Ed 'visionaries': Schools Must Change
Robert Brumfield, eSchool News
May 24, 2005
excerpt: Susan Patrick, the director of educational technology for the U.S. Department of Education, began the talks with a now-familiar stump speech cataloging some alarming statistics: Only 68 percent of American students graduate from high school--and just 26 percent of those who go on to college make it to their sophomore year.
"We are so trapped in the memory of what school was like for us," Patrick said. "When we were students, the world outside of school looked like the world inside school. Now, it does not.
"The paper-based system does not make any sense to kids who are coming up in school," Patrick added. "Is our educational system geared toward innovation? Do we want an 18th-century model or a 21st-century model for our schools? The 18th-century model is the one we have now."
She continued: "The ed-tech community loves the term 'integration.' But our schools need transformation, not integration."
Simply integrating technology into instruction, Patrick said, "accepts the existing environment, the existing instructional model. ... We need to build instruction for personalized, customized learning for every student's needs.
"With technology," she said, "I see that happening every day."
Posted by Jessica Millstone at May 25, 2005 05:21 PM