Digital natives: Are schools foreign to them?
Dr. Jason Huett
Technology guru and University of West Georgia professor Jason B. Huett said a frontier teacher from a century ago popped into today’s modern era would be agape at the changes she saw every place but one — the classroom.
“When she walked into a school, she would immediately know what this is, and she could pretty much swap her prairie dress for a pants suit and go right to work,” said Huett, West Georgia’s associate dean of online development and USG eCore, a multi-institution collaborative where college students can take classes online.
Huett is among the those urging schools to use technology to make schools more relevant, accessible and flexible and less like a prison sentence.
School districts are heeding that advice — to a point.
For example, DeKalb County Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson announced this week that more than 8,200 students at seven middle schools will receive netbooks in the fall loaded with all their textbooks.
“And by August of 2o14, every student — all middle schools and all high schools — will have their own device,” she said. Every teacher will be getting a laptop.
Even better, all 138 DeKalb schools will be wireless by August, she said. Now, only 38 percent of the district is wireless.
“The fact is that our students are digital natives and active learners,” said Atkinson, speaking at a DeKalb Chamber of Commerce luncheon. “The fact is, they are not limited to the classroom. The fact is, they use the laptop and not the pencil. The fact is … they can’t wait for us to catch up to their style of learning, nor should they have to.”
But are schools catching up fast enough to the realities of a world where today’s young learner will have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38?
Students will have to be flexible and adaptable to thrive in this new marketplace. Huett said, “One of the new rules: If you can be out outsourced, you will be outsourced. Are you essential?”
Huett urges a deeper rethinking of how schools function, including the entrenched notion that learning has to be delivered 180 days a year between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Education can no longer be “a cage for every age where we lock students into this planned track,” he said.
Speaking at a Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education forum earlier this year, Huett explained why he fled k-12 education after five years to teach in college: “It felt like I was beating my head into a brick wall. I don’t like to teach people who don’t want to learn.” (Watch video of his talk here.)
He blames a factory model that puts all students on a conveyor belt set to medium speed.
“And the ones that could move ahead faster, we just tell them tough luck. You need to stay on this conveyor belt at medium speed,” Huett said. “And if you are too slow on that conveyor belt, we will take you off, retool you a bit and start you back up at the beginning. We are going to keep running you through this mass-produced system where discipline and order are emphasized above all else.”
To illustrate his point about the tedium of school, Huett shared his favorite student evaluation of a course: “If I had one hour to live, I’d spend it in this class because it feels like an eternity.”
That evaluation resonates because extreme boredom drove Huett to drop out of high school.
“I didn’t stay out for long, mostly because my mother was waking me up every morning by dumping ice cold water on me and telling me to go find a job,” he said. “I was bored to death. When I left school, I honestly did so because I really couldn’t fit in that environment. I was the kind of person who would rather have a fork stuck in my eye than sit for eight hours and listen to someone talk at me.”
Huett said schools have to change because their role has changed. Schools no longer have a monopoly on information. Kids can reach into their pockets, pull out their smart phones and get multiple lifetimes of information. Students need schools to teach them how to critically process all that information, he said.
But Huett cautions educators to avoid the two extremes — online education is going to fix everything or it’s going to ruin everything. “Real reform is almost always to be found in the middle,” he said.
And target reform where it matters. “The meat of real educational reform almost always occurs between the interaction of teacher and student,” he said. “If it isn’t clearly examining and improving that relationship, it probably isn’t going to work.”
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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174 comments Add your comment
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:19 pm
I guess the Parisian students were expected to provide their own laptops or home computers. But you know, they have public health care over there, no university debt, do not allow corporations to poison or control their food supply and they have cheap internet, too, about $40. for a “triple play” internet/tv/telephone package. They also are not carrying the U. S. military on their backs.
Parisians had minitel computer terminals to go with their home telephones long before the US had instead distribution. They apply a lot of technology over there. Here, read about the minitel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel I suggest their 2012 approach to student computing may have something to tell us in Georgia. I suggest their approach will be organised, relevant, well structured, and free from commercial exploitation.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:21 pm
should read “Parisians had minitel computer terminals to go with their home telephones long before the US had internet distribution.”
