Special Blog Post #1

WolframAlpha states that in 2010, India had 2.1 billion people, China had 1.35 billion, and the United States had 309 million. I understand why the information was misinterpreted now, the United States is more than three times smaller! I also asked WolframAlpha to compare the population density of India, China, and the US. India has 1,058 people per square mile, China has 376, and the US has 87.3. Those numbers also help to put the actual population in perspective. Next, I checked the life expectancy. The people of the United States live the longest with an average of about 78.1 years. China follows at 73.5, and India comes in last at 69.9. What a coincidence that the countries with more people don't tend to live as long!

WolframAlpha would be an excellent resource for both me and my students. It gives accurate comparisons so quickly! If I had tried to google the population of each of those separately, I would have had to search through a million plus pages that would've all given me different numbers. The option of using a favorites and a history tab will help my students a lot because they can refer back to the information that they have learned. Not only that, but the website puts similar information on whichever page that you search. For example, when I searched for the population, it also gave me other demographics that compared the three of them. I will definitely be using this in my classroom!

Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Watching how fast all of those counters changed made my head hurt. It's amazing how technologically advanced our world has become. As a teacher, that means that I've got to keep up! 30 years ago, half of the things that the social media count compares didn't even exist. There was no facebook, no email, no text messages...none of that. Personally, I've never used a typewriter but I've seen plenty of them. The students that I have won't even know what a typewriter is!

When I'm teaching, just as it happened to the generation before me, most things that I use in my classroom are not invented yet. I will have an important role as an instructor, but I will also have to know how to be a student as well. Not only will I have to be open to new technology, but I will have to learn it so that I can most effectively communicate with my students and prepare them for a future that no one can predict.