What Should We Be Preparing Students For?
Having just returned from the fantastic Learning 2.0 Conference in Shanghai, I formed quite a clear thesis in my own mind about what we really need to be doing to move the use of effective ICT in learning forward. IMHO, we do not really need a whole lot more hype from the evangelists who tell us about fantastic interventions in tough schools, remote locations or hard to win over constituencies. Instead we need clear examples of what learners need to be prepared for working and making a worthwhile contribution to society in the flattening world of today.
Be careful! We don’t just need a charismatic speaker saying it. We need the facts, figures, case studies and examples of students who came out with huge SAT scores and no ICT savvy and ended up as a street-sweeper! Give us these examples and then school leadership can go to any teachers reluctant to embrace the need to use ICT for learning and show them why they need to reprioritise what they are saying is best for their kids.
This is starting to happen but far too slowly for my liking. eSchool News carried a good story this week that was on the money. It was entitled “Schools aren’t preparing kids for college ” you can read it here: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7363
I really want to Blog about the conference but it will have to wait till I have more time.
Filed under: Learning for a Flat World
