> This is a fascinating strand. One of the most passionate in years!
>
> I see a collision of topics-
> 1. What tools are needed in the 21st century (and which are headed for the
> museum)
Hmm...we stopped teaching kids how to make their own quill pens long ago. We
stopped teaching them how to properly use fountain pens long ago. Even those
of us who started on typewriters find them incredibly hard to use now
(because of how much pressure is needed to get the keys down). But no matter
what tool is being used - writing is still important, as is knowing how to
create a readable document.
> 2. How/what should we be teaching to prepare students with the right skills
> for the 21st century
By teaching them how to use today's tools well while preparing them to adapt
to whatever new tools come down the line. But don't just toss today's tools
because we're sure they won't be being used in ten years. I'm sure that
Staples and OfficeMax will be selling paper, pens, and mechanical pencils
(which my daughter, who also owns a laptop, loves) for a good long time.
Sometimes low-tech is the way to go, and too many of us here are worshiping
at the altar of technology for its own sake.
>
> 3. How does my school get from where we are to where we need to go
> (wherever that is)
As you find you need to, and is appropriate for what you're doing. So many
people here have put down "using computers as glorified typewriters," but
coming from the typewriter generation, the ideas that I didn't have to
totally rewrite my document if I wanted to add a new paragraph, that I could
move an entire paragraph somewhere else, that it would automatically number
and renumber my footnotes for me, and that I could print out multiple copies
of my work without carbon paper or paying to use a copying machine were
HUGE. My first use of computers was as the much-maligned "glorified
typewriter," and there's nothing wrong with kids these days using it as such
- in addition to the always available encyclopedia, the atlas of anywhere in
the world, the artist who's more precise than you, and the musician who
immediately plays back what you've written so you can see if you wrote down
what you heard in your head correctly.
--
keg
========================================
Keith E Gatling
mailto:keith@gatling.us
http://www.gatling.us/keith
The fact that I'm open-minded doesn't mean that I have to agree with you.
========================================
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
RSS Feed, http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?RSS&L=ISED-L
