Tag Archives: Learning

Education Reformation

In our history we have had many great events that changed the way people viewed their world. When Martin Luther nailed his the 95 Theses in 1517 to the church in Wittenberg, Saxony, it sparked a new way of thinking in the Christian faith. This act was motivated by events in history before that time that changed the way people viewed the Roman Catholic Church. The Black Death and the Western Schism which eroded people’s faith in the church. Europe didn’t have media like we have media today, but people still talked and many perceptions became fact and people were ripe for change. Today we live in a world of massive media influence which has painted a picture of the educational system that is much like the picture painted of the Catholic church 500 years ago. Just like then, some of the perceptions are correct, (technology is influencing everyones life for good and bad) and some that are sensational; the students today learn different and the majority of them are very technologically http://quotecorner.com/online-pharmacy.html savvy. Instead of 95 theses, we have countless lists of 21st Century Skills and blog posts on how different students are today. Even before reading this week’s articles on Digital Natives, (Bennett, S. & Maton, K. (2010). Beyond the digital natives debate: Towards a more nuanced understanding of students’ technology experiences. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26. 321-331.
And
Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The Digital Native Debate. British Journal of Educational Technology 39(5). 775-786.)
I always found myself annoyed when educators made the assumption that all students are great with technology. That’s like saying that the entire Roman Catholic Church was corrupt back in 1517. No matter, technology is here, and there’s going to be change. Will it totally change the way we educate children? I hope not. Did the reformation rid the earth of the Roman Catholic Church? Did the world become a better place because of the reformation? I tend to believe so. Does technology have the ability to enhance the world of education? Most definitely.