C4T #2 Summary

For the second C4T, I was assigned to read the blog of Tina Barseghian. The first post I read was titled An Attempt at Describing the Schools of Tomorrow and in this post Mrs. Barseghian talks about the New York Times' Schools for Tomorrow summit. Previously I had been assigned to read the blog of a teacher who had been invtied to be a panelist, after pointing out the lack of educator representation. In her post, Mrs. Barseghian summarizes what a few of the panelists talked about. They basically said that curriculum needs to be designed with technology in mind, so it is not a distraction and how every child she have internet access at school, if not at home. However, she did point out that there was a severe lack of student input and even fewer educators on the panel. I pointed out that things go back to the teachers and the school system as a whole, not just individually. I also agreed that every child should have internet access in the classroom, because they deserve the right to benefit from technology and the things it can show them.

The second post I read was What's Your Major? Working Toward the Uninvented Job. I was reminded of one of the first videos we watched for this class. In Did You Know? They pointed out that the top jobs now did not even exist in 2007. That is basically what this post talks about, how things are changing and suddenly, the most important degrees are business, computer science, biomedicine, and biological sciences. Grade-school children now will wind up in career fields that aren't even a flicker of imagination at the present time. This is amazing and I can't wait to be preparing these students. However, it should not be done at the expense of our liberal arts programs. What fun is school going to be if all students do all day is Math and Science? No History, no music, no electives in general. Liberal arts classes are just as important and it's rather sad to see that, while we are advancing, these subjects are being left in the dust.