Shift Happens

4 posted on December 4, 2008

POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Culture, Makes You Think

The world we live in is radically different than it was when our parents grew up. There are seismic paradigm shifts shaking the foundations of science, education, communication and technology.

My daughters, Chloe and Emily, are in an excellent school that is doing an wonderful job. We’re very happy with their education but even the very best schools and teachers today face a daunting challenge. For the first time in history, our educators’ job is to prepare our students for a future that we cannot clearly describe or accurately predict. Sure, you’ll always have the basic building blocks of education (reading, writing, math) but beyond that things are changing.

The Information Flood

The job of today’s educators isn’t merely to pass along information to our students, they must help them filter through the flood of information they’re bombarded with every day. We now live in a society that is drowning in information. It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century. Over 5 exabytes (5,368,709,120 gigabytes) of new information will be generated this year alone, only 0.01% of which is printed^[1].

How Big is Five Exabytes?
If digitized with full formatting, the seventeen million books in the Library of Congress contain about 136 terabytes of information. 5 exabytes of information is the equivalent in size to the information contained in 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress book collection.

Why Does More Information Make It More Difficult To Educate?

We’re having to train our students to compete for jobs on a global scale in today’s flat earth. Every day our kids read and navigate through a “global electronic library” as well as through the media housed in traditional libraries. They have access to a wealth of information and resources unimaginable even five years ago. Student are able to access, create, design and present information in so many new and exciting ways.

In today’s world, our educational paradigm has to shift to accommodate this flood of information. Rather than simply filling our kids heads with information, we have to give our children a brand new set of skills and teach them how to navigate this flood of information.

Perhaps what our children need more than greater amounts of information is the ability to discern, process and apply the information they come across on a daily basis.

What do you think?

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I wrote the above post after watching the updated “Did You Know 3.0″ video below (click here if you can’t see the video). The facts given help put this huge paradigm shift we’re experiencing in perspective.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 7:33 am and is filed under Blog Posts, Culture, Makes You Think. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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December 4, 2008

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1 Nick said:

Great post.
I totally agree that we need to teach them the ability to discern, process, and apply the information they come across.

That is especially important when dealing with information outlets such as blogs. I know a girl who takes anything at face value if someone shares the “information” with her. She leaves out the first two important issues of discerning and processing the information, she simply applies it as truth or as factual, and a lot of times she has been wrong. Her husband has fun debating her at times though.

I definitely give it up to our educators because their task of education is getting tougher and tougher as you pointed out.

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December 4, 2008

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2 Scott Fillmer said:

that was Awesome…. makes you thrilled to be involved in a technological time and scared at the same time, love it.

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December 4, 2008

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3 eliane said:

I once read somewhere that sometime in the 1500’s was the last time a person could feasibly learn all that we knew at the time.

Our schools will never effectively prepare people for the world. Yeah, some will be prepared but that will be inspite of the education system not because of it.

People still think “education” is stuffing kids’ heads full of information. Parents like the comfort of believeing their kids will be ok if they keep dropping them off at school and letting the educators do their thing. I do think there is basic information that all should know but unfortunately, kids aren’t very successful at learning that.

I think the recent election highlighted the complete lack of the ability to think. Schools aren’t designed to prepare kids for the world. They are designed to prepare them for work.

Kids who can think can take on the world. The rest hope there’s someone to tell them what to do.

I challenge you to read The Underground History
of American Education by John Taylor Gatto.

Every generation confronts new experiences. Our founding fathers established a new country on a new and innovative model of behavior. How many people do you know would be able to do the same today? I’m afraid very few would have the ability to learn, discern or think their way to the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution or Bill of Rights.
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4 Joseph said:

Wow Brad. Totally in my world. I sell and consult to schools and school districts so I see what you are talking about on a daily basis.
The really big challenge schools are facing is that with so much information they have lost focus. Reading and Math are the primary subjects taught and Science and Social Studies which used to be the core of learning have taken a back seat. This is creating a group of kids without common sense skills to get by in the world. The recent election is a perfect example…only 11% of high school and college students knew that when you vote, you are not actually casting a vote for president, you are casting a vote for recomendation of your elector who will then cast a vote for president on December 15th.
Technology poses a whole different set of problems. It is huge in society but when brought into the classroom creates a “teacher centered” environment instead of “student centered”. Most of the technology in schools at this point involve some manor of broadcasting information on the boards. LCD, SMART etc…very cool but….only 30% of students actually learn by reading. Not that only 30% can read, but learn by reading. The other 70% learn by writing on things, coducting experiments, solving equations, or visually deciphering clues. Yet, school systems are spending millions of dollars a year for instruments that aid about 30% of the students since most of the information cast through school technology is geared towards those students that learn by reading.
This is not allowing students to go through a learning cycle and over time develop the skill set to use technology to the fullest.
Without the basic skills in place and an emphasis in Reading and Math, students creative outlets are minimized and they truly do not evolve over time.
Technology when used as one component in a large set of tools within the school, can be amazing and students can really emerge as creative leaders. When used only and with limited subjects it really handicaps them.
This might have been long and convoluted and made no sense what so ever so I apologize if so.

Great great great piece Brad…you are correct in that students need “basic” skills so they can learn to discern, process and apply.

Joseph’s last blog post..My Letter To Pastors, Priests, Ministers and Reverends
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December 4, 2008

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5 Brad Ruggles said:

I think we need to find new ways to engage our students in the learning process. At my kids’ school they have the smart-board but from what I’ve seen the teacher uses it to supplement and reinforce the educational curriculum that the students are already learning. Technology is a tool for learning not the end in itself.

The other thing our school did at the beginning of the school year was to test each of the student’s learning style (art-smart, nature-smart, word-smart, etc.) and then craft lesson plans that helps to communicate the material in ways that connect with each student’s individual learning style.

I really respect those in education today because their job is becoming increasingly more challenging in our technology and information-saturated culture.
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December 6, 2008

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6 Joseph said:

Brad,

Sounds like you are in an incredible school. I have a few that are that good that I work with but will tell you it is not the norm.
Your teachers are excited you appreciate what they are doing.
It is unfortunate that you are in the minority. More and more parents are blaming the teachers for their kids not learning when in essence it is the parents not being parents where most of the problems arise.
Sounds like your family is totally on the right track. My wife is a teacher and she just leaned over my shoulder and said you are welcome to send your kids to her school

Joseph’s last blog post..My Letter To Pastors, Priests, Ministers and Reverends
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December 12, 2008

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7 Scott Fillmer » Let Me Text You with My Master Plan said:

[...] video has been passed around to various blogs and I first saw it over on Brad Rugles’ blog (Shift Happens) but still wanted show it here in case you had not seen it [...]