I wonder if it would even be possible to do what Theodore W. Frick suggested could happen. I know that technology has changed education quite a bit over the last twenty years. But, it still feels like we are still using the same methods that have been used for decades. Only, now we has some cool new toys to do them with.
I agree with both Frick and Elizabeth Steiner that there are many dynamics that effect education. There cannot be any complete or lasting change made if you only address one part of the system. How do you go about changing an entire system? How can you completely change the way that people educate, are educated, where they are educated, what they are taught, and their overall environment.
In certain areas of education, it would be interesting to see some of these changes. Teachers and students without the classroom. For me, it would have been great to have had an individual education plan based on my learning style. I could see classes like math and the sciences doing very well completely technology based if you can get the students to understand how it applies to them. As my students continually ask me, “How does this relate to me? Where am I ever going to use this?” I think that simulations (if they are designed very well) can help students understand where they would use the concepts being taught.
Posted by Matt Greenwood on December 15, 2009 at 1:42 am
I also like what Frick and Elizabeth Steiner wrote about the different components involved in the teachinig process. I don’t know if the entire teaching process can be changed, but I do know that looking at the interact of the component Frick and Steiner bring up as helped me think through parts of my teaching philosophy and evaluate how effective I have been in teaching. Ouch! Maybe change will continue to happen over time as individuals use the ‘cool new toys’ to not only do the same things we have been doing, but to do them better or (prepare yourself for the bold statement) to change the methods that need to be changed.