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:28 pm
In France in 1982 every home with a telephone had a Minitel computer terminal from France Telecom next to their telephone. They don’t tell you that in the United States. I didn’t know this until I saw one in person when I was staying in someone’s home during a study abroad. It’s pretty neato how they do some things over there.
living in an outdated ed system
December 8th, 2012
2:34 pm
@Bootney, I find your comments to be from the gutter. You are a 19th century educator who is an anachronism and has no business teaching children in the 21st century. You mock what you do not understand.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
2:38 pm
One reason Minitels were popular, in addition to being a digital telephone and address directory for the whole country, there was a social networking chat and messaging function. Someone could throw a party and make it know on their Minitel messaging list. Social dates and arrangement were communicated by text messaging through Minitel years before people were using email. It was like having a personal newsroom tele-type connected to your peer group. Exciting stuff for the day.
Here in Georgia the guy at the landfill proclaims he does not have a computer, is incapable of providing a url for information, has no print information on what is acceptable / unacceptable for items to landfill and has to tell me verbally that is is okay to deposit cuttings and branches, but a few loose bricks are prohibited even for the construction debris container. There is no precision in Georgia, and the concept of public services is fouled by antics and avoiding clear communication. It is a bizarre situation here.
living in an outdated ed system
December 8th, 2012
2:42 pm
@Bootney, my comment was not stupid. It’s FACT. You complain about everything – you’re like the 21st century Archie Bunker.
V for Vendetta
December 8th, 2012
3:08 pm
@Truth,
Amusing. The ancients believed in many archaic and useless things–often times while making strides in scientific fields. Newton was a Christian, as was Charles Darwin; however, the thought that we should shackle ourselves to such silly flights of fancy simply because someone used to believe in them is ridiculous. As is your example. Just because we don’t know something doesn’t mean we won’t know something.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
3:15 pm
Cats using technology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDDILztf6vE
Michelle O. would be proud.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
3:22 pm
PC meet V.
Ya’ll are the perfect conversationalists for each other. I’m blathered out.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
4:04 pm
@PC
According to Reuters:
“France’s unemployment rate rose to 10.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012, its highest since the third quarter of 1999, from 10.2 percent in the previous quarter, data published by national statistics office INSEE showed on Thursday.
Youth unemployment rose more markedly, with the jobless rate edging up to 24.9 percent, from 23.6 percent, among people under 25 years old. That was higher than any quarter on records going back to the start of 1996.”
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/12/france-unemployment-rate-hits-103-youth.html#jxiIpxZp85ibVOBu.99
So much for all that advanced school technology and free health care in Paris.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
4:19 pm
@PC
DEATH OF THE MINITEL
“France is switching off its groundbreaking Minitel service which brought online banking, travel reservations, and porn to millions of users in the 1980s. But then came the worldwide web. Minitel has been slowly dying and the plug will be pulled on Saturday.”
“What once was shiny and new now looks like a shoddy bad investment – of interest to the retro market, but not to anyone else.
One thing that is very telling is that Minitel was a uniquely French institution. It never made it abroad (apart from Belgium).”
“Minitel wasn’t an open platform. It only provided Minitel services, which was quickly going out-of-date as a model. Also by the early 1990s the terminal itself was the clunkiest piece of desk manure you could imagine. It was embarrassing.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18610692
Dekalbite@mountain man
December 8th, 2012
8:27 pm
“She also would be aghast at the changes. Children who curse their teachers. Parents who don’t back up the teachers. Students who can’t do simple reading and arithmetic in upper grades.”
My grandmother was a teacher in the olden days – 1914 – 1918 in a one room schoolhouse. She had discipline problems, parents who felt farm work came first and many students who could not do simple reading and arithmetic. I totally agree with the writer of this post – the world has changed while the educational system has remained stagnant.
Funniest all time video regarding new technology in the academic world:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=-xmTTzCAALc&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-xmTTzCAALc
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
9:43 pm
t.i.m., just on a note on the reporting tone of your news link. the British have hated the French for a very long time. using a BBC story about the French is almost like the opening of a practical joke. in their mutual history they’ve warred many time across the channel. I’d take universal heathcare anytime. The adult I am tutoring also needs / does not have eyeglasses, just like the kids I talk about. I asked my tutorial student about it. They said they went to the eye facility at the hospital and got an eye exam and paid $100. toward glasses and owe them another $100. before they get glasses. Meanwhile the person is studying online college likely spending thousands in debt money. I had to give the $4. for gas before I left this evening. I’ll check up on the local hospital / eyeglass clinic story, confirm it. $200. is a lot of money for a person in low socio-economic. They said it was $300. at the mall. anyway, it really sux trying to teach people who do not have eyeglasses. I friggin’ hate it, this aspect of it.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
9:52 pm
PS person said they had not gas money because they went over to do home care for someone today (as in clean / help an elderly infirmed person) and the person wasn’t there. It was the first time my tutorial student asked for money. It wasn’t much but the point is some people live close to the ground, so to speak. I told them they had to pay me back.
