Students, Information and Schools
A couple days ago Heidi Hass Gable shared this with me:
This is from her 10 year old daughter who said,
“Mom, I have mostly the same homework as yesterday, so I just circled it, wrote copy, then wrote paste on today’s page.”
Last week my 9 year old asked me a question. My answer was ‘I don’t know’ so she got up, walked over to the computer and asked Google.
Information is now easily copied, pasted, edited, added to, archived, and accessed. We can look at these two events above and think ‘how cute’, or we can think of them having a little deeper meaning.
Students today experience the fluidity and availability of information in a different way than we did. Unlike my parents, I’m not spending money on a Junior Encyclopedia for my kids. Their bookshelf is the same shelf you are reading this post on, and it is richer, multi-modal, more interactive, easier to access and freely available.
So how should this change what we do in education? How much focus should we place on rote memorization? Should we spend more time teaching kids how to find the information they want more efficiently? What do we want them to do with information?
What’s the purpose of school? How has this changed in the last 2-3 years? And how will this change in the next 5 years?
Tags: datruss, David Truss, Heidi Hass Gable, information, Karl Fisch, pairadimes, purpose, rote learning, School2.0, schools, students
Background
February 6th, 2009 at 8:43 am
This is a great example of where two information-handling paradigms meet. Thanks for sharing this, and thanks to Heidi.
February 6th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
That visual example is fantastic! At a TLITE workshop two years ago, one presenter (a teacher-librarian) offered this visualization – if you took all the books in the world and threw them in one big pile and then asked a student to dig through the pile to do some research on Van Gogh, that’s essentially how most students gather information using the internet.
I love her example and share it with my students during our information literacy lessons. I strongly believe that students need a great deal of teaching about how to gather, organize and evaluate information found online.
Once they have the information, I want them to be able to do something with it other than repeat it. Yes, sometimes students need to memorize certain facts, but I think it’s more important that they learn how to problem solve and how to be creative and how to open their minds to incorporate new information into their belief system too. In the next five years, I hope that more emphasis on teaching how to think becomes more important in our schools. Just a thought…
February 10th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I think the 21st century learner cannot be the regurgitator of information. We have to prepare students for a fast changing world and euip them for jobs that have not yet even been created …such is the fluidity of this tecnological, post modern world.
Education has to be about preparing students for this world …ALL…students..The standards agenda must co exist with the inclusion agenda so all students develop the skills of; communication, ability to work together, problem solve, thinking skills, the ability to reflect and then improve on own learning.
Technology has brought us a long way….but without the above skills all the googling and use of multi modal texts will not create the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK that can only be done by devloping multi intelligences of which digitalability is just one…..I never want to see a classroom with no books or pens and paper, because it is through this media I have seen the best and deepest thinking in my students.
February 11th, 2009 at 6:16 am
My wife thinks I’m smarter than she so she asks me question. I can’t tell you how many times I went to google for the answer. Now I just tell her to google it for herself.
Sometimes, it doesn’t help she has difficulty framing the correct question on google.
February 11th, 2009 at 8:36 am
A real eye-opener for me was the following clip from CBS 60 Minutes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml
What we consider “work” and what the future generations will call “work” is also changing rather quickly. Be prepared!
TW
February 11th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
You have opened a very interesting can of worms! I have had many parents who are very uncomfortable with their children not having to memorize facts and figures like they did when they were young. School as we know it will dramatically change over the next few years. We need to be open to these new ideas.
February 11th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I think that education is (finally) moving from passive learning to active, engaged learning. Computers and the internet have enabled students to begin learning how to learn.
February 11th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
copy and paste.. good idea!!:P
school… why do we go to school?? I ask myself that question everyday on my way to school
I just think that school is appropriate for people under 20. As simple it may sound, what better things would there be other than being educated? These days, self-teaching seems popular as well, but I do think that often, it’s necessary to adapt the knowledge from people with experience, like teachers.
