I find it interesting that Daniel Pink wrote this book with business people in mind instead of the educator. However, he was the Keynote speaker to many teachers at the TIES conference last fall (link to his speech password is Keynote08)and was very well recieved by all of the teachers.
As a technology integration person, I was very interested in Pink's statement "Machines replaced our back and software replaces our brain." His reference's to Kasparov vs the computer and easy tax software emphasizes this point. I have personal experiences to share when we meet that will add to this. So, how does this change education? With information literally at our fingertips and computing power doubling every second, what skills do we need to address in our classroom? How do we make those adjustments?
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Pink believes we need to teach our children to think with both the left and right halves of the brain. I believe this too, but I am concerned about our country's need for accountability and left brain numbers--assessments and stats. How will we change the educational system to help our students catch up to and excel in the world?
ReplyDeleteWe will need to encourage creative thinking, and support children in their exploration of concepts.
Mindy Swanson
Although this book was not written specifically for educators, it has good information that we can use to reshape our curriculum and focus on skills that will be necessary in the conceptual age.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason this book was written with business people in mind is because of the effect this shift is having on them currently. I have a friend, a software engineer, who mentioned recently that he is always worried about losing his job becuase of outsourcing to India. When he said that, I assumed he was probably overreacting, but after reading the information in this book, I realized that this is really a concern right now for people in these positions.
In the classroom, we need to educate students to develop their brains in ways that can not be replaced by software. Machines can not replace workers in all respects. The six senses is a good place to start. We need to foster creativity in our students, and teach them skills relating to empathy and understanding.
I've read the other two posts and agree with the comments made regarding accountability and teaching to the test. I think that we do a disservice to our kids by not evaluating all of their abilities. We need to develop curriculum and strategies that allow our students to think, be creative and make use of all of their talents. But.. how do we evaluate that?
ReplyDeleteI do feel that some of the curriculum is working toward this frame of thinking though with many more, in my mind, R-Directed thinking pieces like role-playing to solve problems, acting out to retell, drawing pictures to solve math problems etc. Right now these are added in as "extras" and not necessarily the core curriculum though. Like was preiviously mentioned, how would this be graded anyway??
ReplyDeleteI am also concerned about how to grade creative work. I wonder if teaching is considered L-directed or R-directed, we are nurturers but, on the secondary level, are we creative? Do you know the old personality tests some of us took in college that determined if you were abstract, random, concrete, or sequential? In my masters class I remember learning that most teachers become concrete sequential because of the way our day is structured as well as the way we are evaluated, ( checklists and test scores). As I think about evaluating my students creative projects I realize I might need to develop my creative side as well as the students!
ReplyDeleteI liked how they talked about adjusting the SAT test so that both types of thinkers can be successful. As an educator and parent of two high schoolers I think we need to acknowledge all types of thinkers and create the same opportunity for everyone. I think that we can really put differentiation into play here. I agree that evaluating the creative side of others becomes a challenge. Who are we to fairly judge creativity?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was student teaching in a British school, I thought it was interesting how one of the classes I taught was "design technology." I first taught my third graders about circuits and electricity in science class. Then we applied what we learned in a creative, project based way by designing "torches" (America English translation: flashlights). Perhaps this is something to consider... how can we take the curriculum we are teach and give it to the students to apply it with creative, real life applications? This may especially be important as students continue to ask "when will I ever need to know this?"
ReplyDeleteLaura Justin