Readings 3
"Education is currently in crisis. As every year marks record successes in national exams so that protestaions about dumbing-down become more shrill, whilst universities remain remote and expensive enclaves for an elite. Teachers are demoralized and parents angry and anxious. Given the exisiting culture of core curricula, pressure, audits, consultations and experimental new ideas, it is small wonder that there is no consensus on the bigger picture; what we should be teaching the next generation to equip them for citizenship in the mid 21st century, and beyond.
The large-scale changes in our lifestyle that might become the norm before too many decades have passed rasie fundamental questions about the point of education as we know it, and most importantly about the type of mindsets that 21st century education will create.
A child born at the dawn of this century will never know a world without the web, but most significantly it will increasingly become a web that reacts.
A recent piece in Time drew a clear distinction between we who grew up in the 2nd half of the 20th century, 'People of the Book', and the new generation, 'People of the Screen.'
'Screen culture is a world of constant flux, of endless sound bites, quick cuts and half-baked ideas. It is a flow of gossip tid-bits, news headlines and floating first impressions. Notions don't stand alone but are massively interlinked to everything else; truth is not delivered by authors and authorities but is assembled by the audience.' "
Greenfield, S. 2004. Tomorrow's People. Penguin Books. London.
The chapter 'Education: What will we need to Learn' (Pages 148-181) is particularly thought provoking in its discussion about anywhere-anytime learning.
"As we enter the 21st century, in education, as in life generally, space and time will become less and less standardized. Students will be learning at different rates in different places." Page 180.
'Abandon hope all ye who enter here.' Dante/Divine Comedy (the inscription above the entrance ot Hell)