oh yes. the online course material is from the British monster Pearson.
the online program “homework” assignments do not align with what is on the “quiz” modules. there is no textbook except for an “eBook” that is part of the online website. The eBook is not searchable and has no index, only chapter headings that do not tell you where the specific topics are. I was unable to find sample problems that fit the quiz questions and I spent 2 hours doing it. The student said many people have to repeat the class and the school doesn’t care. I am hoping this student passes this class, as I have invested about 25 hours of my time in their success on this one course. If this online course is an example of Pearson product, it does not seem put together very well.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:06 pm
Truth in Moderation, Irony of ironies, Minitel is a branch of a technology called “Videotex” that was invented by engineers at the BBC, as they used to have their own in-house engineering staff and workshops that built applications equipment, which is why in the early days so many BBC productions and British recordings were so advanced in quality. Your current BBC reporter with One thing that is very telling is that Minitel was a uniquely French institution gets a double F- for context.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:21 pm
So the online mess of misaligned no-index non-searchable “eBook” online math course software I was dealing with this evening is from British company Pearson, and if I want to pick up a Georgia math certification, I have to pay Pearson to take the certification test, as they have purchased the GACE testing company. This “New World Order” business plan has literally got us encapsulated. They must be laughing about it. Capitalism is supposed to be based on competition. The course also combines algebra, geometry, and graduate level calculus based statistics combined into an 8 week course given to entry level undergraduate students, many of whom require remediation to do algebra. The whole thing is just a shoebox of mess. Welcome to online education via Pearson.
I’ve taken 4 graduate levels statistics courses and some know what I’m saying. This is the type of problems they had combined with their course: http://www.brocksoft.ca/bcorp/tools/stats/statsgifs/stdev_s.gif I think that’s little excessive for an 8 week course with entry-level students. What are they thinking? I mean really.
N. GA Teacher
December 8th, 2012
10:30 pm
Enter your comments here
I am always stunned by how simplistic nonteachers are about how to “solve” our “bad” education in public schools. The latest wave is the technocrats who simply believe that the wow factor of technology will convey success to the students. It is amazing how little they know about the massive lack of motivation, lack of parental involvement, and lack of respect for the educational setting exists. Technology will not cure these things. Online learning? No way will the unmotivated teen do the necessary reading and research on his own. Using the cell phones even the poorest seem to use continuously for social purposes all day? For nontitillating reasons? Are you kidding? No, I WILL admit, that for those kids who ARE motivated to succeed and enjoy learning via technology, then yes, it is fantastic. However most of the students I have worked with with this mentality are AP high schoolers, honors undergrads, and grad students. What we have to do is radically change the curricula in public schools to provide vocational technology for those kids who simply waste time in traditional academic classes. THAT is where tech works: when the kid makes the direct job connection.
Private Citizen
December 8th, 2012
10:35 pm
I guess Pearson thinks they’re going to wow them with shizizzle and show who’s powerful. It’s sure not the students. I wonder if they even beta-test their online software before release. From the user perspective, I am guessing that they do not.
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
10:38 pm
@PC
“Also by the early 1990s the terminal itself was the clunkiest piece of desk manure you could imagine. It was embarrassing.”
What are you blathering about now? This statement is totally accurate:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/5881889658_d1b03ced76_b-640×480.jpg&imgrefurl=http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/minitel-frances-precursor-to-the-web-to-go-dark-on-june-30/&h=480&w=640&sz=69&tbnid=J57kSocexJOBWM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=125&zoom=1&usg=__yhsL9WVnlgwzlavcfEPNYChtxqM=&docid=dSZ_sPBnQCS71M&sa=X&ei=PAfEUPCWNpCO8wScwoGACw&ved=0CGIQ9QEwBw&dur=5170
Truth in Moderation
December 8th, 2012
10:50 pm
“I’ve taken 4 graduate levels statistics courses and some know what I’m saying.”
