Monday, October 10, 2011
Education Today and Tomorrow - Henry Woodward
This video presentation takes a serious outlook on modern education and its possible benefits or drawbacks. The video starts by reviewing the fundamentals of education as they existed in the past. As the video progresses, it reflects on the present, using technology and population as a catalyst for the changing environment of education. The video brings up important points about communication, information, and accessibility, and raises many questions about the future of America and the world.
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This video brings up a very interesting and controversial topic about our educational system and the decay of "American supremacy". It is very apparent that the American educational system is no longer "the best" and we are no longer the most privileged and smartest society. This was shown throughout the video by comparisons to other up-and-coming world powers, such as China and India, and that by simple statistical comparison, they have much more "brain power" to work with. I also thought the color scheme and the change in music as the video progressed were interesting. Throughout the video, the color scheme of the text was black and white. This color scheme matched the author's urgent message that "You must take notice of the changing world around you and that we can no longer be comfortable thinking we are a 'world power' because other societies are definitely surpassing us." Also, in the beginning, the video played older, classical music to illustrate the mood of the world we used to live in- the music was softer and had a slower beat. When the video started to talk about the world today, it switched to fast-paced techno music, which matches the mood of our current, ever-changing world.
ReplyDeleteI think this video was particularly interesting because it just shows how much the world has changed in every aspect of the video. It shows it by using the colors of the black and white old pictures to using color for the new pictures. Also by the music choice where it has this old school jazzy feel to it then it fades into this modern-day techno music. Then it starts giving some examples like how the classrooms have changed, the jobs have changed, and the powers of the world have changed. It shows a lot of average americans that think we are the best at everything that we really aren't.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryan about this video being interesting due to its way of showing just how much the world has changed. The video decribes both a world in which technology has yet to play a major impact on people's everyday life and a world where everyone relies on technology in there everyday life. The main focus of both of these worlds is the education system and how the U.S. compares too other large countries in different parts of the world. After watching the video, it is obvious that the U.S. no long holds the top spot in education and is therefore falling far behind the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Leslie that this video discusses how today’s education is going to get students prepared for the fast-changing world. However, it is very interesting that this video never explicitly illustrates any idea on how to actually improve it. Instead, it spends most of the time presenting several neglected facts of our ever-changing world, including the explosion of information, the emerging economies and cutting-edge technologies. Meantime, comparisons are made with the past to emphasize the picture of today. The reason is probably because the creators of the video believe it is more important for the audience to know the reason why education needs to be improved rather than impose that idea to them; therefore, it is more reasonable to raise the international awareness in education when the fact that the world is getting more connected is well-presented.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I appreciate the observations of Leslie and just add on to that, I want to discuss another interesting observation. I noticed that during the video, the world is presented as a picture of the earth rather than the word “world”. I am wondering why the video chooses to do that. My answer would be it is because they try to let us know that the world is becoming smaller and connected by showing the earth from the space, which cannot be inferred by just giving the word. Does anyone have ideas to share?
I agree with what Ryan and Camoran said about how this video shows how the world is changing so much. Technology is becoming better and better and more prominent in daily use. People are learning more than they ever would have back in the day. The immense amount of technology is clearly making the learning process easier and quicker.
ReplyDeleteThe video also shows us that china has more honors students than america has students. At first look this may make it seem like America is a very dumb country, but I do not believe that is the case. China's population is about 4 times greater than the US's population. So, the statistic about China having more honors students can be misleading.
Leslie made a good point when she said the dramatic contrast in the colors of the background and of the text emphasizes the urgent message of the video. I also thought that the video tried to simplify its message by repeatedly showing single, related words or images. I was surprised when the video stated that "China is rapidly becoming the #1 English speaking country" because English is not the official language of China, and China is not geographically near English-speaking countries (with the exception of Hong Kong, which is a city state and therefore much, much smaller than the mainland). Because of its apparent disparity, the statement serves to show the sheer rapidity at which English is spreading, and also imply that in the near future, inhabitants of English-speaking countries may not have upper hand in speaking English. Towards the end of it, the video urges the viewer(s) to think about what students are being taught nowadays, and if these skills will be sufficient for life in a fast-paced future, by repetitively stating "Their world has changed. Their world demands new skills." and segueing to "Are we teaching them?"
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of my classmates in that the world is rapidly changing and it is no longer similar to how it was just a few decades ago. I don't think that this video is portraying technology in a bad way, but rather just emphasizing the face that it is constantly growing and changing and it is hard to keep up. It's not a bad thing that the original portrayal of the standard classroom is no longer the same as it was years ago. We as students have to grow and develop educationally as technology develops. Using new computers and programs in the classroom is helpful for our future, because frankly this new technology is a big part of our future.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that China has more honors students than we do students is not a fair comparison. The country has a far greater population than America does, and the type of education and teaching styles are totally different. Comparing our country to China is not fairly done. Education in all countries differs depending on their society.
I agree with my classmates who talk about the immense change we have seen in our society,in regards to technology, over the past hundreds of years. I think this video does a good job showing the changes, such as photos, job opportunities, computers etc., and how it is easy to fall behind on these new developments. It also shows how the United States seems to be falling behind, education wise, in comparison to other countries.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite understand the point that this video is trying to get across. It shows the changes and advances between classrooms and how we learn, but I feel like the words in the video give a negative tone toward these changes. It shows that the old classroom is great to prepare students to work in a factory-like setting. Then it says "unfortunately, that is no longer our [world]." I believe that the advancements in technology and different job opportunities today are positive things. We can learn things faster and more conveniently with the technology we have today.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that they chose to compare Shakespeare and Eminem. The two writers are extremely different and have completely different writing styles.
