Hello all,
I just finished watching Kim Cofino’s “Going Global” Keynote, and many thoughts come to mind. To comment I will stick with the structure that Kim’s keynote follows. I do not dare to do anything else considering it is only Wednesday night, and I can honestly say that this week has perhaps been the most challenging, both professionally and personally, that I can recall. I will spare all of you the details.
Culture shock: I totally agree with Kim (I think I can use her first name) that mobility, customization, adaptability, blending, always being on, collaboration, responsiveness, global awareness, and flexibility are not only important skills that students and teachers should have/ obtain, but these should also be part of our new approach to education in general. Being a realist, I also look at the implications and how much change would need to take place. Possible yes; I suggest small steps. Time, training, attitude, and money will all be needed to make change occur. For example, I tried to copy a set of quizzes today and the copier needed toner. I looked around for toner and there was none available. I went to a second copier and there was no copy paper. I went to the supply room to get paper and copied the quiz. That said I needed to hand staple 92 quizzes because the stapler in the copier was not working. Forty minutes later I was done!
Convergence: In this section I listened to numerous “Third Culture Kids” discuss the mostly positive aspects of living in cultures in which they were not born. The TCK’s convinced me that they were more global, and better able to “walk” into unknown situations than students who are more insulated. I see great value in these programs and admire families who are able to commit to these endeavors. However, I do not for one moment see the connection between living and learning in a different culture (International Schooling) and using technology to bring a student into that culture. Kim said that our students “don’t need to move around the world” to experience and obtain the same skills behaviors, and attitudes as the Third Culture Kids. I have had the privilege of studying abroad for about a year’s time. During this time I lived in Geneva, Switzerland, but traveled to about 15 different countries. I was immersed in cultures and systems that were foreign and at times scary. This experience was very life altering, ranking only behind the birth of my daughter and meeting my wife. For example, I saw the Matterhorn while having the freshest and cleanest air strike my face as I skied down to Zermatt. I sipped French wine out of a fifty-year-old oak barrel while in Dijon. I floated in the Ionian Sea and felt how buoyant I was because of the increased salinity. I do not mention these experiences to relive old memories but to illustrate the point that seeing the Matterhorn on Google Earth, Skyping with a French sommelier, and reading a blog about how cool it is to float higher up in the water, does not come close to the actual experience. Yes, having our kids become more global is important. Yes, technology is allowing this to occur. Yes, teachers need to meet this challenge. I just don’t see the connection that Kim has made in this section.
Future of Education: Kim’s suggestions are important for anyone willing to “go global” and further flatten our world. She advocates that the teacher must be “connected” first before “connecting” the classroom. Comfort is an important thing in teaching, but so is growth! Personally, I am to busy right now to judge the merits of spending more time away from my personal relationships versus spending more time creating relationships that are processed through tiny bits of data.
Simple thoughts from a simple man!
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". . .seeing the Matterhorn on Google Earth, Skyping with a French sommelier, and reading a blog about how cool it is to float higher up in the water, does not come close to the actual experience. [. . .] I just don’t see the connection that Kim has made in this section." -- I agree! Technology can help students WANT to go to places like that, and understand better what they might experience if they do, but until we have Star Trek - level "holodeck" experiences available, I don't think it can begin to bring about the kind of memorable, potentially transformative emotional experiences, connections, and growth opportunities that come from actually travelling or living abroad in ways where you have to be at least somewhat independent and self-reliant, might feel a little bit uncomfortable, etc.
ReplyDelete(By the way, your travels sound like they were amazing experiences! :-) My closest experience to something like that was three weeks when I travelled, mostly alone with just a "Let's Go: Europe" book and one change of clothes in my backpack, around Germany, Holland, and Hungary right after college and just around the time that the Berlin Wall was coming down. At one point I had a 45-minute conversation, about the most basic of things such as where we were from and what the weather was like there, with a Hungarian man and a Polish man on a train that was moving way too slowly towards a town where I didn't know whether the youth hostel would still be open by the time we actually arrived. Among the three of us we shared no common language, so we relied on sketches in my notepad, pantomime, and double translations through two different dictionaries. It wasn't quite "safe" by day-to-day-life standards (since the train was gradually emptying), and the conversation wasn't about anything very profound, but it all worked out fine and the circumstances made it a way more memorable conversation than most that I could imagine ever having over the Internet!)
I watched Kim's address a while back so can't agree or disagree at this point. But one thing I did take away from the address (clearly not enough) was the importance of having varied experiences, and in my opinion, those experiences don't necessarily have to be in another country or culture.
ReplyDeleteI also don't think technology will replace the need, desire, and wonder of travel, but I do think it allows us to be connected in ways that weren't an option in the past. Phones, for instance. I remember waiting in line at a post office for HOURS to call home (one of the few options at the time) at a predetermined time when I was traveling. Happily, after that experience my parents simply figured that they'd find out if I was dead, wished me happy travels, and said they'd see my in a month.
Okay so experiencing the event is better than...seeing the Matterhorn on Google Earth, Skyping with a French sommelier, and reading a blog about how cool it is to float higher up in the water....
ReplyDeleteBut isn't seeing the Matterhorn on Google Earth, Skyping with a French sommelier, and reading a blog about how cool it is to float higher up in the water, better that reading about it in a textbook?
And as technology becomes more sophisticated, it moves closer and closer to the real thing. Try this http://www.g2conline.org/.
And it allows us to participate in the world ways we never imagined even a few years ago. Try this http://tinyurl.com/lkoew3