The theme of this blog is informational skills for middle-school students in our current high-tech age. I'm of the opinion that any serious attempt to address these skills in current schools faces a huge challenge.
Many classrooms I visit are richly laden with powerful informational technologies – tools that have the power to transform educational practice in ways that can truly help prepare children for a dynamic future. Unfortunately, it is the rare classroom that is using these new tools for anything more than replacing technologies our grandparents would recognize.
Take the interactive whiteboard as an example. This expensive device provides the capacity for educators and students to draw images on a large viewable surface. It uses (in general) a special large tablet, and an expensive short-throw video projector. All this to recreate a modern version of a technology our grandparents would recognize – the blackboard. Oh, yes, you have color – nicer looking graphics, etc. But in case the throwback to the past escapes you, some of these devices even include block-like erasers and chalk-sized “markers”. Too bad they don't ship with two erasers that could be clapped together to clean them...
But let's not stop there – let's move on to the e-book, popularized these days with the iPad, Kindle, and other devices. While the iPad is much more than an e-book reader, it comes with very elegant software that lets you turn virtual pages by a finger stroke – just like a real book. Whoopee. I'm not saying that e-books are intrinsically bad ideas – they reduce weight, are searchable, can incorporate links, etc. - all good things. The contrast and readability has improved to the point where these devices are almost useful.
So what do students learn when they see these informational tools in their classrooms? They learn that the world of learning is largely unchanged, but has cooler tools being used to replicate outmoded technologies.
Here's a pop-quiz: Does your school have a student cell-phone policy? If so, does it have a student breathing policy? In other words, why do we impose “school” rules of technologies that are as transparent to students as air? Sure, we want students to use their tools with respect for others – and have the right to enforce this. But many teachers are afraid that kids will use smartphones to cheat on tests. Well, here's an idea. Maybe we shouldn't ask questions for which Google has the answer!
If we seriously want to address the issue of informational skills for our students, I think we should start by understanding what skills today's kids already have. We might be surprised.
You must be a registered user to add a comment here. If you've already registered, please log in. If you haven't registered yet, please register and log in.