backpacks all day. The article only had one answer to this problem but I think that there are many. One has already being put on the market and that is CD Rom books and online books. These two things are very useful and nice because we love to use technology and they are technology. Still I think that it is nice to have a book that you can carry around to use whenever you need. Thats why I like David Warlick's idea of have small textbooks. They would be lighter and take up less space in lockers and backpacks.
I belive that if text book companys want to keep producing and making money they are going to have to make some changes to their books. By making them smaller of lighter in someway. People may worry about being able to read the books when they are small but we can read the text message that we just recieved and our phones are usually no bigger then our hand. So it would be nice if something was done about those mean and heavy textbooks. My final vote though is to just get rid of them completely.
This article was not very long and did not go into much detail but I think that the problem of textbooks being to big is very relevant to the way kids are so into technology. Most all technology that we use on a daily bases is hand held. Kids do not like carrying around a 12 pound textbook in their backpacks all day. The article only had one answer to this problem but I think that there are many. One has already being put on the market and that is CD Rom books and online books. These two things are very useful and nice because we love to use technology and they are technology. Still I think that it is nice to have a book that you can carry around to use whenever you need. Thats why I like David Warlick's idea of have small textbooks. They would be lighter and take up less space in lockers and backpacks.
I belive that if text book companys want to keep producing and making money they are going to have to make some changes to their books. By making them smaller of lighter in someway. People may worry about being able to read the books when they are small but we can read the text message that we just recieved and our phones are usually no bigger then our hand. So it would be nice if something was done about those mean and heavy textbooks. My final vote though is to just get rid of them completely.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Web is becoming us.
To me the article was an intruduction to the the video "The Machines are Us/ing us. The article explained how the internet and technology have changed the way we write and think. The video showed how we have our own online world where we change the way writing is thought of.
This video and article have showed me how the web is not just a source of information anymore, it is a link between people and worlds. The whole globe would be mass chahos without the web. Web 2.0 is getting deeper into peoples lifes. Now days people dont just write something on the web for school or for work. People are taking time and working very hard just because they want to prove a point or help someone out. For instance people get on the internet and recap a tv show they just watched or do a video game walk through not because they have to but because they want to. When people get on the internet their writing improves because they are writing for a worldwide audience not just there english teacher. Its funny to me how people will be at school saying how much they hate to write. Then go home and post a new blog or comment on someones myspace. This says though that web2.0 is making people want to write. Writing on the computer is fun when compared to pencil and paper. With so much writing being done on the web, new forms of writing are being born. All of these things lead up to the history of writing being changed forever, web2.0 is about people communicating and understanding new things. We are the machine.
This video and article have showed me how the web is not just a source of information anymore, it is a link between people and worlds. The whole globe would be mass chahos without the web. Web 2.0 is getting deeper into peoples lifes. Now days people dont just write something on the web for school or for work. People are taking time and working very hard just because they want to prove a point or help someone out. For instance people get on the internet and recap a tv show they just watched or do a video game walk through not because they have to but because they want to. When people get on the internet their writing improves because they are writing for a worldwide audience not just there english teacher. Its funny to me how people will be at school saying how much they hate to write. Then go home and post a new blog or comment on someones myspace. This says though that web2.0 is making people want to write. Writing on the computer is fun when compared to pencil and paper. With so much writing being done on the web, new forms of writing are being born. All of these things lead up to the history of writing being changed forever, web2.0 is about people communicating and understanding new things. We are the machine.
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