Conversations With My Mom

Recently I was talking to my mom about the state of education today. Her carreer experience probably echoes the experience of many of the creative people working today. What we need to realize is that in the near future our students of today may have the same kind of experience only condensed into a fraction of the years it takes now.

My mother began her career in Technical Illustrating (it used to be called drafting and was taught as a vocational class in many high schools) in the early 80s. She worked at a drafting table, and huge sheets of paper with specialized pens and pencils (for those of you who do not know drafters or technical illustrators draw technically correct drawings of many different kinds of machines). She would sit at that desk all day drawing HUGE paper manufacturing machines from detailed photographs. Within about 5 years of beginning her job computer aided drafting began to be important to the drafting industry. This was at a time before windows when you could program your computer to do just about anything. Drafting computers though were considerably advanced and only found in large corporations. As computer technology became more and more advanced home computers began to have the capability to run graphic manipulation programs and drawing programs. My mother began the race.

From that time on she was always learning a new program in her spare time. She was constantly tutoring herself in, not only drafting programs but also in basic computer programming skills. Today she works for a small firm that makes technical manuals for custom designed planes. She must on a daily basis use her drafting and writing skills learned over a lifetime in an increasingly digital environment. She has learned 2 new drafting programs in the last year alone. The skills she must use on a daily basis include customer service, hunting down small finite drawings in huge databases, evaluation skills, creative skills and communication skills. She does all of these things just to stay current in her field.

In the future I believe students will be required to learn new skills like this, not on a yearly basis, but on a monthly, perhaps weekly basis. In such an environment is the ability to memorize and regurgitate information really that important, or should we be teaching our students, not how to memorize, but to prioritize, create, manipulate, and evaluate information. More and more I believe that what we do in our classrooms is a disservice to our young minds. We are sending them out into the world mentally naked, with only the skills they learned while playing games to protect them.

What do you think?

Education for the Internet Generation

In a world where we are increasingly integrated with web 2.0 in and throughout our lives, education based in that internet becomes more and more important. Lets face it. Whatever puny amounts of information a student might memorize out of a text book will always be available to him at the click of a button in the world he or she will graduate into. The skills our students will need are not memorization and regurgitation. They will need to be able to analyze what a good source of information is. They will need to be able to not just pass a test about content, but to create new content based on what they know. They will need to have skills not just with Powerpoint, Word, and Excell. They will need to know how to assimilate new programs easily, navigate, and create in a digital environment. They will need to know how to balance their digital lives and memberships with their real (in person) lives. Are we readying them for the world in which they will live?

Until recently I would have said that the school system that I pride myself on being a part of was doing its job....ok. I would have said that the above photo illustrated experiential learning and that it was an example of good teaching at work. Now I would say no. This is an example of common teaching methods right now, but not of what needs to be happening. If you have not already you should watch the movie Shift Happens on YouTube.com. It discusses the shifts happening in the world today and possibly in the future.

What do you think? Do we need to change the way we teach? If we do how do you think that change should look? Are the ideas expressed here extreme or are they needed?