MassCUE - Keynote Address by Dave Warlick

Dave Warlick and Will Richardson both presented at MassCUE here in Sturbridge, MA. What excitement they generated with their enthusiasm and sharing of new technologies!

I'm blogging Dave's keynote - Some of his points as he creates the workplace of the future:

We want our communication technologies to be portable, to be carried with us.
We are generating about 5 exabytes of new information and only .01% of that information is printed. Teachers, we are spending too much time teaching with old technologies.

We know almost nothing about a future that we can't clearly describe. Things are changing too fast. The dialogue we need to have as educators is what do students need to learn today to prepare them for their future.

Stop integrating technology and integrate literacy! Our students have access to information at a rate and volume never before possible.
Wikipedia includes warnings that this information may not be true or may be inaccurate or may not be neutral. Do our current media sources include warnings that this information may not be accurate?

We need to expand our notions of what it means to be a reader in the 21st century. Literacy meant being able to read text from textbooks. This defintion has changed and includes digital literacy.

If he was still a fifth grade teacher, he would have his students use Wikipedia as a resource. He would ask his students to access the information from Wikipedia BUT also ask them to prove that the information was accurate.

Reading now means: Find the information, decode it, critically evaluate it and organize it into a personal digital library.

He then dazzled us with how the world of numbers has changed. It was so fascinating, I was mesmerized. He grabbed data from his website and imported it into Excel and showed how numbers tell their story - in this case the earthquake history for December, 2004 - a precursor to the Tsunami.

Technology can be used so that numbers can tell a story. Math is processing information in order to add value to that information.

We must teach our students to be responsible consumers and now, producers of material.

How do we get our message through that storm of information that our students live in?

Writing expands into expressing ideas compellingly!

He showed a video produced by a high school student to convey the message of the global economy. The power of audio and video!!

Our schools have become factories if we remove art and music. We have got to teach our children how to employ information, expose truth and express ideas. The fourth subject, beyond reading, writing and arithmetic, is Ethics. We must teach our students Ethics.

He has adapted a code of ethics for our students:

• Seek and express the truth
• do no harm
• be accountable
• respect and protect the information and its infrastructure.

Conclusion - Redefine literacy. Think less about the machine and teach from the new information landscape.

Where are we investing in the next century? Standing still is the same thing as going backwards.
Today the world is the curriclulm and there are new technologies to teach our students.
Education reform is when teachers realize that teaching is retooled every single day. Modernizing our curriculum.....daily!