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
What that child did: copy and paste, shows how this child has made a connection with computer skills and her written skills. She knows that on a computer you can save time when you copy and paste. She feels why waste time and rewriting it again.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:11 am
First of all, this visual is hysterical and definitely a sign of the times. One point you address that I have always found important as a teacher and as a parent is that at times it is more important to know how to find the answer than it is to know the answer. I do believe, however, there are certain aspects of education that need to become part of a student’s life journey. And memorization isn’t the answer to mastering the concept or skill but practice & repetition are.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
[...] of what will ultimately become a group discussion. How fantastic! For example, David Truss blogs about the concept that rote memorization should be replaced by teaching students how to [...]
May 27th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
[...] 1st blog that I read, it was another creative way to get students to learn. The third blog was by David Truss. This article shows us how the views of children in regards to technology and writing have [...]
May 28th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
We can bash rote memorization all day, but when it comes to fluidity in language usage (I teach Spanish and ILA), there is no other way that I have found that is as successful. Language is a skill students need to have on hand; there is not opportunity to “google” in spoken language.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
[...] think about why I teach the way that I do particularly regarding rote memorization. Here is a link: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/students-information-schools/ no comments yet.« Thing 3 – Post 2 Create a free edublog to get your own comment [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 5:54 am
[...] leave a comment for any except one: David Truss’s, “Students, Information and Schools (http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/students-information-schools/).” I literally laughed out loud at the graphic. Then, I thought about not only how [...]
May 31st, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[...] post Students, Information and Schools talked about how easily today’s information is copied, pasted, and accessed. It posed some [...]
June 1st, 2009 at 3:16 pm
[...] Students, Information and Schools had me laughing. The only difference between now and then is that students have the technology where they really do not have to copy the information by hand. Why not simply write copy and paste?! There is times I wish I could do that Of course, I would cite my information correctly. Students do have all this access at their hands and they need to be shown how to use accurately and how to get them to think and produce on their own. Uncategorized | Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!) [...]
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
[...] Don’t Assign Homework, Is this SSR2.0?, The Myth of the Digital Native, and Spies Like Us was Students, Information, and Schools with its linked blog called What’s the Purpose of School? The first blog by David Truss [...]
June 4th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
For the first time this year my ten-year-old daughter has become interested in the Internet, I think her friends have e-mail accounts. So, she has been spending time visiting sites such a bellasara and Disney. She plays games for the most part. Yet she said something one day that has provided to be true, “In order to use the Internet you have to be able to read.” Thus, student that live in the virtual world have to be active learners, which makes them have ownership of their own education.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
[...] articles that were mentioned in the posts. For example while reading Pair-a-Dimes (David Truss): Students, Information and Schools I opened a post about rote memorization This made the blogg reading interesting but very time [...]
January 23rd, 2010 at 6:56 pm
First of all I believe this young lady is efficient and I am impressed with the connection she made. I do believe that this can of worms needs to be addressed if as educators we are going to remain effective and progressive and truly prepare what students will be facing in the future. There are mny books out now detailing what skills they will need, one in particular that I found as an easy professional reading but very powerful was Daniel Pink’s book titled A Whole New Mind. Check it out, you’ll enjoy it if this topic is one of interest to you.
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:08 pm
[...] in David Truss‘ post Students, Information and Schools an image exemplifying his point that students today have a different approach to their education and problem solving based upon the technology vocabulary and tools they utilize. I could completely relate to his points; it sounded like a conversation I would have with my son. [...]
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:14 pm
[...] And the availability of forums to question, discuss and develop best practices for the classroom are boundless, too. I have been pondering the value of homework for quite some time and there was that very conversation by hundreds of people in a blog. What is the place of rote learning in the classroom? There was a blog for that. How about fostering creativity within those cinderblock walls? There was a blog for that, too. [...]
February 26th, 2010 at 9:59 am
[...] “Students today experience the fluidity and availability of information in a different way than we did. … What’s the purpose of school? How has this changed in the last 2-3 years? And how will this change in the next 5 years?” http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/students-information-schools/ [...]
