“On such a flat earth, the most important attribute you can have is creative imagination – the ability to be the first on your block to figure out how all these enabling tools can be put together in new and exciting ways to create products, communities, opportunities, and profits. That has always been America’s strength, because America was, and for now still is, the world’s greatest dream machine.”
This quote, as stated by Thomas Friedman on page 571 in the second to last paragraph of his conclusion greatly stuck out to me. If America is the world’s greatest dream machine, how can we keep it that way? Most importantly, how can we as educators, educate out children to be the keepers of our dream machine?
Although yes, America still has some of the greatest creative minds in the world. But, after reading Friedman’s book, I have come to the conclusion that the world is flattening so fast that we may one day not be the world’s greatest dream machine. To keep up with this incredible pace, we as educators need to stay up to date on the latest forms of technology. We need to tap into our creative potential and use technology in the classroom. Without technology, our students will be lost in society.
Bill Gates states on pages 464 and 465 that there is a trap that about 3 million people are caught in. These people may never experience more health, more wealth and more education as those who are participating in the flattening forces of the earth. He is worried that it could be just half of the world that is flat and that it will stay that way for generations to come. If we as Americans have some of the most creative minds in the world, teachers need to nurture and feed those minds. Our students need to develop creative ways to get these 3 million out of the trap they’re in. How can teachers, and students join forces with the other parts of the world and catch them up on the flattening forces that we already participate in?
With the despair of 9/11 still lingering over our society, I think that the trust across cultures has been broken. But, trust is one of the most essential components in a flat society because you are working with people who you have never met and you most likely will potentially NEVER meet. This thought is a scary one to me. It made me think, how could I collaborate with someone who I have never seen face-to-face? Do I know or will I ever know if this person is really who they say they are? This is where trust comes in. As a society, we need to work to rebuild the trust that has been torn down. Friedman states that there are two ways to flatten the world:
1. Use our imaginations to bring everyone up to the same level and,
2. Use our imaginations to bring everyone down to the same level.
It is essential that we bring everyone up to the same level. Why would we want to bring individuals down with disappointment and anger. Bring people in society down to a different level will only backtrack the work that we are trying to do, which could potentially un-flatten the earth.
The flattening of the earth is not necessarily a bad thing, but we need to use our creativity for good and not evil.
And one last question I had:
With advances in technology, if you are not up to date, can you ever be caught up or will you always be lingering behind the rest of society?
Friday, May 25, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Educating into a Flattening Society
As I was reading, I kept coming back to one of the questions from my first blog:
• If society is really “flattening” could schools “flatten” as well? Meaning, would the need for the four walls of a classroom be eliminated? Could you simply learn from an online teacher or sit in front of a screen with 500 other children and learn? If so – at what age would this begin? (To do this, children must be able to read and write right?)
To my dismay, Part 2: America and the Flat World, included a great amount of information about education and the role it plays in society today in relation to the flattening world. I think that I came across the beginning of my answer on page 375 when Friedman states; “We have not even begun to tap the potential of putting the lectures of great teachers on video. Why suffer trough bad teachers when a great teacher is just a flat screen away?” How have we as teachers been reduced to bad? What types of teachers are they speaking of and what grade levels does this include? The book goes on to explain that education can go on anywhere whether it’s in a book, on a screen or on an IPOD. Educators must understand that teaching can’t stop, it must continue anyplace, anywhere because the competition has gotten so strong that we must do anything to compete with the other countries in the world.
I came up with some more questions for others to think about in relation to changing education in relation to society flattening:
• How can we as educators bring our education up to a higher standard?
• We see that a sound education includes reading comprehension, writing, arithmetic, and basic science – but what about the arts that instill creativity? How do we include those as subjects in a sound education when we are faced with budget cuts and lack of funding?
As our society flattens, we see more and more jobs moving towards the technical field. Students from China and India are taking many of these jobs. The gap is narrowing and soon, we will not know the meaning of an “American job”, it will then be a “world job”.
