Did you know; Shift Happens – Globalization; The Information Age makes the following primary assertions: that the populations of India and China are increasing at a pace far beyond that of the United States, that advancements in technology, communication and information are also increasing at an amazingly rapid velocity that only seems to continue exponentially, yet the United States seem to show evidence of lagging behind the curve, and that one possible result of this situation is that few people are practicing the same profession for a very long time.
The piece does not cite sources. I attempted to fact-check, although not too extensively, and could find nothing that specifically affirms or negates the hard data in the report. Nonetheless, even if some of the numbers were off, who could dispute the major claims? The human population on the planet is growing, especially in India and China. Technology is advancing at an extremely fast rate and we do need to adapt in our personal and professional lives much more than we seemed to just a short time ago.
The world is changing and will be different, and educators certainly will need to adapt in order to prepare young people for the world into which they will be entering. First and foremost, as the population continues to increase, the basic essentials of human life will need to be adressed – water, food, air, fuel and housing. Not only will children need to understand and embrace a respect for conserving the environment, they will need to comprehend that some of the most important jobs of the future will be solving the challenge of keeping people alive.
The other implication is probably the most obvious: children will absolutely have to learn the use of technology –creating, storing, communicating and transferring data. The assuring part about this is that children with access to such technology usually out-perform adults at mastering gadgets from video games to ipods. The drawback is that we see increasing disparity between rich and poor, and too often only those who can afford the gadget wind up learning how to use such technology.
For us educators, we need to realize our first responsibility is not that students learn the material of the course, but rather that students learn how to learn. Yes, they need to learn the quadratic formula, for example, but not so much because they will ever need to apply it in real life, rather because it teaches one how to think analytically --to take a complex problem, break it down to component parts, solve the parts, and then put them back together. Yes, there is value in learning French, but it may be that the main advantage in taking it was not in order to use the French itself at all, but rather that learning how conjugation and other syntactical concepts work prepared the student to take Hindi or Mandarin later when the need arrived.
This is a very thought provoking video. We need to continue on a daily basis to prepare our students for the world in which they live and grow. As educators we can not sit back and teach the way it was done 20 years ago. Our students deserve to be prepared for everything the world has to offer. The environment is changing and we need to be ready for everything that goes with this change. I know that just bringing the technology into the classroom will open up great opportunities for our students. They are very tech savvy and are eager to learn all that technology has to offer. My school has a very limited budget for technology. We are currently trying to set up classrooms with SmartBoards, Airliners, and projectors. Although these updates are expensive I believe we need to get technology into the hands of as many teachers as we can. I currently have an Airliner (laptop SmartBoard). We had a meeting about how to update classrooms with this technology. Several teachers thought the SmartBoard was the way to go. I disagreed only because of the expense of the regular SmartBoard versus the expense of an Airliner. You can outfit 1 classroom with a SmartBoard or 3-4 with an Airliner. I think we need to get as many teachers with some technology as we can. I love the Airliner and would be mad, frustrated, sad, etc if I knew I could have had one along with 2-3 other teachers and instead 1 classroom got a SmartBoard. Technology is here to stay and we need to embrace it wholeheartly.
This video just amazed me! It is so true, but mind boggling at the same time. We need to keep advancing as teachers with technology for our students. There is so much out there that we need to keep up with all the updates as fast as they are coming at us. I never thought 2 years ago I would be teaching with a SmartBoard and my overhead projector would be on the outs. We need to keep teaching toward the future. We cannot teach like we did 15 years ago. Our students will suffer. I can't wait to see what we are teaching with in 2 years. It will be amazing I'm sure.
I enjoyed the video although as Donovan said,not citing where this information came from left me wondering if it is accurate. I think there are certain subjects that we teach which are "timeless" and others that we need to be constantly remain current. It is impossible to teach students something that is not here yet, but we can teach them to be problem solvers and instill a confidence of their own abilities in them.
