What Do They Really Know?

In the blog “Class Survey,” a 4th grade teacher in Nevada asked his students a few simple questions like do you know your address and can you name some cities in Nevada. (That is where the survey was taken place.) Only 1 student out of 24 students could name 10 cities in their own state, this shocked me. Even though they’re only in 4th grade, I thought they should know where they live n some other cities in their state. Kids are getting smarter, younger it seems so when it said that only 1 kid knew out of the whole class I was wondered, what are they being taught in their social studies class if they don’t even know some cities in their own state! These kids are about 9 years old it says, some only 8. I think that it’s crazy; we think they should know this kind of simple tasks by heart, but they don’t and it just seems so easy. Apparently it’s not so easy for 9 year olds. There were some other questions such as do you know what state you’re in right now. 12 out of 24 kids got it right, so half of his class knows where they are. I was so very surprised at that because I thought they would have been at least taught where they live. I can see not knowing more then a few cities but not knowing where you live, I think that’s a little crazy. Maybe they just don’t get taught that kind of material. I think teachers should let their students know more about what’s around them. This was a good survey but I think that kids should know more information about what’s going on around them.

Are Machines Using Us Or Are We Using Them? You Be the Judge

In the You Tube video “Mechanics Are Using Us,” by Michael Wesch, he is telling us that we are practically the machines teaching the machines. When we post a blog or even hyperlink a website, that’s sending information into the computer. It remembers the data and learns from it. So essentially we are teaching the computers, not them teaching us. I agree with Mr. Wesch because he is absolutely right, I think that we do things on the computer and they pick up on it and remember. In the paper, I was surprised when they said that these days we aren’t as good at writing because we just say whatever we want and abbreviate and such on Facebook and websites like that. I disagree with that statement because its not that we don’t write good because of that reason, I think its because we don’t have good things to write about. I like to just free write because you can write about anything and don’t have a prompt or anything. Also they said we write more then times before but I disagree with that again. I think we write less because we are bored with writing. at least I know I am bored with just plain old writing...
So I will leave with you a question. Are machines teaching us or are we teaching them? Think about it.