As a culture, we are still producing some of the most creative scientists an engineers, but this is not enough. It is shown that the foundational knowledge needed in science and mathematics is of a higher standard in China or India, but in America, the creativity in higher education is of a higher standard. These creative outlets are teaching students to be independent thinkers and interpret ideas in new and creative ways. As educators, we need to learn how to broaden our education to a higher standard without loosing the pieces of the puzzle that instill this creative and original thinking. America needs to begin to once again become the competitor and learn how to dominate in the field of technology education.
To do this, educators need to learn how to make the science, math and technology disciplines interesting and fun. They need to be integrated into the curriculum at a young age. If students realize that the fundamentals are interesting and exciting to learn, we may have more math and science students than we do today. As I was reading I came across a conversation that Thomas Friedman had with Eric Stern on pages 337 and 338. Stern was stating that college freshman aren’t interested in basic chemistry classes because the “fundamentals” are boring to learn, but once you get to the advanced classes, this is when the fun begins to happen. From past experience, and being a science major as a college freshman that continued through my junior year, yes, I agree, the fundamentals are boring. But, I had good teachers who instilled the basic fundamentals within my high school education. This made sitting through basic math and science classes more bearable, I know that there was light at the end of the rainbow, that these classes would get better – and they did, I just realized that I needed career change☺. This conversation really stuck out for me, because I started relating it back to my past educational experiences. I hope that I can take what I have read and put it into practice. I want to be the kind of teacher that instills this fun and excitement into their children. Whether it is science, math, reading, writing, music or art, I would hope that I could integrate them into a curriculum that produces those independent and creative thinkers that Eric Stern talks about.
As educators, the education that we provide shapes the students we are teaching. We need to realize that from this education comes character building as well. Although we want to up our education in math and science to a higher standard by incorporating the arts into the curriculum, we need to teach our students the fundamentals of good character as well – who wants boring workers? As our society flattens and changes, we want innovators who are creative, energetic and passionate about the jobs that they complete, but this directly comes from the teachers that teach them. In looking back at the beginning of my blog – I know that we shouldn’t be reduced to “bad” teachers, so as educators we need to do everything in our power to disprove what was written. Education shouldn’t move towards a screen, then the character building in teaching becomes eliminated. How do we come to a compromise in a flattening society?
In closing, on page 376, Friedman quotes Bill Brody stating, “ We are in a global talent search, so anything we can do in America to get those top draft choices we should do, because one of them is going to be Babe Ruth, and why should we let him or her go somewhere else?”
But, lets do this without forgetting fundamentals and creativity, as educators, lets do this right – in a classroom as the “good” teachers we know we are!
• If society is really “flattening” could schools “flatten” as well? Meaning, would the need for the four walls of a classroom be eliminated? Could you simply learn from an online teacher or sit in front of a screen with 500 other children and learn? If so – at what age would this begin? (To do this, children must be able to read and write right?)
To my dismay, Part 2: America and the Flat World, included a great amount of information about education and the role it plays in society today in relation to the flattening world. I think that I came across the beginning of my answer on page 375 when Friedman states; “We have not even begun to tap the potential of putting the lectures of great teachers on video. Why suffer trough bad teachers when a great teacher is just a flat screen away?” How have we as teachers been reduced to bad? What types of teachers are they speaking of and what grade levels does this include? The book goes on to explain that education can go on anywhere whether it’s in a book, on a screen or on an IPOD. Educators must understand that teaching can’t stop, it must continue anyplace, anywhere because the competition has gotten so strong that we must do anything to compete with the other countries in the world.
I came up with some more questions for others to think about in relation to changing education in relation to society flattening:
• How can we as educators bring our education up to a higher standard?
• We see that a sound education includes reading comprehension, writing, arithmetic, and basic science – but what about the arts that instill creativity? How do we include those as subjects in a sound education when we are faced with budget cuts and lack of funding?
As our society flattens, we see more and more jobs moving towards the technical field. Students from China and India are taking many of these jobs. The gap is narrowing and soon, we will not know the meaning of an “American job”, it will then be a “world job”.
