PLN #8: What's Wrong with the Teenage Mind?

The article, “What’s Wrong with the Teenage Mind?” by Alison Gopnik explains the idea that puberty in kids today is starting earlier and ending later than it ever has before, resulting in “teenage weirdness;” however, it also explains that the systems of teenage brains need to adapt more and therefore are becoming more efficient.

The main idea of the article, “What’s Wrong with the Teenage Mind?” by Alison Gopnik, makes an interesting point as to how teenagers’ brains work and the desires that teenagers have.  Some of these desires include the need for rewards for everything they do.  Gopnik explains that teens feel better when they are rewarded with something, and therefore are more likely to do more risky things when they think they will be rewarded with something afterward.  This is something that many teens can probably relate to, even if it is just getting rewarded with more social status or more friends.  Teens aren’t getting less intelligent though, as Gopnik states.  They are actually getting smarter, because the longer period of immaturity they have, the more experiences they will have to learn from.  Learning from experiences is a major part of developing as not only an adolescent, but growing up to be the best person you can be.

PLN #7: We've cracked the genetic code, now what?

          The article, "We've cracked the genetic code, now what?" explains the fact that the technology of genetics has been advancing and scientists have figured out what to use it for, but now they don’t know what to do with the information that they have.  One idea that could come into the everyday lives of people is to be able to access their own genetic code right on an app on their smartphone. This idea could be beneficial, but science needs to wait because there are ethical reasons why it might not be a good idea to release this kind of information to the world.  If too much information is released, there will be consequences and government officials don’t know how to deal with the questions that will come up yet.
 
I think that the article, “We’ve cracked the genetic code, now what?” is very interesting in the fact that we have come so far in technology and genetics but there is still so much that we can do and discover.  I think that having access to our own genome would be so incredible, and there would be so much that we could do with it! We could find out what diseases we are prone to have and theoretically be able to find a cure for them.  There is also the possibility that looking at specific genomes could determine why aging comes along the way it does, and in the near future there could be a way to argue it.  It would be very cool to find out how to prevent aging, but again there would be major consequences for figuring out this kind of technology, like a new problem of population in the country.  There are also some cons in the situation of discovering personal peoples’ DNA, such as moving into the boundary of ethical beliefs and protection against personal information.  When and if this kind of personal information ever gets out, there will also be the question of when it is appropriate to share.  I think that it is important to try to get as far as we can in discovering the human genome and that if any problems arise, we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

PLN Presentation Feedback

Thanks for listening! Here is my question:
If the world had listened to the feedback that teachers had on technology just a few years ago, what would your personal life be like without the technology that we have today?

PLN #6: What If?

The video, “What If?” by Karl Fisch, proposes the idea that the world today is made up of many types of technology that didn’t exist before, and that the new technology that is being invented and improved is a statement to show how much the world has accomplished throughout the past few centuries.  In the video, Mr. Fisch gives quotes that teachers, administrators, and other officials gave about how they thought that technology would fail or become a burden rather than an achievement in the world.  Many of the quotes stated that the technology that was getting invented (in the time era that the quotes were taken from) was taking away from students’ learning and that it would become an inconvenience to them as time went on.  However, with each quote that came on the screen, each one talked about more recent technology and how it was effecting the world, and they never dwelled on one subject, which showed that over time the “obstacle” with that certain piece of technology was overcome.  The first quote was taken from the year 1703, in which a teacher is complaining about how slates are too expensive and students shouldn’t be expected to use them.  The technology moves from slates to modern technology like cell phones, calculators, and laptops.  At the end of the video, Mr. Fisch asks the question, “What if we’d listened?"

 
I think that the video “What If?” by Karl Fisch is very interesting and is a good way to look at how far we have come in the world of technology in just a few centuries.  Personally, I use all kinds of technology every day and without it, everything I do would be very inefficient.  I do most of my homework and even some class work on my computer so it is very important in the sense to get work done.  My phone is also an important piece of technology to me because I can do almost everything I can do on a computer on my it.  It is also an essential way for me to communicate with family and friends.  Facebook is just one of the many sites that people go on to stay connected and live vicariously through others.  Many websites like Facebook as pastimes as well as time-wasters, but they are still a big part of what technology is today.  The internet is also a huge achievement in the world of technology because before the internet, people would have to research everything in books and find other ways to occupy themselves.  If we had listened to the people’s quotes on Mr. Fisch’s video, we would have never gotten this far so I am glad that people challenged these statements instead of gave up on what new piece of technology was yet to come.