This week was interesting in that there was significant overlap in theme between the two classes I'm taking: students are not learning what they need to know, understand and be able to do in the modern world from traditional education.
Many things swirl around my brain about this:
I think the shift in emphasis from what are schools teaching to what are students learning is encouraging. It's a subtle shift, right? You would think that what the schools are teaching IS what the kids are learning, but this is not the case. I've seen posts show up on the discussion board related to this. Kids need to be taught critical thinking. Well, I think most (if not most, many) teachers are teaching critical thinking. But the kids aren't learning it... at least in such a way that they can apply it effectively in any domain outside of the specific context in which they learned it.
I think schools do need to change. Talk about conservative institutions!!! Yikes. The times, they are a-changin' too quickly and education soldiers on as it always has. Sure there are changes, but they are definitely not proportional to the changes occuring in society and the world.
Is online education the new paradigm? The solution? The silver bullet? Probably not, but maybe it's part of a new paradigm or has facets that are essential to the new paradigm. The thing about paradigm shifts is they are hard!!! It is difficult to conceptualize a new paradigm when you are immersed in the existing one.
In conclusion, I'm excited to be an educator right now. In 20 years, things will look different, I believe. It's fun to be part of the evolution, or revolution.
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