Keith Christiansen's Profile

Sep 25
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Sep 25
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To fix fractured methods of evaluating student performance, Tennessee joined the American Diploma Project (ADP), which seeks to standardize statewide definitions of achievement and ensure that students perform at or above the national mean. And to comply with the Tennessee Diploma Project as well, Knox County students will be assessed according to the four areas covered in ACT testing: mathematics, English, science, and social studies. With a generation of students who have grown up with cell phones, iPods, and computers, educators need to approach teaching in a new way. "I am a big proponent of using what kids gravitate to naturally as teaching tools," says Becky Ashe. "The fact that these technologies have made our students vast consumers of knowledge is where the teaching should begin. Their technological literacy makes them "ripe ground" for planting the ideas of being critical thinkers, whether they know it or not, and the technology has given them the autonomy to learn about anything they can figure out how to Google. Our job as educators is to show them how to be discerning consumers of information, how to critically look at a web site or other media and decide if the content is "trustworthy" or not. This, in a way, does prepare them for learning how to apply knowledge better because they are starting with what they think are facts. We can use opposing "facts" on a single subject to show them how to analyze and what criteria make one set of information more reliable than another. That is the best application our teachers can provide for students. No matter where their life paths take them, they will need the ability to discern truth from propaganda."