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Abstract

information available to most American citizens pretty much instantly. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to mean much for schools in terms of making more effective use of available time for student engagement.</p><p id="e5f8">Many schools and teachers make use of the Internet to supplement lessons, and some have moved away from traditional textbooks in favor of web-based materials. Some teachers try to leverage web-based information to tap into things they hope will make lessons more engaging for students. They are, however, missing opportunities to use this access to personalize instruction for each student or to challenge students to think and drive their own learning.</p><p id="a1e9">Once again, to their credit, our students demonstrate their patience and ability to comply by agreeing to learn facts and figures while knowing that finding the capital of Vermont is only ever an Alexa, Google, or Siri request away. While there is value in having certain knowledge committed to memory, which knowledge deserves memorization is highly debatable. Further, the vast majority of people will not retain most of the facts and figures they learn while in school. Rather, they will retain those that have personal meaning or have some ongoing value. As quoted in Philipp Frank’s biography, Albert Einstein said, “The value of an education . . . is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”</p><h1 id="dbf8">History as more than dates and places</h1><p id="f422">As noted in the prologue, even the Committee of Ten conference on history, civil government, and political economy didn’t believe memorizing facts was the chief object of historical study. Rather, they said it was, “the training of the judgment, in selecting the grounds of an opinion, in accumulating materials for an opinion, in putting things together, in generalizing upon facts, in estimating character, in applying the lessons of history to current events, and in accustoming children to state their conclusions in their own words.” (National Education Association, 2017, p. 170) The other conferences made similar points about developing valuable skills rather than just being taught information.</p><p id="ef8d">In effect, they wanted students to learn how to think critically using lessons from history. Doing this, however, requires personalizing the activities. As noted previously, these skills cannot simply be taught; they must be applied to situations that are meaningful while a trusted adult guides the student through probing questions and various prompts.</p><h1 id="9007">Discernment and analysis of information sources</h1><p id="a5a3">One of the tertiary skills that students must develop is discernment, specifically in the area of information access. Students must learn to analyze sources of information to determine whether they can be trusted to be accurate, objective, and factual. This is a form of critical thinking and, once again, it is not enough to teach students what a trustworthy website looks like or some checklist for validating information; the Internet and all its sites change too rapidly. Students need to learn and practice the concepts and processes they can use to validate information they access.</p><p id="5961">Fortunately, the same information access that requires students to develop these skills can be a tool for doing so and personalizing it for each student. Every student is unique, so they do not share universal interests. While we may develop a lesson that will engage many students, it is unlikely we will find something that engages all students, and certainly not one that will engage them all deeply and meaningfully.</p><h1 id="08b3">Appropriate use of technology</h1><p id="5682">Beyond leveraging available information to personalize and make educational experiences more effective, we must ensure stud

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ents develop skills in assessing and using technology appropriately and safely. As with Internet access, students can’t simply be taught what constitutes appropriate and safe use of technology or rely on some sort of checklist. Students must understand the principles that determine what is appropriate, and these are not absolute. They must have opportunities to consider these principles, discuss them, and even debate them. Otherwise, students will adhere to dictated rules and principles when necessary and then ignore them when no one is looking.</p><p id="f89a">In addition, when we restrict student access to technology (such as their personal devices) and the wealth of available information, we are being hypocritical. Students know the technology and information are there and readily accessible, and they know schools are supposed to prepare them to live in the world of the twenty-first century. Yet the schools don’t trust the students to use technology responsibly. The schools say they want the students to be responsible and that they respect and trust the students, but then they set up rules and consequences to force them to comply or establish filters and walls that limit what the students can access.</p><p id="0ffd">Most students determine that, as with other rules and restrictions put in place by schools, the easiest option is to comply. This, of course, contributes to points made in previous chapters about the ways our schools create a compliant generation of adults and the downsides of doing so.</p><p id="ca6b">Further, when technology use and information access are limited in school, students will instead access the technology mostly in unsupervised, less restricted settings with no one present to serve as a guide. This is why students must have opportunities to practice critical thinking skills. Students need access to technology and information so they can practice critical thinking under the guiding hand of a trusted teacher and mentor.</p><p id="b170">As with personal financial literacy, many schools add lessons on using the Internet with a focus on safety and differentiating objective, fact-based information from biased and false information. As with financial literacy, teaching this has a limited effect. For it to be learned and retained, this critical thinking must be practiced in ways that are meaningful to the students, which requires unique learning opportunities for each student. Consequently, use of technology and the Internet can become both a means and an end for helping students develop critical thinking skills.</p><p id="8d84"><b>Continue with the next element of Know Power, Know Responsibility (Chapter 13), here:</b></p><div id="7a8b" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/know-power-know-responsibility-how-to-unleash-the-potential-of-every-child-in-america-24271efd099c"> <div> <div> <h2>Know Power, Know Responsibility: How to unleash the potential of every child in America</h2> <div><h3>Part 1 — Chapter 13: How People Learn and Are Motivated</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*S9lGoloC55rVs0YN4CVggA.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="d1ba"><i>Kevin Miller is a Boomer who joined the Army during the Cold War and continues to serve. He has spent 30-plus years working in K-12 education as a teacher, administrator, and consultant and is now on a mission to reinvent our school model. His book <b>Know Power, Know Responsibility</b> provides the imperatives for a complete redesign of schools and the way to get there. See his website <a href="http://knowresponsibility.com/">knowresponsibility.com</a> to learn more.</i></p></article></body>

Know Power, Know Responsibility: How to unleash the potential of every child in America

Part 1 — Chapter 12: Technology and Instant Access to Nearly Unlimited Information

Author’s Note: I will publish additional sections of this book each week. You can find previously posted sections at the following links: Note to Parents of School-Age Children and Note to Teachers, School Administrators, and Other School Staff here; Introduction here; Prologues Part 1 and 2 here; Prologues Part 3 and 4 here; Part 1-Chapters 0 and 1 here; Chapter 2 here; Chapter 3 here; Chapter 4 here; Chapters 5 and 6 here; Chapter 7 here, Chapter 8 here, Chapter 9 here, Chapter 10 here, and Chapter 11 here.

