Vision-ary Committee

I heard a very interesting session today by Stephen Abrams (who Ian Jukes recommended).   His blog is Stephen’s Lighthouse, by the way, if any of you are interested.

He talked a lot about current brain research, video games and how we can utilize them for student learning, and the importance of students having real life experiences on the internet.

He pointed out that we don’t train them to cross the street with a fake street in a classroom–we teach them on the real street and that we should be doing the same with the internet.

He talked about the importance of students’ publishing on the web and all the ways the new 2.0 web allows for that.  He also strongly felt that the trend is toward “virtual” search environments–that is, a library catalog that is like a virtual experience or game that the student would move through, or a course designed that way. 

What he said had interesting implications for our committee and I am eager to read his blog.  http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/

I am also definitely feeling techno overwhelm, which is definitely a good reminder to me of how teachers and students can feel sometimes.  

I do think, though, that all these tools will become a part of our experiences and then the learning curve will not be the way it is right now.  Stephen Abrams pointed out that our knowledge base has been in a resting period while the web was “sorted out” but now we are entering a stage where things are growing exponentially and so it will be a time of revolutionary change for our students.     I guess our job will be to help them balance all of this.

Time to go walk outside and listen to the ocean and clear my mind a little bit….

Carolyn