PLN 5 semester 2

In your article But Who Champion's Citizenship? I believe that those duties are left for society. I don't know if I am answering your question correctly but I feel like the answer to what I think you are asking is that certain life skills are taught not by those who teach us things that we learn in the classroom, but by those who are along the eternal link of generations and generations. People rely on what they were taught by their parents when they are cleaning a house or doing chores. Those skills are not taught by organizations like STEM. It is one of the rare few actions preserved by the simplicity of knowledge that is past on from parent to child. It is not a classroom taught topic. For though classrooms are the places at which complex knowledge is obtained, the only place to learn fundamental knowlege is outside the school on the street, in the home, or at a workplace. Certain things cannot be taught in classrooms. Self-expression, community awarness, etc. are things that the world alone can teach.

PLN 4 Semester 2

In your article Another Change in My Classroom Video, I agree and disagree with certain aspects of what the teacher had to say and what the video said. For one thing, I disagree that technology will help classrooms. From personal experience, laptops, despite school blocking and protection services, prove to be sources of game entertainment and fun for students. Although some aspects of laptops are good for students when it comes down to grade updates or assignments, they are an ailment to teachers in the classroom. This is true because the teacher cannot keep an eye on every last student's screen. This allows students to go right ahead and play games on "educational websites" that the school's blocking system does not block. On the other hand, I did agree that maybe teachers need to use different methods of teaching. Though not every student can be accomodated in this way, it is important for teachers to try a variety of teaching manners with different students. I personally am a very visual learner. I rescently had issues in my Algebra class because my teacher teaches not by writing on the board, but by explaining it verbally. It is needless to say my test grade sucked. In the video it showed a more interactive room set up. It allowed students to walk around and in the eyes of a student, and environment like this would be "cool". I think classrooms like this are a great idea. All in all, in this article there were certain things that i believe would prove beneficial and negative for the modern day classroom.

PLN 3 Semester 2

In your article Technology is still not the Answer in My Humble Opinion, I agree with you that technology is evading the purpose of education. In a world full of constant new technology, the youth of the world will do just about anything to get their hands on technological advanced devices. Technology snatches the minds of youth before education. I believe that technology is not becoming a help to education, but rather completely taking its place. America is ranked 14th in the current standings of education in different nations. Education is one of the leading causes of this I believe. I believe to get America back on track, education systems need to rid of all the worthless gadgets and go back to plain old boring pen and paper. Technology is not the answer to educational issues.

PLN 2 Semester 2

my computer is stupid so i have to paste the blog post as a comment

PLN 1 SEMESTER 2

In your article "No More Horescopes”, I agree with your point of view on worthless horoscopes in newspapers. In times like these that are full of such social and political turbulence, newspapers should be informing the public of controversial and important things happening in society and not giving them stupid sources of worthless, mindless entertainment. Entertainment like horoscopes captures the minds of America therefore drawing them away from what is important. To be rather frank, I believe a large amount of Americans have gotten to a point where critical information does not even phase them and they just want entertainment everywhere they go. It is the newspaper’s job to slowly draw the mindset of America to a more knowledge based place once again. Averaged out, on December 9, 2010, America was accurately ranked 14th on the education scale and dropping. I feel if newspapers changed what they were putting in each section, maybe America would get a wake-up call as to what is happening to their minds and realize horoscopes are not what they should be wasting their time on. Instead, they should be spending time on learning information that will make them smarter and prepared for the future and the world.

Sem. 2 PLN 1

The iArm I almost got for Christmas by David Warlick was a humorous article about how lazy technology is becoming. The iArm is basically a brace you clamp around you forearm. It has a little plate that you can put remotes on, food on, kindles on, and ipads on. It is basically an excuse not to use your hands. I believe technology is making society lazier and lazier because it has minimulized the amount of motion a human being needs to do to get what they want. This is eventually going to ruin our society I believe because it is stripping the humanity out of humans. When GOd made the world he did not intend for people to sit infront of a television with and iArm on so that they don't have to lean forward to get their food. I think it is ridiculous. Technology is making people lazier as time goes by which is and will continue to have a horrible effect on the human race.

