Sunday, May 11, 2008

Is this the future of education?


Courtesy Dangerously Irrelevant.

This video reminded me of last year, when I wanted to create a MySpace account for my current and former students, with strict controls enabled so that I had complete power over what would happen. I didn't want to get myself or my students into any trouble, as I had heard horror stories from both sides of schools coming down on seemingly innocuous things posted on social networking sites.

I was told by my campus IT person that since they couldn't control it, and of course it was also a banned website (which obviously meant it had no educational value), that I couldn't do it. I guess I could have done it anyway, but at the time I was just starting at the school and trying to dig in for the long haul.

I like the idea of students creating various types of media and content and sharing it online. I do thing that will be a big part of the future of education. If you're looking for ways to get started, you have to visit Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day, which is geared towards ESL, ELL and EFL teachers but is really meant for every teacher. Each day he posts numerous sites where students can easily create all sorts of content, as well as places to post things and collaborate online. Just reading it will provide all sorts of inspiration.

One thing does bother me about the video, though: it was created by the Pearson Foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of Pearson, who also happen to be the authors of the TAKS. *shudder*