April 14th, 2010 at 2:28 am
I hear so many people say that kids in school have it a lot harder than us adults did back in the dinosaur age. That’s a bunch of crap!! Kids may have more work now a days, but they sure have access to information that they can get in a matter of seconds. I’m 36 years of age, and correct me if I am wrong, but when I was in school, and I could not solve a problems, or find information on a particular subject, I could not run to Google, Bing, or yahoo. In the mid 80′s I remember having access to a library and using the card catalog. Students had to dig for information which required using logical thinking, and some common sense-(something missing in our schools today). Today’s technology is not all bad, but to be honest, it has created a lazy generation of students (some, not all). I’m not sure anymore on how to solve this problem. Sorry, but we didn’t have all these problems until technology decided to go into overdrive.
April 14th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Greetings Adar,
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
I had a rather long response I was crafting in my head this morning, but I decided to share a video instead. Does that make me part of a lazy generation? I’d say… YES! You see, I’m just a little older than you and I grew up racing home from school to watch 2.5 hours of sitcoms: The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, Hogan’s Heroes, Get Smart, and (hate to admit this but) another episode of The Brady Bunch. If the episode was a repeat I watched it anyway. Two days ago my daughter decided to make a glog (an online poster) about our family… on her own accord. She chose to create something rather than sit passively in front of the television.
Furthermore, the people who come from our generation, the Google Guys & Wikipedia Guys etc., are the ones who really put technology into overdrive… and now that we have this as a foundation, I for one am excited about the possibilities of the next generation!
“Technology” comes with problems, but so did the Industrial Revolution, motorized vehicles & airplanes… how both we and the next generation choose to harness our current technologies is very exciting to me!
~Dave.
April 14th, 2010 at 9:53 am
David,
Yes, I second the “nice” and real example.
I really think we have to find a middle ground. I know that we have to teach students (I prefer rather than teach – guide) how to sort, find, retrieve and assess information. This is true but also, even given the vast amounts of information available – I assert it is nothing different than what Thomas Priestley or Da Vinci had to go through. Critical thinking and a questioning attitude of all assertion(s) is the foundation of the enlightenment and our own present civilization (both politically and intellectually). Information can flow but it also has to be sorted or the rivers get choked with pollution!
Education is always primarily about “discrimination”. We shouldn’t teach children what is important but lead them towards that light – so they see it themselves.
But it is a fine line this battlefront between form/function product/process nature / nurture knowledge and knowing.
Still, I’m a liberal educator / essentialist and believe there are some things that are important to know. The pendulum in education has swung a little too far towards “process”. Google doesn’t have all the answers – a good teacher does. We need teachers who know the important things, have those fundamentals a fixed to their heart. Content is still king and that’s becoming more apparent as the storm of UGC, (user generated content) becomes less and less “new”.
I don’t think we have to go quite so far or be so ecstatic as Raul Midon in his “All the Answers” video! http://vimeo.com/1801396
PS. I was once a confirmed sitcomaholic too!
April 16th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
As a teacher, I find that students need help finding information online that is reliable and easy to understand. There is so much available, that screening it all becomes overwhelming, even when they use something like Ebscohost. The next challenge is teaching them what to do with the info. It also seems that many students have become too dependent on technology, and don’t know what to do without Google or teacher websites as a resource. In that sense I agree with Adar that we now have a generation of lazy students who expect instant results with little effort on their part.
But as a parent, I watch my son go online to find information about anything he is interested in–from guitar tabs to making things out of duct tape. When the topic is his choice, the “research” comes easy.
I don’t think the purpose of school has changed. Nor do I think students learn differently now then they used to. What has changed is the opportunity teachers have to meet the needs of more students by using old-school teaching methods mixed with new technology.
April 17th, 2010 at 2:12 am
Hi Dave,
You have some valid points here. Being a teacher has been a wonderful experience, but I still feel like technology is becoming more of a distraction to this generation. It’s really difficult holding a student’s attention these days unless your’re performing majic tricks while standing on one leg. I will say it’s vital for parents and teachers to make sure that their kids and students are getting a good balance, and not too much of one thing. If that makes sense.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:06 am
This will be the subject of a future post for me, but I’ll put my two dimes worth in here:-)
When I look at what Raina says here: ‘In that sense I agree with Adar that we now have a generation of lazy students who expect instant results with little effort on their part.’
