Disclaimer: In the following post, I do not aim to insult anyone. If you are offended by the statements below, I apologize in advance as I did not mean to direct any misgivings I have about human history and psychology at you.
Although I am generally optimistic about most things, my view on humanity is quite pessimistic. It is for this reason that I feel that none of the mentioned technological tools in the report will be prevalent in the next 5 years.
Despite relatively intuitive GUIs and user-friendly interfaces, a good deal of people still do not use the technology available to them to their fullest. For that matter, a large percentage (upwards to 70%) of a computer or cell phone's capacity is usually not reached. Even avid texting youths will often fail to grasp the many other functions that their cell phones offer besides messaging their best buddies. The vast majority of people that use YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, etc, do not know anything past posting pictures, commenting on each other, and browsing. It's analogous to the older generation knowing how to drive the car but not having any idea on how the car actually works. This was quite evident with the UoA business students who were supposed to be savvy with all Microsoft applications and had class after class about technology (of course, they're also usually the party-goers and blondes... that may have something to do with it). There's actually an article in the Chronicle Review about the fact that the youth isn't necessarily more savvy with technology. To date, the minority of people that actually know how to use more than the most basic options of a technological tool are the 'engineers' and 'scientists' of the community. And by that, I mean the people that are curious and constantly move on to satiate that curiousity (and will do things like switch SIM cards to see what will happen).
My point is, I suppose, that humanity is too stupid and lazy as a whole to use technology that effectively in so near a future. The keyword for me is prevalent. While I personally favor the idea of the collective intelligence, I really don't see America, let alone humanity, taking it to any mainstream form. Either the world needs to get smarter or engineers need to make technological tools super user-friendly. I really do not hope this is the case and that grassroots videos, mobile broadband and the like will be used to their fullest, but as I've said, humanity has disappointed me enough for me not to expect too much from it.
Sorry. I swear I'm usually brighter than this. -_-
Assignments
• Day 1
Read the Horizon Report (2008).
Post a blog on what technological trend you feel will become most prevalent in K12 learning within 5 years and why.
(see Rules of Engagement)
• Day 2
Please watch both of the Sir Ken Robinson videos linked below. Then post two slides on the shared presentation: 1) one way schools kill creativity, and 2) one way schools foster creativity.
Do schools kill creativity?
Creatively Speaking
• Day 4
Assignment 1 - Wikipedia - see post below.
Assignment 2 - Colliding Forces - see post below.
• Day 5 and Day 6
Live Broadcast - post a response to the blog below on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Day 7 and Day 8 - Surprise.....
Your assignment is optional - you will receive credit whether you email me yes or no, but you do have to email me. I do not believe in zeros, nor in failure as an option. However, you get what you put in, so I encourage you to say yes....;-)
If you email me yes, here's what you are committing to. Give me your email address at work, what grade level or content area you teach, whether you are an administrator, whatever. What school you are at and a short resume/introduction of yourself. I will leave your name and contact anonymous until I find another teacher/educator/administrator in PVUSD who might like to work with you on REACH, and in turn you with them. I will make an intitial email introduction of each of you to the other - from there, you are on your own to put into practice the communication, collaboration and creativity of 21st century teaching and learning, using information technology to bridge time and space constraints.
REACH (Real Experiences Advancing Childhood Humanities) is an initiative our district is implementing with other educators/administrators outside of our walls. We are connecting students/teachers/administrators, from differing classrooms, differing schools, cities, states, countries, using technology to communicate/collaborate/create in whatever ways possible and appropriate to postively impact student learning - totally up to you and your PVUSD counterpart on what you think would be useful - how big, how small, how deep, how thin, is up to you.
It does not have to be high tech, with tons of technology - in fact, the technology is not the point - learning with and about others is, being creative and taking a risk is the experience. One simple internet connection and a Google account can do wonders (you should now know that), to connect students, teachers, administrators, whatever. I suspect your kids, your school will be richer for the adventure and you will cross into something I believe is profound and necessary in education - REACH'ing beyond the walls......
So, if you want to REACH, give me the details and I will personally try to connect you with an appropriate counterpart. Then, you have the opportunity to extend your coursework learning into actual practice - the point of taking a class. Email me yay with details, or nay. What I wish for you is to REACH beyond this ASU class, throw optimism into the wind and see what emerges in your participatory networking experience.
Jeff......
Read the Horizon Report (2008).
Post a blog on what technological trend you feel will become most prevalent in K12 learning within 5 years and why.
