Like
the professor said, the Reigeluth & Joseph essay is pretty more optimistic
than the second one. In the Table 1 of Reigeluth essay, I can see the
differences between Industrial Age and Information Age. For example, in
Industrial Age, the boss was considered as "King"; in contrast, the
customer is the one that have the power. It means that everything would be best
for the customer's sake. To demonstrate this point, I will make it clear by connect
with education situation. In Industrial Age, the teacher is the center, the
students must learn everything that their lecturer requires. However, the
students can orientate by themselves in Information Age; they can research more
than they can receive from the school,
and the teacher will play a role of an adviser. This advantage will let the
learners to be more independent and critical thinking. In fact, back to my home
country, they still use the manner of Industrial Age in education, the teacher
is the King of the class and the students will only know and learn the amount
of information that the professor gives them. Then, they take a test at the end
of the semester to put an end for the knowledge they have obtained through the
semester. The learners almost have no chance to research by themselves because
the teacher did not give any request. This is one of the reasons that make me
nervous when I come here and now I'm getting used to it.
Moreover,
the essay said about shifting from the time-base to attainment-base system. It
is true to say that we cannot focus only on the technology but the role of the
teacher. They will be facilitator to help the learners acquire the knowledge,
not "the agent of most of the
learning". The main point here is how the teachers deal with it, how
they take the advantages of technology and apply into their teaching; and,
especially, how technology changes the relationship between teacher and
student. I believe with the diversity of technology and device now, we can
figure out more and more methods to support education.
The
Postman essay is quite skeptical, but I can understand because this essay was
written more than 20 years ago. The author set out many questions of "what
is the problem" and deny that new technology can resolve problems.
However, he still accepts it anyway. For instance, he bought the new car
without realizing that the electronic window can help him to save time and not
be distracted from driving. In education, I think that new technology will give
us more chances to receive information. The learners don't need to leave their
home to attend a class. The question is how can we do that without technology
(the Internet connection and communicating devices in specific)?
Nevertheless,
I totally agree with this essay about the functions of school. Teaching
children how to behave in groups plays a great role in social life. For
example, the author mentioned the book All
I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. It talks about "Share everything, play fair, don't
hit people, put things back where you
found them, clean up your own mess, wash your hands before you eat, and, of
course, flush". In fact, the education in
Vietnam, my home country, fails at this important point. Almost all of the kids
in Vietnam will not give back something they found, they have a notion that
everything they found belongs to them. The result of this is the irresponsible
attitude of people with others' or public properties; they do not care or be
regret if they see a pickpocket or accidently ruin a sculpture in the park. I
would give you an unbelievable example about this. Last month, a driver
delivering a great amount of beer and liquor got an accident. As a result, his
truck was overturned and the goods were fallen out on the street. A lot of
people who behold that accident did not
help the driver, they stole the beer and liquor instead. Finally, the driver
has to offset to the owner of the properties about 15.000$, which is huge value
in Vietnam. Conversely, if you drop your phone or wallet on the subway in
Japan, you have 90% of chance to get it back from Lost & Found Service.
That is because the Japanese was taught right from they were young that they
need to be respectfully with others' property. From these examples, I believe
that with the support of technology, the role of school and teacher will be
more useful and cannot be denied.
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