I had the great fortune to attend the Google Summit this week which focused on using technology to enhance student engagement and independence. It was a wonderful event, full of cool little tools and sites that really could engage a student, speeding up their learning and evening out the field for those students who may lack strength in a particular area.
One particular speaker gave me an “ah-ha” moment, one of those special moments where it seems that the blinds have been drawn on the window to the mind and clarity streams in. Jim Sills, a Google Instructor, stated that our children are living in “a world of wild and reckless creativity . . . without a safety net” and that drew me right in. I am a sucker for a good metaphor. The students in our care today are exposed to the vastness of the Internet and the wonders it holds . . . and the garbage. I mean, I love cats doing silly things as much as the next guy, but really, how much of that do we need?! That type of nonsense can really eat up the hours. The analogy that Jim made was that was quite apropos was comparing a child on the Internet to us older cronies getting our first bike. We were so proud, so excited and when we got on, the first thing we did was ride blindly onto the road, without a care. What a great comparison to an teenager surfing the net.
At their fingertips, this generation of children have the all the knowledge and collective wisdom of past generations but, like I stated earlier, they have the garbage too. This paradigm shift requires schools to be “retooled”. The model where the teacher is the content provider no longer holds any power does it? Standing at the front of a classroom lecturing seems a little silly given the fact that this information is available to students whenever they need it, wherever they are. Classroom teachers now need to become more concerned with instructing students how to access this information and how to know if it is reliable. But classrooms need to be more than simply that. We need to concern ourselves with teaching students to look critically at the information they are using and piecing it together in unique ways that have value. We need to them to access their creativity to solve problems that occur in their worlds, most of which do not even exist yet.
It’s a wonderful time to be alive. It certainly beats the alternative. Let’s embrace this new reality, allowing our students to run a little wild with their creativity. At the same time, let’s ensure that we are providing them with the safety net of thinking critically so they know what to take as real in this new cyber-reality and what is garbage.
Keep on learning,
Dave
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