Blog Post 4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?

Scott McLeod, J.D, Ph.D, and co-creator of the Did You Know (Shift Happens) video, wrote an AMAZING blog featuring the dangers of technology. In a very satirical way, Dr. McLeod encourages parents and educators not to expose their children to technology in order to avoid cyber-bullying, sexting, porn, and collaboration (which some call "cheating"). At the end of all of this, he says:

"don't do any of it, please



really

'cause I'm doing all of it with my kids

can't wait to see who has a leg up in a decade or two

can you?"

Aside from me LOVING the tone of this post, I think it is a great way of saying, "Yes, there are some bad aspects of technology, but how about we focus on the good?" There is much more good to technology than the bad that people tend to focus on.

The iSchool Initiative (Mobile Learning)

Travis's idea to learn via Apple's iTouch rather than in budget-cut, overcrowded classrooms, seemed like an interesting idea at first, since education is already headed in that direction. However upon reading the comments, I found the following statement:

"HashamFazli
11 months ago
there is so many flaws in this, what if the teachers ipod crashes, there goes alot of work, what if someone steals one.... what if they want to do homework, u cant take it from school since its school property. basic skills need to be learnt at school, this will make the next generation of students rely on poking a metal object instead of learning how to write and read from books. and from marketing this will ruin alot of business's, values on paper, school supplies and ipods will drop. causing a lot of people to go broke and less tax for the government"

I agree with the statement. A lot can go wrong with this initiative. Schools would be responsible for this expensive equipment. And technology isn't always the most reliable tool, as it can crash and delete important information. However if more thought was put into this, the iSchool Initiative would be a good idea.

Lost Generation

This was an amazing video!

The beginning featured a bunch of negative statements that I mostly disagreed with, yet saw the possibility of occurring in my generation. Workaholics only concerned with making money, who don't care about the importance of family, or care about the environment, were some of the negatives in the video.

"And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it."

When the video plays in reverse, all the negatives become positives. I believe this presentation gives viewers a more promising look at the future. "There is hope."

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

This was another mind blowing video! One man, Eric Whitacre, conducted a VIRTUAL CHOIR with dozens of people representing 12 countries. These people have never met. Simply through webcam did they put this video together.

I am utterly AMAZED at the skill, patience, just EVERYTHING it took for this video to be possible. It clearly isn't the same as being in the same room. I expected some delay, or some equipment to malfunction. But this was a beautifully made, beautifully performed project.