The Changing Face of Education

Science instruction has long been delivered in a didactic format in which content is delivered unilaterally from teacher to student. The student does not play an active role in knowledge construction but is rather a passive consumer of vast amounts of information. The content is then left for students to memorize and regurgitate on standardized exams. Retention rates are low and as Whitehead (1929) pointed out many years ago, this focus on memorization leads to inert knowledge that cannot be recalled when it is required. Anderson (1993) investigated knowledge acquisition and defined formal knowledge consisting of both procedural and declarative knowledge. He argued that knowledge begins with declarative actions that pave the way for procedural processes. The interplay between both forms of knowledge emerges when one observes some of the misconceptions that students have towards basic science concepts. Confrey (1990) suggested that children enter instruction within different disciplines with firmly held beliefs about the interactions that occur in their environment. He proposed, “these beliefs can be identified and confirmed only through methods that encourage children to be expressive and predictive” (Confrey, 1990, P. 4). Although I feel that instruction is both procedural and declarative at the elementary level, I feel that it tapers off as student’s progress through senior secondary school and the emphasis becomes inert declarative knowledge. Unfortunately, didactic instruction has failed to serve the needs of today’s student and may be the culprit for reaffirming previously held misconceptions.

The advent of the Internet has revolutionized the way humans organize, store and retrieve information. We no longer need to rely on our memory since the answer to many questions we have is just a click away. Couple the invention of the Internet with advancements in mobile technologies, and it becomes clear that we have entered the information age. The skills required for the jobs of tomorrow have changed dramatically and are under constant evolution. Private corporations have embraced technology and have been active in its successful implementation. As Conrad Wolfram stated in his TED Talk (Wolfram, 2010), math in the real world looks quite different than the math that we see in classrooms today. Many Math and Science classes in the K-12 system are still taught with lengthy pen and paper hand calculations along with endless amounts of note taking. There is a disjunction between STEM education as it is delivered in the classroom and how it is appears and is applied in the real world. Computational technologies play an integral role in the practice of science and as such, an “effort to engage students in authentic scientific practices should reflect this trend” (Edelson, 2001, P. 356). Given this predicament, education as an institution has yet to catch up. As world-renowned Cambridge professor Neil Postman once stated…

“If you took a surgeon from the year 1911 and put them in the year 2011 operating room they wouldn’t even recognize their workplace, let alone be able to operate, while if you took a teacher from 1911 and put them in the year 2011 classroom they’d pick up the chalk and get right to work. Why is this so true? Health care and education are both essential – and deeply complex – enterprises for the common good, yet one has embraced technology deeply to deliver enormous apparent benefits for individuals and society, and the other has resisted technology almost entirely.”

                                                                                                                   -Neil Postman

 The Changing Face of the Student Population

The students of today are much different cognitively and socially than those who grew up without the Internet. These youth have been exposed to digital technologies since the time of birth and these technologies have played an influential role in their cognitive and social development. A quick glance at the summary of findings for the 2013 PEW report on Teens and Technology reveals some startling statistics.

• 78% of teens now have a cell phone, and almost half (47%) of them own smartphones. That translates into 37% of all teens that have smartphones, up from just 23% in 2011.
• 23% of teens have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population.
• 95% of teens use the Internet.
• 93% of teens have a computer or have access to one at home.

With such high rates of accessibility and usage, this generation of youth is like no other seen before. Tapscott (2001) dubbed this generation the Net Generation or Net-Geners. He claims that they differ from previous generations in both brain and social development. Current research indicates that when neural connections are made in the most used parts of the brain during early childhood, they continue on into adulthood. The digital influence has made the Net-Geners more visually acute, more spatially aware and also more easily distracted. Social media may play a large roll in distractions as this generation is more connected and has the ability to communicate with each other on demand. From whatever perspective you look at it, there is no denying that this generation of youth thinks and acts differently than those before them. In her eBook, Educating the Net Generation, Oblinger (2005) asks a critical question about the effects this has on education. “If the Net Generation values experiential learning, working in teams, and social networking, what are the implications for classrooms and the overall learning environment?” (Oblinger, 2005, p. 1.4).

The Changing Face of Schools

School districts, parents and educators alike are beginning to accept the Net-Geners way of thinking and as such, changes are being made in education. Computational hardware in the form of desktop computers and tablets is being injected into classrooms across North America. Districts have re-evaluated the student use of smartphones in class and are beginning to accept it and encourage it with initiatives such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Constructivist principles founded on collaboration and inquiry-based learning is at the forefront of discussion and instructional practice. Although this all sounds encouraging, you may be asking yourself, what is the problem? The problem used to be not having Internet access and insufficient hardware but this problem is almost all but obsolete. The problem now is that there is insufficient training and professional development provided to teachers to implement these new technologies successfully. Mobile devices are all around us and could benefit the teaching and learning of STEM education in so many different ways. Although there is a plethora of software and mobile apps geared towards education, I have decided to focus on a technology that utilizes both computer generated software and mobile devices in the form of iPads. My specific focus will be exploring Apple’s iBooks Author and its potential in the delivery and content creation in Science 10 of the B.C. curriculum.

References:

Anderson, J. R. (1993). Rules of the mind, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

Confrey, J. (1990). A Review of the Research on Student Conceptions in Mathematics, Science, and Programming. American Educational Research Association, Vol. 16, pp. 3-56.

Edelson, D. ( 2001). Learning-forUse: A Framework for the Design of Technology-Supported Inquiry Activities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 38, NO. 3, PP. 355-385.

Madden, M. (2013). Teens and Technology 2013. PEW Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved from

Oblinger D. (2005). Educating the Net Generation. Educause: Transforming Education through Information Technologies. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101.pdf

Tapscott, D. (2009). Growing up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing your World. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved from http://media.economist.com/media/pdf/grown-up-digital-tapscott-e.pdf

Whitehead, A.H. (1929). The Aims of Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wolfram, C., (2010, November). Teaching Kids Real Math with Computers [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html