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Dear David Warlick In your article “I got a 35 I reckon” I agree with you. Why are we always trying to get a 100? I mean I see that we all want to be the best we can but if we always get a hundred we will never be given the chance to learn or improve. So expecting to get a hundred the first time is not always practical. It’s the things that we do badly at first and then become good at through trying that shapes who we are and builds the incentive to take on new challenges, and try what we may not be good at. So what we should expect instead of getting a 100 every time we try something is that if we want it enough we will be able to get a 100 at it eventually.

Sincerely Jonathan Donhue

PLN 3

Dear Mr. Fisch I agree with the point you make in the end of your blog “The CSAP is dead, long live the CSAP (err TCAP)” just like the CSAP all these test can’t tell us everything we need to know about a student. CSAPs just tell us what we might know about a particular subject but not if the student is a good learner, or if they are willing to take on a challenging problem. I guess they do show if you are good at problem solving by the math portion because math is a problem solving subject. I think the true program is that it shows no value to a student who may not excel in English, Math, and Science. There many other ways that a student can be successful. I think the problem with that is how you test for that while not bringing down the scores of those that do excel at math and science. I really don’t think that any one particularly test can grade a student on everything.     

Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes

Dear Mr.Fisch

                I read your article “Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes” and I disagree, although I do not personally believe in Horoscopes I still feel that the Denver Post should not change it. I think they should keep it in the Denver Post for three reasons, first one fourth of the population is a decent portion of the population, more people probably read Horoscopes then just that one fourth, and the Denver Post is built to make money. One fourth is a minority but that doesn’t mean that is not a lot of people. America’s population is three hundred million give or take one fourth of that is 75,000,000 people, what I am trying to say is that one fourth is not a small portion when we talk about people. Another reason is that even though one fourth of people believe horoscopes don’t mean one fourth of people read horoscopes. So there might be a larger amount of people who enjoy the horoscopes. The Denver Post goal is to make money not to educate; we live in America that’s just the name of the game. And the fact is that horoscopes have been around for a long time so they must be popular and making money or newspapers would not include them. Maybe one day somebody will open up the news paper to read the horoscopes and something about a breakthrough in wind energy will catch their eye. That is just another aspect to consider.

                                                                Jon D

Oh and right after I read your article I read my first horoscope kinda ironic “ others make demands, and you need to make a statement about what you think….”           

PLN 23

I watched Ted Canner’s “How cognitive surplus will change the world” the author brings up a good point but I think that there are more examples already. I think that Google might be a civic one too because of how it gives access to information that is pooled together to everyone. Even Wikipedia does this by pooling all the people’s thoughts together and distributing them all threw out the world. But he is right when he says that more of it will change the world because not only will we benefit from the intended use humans might become closer because we know what we are thinking. Education will benefit because when thoughts are put together it is easier to learn. The world will be help and support by this because will not only pool knowledge we will become closer. I will be affected by this because this cognitive thinking will become more and more used so I will have to use it.  

PLN 22

I watched a video by CNN London’s “prime minster thinks goals in Afghanistan are achievable” this is good news because the goal is to get all troops out of Afghanistan by 2014.The Prime minster said that there has been a huge increase in security and more and more reliable afghan troops. He also said that the increase in troops has helped too. I think that it is very good news because we can accomplish the U.S goal of killing the Al-Qaida. This has to do with education because they now will have to teach about U.S involvement in Afghanistan. The world will benefit form the removal of Al-Qaida. This will affect me because my nation is at war so it should affect me.      

PLN 21

 I watched RSA’s “changing education paradigms” the author brings up a great point of how an old education system doesn’t work in a new era. I think the most interesting thing is that education was built in the industrial revolution. Did they think that nothing would change; today we are built around problem solving because markets are so unpredictable and we must compensate for that. The other thing that was interesting was how he showed that only a few people benefited from this style and the rest were hurt. So why continue this? He also said that the system was like a factory and the date madders more than the skill. I think that this grossly affects education because it must be reformed. This affects the world because the world’s education must be reformed. This affects me how I’m taught affects what I do.

PLN 20

I read “Obama awards Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta Medal of Honor; first living honoree since Vietnam War” what this man did was impressive but what I saw and bugged me the most was how the reporter stated it that he was the first survivor since Vietnam. He never stated that few Medal of Honor recipients ever do live. Without this background knowledge you could come to the conclusion that very few brave soldiers survive and that this is a bad war. The point is that the full story needs to be communicated with all relevant background so that they reader or listener has the facts to make a complete correct conclusion.  The History Channel showed me that after Vietnam the United States military investigated the news reports about the war and found the many were false, there was even a report on a made up battle that the U.S. lost. This was clearly the media’s attempt to influence people’s opinions about the war. I also read a book Lone Survivor and the military reported that the survivor was missing in action. Well the media thought they could get a better story if they said that he was dead, and believe it or not when he got home one news station tried to blame the military for the false report. I think this does impact education as we all hear the media and make conclusions that influence us- students, teachers and principals.  If we are making the wrong conclusions this could lead us to make additional incorrect conclusions as we draw upon our knowledge when reading an article. As George Bush can attest, getting the correct facts on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction may have lead us, as a nation, on a different course of action. 

