It does not take long before you feel old as a teacher.
I was born in 1984 (great year I know) and I am now teaching students who were born right around 2000. The freshmen class of high schools across America were born after 9/11, I was a junior in high school on that fateful day. To give you some perspective on how quickly time flies, let's look at it this way. My son Kai was born in August 2013 which means, minus any unforeseen problems, he will be part of the graduating high school class of 2031. Oh my. As a history teacher I cannot help but think critically at the question many educators are asking: what will education look like in the future? In some ways education has changed dramatically. When I was in high school probably less than 10% of the student body had a cell phone. I had no idea what PowerPoint was and MySpace was the social media behemoth. In the classroom we still had an old school overhead projector with transparencies and I still used an Encyclopedia at home with my desktop computer. That was in 2003. So yes much has changed in 13 years and yet many things have not. We still have 90-minute blocks, the core subjects are exactly the same and many pedagogical practices are exactly the same. In some ways the technology has changed but the process of education has barely changed at all. So how revolutionary is this technology revolution? In the age of Google information is available for everyone and that presents amazing opportunities and fears. Is innovation really in the future for education or is reenforcing the status quo the raison d'etre? I am reminded of a great question asked my colleague and friend Ms. Tornello. 1. Are schools becoming obsolete? In the age of Google, will the classroom move from a physical space to the world wide web? If so, what consequences will this result in? Will Kai take classes online and graduate from virtual high school? Will it come at the expense of social skills and human interaction? What kind of information will he learn? The kind of facts rote memorization has enforced for centuries (but now seem antiquated in the age of search engines). Will it be the kind of skills that require critical thinking and analysis that millions of young people struggle with? How will we grade these skills? Especially when we move from the comfort of objective to subjective activities. How will we offset these needs with a standardized testing system that is still stuck in the early 1990s? Will Kai's education experience is radically different from yours? Will his parents and their fellow teachers be casualties of competition in the world of "Crash Course" videos and Khan Academy? Will he be better for it? What do you think?
4 Comments
Mentee M.
2/15/2016 03:50:18 pm
Kids would undoubtedly grow in terms of individual responsibility and time management due to the adapt or die nature of the digital system. However, for every step forward they would take in terms of individual growth they would take two steps back in social growth.
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Jeff W
4/4/2016 07:57:23 pm
I know this was posted a while ago, but I just stumbled upon it.
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Mr. Gibson
6/4/2016 02:25:27 pm
I appreciate the comment and insight. I see the logic of your statement but it does not rectify some of my concerns. I see the greatness of digital learning too, that's why I'm trying to model it with my summer seminar. I just worry that decisions sometimes get made so high up the food chain that they forget some of the micro level issues. Motivation is a huge issue with kids and a human teacher is really needed for that. You and I agree on that but I don't know if everyone does.
Ben
2/16/2016 01:56:48 pm
I agree with your thoughts, thanks for the comment!
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