Synthesis Three

Drew Bugden

March 22, 2011

Dr. Williams

EDUC 671

Synthesis 3

In the year 2025, public schools will be vastly different from what we see today, as are schools today compared to ten years ago. The influx of information regarding creating an effective learning environment, paired with social changes including better funding with clearer goals, schools are going to serve a different purpose. There are three main changes which will revolutionize how students are educated. Students will be active learners who work on real world projects which incorporate the information they learn in school, technology will play a much bigger role, and the community will play a part in the education of their students.

Students need to be active learners. In the past, teachers simply lectured for their allotted time with the students. They were sure to touch on every theme which will be sure to show up on the high stakes tests. That is going to change. All of the subjects will no longer be learned independently. They will coincide with one another. The information learned in science class can be analyzed next block in math class. The stories you read in English class will be discussed for their historical relevance in social studies classes. The day will be much less choppy for students. I firmly believe that this will change how students feel about certain subjects. If they are all intertwined, it will school is one entity which is not chopped up into many individual segments which vary in how interesting they are.

Projects will have less to do with students bringing home random directions which they do not understand for their parents to help them with. Students will have more group oriented work. By having students work together, we better prepare them for the future workplace. Students need the skills to be able to work with one another and see things from another perspective just as badly as they need the other more defined skills such as math, science and English. In this process, students will gain skills in communication, gain real work-like experiences, and actually see the differences it makes in the community.

Students will now have the ability to create. Gardner says “In our global, wired society, creativity is sought after, cultivated, praised” (pg77). With a focus on creativity, why not let students have more freedom in what they do and accomplish in schools? Creativity is a skill which, in a way, can be trained. I am not saying public schools can create the next Mozart, Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, but I am saying that to be able to look at something in a different way is an ability which should be taught. Giving students problems and letting them figure out ways to fix them will give them skills which can last a lifetime.

Technology is the catalyst to all of the changes that schools will experience. Oakes and Lipton say “technology has clearly become a fundamental part of education” (pg 194). They also believe that technology plays a major role in helping ESOL students become more involved in school; “connecting students’ home culture to the academic content of the curriculum is especially important when student’s primary language is not English” (pg199).

Due to technology, the role and capabilities of the classroom will vastly change. At the push of a button or click of a mouse, students can look at and study ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics or the Gettysburg address. Ten years ago, that process could have taken quite a while by making students actually use an encyclopedia. Instead of just one source of information, students have the ability to decipher between good and bad quality sources. They can find the information they want.

If a student is sick and misses a day of school; no big deal. Every single assignment, reading and worksheet will be available online. Students can miss a day due to the flu and not miss a beat. Teachers can now focus on teaching instead of playing catch-up with missing students. Students will also have the ability to participate in real time through online interactions. For some students, particularly shy ones, this revolution in technology can change how they view school. Shy students no longer have to sit in the back of the classroom and never participate. They have ample opportunity to let their voice be heard through online interactions. This can help them to get so much more out of their learning experience. It may also help them to begin to communicate in class due to past conversations with other students online.

Students will no longer have teachers simply tell them about trench warfare or the laws of physics. Students can now see these things. In seconds, teachers can pull up clips from online resources to connect the material to the students. It is one thing to be told about the pyramids, but if they can actually see them it could change how they understand the time period. These tools in technology will only strengthen student’s understanding of material.

A theoretical bridge will be built connecting the schools to the community. Schools will no longer be the place where the young people go while the community goes on with it’s day. They will be interconnected. Students will not always be cooped up in school. They will work on real world problems in the community. They can test water levels for science class, create an oral history through interviews in the community, or even paint a mural for art class. In the short film “10 Ideas for Better Classrooms,” we saw the school in New York become a community center. The community will benefit from student involvement and the students will gain experiences that will last a lifetime. Draves and Coates believe in the importance of community in the future: “neighborhoods will again regain their social vitality as places where people who work from home can establish and maintain professional and personal relationships” (pg 170). I believe this quote is important into understanding why students will no longer be completely cut off from the community for seven hours a day. Communities can directly benefit from students interacting in the community and the students will gain real work experience they can only find outside of the school.

In the film, a teacher said “students come back saying “remember that project we did” and not “remember that test we took.”” I think that really shows us something as to what students retain. Having them move around and actually see the difference they make will stay with them. Those kinds of experiences also look fantastic on college applications.

The “Times Are a Changin” and so will public schools in the United States. This reform will not be completed overnight, but as we can see from the film, some schools have begun changing how things are done. For the students who perhaps are not very good at test taking, this type of schooling can really bring out the achievement. Maybe they would score poorly on a multiple choice test, but could talk your ear off on the same subject because they actually physically did it and saw it. There is always room for improvement in schools, but the changes taking place in the near future will greatly enhance students experience in school.

