Our Future

In Tony Wagner’s article “Rigor Redefined”. He talks about the seven survival skills that everyone needs to know to survive in our changing world. A lot of schools are teaching kids what they need to know but not how to critically think to solve some questions.

            The seven survival skills are essential for everyone young and old. Since we have put our world in an unstable state everything is changing so we have to be able to adapt which is the third skill in the article. The first skill, critical thinking and problem solving, has to be used in our everyday life too. If you were to come across an obstacle you would have to be able to think about how to get around on your own. This skill is getting harder for each new generation to learn because they are lazy.

We need more people to be able to solve our world wide problems. People who have learned and understand the seven survival skills. With those skills we could solve the pollution problem or maybe find an energy source that will last forever. These seven skills can unlock great potential for our word’s future.

Who is Smarter

            In Micheal Wesch’s video “ Web 2.0… The Machine is Us/ing Us” he suggests that everything that the computer knows is controlled by us. He says that everything we search and type it remembers it. Like when you search something on Google. When you type in the search bar a ton of suggestions come up under it of what other people have searched. It knows what we like. It knows what we did a day ago on it.

            We look at the computer today and see that it is a powerful piece of technology, although most of us don’t know that we are being used by the machine so it becomes smarter. We could loose one of the most important freedoms we have to the computer and it is our power to think. You don’t have to have any senses to live. But thinking is the most important thing in our life. If we loose the power to think then we cannot live our life to the fullest. Sometimes your on the internet search something up and other people think why you did search up that item. What if it was the computer asking you “Why did you search that up instead of something already in the system”? I know it is unlikely for a computer to start talking but it knows what we usually search.

            We are creating something that knows us and is becoming smarter and smarter. We need to ask ourselves who is the smartest.

We have to be Ready

          In Larry Shaughnessy’s article “Shooting at Pentagon appears to be a 'random incident'” he informs the public of the scenario at the pentagon. Shots were fired at windows of the pentagon. Hearing that it is a “random accident” s not a pleasant thought since it involves the pentagon.

          The pentagon is supposed to be our most reliable recourse for protection. We have to face the fact that there are people who can possible infiltrate the pentagon our kill someone inside. There are plenty of people that have the guts to attack our most reliable protection agency. The pentagon could be our last hope in a huge crisis and if someone can attack it and not be found then we could have no chance.

          We have to face the fact that there are people will do extreme things for there soul purpose, like 911. The terrorists just wanted to weaken us and say that they ad the guts to do that. There is no telling what these people would do if they had a strong drive. They could figure out when all of the congressmen and women are at the white house and bomb it or crash a pane into it. Our whole nation would be in a weak point were if we were attack we could be annihilated. We have to be ready mentally and physically if we have another national disaster like 911.

We are in an era of terrorism and there is no telling how far they will go. We the people of the United States are at risk from others that have a strong belief or mind set.

For the Sake of the Children

Alice Park’s Time Magazine article “Side Effect of the Recession: An Increase in Child Abuse” shows how when people are going through a bad time they take out there anger on the wrong things. The recession has taken tolls on everyone but we have to take control of our selves and push through it.

          Child abuse is not good at all for a child’s growing environment but the recession is making it more of a reality. Everyone is being effected by the recession that is being, in a way, channeled at the youth of our world. The children of this generation are being abused because the adults need to take their anger out on something. Just imagine waiting for your mom and dad to come home being really happy, but instead they enter that door mad. When you ask “how was your day dad?” you don’t expect getting yelled at and maybe even hit you. Sadly this is the reality for some of the kids but its not always the same scenario. We need to realize that in this recession we have to keep our heads up and not take it out on the vulnerable. We have learned that taking our anger out on something works better than keeping it bottled up. The children think that they have did something wrong. They don't now how the thing that are effecting their parents don't involve them.

          We need to challenge ourselves to look into a brighter future for the sake of the children’s lives.

The Keyboard of the Future

In Will Richardson’s “Footprints in the Digital Age” he focuses on the potential kids have of being internet teachers in their future. There are so many websites and functions on a computer that we can not learn all of it from other people. We are the “Googled” generation.
 Students are teaching themselves about the web and its uses. They don’t choose to use it as an educational tool though. They would rather chat with their friends on face book and MySpace or watch videos of other people on YouTube. But if they enter the educational region of a classroom they, as Will Richardson describes I, “turn off the lights”. If they used there web time for more educational purposes they would be more comfortable with school. Though without the googleable students today the internet in the future may be too complex for the next generation of kids may be too overwhelmed with the technology. There aren’t colleges that teach kids all about the web.
 Some of the kids use the web for educational purposes. It is quite amazing that we can engage in conversations with people half way around the world. They could provide an outside opinion of something like our nation. Like Laura’s blog, “Twenty-Five Days to Make a Difference” she can influence people that are half way around the world to do the same thing. She also used it to get other ideas to help other charities in her community. We can use the web for so many positive purposes to help guide humanity into the Web 2.0 world.
  So their web searching and computer learning desires could control our future internet technology. We are in their hands that are constantly punching away at the keyboard of the future.

Who Holds Our Nations Future

 In Karl Fisch’s article post “Dear Denver Post-You’re the Disappointment” the picture was enough to fully understand the title. The Denver post is making school sound even worse for the students because their backing them up.
In the Denver Post’s article the first sentence is “Summer is almost over, and the disappointment about returning to class . . .”. With the number of student drop outs know the Denver Post is almost encouraging it. Students every where in our nation have learned to deal with school, but the Denver Post is agree with students that school is a waste of time. The media of the 21ST century should be promoting school. A lot of teachers say that we’re going to have jobs that don’t even exist today. If the media of today discourages school there won’t be enough people educated in the new fields to keep our nation “running”.
The future of the students lives and our nation is ending up to be in the hands of the media all around the world.

Who Is In Control

In Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” ,featured in The Atlantic magazine, you start to say yes to the title. This generation of kids are being molded differently than older ones. To use we can find information in minutes when it took them
an hour in a library.
 To Google reading long articles or books is bad. They want people clicking on different links and surfing the internet to different pages so they now how to lure people in. Their need ,or want, for money is causing our brain to change its thinking process. The more we surf the richer they become. They don’t care at all about how our lives are being changed as long as their successful.
 Our minds are pulled in by short articles than long books. When you sit down to read a book you might space out and check your email, go on facebook or just surf the web. Younger minds are being pulled into short articles that sound interesting. The internet is a whole new and different world to us that draws us in.
  So we may think that we control the internet but in reality its controlling our mind.