My Thoughts On Sir Robinson's Speech

I just watched a video online with a speech given by a man named Sir Ken Robinson. His speech was entitled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" For those that want to check out the video presentation here's the link: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Sir Robinson had a lot of very good points. I beleive he made a very good observation when he stated that the "education system has mined our minds of the commodities it wants". I agree with Sir Robinson on this point. From my experience in school, it did not matter what you thought as a student, it only mattered what the teacher said. Sir Robinson was speaking at an education conference. He identified the three themes of the conference which were human creativity, unpredictability in regaurds to the future, and that children have extrodinary abilities. Sir Robinson spoke about the ability of children to be creative from brith but that the education system teaches them to bridle that creativity. He also gave two points on the hierchy of education which are primary emphasis placed on acedemic ability and that the most useful subjects for an industrial society are placed on top of all other subjects. He lastly spoke about three aspects of intelligence. He said intelligence was diverse, dynamic, and distinct. Overall I found Sir Robinsons speech to be very in formative and insightful. I agree with him on many aspects and I believe with him that children should be encouraged more often to be creative. All educational subjects should carry equal weight in our schools.

My Thoughts On Twitter

Twitter is one of the many new social networking sites that has become popular on the Internet in the last three to five years. I first heard of Twitter from watching the Fox News Channel. The news anchors were constantly talking about the comments they were receiving, live, from viewers. This seemed interesting to me but I still did not know what Twitter was. While in EDM 310, my Professor, Dr. Strange, began to talk about Twitter and it's possible uses in the field of education. Dr. Strange had us to create a Twitter account and start twittering. I watched the instructional video on the sites main page before creating my account. It was very informative video and creating a Twitter account was very simple. I have been using Twitter off and on for about three or four weeks now.

As far as Twitter being useful in the classroom setting I'm undecided. I can see where it would be useful for gathering information or sources for lesson plans. I can also see using Twitter for networking. I believe that it could be beneficial to students in opening up contacts across the country or even the world. A drawback of Twitter is that it simply seems to be repackaging Internet chat sites and other social sites. I can remember some of the first chat rooms on the Internet. Twitter is just a little better and with your picture. There are also other social sites like My Space and Face Book that serve pretty much the same function. I wonder if students could begin to get overwhelmed by all the social sites and perhaps not be able to focus on their school work. Besides, what site will replace Twitter in a few years? I do agree that the Internet is always dynamic and constantly changing. I also wonder how long total access will last. With the current legislation working it's way through congress the Internet my get regulated quickly and the free exchange of information may be limited. We'll just have to wait and see how Twitter will develope and impact our classrooms.