(see Rules of Engagement)
• Day 2
Please watch both of the Sir Ken Robinson videos linked below. Then post two slides on the shared presentation: 1) one way schools kill creativity, and 2) one way schools foster creativity.
Do schools kill creativity?
Creatively Speaking
(see Rules of Engagement)
• Day 3
Assignment 1 - See Blog entry on Web 2.0 Directory below for instructions.
Assignment 2 - See Blog entry on P21 Skills below for instructions.
• Day 3
Assignment 1 - See Blog entry on Web 2.0 Directory below for instructions.
Assignment 2 - See Blog entry on P21 Skills below for instructions.
• Day 4
Assignment 1 - Wikipedia - see post below.
Assignment 2 - Colliding Forces - see post below.
• Day 5 and Day 6
Live Broadcast - post a response to the blog below on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Day 7 and Day 8 - Surprise.....
Your assignment is optional - you will receive credit whether you email me yes or no, but you do have to email me. I do not believe in zeros, nor in failure as an option. However, you get what you put in, so I encourage you to say yes....;-)
If you email me yes, here's what you are committing to. Give me your email address at work, what grade level or content area you teach, whether you are an administrator, whatever. What school you are at and a short resume/introduction of yourself. I will leave your name and contact anonymous until I find another teacher/educator/administrator in PVUSD who might like to work with you on REACH, and in turn you with them. I will make an intitial email introduction of each of you to the other - from there, you are on your own to put into practice the communication, collaboration and creativity of 21st century teaching and learning, using information technology to bridge time and space constraints.
REACH (Real Experiences Advancing Childhood Humanities) is an initiative our district is implementing with other educators/administrators outside of our walls. We are connecting students/teachers/administrators, from differing classrooms, differing schools, cities, states, countries, using technology to communicate/collaborate/create in whatever ways possible and appropriate to postively impact student learning - totally up to you and your PVUSD counterpart on what you think would be useful - how big, how small, how deep, how thin, is up to you.
It does not have to be high tech, with tons of technology - in fact, the technology is not the point - learning with and about others is, being creative and taking a risk is the experience. One simple internet connection and a Google account can do wonders (you should now know that), to connect students, teachers, administrators, whatever. I suspect your kids, your school will be richer for the adventure and you will cross into something I believe is profound and necessary in education - REACH'ing beyond the walls......
So, if you want to REACH, give me the details and I will personally try to connect you with an appropriate counterpart. Then, you have the opportunity to extend your coursework learning into actual practice - the point of taking a class. Email me yay with details, or nay. What I wish for you is to REACH beyond this ASU class, throw optimism into the wind and see what emerges in your participatory networking experience.
Jeff......
Friday, October 31, 2008
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2 comments:
I can't read this. What do you mean Q?
Q,
I don't consider your posting as pessimistic at all, and it may perhaps be very accurate. Your view is consistent to one of my major concerns - you refer to the lack of speed by society to adjust to technology - I prefer to think of it as a lack of speed by our current educational system to integrate it.
I told the class at the first session that there are two things that motivate me in my current job (Technology Director at a school district of about 34,000 students). The first is excitement of what could be with technology in education. The second is fear of what could be with technology in education. That includes the concern that American K12 may not figure out how to make technology integration good enough, fast enough, in our current model of educational administration. Consequently, we may lose the opportunity to take the learning to a higher level, and instead dumb down the process, committing our current industry to become second rate to other models (commercial and international).
Some are predicting that the tipping point of innovative disruption (see "Disrupting Class" article on right side bar) is near (less than 10 years). I am fearful that technology integration in American education will not become mainstream fast enough to smoothly adjust to this disruption. The consequences will be a huge shakeup of a major industry, not unlike what has transpired in the automotive, the textile, and other examples. Already cross country and cross international delivery of education to K12 students is occurring. Right now technology integration is merely fulfilling niche markets: AP in rural areas, remediation, ELL, credit recovery, highly motivated teachers and schools. Meanwhile, the education system as a whole is reluctant to integrate technology into it's adult-centric protocols - the change process is painful and seldom do the encumbents effectively survive innovative disruption.
I firmly believe that technology will advance into the K12 market space. The question is will it leave behind significant numbers of professionals who teach with an outdated mode? The disruptive nature of technology is that once it's of a good enough quality (best practice), it can easily and quickly be scaled. If our institutions of learning have not learned by that time, the disruption will pass us by.
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