Reflection: Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology Chapter 5

What has changed on my thinking on technology in regards to education is the level of autonomy that the world is achieving away from the “brick and mortar school.” I guess I have noticed in the past the level on increased opportunities for learning outside schools, but reading this section brought it all together for me. One of the surprising aspects that I found out was that home school children tend to do better on tests overall than traditional universal schooling students. I can see how that the parents acting like a coach, as the authors describe, can be effective in getting their children to learn. However, I think that there is some limitation when it comes to working with more specialized content; I think that coaching can only go so far and there comes a time when more specialized experience is needed in the child’s education. I also agree with the fear that by having more and more students outside the universal school there is a risk of losing the shared identity in American culture. Polarization seems to be growing and I think this may increase it to some degree. Something else I didn’t realize to the degree that companies will seek to train future employees or current employees in the community to have them trained for their needs. I had heard of a number of companies in Milwaukee investing money into training students in the tech ed. and trades programs in Milwaukee schools, but I didn’t know it was a national trend. Another thing that I learned from this chapter is that since there is a growing autonomy of older students, middle school and high school, more and more may be turned off from traditional schooling or move into virtual schools. As a future secondary teacher this is definitely a concern. Unless I can make my teaching relevant and engaging my students may have the option to leave.

I think one of the ways that this new thinking will affect my future teaching is that I will definitely have to focus on making my teaching effective for students and be addressing their future needs. If students can have the option of leaving to attend a virtual school they may ask “why do I need to be here if I am not learning anything I will ever use”.  So I feel it will be an important part of my job to illustrate to them why something is important, and more importantly get them to feel the same way.