Welcome! August 21, 2008
Posted by cdumas in Uncategorized.trackback
Please click on the Links to the right (under “Blog Roll”), peruse and read the materials provided, then click on “add a comment” up above. Enjoy the conversations! cd
Conversations about 21st Century Learning
Please click on the Links to the right (under “Blog Roll”), peruse and read the materials provided, then click on “add a comment” up above. Enjoy the conversations! cd
Education has not kept up with the creation of technology.
Anderson, Mougey, Witt, Ross
The student has changed due to increased cultural diversity and poverty. They learn via different materials/avenues.
Anderson, Mougey, Witt, Ross
Our group agreed with the trying to put new technology in an old building. It is evident by the number of cords running under people’s desks, on the floor, and down the walls. Also the fact that all technology in the room cannot be running at the same time due to a lack of power. (Montgomery, Rockefeller, Neubauer)
As to the student statement ours would be: The domgraphics and needs of the students have changed considerably. We have a much more diverse population and the access to technological advances has become very important. (Montgomery, Rockefeller, Neubauer)
Technology is changing ever so RAPIDLY. It took quite awhile to go from encyclopedias to computers, but now that they’re here it is “nonstop” change. (Davis, Lindekugel, Makowski, Reinertson)
Students lack social skills. Students use cell phones, text messaging, facebook, myspace, etc. to communicate. Families are not spending as much time together and fewer conversations with adults are happening.
The world has changed from a microcosm into an ever changing, fast paced, high pressure, global environment. (Brodine, Wietjes, Van Meter)
Students are more ethnically, culturally, and economical diverse. They have become less social in the traditional sense but are very adept at various forms of on-line communication. Students cannot imagine life without technology.
The vast majority of the world is linked through technology today. Students are living extremely fast paced live and the most prevalent comments are that students are bored at school and don’t want to be here. Lower level socio-economic groups often see school as a burden as their financial needs become greater. (Darnall,Bockstadter,Ronnfeldt)
Additional thoughts, since our society has become a push-button society, always looking for ways to make life “easier”, how do we continue to demonstrate the value of a good education? And…will public schools be the primary provider of such an education 20 years from now? Probably, but who knows.
There is no doubt that young people need us as a leading support role in shaping their future. We are often one of the few positive influences on many students. So, how do we make the school experience one that young people cannot and do not WANT to live without?
The world has become so globalized that the U.S. perhaps is a victim of it’s own success. We lead the world in education, technology, production for the past 100 years. In an attempt to find new consumers for our products we actually created competitors. We’ve created an economic environment that needed to force change in the educational process but didn’t. We created an environment where we we’re outsourcing lower level jobs and create new jobs that would lend support to those outsourced jobs. The problem is we didn’t revamp the educational system to “remake” our economic society. We’re still putting out students to do tasks that are no-longer available in the U.S. but have been outsourced to other countries around the world.
I agree that the world is changing rapidly, but when they talk about the US education system in K-12 and post-secondary is behind many other countries, I think they are not comparing the same numbers. If we choose to test our elite kids only like many other countries, our numbers might look comparable. I believe I read that we still have more foreign students attending our colleges than any other, which must mean something positive is still going on in the US.
I think todays youth and students can and will benefit from the latest in technology and teaching tools and resources in and also out of the school, i.e. personal computers, laptops, etc. But in addition to those things it also takes the personal want and desire to achieve the best of whatever that individual is doing. It could be the most athletic kid in math or science or the smartest child in a particular grade going out onto the pitch for a soccer match or onto the court to play in a basketball tournament. Kids and parents alike need to understand that wanting success from and for children isn’t expecting the impossible. But it also needs to be instilled early in a childs development. I think over the years the term, and the bar that was set by the term, “do the best you can” has been dilluted and lowered to make sure all were accepted without prejudice. Understand also that there is a difference between “try the best you can” and “try to the best of your ability”. And Parents are there to incourage and praise their children to achieve the highest potential of their abilities so that the tools that are there academically in the classroom and on the athletic stage are best utilized by a student ready to use them.
My name is Keanna Leonard and I am the education director here at Rowe Sanctuary. As I read through the goals of this program, the Parnership sounds very much like what is called place-based education. A short and easy to read book called Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities by David Sobel gives compelling research and data on the importance of using our natural and social environment as tools in educating our children, as welll as ideas on how to implement projects into the classroom.
Another very interesting read is the State Education and Environmental Roundtable’s 2002 report, “Closing the Achievement Gap,” that shows that using the environment as an integrating context produces stunning gains in social studies, science, language arts and math. The educational process showed improvements in standardized test scores and grade-point averages. Students developed skills in problem solving, critical thinking and decision making. They also demonstrated better attendance and behavior, showed increased engagement and enthusiasm for learning, and took greater pride and ownership in accomplishments.
I know that technology is an integral part of the Partnership. I hope as you all move forward in your discussions that you see technology as only a part of an arsenal of teaching tools and not the crux of any reform. A paper written for the journal Scientia Marina by Paul Dayton, professor of marine ecology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, and associate professor Enric Sala reiterates this point: “Students [at all levels] are being taught ecological principles entirely from textbooks [and through technology]. This prevailing attitude denies students the sense of wonder and sense of place fundamental to the discipline Worse, there are ecologists who have never seen the communities or populations they model….and could not identify the species composing these communities. This is like having illusions of conducting heart surgery without knowing what a real heart looks like.”
I commend you all for looking into new ideas. I find this a wonderful challenge for the school and community and would like to be involved anyway you see helpful.
The common threads running through the conversation thus far:
o Technology as a resource
o Parental involvement
o Student motivation
o Socialization
o Global/environmental awareness
o Community participation
o Individualized education for diverse student needs
There is no mention of test scores within this summary, yet these test scores are the data gathered and analyzed each year to determine the direction of our educational strategies. The more defined goals of raising reading comprehension and math problem solving skills need to be viewed as a small part of our district’s overall mission, and addressed in coordination and conjunction with societal expectations, rather than seen as the end goal. If students are to reach the higher levels of critical thinking demanded by colleges, business and industry, and society, they need to be able to apply their basic knowledge to any situation. For example, the use of math and reading skills would be essential in their study of the effect of the rate and flow of the Platte River on the natural wildlife habitat in a yearly review. The need to be aware of their environment, to work with others, to communicate clearly their findings, would require the abilities and skills we have decided are necessary for students and their futures. The experiences which will allow students to practice and improve upon these skills may be introduced in a classroom setting, but they cannot and should not be expected to be bound by four walls. The very structure of education – physical and mental – needs to be improved, using what works well as the foundation, and discarding those practices which have proven obsolete.