Cringely War of the Worlds
I’m not a fan of writers and others who have little first hand experience in education pontificating on how to “fix” our schools. Having said this, there is value in listening to divergent views. (We just can’t allow those with the divergent views to make policy decisions without input from those with first hand experience in the system–i.e. teachers.)
I’ve been a reader of Robert Cringely for many years–since I watched Triumph of the Nerds on PBS. His column last week is about education and is entitled War of the Worlds. It’s worth a read but basically his thesis is that students are so empowered by communication technology that they are ready to “dump our schools.”
I don’t see this in the students I teach but perhaps it’s evident with high school and university students. Having said this, students have been ready to “dump schools” for many years regardless of technology. (I wasn’t a big fan of my high school experience. Though I enjoyed university.)
Cringely also states that “we’re moving from a knowledge economy to a search economy.” Without the knowledge what does one search? I do agree that students are not good searchers. We need to teach them to be effective searchers.
Finally, he suggests that students don’t need a certificate from an institution with a good reputation i.e. Stanford but rather students need a certification that shows what they can do–some kind of ISO certification. This is an interesting idea but I’m afraid the certification may reduce education to the lowest common denominator in the same way the No Child Left Behind and the standards movement have.
