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//**This is Ben's wiki.**//

//**This is Ben's jam:**// media type="custom" key="10727852" //**This is Ben's crude representation of himself:**// media type="custom" key="10755654"

** I come to this class with a lot of experience with technology; I have worked in the technology industry ever since I graduated from high school 13 years ago. My parents, who didn't have a lot of money, bought a computer one year for Christmas when computers were a lot more expensive than they are today. It was a Packard Bell 286 IBM-compatible PC, completely DOS-based -- no Windows, no Internet. I used educational software to improve my math, used a Typing Tutor program to teach myself to type, and mastered the BASIC programming language on my own. That computer was the greatest investment in my education. **

** Today, being proficient with computers is even more critical than it ever was when I was growing up. Everything uses computers and almost every job, no matter how menial, seems to require some level of computer know-how. The students who are able not only to fully embrace the technology of today but also to adapt to the technology of tomorrow will have a significant advantage over students who don't. It is, therefore, my opinion that not including computers and technology as part of any classroom -- regardless of the subject -- is incredibly irresponsible and does a tremendous disservice to students. There is no part of the curriculum that cannot be enhanced by a technology component. And including technology in the lesson plan serves the dual function of teaching the students more and making them more interested in the subject at the same time. **

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I was very impressed by this video -- it is amazing to think just how much things have changes simply within my own lifetime. I swore I would never be one of those "When I was your age" guys, but I'm only 32 years old and when I was my kids' age most of the things that occupy their lives -- text messaging, Facebook, massively multiplayer online video games, Youtube, Google -- none of it had been invented yet. Not only do I have a phone that goes with me when I leave the house, but it can also play music, tell me tomorrow's weather forecast, show me a movie, play video games, carry my grocery list, give me directions, let me see sports scores, and deliver up-to-the-minute news. Indeed, the thin piece of electronics I carry around in my pocket contains more computational power than the computers that landed mankind on the moon. It's absolutely mind-blowing. I know a lot of people are worried about the future, terrified of change. I'm excited. I'm a history major, but my eyes are facing forward and I think the most fascinating time period the world has ever known is happening around us right now.

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I had heard of James Randi and his foundation (JREF) and even had heard about his million dollar challenge for evidence of the supernatural, but I had never seen him give a talk until now. I thought that his opener about making assumptions was really entertaining but also conveyed an important message that sometimes we cannot accept at face value what we simply assume to be true. I know a lot of people who really get into psychic mediums and love to watch them on television (my mom's a huge fan of Sylvia Browne) and I've frequently said that they are frauds. James Randi, though, is versed with some of the tricks of "magic" (or conjuring) and can explain things like cold reading from an insiders' perspective. Further, the stunt involving taking an entire bottle of homeopathic sleeping pills was a brilliant way to show this type of "medicine" for the fraud that it is.

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Malcolm Gladwell is well-known as the popular author of marketing and business books such as "The Tipping Point" and "Blink." In this video, he speaks about a discovery in the food industry that changed the way we shop and eat -- the introduction of large varieties and different options of different types of food -- from spaghetti sauce to Pepsi to mustard. The story itself is fascinating as is, but it becomes an object lesson when it's used as a metaphor. The lesson the food industry realized is that you cannot make one type of food that will appeal to everyone -- instead, you had to customize your approach to different types of people. Some people may like a traditional spaghetti sauce, while others like the four cheese kind and others like the extra chunky. Similarly, in the classroom, some students respond and learn better by reading the chapter, others prefer to use computers, and some learn best by practicing a skill. Teachers must introduce a number of teaching "flavors" in order to reach all their students, rather than taking a "one size fits all" approach.

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As a science teacher, flaws in scientific reasoning in general and specificially fraudulent and bad science is an issue that's really of great concern to me. Ben Goldacre is a very energetic, funny, lively speaker on this topic and he obviously cares a great deal about it. Goldacre breaks down the ways that scientific information, studies, and statistics can be skewed to benefit certain companies or individuals, or can be sensationalized for publicity or to gain audiences. I think it's great to see people like Goldacre, who is a very respected scientist and doctor but who is able to speak to people on a level where they understand him. He is not too technical for people. His example about how studies showed that olive oil and vegetables caused people to have fewer wrinkles is a great example of how correlation might not equal causation, and it's one I would use in my own science classes as an exercise to get kids to think critically about what other factors might also be at work in that phenomenon.

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Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk is an amazing, funny, and eye-opening way of looking at the way we educate students. I have seen first-hand the way education has been commoditized, with children been molded into workers instead of allowed to grow to their own potentials. Robinson's quote that "all children have talent and we squander it... rather ruthlessly" hits the nail on the head -- and with a British accent which, I'm sure everyone can agree, gives his point even more credibility. I do wonder as I look at the way education has shifted to focus more on standardized test scores how some of the greatest minds of recent generations would have fared in today's education system. Are our schools worrying so much about whether they will meet adequate yearly progress that they are the geniuses out of today's crops of Einsteins, Edisons, and da Vincis? Robinson's point about the ballet choreographer -- "Somebody else might have put her on medicine and told her to calm down" is a cautionary tale if I ever heard one.

//**And this is a link talking about how between a quarter and a third of all people in the United States either don't want or cannot get broadband access. In 2011. That's CRAZY.**// []