Carrie Ann Gehringer's Profile

However, as Dr. Michael
Wesch points out, although today’s students understand how to access and
utilize these tools, many of them are used for entertainment purposes
only, and the students are not really media literate.

“Teacher” - From primary
role as a dispenser of information to orchestrator of learning and
helping students turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into
wisdom. 

Learner” -
In the past a learner was a young person who went to school, spent a
specified amount of time in certain courses, received passing grades and
graduated.  Today we must see learners in a new context:

 

“First – we must maintain student interest by helping them see how what
they are learning prepares them for life in the real world. 

 

“Second – we must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong
learning. 

 

 “Third
– we must be flexible in how we teach.

 

“Fourth – we must excite learners to become even more resourceful so
that they will continue to learn outside the formal school day.”

 

The curriculum is not
textbook-driven or fragmented, but is thematic, project-based and
integrated.   Skills and content are not taught as an end in themselves,
but students learn them through their research and application in their
projects.  Textbooks, if they have them, are just one of many
resources. 

 

Assessment moves from
regurgitation of memorized facts and disconnected processes to
demonstration of understanding through application in a variety of
contexts.  Real-world audiences are an important part of the assessment
process, as is self-assessment. 

Students find their
voices as they create projects using multimedia and deliver these
products to real-world audiences.  Students realize that they can make a
difference and change the world.  They learn what it is to be a
contributing citizen, and carry these citizenship skills forward
throughout their lives. 

Collaborating with students from around the world in
meaningful, real-life projects is a necessary tool for developing these
literacies.  Students can learn that through collaboration, not
competition, they can work together to make the world a better place. 
Students will use technologies, including the Internet, and global
collaboration to solve critical issues

First of all,
technologies are not an end in themselves; technologies are tools
students use to create knowledge and to create personal and social
change. 

My thoughts are that in order to create change in
education all stakeholders must be on board.  One of the
main obstacles as I see it is the enormous resistance to change among
educators, policy makers, industry leaders, parents, and even many
students.

I believe that when many parents and educators are
introduced to the paradigm of education in the 21st century that it is
so foreign to them that they automatically reject it - automatically and angrily!