Sir Ken Robinson: Do School's Kill Creativity?

After hearing him lecture, I was intrigued to hear more of Sir Ken Robinson's views on the issues of education. I began to explore more of his videos lately. With the recent discussion I had on the need for creativity in the classroom, I came across this lecture of his from TED in 2006. Again I was very impressed.

Web 2.0 Resource List

Here is an annotated list of all the Web 2.0 Resources that I found interesting and would like to use in my classroom:

http://www.capzles.com/

Capzles is a site that allows users to upload images, video files, and documents to create an animated timeline that can be shared and annotated. Great for making historical timelines and interactive multimedia presentations with or for your students.

http://www.createdebate.com/

CreateDebate is a new social community debate platform. Teachers and students can use CreateDebate to make and participate in polls and debates relating to any topic that they choose. It is an easy tool to use, and one that many educators will find very useful. Users can create for or against debates as well as perspective or discussion based debates. 

http://ohlife.com/

Oh Life is a very simple to use web tool that helps users create online diaries (or at least that was the intention). Oh Life sends an Email each day asking you what was going on and when you reply to the Email the response is cataloged by date as an entry in the digital diary site that is automatically set up for the user. Users can search by date or by content. This is a great way to get people blogging or journaling on a more constant basis. It could also be used for character studies for English class, a science experiment journal, or so many other things.  

http://animoto.com/education

A web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using high end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Users can produce, remix, and share as many as they like. 

http://www.shelfari.com/

A book centered social network where members can catalog, tag, review, and discuss books. Create virtual bookshelves for books that your students have read and will read. Teachers can use it to recommend books to their students. Allow the students to comment on the books that they have been reading in class and allow them to write their own reviews.

Sir Ken Robinson

The RSA animated feature that I was able to watch on youtube.com was phenomenal. I enjoyed watching the visuals portraying what the speaker was trying to explain. Sir Ken Robinson detailed how education is still based around the enlightenment period and the idea that if you work hard and get good grades you will get a job. However, this is no longer true in these economic times. Also, education reinforces the idea that some are smart while others are not smart. This is reinforced by those that believe our job types determine our level of intelligence, which could not be further from the truth. A gentlemen who makes a living delivering packages and sees a stock broker who has a better living blames it on their lack of intelligence. This is unfortunate because it is not necessarily true, but because education places emphasis on being smart and not smart they are left with no other conclusion.

What really got to me was the mentioning of using medications to alter children's attention, which appears to have a parallel with the growth in standardized test scores. As the need for standardized test scores has grown, so to has the need to prescribe pills that help with ADHD. The need for it also shows trends on a map, as you move close to the East Coast of the United States the more children are diagnosed with this disorder. I cannot stand this truth because I know how easily it is to attribute ADHD as the reason for children not paying attention in class, which sickens me. I was misdiagnosed with the disorder in the 3rd grade and did not get off the medication until my sophomore year of high school. I felt like a zombie and could barely get any sleep. I really blame my teacher in the third grade who recommended to my mother that I speak to a doctor about this potential disorder. The material she was teaching was boring that is why I was distracted. I was probably busy thinking about wanting to go home to play baseball,  but no it could not have been that! So, as you might be able to tell I am not a fan of ADHD and Ken Robinson did a wonderful job in showing how drugs (Ritalin, Concerta, etc.) are being used to help boost the all important standardized test scores.