I will weigh in to argue that if there were no stonecutters today our
buildings that require work or repair, or our attempts to create such
buildings, would be impossible to manage. The argument we all hear in
our schools is the fear of loss of those traditional, mostly manual,
skills in the rush to modernize. It is an eternal dilemma as seen in the
history of the pencil vs the slate, etc.=20
So how do we balance the knowledge of skills that seem irrelevant but we
don't want to be lost to history, and encourage those we consider
necessary for the 21st Century? This is the question every "old school"
teacher will confront us with at every turn...
Jenni
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of David F. Withrow
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2008 8:18 PM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Academic technology v. technology education
While I might agree with Jonathan's analysis I come to an alternate
conclusion:
Leadership is just that: Leadership. It is the school's leadership, in
particular those
who manage academic personnel, who must lead. Whatever the obstacles be:
teachers, board
members, deans, and other school administrators, the leadership must
embrace, use and
insist that the teaching professionals utilize the tools of the 21st
century. Leadership
must turn faculty culture from the ways of the nineteenth century to one
that embraces
the dramatically different 21st Century.
With a thoughtful technology plan (perhaps similar, perhaps different
from the one Fred
described) and a comprehensive professional development plan we can
accomplish this. But
only with many of our teachers. The ones who will not or cannot adapt
cannot continue to
drain classroom resources - instruction time with students. We need to
let them go.
To those who say this is cruel - to cast off revered members of a
distant philosophy - I
say this: I admire the stone cutters and stone masons of gothic
cathedrals, but there is
little need for them today. If I could train stone masons to use those
skills in brick
laying or cement foundation work; well, then, they could be employable
in a new trade
similar to the one they had been accustomed to. In the education of the
21st Century
there is little need for some of the teaching styles we have relied upon
for centuries.
Likewise, I can see the need for a Socratic style (occasionally), but
the reliance on a
didactic style has little relevance. Moving towards a media rich,
collaborative,
experiential model requires good teachers who are willing to embrace
this change. That
means we have to invest in teachers who are willing and good at their
vocations:
continuous technology professional development.
We can help those willing to be helped. What are we going to do with
those who won't be
"helped"?=20
That is Leadership.=20
That is the unanswered question.
That is the struggle.
jonathanemartin@gmail.com writes:
>But here is where I counter David a bit, and instead embrace Ezra's
point: I
>think there are already many school administrators ready and eager to
>embrace digital tools for authentic problem-solving education. I'd
even
>suggest that the average school administrator is ahead of the average
school
>teacher on this front. But that is where the problem lies. Neither
boards
>nor students are posing obstacles to the swift advance in this
direction--
>but too many of our teachers are. I think faculty culture, in some
places,
>is still too set in its ways, too reliant on its longstanding norms and
>routines. Of course I am not talking about all teachers-- and maybe I
am
>only identifying a minority of them. But it can be a powerful
minority,
>these teaching veterans with strong connections to alumni and parents
and
>board members, whom Heads or administrators can sometimes cross only at
>their peril.
>
>I think we need as a school leaders need to keep being loud and clear:
the
>21st century is a dramatically different era, and hence teaching and
>learning need to change, and change swifly, not because the previous
ways
>were faulty or poor, but because they are no longer congruent with
their
>age. By helping our teachers recognize this, we then have an improved
>conceptual framework for them to then understand why they need to do
things
>so differently from before.
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