I’ve been in New York a lot lately, and tonight I spent 90 minutes speaking to parents, educators and community members from the beautiful Lake Chautauqua region of Western New York. As usual, the 45-minute conversation was more interesting than the 45-minute presentation, and I wanted to put this up there in case those in attendance wanted to add their thoughts.
If there was one take away I had from the discussion it’s that this is an incredibly challenging moment for all of us. The ways in which we have been used to learning about the world are becoming less and less effective in terms of making sense of things these days. We need new skills and literacies that our kids and our students are exploring, but we’re not giving them a lot of landmarks to follow to learn those literacies effectively. And the lens that we bring to these shifts is very difficult to change.
Someone in the audience said that he wished there was an inoculation that we could get that would instantly make sense of things. I said that if it at least allowed us to consider a different model that would be good enough.
But conversations are what this is all about…and this was a challenging one. I hope it continues.
technorati tags:learning, education, the_shifts, weblogg-ed
Will, I just wanted to say thank you for opening my eyes to the possibilites of the use of blogs in the classroom. After your presentation, four of us got lost in conversation about what to do next with own classrooms.
It seemed to me as you were speaking that technology hasn’t really changed much of what we do as teachers – teaching to think critically, analyzation and evaluation should always be at the core of education. The quantum leap is how much more data the learner now has to do this for. What would have previously taken days to research for a few bits of useful data now produces more than anyone can handle in seconds. As teachers, we need to teach kids to quickly identify the good from the bad, and the underlying bias in all things.
After your presentation, you asked to see what we were workng on. Check out our U.S. history review podcasts. Our entire 7th and 8th grade curriculum is broken down into about 15 separate 5 minute clips. Please do not tell the taxpayers that their children spend two years learning one hour and fifteen minutes worth of material. Click on the images beside the Quicktime for a script to read as you listen. http://www.jamestownpublicschools.org/podcasts/99jkresge/Kresge'sPersellKast/Kresge%27sKast/Kresge%27sKast.html
Will,
Some questions popped into my head after this evenings presentation. (By the way, nice job.) When you began blogging in your classroom, did you ever experience the comments getting away from you? For example,were there ever too many comments to keep up with as a teacher? How did you harness your blog to contain the amount of comments yet still foster a strong community? Secondly, when you added the blog to your classes, did you conscously replace a piece of your class with the blog, i.e. no more paper homework?
A comment for Jeff Kresge. I would love to see/hear your podcasts, but the url does not work.
Please advise–
I thought that the presentation last night was very interesting and I was glad that I was able to attend. It reinforced to me that it is so important to provide our students and our children with the ability to think and to think critically. Just because something is new and different does not mean that we should fear it. We trust our kids to drive cars and use knives, but we teach them how to do it properly. The same has to be true of what the Internet has to offer. The only concern I have about all the socializing that young people do through impersonal media is that they will not be fully able to socialize in face-to-face communication. It would seem that this is something that we will also need to be teaching more of in the classroom.
Awsome presentation it was very enlightening. I really can’t thank you enough for opening my eyes to some of thge educational possiblities available to our young people.
Here is the full link from Jeff.
There was an “Ah ha” moment last night during your presentation. Years ago I had read “The Celestine Prophesy” by James Redfield. His second book presented “The Tenth Insight” suggesting that there would be a cultural revolution and it would involve the exchange of ideas. We are here!
Will,
I too, like many that have already sent a blog, thought that the information that you presented was very interesting. Unfortunately, as an educator many times decisions have been taken out of our and the students hands. I agree with you about teaching our students how to analyze information regarding the internet. Yet, as you saw last night when trying to access certain sites this has been taken out of our hands. We are behind the eight ball when it comes to keeping up with the younger generation in technological advances. We teach students the rights and wrongs in many areas, such as smoking and sex education, but come up short in educating the student about the things you talked about last night.
Hmm – neither Will or I can seem to link to my podcasts here. Try searching in iTunes under podcasts for “kresge Kast.” You’ll see my dog as the picture. Let me know what you think. 99jkresge@jamestown.wnyric.org.