Technology integrated into education. It is a hot topic. It is something that many in education wish that they could get have more time to explore. Others have negative feelings thinking that students should be spending more time on the three r's. Does Denmark have the right idea? Danish pupils use web in exams is an article that examines colleges in Denmark that have begun to allow students taking final exams to use their computers to help them in their exams. The premise is a fantastic one. If you know the subject matter and are writing an exam the internet is not going to help you to cheat but instead allow you to explain in further detail what you already know. Essentially the questions themselves require the students to use higher level thinking to answer the test questions. Isn't this what real learning is about? I don't know about you, but I remember few answers to the rote test questions that I got "A's" on. For those naysayers out there, read the article :) Students are not allowed to email or message each other which is cheating. It is based on the honor system. Very few students cheat because of the threat of being expelled from the college.
I for one, wish that we could stop the debate about whether technology is necessary in education. Let us all as a society embrace technology in schools for every good thing that it can bring into our students lives. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and think that technology, the internet, social networking and in general the way business is done has not changed our lives. I think that Denmark has it right in this regard.
Agree! Why do we spend so much time debating things we don't need to while avoiding the real stuff??
ReplyDeleteIf we don't focus on higher level thinking and teaching our kids to be technologically savvy, we won't have much of a future as a country.
Good post! Good food for thought.