The Times They Are A Changin'

The article title seems innocuous enough: "Last Entry for Encyclopaedia Britannica." Most won't even notice this article among all the "big" news items; fewer still will read the article, and even less will connect the dots. We educators better pause and contemplate the significance of this article. Books are going the way of the vinyl album.

The Technology of Yesterday

Information is not as valuable as it once was.  When information was scarce it was worth more.  Either because of access or availability, information only used to be found in a small number of places.  Teachers were seen as one such source. A teacher made information accessible and available. Today information is abundant.  In the western world it is easily accessed and available.  Type "Trail of Tears" into a search engine. Within seconds you have 6,300,000 sources of information about the topic.

The Reality of Today's Student

We can no longer view teaching as the conveying of information from the informed (teacher) to the uniformed (student).  Our job is to train our students how to find the information they need, evaluate the validity of the information, give meaning to the information, and create something meaningful from the information.  I think that this has always been the job.  But once upon a time we were the sole source of their information, today we may not even be viewed as such among the plethora of other seemingly credible sources.  It makes the question, "what are they teaching my kid?" take on a whole new meaning.

Xerox passed on the GUI interface that became Windows.  Kodak passed on digital photos.  Retailers said that Amazon would never work because "nobody will buy online." At Shannon Forest, we will not miss the signs that the world is changing.  We will continue to build a school designed for tomorrow. Our students are the future.

SFCS Seniors engaging in the technology of tomorrow, the Apple iPad, today.