Barbara Cook - Theories of Critical Thinking.

 

 

   "A Rich Seam is about a radical change in the relationships between all the key players in learning: students, teachers, technologies, school cultures, curricula, and assessments" (Fullan & Langworthy, 2014). This statement, more so than any I read in the five articles, stood really out to me. I think it is because I agree with it 100%. For learning to take place, all the key players need to be working together. Ideally, this should occur all the time in K-12, and at the college level. Unfortunately, this isn't the case because of several different factors. One being that the school system may not have the funding for the newer technology, or they have board members, or teachers, who do not want to change the way the students are taught. The later is something I see a lot of. With students growing up with the "latest technology,"  we need to ensure we are learning to use it  as well, so that we can be better educate our students.

     In Rogers "The Adoption Process," he talks about the rate of adoption of new innovations in the learning environment. Reared in the Mid-West, I can relate to the agricultural explanation of why some innovations take longer to adopt. Some people are creatures of habit. The have done something for so long that they cannot understand, or want, to make any changes. It may also be that technology is scary, as they do not understand how it works. I recently (in the last few years) met an educator that told me he did not know how to turn the computer in his office on, let alone try to figure out how to use Blackboard. And that he would continue to teach his class the same as he always has, which was with lecture and  the use of a chalkboard. He did try to learn some technology in using Canvas, but ultimately, he retired. We need to ensure that all who are invested in a student's education has training and access to new technologies.

     Each of the articles take a different perspective on education and technology, but ultimately, they have the same goal: student learning in today's world. The use of Blooms Taxonomy is something most educators are familiar with, and is a great way to set goals and objectives, but it is only a starting place.We need to be able to adapt to new technologies and innovations to keep up with our students learning needs. I agree that we need to include our students in the learning process to promote deep learning. I feel that it sets them up to be more successful in their careers because they participate in their education, they become critical thinkers, and are better at problem solving.

Fullan, M. & Langworthy, M. (2014). A rich seam: How new pedagogies find deep learning. London: Pearson. Retrieved from https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/global/Files/about-pearson/innovation/open-ideas/ARichSeamEnglish.pdf  

Rogers, E. M. (1963). The adoption process II. Journal of Cooperative Extension, 1(2), 69-75. Retrieved from http://www.joe.org/joe/1963summer/1963-2-a2.pdf