A Vision of Students Today

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Comment by Blanca on October 16, 2007 at 9:38pm

The video is so telling, but this isn't about "today's" reality. This has been the reality of students for years since the Internet became accessible to the majority of the public. You may say social networking sites are a revolution...but they are examples of evolution of the digital kind. AOL was (and is) a social network, and likely the first that most of us belonged to. Eventually, as technology progressed, and interest increased, sites like Match.com, e-Trade, etc began to cater to specific groups. Today our children participate in social networks that begin with play--Webkinz and Club Penguin, for example. What will another 10 years bring? Can we afford to leave our students' futures in the hands of an educational system built to support factory workers on an assembly line? Assessment is important. It allows for accountability. Who will be left in 20 years to deal with the accountability of a system that needed fixing? Quality not quantity. Process and progress. Differentiation. How much longer will students have to wait before we work together to collaboratively "change" the way we "teach"? When will they begin to slowly, quietly, (or rapidly and aggressively), change the way they teach themselves. Change is not easy but it has already begun. There are financial, political and social implications. Putting a structure in place that all sides can agree on is imperative. The clock is ticking...