Blogging from ThinkTank: Making Schooling Relevant
I’m currently attending Lenovo’s ThinkTank 2008 conference at Wake Forest University, and this morning had the pleasure of listening to Greg Whitby’s keynote address, “Making Schooling Relevant.” Greg’s presentation is available from his website, but here are two key points from the session:
When it comes to technology in schools, the question is not about the hardware; it’s about how to make school relevant.
To illustrate his point, Greg shared this clip comparing the MacBook Air and the ultraportable Lenovo X300:
The video is certainly a cleaver bit of marketing (this is a Lenovo conference after all), and Greg’s point is well taken in that when it comes to traditional laptop computers, it really doesn’t matter whether you prefer a Mac or a PC. What he didn’t address, however, is that neither tool can do as much to “make schooling relevant” as a Tablet. We chose Tablets over all other options because the ability to annotate documents, utilize OneNote with the stylus and keyboard, and engage students with tools like DyKnow helps make learning (i.e. schooling) authentic, meaningful, and relevant. Thin and light is great, but ink and interactivity are priceless.
We must de-privatize teachers and teaching.
Teaching has long been described as a lonely profession, and while a certain degree of teacher autonomy is important and necessary, for schools to change and become more relevant requires that we make the teaching-learning process more “public.” Our daily practice should reflect sound pedagogical theory, and our professional learning networks must extend beyond face-to-face interaction with peers. In short, we must be open and intentional in our approach, draw upon the collective knowledge of the profession, and not simply “build the plane as we fly it”:
I would encourage you to visit Greg’s site and learn more about the important work he is doing for Australian education. He has some incredible ideas and resources that can be of benefit to anyone in the classroom.
August 29th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Hah, what Greg Whitby is doing for Australian Education! What Mr. Whitby is doing is for his own munificence and ego and not for the students currently under his stewardship. Changing teaching for the 21st century is an imperative and establishing TRANSPARENT links with the business sector are important too. However, we in Australia find nothing unusual about him presenting and spruiking Lenovo at a Lenovo sponsored conference. He is well used to it. He has spruiked for Lend Lease (a huge developer)and at a Council for Educational Facility Planners International Conference (CEFPI Melbourne, 2008, they were a gold sponsor).
Fancy his brother-in-law, Mr. Charles Glanville (of Glanville Architects PTY. LTD.), being the architect responsible for almost all the new buildings in the Diocese of Wollongong(where he used to be head honcho)and now in Parramatta too.
If you don’t believe me then use your initiative nad research it yourself. I would recommend you stay away from Mr. Whitby’s site as he talks the talks but does not walk the walk!
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