no better place for my children to watch that speech (or any other, for that matter) than in a place where ideas are encouraged, where critical thinking about those ideas is a natural part of the conversation, and where appropriate response and debate can flourish. Where the adults in the room lead my kids to dig deeper, to validate facts, and consider the many levels of context in which every speech and every debate takes place. Where the discussion around it is such that it lays to rest the concern that many seem to have about this particular speech in general, that in some way the President will be able to “indoctrinate” our kids into some socialist mindset. If schools are the fully functioning learning communities that we hope they are, they should be the place where our kids learn to make sense of ideas, not to fear them. That, however, is not the message we are sending.
tom campbell on 20 Aug 09This is an important paragraph - most of this research is beyond K-12. It doesn't diminish the promise that 2.0 and future techs can assist in creating individualized learning opps - and it soundly heralds the death of "learning by lecture" - an approach that has both failed and bored generations of students!
This only makes sense. Research continues to support collaborative learning and student-centered classrooms.
I agree that it needs to be more personal and not about checking off a task as complete. In 2 online courses I took this summer, the discussion board comments were mostly insipid. I wish the teacher had thought about how to facillitate the online discussion to push our thinking. Perhaps to redirect false comments into real analysis and reflection of the questions posted.
Peer teaching is a powerful learning tool. Technology can help enlarge the number of peers.