As a culture, we are still producing some of the most creative scientists an engineers, but this is not enough. It is shown that the foundational knowledge needed in science and mathematics is of a higher standard in China or India, but in America, the creativity in higher education is of a higher standard. These creative outlets are teaching students to be independent thinkers and interpret ideas in new and creative ways. As educators, we need to learn how to broaden our education to a higher standard without loosing the pieces of the puzzle that instill this creative and original thinking. America needs to begin to once again become the competitor and learn how to dominate in the field of technology education.
To do this, educators need to learn how to make the science, math and technology disciplines interesting and fun. They need to be integrated into the curriculum at a young age. If students realize that the fundamentals are interesting and exciting to learn, we may have more math and science students than we do today. As I was reading I came across a conversation that Thomas Friedman had with Eric Stern on pages 337 and 338. Stern was stating that college freshman aren’t interested in basic chemistry classes because the “fundamentals” are boring to learn, but once you get to the advanced classes, this is when the fun begins to happen. From past experience, and being a science major as a college freshman that continued through my junior year, yes, I agree, the fundamentals are boring. But, I had good teachers who instilled the basic fundamentals within my high school education. This made sitting through basic math and science classes more bearable, I know that there was light at the end of the rainbow, that these classes would get better – and they did, I just realized that I needed career change☺. This conversation really stuck out for me, because I started relating it back to my past educational experiences. I hope that I can take what I have read and put it into practice. I want to be the kind of teacher that instills this fun and excitement into their children. Whether it is science, math, reading, writing, music or art, I would hope that I could integrate them into a curriculum that produces those independent and creative thinkers that Eric Stern talks about.
As educators, the education that we provide shapes the students we are teaching. We need to realize that from this education comes character building as well. Although we want to up our education in math and science to a higher standard by incorporating the arts into the curriculum, we need to teach our students the fundamentals of good character as well – who wants boring workers? As our society flattens and changes, we want innovators who are creative, energetic and passionate about the jobs that they complete, but this directly comes from the teachers that teach them. In looking back at the beginning of my blog – I know that we shouldn’t be reduced to “bad” teachers, so as educators we need to do everything in our power to disprove what was written. Education shouldn’t move towards a screen, then the character building in teaching becomes eliminated. How do we come to a compromise in a flattening society?
In closing, on page 376, Friedman quotes Bill Brody stating, “ We are in a global talent search, so anything we can do in America to get those top draft choices we should do, because one of them is going to be Babe Ruth, and why should we let him or her go somewhere else?”
But, lets do this without forgetting fundamentals and creativity, as educators, lets do this right – in a classroom as the “good” teachers we know we are!
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Part 1: How the World Became Flat
As I was reading part 1 “How the World Became Flat” of Thomas Friedman’s book, I was nearing the end of the section and one statement greatly stood out to me. On page 252, Friedman states, “Just how flat do you want corporations to be when you factor in all your different identities? Because when you take the middleman out of business, when you totally flatten your supply chain, you also take a certain element of humanity out of life”. I started wondering, how could this statement be applied to schools and education. After thinking about it for a while, I came up with a list of questions that I’d like to share to give others to think about as well.
1. How flat will schools become?
2. If society is really “flattening” could schools “flatten” as well? Meaning, would the need for the four walls of a classroom be eliminated? Could you simply learn from an online teacher or sit in front of a screen with 500 other children and learn? If so – at what age would this begin? (To do this, children must be able to read and write right?)
3. Would teachers begin outsourcing all of their grading?
4. We see online tests at universities that give instant results – would this move down into high school and possibly to the lower grades as well?
Thus far, this book has given me amazing insights into the world of technology and how it has shaped our society. Before beginning this book, I thought of technology as computers, cell phones, the Internet and some other everyday things that I really don’t think about having such a huge impact. It’s hard to remember a time when I didn’t type up a paper for school or when I didn’t use the Internet to research for projects. Having grown up in a society that had somewhat already embraced technology, I really didn’t realize the huge impact that it had everywhere else. Who knew that one day you could be sitting with 40 different corporate executives from all over the world having a meeting that you quite possibly didn’t even have to leave your house for, or working for a call center but doing it from home.