PLN 19

In George Wills "Lost in Electronics"  I think the author is overreacting and what he believes is because his generation was told some of the things that we do hinder learning. Take music for example, when he probably grew up he was told that it was bad to listen to music while he worked but studies show that as long as it doesn’t distract you then music helps. This probably takes I-Pods out of play because music is obviously not a problem if it can improve learning. Now video games I feel are very underestimated and criticized when some are productive. Most video games I know in some shape or form make me think or solve problems. Not all video games are bad. There are strategy games and even the shoot um up games like the Call of Duty series have a story. For example Call of Duty Black Ops is quite a complicated story line and yes we listen to it instead of read it so it does not improve our reading skill but what else is lost? I honestly think that the difference between these story lines and a book is one you interact with and the other you read. So why does the book make you think more, what does it do? Now for phones it is a form of quick communication but in the end it does have negative affects. Every generation is different and I can’t see this as big as a problem as he suggests. I do agree with him that we should just try to make them better for the brain. Education needs to realize that we do get bored and work around it to try to wake us up. The world needs to be a little nicer to teenage boys because it is actually kind of prejudice of how we are treated as inferiors why does age make you so much better than me? So I need to realize that there is more to life then electronics.   

PLN 18

In David Warlick’s “Are they learners or are they Students” I think that they the proper turn for kids in school is students. The traits that he states about learners are not like most students I know. For example he said that learners are curios to learn for the benefit of learning while students a compelled to because without it they won’t go to a good college or get a good job. The lowest amount of student actually learn because they are curios and it’s not like they are the only good students many of my friends have honor classes and they hate school but they relies they have to do this because without it they probably won’t succeed in life. This affects education because they must rely that students are only motivated to learn because of success not in any way because they want to. This does not really affect the world because for either reason they learn. To me I am motivated to succeed and nothing will change that so I think the correct term for me is student.  

PLN 17

In Carl Fisch's "What if" he is making an assumption about students surprisingly he is overestimating teenagers. I agree with him the signs will never work because they can't actually stop every student who brings a cell phone. The problem for him is very few students would actually listen if they were told to not use their phones appropriately. So even though the signs will work I doubt talking could ever solve it. So the world and education will probably not benefit from this idea. And I won’t because neither solution will work, it relies on teenagers actually listen.

PLN 13

In Jonathan Rosenberg’s “Our Googley advice to a Student” Google is stating what they want in an employee/student and what are a student’s best traits so it must be good advice.  One of the most important things that they kept talking about is being a non routine problem solver. This is important to Google because they feel that it is a huge advantage to any company to be able to solve unordinary problems in an acceptable time. They identify a non routine problem solver by looking for a person with five specific traits. The five traits are analytical reasoning, communication skills, a willingness to experiment, a team player, passion, and leadership. Google states that many other companies and governments desire the same type of employee that they do.  This will affect education because education will feel pressured to try to teach these skills to children.  The article also indicates that this type of employee usually has challenged themselves by taking higher level thinking classes in core subjects. This will affect the world because if more people were like this then the worlds business and governments would be much more affective then they are today. This can affect me but only if I choose to allow it.  If I do listen and actively try to improve my thinking, the chances of me being successful will grow exponentially.

PLN 16

In David Warlick's "Confidence Lost" he brings a good point in how K-12 is more of a forced education then a true one. I wonder if an education where you choose your classes would be good that early in life? I think it would cause problems. Although a forced education is not good when you’re in high school because might end up doing something you don’t like for a career. But that early in life I doubt they would think about the future nor would they consider trying something new. I think the forced education opens their minds to new ideas so they know what they like when they go to high school. This affects education because this impacts how and what the K-12 teachers will teach. The world will be affected by how this all works on young minds hence the future work force. I will only be affected by how the generations perform after the decision to keep or change forced education.

PLN 14

      

  In David Warlick's "Qualities of an Effective Teacher" what the author is saying may be correct but impossible. His description of what a good teacher would be is great. I don't know how a kid could fail school if there were that many good teachers working with him. Unfortunately this is not how it is there aren’t enough of these types’ people for more important roles. Although I must say the most people I see who have these traits tend to be teachers because they defiantly are not in politics. This affects education because it will never go to its full potential do to the lack of people like this. The world would is affected by this because with out not having an education to its full potential the world will not gain its own potential. This affects will affect me because I don't have all my teachers like this closing some doors for me. Thankfully though not the on I’m aiming for.

PLN 15

In Alvin Kohn's "Schools would be great if it wasn't for kids" the author comes across in an incorrect manner. Without kids school would be pointless and many systems already set up will be wasted. The school system is built around kids and their misbehavior and cheating. So, kids do not get away with too many injustices. This whole system would be wasted without us kids. The argument that you would not need it with adults is wrong school is a place to learn. Adults did not get learn every thing from there parents. Any ways reserch has proven that childeren's minds are much more accepting of new ideas which is much of what school is.