CHAPTER 12 — Technology and Instant Access to Nearly Unlimited Information

Technology, and the instant access to information it provides, is both a reason that students must have opportunities to practice critical thinking skills and a means of providing that practice. We need a school model that fosters critical thinking through and due to the abundance of information.

According to a September 30, 2015, article on the Forbes website, more data had been created in the previous two years than in the previous history of the human race. (Marr, 2018) The amount of data that exists in information systems around the world and the data shared among people and systems is now discussed in exabytes (one billion gigabytes) and zettabytes (one trillion gigabytes). According to YouTube, one billion hours of videos are watched every day. (YouTube, 2018)

There is an inconceivable amount of information available to most American citizens pretty much instantly. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to mean much for schools in terms of making more effective use of available time for student engagement.

Many schools and teachers make use of the Internet to supplement lessons, and some have moved away from traditional textbooks in favor of web-based materials. Some teachers try to leverage web-based information to tap into things they hope will make lessons more engaging for students. They are, however, missing opportunities to use this access to personalize instruction for each student or to challenge students to think and drive their own learning.

Once again, to their credit, our students demonstrate their patience and ability to comply by agreeing to learn facts and figures while knowing that finding the capital of Vermont is only ever an Alexa, Google, or Siri request away. While there is value in having certain knowledge committed to memory, which knowledge deserves memorization is highly debatable. Further, the vast majority of people will not retain most of the facts and figures they learn while in school. Rather, they will retain those that have personal meaning or have some ongoing value. As quoted in Philipp Frank’s biography, Albert Einstein said, “The value of an education . . . is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”

History as more than dates and places

As noted in the prologue, even the Committee of Ten conference on history, civil government, and political economy didn’t believe memorizing facts was the chief object of historical study. Rather, they said it was, “the training of the judgment, in selecting the grounds of an opinion, in accumulating materials for an opinion, in putting things together, in generalizing upon facts, in estimating character, in applying the lessons of history to current events, and in accustoming children to state their conclusions in their own words.” (National Education Association, 2017, p. 170) The other conferences made similar points about developing valuable skills rather than just being taught information.

In effect, they wanted students to learn how to think critically using lessons from history. Doing this, however, requires personalizing the activities. As noted previously, these skills cannot simply be taught; they must be applied to situations that are meaningful while a trusted adult guides the student through probing questions and various prompts.

Discernment and analysis of information sources

One of the tertiary skills that students must develop is discernment, specifically in the area of information access. Students must learn to analyze sources of information to determine whether they can be trusted to be accurate, objective, and factual. This is a form of critical thinking and, once again, it is not enough to teach students what a trustworthy website looks like or some checklist for validating information; the Internet and all its sites change too rapidly. Students need to learn and practice the concepts and processes they can use to validate information they access.

Fortunately, the same information access that requires students to develop these skills can be a tool for doing so and personalizing it for each student. Every student is unique, so they do not share universal interests. While we may develop a lesson that will engage many students, it is unlikely we will find something that engages all students, and certainly not one that will engage them all deeply and meaningfully.

Appropriate use of technology

Beyond leveraging available information to personalize and make educational experiences more effective, we must ensure students develop skills in assessing and using technology appropriately and safely. As with Internet access, students can’t simply be taught what constitutes appropriate and safe use of technology or rely on some sort of checklist. Students must understand the principles that determine what is appropriate, and these are not absolute. They must have opportunities to consider these principles, discuss them, and even debate them. Otherwise, students will adhere to dictated rules and principles when necessary and then ignore them when no one is looking.

In addition, when we restrict student access to technology (such as their personal devices) and the wealth of available information, we are being hypocritical. Students know the technology and information are there and readily accessible, and they know schools are supposed to prepare them to live in the world of the twenty-first century. Yet the schools don’t trust the students to use technology responsibly. The schools say they want the students to be responsible and that they respect and trust the students, but then they set up rules and consequences to force them to comply or establish filters and walls that limit what the students can access.

Most students determine that, as with other rules and restrictions put in place by schools, the easiest option is to comply. This, of course, contributes to points made in previous chapters about the ways our schools create a compliant generation of adults and the downsides of doing so.

Further, when technology use and information access are limited in school, students will instead access the technology mostly in unsupervised, less restricted settings with no one present to serve as a guide. This is why students must have opportunities to practice critical thinking skills. Students need access to technology and information so they can practice critical thinking under the guiding hand of a trusted teacher and mentor.

As with personal financial literacy, many schools add lessons on using the Internet with a focus on safety and differentiating objective, fact-based information from biased and false information. As with financial literacy, teaching this has a limited effect. For it to be learned and retained, this critical thinking must be practiced in ways that are meaningful to the students, which requires unique learning opportunities for each student. Consequently, use of technology and the Internet can become both a means and an end for helping students develop critical thinking skills.

Continue with the next element of Know Power, Know Responsibility (Chapter 13), here:

Know Power, Know Responsibility: How to unleash the potential of every child in America

Part 1 — Chapter 13: How People Learn and Are Motivated

medium.com

Kevin Miller is a Boomer who joined the Army during the Cold War and continues to serve. He has spent 30-plus years working in K-12 education as a teacher, administrator, and consultant and is now on a mission to reinvent our school model. His book Know Power, Know Responsibility provides the imperatives for a complete redesign of schools and the way to get there. See his website knowresponsibility.com to learn more.