The Revolution Will Not Televised…
While there are numerous texts cataloging the conceptual advantages of using computers in support of educational aims, I am still struggling with why adoption has been relatively slow.
I can tell you why it has been slow–the entrenched won’t move until they see their front line has been breached and that further dithering with the Hindenberg’s tea trays is quite futile. I also responded further to Sessums’ thought provoking post:
“Sebelius and Anderson call for a change in the way educators and citizens think about the education system…”
Yes, (my response)
but what are they really calling for? My guess is they want some
educational savior who will redeem the past by taking on its sins.
“Reformers” are all alike in that they assume that they are the only
game in town when alternative systems are already seeping into the
interstices of systemic failure. And I am not talking about Microsoft
High or any other such corporate takeover of the status quo. Learning
is being brokered on levels formal and informal outside of school on an
everincreasingly relevant and credentialled way. In fact I think this
education is more liberal than the one I got in four years simply
because it fosters an attitude of tolerance and flexibility toward what
learning really is. If you have read any of Taleb’s new book The Black
Swan I feel what Will likes to call ” a shift” in education. We are
like the elephants who just before the tsunami ‘hear’ the infrasound of
the approaching wave and head for the hills.For tools to
revolutionize they must be used in revolutionary ways. In other words
if you are thinking about new tech tools you absolutely must stop
thinking about how to integrate them into the classroom. The tools
have turned the classroom to rubble so that now you must build anew,
not clean the mortar off the block and build another schoolhouse.
Unless, of course, you just want to run out the clock to your
retirement. I do think that there are ways to work within the system,
but it is obvious to me that most of us will be Moses seeing not even a
foggy glimpse of the Promised Land.
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tellio :: Jul.18.2007 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »