Acknolwedgements|
Learning @ the Speed of Thought... A Communications
and Information Plan
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IMSA Great Minds Series Conference Notes | Roger Schank and the obsolescence of high school | Bob Tinker, virtual high schools and hand helds | Alan November, NOT technology planning, but information and communication planning; also, not automating, but informating | 01/27/2000 Notes from the Great Minds Dialogue Series: "Frontiers of Educational Technology" event at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, Monday, January 24, 2000 In attendance: Bill Chapin, Director of Ed Tech, WTHS, and Jim Huisel, member of Technology Advisory Committee, and Data Systems International Dr. Roger Schank, Northwestern University "Why High School Will Be Made Obsolete by New Technologies" Dr. Schank asserts that schools have failed, and he opened with a video clip of Father Guido Sarducci to help illustrate the point. Father Guido suggests a college degree that could be earned in five minutes; the curriculum would consist of everything the average graduate remembers after he's been out for five years. If you've got another minute, he'll get you a law degree. Schank's scheme is to provide a new delivery method--online courses, designed by outstanding teachers, and delivered with software which is increasingly capable of rich and engaging multimedia, interactivity, and virtual reality simulations. He suggests that we allow students to learn more naturally, through pursuing goals, failing, trying again, and then developing a theory of how to improve. The measures (tests) for this learning need to be doing measures. He asked: What if the virtual courses were better than real courses, more real, more fun, providing more contact to experts? These virtual courses would then allow high schools to address getting along in groups, developing cultural literacy, developing a philosophy of life. Virtual courses would follow a different design, as in this chart.
Dr. Robert Tinker, www.concord.org, Virtual High Schools, "Decentralization through Ubiquitous Technology, Virtual Courses, and Open Source software. Dr. Tinker works with the Virtual High School organization, which now offers 82 teacher-generated courses to 1400 students in 35 states and 5 countries. His basic points follow: Teaching new things in new ways
Getting there
Technology's impact on society
Dr. Alan November, Educational Renaissance Planners, alan@anovember.com, "Out with Technology Planning/In with Information and Communication Planning" Dr. November says that schools have made a strategic mistake by focusing on technology planning. It is more important to teach students to information and communication literate than to teach computer literacy. Here are a number of his suggestions:
The major issue for schools is to directly face this shift of control and create a new culture of learning that prepares students to be successful in an economy that demands access to information and the skills of creating knowledge products. A number of his ideas are posted at the following address: http://www.anovember.com/ideas.html I'll share his handouts at a future meeting, but the following chart illustrates his distinction between using technology to automate vs. using it to informate.
One strong assertion that Dr. November shared was that we must teach students to understand and validate information. One technique he promotes is using the AltaVista search engine "link" feature to examine what links point to a site? By typing "link: www.anyaddress, etc.…." in the search box, AltaVista will return a list of sites that point to a given site. As an example I tried this with Warren's web site and received the following results: 49 pages found.
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