Much discussion on 21st century education has centered around the use(s) of new technologies, and in particular of electronic media, and some of the proponents of re-designing education for the coming century have been criticised as wanting to drive sales thereof. Surely, 21st century education means developing the values and skills our children will need to confront an uncertain and unpredictable world.
The quotation above must give us all pause. Notice how media consumption is largely
passive, and where not, it is at best responsive. The article went on to say that these
children's parents had no idea what their children were doing, and chronically
underestimated the time spent on media consumption.
I believe that students should
be :
- active
- creative
- generative
which are all Values; we also
want them to develop lifelong habits, or Skills.
In curricular terms, an elementary IT programme should based on keyboarding and computer use, and later in high school on programming, the use of CAD and so on. Elementary classrooms should not have
internet; students should learn research skills from books, CD-ROMs or selected
downloads. They should never watch complete videos or movies in class; clips should be chosen to illustrate a
specific point or be accompanied by specific tasks. And so on.
Ultimately, school is preparation for life and success comes from
who our children are (values) and what they can do (skills). Media consumption
should be no more than a means to an end, and not an end in itself.
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