Author David Weinberger, in his book Everything Is Miscellaneous, asks, “Suppose that now, for the first time in history, we are able to arrange our concepts without the silent limitations of the physical. How might our ideas, organization, and knowledge itself change? " This book is superb. It has kept me up a night thinking about the implications for education.
Some characteristics of the digital world are…
“…in the digital world everything is only a few clicks away.”
Or as Tom Peters
would say, “Distance is dead.” Students can use the web to instantly
reach out to any part of the planet to talk with people, or find
information on anything that interests them, or collaborate on
projects. They can work with the person at the desk next to them or a
student on the other side of the globe. Information, once warehoused in
libraries, is now a few clicks away.
“Instead of being the
same way for all people, it can instantly rearrange itself for each
person and each person’s current task.”
It is not
possible to differentiate instruction and learning to the level that is
possible when a student does it for their self. The web will make it
(makes it) possible to match a student with his or her interest and
ability far easier than one teacher alone could. Each click brings the
student just what they need in the way they need it. Learning that is
truly customized and differentiated on demand. The digital world will
bend to your needs when you want it, where you want it, and how you
want it. That is the future of education!
“Instead of being
limited by space and operational simplicity in the number of items it
can stock, the digital world can include every item and variation…”
The
digital world will provide a near infinite number of resources and
combinations of resources that the physical realm of the school or
classroom cannot provide. These digital resources can do what no
classroom resources can do. They can remain current, right up to the
minute. They can be interactive and participatory. They can be easily
edited, modified, and shared. They take up no space. They can be
replaced with something better or different with a click. What textbook
can do that?
“…they (items) can be classified in every different category in which users might conceivably expect to find them.”
Infinite
subjects unbounded by budget, space, and availability, combined in
infinite ways. Unmatched variety. Best of all, the digital world avails
it self to being searched unlike the physical world. In the physical
world you have to know exactly what you are looking for. In the digital
world you search or stumble across what you are looking for because
there are so many ways to find it. For example a student working in
social studies can use the index of his or her book or look a shelf of
books in the library. But, the same student can search the digital way
using tags that come to his or her mind. Students can search by Egypt,
ancient history, pharaohs, the Nile, ancient Africa, the pyramids, etc.
“Instead of living in
the neat, ordered shelves…items can be jumbled digitally and sorted out
only when and how a user wants to look for them.”
The
digital world allows a student access to virtually unlimited amounts of
resources that can be discovered any way the student chooses to think
about the subject. Going back to the social studies example, a student
can search for pyramids when thinking about ancient Egypt, but the same
student can search pyramids when thinking about architecture, or
geometric shapes. It is all how the student chooses to approach the
subject and the digital world allows them to access resources though
multiple routes.
Teachers, does this align with your educational model? We have some thinking to do.
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