PLN 12

I read or I should say watched Karl Fisch’s “Brave New Voices” as it is more of a video than a writing blog and is about a new form of poetry.  The video is about a competition with poetry, but it is a completely new type of poetry. Instead of just talking slowly and calmly they are talking faster, louder, some are screaming, but some still go for a more stagnant impression. This new form makes a much more exciting poem then poetry use to be. But is it still poetry? I think it is because it still hard to understand and full of morals that everyone knows about or contains a personal story. I doubt this will affect education much, they will have to teach about this new form of poetry in English but I doubt teachers will spend much time teaching it because you don't learn anything from it so the only people interested in learning it will be those who want to perform it. This will affect the world because it can now take a new look on poetry that could become popular.  This will not affect me because I do not like either form of poetry regardless of what others may think. To me its the same, words thrown together to sound good but when ever I finaly get the point of the poem i wish they would of just of said it.     

PLN 11

                I watched Carl Fisch’s “2020 vision” and I think that it has many possibilities but he messed up on price. I don’t see any of those things being that cheap like the imagine, all you have to do is pay 19.95 for shipping and handling and then pay for a 40 dollar program. I don’t see this happening people want money and they could make much more with that computer so they would at least try to. But besides price I think that it is very possible for what he said can happen is in reach. But I think he is predicting five years ahead of what will happen. This will obviously affect education because all the new technologies will make learning much different and more computer base. But this could affect the world because with ever body getting the same education then how will colleges and gob recruiters decide who is a better student. This affects me because all these new technologies will affect how I use the world.  

PLN10

            

 In David Warlick’s “Introducing an Art Integrationist” makes no sense, he inferred that famous paintings could help students learn math, English, and science. Now I might be being unfair because I hate art but I don’t see how this will help me learn something like math or science or even English. The way his theory is supposed to work is by bringing up problems and helping solve them. I am in geometry and the only picture that helps me would be a degree number in the corner of a triangle. I don’t think that he even put forward a reason or a defense to his theory. I can’t think of any myself so I can’t give you any support for his argument. In my conclusion I think David Warlick brings forward something that will never change or help the world. It won’t even affect education besides social studies where I feel it is most affective it still won’t be better than traditional learning. So I think that this might have a negative influence on me because if one of my teachers tries to use it and it completely backfires I may end up with a bad grade. So I believe that this should never take off.  

PLN 9

In Tony Wager’s “Rigor Redefined” he brings a very interesting point up and I think that he is completely right, that schools are not preparing kids for work. The fact that business leaders are saying that students are unprepared is scary. We go to school for the first 20 to 28 years of our life but we are still unprepared. If I graduated college and then a prospective employer told me I was unprepared I would feel ripped off. Now I feel that schools are moving towards what he is saying. I feel this way because some of my teachers are making classes more interactive and uses the latest software for example my English class. But it only seems to be happening in the advanced classes.  Now they do deserve better but if regular kids are not even being taught what is needed then only kids in the advanced classes will succeed. This is just like “A vision from a student today” about education falling behind. This is important to education because it needs to adapt to the situation. This definitely affects the world because business will collapse if the employs are not prepared for it. This affects me because I realize that advanced classes aren’t just harder and good looking on college applications but they are better for your learning too. So in my opinion Tony Wager brings forward a very pressing issue and is being a philanthropist.

PLN 8

                  In David Warlick’s “Power of Community” he is completely right about allowing different generations to see other generation’s thoughts and views which may give them a different perspective. Think of all the things that you think about or have a strong opinion about. You might try to put yourself in a different perspective but if you feel strongly about something you subconsciously shoot down your own arguments. But when you read somebody else’s argument or argue with them and you can’t shoot it down verbally, then you actually think about it. The only way that it doesn’t work is if somebody is dismissing everybody else’s argument or not willing to listening. Even if the person is right, other people are so pissed that their opinion is not being heard that they will not seriously consider the other's point of view. This affects education because if all the students got  to see many different opinions on a subject maybe students would more readily see different points of view when reading or hearing something. The world could advance from this because no argument would ever be looked in only one way. This affects me because I will be able to perceive things from many points of view not just one or two. I think that in David Warlick’s “Power of Community” he is completely right about communities and classes sharing their views in order to learn from each other.

PLN 7

In Michael Wesch's "The Machines are Using Us" his premise is that computers are taking advantage of humans so the machines are getting smarter while we are getting dumber, I completely disagree. After all how can a computer tack advantage of a human? The biggest point he has are that the computers didn’t have to show sources only content and that every time we type in a link that we teach the computers about ourselves. First what could they ever do with this information we teach them? They can’t use it against us because their only form of communication is when we email somebody else something and it’s not like machines have any control over email. The second point about the sources is that people are taking advantage of other people because if there is a story that is from a very unreliable source but it would make money the news teams would not like you to know about the source. I don’t know why people are so scared of computers now, the second they can move and learn and think without our commands I’ll be suspicious. But why should we be scared of something completely at our control and mercy.  A computer has no way to hurt a human. So understanding that his points are not valid, then education can go forward and use the computers and all of its abilities. This affects the world because if the world gave up this fear then we would not be scared of making computers better. This affects me because as the world goes forward I’ll go forward.  We humans take advantage of computers so his premise that computers take advantage of humans is incorrect.