Please watch the video "Did You Know 3.0 ?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE
What is your reaction? In your opinion, is the video correct or
incorrect or biased? In what specific ways should the content of this
video impact education? Before September 6, add your thoughts in the
comments section. You are invited to comment on other colleagues'
comments.
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ReplyDeleteMy reaction to "Did You Know 3.0" is that it is mind-boggling! I thought it presented a lot of interesting statistical information in a concise manner, and it was cool and entertaining to watch. As far as the video being correct, I cannot offer any data to the contrary to refute anything said. I think it's pretty accurate, simply from my own experiences of watching the digital age flourish...what existed (and didn't) when I was in grade school, high school, college, and then during various jobs I had. I don't think the video is biased; I think it's just presenting the reality of how rapidly these technologies have impacted the world, and to what degree the impact has been. Regarding education, it certainly lays out a strong case for ensuring that students are technologically literate, and that staying on top of the 'latest and greatest' is an ongoing educational pursuit as well as a challenge. Looking ahead, it's fascinating to think of computers with "infinity and beyond" capability; however, I think that the human element should always maintain superiority. We might joke about HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey), but that kind of technology could be reality if the current pace keeps up! :)
ReplyDeleteOne thing that might be biased are the parts where it mentioned the sheer number of honors students in China and India, as compared to the U.S. I'm skeptical that that's an apples to apples comparison on how they gauge what constitutes an honor student. Further, it seems they're implying that it's due to technology. I think it would be difficult to quantify if and how a student becomes an honor student and how technology plays a part.
At any rate, the video should get educators thinking about what priorities should be in the classroom as we try to keep up with technological changes, and how we can best prepare students for whatever career paths they choose.
My first reaction was "duh." Of course there are more technologies and people using them now than in the 1980s because the internet, ipods, facebook, etc. are new! Part of increased technology use is a faster rate of communication, so it's no surprise that facebook became widespread more quickly than the radio. I think that although the information presented is correct, there is a bias toward pushing education into increased technology use. I think people forget that technology only goes as far as we take it, it's not some perpetual "being" that we are trying to keep up with. When it said that everything freshman learn is outdated by the time they are juniors, I feel that its incredibly biased. Not only does technology often build off itself (and therefore, not useless to know "old" technology), but technology is supposed to be the TOOL for learning, working, etc., not the endgoal. New technologies impact the way in which I can learn about science and in the way I can research, but it does not nullify the facts. No matter how much technology changes, a cell is still a cell, and that information is not outdated in 2 years. I believe students should learn new technologies as a vehicle for learning about science, math, language, etc., not necessarily as a field in and of itself. I feel that the technology industry is creating "need" for new technologies, just as the clothing industry cycles through what's "in fashion" to make money. Overall, although the job market is weighted heavily in technology, I don't think it's the education system's job to fill Apple or Gateway's employee quota, but rather to create well-rounded, knowledgeable, and engaged citizens.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this clip, I agree mostly with what Laura wrote. While the video states that we living in "exponential times", it does not explicitly state what that means. Yes, Facebook, did reach a 50 million person audience quicker than the radio. This is due in part to increased communication, stratification of resources, international cooperation, and cost. It is simply much less expensive to reach people (i.e. the world has become a smaller place) than it was in generations past. To me, this video is biased in that it paints technology as something the human race should fear . It intermittently sends the message that the human race cannot keep up with technology and that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will have surpassed the combined collaboration of the entire human race. How can such a statement possibly be valid? Technology IS truly what one makes of it; the person manipulating the technology is the in control. I can relate this directly to my subject area, French. While, yes, google translators exist and a multitude of software exist to do cheap interpreting/translating, most citizens do not know that these translations are usually grammatically incorrect and inappropriate. This is because mechanical translators do not understand speaker intent, motivation, audience, and idioms. Only the human brain understands these nuances because humans are the only creatures capable of oral and written communication. Therefore, I would've liked to see this video show the uniqueness of the human brain as it is its own "computer" that does not need improvement, but adapts to the changing times. The clip showed a brief flash that the modern human race computes and receives more information in a week's worth of news that the average person did in the 1800s. This is fascinating. Our brains did not slow down; it kept up with our environment's demands! Technology is the result of this challenge, not the endgame.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction to “Did You Know 3.0” was where and how did they end up with all of these figures. These figures do make me stop and think about how fast technology is advancing but I question how accurate they really are. I also agree with Dawn about the statistics that compare our students to those in China and India and wonder if that is truly accurate.
ReplyDeleteThe one stat that stuck out to me the most was, “For students starting a 4 year technical degree this means that….half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.” I do not think that is truly the case because even though the technology we use to learn or the technology someone uses at their job may change, the basic information and concepts of that position will not change completely.
I also laughed at the question, “To whom were these questions addressed BG?” because I think students are quick to just jump on Google to look something up and they believe the first thing they read on the Internet without considering the sources. At Burke I have already had students ask for the answer without even trying to answer the question and justifying why they chose it. It will be interesting to see how many changes take place in the classroom as we start our teaching careers. I believe technology will help us teach and it is important for us to stay up to date, but we must not forget that students still need to learn how to think critically, be accountable, and be responsible.
My initial reaction to the video was "great, more America bashing". But some of the statistics were eye-opening. I'm a little :) older than you guys so I've seen this rapid increase in personal technology from the outside looking in. It surprises me just how much people depend/use facebook, texting etc. I appreciate the benefits of the availability of the tech, but wonder to what extent some of it makes a positive contribution.
