A friend of mine from Fort Wayne whose partner is an educator sent me this video. The statistics shocked him — especially the bits on China — and made him consider how educators might need to evolve to satisfy the needs our new generation, specifically how to employ technology in the classroom.
I shot off a reply, and then immediately thought that I’d like to think about it more carefully, and draft a more balanced blog post, but then self-awareness kicked in to remind me that I probably wouldn’t get around to do it. So, for the sake of conversation, I’m just to share what I wrote him:
The video is convincing — the very nature of our world is changing and our schools need to pivot with it — but I’m far more conservative on education than you might expect. And those stats only made me feel more certain about my position. Kids’ attention spans are being devastated by competing forms of media in their everyday worlds, and in response I wish ‘schools’ were a retreat, a serene place to socialize in person, to be taught life’s priorities.
That said, it’s true, we need to include more technology in the classroom, but I believe kids are learning how to communicate digitally far more aggressively on their own than curriculum can be developed. It’s not only because some teachers are incompetent, but simply because the young have a greater incentive and bandwidth to adapt. It will always be this way. Don’t try to put teachers in a position where they need to be more informed on these matters — we should be thankful for parity — but instead recommit to professing maturity, socialization, analytics, philosophy — albeit through advanced media.
To put it more simply, I fear a new emphasize on technology for technology’s sake in the classroom will overshadow the actual pursuit of knowledge.
As for China — sure, their numbers are astounding, they have LOTS of people and many of them are so-called Honor Students (no idea how that is defined). But at what cost to their humanity? From my admittedly uncertain perspective, I view China as a massive cookie cutter machine — its schools are producing yet another kind of product. I fear using China as a benchmark and would prefer to look elsewhere for educational methods that are sustainable, and unlike China make room for individualism and creativity.
