February 28, 2010

This Is How We Dream

Ummmm.... What? I'm sorry, I have listened to this video about 4 times now, and I still don't think I have captured what he is trying to talk about. I really can't pick out what he is trying to say or what his goal was speaking about. I don't think I am the right person to summarize or even discuss what he was speaking about. I heard him talking about bots that surf the net for similar information, and saw him playing with some software looking to merge science with humanities in making a green building. However, other than that, I seriously haven't the slightest clue what I was supposed to take from that. If you have an idea of what it was about, please, PLEASE enlighten me.

The Networked Students

I seriously loved this video. It was extremely creative, the message was very clear and the video was fun to watch. If this was presented to children, if their attention spans are high enough, it could be a great tool to show them how helpful a network is from a very young age. The social web was probably the best part about the whole video. It started with one person who was interested in something, which connected him to other people with the same interests and buildings/organizations with the same interests. Very intriguing!

The best part about networks is that when you are connected to someone based on a common interest, you may gain interest in something else that the other person is interested in. For instance, say you were connected to someone because you enjoy a certain kind of literature, if they start reading something else, but completely unrelated to your usual discussion, and would never pick up to read on your own, their interest in it may make you consider it and read it and enjoy it! That in turn will grant you access to an entirely new network of interest, connecting you to a completely new set of people with all new interests. Now, imagine if this is based on a network you start at a very young age. That small flake of snow, could grow into a HUGE blizzard by the time they hit college!

New Media Literacies

That was a very interesting video. It was very short, yet it got its message across. Media literacy seems to be a very complex idea. It's all about taking what you have in internet, social networking, cellular technology, and television and using them to your advantage wisely. The video listed many skills that will be the new norms for media literacy, such as: judgment, negotiation, play, simulation, visualization, and multi-tasking, just to list a few of them.

What do I think of them?
I think they are brilliant and absolutely right. These traits will easily be what the workers of the future will have to have to be successful.

Will these skills be effective in the real world?
Absolutely. Again, the traits listed will be what workers will have to have to be successful. For instance, multi-tasking will be important as people will want a person who can do more in less time. "Oh so you can type 80 words a minute? Well this guy can type 70 words a minute, while making supply orders for the office, and filing all of the office's case files." Guess who is getting the job.

Do I have any of these traits?
Most. I have a very playful and creative mind. I am a great speaker for negotiating, I can multi-task with the best of them, I have great judgment, and my performance is pretty amazing as well. I have more, but I really can't think of a way to speak about them without sounding like I'm bragging about myself.

I have the skills, and the drive to do well in the world. I just have to find a goal for it to lead me to. Any skills that I lack, I usually find a way to achieve it, or I have a connection that can get it done for me. Either way, in my hands, it will get done. The potential is there, but the catalyst to start the reaction has not been found yet.

Shifting from Kids to Teachers

After commenting on peers and students for the past several weeks, seeing what the teachers post is COMPLETELY different. When commenting for Noah, he had a single picture of this ridiculously psychotic vehicle that will go from 0-600 (not 60, 600) in a minute. Not the most traffic friendly vehicle I have seen, but it's existence is impressive. However, Teachernz has rows among rows of pictures and videos of the things they do with and for their students and class trips and I think I even saw one with a personal trip. Regardless, even the content of the blogs were different. Not to say that I expected them to be similar given the age and education difference, but I guess the amount of information that was posted was a huge change. I suppose it wasn't that there was more than the child's post that surprised me, it was how much more that threw me for a loop. However, I must say, the instructor's was more interesting with a lot more to do. I wonder if Noah will blog that well one day.