The Technology of Teaching
When Conservative Prime Minister Harold MacMillan was asked what was most likely to cause problems for governments he famously replied "events, dear boy, events".
Coping with the completely unexpected, the sort of thing that simply cannot be anticipated, is a skill in itself and one that all politicians have to develop if they are to stay in power.
Often, however, apparently unpredictable events were in fact only unobserved, and the things that threw a government off course managed to do so only through a lack of planning or awareness.
When the changes are brought about by technological innovation rather than the vagaries of the global economy or the apparently random acts of a foreign government there is little real excuse for not having a go at prediction.
This is certainly the case with changes brought about by new technologies.
After all, as the great SF writer William Gibson put it, "the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed" because the key technologies we will all be using in five or even ten years time have already been invented, they just take a while to become widespread.
The touchscreen on the iPhone and iPod Touch are a great example of this.
Once you start looking at the way schools operate then you start to question teaching methods, assessment, exams and even the very existence of "schools" and "classrooms"
Click here for more
Source: BBC
Email this item to a friend
Printer friendly version
Add your own comment
Receive new comments by email