Whos this fella?

Go ahead and post a guess for the young man sitting in the front left of the photo with the "X" over his head.

Synthesis Two

In the future, the role of schooling will essentially be the same, yet it will be adapted to better suit the changing times. I foresee three major changes which will change the role of schooling. It will have an effect on the daily life of students. The three most important changes will be preparation in the use of technologies, more career oriented education, and more of a focus on math and the sciences to become more competitive in a global economy.

Technology, whether we like it or not, plays much greater role in the world than it did just five years ago. The world around all of us is changing and we must adapt. Changes will begin by investing in our future. This means that students even at the elementary level will be introduced and instructed in the use and theory behind new age technologies. This way, students will know how to use it and understand its role and importance from a global perspective. There will be experts or teams of professionals available in every school building to focus on keeping teachers up to date on the newest technologies to use in their classes. They will also be there to make sure that it is used correctly, safely, and responsibly.

Many students leave the public school system and find themselves lost. They have no idea what they want to do for a career. I see the number of students with this problem shrinking by the year 2025. I believe that students will receive instruction and skills which will be put to more of a use in actual practical situations. Students will work on projects where they will do more than simply turn in a paper or create a poster board. Students will be challenged to make differences in their communities. There are programs, though relatively uncommon at this point, that have students develop skills while they learn. For example, students will embark on an excursion to a river and will work with national park officials to measure water toxicity levels and report back to their teachers. In doing so, they learn and apply in a real life setting. This can be used in a number of different ways. In history class, an entire grade of history students could work with a local history department in their community to research different topics in the history of their community. They could conduct oral interviews of people who lived during a different time period. They could compile this research along with the history center of their community and once again learn and apply.

In 2011, “President Barack Obama announced a $250 million public-private

initiative designed to improve national math and science education. Specifically,

 the money will be used to promote five new partnerships intended to help train over

10,000 new math and science teachers over the next five years. It will also be used to

support the professional development of more than 100,000 current math, science,

technology and engineering teachers” (cnn.com). This is a very important program. It

effects students, parents and teachers.

This system shows the direction our country is headed in the future. In order to compete against other rising nations, the U.S. is going to shift to a focus on math and science. Funding for history and English is going to drop. The U.S. is investing in students to create and innovate in the future. There is not enough money to be made through reading great books and investigating the past. This program is hopeful but also troubling. As a student of history, we have seen repeatedly the population’s unique ability to forget about the past and look past obvious signs of trouble. I think to be able to think historically is a very important tool which should not be ignored. To be able to view a document with a grain of salt is at its most basic principle an extremely important skill to have. I think math and science will help the U.S. to stay on top as a world power. That is obviously one of the goals of the government, though we should not ignore what has happened in the past. History, literature, and the arts are perhaps some of our most valuable natural resource which we should investigate and protect with steadfast determination. There is no doubt in my mind that there will be others like me who are “backwards” and look towards the past instead of only to the very near future in order to make a few bucks. History, the arts, English and physical education will be programs that will have to be funded by the private sector in the year 2025 if we keep down the same path.
There will also be new and unique ways for teachers to engage all students. Teachers will be able to communicate with students through online interactions. Students who are particularly shy will have a venue for them to communicate with their teachers. The entire process will make it much easier for students to express their feelings and ideas. Teachers will also have a great way to give feedback on things that they may have missed during the day at school. Online interactions will extend the school day. Things that teachers may have missed, be it a homework assignment they forgot to hand out or a message they forgot to relay will be something of the past. They will be able to communicate quickly to all students what they may have missed or to more clearly explain something to help students understand what is expected.
Teachers will be able to engage students who have trouble with the English language in a more effective matter. Students could take notes or assignments from the day and find them on the computer when they get home. They can slow down the reading process or even find help online translating a few words or concepts that they may have missed. This will greatly help students who are slowed down by the language barrier. I know as a student studying Spanish in college, I had trouble keeping up in class at times. If I would miss the subject of the sentence or direction simply because I could not understand one word, I would have to look it up in a book. A much quicker internet search can help these students greatly and will lower the achievement gap.
Technologies will help students better understand history. When students all read the same textbook, they will create the same dull projects based on dry readings. The days of taking turns reading through the chapter in class are over. Students will be able to explore information in their own unique way and will be able to create by looking at many different stories from the past. Due to the immense amount of information which will be available at the push of a button, students can truly explore history. This is quite exciting. They can now hear, see and feel history in ways never though possible. Students will be able to make a more personal connection to the subject and it can only help the learning process by fortifying history with things you can see and touch. Exciting times are in store for history class in the year 2025!