http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P2PGGeTOA4
As I develop my own learning curriculum which will enable me to do policy work on behalf of tortured adolescents everywhere, this struck a great chord. As Dan Brown, the young creator of this video aptly points out, educational institutions today are still stuck in the days of yore when information was scarce and therefore valuable. As information has become fully socialized and available for free to all, facts and data points have become commodities. The analysis, contextual interpretation and predictive hypothesis of aggregated facts and data is where the value proposition lies.
So why are we still so keen on having our students memorize facts when we have no idea whether they can develop informed points of view of what those facts meant, mean or might mean to the future. Why are we using one dimensional textbooks when the stories we wish to tell can be brought to life with the multi-media experiences available to anyone with a modem and a computer? Especially, since the textbooks are coming out of Texas which wants our students to believe that evolution is a theory like creationism and that the civil rights movement created unrealistic expectations for minorities. Do we really want to codify that kind of thinking?
The embrace of the present and future of the information age requires that teachers and educators be familiar and comfortable with information technology and able to use it in their pedagogy. This also means distinguishing between what kids do naturally with media and what needs a bit more encouragement and edification from the instructor. Throw a chart of numbers in front of anyone, adult or adolescent and watch their eyes glaze and their palms sweat. Show how those number visually tell a story of relationships and comparisons through the magic of ChartWizard and suddenly those who leaned away lean forward. Especially if they are learning how to use the pie charts to understand their own finances and find a way to save money or buy that new iPad.
Why make kids read dusty literature from the 19th century while deriding their own culture. How much more might Huck Finn, and maybe just a chapter or two, mean to a teenager if he can explore through hip hop and Eminem? Why write a paper if a student can write a lyric or produce a digital story or podcast?
We want kids to think, not just spew back facts we've asked them to commit to memory until such time as the test is over and they can promptly forget those facts so they have space for new, equally dead facts. Thinking is active and thus requires interactivity between the students and the educators. A lecture hall with a professor and a powerpoint in front of 200 students is sooooooo last century.
Very interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that memorization in the information age is pointless. There are still schools that make kids memorize the Presidents. Why, oh why, would you waste their time.
Secondly, from Dan Brown's video, I would agree that facts may be cheap or free. However, differentiating between relevant and irrelevant information is tough. Schools role in the information age should teach us the basics (grades 1-8. Then, in high school schools us teach us how to find good sources of information and how apply that information, especially in interesting and unique ways. Granted, you'd want to interweave research and thinking skills within the primary grades, too.
As for Tom Sawyer, reading is hard. I heard years ago the average graduating high school can only read books at the fifth grade level. Therefore, we should do more reading, not less.
I like very much your take on the differentiation in learning skills and content between the lower and upper grades. In fact, I think one of the reasons so many struggling students continue to fall behind is the concentration on rules and skills in the higher grades without the rich content and contextual reference points that will engage them.
ReplyDeleteReading is hard if one does not have the basics, that is of course for certain. That said, reading becomes less hard when the subject matter is alive for the reader. That kids today are still reading the same 19th century books that I hated 40 years ago is stunning and sad.
Our education system needs a serious overhaul, but change is sloooooww...
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone's saying we should do less reading (this is directed at ssampier), I think the point is that we have other new ways to reach those struggling readers, those who lack visualization skills, for example. This is where technology can help (a la UDL)