pdZone

I was browsing through the Innovation in Canada web site (thanks Clarence!), and I got to thinking about our place in the grand scheme of things.
Key quote:

Today’s children and youth will spend their entire careers working in a knowledge-based economy. They need a solid learning foundation upon which they can realize their aspirations, develop skills in adulthood, and fully participate in Canada’s economy and society.

It is so easy to sit back and try things that were successful five or ten years ago and say, “Well, it worked then. It should work now. It’s the kids who have changed.” Yes, the kids have changed.

Can we expect that we can magically transform them into the students of 1995 or 1985? (Psst! The answer is “No”)

Should we expect them to change into our ideal of how it was in the good old days? Someone once told me that she had been teaching for more than 30 years and that when she started, the older teachers would often talk about “the good old days”. She said that she walks into the staff room now and still hears veteran teachers talking about the good old days. She told us that their good old days were the previous generation’s horrifying new “now”. The only thing true about the good old days is that they are old.

When I think about the leaps in technological innovation that we are experiencing today, I can’t help but think what it must have been like when the ballpoint pen was first introduced into schools. Did educators, accustomed to the slow pace of students writing with a quill and inkwell, complain that schools were going to hell in a handbasket? Were they concerned that the calligraphic style associated with this writing instrument would be lost with the distraction and unappealing product of this new gadget. Children would not be able to do things in the same way that they were done in the previous generation. “An inkwell was good enough for me, and it should be good enough for you! Can’t things just stay the way they were?”

Innovation itself can be intimidating. The pace at which innovation is occurring today can be overwhelming. We must be forward thinkers. I can’t remember where I read it, but I recently read that we should not be teaching students content. We should be teaching them to learn. One of the most important things we can do for our students – and our own children – is to help them to do just that.

IF CANADA IS TO MEET THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHALLENGES OF THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY, IT IS CRITICAL THAT ALL OUR CHILDREN AND YOUTH HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO FULFIL THEIR LEARNING POTENTIAL.

It all seems so obvious!

Update: Will’s post on the flattening of the world makes me continue to ponder what I have written above. Looking at how quickly the “developing world” has developed, it makes me wonder if western society isn’t headed down the quagga trail (sorry Alan – I had to use it!).

Remember these novel studies?

As a Math teacher, I look at this and think it would be a great way to look at the types of questions asked in surveys and the meaning behind the results.

You scored as The Amazing Spider-Man. After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter Parker was transformed from a nerdy high school student into New York’s greatest hero. Peter enjoys the thrill of being a super hero, but he struggles with the burdens of leading a double life. He hopes someday to win the heart of his true love Mary Jane, the woman he’s loved since before he even liked girls. Right now, he just wants to make it through college and pay his bills. Neo, the "One" 71% The Amazing Spider-Man 71% The Terminator 67% Batman, the Dark Knight 63% Lara Croft 63% Maximus 54% Indiana Jones 46% William Wallace 42% Captain Jack Sparrow 42% James Bond, Agent 007 42% El Zorro 21%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

I love it when this kind of thing happens!

I am at a workshop today and tomorrow. We are talking about what it means to be literate in the 21^st century and how to teach students to be literate in the here and now, and in the future.

I came back to my hotel room and began to catch up on some reading. I had a look at John Pederson’s blog. In particular, I read his post Getting Disruptive, Part 3. It dealt exactly with what I was discussing today with some colleagues. We even watched the cat herding video that (I think) he mentions in this post.

I love it when the pieces of the Universe come together!

Okay, I avoided the Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You? quiz for a while, but I finally broke down. It was kind of cool to have my personality defined as being most like Jean-Luc Picard. I do like the leadership model of leading by example rather than the top-down model.

It gives me pause to think. I have been giving serious thought to entering administration, but have been starting to have reservations. I really think that I can do more good system-wide in my present role than I could as an administrator in a single school.

The following quote about Picard (from Mario Guatteri’s TNG fan site) really made me go hmmmm…

Picard was offered a promotion to the admiralty in 2364 when Admiral Gregory Quinn was attempting to consolidate his power base to combat an unknown alien intelligence that was trying to take over Starfleet Command. Picard declined the offer, citing his belief that he could better serve the Federation as a starship commander.

I am no Picard, either in terms of personality or accomplishments. However, I would like to think that I share some of the philosophical ideals that I have seen in this character over the past – eep! – almost 20 years.

Twenty years! I wondered why my whiskers were starting to look more… distinguished.

What makes someone or something an authoritative source of information? Is it a function of possessing a vast store of information? Perhaps it has related to the number of sources cited. Maybe it has to do with the tradition associated with the name of particular “authorities”.

Whatever the case, it is difficult to argue with the validity of many of the resources available on the Internet. When I look at the Wikijunior book of the solar system, I am impressed by the breadth and depth of the articles found there. No, it is not Britannica, but it is also much more up-to-date than the Britannicas from 1978 that were sitting on the shelf in my classroom (I finally parted with them in June).

Having recently gone through the process of converting an old online project of mine into a wiki document, I can see the value in collaborative authoring of a text. No, it will not always be successful. However, I do hope that I can get some input from other teachers in my school/board to help update and improve the existing document. Will it be as impressive as any of the WikiBooks/Wikipedia sites? Hardly, but I hope that it can be a useful learning experience for myself and others in my organization.