Hi All
This post is a a bit of reflective planning for the presentation I am making to the consultants group at our school board on the 25 of February 2008. Wow 2008, one just has to consider some of the things that are going on and it is hard not to notice the efects of technolgy on every facet of our lives.
In my previous life as an oilfield completions specialist, technology provided the competitive edge that our company needed to gain a grasp on the market share that we were trying to carve out. In education the competitive drive does not exist as a revolutionary or disruptive force. In fact I find very little of the pressure and support we discuss to be driven by make meaningful change. In fact the giant and non-reactive nature of education provides very little impetus for change. The challenge around this is that the world is racing towards a collaborative, connected ecosystem that is reacting and reflecting the changes in our cultures on a global basis. The obvious fear then is that the diference in reactivity to change and between education with technologically deficient learning environmnet and the technologically rich living environment of the 21st century.hat mean to our students.
Stephen Heppel states that it causes our students to ramp down and lose in focus and interest in their education. I would argue that the survivors of this system are those who can operate with a system that can understand the benefits of just in case education.In fact the "successful" students are quite comfortable in an learning system that is reflective of a time prior to the rapid evolutionary changes brought about since the explosion of information and susequent evolution of the read/write web. The other students who, for better or for worse are a product of the disruptive forces they have been molded by to become just in time learners do not fit the mold of a time which no longer exists. The students are at risk of not succceeding in education...
What does this mean? Is education going to be the last bastion of a past which gave us cultural strife and hierarchical society to fulfill the needs of an industrial world or an organic flexible self regulating entity that has the ability to influence society by providing students to our communities that are aware of the challenges that are of their time....
I have to make this argument. Can you please comment on the strengths, and even more importantly weaknesses in my thinking so I can be prepared for the questions. The very fact that I recive responses will point out the value of the read write web.
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2 comments:
"The other students who, for better or for worse are a product of the disruptive forces they have been molded by to become just in time learners do not fit the mold of a time which no longer exists".
Hi Jeff, These are the students I think about too. There are a group of students who will always do well, even despite us. But who are the students who will not cope in an outmoded system. I can think of two groups. One are the students who think outside the box. They are, by the nature of their thinking, non-conformists. We can try to make them fit our mold, but everybody will lose. The other group are the students who face some sort of disadvantage. They need education to equalize their opportunities. I think these kids might see us as inhibiting their learning needs. Some only get on a computer at recess, or once a week during their library period (in elementary school). They are developing an "us and them" mentality. I am struggling with this because they are becoming "web savvey" as opposed to "web wise" as they work against us and we work against them. I also see computer time becoming a reward for good behaviour in this model. There is alot of important work to accomplish on computers. When we tell them if they finish their work they can go on the computers to play, we are doing an educational disservice to these kids.
We should be using computers to make work more relevant not as a reward for getting through work they see as irrelevant.
Also, in a Web 2.0 world, information is a two way street. I think one of the necessary strengths of technology is that it gives students a voice. I don't think we can underestimate the importance of this.
Wwe need to continue to do this thinking because it generates arguments and self supporting ideas that can be used in the discussion of a technology plan. I think it is inmportant to practice the articulation of thoughts in order to hammer them out, hear how they sound and modify them under the microscope that the discourse creates.
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