PLN 10-2 (20)

While skimming through some interesting posts, one caught my eye that was posted by Dave Warlick titled How Much does this Really Matter? which talks about how many people in the United States don't understand science but how many people believe in pseudoscience (pseudoscience is a theory, methodology, or practice that is considered to be without scientific foundation).

According to the National Science Foundation (NSF, www.nsf.gov/statistics), the average U.S. citizen
understands very little science. For example:
66% do not understand
DNA, “margin of error,” the scientific process, and do not believe in
evolution.
50% do not know how long it takes the earth to go
around the sun, and a quarter does not even know that the earth goes around the
sun.
50% think humans coexisted with dinosaurs and believe antibiotics kill
viruses.

On the other hand, according to the NSF, the general public
believes in a lot of pseudoscience.
88% believe in alternative
medicine.
50% believe in extrasensory perception and faith healing.
40% believe in haunted houses and demonic possession.
33% believes
in lucky numbers, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, and that UFOs are
aliens from space.
25% believes in witches and that we can communicate with
the dead. *

He asks a question at the end that states "Should we be concerned?" I believe we should be concerned because maybe being able to obtain this knowledge isn't a necessity in someones work, but this shows how little education was given to them or how little knowledge matters to them. The only way we will be able to understand our world is by having the knowledge to understand what we already know or think we know. Many things we believe in like ghosts and witches comes from our religion. We might never know if this is true, but to be able to back up your thought, you need to be able to support it with some kind of evidence and knowledge that we already know. In schools like mine, we are taught many subjects not only to figure out what we want to do in our life but also to be able to use some of this knowledge that we accumulated sometimes in our lives. Around the world, people are using the knowledge we know to help improve our lives. You never know when this useful knowledge is going to be needed. Knowledge is power! You can't improve our world without knowing the many important facts science provides for us.

PLN 10-1 (19)

I recently read a post by Katy Human and Jeremy P. Meyer titled Do schools have birth-control role? which discusses the reasons for high schools and middle schools giving their students birth-control pills.

"Of every 1,000 girls ages 15-17 in the city, 54.5 will become pregnant,
compared with 24.3 throughout Colorado, according to the campaign. The
recommendation comes from a task force created to help define the future of 12
school-based health clinics, six in high schools and six in middle schools."

In my school, I know that many students are sexually active which I personally believe is not right, but there is no way of really stopping them if they want to do it. I believe that they should had out birth control because, in Colorado, teen pregnancy is one of the largest reasons for girls dropping out of high school, but I believe middle school is way to early for kids to even be thinking about that! Around the world, many teens are sexually active which shouldn't be the case. Maybe giving the birth control pills at high schools will cause more people to start becoming sexually active, but that could possibly be better then teens getting pregnant and not only they are in trouble, but their kid is also in trouble. Since we are so young, the men usually run away and the girl is left to raise a baby by herself which almost forces her to drop out of high school. But teens should also understand that just because you use birth control, it's not 100% effective. You are still able to become pregnant while using birth control pills. The best solution would be for teens not to be sexually active, but since this is a huge goal that is almost impossible to achieve, handing out birth control pills might help prevent many high school girls from dropping out and will help keep less unwanted kids from being born because they have to suffer their whole life because of it.

PLN 9-2 (18)

While skimming through some interesting posts, one caught my eye called Brazil: 5 years old boy dressed as Spiderman saves baby posted by Paula Goes which talks about how a 5 year old boy saved a little one year old girl from a fire dressed as spiderman in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

“5-year old boy named Riquelme (named after an Argentine soccer player), rescued
a one-year old girl from a terrible fire in a neighboring home, while clothed in
a Spiderman outfit. When he saw the fire growing, he yelled, “I'M SPIDERMAN!”
and ran into the house and saved the girl."

This is an amazing story! A little boy was influenced by spiderman how he saves the world and saw that someone was in trouble and saved their live. It was a miracle that he didn't get hurt though but this shows how much superheros can affect children. Around the world, their are famous superheros that fascinate children who want to become a hero themselves. Personally, I've always admired cat women because she was one of the only superhero women and I adored cats. I thought it would be amazing to be her and save peoples lives and get rid of all the bad guys. The truth is, everyone can be a hero if they want to. You don't have to have a mask and cape or have a cool name and capture all the bad guys, you simply just can help around and be a great example to everyone by doing the right thing and who knows, maybe someone will be inspired by you and save someones live or become a better person.