And then what Adar says here: ‘…but I still feel like technology is becoming more of a distraction to this generation. It’s really difficult holding a student’s attention these days…’
I have to both agree and disagree. Is technology a big distraction that makes kids expect instant results without critical attention paid to the validity of that information? YES, absolutely!
So where do I disagree? I think the key to that was brought up by David (Comment 27): ‘Education is always primarily about “discrimination”. We shouldn’t teach children what is important but lead them towards that light – so they see it themselves.
I have a hard time seeing technology today as ‘creating more lazy students’ because I don’t see many students today that are more lazy than I was. I was a disengaged, often bored, student. Does technology create a distraction… YES, a huge distraction that can be hard to compete with.
So what do we do?
We don’t let kids misuse pens (writing notes to each other) and paper (making paper airplaines) in class http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/miss-management/
… We place high expectations on their proper use! Keeping technology out of class won’t work nearly as well as placing high expectations of their use in class. Listen to Sonya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kowGRhWAJeM
We can’t ‘compete’ but it is even harder to ignore. It’s a classroom management issue and it’s hard to deal with because it is new. We’ll lose the battle if we spend our time trying to compete with the entertaining world technology has to offer, but we will engage students if we learn to meaningfully integrate technology use when appropriate and then put it away, like we do for pens and paper, when it doesn’t add value… using our skills as a teacher to make sure that when students use any ‘tool’ in our class, that they are being used effectively and affectively.
Thanks again for your thoughtful comments!
~Dave.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Dave you said, “We can’t ‘compete’ but it is even harder to ignore. It’s a classroom management issue and it’s hard to deal with because it is new. We’ll lose the battle if we spend our time trying to compete with the entertaining world technology has to offer, but we will engage students if we learn to meaningfully integrate technology use when appropriate and then put it away, like we do for pens and paper, when it doesn’t add value… using our skills as a teacher to make sure that when students use any ‘tool’ in our class, that they are being used effectively and affectively.”
You pretty much hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph….I cannot argue with you here.
June 7th, 2010 at 9:57 am
[...] David Truss is a little too philosophical for me. I like to dream but I am also a realist when it comes to education. I have been exposed to the education process for years and I have found that philosophy is on a continuous pendulum swinging back and forth. Today every one says do this, next year they will say do it differently. I say do what works, and that may be different for everyone [...]
June 8th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
[...] I’m not sure if I quiet got the information the author intended, but I loved his use of embedded links. I just watched an old-time video clip from “Ma & Pa Kettle”, I think, on teaching multiplication skills. Rote memorization is needed! It is easy to see how math can so easily confuse [...]
June 15th, 2010 at 2:36 am
[...] to lend themselves to more creative discussion and comment. For instance, I liked the blogs by David Truss and Will Richardson. They are brief yet provocative. They are brief yet provocative. They give you something to think about! [...]
June 24th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
[...] was very interested in David Truss’ thoughts on information availability for students today. I have a new son-in-law who is a computer guru. Ask any question and he has the answer in a moment. I want to be able to do that, too! [...]
July 7th, 2010 at 10:40 am
[...] Ted Wilson’s comment (#5) on this blog was quite interesting. He refers to a 60 Minutes interview on the younger people in today’s workplace at the URL below… What I took from the interview is that students today and young people in general, have a different mindset about the workforce than middle-aged and older workers. They are a me first generation. Work must be done around their schedule [...]
July 15th, 2010 at 2:27 am
The advancement of technology has really shaped the way our students learn today. With the use of computers and the internet, students today have an advantage in inquiring information for educational purposes. Students are exposed to a plethora of resources for learning at such at an early age. It is evident that this student is very computer savvy, and only used what she knew to complete her assignment.