2010

January 07, 2010

Hurray, 2010 is here! It seems hard to disagree that the 21st century is coming in with a bang. Without a doubt the world is flatter and more connected. The Internet and other technologies have changed the way we work, live, and play. If you were born in 1910, you probably hardly recognize the place -- our world! For the most part, everything is moving faster, and it is hard for anyone to truly be anonymous with the enculturation of Google, MySpace, Face Book, Blogging, Text Messaging Twitter, and who knows what is to come next.

It is easy to get carried away with the swift speed of work, life, and entertainment without focusing on some areas that have not changed as much as we had hoped at the end of the 20th century. For me, the educational enterprise is one of the areas in which I had hoped to see more positive changes occur. For instance, even with the heavily usage of social media by many Americans, especially those under the age of 30, education instruction in the traditional classroom still looks the same. There is usually one teacher facilitating learning or "teaching" and a group of students in seats. Nowadays, many of these students are texting each other, making plans for after class, and checking the various news services that are keeping them updated on the latest in the entertainment world. I know there is no mystery that there are some students who just do not perform well in this type of "learning" environment. The question for me becomes how can we incorporate some of these social media habits and ways of learning into instructional design and evaluation? How can we challenge students to move to "level nine" in understanding a concept with as much enthusiasm as they employ on entertainment games?

Thus, it probably will be of little surprise that I would like to speed along the change of instructional design and evaluation in the 21st century. What is of most concern to me is that there is still what is called an "achievement gap" between various groups of Americans. When you look at the data closely, it seems that there is a correlation between the achievement gap and family income, early childhood development, family values, nonverbal messages to students, low expectations, and various historical biases against certain groups of people. I would love for someone to do a regression analysis on just how much each of these factors contribute to the achievement gap. Then, I would hope we would act on this knowledge. However, what seems to matter most in 2010 is what we are going to do about these "achievement gaps" which span through elementary, secondary, and higher education and lead to underemployment and under achievement for hundreds of thousands of citizens in our society. If you live in certain urban areas, it is probably not too much of a stretch to connect these achievement gaps with despair, the growth of the prison system, and the decline of the economic viability of the area.

One of my resolutions for 2010 is to bring attention to the potential of America-- what we could be if we had so many more Americans prepared equitably to be responsible and contributing citizens. With the flatter, more connected world, it is really a matter of national security to develop as many Americans as we can to a higher intellectual and social level of living.

Happy New Year!

Michelle Howard-Vital
 

Tags: educational enterprise , achievement gap , social media

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