ILiveInFlipFlops Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 This ought to seriously free up our school days! http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/jun/15/schools-teaching-curriculum-education-google I'm having a near-visceral negative reaction to this concept, but I'm interested to hear others' thoughts. I did a quick search and didn't see this posted, so sorry if it's already being discussed here somewhere. Feel free to throw me a link if it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I think this is written by an extrovert who likes group projects and technology. It is important to get kids thinking and to teach them to think, but the author doesn't seem to value context for information. He is not a proponent of the "hooks to hang ideas on" ideology. I appreciate the argument to be forward thinking and willing to reconsider what we value as far as education is concerned, but I come to very different conclusions than the author does when I consider my education vs. the ideal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I think the article makes good points but is dismissive of traditional education. As with most things I fail to see why the systems have to be exclusive of one another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I think it's great to be able to look information up quickly on the internet, but if you don't have a wide body of knowledge in your own brain, then it's going to be very difficult to put the pieces together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 He's a wonderful guy, been following his work for a while now. The portion which a lot of his ideals here are based on are assuming the learners have a sense of historical development and a good grounding in the humanities, ethics and interpersonal communication. The internet cannot teach this in a questioning way without linear guidance. Those elements must be present for creative problem solving with sensitivity to culture and the application of the tools to solve or produce understanding. I agree with a lot of what he says, but skipping over the transference of the knowledge from systemic scales of history and people- it's really going to fall short of what it could be. On the subject of examinations; they can be useful and downright idiotic. That's not a topic kind to collaboration or original thought, nor sorting through the value of the material used to reach conclusions or answers. It's a brief article all in all, all nuances cannot be caught, but it is a dandy whiff of opinion from a really great thinker. Enjoyed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lara in Colo Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I think the article makes good points but is dismissive of traditional education. As with most things I fail to see why the systems have to be exclusive of one another. I agree!! I also think that knowing how to do the "old ways" is very good for society as a whole. Dependence on technology can only be good as long as we can sustain the technology. For instance: we all have seen the checker struggle to make change when the cash register isn't working. I already worry about everyday knowledge we have lost. Could I make my own bread? Sure as long as I have little yeast packages-- but after those are gone?? Could I make vinegar? Nope. My children learned how to "make" paper at co-op this year-- take paper and grind it up in a blender with water and pour on a screen. Ummm no-- that is recycling paper, not making it. All of this "old " stuff gets packed away because there is so much more new stuff st learn-- no time, but I worry.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Ugh. I stopped reading after actually knowing the multiplication table was called havi a romantic attachment to outdated skills from the past that is no longer relevant to today. Having a foundational base of the most simplistic of knowledge is not an outdated skill. What hogwash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I think the purpose of technology is to grow our minds and help us, not be such a crutch that our minds atrophy from lack of exercise. So sharing algorithms, discussing scientific theories, research... Technology is fabulous! Using it to the point that we make ourselves dumber, to the point we don't pick up a pen and write decently or can't do long multiplication and division? Yeah, not a fan of that plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 As usual, the answer is in the middle. In all things moderation ... And what-not. :) I am a huge fan of technology in education but I am also a huge fan of getting back to basics. Both are needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonFaerie Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Ugh. I stopped reading after actually knowing the multiplication table was called havi a romantic attachment to outdated skills from the past that is no longer relevant to today. Having a foundational base of the most simplistic of knowledge is not an outdated skill. What hogwash. Yeah, he lost me there, too. Getting out my calculator to do 4 x 5 because I never bothered to learn my multiplication tables doesn't seem like a very progressive (or efficient!) concept to me. Sure, I can use my phone. Or Google. Or I can just know the answer. I think I'll stick with the romantic attachments, thankyouverymuch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Re: calculator. Anyone still do logs by interpolating from a table? Or have you switched to the electronic device and let it do the looking up for you? Before Great Girl got to use a calculator, she first had to learn quick pencil-and-paper methods for crunching of large numbers (using a 1920's arithmetic curriculum), including finding roots. Then she got to learn logarithms through making her own slide rules out of paper and a ziploc bag (one of the most awesome TOPS Science units). THEN she got to use a calculator. (And I did show her the log tables I had to use in the not-everybody-can-afford-a-calculator days; she saw immediately how to use them. It was a good thing.) Turns out that when she went to college, it took her no time at all to understand how to use the technology, including how to do research using a search engine. Which turned out to be much easier when she already had a great deal of both general and specialized knowledge in her head, and a mental framework for organizing information acquired through laboring over dead-tree reference works and indexes. We're big fans of the Luddite approach to education. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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