The New Breed of Learners

            The Tony Wagner article Rigor Redefined shows that many schools these days are not teaching students the basic skills need to survive the shark infested waters of the business world. How to question, communication skills and, the ability to think are all characteristics that seemed to have jumped our generation. There are many things that can be blamed for this. Technology, like Facebook, texting, and Twitter make it so we don’t need to talk to people in person any more. Although technology is only thing we can blame it on, I believe another reason is the classroom environment has become more lecturing from teachers instead of the kids talking. I think our class does an amazing job of getting everybody’s opinion into the conversation and giving everyone the option to talk. This year I have learned to learn for myself, instead of being told what to learn. Sure sometimes I was wrong, but those times I was wrong helped me learn. If you learn from your mistakes you won’t commit them again. After looking through the seven characteristics a person should have to be successful I realized that most the people in our school have a grand total of about 4 of the 7. If we can make that statistic 7 out 7 I believe that we will be the most qualified workers in the business world in the next couple years.

The Web 2.0 World

The Michael Wesch video Web 2.0 … The machine is Us/ing Us explains how we are the web. It is a crazy thought that what I do may affect the web. That I, a 15-year-old boy in Colorado have the power to change something as big as the Internet. The web is an ever changing, ever expanding frontier. Anybody that has access to the Internet can leave a footprint. My sister, an 8 year old already knows how to explore the Internet very effectively. What does this mean for our future? Will younger children be put onto the Internet instead of classrooms? How will education be affected by the new outburst on technology? I believe that technology will start to control the way kids learn. This is good and bad. It is good because technology can help certain student learn better. It creates more quality work and creates skills that can be used in jobs later. It can also be bad. Many people become solely dependent on using the computer for work. Spelling and quality of handwriting will plummet if we only use computers. Also computers are a huge distraction during homework times. Facebook, YouTube, and other sites cause kids to become totally distracted. I believe if used wisely technology can be used for great things.

Which are you a Learner or a Student?

The article “ Are they Students or are they learners?” By David Warlick elaborates on the difference between a student and a learner. A few big problems we are having these days are kids are being lazy and becoming students instead of learners. A student is a child that only does their work because they are forced to by teachers or parents. A learner is a child that does their work well because they know it will help them later on in life. Also a learner learns for their own gain.  Today the amount of learners are decreasing at a sickening rate. This is due to the increases in distractions at home and in the classroom. Computers, cell phones, and other kids pose a huge distraction when it is time to do homework.  How can you expect kids to stay focused when there are so many other more interesting things to do? It’s like asking a kid not to play with a newly purchased toy. To create more learners we must create a distraction free environment where work can be done. A great example of this is in our library. In the library there is a section dedicated to quite work time. It shuts you away from all the noise and distractions.  To increase the productivity of students and make them learners we must create no distraction zones. If this is done we will learn better and become more efficient learners. 

To much Control?

                The New York Times article “In Sign of Discord, Iran Blocks Web Sites of Some Clerics” reveals the problem of no free speech in countries around the world. Two high school students had their websites banned by the government because they criticized the government. This frequently happens in countries all around the world. For example, China places internet blocks on all articles or media that criticize the government. This makes the people of those countries blind to what is happening around them. I don’t know what it would be like to live in a society where one bad word against your government could result in fines and prison time. I’m grateful that I live in a society that allows me to have an opinion and have a voice. In class we talk about questioning and its importance. In those countries you can’t question anything. You are told what to think, what to do and what to say. This is not a good way to live life because you can’t think for yourself. Your freedoms are totally destroyed and you become a slave to your government. People’s freedom of speech is a very important freedom. It is the first amendment in our constitution for a good reason. “Filtering their sites is precisely because of the public positions that they have taken,” said Muhammad Sahimi. How would you feel if you were a puppet controlled by your government? You wouldn’t be able to say or do anything that went against the beliefs of the government.

What is your footprint?

