It took me a very long time to actually get into these videos. I tried probably three different times, and with life as difficult as it is right now I would fall asleep to every video (thats why I just don’t have cable anymore, it puts me right to sleep). I ended up watching the Bill Gates, Ken Robinson, and Evan Williams videos. I would have to say my favorite video was the Twitter presentation by Evan Williams, only because it was the shortest. My second favorite was the presentation on Creativity presented by Ken Robinson and this was because of the way he presented very good points but at the same time using comedy, keeping me somewhat engaged. The Bill Gates presentation is the one that was hardest for me to get into, I really do not care to hear a presentation on Malaria. Although, once I fast fowarded to the education section I then became more interested.
I’ll start with my favorite, the Twitter presentation. I’ve been so busy in life that I always see these new technology assignments as a hassle, and I never give them the benefit of the doubt. I immedietly say to myself, “I don’t have time for this, nor do I think it serves a purspose in my busy life right now.” (This class would be soo much fun to take in the summer, with no other school work going on!!.) The truth is after viewing Evan William’s presentation on Twitter, I can see the purpose in such a tool. When I signed up for a twitter account I thought to myself or probably stated out loud, “why on earth do I need random people knowing what I’m doing with my day?” I saw Twitter as a status updater for stating what I am doing with my day. In fact the day before watching the video somebody asked me if I had heard of Twitter and what I think of it. I said “I personally think it is pointless.” I learned to do some research before immedietly shutting something down, because now that I viewed the video I do see a purpose in Twitter. It’s not a tool to update people what you are doing every second of the day, it is a tool to update people of useful information. For an example, after Evan Williams finished his presentation he already had many people twitter about his presentation. The twittering done enabled him to know what was good and bad about his presentation, what people were confused about and left wondering, etc. I want to get my sister and family members using twitter so we can get updates on my niece who lives far away. My sister just doesn’t have the time to call all of us and give us the little details about Delaney’s day. With twitter she could update us all at the same time. I have searched Twitter on the WLUCTV website to find what their twitter name was. Under the article, one person expressed concern in the reasoning for Twitter. I commented back and gave the twitter link for them to view, to better understand the use in the site.
Ok now on to Ken Robinson (what a comedian!). My favorite two quotes in Ken’s presentatoin was “if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” and “we don’t grow into creativity…we are educated out of it.” I was able to connect this video with myself, someone with absolutely zero creativity. It is very true that I am never willing to give creativeness a try, as I believe I will fail. I am worried about being compared to others, being laughed at, or just outright not being able to do what I have imagined in my head. I’m down right worried I’ll “fail” or “be wrong,” when really with creativity, there is no right or wrong. If something is an original then how can it be compared to other things or be classified as bad or good, right or wrong, etc.? I never blaimed education on my lack of creativity, but now i can see why that would be a good excuse. Even in the grade school I observe at, their creativeness is limited. Rather than being told to create their own Easter eggs this week, the teacher had an egg already printed out with designs already on it. The students just needed to color in the eggs. These are third grade students and they would have been perfectly capable of creating their own easter eggs from scratch, they each would have been more original and creative. Who wants to view 24 of very similar art works anyways, when each student could have created their very own art? It’s even worse when you get into the older grades, in some schools it seems non-existing. The world is so focused on the curriculum, and creativity doesn’t seem to be one of the expectations (I could be wrong). In high school I was enrolled in band for two years, and even then I had no opportunity to be creative. I had to follow exactly what the music sheet and director told me. I was playing other people’s creative music, not my own. All my other classes were so straight foward and planned out by the state guidelines that I most definetely was never given the opportunity to try to be creative. Creativity is so important for so many reasons. Creativity is what can allow us to be ourselves, and create a world of variety.
Lastly, let me talk about the presentation given by Bill Gates. I’m going to be completely honest I agree with almost everything Bill Gates had stated about education in his presentation, especially due to the fact that most of it was statistics that he obviously did not make up. I was not at all angered by the video, I’m glad someone is willing to tell the truth. I know many of my classmates are going to completely hate me for believing and agreeing with everything Bill said, but let’s face it the man is a genius and he’s just trying to better the education systems. The quote that should have upset me but didn’t was, “once somebody has taught for three years, their teacher quality does not change thereafter.” In one way I can believe this, and in another point of view I can defend this. I think when a teacher is in their first three years of educating, they are the most dedicated, refreshed, and willing to make their teaching the best it can be. Newest teachers are going to try their hardest at being that ”good teacher” right off the bat during their first job as an educator. After they warm up to their job, that dedication, refreshment, and willingness goes out the window and everything becomes a pattern that is followed from then on out. They become comfortable with their career and someteimes comfortableness can lead to laziness. Now in defense to the comment, I can’t see how a teacher’s quality can not increase because they are constantly learning the new tricks of the trade with their experiences with a variety of different students. My question is are these tricks those that make their job easier and classroom more manageable, or are they tricks that make their quality of teaching better? With all honestly, I think I would choose that after years of educating, teachers learn better tricks to manage their class but not necessarily teach better quality information.
