"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."- Thomas Edison

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Additional Assignment #1

Pitcairn Islands map

Thanks to Dr. Strange, I am now aware of two helpful educational searching tools, WolframAlpha and Google Squared. I did not know of either of these before this assignment, and I am glad I can now extend any research I do using these tools.

Using these websites, students can narrow or broaden their research to focus solely on what they need to know. Google Squared provides columns of different categories of information pertaining to the subject that can be deleted if unneeded, and additional columns can be added. With Wolfram, maps and graphs are available to be viewed in comparison to the statistics. I also learned that Wolfram can be used as a graphing calculator. You simply put in the function and click compute. Students can learn so much more using these websites without having to read more than a few sentences.

After reading back over my "Did You Know" post, my thoughts have changed. While I was astonished that India has more honor kids than the United States has kids, I did not realize the major difference in population. I now understand that statistics have more to them than just numbers. There are many different areas that affect the statistics, and from now on I will research more thoroughly before allowing statistics to blow my mind.

The Stable Boy and the iPad- To learn it is possible for a 6 year old illiterate stable boy to naturally understand how to work a computer brings tears to my eyes at the possibilities technology provides for those who are less fortunate.

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