I recently heard a prominent superintendent from Maryland ask, “if you can find it on Google, then why teach it?” He went on to note that it is not wrong to teach something found on the Internet, but that this critical question should be considered before asking students to learn (usually memorize) certain content. After hearing this, my mind immediately jumped to the time I observed a class quiz that asked students how many soldiers died in the US Civil War? Was it 625,000, 500,000 or 475,000? A Google search will find you the answer in less than 10 seconds. It is 625,000, although this number is disputed making knowledge of this fact dubious.
Six years ago none of our schools had wireless networks. Today, all of them do. Each year (or is it every day?) our dependence on accessing information through the Internet increases. Our challenge is how to ensure that our teachers’ instruction takes full advantage of this resource as a way to provide time for higher order learning that is more readily achieved through interpersonal communication. And herein lies the rub- we must have a robust level of connectivity at each of our schools to make accessing information a seamless part of a student’s schooling experience. Not all of our schools have such connectivity. There is a bill in the AK Legislature (HB179) that would help us increase our bandwidth, and also a proposed federal increase to E-Rate funding that would do the same. If you get the opportunity, please support these two items, their passage will benefit our students. Let’s continue to learn how to utilize the web to assist our students’ learning.
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Increasing Bandwidth
I recently heard a prominent superintendent from Maryland ask, “if you can find it on Google, then why teach it?” He went on to note that it is not wrong to teach something found on the Internet, but that this critical question should be considered before asking students to learn (usually memorize) certain content. After hearing this, my mind immediately jumped to the time I observed a class quiz that asked students how many soldiers died in the US Civil War? Was it 625,000, 500,000 or 475,000? A Google search will find you the answer in less than 10 seconds. It is 625,000, although this number is disputed making knowledge of this fact dubious.
Six years ago none of our schools had wireless networks. Today, all of them do. Each year (or is it every day?) our dependence on accessing information through the Internet increases. Our challenge is how to ensure that our teachers’ instruction takes full advantage of this resource as a way to provide time for higher order learning that is more readily achieved through interpersonal communication. And herein lies the rub- we must have a robust level of connectivity at each of our schools to make accessing information a seamless part of a student’s schooling experience. Not all of our schools have such connectivity. There is a bill in the AK Legislature (HB179) that would help us increase our bandwidth, and also a proposed federal increase to E-Rate funding that would do the same. If you get the opportunity, please support these two items, their passage will benefit our students. Let’s continue to learn how to utilize the web to assist our students’ learning.