PLN 9-1 (17)

While perusing through many interesting posts, one caught my eye which was titled Why Wireless? posted by Karl Fisch that discusses why specifically at Arapahoe High School they are allowing students to bring personally owned devises that will be able to connect to the internet like a laptop. I believe that this is a good idea because technology is becoming a big part of most peoples life's and it is important that we know how to use it. The school can not afford laptops for everyone so you need to bring your personal one. There are many uses for having access to the internet for students. Personally, I'm a student at Arapahoe High School and I use the internet constantly. My teachers assign assignments that you need to access from their website and also our grades are online. People worry that this could be a big distraction for students, but this is prepairing us for the real world. There will be tons of distractions is the real world that no one will try to stop us from being distracted by them. The internet is used daily in most jobs and it is necessary that we learn how to use it and be able to work with it. So much can be accessed from the internet and so much information can be saved.

"Our students must know what to do when they don’t know what to do. They will
need to know how to learn how to learn."

The internet also allows us to communicate our thoughts and ideas with not only the students in the classroom, but from all around the world. We are one world and we have to break away from our isolation and share our ideas with the world not just our teachers and classmates. Also, we are able to see others views on matters, not just our classmates or our teachers because there are different sides to everything.

We are moving from:“do your own work” to “work with others”“just in case” to
“just in time” learning“hand it in” to “publish it.”- Will Richardson

PLN 8-2 (16)

While skimming through the blog 2 Cents Worth, I came upon a post titled Parents & Internet-Using Teens which was by David Warlick which talks about how parents are more concerned about what their teens are doing on the computer.

"Parents today are less likely to say that the Internet has been a good thing
for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was
a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the Internet has
been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the
amount of parents who do not think the Internet has had an effect on their
children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online —
at least 17% more than average adults."

I believe that the Internet offers helpful information and useless information to everyone and it just depends on what you are doing. Parents have become very aware of what their teens are doing online because of all the bad things they hear about in the news that relates to teens interactions with others online. This can be a very bad thing because you never know who you are really talking to and if they are telling you the truth, but if you know who the people are and you know they are safe to talk to, it is fine to talk to them online. This blogger account is an example of interactions between people. This is a very good idea to share your views with other people and have them comment on them. You are able to let people who are interested in your views hear what you have to say. I have people posting on my blog that I know are safe and it is really interesting to hear what they have to say about my beliefs. Their are people all around the world sharing their ideas with others which helps make our world feel more connected to each other.

Presentation Evalutaion 2

Over all my presentation was ok. I was nervious so my voice stumbled a lot so I need to work on being more calm while presenting. Also, I touched my face a lot so I need to remember not to do that anymore while presenting. Finally, I didn't keep as much eye contact as I did in my first presentation so I have to remember to try and memorize what I am going to say better. Over all though, it was not horrible, but I could have done better.

PLN 8-1 (15)

I have recently read a post by Dave Warlick titled A Conversation about Failure which talks about the hardships of people (especially students) with disabilities and centers around a guy named Henry Winkler who suffers from dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability where people's brains process written or verbal language differently. Through out this post, Henry Winkler was quoted on talking about his life as a student with dyslexia which was a while ago. He talked about how people who might be extremely gifted with knowledge, would be classified as "slow" in the classroom because they are not able to read as well as others.

"Yet, when a person has difficulty reading, regardless of other exceptional
skills, they seem to be labeled, automatically, in traditional classrooms, as
slow."

I believe that no one should be classified as slow or anything related to it. People are all different so we all learn differently. If you are classified as "slow" then some people start to question if they are good enough and start feeling like they are doing something wrong. This has resulted in many high school drop-outs which is horrendous! It is the worst feeling in the world to feel like you aren't good enough. Many drop outs feel this way and to help prevent this from happening, schools have to stop classifying people in terms of their learning abilities. Kids who learn at a faster rate should be in a more rigorous class so they don't get bored but no one should be classified as better. One program that only certain people are able to attend is called GT or gifted and talented. If you are not in this program, you start to question if you are gifted or talented which everyone is. Every one around the world is gifted and talented in their own way and classifying people with names like "slow" or "gifted and talented" give the wrong message to people who are either in a certain classification (like "slow") or are not in one (like gifted and talented).