Time Magazine article Dec 2006

Well the article from Time this week has got plenty of coverage on the edublogespher. It is a great read, which I highly recommend. As an Australian I found it fascinating that the US is finally realising that their students need to learn something other than US history. Wow – what a revelation – the world doesn’t revolve around the United States.

I was taken by a few parts of the story… I was interested to read about a school that is doing a few things differently…

Before opening the school seven years ago, principal Karen Kodama surveyed 1,500 business leaders on which languages to teach and which skills and disciplines. “No. 1 was technology,” she recalls. Even first-graders at Stanford begin to use PowerPoint and Internet tools.”

This is great but what is with the excitement in first graders using PowerPoint? Why does something like that excite people? To me “powerpointlessness” is something that died a long time ago that is just an annoying tool that adults use to bore audiences to tears. First graders using tools on the internet is great but what about some of the old school logo type programming. I just don’t understand why a child putting a PowerPoint presentation together is so exciting. If a first grader programmed a logo turtle to move through an obstacle course then I would be very impressed!!

The article also goes on to discuss a new from of literacy that we should be teaching students. Skills for life that help them discern information and become critical thinkers.

Stroud has posed this question to his class on the blackboard: “If truth is difficult to prove in history, does it follow that all versions are equally acceptable?”

What an amazing thinking exercise for students. Take them away from the proper gander that is media today and get them to THINK. This is the type of skills that students need for the information age. They know how to use technology – a 3 year old can work out how to make car sounds in PowerPoint – but as the article explains our university students don’t know how to discern information they find on the internet!!

A pilot study of the test with 6,200 high school seniors and college freshmen found that only half could correctly judge the objectivity of a website. “Kids tend to go to Google and cut and paste a research report together,” says Terry Egan, who led the team that developed the new test. “We kind of assumed this generation was so comfortable with technology that they know how to use it for research and deeper thinking,” says Egan. “But if they’re not taught these skills, they don’t necessarily pick them up.”

I have only touched the surface of this article. I do strongly suggest having a good read of it. So how do we bring our schools out of the 20th century? Simple…. Teach kids to think!! Teach them to be critical thinkers of all information….. Open their minds to other parts of our world – Letting them realise that they live in a global society. Furthermore, we need to have an understanding of how we nurture these students to survive in a global economy – what about 21st century ethics and values and a foundation of truth?