This is a guest blog post by Gabriella Ashford in response to my asking about a Marc Prensky event I wasn’t able to attend. Gabriella attended our screening of Race to Nowhere and is keeping the conversation alive here.
MARC PRENSKY EVENT in American Conversations at Peninsula College, Port Angeles:
The presentation was powerful and frightening all at once. His focus on the next 50 years of technological progress is something most of us are not ready to stand up and face. If you watched any of the footage of the Japanese Tsunami, that is the scale of change that is coming in technology for us and our children.
Ironically, the few teachers that asked questions seemed to get lost in the escale of the issue. They wanted him to answer questions like: How to deal with privacy issues in the classroom around technology, or, what happens when a kid drops a technological tool and breaks it??? To me, that was like pointing at one car in the floodwaters of the tsunami and wondering if it was going to be salvageable.
I myself, wanted to know what I should pack in my kid’s jetpack as the techno tsunami washes over us (old school educated)… One thing he mentioned was programming.. He said our kids should already be starting that at a young age. Wow. Now I officially felt stupid. I didn’t even know what language was the primary programming language! From his perspective, that’s like not knowing that English is the primary language of the western world Can I Google that????
I loved how he COMPLETELY dismissed the old school learning standards (that obscene list of blah blah blah that we are supposed to teach our children so no child gets left behind That reminded me of the debris wave engulfing the elevated highway upon which a few stranded motorists thought that they had found safety. The wave undercut the supports of the foundation within minutes.
His list of learning standards was way more productive and focused on finding individual passions. Passion is the one thing that he felt would survive the techno tsunami. As he sees it, finding passion (and encouraging the kids to use their techno tools to follow it) is the highest aspiration we should aim for as teachers,
So, just for your information, it seems that this American Conversations program through Peninsula College has scholarship opportunities for teachers. And, it was a very nice opportunity to rub elbows with the private individuals that support higher education I would go again just to get that lovely global perspective from the speaker, as well as have the opportunity to meet the people who have the vision to make changes!
Your ideals would have resonated well with this group. I have to learn how to text, and get off emails. He told us that Dinosaurs use email! You are a step ahead of me with blogs. Perhaps you are a caveman??? Apparently our kids are all newly evolved animals called Digital Homo Sapien.
Since I want a capital in front of my Homo Sapien, I will try to get Marc Prensky’s PowerPoint presentation posted here. This is my first blog ever.
