The love of learning
The pursuit of knowledge
The ability to think for oneself (individualism)
The ability to work alone (initiative)
...
The next day I turn around and get prompted by Dean Shareski are we text snobs? This question screams "21st Century Skills! 21st Century Skills! 'one more'"! Dean describes the institutions that exist around the written word and suggests we are in the midst of a digital revolution.
I am battling some ideas in my head... Why must these 19th century skills and the 21st century skills be mutually exclusive? And, if they are mutually exclusive, or at least significantly different, who are the stakeholders in this revolution?
In times like these I look to Michael Wesch for inspiration. In his text, From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments Wesch describes and presents:
a teaching tool that places students as "not just as co-creators of a simulation, but as co-creators of the world itself, and the future is up to us." Wow.
One might think a quote like that would put my mind to rest aboard this 21st century soapbox, but I still have questions. How will this new vision of teaching and learning transfer into the K-12 world? Where will content go, and how will it be remembered? How will the access gap limit participation in this form of learning environment?
I wish I could come to some conclusion. I wish I had some kind of prophetic goggles that could paint a golden path for me. I move forward, knowing that the questions will continue.
4 comments:
There's no way I think these are mutually exclusive. My post or bias is about where the pendulum is currently positioned.
In the majority of schools, text is still seen, in my view as the more sophisticated form of communication. Imagery and video are seen as "nice but not necessary". I'm making a generalization but I think it's pretty accurate.
We definitely need both but until we recognize that the ability to communicate and express oneself in ways beyond written text, it will always seen as a lesser form.
I agree with you Dean. These skills are not mutually exclusive, and in fact they are synergistic.
It seems though that there is a large camp out there that doesn't see or doesn't agree with say "teaching writing through digital storytelling". A group that sees technology as a huge diversion.
Part of the "battle" I mentioned is about institutional support for teachers wanting to work in the new media world. Teaching the new media takes teachers and teacher educators that know how to develop the professional skills required for teachers to work in the new media environment. Without institutional support for instruction with new media, teachers are going out on a limb.
To play Devil's Advocate for a moment (and a little sympathetic to this op'n), why is content so important? Here in NC we have taken the content that I used to teach to high schoolers twenty years ago and moved it back to middle school. I'm not talking about 9th to 10th, I'm talking about 10/11th to 6th/7th. Middle school students don't have the abstract reasoning skills to handle some of this content. We're trying to create a world like only possible on Star Trek where it seems EVERY SINGLE PERSON can reconfigure the dilithium matrix of a warp core. Don't forget that 20 years ago the tongue in cheek philosophy was "Everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten."
IF we encouraged the development of 19C skills with 21C tools, kids will get the content.
Things I like about the 21st century:
-Dental Care
-Toilet Paper
-Global Warming
Things I liked about the 19th century:
-No Income Tax
-Books by people who could write
-Little Ice Age
Forgot what my point was.
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