There are a lot of interesting points coming out in this article regarding the re-shaping of how education looks, is delivered, and is quantified. I agree with some, other parts I have questions, other bits I don’t think I agree with.
This makes me again think back to what I blogged about before, that being the notion that classrooms are currently set up to create industrial workers, but future employers of today’s students are going to want creative independent thinkers, rather than than task driven producers. Since I am supposed to be considering technology on this blog, I will reflect on the fact that so far my experiments with wikis and web quests have been relatively successful; however, in terms of creating people who will invest in discovery, I’m not sure this happens just because they can follow instructions and use the internet as a learning tool. This is a whole different complexity of the classroom, and just getting student to use available technology doesn’t necessarily mean we are moving forward with independent thinkers that will one day fuel the creative economy. I guess what I’m getting at is just because I can teach students to bang a nail, it doesn’t mean they will be great craftsmen. I know I have stated the obvious, but I must remind myself that there is more, much more to re-imagining the classroom than just inserting laptops and digitizing what is students produce. Inserting technology is a big piece, but I can’t allow myself to be progressive just because I get my students to post their work on a wiki, or comment on each others poetry on a classroom blog. In my pursuit of technology I must also remember to check myself and search out ways to develop students into creative thinkers ready whatever tomorrow ends up being – technology is just a piece of that process.
HoltSpeak 