Highlights from the keynote address at the St. Clair RESA Symposium on 21st Century Learning
August 13, 2008
Port Huron High School
Yong Zhao, MSU
- Mistakes with technology and schools
- Solution seeking problems — we put technology in school,
but the problems were not there or evident - Trusting the wrong agent — Whose machine is it? The
teachers? The students? What purpose does it serve? - Student attention and time — teacher, computer, books,
other technologies, other students - Technology environment — we talk about
student-to-computer ratio, but we should be talking about the entire
school ecosystem - Lack of systems thinking — The jet engine on the horse
wagon: Seymour Papert wondered if we would even turn on the engine or
if it would destroy the wagon? - Didn’t anticipate major transformation — bringing one
car to the road, then hundreds, thousands, and millions- Virtual marriage — the effects of socializing
virtually (iapartment) - Second Life — buying real estate, products, engaging
in educational practices - Gold farming — kids playing virtual games in China in
“gaming factories”
- Virtual marriage — the effects of socializing
- Solution seeking problems — we put technology in school,
- What can we do?
- In schools, we have not thought about how to realign the
human/machine relationship- Personal response systems
- New Era Interactive English, Tsinghua University Press
- Online Chinese Language Courses
- We always need to anticipate the long term changes, not
just the short term effects- Start with problems, re-imagining education
- Develop enabling conditions
- Reconfigure traditional institutions
- Virtual schools and tutoring
- Working with “digital natives”
- “We shape our buildings; therefore they shape us.” —
Winston Churchill - From Dictatorship to democracy: personal learning
environments- Personalized goals, curriculum, learning approaches,
pace, and instruction
- Personalized goals, curriculum, learning approaches,
- In schools, we have not thought about how to realign the