This is adapted from a post on my other blog last week. I've moved it here because I've trimmed it down to issues confronting educators as the digital revolution sweeps us forward. Again I've picked up comments from one of Suzanne Fleming's blogs.
The Weekend Australian's Review section a week ago had an account of the race between Google and Microsoft to scan the entire contents of the world's great libraries. The scale of these projects is mind-boggling. Google has now scanned one million books, while Microsoft has an initial deal to scan 100,000 books in the British Library.
The article's author, Bryan Appleyard, says: “We are, it seems, about to lose physical contact with books, the primary experience and foundation of civilisation for the past 500 years.”
In his last paragraph, he says teachers must prime young minds to deal with the information deluge coming our way – “on that priming depends the future of civilisation.” Thought provoking stuff. Read it here.
And on that topic – how to prepare young people for the digital world which is racing towards us – education and new technology guru Dale Spender offered valuable ideas in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Here are her concluding paragraphs: “At present many of the information skills that students need for earning and living are learned outside educational institutions (they are just so brilliant at doing and creating for themselves) . . .
“But if they excel at digital activity and inventiveness, students now need more support and guidance when it comes to evaluation and critical judgment. They need to know when one idea, one way of doing something, has more going for it than another.
“What they don't need are rules about how much Australian history they should be able to reproduce, or how many Shakespearean speeches they should be able to quote . . .”
Read her article. Readers may like to check out Dr Spender's website, although it hasn't been updated for a while.
Suzanne praised Dr Spender's views with these comments:
Finally there is someone else who understands young people's learning needs. And the fact they need, and want, a new way of interacting with the world.
Young people do not want, or need, to be taught 'talk and chalk' style.Why? Because they found out a long time ago, that teachers aren't God. And they also found out that teachers don't know everything.
And guess what else they found out? Shock, horror, they found out they actually know a lot more than teachers often give them credit for. And wonder of wonders, they have discovered the joy of being actively involved in the learning process.
They made some great discoveries in very short timeframe. Congratulations to all those young learners out there. Well done kids!
Young people want mentors who can guide them. People who talk to them honestly about the world they're soon going to enter. They want to hear about the good, the bad and the ugly.
They want to be able to make informed decisions about their own learning and how it fits into the scheme of things. Especially how it fits into the world of industry and commerce.
They need good teachers who respect them. Teachers who trust their ability to make exciting and worthwhile discoveries for themselves.
Young learners need window openers and encouragers. They don't need to be: talked at - talked down to - and most of all they don't need people telling them they can't take responsbility for their own learning.
Your grumpy old moderator manages a wee smile when he contemplates this scenario:
Scene: A class in almost any junior public high school.
Teacher: "Now girls, put your books away. We've completed your daily instalment of Pride and Prejudice, and we'll move on to the next period. If someone will get those bananas out of the cupboard, we'll make sure you've learned your lessons on how to roll on a condom." It happens (the bananas bit). I checked with a granddaughter.
No comments:
Post a Comment