You Can't Be My Teacher

The future of education demands that we prepare students for the world they live in by giving them the skills they will need to be prepared for jobs that don’t yet exist, technologies that can’t yet be imaged, and a life time of continuous learning. A daunting task when you consider that the world is evolving faster than curriculums can be rewritten, project plans can be implemented, and technology is obsolete before it can be bought and paid for…a fact highlighted by the year 2005 “20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have” article from The Journal which is full of skills which at worst are already obsolete (does anybody really back up to CD anymore?), and in many cases would be considered remedial at best.

To accomplish this we need to focus our teaching efforts on the critical thinking, problem solving and learning skills that will enable our students to adapt, collaborate, learn, and function in the borderless, bricks-and-mortarless, global learning communities they now exist in. At the same time, specific content, as per Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, will become customizable and more subject to specific learner control.

We must start teaching media literacy along with the ABC's in Jr. Kindergarten. Cultural studies will take on greater importance as we prepare our students to function in a world where it is equally commonplace to learn and interact with people ½ way around the world as it is to communicate face-to-face with those in your neighbourhood today. Although it is natural to consider the way in which we do things as correct and normal, as our social, technological, and learning communities become globalized, it will become more and more important that we understand other cultures and learn to open our minds to other perspectives on being.

School systems, as employers, will need to change as well. Despite being institutions of learning, schools far too often fail their teacher/employees and therefore ultimately their students by failing to become Learning Organizations themselves. Teachers cannot prepare their students to navigate the internet when web sites are blocked and technology training is more focused on button pushing then how to make effective use of technology. Future hiring decisions need to recognize technological literacy as a pre-requisite to employment.

The good news I believe is that if we can manage to keep pace with our students, kids are showing up better prepared than ever before. While in the past the cost of technology has been a major impediment, the cost of technology is plummeting and will continued to plummet…made possible by the near zero marginal costs of processing, storage and bandwidth (Chris Anderson (2009) FREE The Future of a Radical Price. New York: Hyperion.). Free and mostly free resources provide tremendous opportunities for educators and educational institutions. We are now witnessing the first generation of young adults who will never consider acquiring a traditional land (telephone) line. Their kids will be showing up at school with inexpensive smart phone technology that is as common and fundamental as a pencil is today, and will ensure connectivity whenever they want, wherever they are. Hard copy textbooks (if they exist at all) will contain imbedded augmented reality simulations (with the “readers” being provided free of charge)

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/mobile-phone-penetration-84-wireless-revenue-155b-by-years-end-1371/snl-kagan-cell-phone-penetration-usjpg/

My inspiration comes in the form of a pint sized hiring committee of one who asks “Do you think you are preparing me for the world I live in? Do you think I’m going to be ready? Because THAT’S your job!” (See Video Below)

 Computers don’t scare me at all, but quite frankly the kid in the “You Can’t Be My Teacher” video scares the hell out of me.