Really? And all you can do is post blathering nonsense all day and complain about your half blind destitute student tutorial “customer,” yes? I think you need to return to Paris and take advantage of their plentiful job opportunities. Oui?
Dr. Monica Henson
December 9th, 2012
12:51 am
bootney posted, “what Dr. Henson does not tell you is the GEA has the same standing as say, the Knights of Columbus or the KKK in Georgia. they can advocate all they wish, but have no power real or imagined to impact or moderate change for its members.
-the GEA can not call strikes, or pay strike wages
-the GEA has no seat at the table in matters of employee/management disputes. a fact I believe Dr. Henson should know all to well. she is touting administrative party line.”
I’ve worked in unionized states (Mass., Conn., and Florida), and I can assure you that GAE is not a union. However, that’s not the point. The point is that GAE members’ dues support the NEA, which IS a union. Union dues and agency fees are used at the discretion of top leadership to support a failing agenda.
If I were a GAE member, I’d be pretty annoyed by that.
As a classroom teacher in Massachusetts, I refused to pay the agency fee because I disagree vehemently with the NEA’s agenda. I dared the “shop steward” to sue me and make me pay it. I would have lost, of course, but they didn’t bother to take me to court over it.
Cobb History Teacher
December 9th, 2012
7:37 am
I like the idea of digital textbooks, printing, binding and shipping are part of the biggest cost of textbooks. A digital textbook with the right software would allow students to highlight and annotate without ruining an actual textbook. In college you buy your textbooks and can highlight and write in them. A textbook with the right software would allow students to highlight, annotate and take notes in the digital text.
I’m still torn between laptops and the idea of tablet PC’s for students. Laptops would give them full function, but tablets would be lighter and easier to carry. Maybe a tablet with a removable keyboard would be best?
My other concern as a classroom teacher with 30+ students in the room I would want software on my computer that would allow me to monitor what students were doing. Students particularly at the middle school level are particularly good at getting off task. Running around the classroom try to see what they are doing gets old especially in a crowded classroom. The technology would be great but if was going to be misused and abused it no better than what we’re doing now.
As for expense we in the public schools have been “DOING THINGS ON THE CHEAP” for too long. Rather than a pay raise I’d like to see more teachers so we have smaller classes. Too many students per teacher not only dilutes the attention they can give to each student, but it also causes them to use strategies that aren’t as effective. Grading 120+ essays in a reasonable amount of time is not practical; however grading 80 – 90 is at least manageable. Bottom line I’d rather have 10 fewer students per class than have a pay raise.
Teaching about 20 students per class would give me more time with each student, I could get to know them better, and they’re would be fewer brush fires during group learning activities.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
9:57 am
@ Dr Henson
you are typing out of both sides of your keyboard. either the GEA is a union, or it isn’t.
pick one, and stick with it please.
as GEA membership is voluntary, a smart person does their homework to see if the group, any group, is worth investing in. when I looked into the GEA I opted not to join because they weren’t able to offer me anything I can’t find for myself.
when someone puts an offering in the plate at church, some of that money goes to organizations and outreaches that person may not approve of. doesn’t mean the individual donor is lockstep with that group.
yes, the GEA is an ….ORGANIZATION …. which has common cause with a union. the US gives money to Egypt-it doesn’t make you Egyptian.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
10:03 am
its really funny here
our public schools are out of control due to racial politics, rampant cronyism, interference from DC, moronic legislation from the gold dome, the cult of football, the cult of UGA, inequities of funding, non existent parental involvement, insane school boards, and a host of other issues too long to name.
but hey, its not all bad. at least we’ve kept them teachers from unionizing.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
10:14 am
@ cobb history teacher,
even if we all agreed on moving from print to PC tomorrow, there are major logistical challenges.
-who buys the PC/nook/kendal whatever? state or local? what vendors?
-is it ours or theirs?
-what do we do when they are not returned or stolen?
-do we require standardization state wide?
-how do we-if we do at all-make sure the device in question is actually used for school?
-what do we do if its not?
-depending on usage/device, how do we slow down cheating?
