STSD Curriculum & Technology Update

Regular updates and musings on curriculum and technology in the Salisbury Township School District in Allentown, PA.

Flat World, Flat Web, Flat Schools Webinar

David Warlick: Flat World, Flat Web, Flat Schools Webinar is, in many ways, a test of the times. On November 15, 2006, participants blogging as they multi-tasked: participating in Skype conversations, webinar sidebars, emails, and watching the webinar.  David Warlick believes “the future is not what it used to be...it is certainly not your father’s future anymore.” Warlick advocates retooling our classrooms into learning spaces that effectively prepare our children for a future of unlimited possibilities.  “Our culture has rapidly evolved into one more technological, entrepreneurial and global.” The challenge to schools requires us to embrace a new vision that prepares students for a workplace that may not have yet evolved.  Let’s take a look at what Warlick believes is the new learning landscape.

What follows is my webinar blogging:

* The world is flattening as the informational landscape transforms without the knowledge of most Americans
* Outsourcing, off-shoring, globalization: we live and work in a world that is learning to cooperate with ordered in, made in, parts by, shipped to: and we are looking at global economies that collaborate and cooperate not compete; in today’s economy our job is about finding a place in the global economy, where we are in a niche market
* we need to change our thinking: instead of asking why outsourcing ask what do my students need to know to be a part of the global economy; what kind of learning experience do they need to become part of the chain of supply
* we are being surpassed by countries I cannot locate on a globe or pronounce if I could find them; “sitting still in a time of change is like going backwards”
* information has changed; more networked, more digital, and more information is overwhelming; virtual audience agrees; educationally, these three elements have changed what literacy means, and that connects to what it means to be a reader, including proving evidentiary supports for information which exceed decoding and moves understanding to a range of skills in employing information in an information storm
* sound, images, videos, text: which combination of ideas best express information?
* to manage information, use Technorati = the google of bloggers; Technorati takes a photograph of us; recording conversations of ourselves; thumbnail of peaks of use
* wikis, blogs, discussion boards--social networking of information sources are the changing shape of information; it’s not a competition between traditional textual information, just a decision of whether your classroom is flat or not.
* no longer important to TEACH the facts; they are out there and the kids know how to find the facts; our job is to teach how to draw conclusions, make money from the information, evaluate the information, use the information in their future, but not TEACH the information
* we need more innovative technologists; read Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class; we’ve left Industrial Age and moved into the Creative Age, which is how people make money today; what we will gain in jobs in the next decade will be creative jobs; read The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler; from Randy: http://concordia.csp.edu/BookoftheYear/
* in the information landscape, learning has changed, and gravity won’t work in a flat classroom; owners of the content [e.g. ]http://www.youtube.com] will make the money; the company that can grow and gain an audience will survive; the content is increasingly coming from us, so the company that will make it is the company who will grow in the new informational landscape; the classrooms that will work will go with the new landscape
* video games are a learning engine, if the games are good; you can’t move to level 2 or 3 if you don’t learn something; what is it about video games that intrigue students, so let’s take a look at gaming to get the techniques.

I believe students are amazingly flexible, and they learn best when they enjoy how they are learning.  Sometimes, as educators, we forget this simple basic.  In the sidebar I mentioned earlier, the discussion was lively, robust, exciting, and fast-paced.  Many discussion strands emerged, but one question still remains with me.  Warlick was talking about the role of teaching v. learning, and how teachers need to rethink teaching facts when facts--information retrieval--are at students’ fingertips via IM, Internet, gmail....So the haunting question, paraphrased [since the presentation is still not archived, nor the sidebar discussion] is this: are we still asking students to memorize the capitols of states when that information is online.  No question mark: the issue is rhetorical--and symbolic.  The question we need to ponder as educators: are our classrooms flat?  What do you think?

Related Warlick Blogs:
Flat Classrooms
Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century

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