While most of my previous blogs may have seamed like rants that schools need be ‘modern’ and to try and keep up with the times and I just found a video on teacher-tube that looks at the same issue. Shift-happens totally blew me away, it really makes you think about why we need to teach problem solving and creativity not just content, skills and simple processes. Some of the ideas proposed are amazing, consider the implications of teaching students for jobs that don’t yet exist. Think about the importance of the web and social networking sites if that many million children are already using my space and billions of Google enquiries are made every year. This is just enormous evidence of the changes that are already happening. The video claimed a weeks worth of the times newspaper contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century, it makes being a future teacher sound both daunting and very exciting. With that much information out there it becomes more important to know how to find it, use it and how to share it. More than anything this should get you thinking…..
It probably isn’t news to any educator that students are using the internet more than books today to do their research and for help with their homework. However this form of literacy requires new skills. “You have to teach how to identify source bias, and balance that with other sources – teach how information fits in a larger construct,” says Jacqueline Hess of the Academy for Educational Development in Washington. Teaching children to have a critical eye and helping them to understand what is content and what is advertising are very important lessons. Teaching children to identify bias and be critical readers will help them in all mediums. It is also important to teach children that the internet does not replace books and help students understand the merits of both. A recent study of sources used in 500 random selected student’s assignments found a measly 27% were considered reliable sources of information. The internet puts a wealth of information at students’ fingertips, the trick for teachers is navigating their students through this sea of information that their students are probably more comfortable with than them. There are also many skills that the teacher must learn for themselves, including recognising and dealing with plagiarism. Source: Colhoun, A. (2000, April 25). But I found it on the Internet. Retrieved April 18, 2008, from The Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0425/p16s1.html