Blog Post #5

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please?

Scott McLeod is an Associate Professor of Education Leadership at the University of Kentucky. He is also the lead developer of UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). According to their website, CASTLE is the nation's only center directed toward the technology needs of school administrators. They offer a graduate program in School Technology Leadership and are committed to helping prepare other educational leadership programs to produce tech-savvy school administration.

In the above blog post, Dr. McLeod offers a satirical/sarcastic letter to parents, teachers, school administrators seemingly begging them to avoid teaching children technology at all costs. Dr. McLeod makes his point by poking fun at the various arguments adults make in opposition to teaching our children to use technology appropriately to advance the learning process. As far as my position on the points Dr. McLeod makes, I summed up my feelings in the comment I left on his article. Sure, there are dangers out in “cyberspace,” but there are dangers in “real life” as well and we manage to teach children to avoid danger and survive just fine. What’s the difference?

I do have to say that I was embarrassed by some of the comments that my fellow classmates left on Dr. McLeod's post. There were quite a few that did not read the post closely and completely missed the sarcasm. Their comments made them look ignorant and unintelligent, simply because they were trying to rush through the assignment and complete in in a halfhearted manner.

The iSchool Initiative

In this video, Fayetteville Georgia high school student Travis Allen discusses a possibility that will revolutionize education as we know it today. Allen lists several iTouch applications that replace all the objects we typically associate with a classroom: books, pencils, paper, maps, etc. He claims that this is what education is moving toward in the near future. This video was recorded when he was 17 years old. Since then, he has posted this follow up video. He has gotten national recognition for his ideas from CNN, The Huffington Post, etc. He claims that in order to allow the children of today to thrive in the information age they have been born into, we must "rethink, retool, and rebuild" our education institutions.

Allen has been called the "Mark Zuckerberg" of Education by Larry Jacobs, the President of Education Talk Radio. Those are quite some shoes to fill, but I think the description might just be accurate. Allen has had quite a bit of success with the iSchool Initiative thus far. He has a team of 25 students who travel around the country spreading their ideas on the revolution that is sure to take place in education. I really believe that this is the future of education and that the benefits from moving to this type of system will create students who are more self-motivated quick learners. I do have to say that the idea is almost hard for me to grasp even though I think it is a good thing. It honestly sort of saddens me to think about classrooms with no pencils, as old-fashioned as that sounds. There's nothing quite like a freshly sharpened pencil! Well, except perhaps a shiny new iPad!

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir

WOW. The idea that all 185 people from 12 different countries were able to blend their voices so harmoniously without ever rehearsing in person is amazing to me. I am interested to know more details of how Mr. Whitacre actually composed this. I noticed quite a few individuals with ear buds or various other headphones in their videos. This makes me wonder if they were sent their part with all the timing set up how Whitacre wanted, or if maybe he sent them the video of himself directing. Regardless, this is still pretty neat. Yet another example of how the internet can be used to connect people from all over the world nearly effortlessly to do some incredible things!

Teaching in the 21st Century

In this video, Kevin Roberts presents several ideas on teaching in the 21st century. From the video, I gather that Roberts thinks teaching in the 21st century no longer means just presenting children with facts, because they can use Google, Wikipedia, and various other online sources to get information in seconds. Teachers are no longer the only source of information.

We are moving from a Teacher-centered curriculum to a truly student-centered curriculum, which is incredible. Teachers' responsibilities are now going to be informing students how to responsibly use the technology that has been developed. It is our role to ensure students know how to share information that they find and discuss the information while giving credit to the person the ideas came from. Pirating and plagiarism are going to become ever-present issues we have to inform students of and encourage them against. Bloom's Taxonomy is sure to be adapted within the next few years to keep up with this change. We will be focusing less on facts and content and more on skills. It is no longer necessary to memorize and regurgitate the types of things that are typically taught in a classroom when you can use the technology literally at your fingertips to find the answers as long as you possess the appropriate skills to do so.