week 5

What stood out to me most in all the information that you gave us this week was Ken Robinson. He touched on some interesting topics. Creativity....really drew me in. But he began asking the  question..."What will the world look like in 5 years?" no one really knows, but our educators are expected to prepare students for it. How can we prepare students for the future and teaching accordingly if you do not know what it looks like. Good question.

"Creativity is as important as literacy."
This was a big part of his speech. Ken Robinson talks about how there has always been a hierarchy of subjects in schools. At the top - Mathematics and Languages. Then the Humanities. and on the bottom it is the arts. From what I got from this speech he wants that to change. We need to educate the whole students not just the subjects like math ect. He gave a good example about the girl who was a dancer. She could not pay attention in class and could not sit still. But after many tests and being diagnosed with ADHD the doctor just found out that she was a dancer. This girl had to move to think. And the school wasn't having it because she wasn't able to sit still in her other classes. Someone would of just gave her medication and told her to calm down but the doctor knew all the needed was a dance class to give her something to work towards. Just because some students may not excel at all the "important" subjects doesn't mean they are not just as smart....their creativity is shaping them and they will be able to be original.
As someone who is going to be an art teacher I strongly agree with Ken on this subject. And from personal experience I was one of the students that exceled in art classes. And when I finally went to a school that shined light on my talents I was able to take those positive vibes and bring them to my other classes that in my past I was not able to get much out of. Knowing that my teachers noticed what I was good at and had faith in me that I could get somewhere, helped me do better in ALL of my classes. And now I am just where I want to be, on the path to doing something I really love.

Students should not be pushed into doing things that they do not want to do. If they have talents else where I think those talents should be noticed and hopefully good educated teachers will know how to dig that out of their students and help them achieve their goals.

As for the gaming conference, I think Jane McGonigal had some good points to speak on. I am not a gamer, but I do have a boyfriend that plays games a great deal when he is not working security or at the gym or spending time with me. Jane mentioned that playing games gives people "Epic Meaning" which I can see is completely true. When children start playing video games they take on a whole new world that they can accomplish a goal. In real life...the goal might be to far or too hard to get a hold of. They KNOW that in this game its not that far from reaching and they will spend most of their time to get it.

Are we using games to escape real world suffering? Or do children even care about this real world suffering to even pay attention? I feel as if a lot of children are not even thinking about what is going on in the real world so games becomes their world.
The games that Jane made up were interesting and I feel were a very good idea. But I FEAR that those games would be boring to a child or teenager. Teens want to play shooting games or fighting games. Not games about gas. We have to reach out to the youth and what will really grab their attention.

This gaming idea has given me some ideas about linking Games to art projects....