Week Two: Video Assignment- Thinking About the Future

The two videos I decided to pick and watch were John Seely Brown and Nichole Pinkard. 

The John Seely Brown video dove into John’s belief that there should be an extremely high importance placed on playing (gaming), and tinkering.  He also talked about the latest role of collaboration and collective expertise as it pertains to our students and society.  John described how we live in a constantly changing world and that in order for our youth to embrace change, and solve complex problems they will have to rely on tinkering, playing, and collaborating with others all made possible through digital media.  John stated that the “most important thing for kids growing up today is the love of embracing change.”  He says most if not all students believe, “if they aren’t learning, they aren’t having fun.  Learning is not something you do consciously, it is something you absorb.”  John Seely Brown did a tremendous job in my opinion of giving examples of how our students will do their most serious learning through experiences, integrating, and assimilating.  We live in a world of rapid change, but a world that has a short shelf life for everything, so it forces us to adapt, experiment, tinker, and absorb new ideas and knowledge.  The examples Mr. Brown gave of World of War Craft players and Maui Surfers were both interesting and hit home on some of his points.  World of War Craft players bottom line want to be measured, challenged, and strive for improvement.  They either adjust to the game changing or they change the game themselves.  They have certain strategies and do not run from change, but instead embrace it.  All of these skills learned through this game directly correlate to skills needed in our society.  Maui is not known for famous surfers, but four surfers recently made it big and Mr. Brown found out how.  For one they all compete with one another in order to push each other to get better.  They create new moves, analyze, build ideas, and have a passion for trying new moves and succeeding in the water.  The surfers constantly study surfing moves on the web and then collaborate on ways to incorporate these moves into their repertoire.  Digital media allows these surfers an opportunity to hone their skills and share their own moves with others around the world.  As Mr. Brown said, “tinkering brings thought and action together in very powerful and magical ways.”

Nichole Pinkard is the founder of DYN (Digital Youth Network) a program that reflects the importance of media literacy for 21^st century education in America.  In this program, the youth of Chicago are given the opportunity to use technology in order to gain competence with digital media and use it as an outlet to succeed moving forward in society.  Ms. Pinkard believes that if one is technology savvy/educated, they are literate in a world today that relies on technology.  The DYN has programs including You Media and Remix Learning that offer chances for students to learn and explore.  You Media is a High School (9-12^th graders) digital only space located in the Chicago Library where teens can go to experiment, learn, and be mentored by certified digital mentors/librarians certified to help these teens grow in the technology environment.  Remix Learning is a social network where 24/7 students can interact with other students everywhere and share ideas.  These outlets provide the students with the tools and inspiration to become media literate and develop skill sets for not only themselves, but for society as well.  In many cases the students end up becoming digital mentors where they get an opportunity to be professional, support fellow students, and receive money for their skills.  Ms. Pinkard believes that one of the main reasons for past failures in technology integration is that teachers are trying to teach students, and many times the students know more than the teachers about technology.  The students are not given the chance to explore on their own or do not have the tools available to succeed in a technology-based world. 

The videos I chose have concepts from Bloom’s Taxonomy Blooms Digitally apparent in several places.  There are many concepts highlighted in Andrew Churches’s article under the various categories that I found in the videos from John Seely Brown and Nichole Pinkard.  

-Remembering: social networking, searching or “googling”

-Understanding: commenting

-Applying: running and operating, playing, uploading and sharing, editing

-Analyzing: linking

-Evaluating: posting, testing, collaborating and networking

-Creating: publishing, videocasting, mixing, remixing, filming, directing and producing

In Mr. Brown’s video, he talked in length about how the World of War Craft players have to question/analyze strategies, and introduce higher order thinking.  They remember past strategies, learn to understand why people make certain moves, analyze and evaluate these moves, before creating their final conclusions/decisions.  The same can be said of the Maui surfers.  They all videotape and test out their own moves, then upload their videos onto the internet/web in order to share ideas with other surfers.  They then collaboratively decide on ways to improve their moves and succeed moving forward, before finally creating unique moves and directing their futures.  In Ms. Pinkard’s video, the students are given social networking opportunities through Remix learning.  They can make comments on this platform 24/7 and upload and share thoughts with other students from around the world.  They can test and post ideas, as well as take part in videocasting, filming, and recorded singing, poem reciting, etc.  All of these skills fall directly under the Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order Thinking Skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy.  The practices alluded to in these videos hits on the approaches we have discussed in class in relationship to the 21^st century technology/digital media importance.  Our classrooms are already changing and will change significantly in the future due to constant additions/changes in the technology field.  Our society relies on various pieces of technology and our students will be using these technologies moving forward.  It is our job as teachers to embrace this change, and not deny future changes.  Finding the best ways to incorporate technology into the classroom will help our students succeed in a technology-based society.

