Thing #5

When I read the blog posts from the list, I was struck by two specifically. The first was Web 2.0 is the Future of Education. This post gave me some food for thought. We truly are in the midst of a "tidal wave of information." There is so much out there for us find. It is overwhelming for me at times. As a future teacher, I am a bit concerned if the traditional teaching model will even be needed in the next 10 years. I truly believe that teachers will always be needed but our roles are changing. We will be more of a facilitator rather than a lecturer. This is the transition from traditional schools to School 2.0. We will move forward into this age of quickly accessible knowledge and teachers will be needed to guide their students through this process. We can help them navigate and decipher what information is important and what is not. I believe that the schools of the future will be much more fluid that the schools of today. There will be more collaboration between educators and more opportunities for students with different learning styles to truly blossom. It won't be students simply regurgitating facts from a book. Schools in the future will have the student exploring different ways to solve problems by using the limitless information that they find online and teachers will facilitate this kind of learning. 

My vision for the schools was partly shaped by another blog post that we were asked to read. In the blog post, When memorization gets in the way of learning, the blogger revealed how much he hated memorization. Students get so focused on memorizing equations and facts that they never really understand why it is important to know the stuff in the first place. How is the information relevant to their life?  That is way more important than memorizing some equation or theory. Hopefully, more teachers will begin to think this way in the schools of the future.