PLN 23

I watched How Cognitive Surplus will Change the World by Clay Shirky. In this he talked about websites that make accessing constantly changing information easy. He mentioned a website that was constantly being updated for the news in Kenya. The website used maps and the information to make it more easy to understand. He also talked about how once easy websites like these start, it permanently changes society. This all matters to me because easy websites help me when I am in a rush to find certain information. This matters to the world because the world need websites that are quick to use and get the point accross fast. Lastly, it matters to education because society needs to be educated of worldly news like the news in kenya. The video was very informative.

PLN 22

I read Drawing on My (family) Past by David Warlick. In this he talked about how his uncles started building a book of his family's ancestral past and he is now building on it. This matters to me because I believe it would be cool to get to build on my family tree. I don't know much about my family's past so that would be interesting to do some research on. This matters to the world because so many people in the world don't know about there family tree. I think it would be beneficial to be aware of this in a family. This matters to education because maybe it would be a good connection while learning to know who your great great great great grandpa was during the revolutionary war! I enjoyed this article.

PLN 21

I watched Changing Education Paradigms by The RSAorg. This video talked about how medications and certain other parts of education won't work to assist students to be successful. I thought this was a good video because it described all the wrongs in our education. This matters to me because if I had issues sitting down for extended periods of time, I don't just want to be druged. This is not an answer I would like even considered. This matters to the world because these same students are who are going to be the work force and political leaders. We want these people to be somewhat educated. This matters to education because education is the force that is packaging us up to go lead the world unprepared and half-high!

PLN 20

I read Education Reform is Re-Establishing, Redefining, and Retooling by David Warlick. This talked about certain changes that should be made in the education world. David talked about how the education system is like the factory job he had for one year . His job was to make sure that the parts that were being made matched the blue print that he had for those peices. This is like schooling because it says that teachers act like students are the raw materials and graduated students are the final product and the teachers measure them to see if they match the blue print of what a student should be. This matters to me because I want to be measured for the progress I have made not the progress they think I should have made. This matters to the world because the world should be full of individuals who are good at certain things and not at others, not full of robots who are all alike. This matters to education the most because education is what is causing this contreversial topic!

PLN 18

go to a comment of it

PLN 19

I read "Lost in Electronica" by George Will. In this he talked about how life back then had it's peaks and vallies of boredom and excitement. Now life consists of only peaks. This occures mostly in boys. With television, texting, videogames, and computers, boys are constantly doing something. This matters to the world because boys i n the future will be the men leading our nation. I don't think that we want leaders that don't know what to do when they are bored. We want leaders that will take life by the horns and will do something useful during that free time. This matters to education because in our somewhat corrupt education system, we have technology absorbing our time. With computer based homework and required internet research, make it easy to get distracted while trying to do homework with things like facebook, youtube, and twitter. This matters to me because if boys are becoming too involved in technological devices maybe I should try to involve myself in less of those things and more in traditional entertainment.

PLN 17

I read "What If" by Karl Fisch. Although every article he writes does not fail to confuse me, I think it was about that technology today has been banned, but not truly from classrooms. He talked about how it is a rule to not use technological devices. Yet, we use them in classrooms every day. This matters to the world because we are growing up in a world that is constantly going against the rules. This matters to education because the education system is going against it's rules. "A house divided amoung itself cannot stand." -Teddy Roosevelt. This matters to me because I don't want to be growing up in a world that can't hold itself accountable to it's own rules.

PLN16

I read "Evans murder suspect still on the lam" by Howard Pankratz. In this he talked about a murder victim who they found a picture of. They wrote this so the public would look at the picture and identify the suspect. This made me think, am i constantly walking amoung unknow killers? Should I worry about my safety in common places? This matters to the world because all this bad stuff is happening in the world currently. This means that the world could possibly be filled with killers that have just still been around form old murders that cops and the llegal system have given up on and tossed into the folder cabnet of thousands of unsolve cases. This matters to the me because I don't want to have to wonder about things like this. I want to know that I sould be secure and safe in thins world that I live in. This matters to education because people should know about things like this and be informed sooner. Maybe they would have caught the person if the people had know about this situation sooner.

