Educating the Dragon

Are we getting over it?  Or is it part of the message that needs repeating in different ways, to engage different people. TO AWAKEN A WORLD TO IT’S OWN FUTURE!!!!

Here it is, my second effort after “Why teach technology?” into the TeacherTube zone of inspiring teachers to investigate the Pandora’s box that is Web 2.0.

I was culling my folder entitled “Web discussions” where I store past posts and bits and pieces I’ve cut and pasted for use later on. I came across the words included in me second video presentation; I think I got them off Durff’s Blog, if it wasn’t from there it was someone similarly thoughtful, observant and insightful, but it sounds like Durff to me. Anyway here it is entitled: “School 1.0 v School 2.0 “On your marks…””

Teaching Sagittarian will laugh at me as I still am unable to embed my own videos and Miguel of Around the Corner will no doubt roll his eyes at me as, yes, I used PhotoStory3 yet again. I’m not sure this presentation is going to give Vicki Davies the ‘chills’ like last time, but them I feel this is more of a Die Hard 2 moment rather then a Godfather II. What do you think?

Download: School 1.0 v School 2.0 “On your marks…”

Teaching Sagittarian check this out, I DID IT! (Thanks to the new embed feature for WordPress on TeacherTube )

Here I am on my holidays. A chance, finally to catch up with Wes Fryer’s podcast142 on the speed of creativity website. The one I listened to last night rang true with me as Roger C. Schank spoke about his view of education. All the notes, wikis, blogs, presentation material etc are all available here from on the Speed of Creativity website so I won’t bother re-linking them all to here as they are 2 clicks away.

I wanted instead, to dwell on the concept he was dealing with in terms of creating valuable learning scenarios and not wasting time with the ‘just in case’ teaching that is so prevalent in our education system today.

David Warlick, when he was here for the Learning@schools conference talked about the fact that in New Zealand so much freedom is given over to New Zealand schools and not dictated from the ‘district’ or governmental level that the move towards School2.0, Classroom2.0 and Library2.0 stands a good chance of implementation in NZ schools. I think he was referring to where the purse strings are held. Which is true. However, if I were to share this podcast with staff and colleagues I am sure that there would be much puffing of cheeks and shaking of heads. A fear of unknown sits within our schools…. Even if the principal is progressive and forward thinking there are still those at the senior or middle management level had would vocal in their advocating for status quo.

Roger gave the quote from John Adams “There are two types of education, one will teach how to make a living the other will teach us how to live. “

I happen to agree. What I am most pleased about is that Roger does not leave us high a dry, with the idea that what we are doing is archaic but offers thoughts and suggestions as to how the curriculum for the 21^st Century should look. He stated:

“Writing

Speaking

Reasoning

Getting along with others

Making and executing a plan

Understanding what tools are available to you

Making use of known principles.”

 These are the core competencies. Regardless of whether you are teaching social studies, Science, or electrical engineering, those competencies above are the skills you will need.

So back to the
New Zealand way…. Like John Adams said we need to teach children how to earn a living and how to live, but then it’s very easy to ignore
Adams’ logical approach to education: Him being:

1. So far away
2. American
3. Dead.

But do any of those three reasons make him wrong?

I finally finished it, Don Tapscott’s Growing up Digital book. It cost my $5 in library fines but I finished it.

I use the word finally not to say I battled through the book and it was awful, quite the opposite, it was amazing. I say finally because I’m such a slow reader anyway and this term in school so busy I rarely had chance to pause and pick up the book let alone read it…. Less about me, more about the book.

It clarified several things for me and made raised a few questions too.

1.My Generation

I realised while I was reading this, that my generation “Baby-Bust” according to the book, is a light-weight generation, the fag end of the Boomers so to speak. The situation for me in the
UK when I left school has just been put into some sort of perspective by Don’s writing. There was a reason why jobs were scarce, why finding Saturday jobs was somewhat of a ‘mare even. The experience of my generation was shaped by neither the news cycle of the TV nor global networking. I sat in the in-between time where TV had turned banal and Compact Discs had only just come onto the seen. I relate to the Wedding Singer if anything.

2.Their Generation

Then it got me thinking about my current children, whether it is just the children in my class or those in my primary school. According to Tapscott the Net Generation began in 1980 and runs to 1997 or something, when the book was published. You could argue that the Net Gen continued to the current. Either way the impact of the Net Gen on current school age children could be similar to that of the Baby-Bust. Maybe the current cohort is not Net-Gen but Net-Bust. By the time my class reaches 18 and ready for ‘work’ the oldest Net-Gen will be 38 and filling the jobs, with experience as well as expertise in use of current Net-Tools. What will that mean for my class? They will have to adapt further, be quicker, smarter and even more determined than the Net-Gen. How is that going to impact on my teaching today, tomorrow, next week? I introduced my kids to the concept of a wiki. Check out my class wiki. It is basic, but it has them communicating, sharing and presenting their work online. I’ve begun to look at what ICT teaching looks like for the Primary (Elementary) level. All thoughts and ideas in the comments section below please.

I am looking forward to reading wikinomics and other books. Again suggestions below please. The impact this technology is having on the education of our young people is huge. I would hate for my class to be placed in the have-not category that Tapscott talks about. Does the responsibility for whether they are or not lie with the student, the parent or the teacher?

It’s interesting how quickly kids can get ’switched on’ My digital classroom now has 3 networked computers that have internet access, a stand-alone computer waiting to be wired and now my IWB has the addition of a wireless keyboard.

That wireless keyboard just flicked a switch in Gunit. He loves it. There is a mouse pad on the side which he can now work better than me.

“Can I, can I, can I” is now his mantra. He loves gonig on the wikidspace, just so long  as he can do it using the wireless keyboard.

“I like the keyboard because it has two left moyse keys and it is not like a normal keyboard because on a laptop you use your fingers but on this one you use your thumb.”

The digital classroom enthuses the previously unenthusable. I am not even having to use it as a carrot at this point he just loves it. A big thank you to Sitech required I think for all the cool gear.