-what do we do about the fiscal disparities between counties, much less districts?
putting aside for a moment if question of if we should, IMO we gotta deal with these issues first. the state backs further away from it funding obligation hourly- and most still seem to think they just need to give us a bucket of green paint and a new carton of chalk.
bootney farnsworth
December 9th, 2012
10:19 am
one thing I have noticed at GPC is the more reliant the faculty is on computer assisted instruction, the easier it becomes to throw them off stride if the technology -which most of us don’t understand, lets be honest- doesn’t work.
part of the problem in this concept is the bulk of the faculty in place at the moment are not trained to work in the digital world this deeply. regardless of the good or bad of the idea, its probably a 1/2 generation too early.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:29 am
That’s a cool photo, truth, and a great article. The French have such a great tradition of industrial design. Wow, look at that thing.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:34 am
hey truth, the French priority is not “job opportunities;” they’re interested in “life opportunities.” maybe the 15% difference in unemployment is the number of people we pay to run our jails and prisons.
the French idea of an arrest warrant is to perform a general amnesty every few years and erase all the old unpaid tickets.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:45 am
truth, this might be a good time to recall that if it were not for France, we’d be a British colony right now. Ben Franklin went over ans asked the French navy to come help the U.S. during the American Revolution and since hate the British, they complied and came over and beat Britain’s butt for us. Now today, Britain is coming back to rule us with their Pearson publishing company that own the teacher certification tests in Georgia, and many of the textbooks used for teacher training, depending on the school. Here, they have significant penetration with their “program” approach. I expect UWG and Georgia State may be a little more sophisticated. It is a weird thing, “Georgia” is really like two states, with two ecosystems and the dividing line is the fault line, on or about Macon, also known as the “gnat line” because of the gnats and such below the line, and less of same as the elevation climbs north of Macon. yes, truth, if it wasn’t for the French, we’d be thinking celebrating the Queen’s birthday via television was the proper way to celebrate our heritage. All the people would be out in the streets crying about how beautiful are the queen’s shoes and her kids and the royal family (wait a minute, that sounds like how it was under the rule of Bushes)
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:48 am
WELCOME TO GEORGIA, TRUTH. your half blind destitute student tutorial “customer,” WHO HAS WORKED ALL HER LIFE.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:06 am
bootney and Dr. Henson, just want to say you two are really “on” on your commentaries. excellent description of conditions, Bootney, and Dr. Henson, thank you for bringing your Massachusetts background and experience here.
Cobb History Teacher, once for a semester in high school, for one class period I assisted an old teacher in a student computer lab and one of the things I did was sit at terminal and surveille what the students were doing. I could summon each machine and see their desktop on my machine. If they got too off task, I could/would press the reset button on their desk top. This was an uncomfortable level of control. Most of the off task activities were browser based games downloaded from Yahoo. The explorer browsers were clogged with them. Anyway, just to tell you your vision of controlling / surveilling desktop activity. I like your ergonomic questions. I do not know what the answer is to this stuff. It is like we need to write a book addressing it from twenty sides.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:16 am
Cobb History Teacher, maybe we can do that via a digital interface and distribution. I’d prefer a keyboard, though I wonder if a tablet is more suited strictly for reading due to customising the screen design to low-power consuming “on/off” two-tone scale, instead of the eye burning laptop screens suited for color photos and James Bond movies and such. Maybe students (or you or I) need both. Laptop for general work, and a less interactive reading tablet device to imitate paper.
living in an outdated ed system
December 9th, 2012
11:27 am
@Maureen, so it’s perfectly ok for @Bootney to personally attack folks and speak from the gutter, but not anyone else?
3schoolkids
December 9th, 2012
1:00 pm
To me the problem lies with what “innovation” in education means. If it is simply transferring curriculum materials onto a tablet or laptop so they can be accessed and utilized in that way, then it is not innovative. It will train students so that they can use the technology the way the school (and later, their employer) wants it used. Will the ability to annotate and highlight on a computer as opposed to a real book really benefit students that much? Not enough to increase test scores, which is how effectiveness of the use of that technology will be measured.
The system is broken and the fault is essentially the GOAL of public education. Trying to provide an equal education to all leads to a one size fits all model that doesn’t work for everyone. Technology only helps correct that if we change the model. I agree with @Private Citizen in that throwing tons of money into unproven, expensive and burdensome licensed products is not the answer. Ironically the answer is to be able to use technology to customize education and make it more flexible to suit the needs of each individual student. That will require more people (teachers, staff and yes admins) to evaluate each student and come up with a game plan that will change as the student grows and changes.
Are we ready for that? Not when we think approving millions of dollars to set up a parallel school system that reinforces the same model and has the same goals for everyone is the answer to “choice.”
