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'In class, I have to power down'

May 9th, 2007 · No Comments · Eduspaces

There have been a number of interesting and related articles in the education pages of the Independent and Guardian in the last week. Both relate to the C&IT sophistication and skills of many children and students that a) we are not exploiting in the learning experiences we offer and b) make many schools and HE insitutions look comparatively backward and unimaginative.

It’s time to adapt – and quickly – if we’re to survive in the user-generated world by Brenda Gourley, Vice Chancellor of The Open University (1 May 2007) discusses one of the key feature of Web 2.0 applications – user generated content.

The Economist has called peer production one of the most powerful industrial forces of our time and we will have to ask ourselves tough questions about our courses, how up-to-date they might be, and how relevant in a world where the exchange and access to information is so swift that it is entirely possible that a diligent student could get to know more about parts of the syllabus than his or her teacher. Not only that, but in this world the use of technology is expected – and expected at a high level. Why would a student forgive a lecturer a pedestrian lecture and coverage of content when that student can get a much better service on the internet?

Yes, perhaps. But this presupposes that the students have highly developed information literacy skills. They have to be able to identify their information needs, to locate and critically evaluate relevant and appropriate information, to synthesise that information within theoretically informed explanatory frameworks. And at the end of the process produce output that passes muster in terms of the assessement criteria applied by their programmes, modules and academic teachers. The proliferation of content – user generated and otherwise – has important implications for what and how we teach and support the development of these absolutlely essential advanced information literacy skills.

‘In class, I have to power down’  by David Putnam, the Guardian May 8th. “Children have been quick to grasp the joys of new technology. Why are schools lagging so far behind?”.

“At school, you do all this boring stuff, really basic stuff, PowerPoint and spreadsheets and things. It only gets interesting and exciting when you come home and really use your computer. You’re free, you’re in control, it’s your own world.”Most kids probably cannot tell you whether they are actually learning anything from that freedom and control, from the hours spent playing computer games, joining in chat forums and (for the more adventurous) setting up websites. But isn’t that where the education system should take over and work out what the golden nuggets of learning might be?

Might there not be something important here in terms of being creative and confident, of communicating and collaborating with others, of solving puzzles – those same soft skills so much in demand for the promised “knowledge economy”, but not particularly well covered in the formal curriculum?

What is being alluded to here, I think, is the new opportunities for informal learning the Web 2.0 collaborative and social networking applications make possible and how we can exploit these within the structures and objectives of formal education.

Both the articles highlight aspects of the rapidly changing world of information and learning that present a particular challenge to HE institutions. How well this fits in though with the life long learning and citizenship agendas.

<!–DATA[There have been a number of interesting and related articles in the education pages of the Independent and Guardian in the last week. Both relate to the C&IT sophistication and skills of many children and students that a) we are not exploiting in the learning experiences we offer and b) make

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