What are the combination of strategies you are using to change the paradigm of education in your schools? How many strategies can be used until there are too many?
Again do we really want to change the existing system or just start over from scratch? As Pink's interview, available on our Wiki thanks to Skip, outlines legislators are trying to impose simplistic solutions on a very complex problem. They think that if they just made schools more like they were when they were there, everything will be just fine. So they encourage rules like no more pop, take away the cell phones, ipods, etc. Then they want to ensure we get back to the basics and so encourage more and more testing of basic facts, which in the real world can be obtained easily via the net. They also want to ensure that teachers are qualified and knowledgable in their content area. I understand the need for a highly qualified teacher in every classroom. My question, however, centers around what exactly defines a highly qualified teacher. Technology use in the classroom should be a part of this equation. I really believe that a great teacher, given the proper resources,can facilitate the learning of almost anything, even content outside their current level of understanding. I do not, however, think that just because a teacher has 12 more hours in geography it makes him/her a better geography teacher than another social studies teacher who has a good understanding of how to use technology to engage students in finding and using geographical information. Instead of encouraging teachers to go back and get pure content courses at the university level, often taught by non-technology users, shouldn't we have them use the time to allow teachers to work together and explore the use of technology in the classroom.
