I beleive that much of what has been taught to students int he past is very different than what needs to be taught now. It is more important to teach people how to get and use the imformation that they are looking for rather than teaching them about the actual information. In theory this is easily done but after so many years and generations of being taught in this way it is very difficult to turn the corner and teach the concepts rather than the content. An actual lesson to teach students the importance of finding useful relevant and factual information is so much more valuable to studnets in this day and age that enough of it is not happening. I think it is becuase the value of this type of knowledge is not easily measurable or documented and therefore teachers or organizations (like Regents) may not be able to asess its value like it has in the past. The excersise that was completed in class is a great example of how to show students the importance of acquiring accurate information and being able to verify that info to themselves and others. I think a good lesson would be to have students do an opposite excercise and have them find bogus info on a topic that they feel they are fluent in. For example, someone who knows about the Holocost may document bad and false information that is floating out there instead of factual information. This may make the idea of finding abd info out quite obvious and given from a different point of view. All having been said we have come a long way with internet but we are only inthe beggining of our journry and we need to be able to get a handle on the information that we as people and students process and this should be taught at an early age so that is becomes second nature to new learners and future generations.
{February 27, 2009}
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“I think it is because the value of this type of knowledge is not easily measurable or documented and therefore teachers or organizations (like Regents) may not be able to asess its value like it has in the past.”
- Wow! What an excellent observation, Angela. Indeed, educators and administrators who have been “left behind” in a digital information age are really struggling with this concept of the nature of information, how we interact with it in new ways and forms, and how we access that information. But there are some enduring attributes that have continued to fail to be embraced over the years. For example, it is so much more valuable, authentic, and powerful in terms of learning when students “produce” and “create” to demonstrate learning rather than simply recall and go through the motions and “play” student. We continue to assess what is easiest to measure and ignore great potential in our students. No wonder school is becoming more and more irrelevant to them.
That’s true. In my field, there is the area of digital archives which has given everyone, not only people who have the credentials to access the information, the ability to be historians. Not that everyone picks up that task, but even students can now access a plethora of information that might otherwise be unaccessible. In my case, it is the way the students access the information and the type of information that is available that has changed over time and needs now to be taught differently.