Special Blog Assignment # 1

Did You Know?

Though the rhetoric of the video, Did You Know?, is deceiving, I did not misinterpret the information as meaning that the US was behind the other countries mentioned. Such a determination cannot be made with one sided figures. Numbers, like all rhetoric, can be manipulative and used to show one side of the table. We can gather nothing with percentages alone. Percentage of what? According to WolframAlpha the population of China is 1.35 billion, the population of India is 1.21 billion, and the population of the United States is 309 million.
Also 318 million people in China either know English or are learning to speak English. Assuming they all learn to do so 23.56% of China’s population would speak English. While the amount of English speakers in China may be more than the entire population of the United States, the percentage of English speaking Americans is higher than the percentage of English speakers in China. And while India may have more honors students than the United States, it is expected as they have three times the population.

Two WolframAlpha Searches

Compare Georgia to Alabama enrollment
Graduate or Professional School- GA:116740 AL:47758
Undergraduate School- GA:538310 AL:257789
Pre-k to 12th Grade- GA:1.962 Million AL:901184
TOTAL enrollment- GA:2.617 Millon AL:1.207 Million

Compare Georgia and Alabama Test Scores
These test scores pertain to SAT in math, writing, reading. GA:74% AL:7%
These test scores pertain to ACT in math, english, reading, science. GA:47% AL:81%

WolframAlpha offers students a resource of information regardning statistics, geography, media, genealogy, chemistry, and so on. The spectrum of information offered on this site seems to be endless. This site would be helpful to English students in gathering research for a variety of different types of papers. WolframAlpha can help students not only locate information and data but the site can also help students interpret and compare data.

Social Media:

Gary Hayes Social Media Chart is amazing to watch. It is astonishing that the numbers increase continuingly. It is incredible that Hayes has put all this information together into a chart that continuously updates the data. I was surprised to see that the amount of new android phones activated is more that the amount of iPhones sold. I would have guessed the numbers would be fairly close. According to this site, there are about 7 times as many new android phone activations as there are new iPhones sold in one minute. This chart proves that technology is steadily increasing. Not only is technology enhancing but it is also spreading throughout society at a steady rate. More and more people are using social networking sites and tools such as Blogger and Google. As a teacher, I will need to stay up-to-date on the resources available to me both inside and outside the classroom. Twitter, Pinterest, blogs and maybe facebook are a great way to stay informed of technology that is enhancing the classroom.