David Wiley on technology in schools

In his recent article/posting entitled How Technology Will Destroy Schools, David Wiley discusses the obselence of schools in an age of instant access to any information. Admittedly, we aren’t there yet, but I think that we are getting closer. In some parts of the world, for some people, and for the right kind of information, instant access to information is already a reality. I agree with David on his analysis of the nature of the conflict:

I think it has something to do with ingrained notions of what consitutes “academic subjects” and what constitutes “cheating.” In coming years this debate over the role of augmenting technologies will heat up significantly.

I am already starting to feel like much of what I am teaching is obsolete and really unnecessary for a student who has a decent speed internet connection and a web browser. I believe my students will be better served if they are able to distinguish the true knowledge from the crap online. Generally speaking, though, we don’t teach that in school, certainly not as a subject.

Reading this post put me in mind of some thoughts that were wandering around in my head a while ago. My basic question was, if there are more effective ways of teaching the content than classroom learning, what is the point of having schools? Are we teaching what students really need to learn, and if not what should we be teaching them? In my heart, I believe that schools are one of the most important public institutions around. My experience is that boards of education, school administration and even some teachers are woefully out of touch with the challenges faced by our students when they graduate. To look at it another way, we do a great job of educating students to prepare them for the world of the 1950s, but that doesn’t help them out very much today! I find myself saddened by the thought that school administration will not respond quickly enough to revitalize the schools and make them relevant and meaningful institutions once again.