Week 2: Whole Lotta Information Going On
Essential Question:
With instant internet connection and collaboration, is this a hindrance or a benefit to education?
“Is this a hindrance or a benefit?” First, I feel that I need to say that It is a reality. Within that reality are two facts. It is not going away and it is always evolving. If we can shift our thinking to that of the “glass half full” we begin move our potentials as educators towards the power of the web.
There is so much to digest in what is presented in this weeks writings and videos. Here are just a few ideas that struck a chord with me.
In the Fisch's 2007 video, Did you Know 2.0 presents that “technical content doubles every two years, and that by 2010, it is predicted to double every 72 hours.” I am not sure if we attained that 2012 goal. Whether or not we have reached that goal is secondary to the questions. Are we educating our students in ways to identify, sift through, and decipher information so that appropriate content aligns with current learning and is authentic to what is truth? Are we preparing students in the varied ways of digital literacy? How do they read for understanding, quickly? How do we write across new and evolving formats? How do we work collectively and collaboratively in presenting information? These are the questions we have to ask our educational systems when challenged with the exponentially expanding universe of knowledge and information. I can only think of the “Borg” when seeing the word collective and the “singularity” that is predicted in the 2020’s.
“We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist...in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”
When I look at the state of the classroom in my school and in many schools. Educators are shifting the presentation of understanding through Problems Based Education. Students are presented with an issue and the ways to individually, or collaboratively “show their work” as they present their conclusions. Are we also prepared and knowledgeable in the many facets of visual literacy? A favorite quote that I have posted in my music and art classrooms is, “Know where to look or know who to ask.” Part of my job as an educator is to encourage this as a starting place in students moving forward in learning and the initial steps to taking responsibility for their own education.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
-Albert Einstein
Your post poses some great questions. There are a number of discussions in the media right now about skills-oriented education, education to get a job, versus liberal arts education or education that is more global. Do young people in 2012, in light of the recession and high unemployment level, need a college degree, or should young people focus on getting a specific list of skills that can translate into a specific job when they get ready to go to work. As someone who sees learning as a lifelong endeavor, and as someone who believes that students are training for jobs that aren't even jobs yet, I tend to think that students need the more global education and not the specific list of skills. It would be hard to define exactly what those specific skills should be at any given point in time. I'm intrigued by the Problems Based Education you mention and students working collaboratively or individually towards conclusions. Interesting concept.
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