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/ [...]