Economics: China vs. USA

I'd love to get some informed feedback on the following ideas:

In 2006, the last year for which statistics are available, China’s Gross Domestic Product was $10.21 trillion, the second largest GDP in the world, after the United States. For the past twenty five years, China’s annual GDP has grown faster than any other major nation, at the fast rate of 10%. China’s per capita income has also grown quickly, at 8% over the last three decades. In contrast to China, the GDP of the United States only grew at approximately 2.2% for the same time period. Per capita income in the United States grew at approximately 1.3%.

	GDP	GDP Growth	GDP Per Capita	Per Capita Income Growth
USA	$13.86 Trillion	2.2%	$46,000	1.3%
China	$10.21 Trillion	10%	$7,800	8%

Imagine that the first and third columns in this table did not exist. We could conclude with question that China’s economy was far superior to that of the United States. Even if we add in the first column, GDP, we can see that China is catching up to the United States fast. Within six years, China’s GDP will be greater than the U.S.’s. When today’s kindergarteners are in middle school, the U.S.A. will no longer have the largest GDP in the world. China’s economy will be larger than our own. Granted, the per-capita income in the United States will remain higher than the per capita income in China for the next twenty eight years, if everything remains consistent. But, twenty eight years is not a very long time. Just think about the fact that today’s infants will be starting to raise their own families when China’s per capita income passes our own, if everything remains consistent.

McCain Wins

I've posted a series of discussion questions related to Senator McCain capturing the Republican nomination here.

Here I want to ask how educators might use modern technology to help students understand the Presidential elections. You might consider having students read about the candidates' backgrounds on Wikipedia. But, even better challenge students to find something interesting about a candidate that they could add to his/her wikipedia profile. Where could students look online to find out this interesting information? Would it be possible to call somebody for some help in this regard?

Newsweek's educational site has a fantastic collection of lessons related to this year's elections. Though it's only open to members, it has a lot to offer.

What else can you think of?

ArchieMD

Today I wrote about a Washington Post article entitled, "Immune Systems Increasingly on Attack" on my SchoolNet blog. The article discusses possible reasons why children have so many more allergies today than they had in the past.

I'm not a scientist but I do have horrible allergies. Sometimes when my nose is irritated I'm wondering what is really happening. Why does it hurt me?

So, how does this relate to modern technology?

Very simply, one technology company, ArchieMD has developed what it describes as "created the most scientifically credible library of health and science imagery in the world. Comprising six terabytes of electronic data, the library consists of several thousand images and high quality 3-D animations." Several weeks ago, while in Florida, I had the opportunity to meet with folks at this company. They showed me some of their animations and one word describes them: Incredible!! Students of all ages could benefit from this content. The only caveat is that the content is not free. In this age, of Web 2.0, so much content is free. But, does content have to be free for people to use it?

In five years will content have to be free for people to use it?

Tutor.com

Take a look at a discussion starter that I just had posted on Tutor.com's website. If you are not familiar with Tutor.com it is a high quality on-line tutoring service.

Michael Eisner and Web Television

I have posted a series of questions about a New York Times article entitled, "The Very Model of a Modern Media Mogul," here.

The article prompts me to think about the importance of writing.

When we ask students to interpret literature, be it the written word or a movie, we ask them to critically consider a message. We ask them to think. These thinking skills can help students understand and react to numerous different situations that they'll encounter throughout life.

The written word, typically contained in books, provide a useful venue for challenging our students to think in this way. The written word is important, right?

Well actually, I can't help but wonder if books actually are as important to the future as they are to the present. Certainly Gutenberg made it very easy to convey messages through the written word. But, would the written word have been as important and useful if people could have developed and easily communicated messages contained in other types of media, as early as they could spread writing?

My guess is that if people could have developed multi-media messages hundreds of years ago, messages containing spoken word, music, and moving pictures hundreds of years ago, the written word would not have gained its current importance. Using these multi-media messages we still could have taught the importance of literary analysis and critical thinking. Instead of interpreting written words, we'd be interpreting movies. Many would certainly find this aesthetically pleasing.

My guess: In time the written word will become less prevalent in schools. Video will increasingly take its place.

What do you think?

Communication with China

On Friday, I wrote a post questioning the typical Chinese attitude towards the Olympic games. I suggested that we should not simply trust an article in the Washington Post but try and do some of our own research. I tried to find somebody from China with whom I could communicate, via Skype.

I was successful.

My new Chinese friend wrote:

"BeiJin Olympic ,a world ,a dreaming, yes, all people is readed

Chinese's unceasing endeavor, participated in the world economics development and has made the corresponding contribution. The Olympic Games are also a world big meeting, lets we better understanding world, can also let the world better understand us."

i used yahoo babel fish

translate your text

While this English is obviously imperfect, my friend was able to write simpler sentences with much higher quality.

But consider the educational impact of having students correspond with a Chinese citizen in this way. The student would have to think critically in order to make sense of the comments. Then the student might verify his understanding with his new friend. In this process, the student would develop a deeper understanding of linguistic differences. He could also develop a deeper understanding of English when considering why the writer might have used certain words grammatically incorrectly. Why for example, did the writer state, "lets we better understanding world" instead of "let's us better understand the world"? What is the relationship between "we" and "us"? What is the relationship between "understanding" and "understand"?

While I did not do so, a student might have asked the Chinese person to send a comment in Chinese and then used Babel Fish to translate it into English.

Just think, until recently this type of communication was limited to government officials and business executives. Now it's available to everybody.