Chapter eight of "Rethinking Education" gives readers a better idea of how we are trying to effectively bring together the best of the old and new ways of education. In today's culture students spend upwards of six hours each day watching television, playing video games, using the internet, instant messaging, emailing, and other media. This media dominates the lives of our learners which is why researchers are trying to link the worlds of media and learning so that students are able to learn while interacting with the different types of media used in their daily lives. One new approach of bringing these two worlds together is to establish a set of credentials that students would be able to learn either on the computer or by trained professionals. Students would be able to be certified in specific areas where the content will be narrowly focused. Being certified with a particular credential will show a learner’s expertise in specific skills. Unlike a diploma where students take particular classes based on their grade level, students being certified with credentials will be arranged in classes based on their interests and future goals. Students being certified with credentials will be able to decide when they are comfortable taking an assessment to be certified. This is much different from a standardized school setting where the testing date is arranged by the instructor. Students seeking out a particular career will be expected to be certified with a number of specific credentials related to that job. Another new approach is using video games to educate students. Games such as Civilization, The Sims, and Railroad Tycoon are all games in which students are able to learn. These games educate our students and they are able to interact with specific jobs and real life scenarios. Students are able to learn leadership skills from games such as SWAT 4, Full Spectrum Warrior, and World of Warcraft are all games that can give players the chance to develop tactical skills along with leadership skills. Course management systems such as Desire2Learn and Blackboard are all programs that help students and teaches stay organized and connected. Using these programs students are able to check and post homework assignments, engage in discussions, and connect with other students as well as their teacher. All of these new ideas in education are bringing the old and new world of education together.
This reading has given changed how I feel about standardized education to an extent. I found myself agreeing with a lot of the points about being certified in credentials. This seems to be a good idea because then each career has specific content that needs to be mastered for the job. After mastering all of the different concepts and content of the job one will be an expert when it comes to the career. Students are also able to go at their own pace to make sure they have completely understood the content before moving on rather than being forced to move along before the concept is mastered. This idea of credentials also gives students the ability to focus on specific goals and interests of theirs which will keep the students interested and inspired to learn the content because they will be interested in it. Although this seems like such a great idea, I also have thought about whether students will be able to purposely bypass the material and content they have no interest in learning but could benefit one in one’s future. This also brings up another thought that what if students change their mind about their career. Rather than just being able to make a career change, people will need to go through a list of credentials before being able to have a career in a different field. Before this reading I was also not a huge fan of video games, but after reading this chapter I feel as if it can be beneficial to a students learning if the proper video game is chosen. This reading has also made me think about using programs such as D2L for learning. I had never thought about using it outside of a University setting, but it makes me think about whether it could be beneficial in an elementary classroom. I think that if used correctly it could be used but for more simple tasks than we use here at UWSP. Overall this chapter has made me think about the new ideas of education and how I would be able to implement them into my own future classroom.
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