Also, I agree with Suhail and Lily about the Chinese honor student statistic. It is very misleading. China's population is much larger than America's so the statement in the video makes complete sense and doesn't really emphasize the point it's trying to get across. I feel that if the number of honors student in each country was shown in proportion to the population, it would prove the point more clearly.
Like most of the classmate said I totally agree with that. Nowadays the world changing in a fast pace and it is ironically US no longer be the power of the world. Throughout the video it used the before and after effect to make a contrast between every issues the author want to bring up. Such as the famous Shakespeare need to remember 24k words while Eminem need to remember 100k words implying the improvement on education was huge eventhought two of them cannot put together to compare. While I wasn't agree with the video about the scholar in Asia and US as what Gina said it is because the population of China is much more larger thus the ratio for getting honors student will be more. However, I think it cant compare because the teaching system in Asia is so much different from US, Western country emphasize on critical thinking, always think out of the box. However, Asia teaching system is to memorize what teacher give us and keep on practice and work on that.
ReplyDelete"Are we teaching them?" The video ends with this question which has been asked for a quite long time. Maybe the one who makes the video wants to say that is this huge change in our daily life realy good to us? The video-maker wants to use some comparison to express something. It is said that if you want to write something nowadays, less words will be used. Besides, the example that China has the most people who can speak English also wants to convey that language is less used in today's America. All these change results from the science and technology, which makes the education different. It has also changed the way people write and talk. I think both the traditional way of teaching and the innovative way of teaching has advantanges and disadvantages. It is hard to decide which one is better. However, one thing is for sure: it is good to develop. We need a better civilization. We should combine the traditional education and science and technology. This might be the best answer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Leslie said about how this video brings up a very controversial topic of the current education system and the decay of “American supremacy”. I found the video very interesting as it shows how modernization has affected our education system. Undoubtedly it has made working on complex processes so much easier and quicker. Technology is improving day-by-day and at a very fast rate, which is going to make our life much more easier.
ReplyDeleteI think the comparison made between China and America is not fair. China has the largest population in the world and it is almost 4 times that of America’s population. While comparing, they forgot to consider that very nation has different education system. Both the countries are totally different in almost every aspect and comparison in anyway would not be fair.
Unfortunately, I should admit that I didn't see the point of this video. Firstly, education is meant to teach skills in this video, but education should direct itself towards enlightening humanity. Even though modern society requires different skills and ways of life, the essence of education should remain the same. Secondly, the statistics seems to show little of threats to American education. Numbers do not matter when we see the past. Japan once thrived with their own strength. It was not because the people in the small country spoke English so well. Although China is one of the fast growing countries and many people are so good at English as to absorb the great knowledge of the West, I believe there is an unbridgeable gap between two countries. Their mentalities are substantially different. Each country can go hand in hand. I suppose that if China will be thriving in the future in terms of economy, it would be because of the shift of paradigm to orientalism, not because of their ability of speaking English.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Leslie and Sheng Zuo that this video discusses how today’s education is going to get students prepared for the fast-changing world. I found this video interesting as it explores one of the most critical topic about world educational system. In this video it has been explained that everything changes with the time either it is education system or industry. Moreover, these changes are really very important to keep the constant interplay between man’s knowledge and wisdom. Today, the biggest difficulty with the mankind is that our knowledge has grown so much faster than our wisdom. So, for the betterment of the world everything needs to be updated and I think this was the main focus of this video. I agree and appreciate the observation made by most of my classmates that it is not the fair comparison between China and US because every country is blessed with some kind of uniqueness and in this case the uniqueness is in educational system (teaching style, learning capacity etc.). The contrasts like beats and color scheme made in this video are really appreciable. Moreover, it seems that creator has made this video to boast new upcoming powers India and China.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Leslie about the idea of the decay of "American supremacy", although I think the video is trying to convince people to unite as one for the better of this earth or the world. The video talks about the the potential of future generations with all of the technology they have. By being able to communicate and collaborate with almost anyone in the world the possibilities are endless. I think the video is trying to send this message to each viewer and inspire them to take advantage of all the opportunities they can. I also like what George said about education, as long as the core values of education stay the same it will be successful no matter how much the world changes.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting video. It compares the education in the past and what it looks like now. I also agree with them that the change of music shows the change of times and the change of education. I think it tries to tell us that the society now is a complex collection of information and it develops with a very high speed, it's just like the electronic music in the video, complicated and fast. Therefore, the methods of education must be changed. It's also interesting that it says the words used by Eminem are much more than Shakespeare's. It's a good proof that people today faces a huge amount of information than before. Of course the old way of education is not enough for today's society. And at the end of the video, it listed some electronic products without which we can't live normally. I think science and technology do change all aspects of our life.
ReplyDeleteI think George was right. I didn't see a big point in this video. I don't understand why so many people have been calling this "controversial". It isn't at all. The video states that our world is changing, and it shows how the children's future will no longer be in workshops. Instead, it will be all computerized. Which I don't see the problem with that at all. If the world is moving forward with technology, then of course our education should be more high tech. Also, the fact that China has more honor students is a completely ridiculous stat. They have 4 times has many people than America. Of course they will have more honors students!
ReplyDeleteThis video brings up the strong point that as the world around us evolves, so must the ways that we are educated. We can no longer only be taught skill by watching and listening how to do things. Me must be able to work with things in front of us (such as the children with laptops), so that someday we will be able to work the way we were taught (such as the careers shown using computers and technology). This video demonstrates how there is a change in education among time periods (old classroom and old work, Shakespeare and Eminem) along with among cultures (Asian and American). The video shows that education is going to be different everywhere, but here in the United States, technology is needed to effectively teach students.
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