The kids are alright

25-April-2006

[ Media literacy , ICT and learning ]
Whilst schools fail to provide learners the skills and knowledge they need today, they are themselves learning those skills informally.

elearnspace: Requiring Online Learning:

I track George Sieman's elearnspace blog and usually agree with George. But this time I think he gets it wrong. I completely agree when he says our schools are outdated and we are not teaching tech skills kids need today.

But learners are getting those skills - they are teaching themselves. They are learning informally. The big problem is that schools are becoming irrelevant to for learners.

Its change or die, I fear. I used to talk about a coming paradigm shift. I now am increasingly fearful for the future of the public education systems. Or am I just being paranoid?

Anyway this is what George says:

"Our learners don't have the skills they need to learn today. We've taught learners how to learn in a classroom, how to memorize, how to take true/false, mutliple choice test, etc. Essentially, we've given our learners the skills they need to navigate our education system today. But things are changing, and unfortunately, it appears that our educational institutions are slow in responding (Dave Warlick has recently done some good thinking on this subject with his notion of "flat classrooms"). Our students are graduating with skills that would have served them well 20 years ago. Today, a learner needs a skill set that reflects the environment in which they will be working."

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Graham Attwell; 25-April-2006 08:35:25;