He just wrote a very interesting post after he attended the George Lucas Educational Foundation Webinar and talked about speaking with George Lucas about his thoughts on Education.
I was often confused by what Mr. Lucas had to say. One of the first comments he gives is:
"The system falls apart around innovation. This is going to happen because there is a disease out there called digital technology. It is going to change education. All we can do is run out in front of it and guide people along.”
I find this quote a little disturbing. What system is falling apart? Is he referring to education in general? Granted, there is no context to the quote, but I take a little offense to the characterization of technology as a disease that we need to warn people about and guide them through. I would think that a person like Lucas, who has worked with technology his entire life, would have something more substantial to say about technology.
Other Lucas comments:
1) On the speed of change: “Education is the dragging force on innovation. The reason is well intentioned and that is we want everyone to be educated.”
2) On preservice preparation for new teachers: “Universities are at the core of the problem; there’s nothing more conservative than schools of education.”
3) On shifting the “why”: “We need to get kids asking ‘why does that happen?’ as opposed to ‘why am I learning this?’”
----
1) The idea that education could be a impediment to innovation is a weird notion. I think what he is maybe trying to say is that in order to innovate, you must be educated. Thus, if we are doing poor job of educating, there will be consequences for innovation.
2) While there are many reasons to be unhappy with Teacher Education Programs, I'm not sure conservatism is one. Maybe I am naive and all other teacher education programs are archaic and do not emphasize the use of technology and progressive teaching techniques like we do at U of M. But, my hunch is that most of the top teacher education programs are somewhat alike in this regard.
3) Kids are always going to wonder why they are learning something. It will always be a teacher's job to how students that what they are learning matters. Then, they should instill in kids the desire to seek more knowledge, and to ask more questions, rather than just 'how does this work?'
I am beginning to understand what it means to be in the 'in-crowd' as far as the education world is concerned. Given that I have had only 2 months of experience in the classroom, I was surprised that I had a quite visceral reaction to Mr. Lucas' comments. I thought to myself - okay, here's another guy who has no idea what it's like to be a teacher trying to tell teachers how to be teachers. And I was a little angry, particularly because I find his assessment of education to be simplistic and ill-informed.
I know Lucas is well-intentioned. Anyone who tries to tackle fixing education problems has to be a visionary of some sort. But, I can't really make sense of these comments. Is this the kind of person we want to respect for 'fixing' the education system?
3 comments:
steph.... in point 1, i think Lucas is talking about how technology advances, but is not included into education soon enough. teachers are slow to change their methods, etc...
I can definitely see that, but what's the deal with the second sentence - it's almost like he's saying that by having to teach everyone we fall behind in the innovation department. Is he maybe saying that because the state of education in the US is so bad in many places, and because we have to teach everyone, we can't adopt technology as quickly, because everyone doesn't have equal access to it? I don't know, I see a ton of interpretations to these comments. Also, I don't even want to begin to suggest that teaching everyone is a bad thing, but I think he's kind of suggesting that having to reach everyone can create a lot of problems, even though it should be something to strive for.
Stephanie, one of the consistent features of the place of schools in society is that so many people, *especially* from the world of business, have historically had lots to say about where schools fall short. With all due respect, even to someone like Mr. Lucas who has put his money where his mouth is, the process of educating actual people often seems a little messier and not "A leads to B" enough for businesspeople. That being said, however, the primary reason that I appreciate your citing Lucas and wrestling with his ideas is *precisely* because we have to become skilled and bringing what we learn from our practice into our public conversations about teaching. You will likely encounter many people who, explicitly or implicitly, will want to tell you how schools should operate, and how you should teach, etc. Hopefully some of these moments will offer good learning opportunities. Whatever the case, I'm going to take the (perhaps overly) optimistic stance and say that many of these people have good motivations. Finding ways to engage these people/ideas as potential sources of help is a tricky challenge, but it is one that I see you working on here. Keep it up...teachers need all the allies we can get!!
Post a Comment