Week One: Article Two

1)      I found many things interesting about Daniel Pink’s article entitled Revenge of the Right Brain.  For one, I completely agree with Mr. Pink that there has been a shift or should be a shift of focus in our society in relationship to the workforce, how one obtains a job, and where we should focus our energies moving forward.  In the past, many people would put all of their focus into studying hard in school, and then pursuing a career based off of their stronger subject areas.  You were evaluated on your ability to acquire and apply knowledge learned in the classroom.  As Mr. Pink states, “this was the path to professional success and personal fulfillment.”  Now there has been more of a shift towards creativeness, artistry, empathy, and seeing the big picture amongst other things.  The left-side of our brains dominated our thinking and drove our career paths.  Now though, the right-side of brains are not taking a back seat so to speak to the left-sides of our brains. 

As Mr. Pink alludes to, changes in society have caused this shift to take place in our brains and by looking at the examples he used of Asia, automation, and abundance, it helped open my eyes.  Many Americans have and/or will lose their jobs to men and women overseas, because they do not require as much money to do left-brain work such as American tax returns, help lines for most of our electronic and technical equipment, etc.  Outsourcing has been on the rise and will continue to be on the rise.  Americans in the workforce are also being replaced by computer applications and technological advances.  If a computer can do something quick and easy, Americans will use it.  The problem with this though is that these programs are replacing people’s jobs.  For example, many people think to themselves, “why should I hire an accountant to do my taxes for a large sum of money, when I can do it myself with TurboTax?”  Finally, most people buy, buy, buy in our society without even blinking.  With quick swipe credit and debit cards, online shopping, and other marketing ideas, buying a new television or piece of furniture is only a swipe or click away.  What has this led to: a society that is overloaded with a lot of junk.  We have an abundance of everything.  We as consumers have many wants, needs, preferences and this has turned into a major problem.  Many times the more expensive product is purchased just because it has some designer’s name on it.  This is all the right side of our brains subliminally demanding beauty, and emotion.  I found this article to be interesting for one because I agree with Daniel Pink.  He made several points that made me say to myself, “he is exactly right.”  We as Americans are moving (if we haven’t already) into a society that needs us and is calling upon us to use both sides of our brains more than ever.  Many people are scratching their heads as to why so many people are without jobs, hurting for money, or struggling to survive.  Reading Daniel Pink’s article helped me see some of the reasons why this is occurring and what we need to do in order to succeed in the future: Look to the right side of the brain!

2)      The only questions I really would have about this article are that I am very curious on the research that is out there regarding brain function and how it plays a role in our lives.  Obviously Mr. Pink hit on the point that researchers have found out which sides of the brain handle which responsibilities/functions, but I would love to know the statistics/percentages as to which side is used more, in what circumstances, etc.  Mr. Pink used only a couple statistics to backup his backup his thoughts/opinions, but I have questions on the validity of his arguments without seeing the research to back it up.  I want to know what percentage of jobs use more functions of the left-side of the brain everyday compared to right-side of the brain functions.  I also want to know exactly the evolution of creative expression.  Are there more jobs out there that require creativeness, or jobs where emotion is extremely important in the decision making process now as compared to ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago?

3)   I don’t have any recommendations for what the author should change about an article they wrote, because this is his thoughts and opinions and he is entitled to his beliefs on the current state of our society and how he sees the future of our society.  Although I might try to include more statistics to backup my argument/opinions, once again this article is just how he sees our society changing.  Whenever I read an article, story, or book, after I finish, I develop my own thoughts and opinions.  Sometimes I completely agree, while other times I completely disagree with what the author has to say.  Sometimes I agree with some points of the article, while other times I agree with little to no points of the article. In my opinion this is what is so great about reading and reacting.  One of the great parts of our society is that everyone is entitled to their own set of opinions and beliefs.  For the most part in this article I completely agree with what Daniel Pink had to say: We as Americans are losing jobs to foreigners and have to make some changes in how we educate our children/society moving forward.  We are a society that feeds off of abundance.  Most people I know have what they want, but way more than what they need.  Finally, technology rules how we live our lives now, and instead of denying that, we need to embrace this and understand it is reality.  Computers can do many things better and faster than humans can, so it is up to us to find ways to use the right side of our brains, because we will have to rely on the right side more than ever.