As with the last post, this one also focused on education. However, this time I did find some suggestions for addressing student education that I felt were useful. User jdmarrs started off with a long and detailed explanation of why he felt Power Point presentations were vitally useful tools, but while his points were valid, they did not address today’s technology. His ideas following that were more on point.
One of his key points involved funding for education. Comparing our education system with Sweden’s free university level education and health programs, he made a valid point. Sweden is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. They place a focus on the people, with an emphasis on education and health care. How can we possibly hope to prepare our children for a technologically based future if our schools can barely afford buses and textbooks? Every year educational funding is being cut because American culture is not placing enough value on our most important resource - our children!
He also had a couple of other good ideas, including adding the use of YouTube videos and podcasts as tools. His view was a little limited though. YouTube can be a fantastic tool. Yes, there is junk out there, but as a teacher you can add the good videos you find to your PowerPoint’s or presentations. Teachers could also make their own, so they know that they are giving quality information. Plenty of teachers are already doing this. There are even some that are producing their own podcasts. There is a great British web design podcast called Boagworld that has really helped me learn the material in one of my classes. Using these tools means being discriminating, but with good dialog and screening I believe they can enrich our children’s learning and functionality on the web.
You can reach this discussion here: Preparation of Students for the Future
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