ReplyDeleteAs it relates to education, I agree that American students need to be well versed in cutting age technology, but I question how much emphasis should be placed on classroom learning of such a rapidly changing area. In order for America to stay on top, I feel that companies must invest in on the job education for their employees to stay current.
It's estimated that 4 exabytes of new information will be generated this year. This tells me that the role of teachers is becoming less and less about exposing kids to information than to teaching them which information to ignore--ie most of it...I've just noticed personally that so much of our information processing skills these days depends on sifting through the 99 percent of useless info out there and finding what you actually need to answer your problems. So many competing info sources vying for our attention...
ReplyDeleteAs far as the questions Laura raised, I agree that it's foolhardy to push technology for technology's sake...as educators I think we should focus more on the fundamentals of what we're trying to teach, which can be done with very few resources and little technology...
That said I think it's important to understand that technology is leveling the playing field...we are going to have to compete with China and India for a lot of jobs in the future, so we'd better make sure our schools are performing well, whatever it might be that we want our schools to accomplish.
John, I really enjoyed reading your post. I completely agree! There is so much information about there! Teachers now have the job to not only teach kids new concepts, we also need to teach them to discern between factual and inaccurate information. I also see this in my classroom frequently.
DeleteAlthough an interesting presentation, I am not really a huge fan of out of context, random facts.
ReplyDeleteI think the quote that “the top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004” really supplements what we were getting at in the first few class sessions. New technologies are constantly being invented, produced, and put on the market. Each time, someone has identified a problem and determined what they thought was the best possible solution. Each solution ends up causing its own problems and the cycle continues. It is almost impossible to know where we will be even in a few short years. I would like to know where they get the fact that “4 exabytes of UNIQUE information will be generated this year”. What classifies something as unique?
I don’t know that I would accuse any falsehoods in the information presented here, but I do think it may be biased toward someone with a technology background. The impact of the information in this presentation on education is huge and ever-changing. All I can really form an opinion on is what I see in the classroom today, but to stay afloat, the schools will have to keep up with every big change in the future.
Did you know that by the time I got done blogging about this, 790 babies were born in India. That is some fascinating stuff. I thought this video was very interesting because I like to see random stats like that. I was not surprised at all at some of the things that I saw in this video and I think it seem accurate based on what I see in our world today. I was not surprised at the number of honor students in India because I have encountered and had conversations with a lot of family friends who are international students at Bellevue University. All of them have indicated that school here is very easy for them as compared to when they were in India, and there is a lot more importance placed on school there. However, that does not necessarily mean that by default there are more honor students because the criteria to be an honor student vary especially the levels. Just because someone can catch an object thrown at them doesn't necessarily make them an athlete or a baseball player.
ReplyDeleteThe other fascinating thing I found in the video is the level of importance placed on technology. I think technology is great but to a certain extent it makes us lazier when it comes to thinking and doing simple things like correcting spelling errors or simple calculation. As much as technology helps us with a lot of things I still think sometimes it is important for us to still do things the old fashioned way. Anything that is man-made should not get to a point where humans cannot outsmart it.
Several posts critiqued the claim that by the third year of study in a technical field half of what they learned the first year will be outdated – I agree with most in that this is bias/not accurate. Within the realm of computer programming the key is to understanding how code functions and generalized terminology like class or stacks which apply to any programming language. Incidentally if you want to work for facebook they require that you know how to program C++ and Java, but of which have been around for significantly more than ten years. I found the comment about India having more honors students (apparently honor students are defined by being in the 75th percentile) than all students in the U.S. interesting. I believe that if India had an education system as well developed as ours they would actually have more honors students (defined by learned capability) than the whole of U.S. kids. This only serves as evidence that the U.S. must continually improve its education systems or it will fall behind the rest of the world in innovation of content areas comprised of substance.
ReplyDeleteThis video presented many pieces of statistical data. Some of this data I feel is biased and possibly incorrect. For example, I would hope that India and China have a higher rate of honors students, as their population is significantly larger than the United States.
ReplyDeleteI find it fascinating at how fast technology has grown in the past 10 years. However, with that growth, I believe it is important to realize that this technology is someone’s brilliant idea. The power of the human mind needs to be fostered in our classrooms. It should be emphasized that technology is a tool to help enhance our learning/educating-not replacing it. I know it is important to incorporate technology into the class to keep students engaged but I agree with Janine. My content area is Spanish and the use of the computer for interpretation/translation is 98%of the time incorrect. The art of having an oral conversation has only been mastered by human beings; and it is extremely difficult to use a computer to try and replicate that.
Overall I thought the video was interesting. I liked that it focused not just on the United States but also on a global front. I would have liked to see where they came up with their facts (not just Google right?).
I’ve seen videos like this before so this was nothing new for me. It’s always nice to see the updated numbers. I believe the video is bias. The content of the video is clearly pushing for the implementation of new technology in education because of the obvious impact it has had. Another reason I say this is because so many statistics are taken from a “sample” of the population it’s almost impossible to paint a perfect picture of the world. I’m not saying these statistics are way off, assuming there was some extensive research and that they aren’t taking a complete shot in the dark. On a side note, two years is a little quick to become completely outdated if you ask me… I know that technology plays an increasingly important role in our education system. I am very curious and anxious to see where we really are in 5 or 10 years, it could be absolutely insane or slightly disappointing. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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