PLN 15

I read "Schools would be great if it weren't for the Kids" by Alfie Kohn. It talked a lot about what motivaties a student to do certain things. It said that if students are given an incentive for doing something, they will be more motivated to do it. This matters to the world because life won't always give us incentives for doing work so we might as well try not being so lazy as to need an incentive for doing a feat. This matters to me because if subconciously I have the same dismal tendencies, I should work on doing great things with out eraning an incentive for them. This matters to education because this bad tendecy will lead to a lot of laziness in the education department in our society.

PLN 14

For my free choice read, I read "Quatlities of an Effective Teacher" by David Warlick. In this he revised the words of a lady that wrote a paragraph on the qualities that a teacher should have. The qualities she seemed to believe are necessary in a teacher included all things that would have a positive affect on a student, instead of a negative one. For example, she said that flexibly generous was one of the things that she found necessary in a teacher intead of getting impatient with a student. This matter to the world because when teachers use the righst meathods of communication towards stuedents, it is the same kind of communication that students in the next generation will be learning from the previous generation. This matters to education the most, obviously, because teachers using these methods are effecting the education in a very positive manner. I think that parents should really try to find teachers like this for their children. This matterst to me because, personally, I would like to be learning from teachers that are having a positive effect on me not negative.

PLN 13

I read "Googley Advice" by Jonathan Rosenberg. In this, he discussed the characteristics necessary in a job and in the world. He said that analatical reasoning, communication skills, a willingness to experiment, team players, and passion for learning are neccessary features to have. This matters to me because I should learn to acquire these if I want a good job when I grow up. This matters to the world because people with these traits are what hold this world and work force in our nation together. This matters to education because maybe this is what we should be learning in out schools today. Not kindness and friendship. Even though those are also necessary in the world today.

PLN 12

I read "Challenging the Flow" by David Warlick. In this article, many controversial topics are aroused. For example, the main topic he wrote about was an author who approached writing in a much more different way than many other authors that we see in libraries today. That authors writing was seemingly confusing until you started understanding the points of view at which he was approaching characters. This is relevant to education because if teachers had the gut to go against the flow to find different useful methods that could be used in the classroom, then maybe we would have a more outstanding education program in the United States. I feel if Obama wants us as a nation to be higher ranked on the education chart, maybe adding days on to the week is not the answer. Maybe the answer is changing the way the students are learning. This matters to the world because if people in many different industries decided to change the way they go about things, the economy would be good. I feel if someone went against the flow as to look at things with a more positive eye, that would have a beneficial effect on society and the economy. I do agree that to a certain extent knowing about the bad things occurring right now is ok for a certain amount of awareness. I think that we need to go against the flow by being a positive light in a world of negative darkness. Lastly, this applies to me because while I am going to a high school in which many bad things are going on, it is good to go against the flow because if I choose to be a part in all the inapropriate junk that occures in schools, I will just be another student. But if I go against the flow as a positive influence, I will be a role model for many other students.

PLN 11

I read "2020 Vision" by Karl Fisch. His pridictions make him sound like a bit of a philosopher.In this he talked about what the future has in hold for us and how drastically education shall be changed in the future. This matters to the world because all these changes are happening in the world and in some of the things he talked about, environmentally the world will be altered. This matters to me because I will be growing up in this world of change and I will be a part of it. When it talked of all the electronic advancements, it is scary some of the things that now seem like dreams that will be probably a reality in the future. This matters to eduducation more than anything because it talked about all the changes that teachers and students deel with. He said that by 2017 there will be no grades and the only thing recorded will be student advancement instead of performance. Free laptops and other things will be given out for free and the whole educational program we have today will be old fashioned history!

PLN 10

I read, "Fort Collins woman missing under suspicious circumstances"by The Denver Post.(No specific author was listed.)This made me wonder why we have so much bad stuff going on in the world. Why can't we all feel safe in a society in which nobody gets hurt by another citizen. This matters to the world because we need a safer society. This matters to me because I do not want to grow up in a world that is crumbling down due to people who have a problem with staying as a law abiding citizen. I think that if our society keeps going in the direction it has been headed for the last 10 years, then I think by the time I am a llegal adult the world will be a chaotic one with out any morals or ethics. This matters to education because when we learn about the mistakes people made in the past, and we don't learn from them, our children's children's children will be learning about a war that will happen in 20 years from our stupid world's mistakes!