                The Educational Leadership article “Footprints in the Digital Age” by Will Richardson elaborated on the importance of your footprint on the cyber world. Is a footprint bad? No all the time. A footprint on the internet can be very helpful to a person’s life if it shows some of his or her good qualities. Employers look at the footprint of a possible employee before hiring them. This can be a great thing or it could be a horrible thing. If the employer sees that the possible employee is hard working, talented, and a good all around person, then they will have a good chance of sealing that job spot. On the other hand, if he sees you with a bottle of beer in your hand and dancing like a maniac he will throw your application right into the circular file (trash can). “That a quick surf through the top five hits will fail to astound with examples of her creativity, collaborative skills, and change-the-world work. Or even worse, that no links about her will come up at all.” The author of this article is worried that his kids either won’t have a good footprint or that they might not have a footprint at all. I can see why he is worried about them having a bad footprint; but I can’t see why is worried about them having not footprint at all. By them having no footprint they cannot be judge by the employer and will not be given a false image. Sometimes no image is better than a good one because it lets the employer see who they are really hiring. They are hiring a person not a picture.

                Now that we are in a technology based society we need to learn to learn through technology; but we also need to keep traditional methods alive. Kids these days are resorting to technology too. Spell check is a great tool, but it isn’t completely accurate. It doesn’t correct fragments, grammar, and homophones. Most kids including me don’t have that key editing quality. These errors cause the reader to be confused and it takes away from the main point of the paper. Great ideas can be destroyed by faulty fluency and spelling.

In this day and age we need to learn about technology, we need to learn with technology, and we need to keep a clean digital footprint to survive in the rapidly changing web 2.0 world around us. What will your footprint display?

Is abortion a crime?

The New York Times article “Many States in Mexico Crack Down on Abortion” by Elisabeth Malken sparked a few thoughts about abortion in my mind.

            Is abortion legal? This question still has not been completely answered. I believe it is a question solely answered by opinion. I believe that it is the women’s choice, but others think the unborn child has constitutional rights even though it is not born yet. I’ve seen this situation turn a regular conversation into a heated argument. It happened with my mom and brother when they were talking about a project he did about abortion. It went from a common conversation to an argument before I knew it. My mom never argues, but when they started talking about abortion she argued like her life depended on it. This article explains how women in Mexico are not legally allowed to have abortions. If they get an abortion they are charged with murder. “The woman came into the hospital, bleeding, scared and barely out of her teens. But before anyone would treat her, the authorities had to be called.” This woman had an illegal abortion and was not allowed to be treated until she was interrogated by the police. I believe that this is unfair to the woman. She is suffering and possibly dying and they won’t help her. “The fear of being investigated means that even some women who want to be pregnant but have complications or lose the baby have to think twice about going to a hospital,” said Nadine Goodman.  

The new style of reading

In the Atlantic article “Is Google Making us Stupid” by Nickolas Carr the author shows how the internet is changing the way we think and read. “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.” This quote shows how people can’t read long article anymore with our stopping for a break or rereading paragraphs that they skimmed earlier. I found myself doing the same thing as I read this article. I had to slow down and really try hard to even comprehend this lengthy article. Is this because of the internet? I don’t believe it is all due to the internet. I believe that new technology is the cause of this. People these days crave the easy way out of everything, and technology fulfills that craving. Instead of reading a book you can listen to a taped recording of a person reading it to you, or you can get a summery off of Spark notes. Instead of writing a letter to friend you can pull your cell phone out and text or call them. “I’m seeking convenience, but because the way I think has changed.” Is convenience a bad thing? Does it cause us to be lazy? I believe convenience causes us to become slightly lazier. Instead of reading a book to get information we log on to our computers and open up Google. The internet takes multiple hours off of homework each week, but what happens when you are taking the ACT and you can use a computer. Will you be able to read a long article and answer questions using your own brain? The internet is not all bad. In our time we must be able to multitask. Juggling school, family, sports, and other activities is not an easy task, but we must be able to do it. I believe the internet helps the user to multitask and to do research in a more effective way. The internet also helps to create opportunities for people all around the world. It promotes businesses, it helps people find jobs, and it helps get students into college. The internet can be a distraction or a life saver. It all depends on how you use it.