Chapter 6 Rethinking Education

Read Ch. 6 of Rethinking Education (pp. 91-104); post a reflection to your reflective learning blog:
-How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?
-What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

THE THREE ERAS OF EDUCATION
We are currently entering the lifelong learning era of education. During the apprenticeship era the parents were the main influence on the child’s future. Then during the industrial revolution we shifted to a system that made the state responsible for what a child learns and to help them choose a career path. The technological/lifelong learning era is beginning to shift that responsibility back to parents and individuals. Students are beginning to develop information research skills at an earlier age which is causing them to want to pursue topics that they are most interested in. Parents are taking some of the responsibility back too. The number of homeschooled students is rising. Many parents are providing more learning tools for their children at an earlier age.
Apprenticeship was based on a small ratio between teacher/mentor and student. 1:1-4 was a common ratio. Today it seems to be more like 1:25-30. Computers are starting to be able to offer 1:1 like interaction. Computers can provide immediate feedback to tell a student how they are doing and give suggestions o be able to more fully understand the material. Often there is a human teacher somewhere behind the distant learning machine. Computers are allowing teachers to give students quicker feedback too. It may be quicker, but is it as valuable as face to face feedback? I am not sure, and it is being disputed by many educators from each side. Also, there is speculation that computerized learning takes away from social interaction. In both apprenticeship and computerized learning there is close interaction between student and teacher. More interaction means fewer errors along the way. Specialized education plans with more interaction are better able to keep student in the “wobbly place”. This may be helping students to learn better.
Culture: From adult culture to peer culture to mixed age culture.
During the apprenticeship era there really was not a large group of children who considered themselves as being part of the “youth culture”. They were considered young adults that helped with the family business. Most times it was a serious task because the livelihood of their family depended on them learning the family trade. Into the Industrial Revolution, when students were grouped into age categories, is when the ‘youth culture” began to form. Once this group was formed, and especially now, marketers were able to focus on this identified group and offer products specifically for them. Students that did really value the knowledge school offered were easily distracted by these cool products. This peer influenced culture has really started to get out of control. Some parents have moved their children to home school based programs to avoid the non-academic peer influence. They are helping their children to learn skills that will help them adapt and learn in their quickly changing lives and jobs.
The key to lifelong learning is through interaction with many different media, people, and technology. The advanced knowledge of a student’s own metacognition and knowledge on how to find information will be more important than the information itself.
The apprenticeship times were driven by formative assessment that continually showed students what they knew, didn’t know, and where they needed to improve. They did not receive grades or exam scores for classes. The “classes” were life lessons and real world applications. The recent industrialization method of schooling has given teachers much more responsibility, over larger numbers of students, causing them to move to a summative assessment system that fits a standardized education system. Now we are transitioning to a system where students are becoming interested in learning what they want to learn and value the standardized system less. Educators need to find ways to incorporate the effective bits and pieces from each of these systems that will work together in this technological education system.