PLN 1

Dear Mr. Warlick,

In your post “Minecraft in Pender” it made me think about how we could work video games into the education of kids.  I feel that the way America is becoming increasingly focused on video games, especially with youth, it might be time we started incorporating things like this into learning at a young age.  The whole idea of “video games for learning” could completely change the way people start thinking of them because they would be less incorporated with wasting time and closer related to progress.  This affects me as a young learner because I am constantly distracted by video games and with that I have less passion for school.  If in the future there was a way that we combined learning and video games I feel that there would be more motivation and less dread for school.

PLN 21

In the video “Changing Education Paradigms” by RSA Animate and Sir Ken Robinson he talks about how our education system is degrading and our kids aren’t relying on education as much as they maybe should.  One point made in the video was that millions of kids are forgetting the purpose of going to school and the system is “alienating” them.  Another point was that the current education is designed for a different time in the past.  The system is not progressing as it needs to.  I find this videos to be one of the most opinionated videos I have watched and I like the points Robinson is making.  This effects education because of the opinions and challenges that he gives them.  He believes we need educational reform.  This affects the world around us because kids are finding less of a purpose to go to school. This could decrease the progress being made.

PLN 19

In George Will’s “Lost in Electronica” he worries that the constant source of electronics are lowering our attention span and the time it takes for us to feel boredom.  He thinks this is especially true with boys.  I agree with him. The time it takes for me to get bored is slowly decreasing and I can feel it.  This effects education because school is sometimes the most boring thin in an adolescent boys life.  This effects the world around us because eventually boys’ “time it takes to be bored” will be almost nothing.

PLN 18

In “A Quarter is More Than a Fraction” by Karl Fisch he talks about how impoverished some of the countries in the world are and how much money we have.  his idea stated in his post was that we all should be considerate of the people who have less than us and give money no matter how small.  

I agree with Mr. Fisch because we all have more than these people and we all should be willing to give.  If we were in their situation we would want someone to care enough to give to us.  This applies to education because we are doing a toy drive at our school right now for a less fortunate school and we are a ways behind our goal.  It would be great if everyone could spend a little of their time and money to get these kids a toy.  this affects the world around us because it is almost Christmas and people are not thinking of others.

PLN 11: 2020 Vision

In “2020 Vision” by Karl Fisch, it addresses our technology and how much it will change in the future.  He makes predictions like the merging of companies and a single Arapahoe high/college.  He also thinks technology will continue to increase until almost everyone in the world owns their own laptop.  I think he did a great job with the presentation of this video.  From a philosopher's point of view Karl asked a lot of great questions about our future.

This affects the world around because we will likely live through 2020 and some of his predictions could come true.  This effects our education because if technology really gets that much better we could all be using laptops as an incredible learning tool in the future.

PlN 12

In the blog post ”You Know This is True” by Will Richardson he talks about how we are becoming less and less prepared for the tests in school.  Schools are reducing the pressure on kids’ testing and this is causing them to become worse at it.  Parents are also not helping very much because they are focusing more on what their kid is learning  instead of how well they do on tests.

This effects education because testing is a big part of education.  Without tests we would never know we needed to improve something.  This effects the world around me because I have to take the tests and be well prepared for them.  Dr. James G. Bilkey once said "You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life.”  With this said we need the system to continue to help us by putting pressure on our testing.

PLN 10: "Third Grade is the New Cut Sport"

In the blog post “Third Grade is the New Cut Sport” by Anne Smith she talks about how some people are being exclusive in activities for kids as young as the third grade. She got the idea to write this post when her daughter came home disappointed that she didn’t get a speaking part in a class play after trying out for over 10 parts in the third grade production. A quote taken from her post states “In an era where we can’t get kids to participate in many activities, why are we cutting kids out of opportunities they want to succeed at?” I think this summed up the entire post. It is very disappointing that our society has become so competitive that we denied a little girl a part she wanted in a third grade play. A question in the post that really added to the argument was “At what point did we decide that 8 year olds don’t get to do something creative and important to them?”
This affects education because it has been more and more of a problem to get kids to participate in class and other activities. If we aren’t giving kids opportunities will they ever feel reach their potential? This affects the world around us because we all want to be a part of something and we need the chance to do it.