The Mighty Interwebs

            If there is one thing I have learned over the last seven weeks of school, it is that the educational world is changing, shifting away from old linear ways of teaching and into a new networking style of thought. No article that I have read thus far has brought this fact to light like the article “Footprints in the Digital Age” by William Richardson. In it, he speaks about how the Internet is starting to change education as we know it.  

            Now. What do I think about this? Frankly, I don’t even know where to start. His writing was chock full of intriguing information. I suppose one thing that did stand out more than the rest was when he stated that our teachers will be our “colearners” as student and teacher alike stand together singing Kumbayah, creating our own learning networks and figuring out how to use them. Nice image huh? Of course I added on most of it, but he did say in the article that teacher and student would have to learn this at the same time. With the teachers in the same boat as us, things would go much more smoothly in class. I do like the Kumbaya image though. Another thing he touched upon was how a little girl named Laura Stockman turned a small gesture into a massive, worldwide movement of goodwill. After her grandfather passed away, she wanted to do one good thing a day until Christmas. This soon got global attention. Now our little Laura has collected books for libraries, and donated thousands of dollars, among other things. This just goes to show how such a little thing can become so much more under the right circumstances. And that my friends, is the power of the interwebs.

Frankie the Frankenfish

Picture yourself at the supermarket trying to find something good for dinner. You might see some delicious looking salmon; you make the purchase and drive home to have your meal. The thing is, two years down the road you may have just picked out a genetically altered fish designed to grow quickly and so, produce more offspring. This was the issue brought up in the article I recently read, called “Modified Salmon: Miracle Food or "Frankenfish"?” by CBS news. It called attention to the first ever GE (genetically altered) animal soon to be approved by the FDA for human consumption. However, this so called “frankenfish” is facing lots of opposition from critics, many stating that it could cause new allergies and potentially decimate the wild salmon population.

            I thought that this was a very good example of a 21^st century issue. You would never have seen this on a headline a mere ten years ago. I believe that this is one of the main reasons that many people are so opposed to having an altered salmon on their supermarket shelves. The idea is so new right now that no one quite knows what to do with it. Those opposed to the frankenfish do have some other very valid points to consider as well. For example, if any of the GE salmon escape into the wild, their ability to grow much faster than the other salmon (frankenfish are altered to produce their growth hormone throughout the year, unlike wild salmon) will put the already threatened species on the fine line of extinction. However, it is my personal opinion that these fish should be put on store shelves. The FDA says that, other than growing quickly, the fish are exactly the same as normal salmon. The one and only problem I would have is that the GE fish would not be marked separately, meaning that consumers would have no idea if the fish they just chose was not a normal one. I think we have the right to know the difference, and be able to choose which one we want. After all, some years down the road there may be many more extreme GE food products lining the shelves of Kingsoopers, with vastly different genetic traits than the wild members of their species. The American people should be able to make a decision between the two, especially if their religion is in any way involved. But again, I believe that poor little frankenfish should be allowed on store shelves. Who knows? This could be the start of something amazing years down the road.

Irreversible Change

I love the internet. Who doesn’t? It allows us to pull vast amounts of information from it in mere seconds. We can learn faster than ever before. But is that such a good thing? This point was brought up in an article I recently read called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr. In it, he spoke about how he can not perform the same kinds of “deep reading” that he once was able to do. How his attention wanders very quickly and how he now tends to skim lengthy articles. Carr blames this on the internet, and how it encourages the reader to bounce around, from article to article.

The funny thing is, I noticed this a long time ago. When I was about eleven I realized that I was half way through a book and I didn’t know which character was the main one. At the time, I chalked it up to being tired (it was late) but now I realize the truth. At eleven was about the time that I started to use the internet much more. My school was assigning many of its homework assignments online as well. However, is this such a bad thing? Yes, we may not be digging into what we are reading as much, but at the same time we are still learning it. What would have taken an hour to drive down to the library and find can now be typed into Google and learned in seconds. We may not think about it as much, but we still know it, and learn much more of it. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just reflecting the thoughts of the younger generation. I had to notice, did Carr talk to any under twenty’s? Of course not. Why would he? We probably do not have the life experience, in is opinion. However I think he should have gotten some of our opinions just for variety’s sake. After all, the new generation has grown up on the web. Some of us I’m sure have never understood such alien concepts as “deep thought.” Perhaps 50 or so years down the road none of us will even know what that is. When all is said and done, we may all have very different opinions on the subject. But no matter how you look at it, the internet is not going to change. The old days of actually thinking about what we are reading is slowly but surely fading away, whether we want it to or not.

Family Feud

As I was scanning my Google Reader feeds in class yesterday, something soon stood out to me. I immediately emailed it to myself, in fear that I would not find it again. The article was called Trapped Chilean Miners' Families Feud on Surface by CBS news. I of course already knew about the miners plight, of how they are trapped in an underground mine shaft, and how they will continue to be trapped until at least Christmas. It turns out however, that many more problems are arising from the miners situation than that they are stuck underground in horrible conditions. For many of their families, those men are the main source of income. With them unable to work, their relatives have to survive without that money. That is not the end though. With donations, aid, and the miner” August paycheck coming in, the miner’s families are left on the surface to squabble over who gets what.

When I first read the article, I was struck by how petty it seemed. How could families argue over who gets the spoils based on petty feuds, while their beloved sits in a cave 2,300 feet below? However, after thinking it through I reconsidered. How can I judge those people while sitting at my computer halfway around the world? I don’t know them, nor do I understand the reasons behind their conflicts. Perhaps one relative truly is more deserving, or more in need of those donations? I cannot be fit to judge, so I will not. It might seem strange, for me to not have an opinion, but that is how I feel. Should the much needed aid go to the deserving? Should it be evenly split? What if some family member deeply wronged the rest, but needs help more than any other? I do not think I have lived long enough, or have enough experience in such things to have any say in the matter.

A Vision of Students Today

Upon seeing the video A Vision of Students Today by Micheal Wesch for the first time in class I was, to be frank, very confused. However, when I went back to watch it at home for the second time I started to understand. The YouTube video brings many important facts about student life to light, such as how impersonal many lessons are, with so few teachers actually knowing their students names.


The video was full of intriguing facts, several of which were about how outdated many facets of teaching are. It also talks about how tied to technology students of the 21st century are. I believe that the average classroom environment must be drastically changed in order to accommodate the growing number of students that rely on the web and other electronic devices in their everyday lives. Teachers must also start to take a much more hands on approach to their teaching. When the video starts, it shows how massive and empty the college classroom is. When the teacher is so far in the front, what happens to the students in the back row? Certainly they are not paying as much attention as they would be in the front. The video also reinforced this by stating things like, “My neighbor paid for class but never comes.” There were, in fact, many statistics presented that showed me that many students simply care less and less about completing their work. Why? Because it is not relevant. The video states that the average student completes 49% of the reading assigned to them, with only 26% being relevant to life outside of school. This makes me believe that teachers and schools alike must step up to the plate and make some fairly drastic (but necessary) changes to teaching policies, in order to prepare kids for all the issues of the outside world.