Reading the Media Education article byBuckingham, I am struck by one of the statements made. Buckingham discusses the changes in society in which children are growing up in; specifically a transformation in the social and cultural experiences of young people. With this shift in youth Buckingham expresses the fact that education has not changed greatly over this period of time; "classroom od today would be easily recognizable to the pioneers of public education of the mid-nineteenth century."
Due to this stability of education and the transformation of the environment youth encounter, Buckingham argues that there is a "widening gap between young people's worlds outside school and their experiences in the classroom."
Do you agree with this statement? Is it becoming more difficult to connect the classroom experiences to the real world?
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7 comments:
I think I would agree that there IS a widening gap between many young people's realities outside school and their experiences in the classroom. But I don't agree that the correct move is for the classroom to follow the direction of those young people. The classroom set up of today DOES happen to be much like that of the mid 90's but it's sure a lot different from the one-room school house! And opposed to typewriters, we DO often have computers available. I think, historically, children have learned morals, values and "social correctness" at home or within their "non-school" world which was influenced more heavily by the Christian Church and it's values. Families often sent children to Sunday School even if they themselves never set foot inside the church doors. With "Post-Modernism" or whatever we are calling it (the article is kinda confusing) that influence has been removed, hospitality is becoming a lost art and children do not have as many tangible role models as part of their lives. Often school is the most constant and predictable factor within many children's lives. Therefore when Buckingham says "this ethical perspective, responsibility for making cultural, moral, or ideological judgments cannot lie with teachers alone; students must be able to work with what they have and who they are, rather than in terms of an idealized student identity that teachers might like them to adopt" I wonder where else but from teachers, will the average student learn morals and gain the wisdom that will allow them to make the discernment society will need citizens to make? What are we really teaching our students by pushing walls further and further back to allow "cultural expression"? Is our culture really something to look up to and imitate? I realize there are issues that need to be discussed, and I agree with Buckingham that "children are getting older younger"; but is this truly a good thing? Is a young classroom the best place for those issues? Though children are gaining knowledge sooner they are not necessarily maturing or putting that knowledge into positive action any sooner.
I'm sure the school system will change and be modified as our society continues to evolve through time. But without a foundational everlasting rock to hold us accountable it will only fall to pieces, and then where will we be?
Charlene,
Well said. I agree also that there is a widening gap between the student world and the classroom, but the classroom is a place of stability and safety for our students. School is a constant in an inconstant world. The gap in out there technology and classroom technology may be an area that teachers can be more proactive about, but like we discussed in last days article, teacher must not just jump to the newest and greatest technology, if it does not serve their purpose. And what is the purpose of the teacher to be? To affect young minds to make a significant impact that will change their lives. So, the bling of the technology may be necessary to keep students attention to some degree, but the teacher must keep the higher purpose of making a difference at the forefront.
My bits for today.
"widening gap between young people's worlds outside school and their experiences in the classroom."
I do agree with this statement, I think that the best learning is through experience "learning by doing" although schools are preparing students in all subject areas so that they are prep when they come out to the society. However, for example just because we learn about marketing it doesn't mean that we know how to market something in the real world.
And I think that it is becoming harder to connect classroom experiences to the real world because we are not implementing real world situations into the classroom. We do have simulations that can help to close the gap but then not many schools do use simulations, at least, at the moment.
Buckingham also stated "In this context, it is hardly surprising if children perceive schooling as marginal to their identities and concerns — or at best as a kind of functional chore"
And I think this happens because all students care about are the grades they get out of the course. They may learn something in school but then because after they wrote the test and finished with the course itself they no longer ponder about it and that knowledge becomes inert. A lot of times, students take schooling as a daily routine because they cannot see the connection of what they are learning in school associates to the real world. What do you guys think?
This statement from the reading really resonated with me. That the "classroom of today would be easily recognizable to the pioneers of public education of the mid-nineteenth century". The question that I raise is why has society allows this model to persist? I believe that the corporate/ consumer powers that be require our society as a whole to be educated to only exist as workers, not higher level thinkers and creators. For nearly all of the last century, media creation has remained solely in the hands of professionals. Now, with the aid of technology, individuals can now create meaningful content that rivals stuff coming from the 'studio system'. Over the last ten years, big media companies have scrambled to address this decentralization with legalistic copyright battles and lawsuits that more closely resemble witch hunts. Schools need to educate students to become content creators. We as educators need to first model the use of technology and then, in turn, introduce powerful tools to our students. We no longer need factory workers. We can no longer train students for a world that no longer exists.
From a non-technology standpoint, I do think there is a gap between people's world outside of school and their experience in the classroom. This can be caused by the way teachers (still!) perceive learning as "filling the vessel". As a result, they are cramming knowledge that is de-contextualized, disconnected, and static from the real world - which is highly dynamic - that they become inert once they are memorized. Using the analogy of the "dots" in a person's schema mentioned in our presentation in Week 3 (anyone still remember?), these inert ideas have no connections to the other preexisting dots, thus making them expendable once they are all recalled - usually for the only purpose of a test.
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