Monday, November 15, 2010

The Shift

I'm on the technology committee for my school district, which, as most of you know, is not in Canada. That said, my district shares the philosophy referred to at the end of this video, which we watched in a committee meeting last week. Anyone with an interest in the education of 21st Century students should, as Dave always says, "Know this."


Your thoughts?

24 comments:

  1. We are always encouraged to use tech too. I let the kids do stuff on my iPhone when they finish other work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sobering. Sometimes Frustrating. And always mind-bending. Definitely a challenge for those of us in education!

    Speaking of change, have you seen The Story of Stuff?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds fantastic, I'm all for it! Now, who's going to fund the shift? ;-)

    It will happen, and is happening. My kids' primary school has 2 rooms set up with video conferencing (funded by the NSW Dept of Education) and we're working on putting interactive whiteboards in all the classrooms (funded by the Parents and Citizens Association).

    I do wonder though about the schools that can't get enough government funding to provide these resources or whose P&C struggles to raise a few thousand dollars a year (ours donates $50 - $60K to the school each year). Do those kids just miss out?

    ReplyDelete
  4. It actually makes me very sad. Children of the future and our own need to have basic skills too. What if something/anything happened to where all technology seized to exist. I know I am going out on a limb here by saying that however, I believe that too much technology is part of our problems today. Will someday there be no such thing as a text book? I still tell my 11 year old to look up her vocabulary words in the dictionary. And yes, we still own a set of encyclopedia's too. Little House on the Prairie is still a favorite of mine.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, and it's not just the technology that costs, it's the retraining of teachers too. I wish there was proper support for public education in Australia, so much damage has been done by the previous government.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Considering how expensive college textbooks are, and even suppling high school and elementary schools with books is a cost nightmare, just think of how much could be saved putting everything into e-books. And no more 50lb backpacks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Its interesting to watch my daughter studying her college material, so much different then 25 years ago. I'm taking a class for Society and the Environment and my darn final project is setting a webpage on a specific topic. Thank goodness I have all that blogging experience to guide me through.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Last year I reread "Future Shock" which was written in the 70's I think.

    It's almost quaint now, in its projection of the rate of change we would experience. It makes me dizzy to contemplate, and it makes being old rather comforting.

    I think the main thing kids will have to learn is how to keep learning and learning and learning their whole lives.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We are well on our way here, and I love it. Next term I am teaching the second semester of composition (the dreaded research paper class) and I will be using a graphic argument approach. Last time I did that, I worried what the full-time faculty would think about me straying from tradition. I still don't know what the faculty thought, but the students loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's almost frightening, and yet exciting at the same time. Time and technology are always changing, whether we want to accept the fact or not. And we are almost forced to change with it. And our education system must adapt as well. And don't be too surprised when I say that some day....some day....children will no longer go to school. They will sit at their school issued laptops at home, and learn from computer generated teachers. No more school buses, no more gas to fill the buses, no more bus driver salaries, no more teachers, no more teacher salaries, no more lunch programs.........

    Maybe you and I won't see that day. But some day.

    I forwarded this video to my daughter to get her thoughts.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think some technology in the classroom is a good thing. However, students still need to learn things like handwriting, how to balance a checkbook, etc. Too much screen time is bad for your eyes. I would never want to completely do away with books.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice presentation. The challenge of technology is to be transparent in its use allowing the user to express themselves, seek interaction with others and develop an action plan. Thanks for sharing. Know that.

    ReplyDelete
  13. i love the internet and the options that it gives us all these days. however, i believe there may be a down side to it as well. what happens when our world becomes 2 dimensional and what happens to relationships when we can't carry on conversations face-to-face? the biggest fear for me in the technology age is the diminishing patience i see in the technology world around us. we no longer have patience for anything that takes more than the internet browser look up function. many benefits come with technology, but let's remember to use it as a tool instead of allowing it to take over the world, eh??

    ReplyDelete
  14. And therein lies the answer to the "Texas Schoolbook Problem".

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, kinda of mind blowing isn't it???

    God bless and have a terrific week!

    ReplyDelete
  16. wow makes me realize how far behind us Okies really are....

    ReplyDelete
  17. Very good, but I feel so old now! My ESL students, well a lot of them always use their little electronic dictionaries/translators. Gosh, I cannot for the life of me remember what you call em right this minute!
    Today a little 3 year old boy was playing a game on him mom's I phone, or Itouch phone (At least I know what that is called!) while she was checking out in the store. :) It was great! :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I watched a similar one some months ago that seemed focused on scare you of the future. You have an interesting discussion going on here. I wish I could vote on some of the comments.

    I have mixed feelings. Technology is a mixed bag with a little dangerous stuff sprinkled in with the good stuff. People do still need to learn the basics. They should also learn to do things by hand. The future will not be all virtual. I would not want to see lessons reduced to text messages. But you can not and should not teach a student today the way I was taught before the PC or VCR. Use the new tools in a smart way and good luck figuring it out.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I agree, Lisleman; too bad I can't "like" comments! (I look forward to answering these via email.) I also agree that technology is great but cannot be at the cost of human-to-human interaction.

    I disagree about the handwriting thing. I personally don't see a need for teaching cursive, at least, other than for signatures. It's really obsolete in the world of work. Neither of my children use cursive, and they are excellent students. There is no test that requires it, no job for which they will need it, either. The few thank-you notes they've written were in print, not cursive. Still, a nice old fashioned note is nice; I just don't see the value in pressing it in school.

    The other piece that's missing from this conversation is the fact that many, many students do not have access to technology at home. Those children are at a disadvantage, both academically and socially, and that makes me sad.

    ReplyDelete
  20. One thing that I have found out about myself and technology is that I do learn more than I did when I was in school. If I wanted to know how something worked I would ask my parents or whom ever was close to me the moment I thought of it. If no one could answer me, generally I wouldn't seek out the answer.

    Now with computers, I just type it in to Google and out comes my answer. BUT the thing is that now instead of just an answer, a lot of times I spend 10 minutes or even an hour reading about what interested me. I click on various sources, decide if I believe them, make decisions, go to more sites and sometimes learn so much more than I ever thought I would.

    I find that I enjoy being inquisitive. I still can't spell worth a darn, but I can ask a lot of questions!

    Love this video - I'm going to have to share it.

    Kristin - The Goat

    ReplyDelete
  21. Great video! (Been reading through some of your latest posts and this one really stood out to me.)

    I'm sort of in this "school limbo" right now - I've been out of school myself for a long time, and my kids are *just* starting their school careers. The video makes a very valid point - we need to change the way we think about learning *AND* teaching, and what it is that we teach in order to stay relevant.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Impressive, exciting, and impossible to ignore. But I also have some agreement with Tettlestai, and Mimbles is SO right on in her wondering about the cost. Technology is another way that a bigger wedge will be driven between the haves and the have nots.

    ReplyDelete
  23. There is a GREAT article in today's New York Times that targets the old school/new school dilemma perfectly. It is Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html

    ReplyDelete

Your 2 cents...