My post from February 4 focused on the big picture perspective of learning at schools. I prefaced my post by saying that I didn't have an answer to the title. Today I read an article from eSchool News that does help give some more guidance about what students should learn. The article written by Dennis Pierce and based on a presentation by Alan November focused on four things all students should learn. I have listed those four areas along with some excerpts from the article.
1) Global empathy.
"It’s not hard to find people who are smart, the executive said. What is hard to find are employees who have to ability to empathize with, and be sensitive to the needs of, people from other countries."
2) Social and ethical responsibility on the web.
"By blocking access to social tools in the classroom, and not teaching students what constitutes socially and ethically responsible behavior online, schools are shirking a key responsibility, he said, adding: 'Facebook might be blocked in your schools, but kids are still going to go home and use it.""
3) The permanence of information posted online.
"Students are often careless about what they post on the web, November said, because they mistakenly believe that once they delete the information, it no longer can be found online."
4) Critical information about the information found online.
"Today’s students too often accept the validity of information on web sites that appear within the first few search results, November said, without thinking critically about these sources. If you’re going to teach anything in the Information Age, he said, shouldn’t it be how to find, evaluate, and use online information critically?"
Unfortunately, many schools do a very poor job at addressing these skills. Instead, students are left to figure these things out on their own. All schools, including one to one schools, need to make these things part of the curriculum. Students today need to master these skills in order to be successful!
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