"One of our problems has been that we have tried to shape the technology around outdated notions of what schooling is about, rather than reshaping our notions to reflect new world conditions. . . . In a rapidly changing world, it becomes much less valuable to be able to memorize the answer, and much more valuable to be able to find and even invent the answers. . . . We can’t keep up with making the technology the curriculum. All we can do is prepare our students to teach themselves. It’s the only way to keep up."
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2005/12/16/so-whats-different-some-answers/
Technology, whether we like it or not, is going to be a key component is our students lives. In school, they need to be able to learn how to use technology in appropriate ways to help them. With so much information at their finger tips, it is pointless to be able to memorize information; it is more important for them to be able to find the information that they want and be able to add to the information so they can in turn teach others.
We desperately need . . . we may not survive without . . . a generation of young people who are imaginative, inventive, fearless learners, and compassionate leaders. Yet, what can we say, as educators, about the students we are producing? We can prove that they can read, do basic math on paper, and they are able to sit for hours filling in bubble sheets.
No generation in history has ever been so thoroughly prepared for the industrial age.
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/02/16/happy-birthday-jude/
In our schools, students are being prepared for jobs such as factory workers, customer services, and other jobs that require following directions. We are not preparing our students to be innovators and create new opportunities for themselves. Other countries are doing just that, preparing their students for the future, and therefore taking over the world economy and power.
I agree that we need to be sure to teach the students how to use the information appropriately. Memorizing, as you say, is not going to help, because access to the data will always be available at their fingertips. I agree that we need to teach them how to add to the information, especially that they should be able to put it in context and evaluate it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about it not being important to be able to memorize information rather it is important to be able to use the information to be able to get to other information and be able to connect it to your schema so that you can use the information later.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is important for students to learn how to use technology appropriately, responsibly, and efficiently and I believe the schools are an excellent place for doing opportunities for this learning to occur! This is the world children today will grow up in, and I feel it is one of our responsibilities as educators preparing them as well as possible to be successful in the future.
ReplyDeleteI also agree it's more important to help students learn how to learn rather than simply memorize information.