Gapminder World #15

The chart that I looked at was in the education literacy of boys versus girls. The countries that I looked at were China, Honduras, and Kenya. I picked these three because they are spread across the globe  instead of all clumped together to get a broader idea of literacy globally. It was very interesting to me, because Honduras and Kenya did not even show up on the map until the early 2000s and the amounts were very small; however, China's percentages were large and were recorded back to the 1980s where as the other two were not. The literacy percentages for Kenya and China (when they did show up) were very small. China's percentages have continuously risen (who's surprised?). While Kenya's even though the percentages were small, have risen over the years, but Honduras's has dropped almost consistently. I found it interesting that even though all the countries have had some types of changes, that since the 80s literacy is still how most people would expect it to be in those places.

http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=5.59290322580644;ti=2009$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=0AkBd6lyS3EmpdE8xR0dUWDI4ME02SjQ5bi1NYnFHN0E;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=283;dataMax=110808$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=24;dataMax=115$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=i97_t002001,,,,;i114_t002000,,,,;i44_t001982,,,,

Voki-- Calss Introduction #14

Salman Khan--TED #13

I love how Kahn thinks about his videos. He knows that they are very useful not just to the people he was teaching, but others as well. I like that students can go back and re-watch, pause, rewind, etc. that would be useful to a student who may other wise be scared to stop and ask questions. I LOVE that he helped the Autistic student and think that he must be finding very unique ways of explaining mathematical ideas. I like that he says his videos remove "one size fits all" lectures. I think it is very beneficial for students to be able to go home and initially learn the lesson and get assistance later with more hands on help in the classroom. I like his analysis to math with bicycle riding. Too many children are not fully being taught some things and are getting left behind when the class moves on, so I think that being able to do and re-do at home until mastery is reached. Then, one can move on so that no gaps are left. Keeping data on each student from the site will also be helpful when teachers are trying to see what students (as a whole or individually) are struggling with and get them help. I think "flipping" the classroom is a very beneficial way of teaching.

Education Articles #12

http://www.dispatch.com/contentstories/local/2013/03/02/cuts-will-shortchange-students-universities-say.html

As far as the sequestering article goes, I am very disturbed by it. I depend on governmental grants and work study money to make it through college and daily expenses. Without it, I will be in quite a struggle. I find it interesting that Obama was stating that he was going to make college easier on the poor students with single mothers so they could actually afford it from funding he would push for. When actually now he is cutting what he before said he would improve. I also hate that these cuts will harm grad-students and post doctoral students in their amount of positions available. I am very disappointed in the way things for higher education are headed, but I can't say I'm surprised.



http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22712955/k-12-student-database-jazzes-tech-startups-spooks

I feel like there may be a better way to do this than how it currently being done. I think students could be assigned numbers that correlate all through their school years and the companies could use these numbers and contact school officials and have them contact the students (or their parents) with specialized programs for certain students. I can understand these parents concerns and really am surprised that so many states have accepted this so quickly, especially with it having such a high cost. However, the schools are receiving incentives in the form of grants if they decide to use this database. I hope that when this program makes its way down here to Mississippi that we will not accept it and that our school officials will see the potential holes in the system.