Off-late many classrooms have embraced technology and its not uncommon to see projectors at the disposal of the teacher and laptops on the desks of every student but are these really helping? Yes, the teacher can now use rich media such as videos and presentations to communicate better with the students and yes, the students can use their laptops to access relevant information but can we do better? How is the information relevant to a class managed? Classrooms will soon change for good. Its a matter of necessity than novelty.
In the Age of Information, classrooms have to be better than places of instruction. Shouldn't classes from different schools be sharing and accessing relevant infomedia? A connected world demands a connected classroom to be relevant.
Information today is widely accessible on the internet and a teacher's role is better imagined as managing collaborative learning than delivering lessons and instructions.
Class 2.0 is the way to go.
In the Age of Information, classrooms have to be better than places of instruction. Shouldn't classes from different schools be sharing and accessing relevant infomedia? A connected world demands a connected classroom to be relevant.
Information today is widely accessible on the internet and a teacher's role is better imagined as managing collaborative learning than delivering lessons and instructions.
Class 2.0 is the way to go.
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Unfortunately in America this is not your average class room, We still seem to believe that educating our youth in a 1950's mind set is still the way to go.
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Of course technology has not penetrated every classrooms yet. Even in those classrooms where it is used extensively, it has become yet another tool to deliver information and instructions. What we need is a change is how classrooms function with a helping hand from modern technology.
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Agreed, but what model of education would be most useful? Kinetic, Auditory, etc.? I find that a lot of my fellow graduates from High School lack a development of critical thinking and analysis.
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If you are referring to Neil Fleming's VAK/VARK model of learning using lectures(auditory), multimedia (visual), etc., its still mostly instructional in nature except for the kinesthetic aspect where pupils learn by experimenting and experiencing the phenomenon being taught. Critical thinking and analysis cannot be learnt through instruction if you ask me; you develop them by learning through application and by applying what you learn seeking a better understanding all the while.
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Agreed but there seems to be a disconnect in education, at least in America, at the application part of the learning process.
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@Nicholas - Our education system evolved out of a need to provide skilled workers to our industries. In fact even in today's post-industrial world, education is perceived as a way to secure a job and not as a means to pursue something greater or better. When our needs change so will our system of education.
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@Praveen- What if our needs changed without our realizing? My own thoughts are that in our generations, we have seen the birth of new medical practices, new treatments, and longer life spans, so now the game is changed, no longer are here for a blink of an eye, but a blink and a half, so to speak. I find myself more concerned with learning for enrichment than for a job, and i find the education system is the opposite.
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@Nicholas - You are an exception that you want to learn more than what is expected of you and this behavior is not very common. However, the game has changed and we are now living in a post-industrial era, where trained personnel performing routine work are increasingly replaced by machines. Walking forward more and more jobs will require problem solving abilities but our education system only trains us for specific roles than help us evolve into problem solvers.
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Contd... Once this trend precipitates at a larger level our education system will change too. I believe future schools will be more about providing the stimulus to learn than focus on teaching and most learning will happen on the information highway. We don't need to listen to an uninteresting lecture by a unmotivated teacher when someone more passionate is provoking us to learn the subject of interest in an intriguing way online and all the information is already at our fingertips.
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@Praveen- All I know is that if you ever decide to become of teacher, I want to take whatever class you decide to teach! I truly fear that the current system of education had the opposite of the desired effect of inspiring one's curiosity to learn and grow as an individual.
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