Thoughts on Web 2.0 in the 21st Century – Thing #2 & #4
I am struck by the variety of blogs offered for the viewing. Anne Davis provides a wonderful list of why we as educators need to be mindful of the power of the new literacies appropriate to our time. It occurs to me that when I was a child the thought of people walking around with computers on their wristwatches was the stuff that made Dick Tracy famous in the comic strips. Today, people are surrounded with miniature computers that connect them to information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. (I am sure people still read the comic strips, but after my paradigm shift of the day, I worry that that media is not long for our world.) I also read about a teacher who encourages his third graders to do their SSR on the Web. Yesterday’s paradigm shift (Thing #2) taught me that today’s student spends many, many hours of “screen” time compared to very few hours of “book” time. It certainly makes me think about my first graders and preparing them to be literate in the future. By far, my favorite blog visit was to Sir Ken Robinson’s site “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” ( I hope you will indulge me and view his video.) He is a humorous, master story-teller who makes several thought provoking points about the general aim of education. Are we “educating people out of their creativity” as he says? Food for thought!
September 30th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Well, I did indulge you and listened to Sir Ken Robinson’s talk. Amazing, wasn’t it? I would love to have him come to our school and help us continue to encourage those creative kids we know we have. I think a lot of what he says is true. It reminds me of that book we talked about last year, “Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future”. I wonder sometimes, when I give a quiz or force children to stay focused on the task I want them to do, if I am one of those people responsible for killing the creativity they came into the world with. I hope some of the things I learn in this class will help me in this area.