FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Has technology outpaced our education?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

     It might seem like a straight forward obligation: EDUCATE. It might seem all the more efficient and effective to educate in the age of smartphones, iPads, and screens that can populate unending information and resources. 

    But perhaps, it is not so simple. With the pandemic in full swing and no relief in sight, educators in 2021 have leaned harder and longer than ever before on platforms that were employed as fun novelties pre COVID-19.

    What we may have failed to evaluate in this virtual era of education, is reflecting on the how educators gather and evaluate the student. In the same manner in which teaching strategies and resources have evolved, so too, must methods for participation and evaluation. These methods demand to meet the diverse needs of the student. It is no small task to re write, rethink, or retrain ingrained habits. But this ever evolving animal called education demands a virtual landscape spun with creativity that perhaps only a post-pandemic world could imagine. 

    We no longer use blackboards and chalk at the front of the class and in (most!) schools in the United States corporal punishment from a teacher is an actionable offense. We don't crowd multiple grades and abilities into one room with a wood burning stove and yell "good luck" to the teacher.

    But that, in essence, is what educators effectively communicate to students employing antiquated methods to allow students to participate and allow for evaluation.

    Take for example, the image in our Planning and Teaching Module, under the section ENGAGE - (pictured below).This image aptly illustrates the dilemma and perhaps the disconnect between current students, the world they live in and the stunted way education trails behind them.

    It will take ingenuity, creativity and some discomfort for educators to bridge the gap between education and their students.