Special Blog Assignment # 1

WolframAlpha Search 

When I searched compare the populations of India, China and the United States, I found that the United States is ranked 3rd in the world with a population of 309 million people, India is ranked 2nd with a population of 1.21 billion people, and China is ranked 1st with a total population of 1.35 billion people. The search also provided the number of people per square mile for each country. The demographics from 2010 showed that India has 1058 people per square mile, China has 376 people per square mile, and the United States has 87.3 people per square mile. 

I then searched, compare the number of students in India, China, and the United States. From this search I discovered that India and China each have more primary students alone than the total number of primary and secondary students in the United States. India has the highest number of primary and secondary students with 143.3 million primary students and 107.7 million secondary students. China comes in second with 101 million primary students and 99.2 million secondary students. The United States comes in third with a 24.39 million primary students and 24.19 million students. 

Lastly I searched most spoken languages. I found that Mandarin ranks number 1 with 1.1 billion people speaking Mandarin. Mandarin originated and is most spoken in China, and 875 million people are native speakers. There are two countries that use Mandarin as an official language, China and Taiwan. The second most spoken language is English with 760 million people speaking English. English originated in the United Kingdom, but is most spoken in the United States. There are more than ten countries that use English as an official language. 

I believe that WolframAlpha could be a very useful tool in the classroom. I found the site to be very interesting and fascinating. The site takes no time to provide data. I think the site can be explored by the teacher and her students as a group. WolframAlpha can also be used as part of a learning center in a classroom. Students can work individually or with a partner to explore the site and write about what they found. 


Gary Hayes Social Media Count

Gary Hayes' Social Media Count tracks real-time stats of social networking sites. There are twenty different combinations that one can choose from will visiting the site. The Social Media Count consists of four categories: social, mobile, games and heritage, you may choose one of these along with a time frame, ranging from the present moment to over a year ago. The Social Media Count goes beyond social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, and youtube. By clicking on the Heritage tab, you will be able to view how much money is being made at the present time or how much money has been made in the past at the United States post office and from music track downloads and you are also able to view how many people have read a newspaper or been to an orchestra. 

I found it fascinating to watch the numbers increase at such a rapid rate. I could have never imagined those numbers being so high and the unbelievable rate at which they increased. I believe that as an educator, I should be up to date on technology and it's ever changing ways. However I also think that technology in the classrooms should be limited. While social media such as facebook and blogs can be useful tools for a teacher and his or her students when used in the proper way, they do not need to be consumed by it.