Did you know; Shift Happens – Globalization; The Information Age makes the following primary assertions: that the populations of India and China are increasing at a pace far beyond that of the United States, that advancements in technology, communication and information are also increasing at an amazingly rapid velocity that only seems to continue exponentially, yet the United States seem to show evidence of lagging behind the curve, and that one possible result of this situation is that few people are practicing the same profession for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteThe piece does not cite sources. I attempted to fact-check, although not too extensively, and could find nothing that specifically affirms or negates the hard data in the report. Nonetheless, even if some of the numbers were off, who could dispute the major claims? The human population on the planet is growing, especially in India and China. Technology is advancing at an extremely fast rate and we do need to adapt in our personal and professional lives much more than we seemed to just a short time ago.
The world is changing and will be different, and educators certainly will need to adapt in order to prepare young people for the world into which they will be entering. First and foremost, as the population continues to increase, the basic essentials of human life will need to be adressed – water, food, air, fuel and housing. Not only will children need to understand and embrace a respect for conserving the environment, they will need to comprehend that some of the most important jobs of the future will be solving the challenge of keeping people alive.
The other implication is probably the most obvious: children will absolutely have to learn the use of technology –creating, storing, communicating and transferring data. The assuring part about this is that children with access to such technology usually out-perform adults at mastering gadgets from video games to ipods. The drawback is that we see increasing disparity between rich and poor, and too often only those who can afford the gadget wind up learning how to use such technology.
For us educators, we need to realize our first responsibility is not that students learn the material of the course, but rather that students learn how to learn. Yes, they need to learn the quadratic formula, for example, but not so much because they will ever need to apply it in real life, rather because it teaches one how to think analytically --to take a complex problem, break it down to component parts, solve the parts, and then put them back together. Yes, there is value in learning French, but it may be that the main advantage in taking it was not in order to use the French itself at all, but rather that learning how conjugation and other syntactical concepts work prepared the student to take Hindi or Mandarin later when the need arrived.
This is a very thought provoking video. We need to continue on a daily basis to prepare our students for the world in which they live and grow. As educators we can not sit back and teach the way it was done 20 years ago. Our students deserve to be prepared for everything the world has to offer. The environment is changing and we need to be ready for everything that goes with this change. I know that just bringing the technology into the classroom will open up great opportunities for our students. They are very tech savvy and are eager to learn all that technology has to offer. My school has a very limited budget for technology. We are currently trying to set up classrooms with SmartBoards, Airliners, and projectors. Although these updates are expensive I believe we need to get technology into the hands of as many teachers as we can. I currently have an Airliner (laptop SmartBoard). We had a meeting about how to update classrooms with this technology. Several teachers thought the SmartBoard was the way to go. I disagreed only because of the expense of the regular SmartBoard versus the expense of an Airliner. You can outfit 1 classroom with a SmartBoard or 3-4 with an Airliner. I think we need to get as many teachers with some technology as we can. I love the Airliner and would be mad, frustrated, sad, etc if I knew I could have had one along with 2-3 other teachers and instead 1 classroom got a SmartBoard. Technology is here to stay and we need to embrace it wholeheartly.
ReplyDeleteThis video just amazed me! It is so true, but mind boggling at the same time. We need to keep advancing as teachers with technology for our students. There is so much out there that we need to keep up with all the updates as fast as they are coming at us. I never thought 2 years ago I would be teaching with a SmartBoard and my overhead projector would be on the outs. We need to keep teaching toward the future. We cannot teach like we did 15 years ago. Our students will suffer. I can't wait to see what we are teaching with in 2 years. It will be amazing I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the video although as Donovan said,not citing where this information came from left me wondering if it is accurate. I think there are certain subjects that we teach which are "timeless" and others that we need to be constantly remain current. It is impossible to teach students something that is not here yet, but we can teach them to be problem solvers and instill a confidence of their own abilities in them.
ReplyDelete