As long as I’ve been in education, and that’s been a very
long time, I’ve heard educational leaders talk of reform. There was new math,
schools without walls, stations, core curriculum, carpet curriculum—you name
it. We talked about reform with the emergence of desktop computers in the
classroom, and then with interactive whiteboards, and now with mobile digital
devices. The educational potential of mobile devices and the trend for young
people to attach themselves to them (although not always for what we might call
educational endeavors), appears to offer a greater opportunity for us to
finally make some changes. We can’t, however, see iPads and other devices as
the answer unless we consider why we adhere to methods, curricula, assessments,
and classroom and school organizations, which don’t work for all of our
students.
Glenn Kleiman, Executive Director for Educational Innovation
and Professor, NC State University College of Education offers some excellent
ideas about what we need to consider in order to meet the needs of our
students. His eight Essential
Elements close with the reminder: “No matter how powerful our technologies
become, they will never resolve the difficult, classical issues of education. .
. .”
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