Truth in Moderation
December 9th, 2012
5:13 pm
“Ironically the answer is to be able to use technology to customize education and make it more flexible to suit the needs of each individual student.”
This is what home schoolers have been doing over the last 10 years. I use technology every which way. I live-stream video curriculum, use interactive teaching software, Google maps, e-mail, blogs, research, etc. One child was able to teach himself programming and 3-D modeling, while another is mastering a paint system. I still use paper and pencil, text books and old fashioned teaching methods as well. We don’t own a TV and they can’t use Twitter or calculators before high school. We have the best of both worlds, and they have 21st century computing skills. We also avoid getting locked into outdated computers and software, like France’s “minitel.”
concerned
December 9th, 2012
5:41 pm
I love online learning. Both my masters and Ed.S. were obtained online through UWG. BUT, I’m a adult who worked hard and really thought about the application of what I was learning. Students do not do this. Some of the teachers at my middle school have tried and tried to get students to create thoughtful projects using various Web 2.0 tools. Most of the projects were not worthy of a grade above a “D”, in my opinion. Most students will not research their topic and usually begin the idea of research as they enter the computer lab to complete their project. But that isn’t the only issue. The largest issue is money, or lack of it. My school has one computer lab for twenty academic classrooms and there are not enough computers in the lab for a whole class to work at the same time. There are a few student computers in a few of the classrooms. There isn’t money to buy more computers, update the computers we have, or even buy software or subscriptions to use many of the wonderful Web 2.0 tools. Technology is expensive and must be replaced after four or five years. Students break anything they get or use. They can’t affor to pay to have it fixed so who is responsible then for fixing it? Our students won’t even bring paper and pencils to school. Until there is a specific budget, that cannot be used for anything else, provided for every school, most students will not be using technology. We can’t even get new text books or new library books in my school. More than half of my school population does not have a working computer with Internet in their home. Most do not have cable television. Our parents cannot afford it. I love hearing about all the schools in the larger school districts getting iPads, laptops, and tablets for students to use. But in small school districts we aren’t that fortunate. How is that fair?
Maureen Downey
December 9th, 2012
6:02 pm
@To all, I encouraged Dr. Jason Huett to jump into this discussion on online learning if he was so inclined and then went to the woods for 36 hours with no Internet. So, his response to the lively debate here landed in moderation as a first-time post. To ensure folks see it, I am copying it here since it is farther down in the the queue because it was posted yesterday.
Maureen
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
6:28 pm
concerned, you’re describing my recent work environment down to the detail. it is odd to read, like from the same building or something.
Public HS Teacher
December 9th, 2012
7:41 pm
It sickens me to read and hear people call the classroom “old fashioned” for whatever reason.
I agree that the basic classroom has not changed. Has eating changed? Have children changed how they learn to walk? Does birth come out of some new-fashion canal now?
No. The basics of HOW TO LEARN has not changed. So, the basics of a classroom has not changed. This does not make it “old-fashioned” at all.
And, by the way, if you think that the classroom has not changed, then ANSWER ME THIS…. what has changed then? I can answer that – it is the parenting (or lack thereof) that has changed. These children enter into classrooms so very unprepared in most every sense. THAT is what has changed!
living in an outdated ed system
December 9th, 2012
8:05 pm
@Public HS Teacher, the classroom has not changed because the system has not changed. We’re in a digital world, yet students must sit in classrooms where teachers lecture in a monolithic style of instruction. We need to move from a teacher-centric to student-centric learning environment, where teachers become the facilitators of knowledge rather than the sole gatekeepers of knowledge.
I don’t know how to make it any clearer for you. Why do you think brick and mortar bookstores have suffered since the Internet arrived? Or Best Buy? Or music labels? Or newspaper and magazine publishers? Shall I continue? If the “walled garden” physical classroom does not evolve to embrace the global access to information facilitated by digital technology, then it will become extinct before you know it.
