"Rigor Redefined" By Tony Wagner

      In the article "Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner he describes what skills students will need if they are planning on surviving in the ever changing work world. Jobs are changing every day and different skills are required for different jobs. There are 7 main skills we are expected to have when it comes to the work world we will be living in in the future. They are 1.Critical thinking and problem solving 2.Collaboration and leadership 3.Agility and adaptability 4.Initiative and entrepreneurialism 5.Effective oral and written communication 6.Accessing and analyzing information and 7.Curiosity and imagination. After seeing what the people in the work world are looking for in their employees and why they are exactly looking for that you really think that schools need to be teaching students how to obtain and use these skills to their full extent, while still teaching them the required curriculum. After talking about the skills students should be obtaining in an everyday class room Wagner went on to talk about the classes he has visited and how majority of them are not giving students the skills they are gonna need one they reach the real world. Most of the classes he went to were students doing what they were told or copying things off the board. And these are not giving students any of the 76 skills listed above. Then Wagner talked about how the occasional class he would go to would be allowing students to use all of the skills and not even realize they were doing it. An example of one of these classes was an algebra II class where the teacher wrote a problem up on the board that the students wouldn’t know how to solve. They were told to work in group using what they learned in algebra I and geometry to find two ways to solve thins problem. Wagner explains how this uses all of the skills it should and it really makes you think about how this shouldn’t be a rare as he says. This should be the kind of learning going on in class every single day.

      After reading this article I really thought about all the classes I am in and how uncommon it is for us to do something in those classes that is helping us develop the skills we are going to need. Also it made me realize that in the majority of my classes we are doing stuff that doesn’t use a single one of the 7 skills. Sure, we use lots of skills in class, but how often is it that we are really pushing these to the full extent they have? This article really changed how I look at my classes and what we do in the class time we have. It also made me think about how I can push myself to use these skills even when my teacher isn’t.

"The Machine is Us/ing Us"

      In the video “The Machine is Us/ing Us.” created by Micheal Wesch it starts out by giving information about websites, text vs. typing, etc. and throughout the video it really becomes more about how the web has changed who we are as people. The web has become something more extensive then anyone could have ever imagined based off where it started and what it was when it did start. The things that it gives us access to are uncountable and that just amazes me. And it makes me wonder if this extensive thing we have really is for the better of us.

      We all know the benefits of being able to email, Facebook, Twitter, research, read, watch and so much more on the web, but at what cost? The internet has become a dangerous place for people. Maybe not as much so for adults, but for the kids and teens constantly using it it could be a serious endangerment. We've all heard how we aren't supposed to give out any of our personal information on the web, but how many of us really think twice before we post something about ourselves or start talking to someone we have never met. Do we really think about how someone could be constantly watching the things we say and do? Or that the people we are talking to might not be who they say they are at all? For the most part the answer to that is no. Then again we are usually smart enough not to give out the obvious information like our numbers and addresses, but then there are the people that still continue to do that. They don't do it just to put themselves in a bad position, they do it without a second thought, because they feel like they know who the person they are talking to is, but really they have no idea.

      Another downfall to the progression of the web is something a lot of us are all too familiar with, cyber bullying. It's happening everyday all around us. None of us as teens can say we haven't seen it happen because it's just all to common. And for the most part it doesn't seem like any of us do too much to stop it. It's not like we don't care or we think it's okay to do. It's that we don't think it is our business or our problem so we try to avoid it and stay out of it. That's completely opposite of what we really should be doing though. We hear all the time about suicides of kids around our age group because of harassment and bullying; a lot of which is done online, over text, etc. It is a constant problem and we really need to stand together as a generation if it ever is going to stop.

      This really was brought to mind for me towards the end of the video when it said ”We need to rethink...ourselves.” because the web really has made us do that. I look at myself in a completely different way when I am on the internet because of how I respond to things and people online. I know I can be a lot more brave with the things I say online because it's not to anyone’s face. Then again I also know I can be a lot more closed off with some of my thoughts because I honestly have no idea who is going to be reading that and what they will think of me and what I stand for when they do. I really think this video was an eye opener in lots and lots of different ways and I think it was very connectable to our day to day lives.