When I did my Wolfram Alpha search on this topic, it asked me to compare the population of the following countries: United States, China and India. The results of this search shows that the U.S. has the smallest population of the other countries, India is smaller than China and China is the largest country of the three.
I also found that the life expectancy is longer in the United States, it being 78.1 years. China came in second highest with a life expectancy of 73.5 years and India came in third, with a life expectancy of 69.9 years. Population Density in 2012 had the United States 87.2 people per square mile, China with 376 people per square mile and India with 1,058 people per square mile. Comparing the population growth, shows the United States ranked 138th in the world, China ranked 154th in the world and India ranked 95th in the world. Long term population shows a steady increase most years for the three countries. However, in 1850, China went down and begin to increase again. India increased yearly but went down some in the early 1900s and the United States stayed at a steady incline.
When comparing Inda, China and the United States in a previous assignment, I may have misinterpreted what they wanted us to take from the data. The data first looks as though China and India are much smarter than the United States. After a closer look at the data, it shows something different to me; it does not show that they are smarter, just that they are MUCH LARGER countries than the United States. The size simply makes the data look different. I may not be able to explain it well, but I do understand it better.
My Second Wolfram Alpha Search
In my second search, I compared the population of Alabama and Florida. The information I found was that Florida's population is much larger than Alabama. Although I figured Florida did have a larger population, I did not realize it was 14.25 million people more. Alabama's population is 4.803 million and Florida has a population of 19.06 million according to Wolfram Alpha.
I also learned that the annual deaths in Alabama is 46,977 people per year and in Florida there are 170,060 people per year. After reading Many Students Misinterpreted the Data in Did You Know?, I realized that Florida has more deaths because it has more people. The point of the assignment to me was to take a closer look at the data. You have to look at all the data before making assumptions. The comparisons for Alabama deaths are relavent to the size of Alabama and so are the number of Florida's deaths.
My Third Wolfram Alpha Search
In my last search, I had a little fun. I compared my favorite NBA player with another player that some people think is better. I compared Kobe Bryant, my favorite player with Labron James. In the search, I found that Kobe is six years older than Labron. The search says that Kobe is a shooting guard and Labron is a forward. Even more data shows that Kobe has played professional ball for 17 years and Labron for only 10 years. Physical data shows that Kobe is 6'6" and weighs 205 lbs and Labron is 6'7" and weighs 249 lbs. There is lots of other stats related to games played, shots blocked, points per game, steals, etc... What the data shows me after a closer look is that Kobe is the top player over Labron, even though he is older. After observing weight, my guess is Labron eats more pork chops, that's why he is slower than Kobe.
The Question...Will my students and I use Wolfram Alpha?
The answer to this question is absolutely! First of all, people reading my blog may not even realize what Wolfram Alpha is, I sure did not know before this class. Wolfram Alpha to me, is a major up-grade on any search engine out there (Google, Bing, etc...) After going through the tutorial, I learned that they do not even like calling it a search engine,but rather a computational knowledge engine. The tutorial said that Wolfram Alpha was created by human experts and is able to give answers at the 'drop of a hat'. You are able to input more than just text on this engine; you are also able to put in math symbols and numbers.
To answer the question, I will definitely use this engine in my class. Again, I am majoring in Phyical Education, but I am sure I will have my students researching facts about famous athletes, exercises, weight, measurments, etc... I also see my students using it to compare differet countries and their role in physical education; especially during the Olympics. I typed in Kobe Bryant and it gave me all kind of information on him. As a teacher, I will use Wolfram Alpha when I create my lesson plans and teach lessons. Wolfram Alpha will not only help me a better teacher, but it will definitely help me look and sound smarter. The best thing about Wolfram Alpha, is that I will be teaching the most updated information to my students.
The video Gary Hayes Social Media Count was overwelming; amost a little frightening. The rate the numbers were changing shows me that we are definitely out of the dark ages. As I watched the numbers change, I said that I was wathcing things take place all over the world; not just in Silverhill, Alabama, but all of the world. As each number changed, I realized that technology is the one thing that we have in common with people almost everywhere. As I watched the numbers,I imagined someone in Africa on Facebook or someone in Canada Tweeting and little old me, I was in Alabama Blogging. The count sort of made you think of technology, and how we take it for granted when we get on to use. As I watched The Count, I wondered more than anything, what was Mr. Hayes thinking when he created this? How did he even began? I even laughed and said to myself, this man is part robot. No offense Mr. Hayes, but this is some freaky stuff; very interesting though. My favorite part was pressing the tabs and watching the numbers change when you pressed the tabs +1 week, month, year.
What I learned in The Count is that we should probably encourage students to pursue a career in technology, or anything related to media. We as future teachers will need to include technology into as many lessons as possible; if we don't, we are going to be that teacher who is left behind. I think every teacher in the world must get on the digital technology bandwagon. If we don't our students will be far advanced than us in technology; which I'm sure some of them already are. Even though this class has taught me a lot in new technology so far, it has also made me realize that I will need many more classe in technology. I think we will have to be life-long learners in technology since it changes so much. The Count, is something that will make anyone just sit down and think about how the world is always changing.
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