A good teacher finds the right stimuli to align with each student’s learning style. We need to create intrinsically motivating environments that use stimuli that children use in their daily lives. That’s why this author’s blog post is so important.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:31 pm
I think both of you two are wrong. ha. Public HS Teacher, food has changed a great deal. It’s called “manufactured food” and it comes in square cardboard boxes in a refrigerated truck and is loaded into the cooler at the school. When it’s meal time, the cafeteria workers heat it and serve. Sort of the equivilent of feeding kids tv dinners. Please obtain and read a copy of Fast Food Nation. I know there was a movie, but it has little compared with the content of the book, which explains a lot of thing. At school, kids also get disposable styrofoam trays and bowls and plastic utensil that they dispose of upon use. Has birth changed? Yes. C-Section? Meanwhile, living in an outdated system is recommending to provide stimulation to compete and hopefully overpower the existing stimulation, like an uncalibrated IMAX theater with the volume a little too loud? If you want to see how excellent education is done, look to the best. It is not through media stimulation. In fact, many kids gets so much of this, they appreciate a consistent meditative environment at school. Not all kids, but there are kids who do not want what you’re describing.
A good teacher finds the right stimuli to align with each student’s learning style.
That sounds like propaganda if I’ve ever heard it. I want a teacher who has mastered their content and can teach it to me in an organised sequential manner. Where did you get the “align with each student’s learning style?” You must have thirty heads and sixty arms and eyeballs if you’re for real, or did you hear these phrases somewhere? Pardon the harsh, but after I achieved teaching for three different learning styles simultaneously, and add three different assignment activities going at the same time, and each student could which they wanted like a menu, after doing all of this and making it work, I mean, it is a bit much, don’t you think? Maybe it depends on what kind of content you plan on transferring. It reallllllll-l-l-l-l-llllly seems like a way of treating kids as consumers. I’m not sure that is what education is. I’m fairly certain all of this hocus pocus is NOT how it is done in the best environments. Someone who knows their content is not going to want to play fry cook running three stoves for very long.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:39 pm
Oh look, living in an outdated system has provided us a picture of the capable teacher from their website on teaching doctrine. http://www.journeymart.com/article/ArticleImages/IMG_173_1.jpg
Maybe it is appropriate to ask, “Can you tell us any detailed specific method or technique to go with the gleaming North Korea type declaration?”
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:43 pm
Why are teachers expected to be master of the universe, whereas a doctor or dentist can do one procedure at a time and do it well?
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:48 pm
And some places you can make a fiction movie with a camcorder, and call it a dissertation for the humanities. I’m not sure about this assignment shape-shifting. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! According to John Taylor Gatto, it’s incoherence.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:55 pm
I tried teaching with comic books (graphic novels via computer). The kids didn’t go for it. Very low consumption ratio for this item on the you-pick-it menu. The few students who like graphic novels consider it something very personal, like a private subculture they find for themselves. It usually contains material too risque or otherwise faux-worldly in a way set to be unacceptable to the authorities or morality-police parents.
Joe
December 9th, 2012
10:56 pm
Maureen,
You should talk to Dr. Mark Bauerlein at Emory. His book, The Dumbest Generation, provides an empirical counterpoint to Huett’s uncritical acceptance of the idea of a “digital native.”
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
10:58 pm
Okay, living in an outdated system, I provided a specific example. Your turn.
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:13 pm
Bauerlein seems to have taken a turn toward the populist commercial publisher crowd, but I think he has made one of the most brutal and appealing books (to me) I’ve ever seen from a U. S. academic author, Literary Criticism – An Autopsy. Like Herman Melville, during his time, the book was not well-liked by the academic establishment. I suspect it was way too confronting. That’s a very good tip to check out Bauerlein. He’s taught a lot of freshman composition classes (incoming students from high school) and he knows what he says.
There isn’t another book like this: a primer and a polemic on the jargon of literary study, impressive in its range of examples and uncompromising in its critique.
Hail to the king. I think it’s his major work. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/literary-criticism-mark-bauerlein/1111454010
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:25 pm
Oh look, Bauerlein is on the case with some new stuff. The Digital Divide: Writings for and Against Facebook, YouTube, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/digital-divide-mark-bauerlein/1100996761
Jason, similar to how you miss Denton, I miss Mark’s work before he stepped into big league corporate publishing, which maybe there is some pressure to do so, big league school, big league publishing, big business. The stuff certainly takes no chances, but there’s plenty of brainpower there if it’s got his name on it. Will the French be discussing it and putting it in shop windows? Maybe not. (the French read/consume more books than any other country / have numerous book stores).
Private Citizen
December 9th, 2012
11:34 pm
We may have stumbled onto something. I took a screen capture of sample page/ first essay in the book. http://postimage.org/image/tqsovxrsp/ Maybe Mark Prensky invented the term “digital native.”