Did you mean Mesopotamia?
In this week's Thursday Techlearning post, I consider the role of content in a comtemporary 2006 education. Do we really need to study Mesopotamia-I couldn't even spell it (no worries-we've got Google, right?). And do biology teachers really need to spend 8 class periods having kids memorizing characteristics of biomes? When was the last time you were asked to name a representative plant and animal from the tundra? From the taiga? Or from the temperate decidious forest? How long would that take to find on the Web? Consider that a challenge-ready, set, go...I'll bet you can do it in under 10 seconds.
When will we start teaching people and stop "covering" content?
Something's gotta give. Yes, we have standards and high-stakes testing. We can do better than biomes and Me-so-po-tam-ia.
Read the post at Techlearning.com
David Jakes publishes every Thursday at Techlearning. See his T+L posts here and meet the rest of the T+L Blogerati.
When will we start teaching people and stop "covering" content?
Something's gotta give. Yes, we have standards and high-stakes testing. We can do better than biomes and Me-so-po-tam-ia.
Read the post at Techlearning.com
David Jakes publishes every Thursday at Techlearning. See his T+L posts here and meet the rest of the T+L Blogerati.
posted by David @ 8:22 PM
1 Comments:
At 10:07 PM ,
Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher said...
There is a fine line between teaching kids to think and just covering content.
We must, however, create educated people. When the Internet comes crashing down, students need to know something without having to be Google regurgitators. They need to process, add to their knowledge base and learn from history so that it does not repeat itself. This comes from great teaching not just the old school methods of lecture, worksheet, lecture, review, test.
You have good points. I for one think some of the items you've mentioned are important to know. Interesting thoughts.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home