Moving on in class and moving up the corporate ladder
Given how far we’ve come since the 1800’s, it seems that our classrooms don’t nearly reflect these changes. Sure, the majority of public schools have the odd computer lab and perhaps even a few smartboards, but the general everyday teaching of students hasn’t changed all that dramatically. Claudia Wallis & Steptoe (2006) highlights how we should, well really must, adapt our schools to provide the education today’s students not only deserve, but require to get ahead in this world.
Students need to a greater global awareness and to have access to a huge range of information. More importantly, they need to be able to determine what information is valid and what to disregard. Working in teams, greater social interaction and cultural awareness are all high in the ‘must do’ category. If business owners and managers had their chance to write the curriculum it appears that the major topic that would feature is technology use, followed closely by exposure to world cultures. Hardly surprising if you consider just how great an impact Globalisation has on our lives. E-learning obviously helps to provide technological skills which are typically ‘portable’ from one nation to the next, but it also allows for easy connection between cultures- something i’d never really considered, despite the demands of leading executives. So when I used to sit in a subject wondering how certain tasks would ever help me, it seems I was quite right to doubt their purpose. For it was always the more practical activities that seemed to make the pieces fit!
the pieces fit!
Image: ‘Suspended‘
www.flickr.com/photos/83476873@N00/17226329
Source: WALLIS, C. & STEPTOE, S. (2006). How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century. Time. Dec. 10, 2006 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480,00.html
