When I learned to read and write, there were only paper books, hard or soft cover, newspapers, some magazines. I specifically remember "The Weekly Reader". Computers didn't exist for the ordinary person and in many cases, not for many businesses. When they did exist, they were used for data entry and were HUGE. There certainly were no ipdads, or kindles, or nooks, or ebooks, no Amazon.com. We played vinyl records on a record player...instead of ipods. We didn't download music from Grooveshark or ITunes. If we used the word "download" it was more about giving someone the "down-low" about the local gossip. We socialized in person, rather than via Facebook or Twitter or Skype. Heck, I didn't even have a cell-phone until I was well into my late 20s...and then it was one of those huge bag phones that you used only rarely because it cost a fortune to make a call.
The world and life have changed since I learned to read and write and communicate...in the mid 60s. Teachers followed set curriculum, used specific books, read to us from the books or had us read aloud to the class (boring...if you are a fast reader, which I am). And the same textbook was used over and over again, year after year. You signed your name in the front of it and turned it in at the end of the year (and paid a fine if it wasn't in the same condition as when you got it).
Learning was about following the rules and taking tests and for the most part, not speaking until you were spoken to. From an instructional design perspective, life was easy. If I were an instructional designer at that point, I probably had a different title and wrote learning objectives that might have touched on knowledge and comprehension...maybe. Old Benjamin Bloom didn't even publish his taxonomies until the late 50s.
Thinking back even ten years ago - my son was 18 and just finishing high school. We had one computer at home, not a laptop. They were way too expensive and still very large and heavy. The best connection you could get was dial up...I can still hear the sound of the modem dialing. It was interesting to look up stuff on the Internet...something else that didn't exist when I was learning to read and write. But getting information was slow and not always as organized as one might like. Ten years ago, students still learned to read and write in pretty much the same way that I did (except they learned phonetically which still amazes me). There were, though, computer labs in schools and my son used the computer to do research and write papers....and life was beginning more and more to move into what is now becoming a global "flat world."
Today, first graders create podcasts. They type on computers and laptops - which are thin and light. Some probably have cellphones (for emergencies only, I am sure). Today's first grader is more apt to learn by doing than by listening or reading about a topic. Any student in the "traditional" flow of K-12 and college expects technology to be available anytime, anyplace and they know how to use it. They are quick...if you don't believe me, watch them text...with both hands....without even hardly looking. The teacher of today, if they're good, very good...knows how to use technology too....they understand how to engage students, how to involve them, how to make learning interesting. The teacher today teaches the student how to learn and how to think...maybe even more than about the exact content.
Daniel Pink, a best-selling author said "We are preparing students for their future, not our past." What does the future hold for these first graders who are creating podcasts? Or for the medical resident going through an ER residency? Or for a teacher learning how to engage his or her students? No one is a fortune teller, for sure. But if history repeats itself, and it does (having lived more than 50 years, I know this to be true)..then 40 years from now, technology and learning will be at a state that I can only barely imagine...who knows if we will even have brick and mortar schools? Who knows if a first grader might not be in a virtual classroom with first graders all across the world? Of course, we'd have to work out some time zone issues...but who is to say that the class would be synchronous? Can you only imagine...I hope I live to experience it through my grandchildren's eyes, grandchildren who likely won't know what a real library is with real paper books, who may never read a "real" newspaper (what a shame to miss the Sunday paper and breakfast in bed!), who will learn so much more about communication and problem-solving and collaboration by the age of 10 than I have at the age of 54. I envy them. But, I must hurry now...if I am to catch up. There is much to learn...hear all about it from the student of now and the future...in "You Can't Be My Teacher."
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