21st Century Education

I find that Schmoker’s writing lacks the openness and complexity I appreciated reading Teach like a Champion.  In TLC techniques were described along with the shortcomings we could expect when using them.  In the second chapter of Focus Schmoker criticizes the 21 Century Education hype and recommends a “content-rich curriculum” heavy on literacy.  I agree with him, but he is missing that corollary piece I so appreciated in TLC that made if feel like I was being addressed by a fellow professional that had tried out their own recommendations and found limits to them.  The way Focus continually bludgeons me over the head with the same simple repetitive (and yes, good) ideas instead brings to mind a teacher-student interaction.

Time should not be wasted making wikis, videos, and webpages when simpler, more time efficient activities would suffice, but students should not be allowed to graduate from school technologically illiterate/ phobic.  When I ask students to email me lab data some don’t know how or they don’t have an email account or know how to quickly get one.  When I ask a student to email themselves some work because they can’t figure out how to log on to their H drive and they lost their jump drive they don’t understand what I mean.  They don’t know how to attach a file to an email.  When I ask students to include their own name in their file name they delete the file type extension when renaming it and then can’t figure out how to open their file anymore or what went wrong.  When I ask students to use Pinnacle to check their grades they don’t know how, they tell me they don’t like computers, that they don’t need to know how to use them and that their teachers will inevitably print their grades for them.

Sorry for that little rant, but when I talk to a 17 year old students and he refers to computers as my grandfather might, basically  - that confusing annoying box over there that I never want to (and won’t need to) use – it scares me.  Not knowing about computers is ok (but unfortunate), but refusing to try to learn is not.  I have been in discussions with teacher that went something like “kids these days” have this technology stuff down. This just isn't the case.  What have you seen in your classrooms?  Can we assume students growing up in the 21^st Century now the basics of using technology?  What is the role of the state of technology in our schools in this whole problem?