Nov 3rd, 2007 by Ann Maher
Dr. Seuss saw it coming. Before his death in 1991, he was trying to write a book that would be a tribute to teachers, a story in celebration of individuality and creative thinking. In the last book credited to his genius, Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, readers come to know Miss Bonkers, who teaches her students to THINK. Amazingly, it’s really a book about children being required to take tests. Diffendoofer students love their school because they have fun and learn interesting things. However, to stay in their school, they must score well on a test. (Does this sound familiar?) Those children who don’t pass the test will be sent to a dreaded place called Flobbertown.
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Tags: education, NCLB, teachers
Posted in School Climate | No Comments »
Nov 2nd, 2007 by Carmen Andrews
We’re entering an era of cognitive externalization. We’re in the midst of a technology revolution that is outsourcing our need to remember everyday information. Even some of our decision-making responsibilities have been lifted in surreptitious ways.
Most people believe that the main transformative innovation of the information age was that it allowed us to know a whole lot more. Nearly a decade into the 21st century we find that the real advance of the information age is that it actually allows us to know less. Our present state of technological inventiveness has provided us with an affordable cache of handheld and embedded servants who dwell on-line, in our machinery and in our pocket devices. The collective silicon memory systems, intelligent online filters, consumer preference algorithms and networked knowledge have outsourced life’s details to external cyberbrains. We can harness these electronic, sentient gofers to free ourselves from the mundane minutiae of our rote memories, consumer decision-making and drudgery-laden mental tasks.
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Tags: education, NCLB, teachers, technology
Posted in Technology in Education | No Comments »
