For this blog post I was assigned to read a post by Morgan Bayda, a teacher in Saskatchewan, about a video she found by a man named Dan Brown. You can watch this video by visiting Ms. Bayda's blog post. In this video Dan talks about how if institutionalized education doesn't change it will eventually die and become unimportant. Dan went so far as to eventually quit school, while I don't agree with this, I do agree with his first statement.
Institutionalized education is already becoming irrelevant to students today. Think about it, you go to school and, for the most part, are lectured all day about topics that are irrelevant to your everyday life. Most students, in both secondary and post-secondary education, are bored and unmotivated in the classroom. Why is that? One reason is that most classes have become a sort of lecture the facts and memorize the facts type of classroom. Students simply memorize everything the teachers say and then are forced to regurgitate the information. Now wonder the dropout rate for high schools is reaching 50%.
I think that if we have been given an opportunity to change this course of learning, it won't be easy and it will face opposition, but it will be better off in the long run.
Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home
I really enjoyed reading this blog post. In it Tom Johnson uses a metaphor by saying "Don't let them take the pencils home" he really means, "Don't let them take the computers home." The angry Academic Specialist claims that computers will lower the students' test scores, while Johnson argues that they will enhance learning. See he states that in lower-income neighborhoods computers are only marketed as entertainment systems so that's all they are seen as. But he also says with a little instruction families can be taught to use them educationally. I think that is so true, computers are marketed as these gaming systems, but if you teach students and their parents how to use them educationally they can open up a whole new world of learning!
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