Special Blog Post Assignment #1

Did You Know 3.0? Wolfram/Alpha Search

The Wolfram/Alpha search revealed that the population of India is 1.21 billion. The population of China is 1.35 billion, and the United States' population is 309 million people. So this data shows the differences in a their population size as the reason for the differences in IQ's between the three countries as referred to in the Did You Know 3.0 video by Dr. Strange. Also the reason why there would be more people in China speaking English than in America is because 318 million Chinese speaking Enghlish is more than the entire US population which is only 309 million people. I did several more Wolfram/Alpha searches with similar questions. I asked, "What age do children start school in China?" The search revealed children start at age 7 for primary school and age 12 for secondary school. I asked the same question for India and the data revealed that children start primary school at age 6 and secondary school at age 12. Again I asked the same question for the US and the search showed that children start primary school at age 6 and start secondary school at age 12.

Wolfram/Alpha Benefits in the Classroom

I really like the Wolfram/Alpha search engine and I will definitely use it in my classroom one day. I clicked on the Examples tab and went through the different subject categories and the possible searches that could be done. I found the math section really useful. When doing basic arithmetic you can input the numbers of a problem and it will give you the answer to the problem. It will also show your students where the answer is located on the real number line. This is especially helpful for young children when learning number placement. It is also great for showing students how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions. This is really useful because I found fractions to be very intimidating as a child. This site will show you step by step how to complete each function. Wolfram/Alpha also has little pop-up questions that appear on the bottom left of the screen and when you click on the box it will give you the answer to the question. I think this is a great way for students to learn new little facts about other subjects while searching for answers to their own questions.

Gary Hayes Social Media Counts

Mr. Gary Hayes is an award winning producer, director, author, and educator who created the blog www.personalizemedia.com. In his blog he created a social media count tab that keeps up with how many people are posting on social media sights such as facebook, pinterest, and twitter. It tallies what kind of device these posts are being made from. This count fluctuates every day down to the most current seconds. It also keeps up with how much information is being sent through mobile devices and games. It even includes data for how many papers are printed, and the data on recent films being made around the world on the "heritage" tab.

The social media count Mr. Gary Hayes provides is really amazing. I think this data gives insight in to what future classrooms may be like. And by this I mean that classrooms will be even more involved with social media and technology than what they already are. I really think it should be a requirement for all schools to focus on technology more than what they do now because it is our children's future. I think facebook and twitter is great for educational purposes and showing students what other children their age are doing and learning around the world but I do not think children should be using it for social purposes until their parents think it is age appropriate for them.