Snow Day in South Dakota . . . Time to Kick Back . . Reflect

[Fred Deutsch]

At Connie's invitation, I'm cross-posting a few things from my school-board blog (www.school-of-thought.net). I wrote this wintery-day post this morning:
After last night’s blizzard-abbreviated budget work session and a quick call to my worried wife, we decided it was safer to spend a few bucks on a room in town rather than try to drive home in near-zero visibility and 40 mph wind gusts (I live in the country, outside of town). So after a quick stop to the office to pick up my newest book, David Warlick’s Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century, I headed over to the hotel, propped up some pillows on the bed and cracked open Warlick’s book.

This morning I’m kicking-back at my computer, sipping on my Creme Brulee-flavored coffee, and thinking about Warlick’s words.

The guy inspires me. The man is a visionary . . . a futurist of sorts. And he calls on educators everywhere to take up the mantle do the same.

Here is a favorite paragraph from his introduction that I meditated on and read repeatedly while tucked in my cozy little hotel room last night:

Our job, as educators, is to prepare our students for their futures. This job today is especially challenging, because, for the first time in history, we cannot clearly describe the future for which we are preparing our children. Our world and the information that describes it are changing too quickly. The very nature of information is changing: how you find it, what it looks like, the way it behaves, where it comes from, what you do with it, and how we, as authors, create it.

What I like about Warlick’s statement is that it’s a really big picture idea that applies not only to educators, but also to administrators, school boards, and essentially to all of society. It’s a statement about a vision for the future, but also provides a backdrop for the natural tension that exists as we grapple as a society about where we want to go with education. Clearly, not everyone believes Mr. Warlick. Some in our communities believe that if 20th Century literacies were good enough for them, it should be good enough for their children. And if sitting in classrooms with desks arranged in straight rows, attentively listening to their teacher lecture, adequately prepared them and the generations before them to function and compete in the world, why consider changing? These are the issues that school board members face everyday as we deliberate community values about the vision and direction of education in our school districts.

Warlick’s book is a great read — one that I’ll be adding to my sidebar of Sweet-16 Recommended Books for School Board Members. It provides us a window to look through, and provides food for thought about how we’ll prepare our children for the world to come.

[Fred Deutsch]

Hello Connie and Mike. I'm answering your posts using DragonDictate. This is the first time I've not used my fingers to communicate via the computer. This technology stuff is just blowing me away.

Yes, Connie, I enjoyed reading the Warlick's book. Mike, it sounds like you are also read it. What did you think about it?

I enjoyed reading books by people like a Warlick who seem to have some vision about the future as well as a passionate about education. One of the jobs of school board member is to provide vision for the district and people like a Warlick help make that job a little easier.

Yes, Connie, I agree with you. The best way to learn is to do. Unfortunately, since everything I do on the computer is self-taught and I don't have a great deal of time, I've not yet explored the other Web 2.0 tools such as twitter, delicious, et cetera. I just blogged, and now ninged!

Concerning your question answering "if it was good enough for us, it should be good enough for them,"
I think one way to answer that is by trying to get the person to look at how technology has changed in their lives either through uses at home or at work.

Iif you can get a person to simply realize that the world is very radiply changing, hopefully they can make the leap to understanding the importance of education keeping up with those changes. Some people, unfortunately, have mental blocks, and cannot accept change --
or, as Toffler said, they cannot learn, unlearned, and relearn. More later . . .

[Mike]

Hi Fred & Connie...... was like a spring day over here in southern nj :)

I enjoyed this book too Fred. We do live in amazing times. I know my kids write
much more then i did at their age.... they just do it on their phones!!

The concept of literacy is changing before our eyes and we are literally swamped with
information.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can not read or write,
but those that can not learn, un-learn, and re-learn." Alvin Toffler

Be well and stay warm.... mike

[Connie Weber]

Hi Fred,

Warlick, huh? That'll transform your brain.

And the best way to learn it is to do it. Do the 21st century learning. Use del.icio.us. Twitter. Participate in a learning community on a ning. Blog. Would you agree?

I love listening to you talk about your latest book, and listening to what others are putting up about their latest books, and seeing how it happens that interwoven themes arise...or don't... and shape our learning together as a community. I find it mind-boggling, and energizing. Thank you so much for being such a big part of the dynamics here.

this comment you made about how some people are oriented:
"If it was good enough for us, it should be good enough for them."

Well, how do we answer that? What's the argument against it? It'd be good to get down into a couple of sentences.

What I want to know, to really get, is how the ideas presented in The World is Flat are translated into what's going on with technology-and-learning. I know we have some people here who can explain it very well. I hope they speak up. I can't remember that Warlick book--what does he say about the global learning that's necessary now?

(I hope it's ok to react to your blog post this way. Very interested in what you learned on what you is a snow day, for me is a tornado watch!)

Enjoy--be safe and sheltered from the storm!