A paper delivered for perhaps those in the IT industry makes interesting reading for educators.
“It’s interesting times in education.
There’s a [supposed] Chinese curse, May you live in interesting times. Robert Kennedy famously described them as times of “danger and uncertainty,” but also times that are “more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.” It’s an apt metaphor for the state of education in America.
K-12 education faces a host of converging trends set in a stark landscape of uncertainty, reduced school budgets and the widely held perception that American education institutions are in trouble. Reform efforts present conflicting messages. Schools face everything from digital literacy issues to print-to-digital transitions, new learning standards and the impact of technology initiatives on learning. Entrenched interests and, among some, an instinctual bias against the involvement of for-profit organizations in education tend to reinforce the status quo. “ full paper
