In his book “Why School” Will Richardson presents two different types of reform for education. I tend to stand with the what might be called the integration of technology approach. Technology is a wonderful way to present and create content that is more accessible and efficient for today’s students. Want to have students collaborate on a group paper? Google Documents is great for that. Want to use class data for student’s lab reports? Google sheets has the potential to make writing data on the whiteboard obsolete. This is all assuming that schools have easily available access to technology. This access has certainly come leaps and bounds over the past few years and will continue to do so.
I believe that this expansion in technology integration will complement the teaching of an education professional in the classroom, not replace it. While we cannot predict the shape the future will take, we can say for certain it will be very different from today. To this end Richardson has many incredibly relevant points in his “new school” view of the future of education. Technology is striving for even deeper integration into everyday life. The abundance of information and resources that Richardson discusses has expanded access and options for all those with internet access. Despite this, I think that an evolved form of education can prepare students for their future. At the very least, students need guidance in wading through, understanding and analyzing the abundance of information that has been gifted to them. Beyond this the future of education will continue to evolve along side technology.
In the later part of his book Richardson describes six different learning/unlearning ideas for educators. There are several that are easy for me to get behind, others would be much more difficult for me. As a person that tends to be more private, his ideas “share everything” and “talk to strangers” could be more difficult for me to implement. While I have been going through the process of expanding my knowledge about education I have come to realize the essential importance that sharing of ideas and resources is to forward thinking educators. I will strive to increase my comfort with these ideas. There are others of his ideas I will more naturally connect with, in particular “be a master learner” and “discover, don’t deliver, the curriculum”. I like to think of myself as someone who is naturally curious about pretty much everything. Life long learning is something that all educational professionals should strive for, we are after all in the profession of teaching others. I am working towards becoming an effective educational professional and hope that learning along side my students will become a staple of my life.
Richardson, W. (2012). Why school? How education must change when learning and information are everywhere. New York, NY: TED Conferences.
I believe that this expansion in technology integration will complement the teaching of an education professional in the classroom, not replace it. While we cannot predict the shape the future will take, we can say for certain it will be very different from today. To this end Richardson has many incredibly relevant points in his “new school” view of the future of education. Technology is striving for even deeper integration into everyday life. The abundance of information and resources that Richardson discusses has expanded access and options for all those with internet access. Despite this, I think that an evolved form of education can prepare students for their future. At the very least, students need guidance in wading through, understanding and analyzing the abundance of information that has been gifted to them. Beyond this the future of education will continue to evolve along side technology.
In the later part of his book Richardson describes six different learning/unlearning ideas for educators. There are several that are easy for me to get behind, others would be much more difficult for me. As a person that tends to be more private, his ideas “share everything” and “talk to strangers” could be more difficult for me to implement. While I have been going through the process of expanding my knowledge about education I have come to realize the essential importance that sharing of ideas and resources is to forward thinking educators. I will strive to increase my comfort with these ideas. There are others of his ideas I will more naturally connect with, in particular “be a master learner” and “discover, don’t deliver, the curriculum”. I like to think of myself as someone who is naturally curious about pretty much everything. Life long learning is something that all educational professionals should strive for, we are after all in the profession of teaching others. I am working towards becoming an effective educational professional and hope that learning along side my students will become a staple of my life.
Richardson, W. (2012). Why school? How education must change when learning and information are everywhere. New York, NY: TED Conferences.
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