I agree with Thomas Friedman in that, yes, to a certain extent the world is becoming flat. In some aspects, technology has greatly lessened the need for business travel and also, doing some of your work yourself. The productivity of doctors and CPA’s for example has been greatly increased by outsourcing. I believe that one day, teachers will outsource their work as well. Imagine how much time could be saved if you had your own personal grader somewhere in the world? As a teacher you would have more time for curriculum planning, spending time with your students and not to mention – sleep! But, with outsourcing of information, comes the elimination of positions in general. It all begins with outsourcing, the moves to students learning completely from a television screen or from their computer over the Internet. With this, there is the possibility of teachers above first grade being eliminated. These children who know how to read and write could sit in front of a television with many other children their age and virtually learn. There could be a proctor of some sort that manages the classroom. With budget cuts, imagine how much money that would save! Instead of paying a teachers salary, proctoring would probably be a minimum wage job, with less hours.
Now – don’t misunderstand me. I think that this would be a HORRIBLE idea. It would take the love and excitement out of learning and children would miss the vital aspects that education has to offer – socialization, a sense of community, friendships, hands on learning, the list really could go on forever. But, I’m just trying to put the book into perspective and look to the long run. If technology has made this much of an impact on our society already through large corporations and the government, which realm is it going to move through next. As a future educator, I hope that we can embrace technology and use it to our advantage, but not let it take over our existence.
1. How flat will schools become?
2. If society is really “flattening” could schools “flatten” as well? Meaning, would the need for the four walls of a classroom be eliminated? Could you simply learn from an online teacher or sit in front of a screen with 500 other children and learn? If so – at what age would this begin? (To do this, children must be able to read and write right?)
3. Would teachers begin outsourcing all of their grading?
4. We see online tests at universities that give instant results – would this move down into high school and possibly to the lower grades as well?
Thus far, this book has given me amazing insights into the world of technology and how it has shaped our society. Before beginning this book, I thought of technology as computers, cell phones, the Internet and some other everyday things that I really don’t think about having such a huge impact. It’s hard to remember a time when I didn’t type up a paper for school or when I didn’t use the Internet to research for projects. Having grown up in a society that had somewhat already embraced technology, I really didn’t realize the huge impact that it had everywhere else. Who knew that one day you could be sitting with 40 different corporate executives from all over the world having a meeting that you quite possibly didn’t even have to leave your house for, or working for a call center but doing it from home.
I agree with Thomas Friedman in that, yes, to a certain extent the world is becoming flat. In some aspects, technology has greatly lessened the need for business travel and also, doing some of your work yourself. The productivity of doctors and CPA’s for example has been greatly increased by outsourcing. I believe that one day, teachers will outsource their work as well. Imagine how much time could be saved if you had your own personal grader somewhere in the world? As a teacher you would have more time for curriculum planning, spending time with your students and not to mention – sleep! But, with outsourcing of information, comes the elimination of positions in general. It all begins with outsourcing, the moves to students learning completely from a television screen or from their computer over the Internet. With this, there is the possibility of teachers above first grade being eliminated. These children who know how to read and write could sit in front of a television with many other children their age and virtually learn. There could be a proctor of some sort that manages the classroom. With budget cuts, imagine how much money that would save! Instead of paying a teachers salary, proctoring would probably be a minimum wage job, with less hours.
Now – don’t misunderstand me. I think that this would be a HORRIBLE idea. It would take the love and excitement out of learning and children would miss the vital aspects that education has to offer – socialization, a sense of community, friendships, hands on learning, the list really could go on forever. But, I’m just trying to put the book into perspective and look to the long run. If technology has made this much of an impact on our society already through large corporations and the government, which realm is it going to move through next. As a future educator, I hope that we can embrace technology and use it to our advantage, but not let it take over our existence.
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