The new story getting a bit old

Ok so the comments and blogs about Dave Warlick’s “New Story” concept may be getting a bit old but I had some more to say….. I wrote this early this morning and thought I may as well add it up.

Wow what amazing conversation it has been stirring in the blogasphere about the whole New Story concepts. I wonder if everyone who is commenting actually gets what the point of telling the new story actually is. However, with that said I think there is some interesting offshoot of conversation that has come from this web 2.0 collaboration. I guess my thinking has headed down the track of where we are focussing what we as educators do. As an educator I simply want to best prepare students for the reality of their world. This whole concept is so well described in Thomas Freedman’s book, “The world is flat.” He uncovers our eyes to the reality of the world that students are heading into. He shares amazing insight into skills that will and are suddenly becoming more valuable than simple knowledge.

I had the pleasure of spending some time in the US recently. While I was there I sat and listened to George Bush’s state of the union address. While I don’t have any sort of view on the politics of the US, I couldn’t help but begin to get frustrated at his ideology of education. He stated that he wanted to have the US producing the men and women that could continue research into important areas. Yet he has a country full of standardised testing that recognises those who are good at remembering stuff. However, those who are good at remembering stuff do not necessarily create good researchers. The researchers and inventors of tomorrow are our creative minds that are adaptive to change and have the skills to not only stay ahead of change but to also be the ones that determine the direction of change. Those who come up with new ways to stop dependence on oil will be the creative, adaptive, explorative and innovative minds of our world. They will be the ones who can see the needs of society and come up with new ways of fixing old problems.

At the end of the day I see the technologies of web 2.0 as tools that help students develop their minds in ways that are so very important for survival in our world today and toward the future. I don’t think it is a matter of making sure that we all understand technology. It is a matter of developing the minds of the future to be adaptive enough to handle whatever future it is they face. The change in our world in the last 20 years has been so fast and so unexpected by many, we really have no idea of what the future will hold. However, we can use the tools of today to help develop the minds of tomorrow. That is why this blog goes by the idea of – integrating the learner into the curriculum. I desire to take the learner – the student – the mind – and integrate it into what and how we teach.

As I begin to travel and work with a number of different students I can see through the content that I present the need to also present ways and means of developing new skills that help the leaner become adaptive to new situations. One of the interesting reflections I made after conducting a classroom blog and podcast was the type of student that embraced this new way of communication. It was not the student that simply enjoyed using computers and or technology. In fact it went much deeper than technology it actually became a way of really identifying the students who could firstly adapt to new ways of doing old things and secondly the student who could not only adapt the way they communicated to a completely new medium but also recognise the added potential of that new communication tool.
I can see the need to cut the educational jargon out of the way we shape educational thought. However, when it comes to telling a new story I believe Dave has hit the nail on the head. There is a new story to be told, it may not be so new to some of us but it is certainly new to many educators who haven’t had their eyes opened to the reality of the world that our students are heading toward. It goes beyond just teaching how to use technology, it actually uses technology as a way of encouraging students to develop the adaptive skills required to survive in our society.

So what do you think? Feel free to disagree!! Look forward to your comments and feedback….